GEORGIA. 



351 



committee to receive and consider proposed 

 unit mlim uu to the constitution. Afterward 

 u I'ill was introduced providing for a conven- 

 tion to iwisi- tho constitution; but this, after 

 considerable ili-M-iission, was defeated, all the 

 Republican and colored members and many 

 it th<- Democrats voting against it. Among 

 the amendments proposed by the joint com- 

 mit tee was one removing tho capital from 

 Atlanta to Milledgeville, which was defeated; 

 and on,-, which was adopted, intended to pro- 

 hibit th- payment of $8,000,000 of bonds in- 

 dorsed by Governor Bullock and pronounced 

 by a former Legislature to be fraudulent. 

 Through an ambiguous wording of the amend- 

 ment, it was discovered, after the adjournment 

 of tho Legislature, that it would not ac-, 

 complish the purpose intended. As it is ne- 

 cessary for a constitutional amendment to be 

 adopted by two successive Legislatures and 

 then ratified by the people before it becomes 



valid, an attempt was made to have an extra 

 D call.-d to remedy tho defect; but thin 

 <!i<l not succeed, and the question of a coribtitu- 

 tional convention to bo provided for by the 

 lature of 1875 was warmly agitated be- 

 fore the close of the year. Few of the acts of 

 the last Legislature are of any general interest. 

 A bill providing for a new system of popular 

 education in place of the existing one, and re- 

 quiring separate schools for white and colored 

 children, failed to pass. Among those passed 

 was one providing for a tax on railroad prop- 

 erty ; one repealing all provisions in railroad 

 charters granting State aid where the compa- 

 nies have not already vested rights ; one trans- 

 ferring to the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad Com- 

 pany three-fourths of the stock held by the 

 State ; one providing for the appointment of a 

 State geologist ; and one establishing a Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The last-named creates 

 the office of Commissioner of Agriculture, to be 



appointed by the Governor for a term of four 

 years, at an annual salary of $2,000. He is 

 allowed a clerk at $1,200 a year, and $10,000 

 in addition was appropriated to carry out the 

 purposes of the act. Various duties of the 

 commissioner are prescribed, calculated to dis- 

 seminate information "regarding the soil and 

 products of each county of the State, the habits 

 of destructive insects, the nature of diseases to 

 which crops are liable, the merits of different 

 fertilizers, and other matters affecting the ag- 

 ricultural interests and prosperity of the State. 

 lie is also required to obtain and distribute 

 valuable seeds, investigate the profitableness 

 of sheep-rnising in the State, and give careful 

 attention to irrigation and fencing. 



The following resolutions were adopted 

 unanimously in the House, and by a vote of 24 

 to 4 in the Senate : 



*, The chief object of all governments should 

 be the protection of person and property, and that 

 all men have an equal right to justice and to stand 

 perfectly equal before the law ; that Georgia most 

 cheerfully accords to every individual within the 

 borders of the State the amplest protection and secu- 



rity in all these rights ; that there is not in our or- 

 ganic law, nor upon our statute-books, a single pro- 

 vision that militates against any class on account of 

 race or color ; that we deny the right or power of 

 Congress, under the amended Constitution of tho 

 United States, to exercise a general municipal as well 

 as criminal legislation over the people of Georgia ; that 

 thej)assage of the civil-rights bill now pending be- 

 fore Congress, or any other bill of like character, is 

 an infringement upon the reserved rights of the 

 States, and was never contemplated by the framers 

 of that Constitution, nor of any amendment to the 

 same ; that the passage of the civil-rights bill 

 would, in our opinion, be inexpedient, injudicious, 

 unwise, and contrary to the wishes of both the white 

 and colored people of this State ; that we do not be- 

 lieve the colored people of Georgia desire mixed 

 schools and mixed churches, or any thing which par- 

 takes of social rights; that these questions of social 

 rights must alone be regulated by society: there- 

 fore 



Itetohed, By the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives, that we most respectfully and earnestly request 

 our national Congress not to interfere with the mu- 

 nicipal reaulations of the States by the passage of the 

 present civil-riehts bill, or anv bill of like import 

 and character, but to leave all these questions to the 

 States, where they properly belong. 



Jtesolved, That the Governor now forward a copy 





