LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 418 841 A 
 
 Hollmger 
 
 pH 8^ 
 
 MiU Run F03-2193 
 
F 291 
 .B59 
 Copy 1 
 
 Congressional Reconstruction. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HON. JOHN S. BIGBY, 
 
 OF OEOHaiA^, J- 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 FEBRUARY 24, 18X2. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 
 
 REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OF THE DEBATES OF CONGRESS 
 1872. 
 
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 Congressional Reconstruction. 
 
 The House having met for debate as in Commit- 
 tee of the Whole on the State of the Union — 
 
 Mr. BIGBYsaid: 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I propose to devote the 
 time that I shall occupy to the considera 
 tion of Georgia affairs and the restoration 
 of that State to the sisterhood of States 
 under congressional reconstruction. It is not 
 an uncommon thing to hear upon the floor of 
 this House from the Opposition denunciation 
 of all of the governments in the late insurrec- 
 tionary States as carpet-bag governments, and 
 those who shared in their formation and have 
 participated in their administration as thieves 
 and robbers. Indeed, so habitual has become 
 this custom that gentlemen do not pause to 
 consider its injustice, nor do they take the 
 trouble to ascertain whether there is, in point 
 of fact, any foundation for such wholesale 
 abuse. They assume to be true what they 
 
 frant to believe, trusting rather to rest their 
 barges upon the idle notions of a distempered 
 fancy than the solid foundations of immutable 
 truth. Their course aptly illustrates the force 
 of habit, and demonstrates the persistency with 
 which erroneous conclusions are clung to, when 
 such conclusions will neither bear the analysis 
 of scrutiny nor the test of investigation. 
 
 That the government of Georgia is not as 
 perfect as its friends would have it be, and 
 that those who have administered its different 
 departments are not as pure as an exacting 
 morality would require, I presume no one will 
 pretend to den3^ Still, I apprehend that the 
 most searching and remorseless investigation 
 will fail to disclose any great moral turpitude, 
 or to discover anything more than occasional 
 blunders in the policy pursued. Looking to 
 the circumstances under which the organiza- 
 tion of the new government was accomplished, 
 
 and it is more a matter of astonishment than 
 otherwise that it is so perfect in all its parts. 
 Its organic law was made under the most try- 
 ing embarrassments and the most untoward 
 circumstances. 
 
 The convention that framed it met at a time 
 when passion ruled the hour, and its members 
 in the performance of their high duty encoun- 
 tered every obstacle that ingenuity could sug- 
 gest or malice devise. It was the ardent wish 
 of the enemies of the Government that the work 
 of reconstruction should prove a failure, and 
 for the accomplishment of that end they levied 
 contribution upon their entire resources. They 
 brought to the work the most splendid talents 
 of their leaders, and, with an industry worthy 
 of a better cause, pursued their purpose until 
 the friends of the Government discomflted 
 them, and achieved a success that will stand 
 as a monument of their liberality, wisdom, and 
 statesmanship through all coming time. 
 
 When delegates were to be chosen to that 
 convention, its adversaries adopted as their 
 line of policy non-action, and no device was 
 left untried to prevent men of character, ca- 
 pacity, and social position, from becoming 
 candidates for the same. Some of the best 
 citizens of the State who desired her relations 
 to the General Government adjusted, and who 
 would have become candidates for election to 
 the convention, were deterred from so doing 
 by the pressure invoked for that special pur- 
 pose. It was a favorite idea with the enemies 
 of reconstruction to have it, if possible, break 
 down of its own weight. Finding, however, 
 that such an issue was not probable, it was 
 then hoped that the constitution to be framed 
 would in its essential characteristics be so 
 proscriptive and obnoxious that when sut- 
 milted to the people it would fail of ratifica- 
 
tion, and all the appliances supposed to be 
 useful for such a result were freely used. 
 
 Much to the surprise of the eneaiies of 
 reconstruction, however, after three months 
 of earnest, honest, laborious work, a consti- 
 tution waa adopted, and upon its submission 
 to the people was ratified, which in point of 
 merit was not only equal to, but very much 
 excelled all previous State constitutions. Its 
 framers, discarding all prejudice, and with a 
 liberality of feeling not anticipated under the 
 circumstances, invested every citizen of the 
 State with all of the rights, privileges, and 
 immunities enjoyed by any one of them. 
 There was no restriction placed upon the 
 elective franchise, save as to persons convicted 
 of treason, embezzlement of public funds, 
 malfeasance in office, crime punishable by 
 law with imprisonment in the penitentiary, or 
 bribery, and idiots and insane persons. The 
 right to hold office was not denied to any one 
 except for the reasons before enumerated. 
 The road to preferment was thrown wide open 
 to every citizen of the Commonwealth. In 
 letter and spirit it gave equal rights to all, not 
 grudgingly, but freely and cheerfully. Indeed, 
 such was the magnanimity and generosity 
 exhibited toward the enemies of reconstruc- 
 tion and the foes of the Government, that 
 they themselves were dumb with astonish- 
 ment, and from their reluctant and unwilling 
 lips was wrung the concession that it was a 
 most excellent piece of workmanship. They 
 admit that in many of its distinctive features 
 it is a decided improvement upon the old con- 
 stitution. The judiciary, especially, met the 
 approval of the legal fraternity throughout the 
 State. They cheerfully granted that it pos- 
 sessed marked advantages over former judicial 
 systems in that State. 
 
 Under this constitution an election was held, 
 a Governor elected, members o'.' the Legisla- 
 ture chosen, and all of the machinery of gov- 
 ernment put in motion. The Governor, when 
 installed into office, proceeded to appoint, in 
 accordance with the provisions of the consti- 
 tution, the judicial officers of the State, includ- 
 ing supreme court judges, the superior court 
 judges, notaries public, &c. The appointments 
 in the main were good. And these officers of 
 the law, by their fair and impartial administra- 
 tion of justice, soon won the esteem and con- 
 fidence of all of the just and fair-minded peo- 
 ple. In every instance appointments were 
 made from natives of the State, or persons 
 
 who had long been residents, and were closely 
 identified with her interests. Many of them 
 in former days had held positions of honor 
 and trust under either the State or Federal 
 Government, and no one could truthfully say 
 that they were in any respect inferior to those 
 who had been their predecessors. The same 
 may be said generally of those chosen to fill 
 places in the new government. 
 
 The Governor had entered upon the func- 
 tions of his office but a short time until appli- 
 cations for pardons of persons completing 
 sentences imposed by the courts began to 
 claim his attention for executive clemency. 
 That he used the pardoning power quite lib- 
 erally I shall not pretend to dispute. Never- 
 theless, much of the complaint against him on 
 that score is without just cause. Doubtless 
 in a few cases he blundered, and it may be 
 that he is open to censure for the grant of 
 executive clemency. There was not that 
 abuse of the pardoning power, however, that 
 is commonly supposed. Many convicts re- 
 ceived pardons, and it was right that they 
 should. The facts of their cases entitled them 
 to them. 
 
 Immediatelyafter the close of the war society 
 was in a state of excitement, the minds of 
 men were feverish, much prejudice existed, 
 especially toward the newly-emancipated race, 
 and convictions were had with wonderful 
 facility. Slight circumstances in the then dis- 
 tempered and unnatural state of the public 
 mind were regarded as conclusive of guilt, and 
 in many instances verdicts of guilty were re- 
 turned upon testimony which afterward, in A 
 more sober hour, would have appeared quite 
 unsatisfactory to the minds of those who ren- 
 dered them. And it was not an uncommon 
 occurrence to find those who had been eager 
 for convictions, petitioning, in behalf of those 
 whose convictions they sought, for executive 
 clemency. 
 
 In some cases, the judges who presided at 
 the trial, the solicitors general who represented 
 the Commonwealth, the parties who appeared 
 as prosecutors, the jurors who returned the 
 verdicts, and the best citizens of the country, 
 men of inrelligence and substantial worth, 
 would petition for the pardon of a convict, and 
 if the Executive yielded to their wishes, he 
 did that only which an enlightened public 
 sentiment approved and the justice of the case 
 absolutely demanded. In my own judicial dis- 
 trict, during the entire administration of Gov- 
 
ernor Bullock, I never heard of but two par- 
 dons of persions convicted of crime, and I am 
 quite sure that the propriety of neither one 
 could be seriously questioned. 
 
 Under the government established in Geor- 
 gia in accordance with the proclamation of 
 President Johnson in 1865, a savage and 
 bloody criminal code was adopted. Crimes 
 which previously had been felonies only were 
 made capital. Burglary in the night-time, 
 horse-stealing, arson of old unoccupied out- 
 houses, which before had been felonies, were 
 all made capital offenses, and individuals con- 
 victed of any of these crimes were to be pun- 
 ished with the extreme penalty of death, 
 unless the jury trying the case graciously rec- 
 ommended imprisonment for life in the peni- 
 tentiary of the Slate. The Governor, upon his 
 accession to power, therefore, found many per- 
 sons under sentence of imprisonment for life 
 where the crime committed consisted in break- 
 ing and entering some smoke-house or corn- 
 crib, and stealing therefrom a few pounds of 
 bacon or a trifling quantity of corn, and, in 
 some cases, under strong mitigating circum- 
 stances. 
 
 When the hour of passion had passed, when 
 the people had returned to their sober judg- 
 ments, it was not astonishing that a more 
 Christian sentiment and a higher regard for 
 the teachings of an enlightened humanity sug- 
 gested the propriety of a modification of these 
 sentences, and in some cases of asking for a 
 free and full pardon. It is not surprising, 
 therefore, that the Executive of Georgia lib- 
 erally dispensed the pardoning power. He 
 was not only yielding to the popular will,, but 
 conforming his action to the voice of con- 
 science and the dictates of common humanity. 
 Enlightened reason and impartial justice de- 
 manded it, and to have denied it under the 
 circumstances would have been to have trifled 
 with duty and trampled under foot the plain 
 requirements of acknowledged justice. 
 
 Whatever, therefore, may have been the 
 shortcomings of the Executive of Georgia, 
 and doubtless he had his share of them, he 
 did not, after all, so grievously offend in this 
 particular. In some instances parties were 
 pardoned before trial, but many of them had 
 been under indictment for a dozen years or 
 more; the witnesses upon which the State re- 
 lied for convictions, as well as those for the 
 defense, had moved away, or, in some ca^es, 
 slept the long sleep of death upon some battle- 
 
 field of the war ; the parties had become 
 reconciled, and a further prosecution was not 
 required for the vindication of the majesty of 
 the law, and would have resulted often onl}' in 
 a verdict of acquittal. Let it be remembered, 
 also, that the exercise of the pardoning power 
 was not confined to members of his own polit- 
 ical party, but extended to everj' case where 
 the facts and circumstances rendered its use 
 advisable. 
 
 It cannot be said, therefore, that the Gov- 
 ernor was influenced by partisan spirit, or 
 acted for the benefit of his political friends. 
 In some instances pardons were granted for 
 good behavior to those who had nearly com- 
 pleted the term of confinement imposed upon 
 them. In such cases they took effect only a 
 day or two before the expiration of the terra 
 of confinement imposed by the sentence of the 
 court, and had the effect to restore the party 
 thus pardoned to the civil rights of a citizen. 
 But then, again, it is charged that the people 
 of Georgia have been robbed and swindled 
 under Radical rulers, and taxed until their 
 burdens are too grievous to be borne. While 
 there has doubtless been mismanagement upon 
 the part of sotne officials, and in some in- 
 stances peculation, yet the wholesale corruption 
 charged is not supported by the facts; nor has 
 there been that amount of extravagance which 
 the Opposition would have the country believe. 
 For the purpose of arriving at the truth, let us 
 look to the figures. At the close of the fiscal 
 year in 1860 the public debt of the State was 
 $2,670,750. The State was also pledged to a rail- 
 road subscription of $500,000, making the actual 
 and contingent debt of the State $3,170,750. 
 In 1865 the debt had increased to $5,706,500, 
 besides the debt contracted in aid of the war, 
 which was $15,104,726 50, which latter debt 
 was repudiated, leaving the increase of the 
 debt, apart from the war debt, $2,535,750. 
 The public debt of the State in 1868, at the 
 inauguration of the reconstructed government, 
 was $6,544,500, showing an increase of the 
 debt under a Democratic administration, be- 
 tween the close of the war and the adoption 
 of the new constitution in 1868, of $838,000. 
 These figures demonstrate the fact that the 
 public debt under Democratic rule was in- 
 creasing with fearful rapidity. The expense 
 of administering the State government from 
 the 16ih of October, 1866, to the 16th of 
 October, 1867, under Governor Jenkins, a 
 Democratic Governor, was $2,689,363 86. 
 
6 
 
 The expense of administering it under Gov- 
 ernor Bullock from January 1, 1869, to Jan- 
 uary 1, 1870, was $1,857,825 98, and from the 
 1st of January, 1870, to 1st of January, 1871, 
 $1,470,021, showing the expenses of Governor 
 Bullock's administration to be for the year 
 1869, $8:11,537 87, and for the year 1870, 
 $1,219,342 85 less than those of Governor 
 Jenkins for the year ending 16th of October, 
 1867. It will be borne in mind, also, that the 
 period of time covered by the administration 
 of Govervior Bullock was one of unusual excite- 
 ment ; the voting population had about doubled 
 in number, much disorder prevailed ; and these 
 circumstances combined to create an actual 
 necessity for an increase in expenditures for 
 the purpose of keeping the machinery of gov- 
 ernment in motion. And yet we find the most 
 expensive year of Governor Bullock's admin- 
 istration, $831,537 87, less than that of his 
 predecessor, Governor Jenkins. 
 
 Now conceding, for the sake of the argu- 
 ment, that Governor Bullock managed badlyi 
 that he was extravagant and did not properly 
 care for the public funds, that the public debt 
 increased under his administration, and the 
 taxes were onerous ; and conceding further, 
 that Governor Jenkins was all that his parti- 
 san friends claimed for him ; conceding that 
 he was a gure patriot and an incorruptible 
 statesman ; nay, more, granting that he was 
 what the Democracy declared him to be, the 
 soul of honor and the representative of all 
 that is commendable in action and praiseworthy 
 in life — admitting all of this, admitting that he 
 was irreproachable in character, and possessed 
 splendid abilities, yet we find that the ex- 
 penses of his administration for a given period 
 of time exceed those of Governor Bullock's 
 administration for a like period of time — a 
 year being taken as the standard — by the sum 
 of $831,537 87 ; and that, too, when the neces- 
 sity for heavy expenses was in favor of Gov- 
 ernor Bullock, and the most expensive year 
 of his administration having been taken for 
 the comparison. The figures, after all, are 
 not so damaging to the administration of Gov- 
 ernor Bullock and the Republican party in 
 Georgia ; and if they show extravagance, 
 they further show that Democratic rule in 
 Georgia is obnoxious to the same charge — 
 just as vulnerable, and rather more so. 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1872, the debt of the 
 State was $8,618,750. At the same date the 
 contingent liabilities of the State were $7,083,- 
 
 400, in which is included a railroad subscrip- 
 tion, made under Governor Jenkins's adminis- 
 tration, of $400,000 to the Macon and Bruns- 
 wick road, making the actual and contingent 
 debt of the State $15,702,150. The contingent 
 liabilities cannot properly be considered as a 
 part of the State debt, as it is hardly probable 
 that they will ever become a charge upon the 
 Slate, she being fully and amply protected. 
 The State never indorses the bonds of any 
 road until the extent of road indorsed for is 
 actually constructed and in operation, and 
 then only for a sum equal to one half of the 
 cost of construction, with a prior lien upon 
 the entire property of the road, and the right 
 to take possession to save herself harmless 
 at any time when the road fails to meet its 
 obligations. 
 
 It is not true, therefore, that the actual in- 
 debtedness of Georgia is thirty or forty million 
 dollars, as has been asserted upon the floor of 
 this House, but her real debt is represented 
 by the figures $8,618,750. And of that por- 
 tion accruing under Republican rule a consid- 
 erable sum was for property purchased by the 
 State, of absolute necessity and great value. 
 Persons, therefore, who assert that Geor- 
 gia is bankrupt, deal more in fancy than fact. 
 Nor has there been that extravagance that the 
 enemies of the new government would have 
 us believe. It is, no doubt, true that the 
 expenditures have been much larger than an 
 economical administration would justify; still, 
 the larger portion of them have been spent in 
 the State, and help to swell the individual 
 wealth of the people. 
 
 It is true that the taxes have increased, and 
 in the very nature of things it could not have 
 been otherwise. For while the necessity for 
 revenues has increased, the taxable property 
 from which they are to be collected since 1860 
 has greatly diminished. The valuation of tax- 
 able property in 1860 was $672,292,447; in 
 1871 it was $240,000,000. The assessed value 
 of slaves in 1860 was $302,694,855; now, a 
 total loss. And the results of the war had the 
 efi'ect to depreciate property otherwise. It is 
 not wonderful, therefore, that taxation has 
 increased. Indeed, it is the legitimate effect 
 of the war with its consequent desolations. 
 
 I presume none of Governor Bullock's 
 friends will claim for him that he was a great 
 financier, nor were his ideas of statesmanship 
 as comprehensive as those of some of his 
 predecessors. Still, his purposes in the main 
 
were good, and under the policy of his admin- 
 istration the resources of the State were 
 largely developed. During his administration 
 three hundred miles or more of railroad were 
 built, and a marked stimulus given to. the 
 diversified interests of the country. Even the 
 construction of the railroads, to which the 
 State lent its aid, and on account of which 
 the contingent liabilities of the State to the 
 sum of $7,083,400 exist, had the effect to in- 
 crease the value of property along their lines 
 since 1868 to the amount of $14,000,000. 
 
 The administration of Governor Bullock 
 could not in any just sense be styled a carpet- 
 bag administration. The more important 
 offices of the government were filled either by 
 native Georgians or persons fully identified 
 with the government by long residence and 
 citizenship. His secretary of State was an 
 old citizen of Georgia ; his treasurer was an 
 old citizen of the State; his comptroller gen- 
 eral was a native of the State. The judges of 
 the supreme court and the superior court judges 
 were old citizens of the State, enjoying the 
 confidence of the people, selected with ref- 
 erence to their capacity and fitness for their 
 positions, and who have discharged their re- 
 spective duties with an ability and fidelity 
 creditable to themselves and honorable to the 
 State. And like praise may generally be 
 bestowed upon the officers in the other depart- 
 ments of the government. 
 
 While the Governor remained loyal to the 
 Republican cause, I believe the most rigid 
 investigation into his official conduct will fail 
 to discover on his part any criminal transaction 
 whatever. It was not until he began to coquette 
 with Democracy that divergence from the line 
 of official rectitude became apparent. For 
 twelve months or more preceding his depart- 
 ure from the State we had regarded him as a 
 convert to the heresies of Democracy. All of 
 his appointments were Democratic. He gave 
 his official patronage to members of that party. 
 When a vacancy occurred upon the supreme 
 court bench by the resignation of Chief Jus- 
 tice Brown, we find him filling that place with 
 Judge Lochrane, a gentleman who in 1868 
 was the Democratic nominee for Congress in 
 the fourth congressional district of Georgia. 
 When a vacancy occurred in the judgeship of 
 the Tallapoosa circuit, we find him filling that 
 position with Hon. W. F. Wright, Democratic 
 nominee for Congress in 1871 for the third 
 congressional district of Georgia. In the 
 
 Fulton circuit we find him placing upon the 
 bench Hon. John L. Hopkins, a distinguished 
 member of the Democratic party, who, in the 
 gubernatorial contest, canvassed with telling 
 effect against the Governor's own election. 
 It is said that of the two hundred employes 
 upon the State road a large majority of them 
 were Democratic ; and the same tale might 
 be told of all the appointments made through- 
 out the entire State. If guilty of malfeasance 
 in his administration it must have occurred 
 after his defection from the Republican party ; 
 and while all of the presumptions are in favor 
 of innocence until guilt is shown, yet his de- 
 parture from the State under the circum- 
 stances which occurred affords some ground 
 for such belief. It may be very safely said that 
 the transactions involving his official honor 
 were had after he got the consent of his mind 
 to align himself with the Democracy, a thing 
 for which the Republican party is in no meas- 
 ure responsible. 
 
 Allowing the past to have its full weight, 
 every conscientious and reflecting mind must 
 doubtless come to the conclusion that the ma- 
 terial prosperity of the State depends upon the 
 ascendency of Republican principles. The 
 Republican party is essentially a party of 
 progress. Under its rule, education is dis- 
 seminated among all the children of the land. 
 It would erect a school-house in every com- 
 munity, and for a reign of ignorance, substitute 
 one of intelligence. Recognizing the dignity 
 of labor, it would extend eneourageraent to 
 all the toiling sons of industry. Where it holds 
 sway school-teachers and ministers of the gos- 
 pel can go in the performance of their high 
 missions without harm or injury — invaluable 
 auxiliaries in the march of progress and civil- 
 ization. Guaranteeing all the rights of citi- 
 zenship to every one, and clothing every man 
 with all the privileges of a freeman, it throws 
 wide open the avenues to preferment, and 
 recognizes merits only as the passport of the 
 man. Congressional reconstruction in Georgia 
 has been an acknowledged success under the 
 Government to which it has given birth; the 
 desolations of the war are rapidly disappear- 
 ing, and a people whose energies were par- 
 alyzed and hopes dismayed are realizing con- 
 stant accretions to their wealth and pros- 
 perity. 
 
 Upon the sites of burnt towns magnificent 
 cities are springing into existence, and where 
 were to be seen barren fields a generous agri- 
 
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 014 418 841 ft 
 
 culture presents its bountiful harvests. The 
 murmurs of the stream which but a few years 
 ago rolled along in silent grandeur is now 
 hushed by the music of the busy factory. 
 Under the influence of their beneficent sway 
 all the noble impulses of a generous humanity 
 are called into action, and every one, feeling 
 that freedom is his inheritance, strives for a 
 higher place in the scale of an honorable man- 
 hood. In this contest the colored man is not 
 indififerent to the claims which society has upon 
 him, nor does he underestimate the boon 
 which the friends of freedom have bestowed 
 upon him. Right nobly has he acted his part 
 since the manacles of slavery were stricken 
 from his limbs, and he sent forth upon the 
 mission of life with all the rights of a citizen 
 and an equal before the law. Nor is his mind 
 vailed in the night of darkness which the ene- 
 mies of human liberty would fain have the 
 country believe. 
 
 It is true, that in the arts and sciences, in 
 polite literature and classic lore, the colored 
 voting population have not yet made much 
 advancement ; but they are keenly alive to all 
 the duties of good citizenship and fairly com- 
 prehend the principles of government upon 
 ■which the substantial prosperity of the nation 
 depends. Nor has he, as a general thing, been 
 immodest in his aspirations for positions of 
 
 honor and trust. In many instances he has 
 been compelled to seek position because there 
 was no one of the more favored race who 
 would consent to become the exponent of the 
 principles of his party. It is not strange, 
 therefore, that he has been found in conven- 
 tions which made organic law, and in Legis- 
 latures which enacted the needful laws for the 
 government of the country. That he is worthy 
 of the elective franchise is abundantly shown 
 by the care and fidelity with which he has ex- 
 ercised it. And that party which conferred it 
 upon him, and which would secure him in its 
 peaceful enjoyment, deserves to live forever in 
 the memory of a grateful people. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I have said thus much, not 
 in vindication of Governor Bullock, for I 
 aspire to no such task, but to aid the cause 
 of truth, and to relieve Georgia, in so far as I 
 can, from the circulation of a slander that 
 must inevitably damage her credit, cripple 
 her resources, exclude from her borders the 
 emigrant with his capital and enterprise, and 
 exert a blighting influence upon all of her 
 prospects for wealth and prosperity. I speak 
 for Georgia and her government, feeling as- 
 sured that every one who makes her his home, 
 may enter the race for wealth, prosperity, and 
 happiness with a fair prospect of achieving 
 success. 
 
UB( 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 ... ... ..rn,. iTriril'ilMniUMIUlii 
 
 014 418 841 A 
 
 Hollinger 
 
 pH 83 
 
 MiU Run R)3.2193