City Point, Georgia

“ But in a controversy in which both parties claim title under the state of Georgia, it would seem reasonable to give the article that construction which Georgia herself has put upon it, provided it be reconcileable to the words. The line is to run 'to the source of the most southern branch of the Oconee river, including all the waters of the same.' The source of the most southern branch is the source of the main stream of that branch. It is a point to which the line is to be run from the top of the Currohee mountain. ”

“ The principal buildings are the city hall, a masonic hall, an oddfellows hall, the Richmond academy, the Georgia medical college, the opera-house, and an orphan asylum. Besides these, the city possesses an arsenal, water-works, a number of banks, newspaper offices, extensive cotton factories and flour mills, several foundries, two tobacco factories, &c. Water-power is abundantly supplied from the river by the Augusta canal, which was constructed in 1845. Augusta was an important place during the revolutionary war, and continued to flourish amazingly till the opening of the Georgia railway. ”

“ A Frugal People—Laws and Religion—Father Pierce—Thomas W. Cobb— Requisites of a Political Candidate—A Farmer-Lawyer—Southern Humorists.
The plain republican habits which characterized the people of Upper Georgia, in her early settlement and growth, together with the fact of the very moderate means of her people, exercised a powerful influence in the formation of the character of her people. She had no large commercial city, and her commerce was confined to the simple disposal of the surplus products of her soil and the supply of the few wants of the people. ”

“ GEORGIA
Early next day we motored out to the Count's Red Cross camp at ——. Here everyone was sleeping under tents or in little wooden huts, and we [Pg 211] met some good-mannered, nice soldier men, most of them Poles. The scenery was grand, and we were actually in the little known and wonderful old kingdom of Georgia. Very little of it is left. There are ruins all along the river of castles and fortresses and old stone bridges now crumbling into decay, but of the country, once so proud, only one small dirty city remains, and that is Artvin, on the mountain-side. ”

“ In 1837, Georgia undertook the construction of a railroad, known as the Western & Atlantic Railroad, extending from Atlanta to Chattanooga. The Legislature of Tennessee granted to Georgia the right to acquire the necessary right of way from the state line to Chattanooga and also land for terminal facilities. In 1852, Georgia purchased about 11 acres, then in the outskirts of that city, on which it located its railroad yard. The city has grown, and this tract of land is now near the business center. ”

“ Most of the thirty servants who cultivated the lands of the Scotch gentlemen at Joseph’s Town died, and that plantation lapsed into neglect.
The Saltzburgers who came to Georgia under the conduct of Baron VonReck and the Rev’d Mr. Bolzius, in passing from Savannah to Old Ebenezer, were sheltered and refreshed at Abercorn. To that place their baggage was brought by water, and for some time all their supplies were delivered at that point whence they were carried, at much pains, up Ebenezer creek and through the woods. ”

“ And the Georgia project, which I dared not speak of for fear it should be mere talk and nothing more, is a reality.—Yes! we are actually going! I can hardly believe that such good fortune as getting out of that wretched Clinton really awaits us. Perhaps I shall not like Augusta either; a stranger in a strange city is not usually enchanted with everything one beholds; but still—a change of scene—a new country—new people—it is worth while! Shall we really go? Will some page in this book actually record "Augusta, Georgia"? ”

“ It contains about 800 square versts. The country very hilly, and covered with large forests, containing excellent timber for ship-building. The soil is exceedingly fertile, the products are the same as those of Imiretia and Mingreila. The population, which consists of Georgians, and some Armenians, amounts to 36,700 souls. The population is divided into classes of princes, nobles, &c., as in Georgia. ”

“ It contains, according to the official returns, together with the districts of Borchalin, Kasakh, Shamshadil, Bambaco-Shooraghel, and Elizabethpol, joined to it by the Russian government, and inhabited by Mohammedans and Armenians, a population of 225,395 males, inhabiting 61,201 houses, on a surface of 46,400 square versts. The principal town is Tiflis, the antient metropolis of Georgia, and at present the seat of government for all the Caucasian provinces of Russia. ”

“ It is one of the seaports of Georgia, the Federal government having dredged a channel in the inner harbour 21 ft. deep at mean low water and a channel across the outer bar 19.3 ft. deep at mean low water—there is a rise of 7.2 ft. at high tide. St Simon Island and Jekyl Island (a winter resort of wealthy men) , lying between the ocean and the mainland, protect the harbour. The city is served by the Southern, the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic, and the Atlantic Coast Line railways ”

“ Georgia has the largest area of any state east of the Mississippi River, and, in her great sweep of 59,475 square miles, from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, exhibits the greatest diversity of soil, climate and physical features, all of which must be conceded to affect negro life and industry. ”

“ The fear of the Lesghian robber-bands prevents any great outlay of capital in the development of such a district, and, indeed, nobody in Georgia has much capital to spare, so the greater part of the estate I am speaking of, hundreds of square miles in extent, is a pathless forest.
By eight o’clock we were in the saddle. The path rises through thick woodlands to the summit of a hill crossed by a narrow, rocky pass which has an unpleasant reputation as being the haunt of brigands ”

“ As was natural, the political development of Georgia was much more rapid than its industrial progress. In January, 1783, Lyman Hall was elected governor. He was distinguished for the patriotic stand he took at the very beginning of the controversy between the Colony and the King. The Legislature met in Savannah after the evacuation of the town by the British; but it was so far from the central and upper portions of the State, and there was so much dissatisfaction among the people on this account, that in May Augusta was made the capital. In that town the General Assembly met July 8, 1783. ”

“ I remained a few days, and then went to Washington. The very thought of City Point is enough to make one sick; it was the worst place I ever saw; thousands of men lay mangled in every form. The sight was too horrible for description. When I was informed that I was to go to Washington, my heart beat with joy, for I knew that I should be near my friends who were living there. While I remained at City Point, I wrote to all my friends at home, for I never expected to come home again. ”

“ Four hours from Fortress Monroe we pass Harrison's Landing, where two grand armies, beaten aside from Richmond, sought the shelter of the river, and at City Point quit our large craft, to be transferred to a light draught vessel, which is to carry the first mail going to Richmond under the national flag since the beginning of the war.
City Point is still a populous place, and the millions of mules upon it bray hoarsely ”

“ With economy, a moderate talent, and habits of industry, he was well aware that, in those regions, the means of life are with little difficulty attainable by those who are worthy and will adventure. Let us now return to the wayfarer, whom we have left in that wildest region of the then little-settled state of Georgia—doubly wild as forming the debatable land between the savage and the civilized—partaking of the ferocity of the one and the skill, cunning, and cupidity of the other. ”

“ As a rule, the inhabitants led easy, comfortable, simple lives, and were much given to hospitality. No one was ever in a hurry, and the mornings and afternoons, among the better class, were largely devoted to amusements, such as fishing, sailing, riding, and hunting. The evenings were spent in visiting and in social intercourse. It was a good, easy life that these planters, even at that early day, began to lead upon the Georgia coast. It became more striking, abundant, and attractive after the Revolution ”

“ The Tallapoosa and Coosa, head-waters of the Alabama, and the Hiawassee, one of the sources of the Tennessee, rise in the mountains of Georgia—the last, however, finding its way to the Gulf of Mexico by the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.
Georgia has about 128 miles of sea-coast, but has few good harbours, except within the rivers emptying upon it. St, Brunswick, Darien, and Savannah are the principal. The chain of islands lying off the mainland produces the celebrated Sea-island cotton, but owing to the changes brought about by the secession war it is now little cultivated. ”

“ This city is the second in size of the five Great Lake ports, being outranked only by Chicago. Founded in 1801, it now boasts of a population of one hundred and sixty thousand souls. The site is a plain, which, from a point about two miles distant from the lake, slopes gently to the water's edge. The city has a water front of two and a half miles on the lake and of about the same extent on Niagara River. It has one of the finest harbors on the lake. The public buildings are costly and imposing edifices, and many of the private residences are elegant. ”

“ Gray-bearded men vied with the hot blood of youth, and a venerable citizen of Augusta, illuminating his residence from dome to cellar, blazoned with candles this device upon his gateway—"Georgia, right or wrong—Georgia!" ”

“ In gold-washings, towns spring up as rapidly as Leadville has done, but the washings being simply on the surface and soon exhausted, the population migrates to other points. The once populous town of Georgia, in the Middle Park in Colorado, which was built by gold-washers, is still standing, with its Town Hall, two theatres, and streets of log-houses, and is now without a solitary inhabitant. ”

“ In 1778 the British seized Savannah, which they held until 1782, meanwhile reviving the British civil administration, and in 1779 they captured Augusta and Sunbury; but after 1780 the Revolutionary forces were generally successful. Civil affairs also fell into confusion. In 1777 a state constitution was adopted, but two factions soon appeared in the government, led by the governor and the executive council respectively, and harmony was not secured until 1781.
Georgia’s policy in the formation of the United States government was strongly national. ”

“ To visit the poor-house one must have a "permit" from the mayor, physician, or a poor commissioner. Provided with this, he will follow out Pennsylvania Avenue over Capitol Hill, until nearly at the brink of the Anacostia or Eastern Branch, when by the oblique avenue called "Georgia" he will pass to his right the Congressional burying-ground, and arriving at the powder magazine in front, draw up at the almshouse gate, a mile and a quarter from the palace of Congress. ”

“ By the act of the 15th of March, 1758, [241] dividing Georgia into eight parishes, “the town of Hardwick and district of Ogechee on the south side of the river Great Ogechee, extending north west up the said river as far as the lower Indian trading path leading from Mount Pleasant, and southward from the town of Hardwick as far as the swamp of James Dunham, including the settlements on the north side of the north branches of the river Midway, with the islands of Ossabaw, and [227] from the head of the said Dunham’s swamp in a north west line,” were declared a parish by the name of St. Philip. ”

“ The country was very attractive, the soil very generous, the water good, and the health remarkable. The general topography of Middle Georgia (as that portion of Georgia is now termed) is unsurpassed by any other portion of the State for beauty—hill and dale, the one not rising many feet above the other, generally with beautiful slopes, and scarcely at any place with so much abruptness as to forbid cultivation. ”

“ Everybody knows by now that Plains, Georgia is a strange place to grow a Presidential candidate, but it doesn't really hit you until you see it. Here is a place which is really, in the old American phrase, 80 miles west of nowhere. And here is a man, a few years ago at least, with no powerful friends, no extensive record of public service, with no inherited background of wealth or culture or intellectualism. ”

“ Another contemporaneous account is almost identical; “On the Georgia side [of the Savannah river] , twelve miles from Purysburg, is the Town of Ebenezer, which thrives very much; there are very good Houses built for each of the Ministers, and an Orphan House; and they have partly framed Houses and partly Huts, neatly built, and formed into regular streets; they have a great deal of Cattle and Corn-Ground, so that they sell Provisions at Savannah; for they raise much more than they can consume.” ”

“ The lower classes are very laborious, and remarkable for their physical strength. Many of them go to Tillis to gain a livelihood by their labour. The government is vested in a Russian general, who commands the military force stationed in Imiretia, Mingrelia, Gooria, and Abkhazia, and who is dependent on the governor-general of Georgia He presides over the civil department, which is composed of three Russian and two native magistrates, called Divan Begs. ”