Macon, Georgia

“ Our men and officers were shot without cause. An insane federal was shot at Macon, Georgia, for no offense. We were compelled to bury our dead in the river banks, where their bodies were liable to be washed out. We were beaten with clubs on board the steamer en route for Montgomery, Alabama. We were fed on foul and unwholesome diet, and frequently left without any rations for two or three days at a time. Our exchange was delayed as long as possible, and we were confined in camps surrounded by swamps, as the rebels said, that we all might die. ”

“ Pio Nono College at Macon is a recently established Catholic institution, chiefly founded by the efforts of the bishop of Savannah. The Atlanta University for the education of negroes was established by the now extinct Freedmen’s Bureau and various charitable societies of the Northern States. It receives an annual appropriation from the Georgia legislature of $8000. It accommodates 240 pupils. There are a number of institutions, in addition to those enumerated, that are entitled colleges, but come more properly within the designation of high schools. ”

“ Before long the Negro farmers not only from adjoining counties, but from Georgia and the neighbouring states, began to make inquiries. A good many farmers who were not able to buy land but wanted to be near a good school began to move into the county in order to go to work on the farms. Others who already had property in other parts of the South sold out and bought land in Macon County. ”

“ In Macon, Lewis J. Bernhardt, agent of the Georgia prison association, has secured 100 names of Macon people who [14] will aid in the perfection of an organization in that city to cope with conditions in the city and county prisons and convict camps and to aid in securing a better penal system for Georgia.
Radical Experiments in Oregon.—According to the Newark Evening News, Governor West of Oregon has inaugurated an “honor system” with astonishing results. Chains and stripes have been abolished. ”

“ CARTER, WALLACE A., Pvt., Albany, Georgia. CASTLEBERRY, JAMES P., Pvt., Lumpkin, Georgia. CHANDLER, ZAC A., Pvt., 39621⁄2 Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois. CHAPMAN, WILLIAM A., Pvt., East Macon, Georgia. CHILDS, THOMAS W., Pvt., R.F.D. 1, Forsyth, Georgia. CLARK, EUEL M., Pvt., Griffin, Georgia. CLINE, JOHN E., Pvt., Lafayette, Alabama. COCHRAN, UNDERWOOD C., Pvt., Camilla, Georgia. COLLINS, ARTHUR A., Bugler, Ga. Ind. Home, Macon, Georgia. CONWAY, JAMES W., Pvt. 1st class, Shawmut, Alabama. 510COOK, ROBERT P., Pvt., 252 Washington Ave., Macon, Georgia. COOK, SCOTT H., Pvt. ”

“ As has been stated, when the War of 1812 began, the Creeks became the allies of the British, and the attacks they made on the unprotected settlements were so numerous and so serious as to call for some action on the part of the General Government. In September, 1813, Congress called for a levy of Georgia troops, and, the State authorities ordered 3,600 men to assemble at Camp Hope, near Fort Hawkins, on the Ocmulgee River. The ruins of Fort Hawkins may be seen to this day on the Ocmulgee, in the city of Macon.
The men who assembled at Camp Hope were volunteers, and all eager for service. ”

“ Columbus, Americus, Atlanta, and Rome, as well as Savannah, are considerable shipping points, for cotton; Athens is the seat of the university of Georgia; Augusta and Columbus are manufacturing centres; Macon has three religious colleges; Darien, Brunswick, and St manufacture and export lumber. Andersonville, in Sumter county, acquired terrible celebrity during the civil war as the site of the chief military prison of the Southern Confederacy. Atlanta is by far the best example of rapid growth the State affords. ”

“ Georgia alone showed rapid increase. At the beginning of the decade the Indians still held all of the territory west of Macon, at the center of the state, with the exception of two tiers of counties along the southern border; and, when these lands were opened towards the close of the decade, they were occupied by a rush of settlement similar to the occupation of Oklahoma and Indian Territory in our own day. What Maine was to New England, that Georgia was to the southern seaboard, with the difference that it was deeply touched by influences characteristically western. ”

“ Although admirably situated for trade and manufacturing, Milledgeville was surpassed in both by Macon, which became the commercial emporium of middle Georgia; but it was a favourite place of residence for the wealthy and cultivated class of Georgians before the Civil War. ”

“ William Elliott, Jr., Kenneth W. Was cashier Macon Hardware Co., 1890-93; cashier Union Savings Bank & Trust Co., Macon, Ga., 1894-1900; vice-president Cherokee Brick Co., Macon, Ga., since 1900; president Standard Brick Co., Macon, Ga., since 1906; president Georgia State Fair Assn..; vice-president Macon Chamber of Commerce ; director Citizens National Bank, and Midland City Hotel Co., Macon, Ga., Macon & Brunswick Navigation Co. Director Building Brick Association of America, N.Y. City. Democrat ; Presbyterian (elder First Presbyterian Church and music director) ”

“ The rivalry between these societies was from the first strong, but regulated by conventional rules. The membership took in every student in the College at the beginning and for many years afterwards. There was only one from Georgia for many years a member of the Washington Society, and no one from South Carolina was ever a member of the Franklin. Students from the other States were divided about equally. Robert E. Cutler, of Virginia, gave tone to the oratorical style of the Washington, and William F. Samford, of Georgia, to the Franklin. ”

“ The first day, after travelling for some hours, we arrived at Macon to dinner, where the general was received with enthusiasm by the citizens, and a number of ladies, whose elegance and manners formed a singular contrast to the aspect of the country we had traversed. Macon, which is a small and handsome village, tolerably populous, did not exist eighteen months since; it has arisen from the midst of the forests as if by enchantment. It is a civilized speck lost in the yet immense domain of the original children of the soil. ”

“ Macon’s point of view was always local rather than national. He was essentially a North Carolinian first, and an American afterwards; and throughout his career he was an aggressive advocate of state sovereignty and an adherent of the doctrines of the “Old Republicans.” He at first opposed the adoption of the Federal constitution of 1787, as a member of the faction led by Willie Jones (1731–1801) of Halifax, North Carolina, but later withdrew his opposition. ”

“ The colored people of Macon deserve praise for their efforts after a truer life. There are 10,000 of them in this city, and among them is much poverty and want. But others have, “since emancipation,” laid up property and secured comfortable homes of their own. ”

“ MACON, NATHANIEL (1758–1837) , American political leader, was born at Macon Manor, Warren county, North Carolina, on the 17th of December 1758. He studied at the college of New Jersey (now Princeton University) from 1774 to 1776, when the institution was closed on account of the outbreak of the War of Independence; served for a short time in a New Jersey militia company; studied law at Bute Court-house, North Carolina, in 1777–1780, at the same time managing his tobacco plantation ”

“ S. E. Lathrop, the newly-arrived pastor at Macon, was also chosen Statistical Secretary and Treasurer, with authority to publish the Minutes and other documents. The Macon church is a beautiful brick building, tastefully arranged, upon a commanding site which overlooks most of the city. The attendance of Macon citizens was not so large as it would have been but for a very exciting municipal election which was going on at the time, absorbing the enthusiasm of most of the people. ”

“ The present memorial seemed to relate to topics entirely within the jurisdiction of the states.
Macon declared that there was not a man in North Carolina who did not wish that there were no blacks in the country. Negro slavery was a misfortune; he considered it a curse; but there was no means of getting rid of it. And thereupon he proceeded to inveigh against the Quakers, whom he accused not only of unconstitutional applications to congress, but of continually endeavoring to stir up in the southern states insurrection among the negroes. ”

“ Macon's claims to distinction, and to take rank on the roll of fame among the first of those who embellish the pages of American history, that sagacious statesman, John Randolph of Roanoke, whose perception of character was rarely at fault, in a letter to Mr. Macon, 14th December, 1828, thus speaks: "Your kind letter of the 10th is just now received. Many, many thanks for it. I am truly concerned at the causes which justly occasion you uneasiness; yet, when I reflect, I know of no man in the United States whom I would so soon be as yourself. ”

“ By a recent census, taken with a view to catching vagrants and setting them to work, the colored population of Macon was shown to be four thousand two hundred and seventy-three. “All those who are not now employed will soon be taken by the planters. If any will not hire out, they will be set to earning their living on the public streets. I have now 463on hand applications from Alabama and Mississippi planters for three hundred laborers; I could fill the orders if I chose to, for the negroes are much disposed to emigrate. ”

“ We have no race problem in Macon County; there is no friction between the races; agriculture is improving; the county is growing in wealth. In talking with the sheriff recently he told me that there is so little crime in this county that he scarcely finds enough to keep him busy. Furthermore, I think I am perfectly safe in saying that the white people in this county are convinced that Negro education pays.
What is true of Macon County may, in my opinion, be true of every other county in the South. ”

“ Cordial relations existed between the white and negro people. In every way Macon County came to be a better place to live in. The race problem was solved in that county. People were happy and prosperous. They were living clean, wholesome, contented lives. The whole problem of living was, in a large measure, solved. And it was all due to education of the people, and education of the right kind. What was good for Macon County, Alabama, would be good for every county in the country.
Washington’s ideas of education were very simple. He had studied carefully the needs of his people. ”

“ Tom Macon, primal man from Missouri, who never willingly ate any diet more civilized than corn pone and bacon, who could beat the devil quoting Scripture, who described a contemporary orator as placing all his emphasis on his prepositions, who could grill a witness until the lid of Satan's cook stove seemed cool to the touch. ”

“ Crawford, then Secretary of the Treasury, where occasionally he met Macon and Cobb, with other friends of Crawford. Macon and Crawford were his models of upright men. He believed Mr. Crawford to be the first intellect of the age, and Mr. Macon the most honest man. The strict honesty of Macon captivated him, as it did most men. His home-spun ideas, his unaffected plainness of dress, and primitive simplicity of manner, combined with a wonderful fund of common sense, went home to the heart of Randolph, and he loved Macon in sincerity. ”

“ The sense of impending disaster crushed the hearts of thoughtful and serious people. One of the last acts of Governor Macon, whose office was now under the control of the military commandant at Charleston, South Carolina, was to issue a proclamation, appointing a day of fasting and prayer to God for deliverance from the ruin that threatened the state under the dominion of Legree and the negroes. ”

“ A becomes angry, but cannot afford to tell his customers the cause; he hears that B once cheated a negro out of a mule; he makes [25] that charge; they fight; the court record of the trial shows that the fight was about the negro and the mule; but there is not a business man on the street who does not know that the record speaks a lie.
The first speech in this book opens with old Nat. Macon lecturing (in 1820) a Representative from Pennsylvania, the most protected State, for expressing a desire to see the Union dissolved rather than that slavery should be extended beyond the Mississippi. ”

“ Toward this end, there shall be a committee composed of the senators and representatives who now represent the counties of Bullock, Elmore, Lee, Macon, Montgomery, and Tallapoosa in the legislature, to study and determine the feasibility of abolishing Macon county or reducing its area, and to formulate the legislation deemed necessary for such purpose. ”

“ Macon, is necessary once in every generation, or thirty years. It has some advantages; among which were the draining off of the restless and dissatisfied, who might be killed off to the benefit of the remainder of society. ”

“ Though the system of filling subordinate offices with partisan political aspirants, irrespective of fitness, was not then, as under a later administration, inaugurated, the whole history of the Government, observed by himself personally, led Macon to see that only fixed tenure in office could secure the service of men devoted, not to a party, but to the interests of the people. No man in Congress was more firm and faithful than Houston in uncovering, irrespective of party, malfeasance in office, as appeared in the next, the Nineteenth Congress, to which he was elected. ”