_Climate and Soils._--The climate of Georgia, though temperate, differs
considerably in different parts of the state. All the nine climate belts
in the United States, except that of southern Florida, are represented
within its borders. The lowest mean annual temperature, 40 deg. F. and
below, is that of some of the mountain tops of northern Georgia; from
the mountain-sides to the Piedmont Plateau this mean temperature varies
from 45 deg. to 60 deg.; on the Piedmont Plateau from 60 deg. to 65
deg.; and on the Coastal Plain from 60 deg. to 70 deg. The July isotherm
of 80 deg. crosses the state a little N. of Augusta and Macon, touching
the W. boundary at West Point, Troup county. The mean July temperature
for the whole state is 81.8 deg.; for the part S. of the 80 deg.
isotherm the average temperature for July is between 80 deg. and 85 deg.
The average rainfall for the state is 49.3 in.; the maximum is 71.7 in.,
at Rabun Gap in the extreme N.E. part of the state; the minimum is 39.4
at Swainsboro, Emanuel county, a little S.E. of the centre of the state.
Georgia is also notable for the variety of its soils. In the Cumberland
Plateau and Great Valley Regions are a red or brown loam, rich in
decomposed limestone and calcareous shales, and sandy or gravelly loams.
In the Piedmont Plateau and Appalachian Mountains Regions the surface
soil is generally sandy, but in considerable areas the subsoil is a red
clay derived largely from the decomposition of hornblende. By far the
greatest variety of soils is found in the Coastal Plain Region. Here the
Central Cotton Belt, extending from the "fall-line" as far S. as a line
bisecting Early county in the W. and passing through Baker, Worth,
Dooly, Dodge, Laurens, Johnson, Jefferson and Burke counties, has three
distinct kinds of soil; a sand, forming what is known as the sand-hill
region; red clay derived from silicious rock in the red hills; and grey,
sandy soils with a subsoil of yellow loam. South of the Cotton Belt is
the Lime Sink Region, which includes Miller, Baker, Mitchell, Colquitt
and Worth counties, the northern portions of Decatur, Grady, Thomas,
Brooks and Lowndes, the eastern parts of Dooly and Lee, and the eastern
portions of Berrien, Irwin, Wilcox, Dodge, and some parts of Burke,
Screven and Bulloch. The soft limestone underlying this region is
covered, in the uplands, with grey, sandy soils, which have a subsoil of
loam; in the lowlands the surface soils are loams, the subsoils clays.
Adjoining this region are the pine barrens, which extend S. to a line
passing through the northern portions of Pierce, Wayne, Liberty, Bryan
and Effingham counties. Here the prevailing soils are grey and sandy
with a subsoil of loam, but they are less fertile than those of the Lime
Sink or Cotton Belts. The coast counties of the S.E. and generally those
on the Florida frontier are not suitable for cultivation, on account of
the numerous marshes and swamps, Okefinokee Swamp being 45 m. long and
approximately 30 m. wide; but the southern portions of Decatur, Grady,
Thomas and Brooks counties are sufficiently elevated for agriculture,
and the islands off the coast are exceedingly productive.
_Minerals._--The mineral resources of Georgia are as varied as its
climate and soils, a total of thirty-nine different mineral products
being found within its borders. The most important is stone: in 1905
the value of the granite quarried in the state was $971,207 (Georgia
ranking fifth in the United States), of the marble $774,550 (Georgia
ranking third in the United States, Vermont and New York being first
and second); in 1908 the granite was valued at $970,832 (Georgia
ranking fifth in the United States), and the marble at $916,281
(Georgia ranking second in the United States, Vermont being first).
Generally more than one-fourth of the granite is used for paving;
curb, building and monument stone are next in importance in the order
named. Stone Mountain (1686 ft.) in De Kalb county near Atlanta is a
remarkable mass of light-coloured muscovite granite, having a
circumference at its base of 7 m. Stone Mountain granite was first
quarried about 1850; it is extensively used as building material in
Georgia and other southern states. A laminated granite, otherwise like
the Stone Mountain granite, is found in De Kalb, Rockdale and Gwinnett
counties, and is used for curbing and building. Biotite granites,
which take a good polish and are used for monuments and for
decoration, are quarried in Oglethorpe and Elbert counties. Georgia
marble was first quarried on a large scale in Pickens county in 1884;
the pure white marble of this county had been worked for tombstones
near Tate, the centre of the marble belt, in 1840; after its
commercial exploitation it was used in the capitol buildings of
Georgia, Rhode Island, Mississippi and Minnesota, in the Corcoran Art
Gallery, Washington, D.C., and in St Luke's Hospital, New York City.
It is sometimes used for the entire building, and sometimes only for
decoration. Other colours than the snowy white are found in the main
marble belt of the state, which runs from Canton, Cherokee county, 60
m. generally N. to the northern boundary of the state. Other deposits,
less well known, are the dark brown and light grey marbles of
Whitfield county, which resemble the stone quarried in eastern
Tennessee. Limestone and slate are quarried at Rock Mart, Polk county,
and there are cement quarries at Cement, near Kingston, Bartow county.
Iron deposits occur in Bartow, Polk and Floyd counties, where are the
more important brown ores, and (red ores) in Walker and Chattooga
counties. The quantity of iron ore mined in Georgia declined from 1890
to 1900; it was 200,842 long tons in 1905 and 321,060 long tons in
1908, when 319,812 tons were brown haematite and 1248 tons were red
haematite. Before the discovery of gold in California the Georgia
"placers" were very profitable, the earliest mining being in 1829 by
placer miners from the fields of Burke county, North Carolina, who
began work in what is now White county, and went thence to Habersham
and Lumpkin counties. Dahlonega and Auraria, the latter named by John
C. Calhoun, who owned a mine there, were the centres of this early
gold mining. Work was summarily stopped by Federal troops enforcing
the governor's proclamation in 1831, because of the disorder in the
mining region; but it was soon renewed and a mint was established at
Dahlonega in 1838. After the discovery of gold in California, mining
in Georgia was not renewed on anything but the smallest scale until
the early 'eighties. In 1908 the gold product was valued at $56,207
(it was $96,910 in 1905) and the silver product at $106. Up to 1909
the gold product of Georgia (see State Geol. Survey _Bulletin 19_) was
about $17,500,000. Extensive clay deposits occur in all parts of the
state, and are remarkable for their comparative freedom from
impurities and for their high fusion point; the most valuable are
sedimentary, and form a belt several miles wide across the middle of
the state from Augusta to Columbus. In 1908 the clay products of the
state were valued at $1,928,611. More asbestos has been found in
Georgia than in any other state of the Union; it occurs in the
amphibole form throughout the N. part of the state, and most of the
country's domestic supply comes from the Sall Mountain mine in White
county. Manganese ores, found in Bartow, Polk and Floyd counties, were
formerly important; in 1896 4096 long tons were mined, in 1905 only
150 tons, and in 1908 none. Bauxite was found in Georgia first of the
United States, near Rome, in 1887; the output, principally from Floyd,
Bartow and Polk counties, was the entire product of the United States
until 1891, and in 1902 was more than half the country's product, but
in 1908, even when combined with the Alabama output, was less than the
amount mined in Arkansas. Coal is not extensively found, but the mine
on Sand Mountain, in Walker county, was one of the first opened S. of
the Ohio river; in 1908 the value of the coal mined in the state was
$364,279 (264,822 short tons), the value of coke at the ovens was
$137,524 (39,422 short tons), and the value of ammonium sulphate, coal
tar, illuminating gas and gas coke was more than $800,000. Copper was
mined in Fannin and Cherokee counties before the Civil War. In 1906
the copper mined was valued at $5057. Corundum was discovered on
Laurel Creek in Rabun county in 1871, and was worked there and at
Trackrock, Union county, especially between 1880 and 1893, but in
later years low prices closed most of the mines. The limestone
formations furnished most of the lime for domestic use. Sandstone,
ochre, slate, soapstone, graphite are also mined, and lead, zinc,
barytes, gypsum and even diamonds have been discovered but not
exploited.
_Agriculture._--The principal occupation in Georgia is agriculture,
which in 1900 engaged seven-tenths of the land surface of the state and
the labour of three-fifths of the population, ten years old and over,
who are employed in profitable occupations. The products are so
diversified that, with the exception of some tropical fruits of
California and Florida, almost everything cultivated in the United
States can be produced. The chief staple is cotton, of which a valuable
hybrid called the Floradora, a cross of long and short staple, has been
singularly successful. Cotton is raised in all counties of the state
except Rabun, Towns and Fannin in the extreme north, and about one-third
of the total cultivated land of the state was devoted to it in
1900-1907. In 1899-1904 the crop exceeded that of the other
cotton-producing states except Texas, and in 1899, 1900 and 1903
Mississippi, averaging 1,467,121 commercial bales per annum; the crop in
1904 was 1,991,719 bales, and in 1907-1908 the crop was 1,815,834 bales,
second only to the crop of Texas. The cause of this extensive
cultivation of cotton is not a high average yield per acre, but the fact
that before 1860 "Cotton was King," and that the market value of the
staple when the Civil War closed was so high that farmers began to
cultivate it to the exclusion of the cereals, whose production, Indian
corn excepted, showed a decline during each decade from 1879 to 1899.
But in the 'nineties the price of the cotton fell below the cost of
production, owing to the enormous supply, and this was accompanied by
economic depression. These conditions have caused some diversification
of crops, and successful experiments in cattle-raising, movements
encouraged by the Department of Agriculture and the leading newspapers.
The principal cereals cultivated are Indian corn (product, 53,750,000
bushels in 1908) and wheat; the cultivation of the latter, formerly
remunerative, declined on account of the competition of the Western
States, but revived after 1899, largely owing to the efforts of the
Georgia Wheat Growers' Association (organized in 1897), and in 1908 the
yield was 2,208,000 bushels. The sugar-cane crop declined in value after
1890, and each year more of it was made into syrup. In 1908 the tobacco
crop was 2,705,625 lb., and the average farm price was 35 cents, being
nearly as high as that of the Florida crop; Sumatra leaf for wrappers is
grown successfully. The acreage and product of tobacco and peanuts
increased from 1890 to 1900 respectively 188% and 319.2%, and 92.6% and
129.9%, and in the production of sweet potatoes Georgia was in 1899
surpassed only by North Carolina. Alfalfa and grasses grow well. Truck
farming and the cultivation of orchard and small fruits have long been
remunerative occupations; the acreage devoted to peaches doubled between
1890 and 1900. Pecan nuts are an increasingly important crop.
Agriculture in Georgia was in a state of transition at the beginning
of the 20th century. Owing to the abundance of land and to negro
slavery, exploitative methods of cultivation were employed before the
Civil War, and such methods, by which lands after being worked to
exhaustion are deserted for new fields, had not yet been altogether
abandoned. One reason for this was that, according to the census of
1900, 36.9% of the farms were operated by negroes, of whom 86% were
tenants who desired to secure the greatest possible product without
regard to the care of the soil. Consequently there were large tracts
of untilled "waste" land; but these rapidly responded to fertilization
and rotation of crops, often yielding 800 to 1200 lb. of cotton per
acre, and Georgia in 1899 used more fertilizers than any other state
in the Union. Another feature of agriculture in Georgia was the great
increase in the number of farms, the average size of plantations
having declined from 440 acres in 1860 to 117.5 in 1900, or almost
75%, while the area in cultivation increased only 15.6% between 1850
and 1900. The tenantry system was also undergoing a change--the share
system which developed in the years succeeding the Civil War being
replaced by a system of cash rental.
[Illustration: Georgia.]
_Manufactures._--Although excelled by Alabama in the manufacture of
mineral products, and by North Carolina and South Carolina in the number
and output of cotton mills, in 1900 and in 1905 Georgia surpassed each
of those states in the total value of factory products, which was,
however, less than the value of the factory products of Louisiana and
Virginia among the southern states. The chief features of this
industrial activity are its early beginning and steady, constant
development. As far back as 1850 there were 1522 manufacturing
establishments (35 of which were cotton mills) in the state, whose total
product was valued at $7,082,075. Despite the Civil War, there was some
advance during each succeeding decade, the most prosperous relatively
being that from 1880 to 1890. In 1900 the number of establishments was
7504, an increase of 75.1% over the number in 1890; the capital invested
was $89,789,656, an increase of 57.7%, and the value of products
($106,654,527) was 54.8% more than in 1890. Of the 7504 establishments
in 1900, 3015 were conducted under the "factory system," and had a
capital of $79,303,316 and products valued at $94,532,368. In 1905 there
were 3219 factories, with a capital of $135,211,551 (an increase of
70.5% over 1900), and a gross product valued at $151,040,455 (59.8%
greater than the value of the factory product in 1900).
The most important manufacturing industries are those that depend upon
cotton for raw material, with a gross product in 1900 valued at
$26,521,757. In that year[2] there were 67 mills engaged in the
manufacture of cotton goods, with a capital of $24,158,159, and they
yielded a gross product valued at $18,457,645; the increase between
1900 and 1905 was actually much larger (and proportionately very much
larger) than between 1890 and 1900; the number of factories in 1905
was 103 (an increase of 53.7% over 1900); their capital was
$42,349,618 (75.3% more than in 1900); and their gross product was
valued at $35,174,248 (an increase of 90.6% since 1900). The rank of
Georgia among the cotton manufacturing states was seventh in 1900 and
fourth in 1905. Cotton-seed oil and cake factories increased in number
from 17 to 43 from 1890 to 1900, and to 112 in 1905, and the value of
their product increased from $1,670,196 to $8,064,112, or 382.8% in
1890-1900, and to $13,539,899 in 1905, or an increase of 67.9% over
1900, and in 1900 and in 1905 the state ranked second (to Texas) in
this industry in the United States. This growth in cotton manufactures
is due to various causes, among them being the proximity of raw
material, convenient water-power, municipal exemption from taxation
and the cheapness of labour. The relation between employer and
employee is in the main far more personal and kindly than in the mills
of the Northern States.
The forests of Georgia, next to the fields, furnish the largest amount
of raw material for manufactures. The yellow pines of the southern
part of the state, which have a stand of approximately 13,778,000 ft.,
yielded in 1900 rosin and turpentine valued at $8,110,468 (more than
the product of any other state in the Union) and in 1905 valued at
$7,705,643 (second only to the product of Florida). From the same
source was derived most of the lumber product valued[3] in 1900 at
$13,341,160 (more than double what it was in 1890) and in 1905 at
$16,716,594. The other important woods are cypress, oak and poplar.
Fourth in value in 1905 (first, cotton goods; second, lumber and
timber; third, cotton-seed oil and cake) were fertilizers, the value
of which increased from $3,367,353 in 1900 to $9,461,415 in 1905, when
the state ranked first of the United States in this industry; in 1900
it had ranked sixth.
_Communications._--Means of transportation for these products are
furnished by the rivers, which are generally navigable as far north as
the "fall line" passing through Augusta, Milledgeville, Macon and
Columbus; by ocean steamship lines which have piers at St Mary's,
Brunswick, Darien and Savannah; and by railways whose mileage in
January 1909 was 6,871.8 m. The most important of the railways are the
Central of Georgia, the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line, the
Seaboard Air Line, the Georgia and the Georgia Southern & Florida. In
1878 a state railway commission was established which has mandatory
power for the settlement of all traffic problems and makes annual
reports.
_Population._--The population of Georgia in 1880 was 1,542,180; in 1890
1,837,353, an increase of 19.1%; in 1900 2,216,331, a further increase
of 20.6%[4]; in 1910, 2,609,121. Of the 1900 population, 53.3% were
whites and 46.7% were negroes,[5] the centre of the black population
being a little south of the "fall line." Here the negroes increased,
from 1890 to 1900, faster than the whites in eighteen counties, but in
northern Georgia, where the whites are in the majority, the negro
population declined in twelve counties. Also the percentage of negro
illiteracy is higher in northern Georgia than in other parts of the
state, the percentage of negro male illiterates of voting age being
38.3% in Atlanta in 1900, and in Savannah only 30.7%. The population of
Georgia has a very slight foreign-born element (.6% in 1900) and a small
percentage (1.7% in 1900) of people of foreign parentage. The urban
population (i.e. the population in places of 2500 inhabitants and over)
was 15.6% of the total in 1900, and the number of incorporated cities,
towns and villages was 372. Of these only forty had a population
exceeding 2000, and thirteen exceeding 5000. The largest city in 1900
was Atlanta, the capital since 1868 (Louisville, Jefferson county, was
the capital in 1795-1804, and Milledgeville in 1804-1868), with 89,872
inhabitants. Savannah ranked second with 54,244, and Augusta third with
39,441. In 1900 the other cities in the state with a population of more
than 5000 were: Macon (23,272), Columbus (17,614), Athens (10,245),
Brunswick (9081), Americus (7674), Rome (7291), Griffin (6857), Waycross
(5919), Valdosta (5613), and Thomasville (5322).
The total membership of the churches in 1906 was about 1,029,037, of
whom 596,319 were Baptists, 349,079 were Methodists, 24,040 were
Presbyterians, 19,273 were Roman Catholics, 12,703 were Disciples of
Christ, 9790 were Protestant Episcopalians, and 5581 were
Congregationalists.
_Government._--The present constitution, which was adopted in 1877,[6]
provides for a system of government similar in general to that of the
other states (see UNITED STATES). The executive officials are elected
for a term of two years, and the judges of the Supreme Court and of the
court of appeals for six years, while those of the superior court and of
the ordinaries and the justices of the peace are chosen every four
years. Before 1909 all male citizens of the United States at least
twenty-one years of age (except those mentioned below), who had lived in
the state for one year immediately preceding an election and in the
county six months, and had paid their taxes, were entitled to vote. From
the suffrage and the holding of office are excluded idiots and insane
persons and all those who have been convicted of treason, embezzlement,
malfeasance in office, bribery or larceny, or any crime involving moral
turpitude and punishable under the laws of the state by imprisonment in
the penitentiary--this last disqualification, however, is removable by a
pardon for the offence. Before 1909 there was no constitutional
discrimination aimed against the exercise of the suffrage by the negro,
but in fact the negro vote had in various ways been greatly reduced. By
a constitutional amendment adopted by a large majority at a special
election in October 1908, new requirements for suffrage, designed
primarily to exclude negroes, especially illiterate negroes, were
imposed (supplementary to the requirements mentioned above concerning
age, residence and the payment of taxes), the amendment coming into
effect on the 1st of January 1909: in brief this amendment requires that
the voter shall have served in land or naval forces of the United States
or of the Confederate States or of the state of Georgia in time of war,
or be lawfully descended from some one who did so serve; or that he be a
person of good character who proves to the satisfaction of the
registrars of elections that he understands the duties and obligations
of a citizen; or that he read correctly in English and (unless
physically disabled) write any paragraph of the Federal or state
constitution; or that he own 40 acres of land or property valued at $500
and assessed for taxation. After the 1st of January 1915 no one may
qualify as a voter under the first or second of these clauses (the
"grandfather" and "understanding" clauses); but those who shall have
registered under their requirements before the 1st of January 1915 thus
become voters for life.
The governor, who receives a salary of $5000, must be at least thirty
years old, must at the time of his election have been a citizen of the
United States for fifteen years and of the state for six years, and
"shall not be eligible to re-election after the expiration of a second
term, for the period of four years." In case of his "death, removal or
disability," the duties of his office devolve in the first instance upon
the president of the Senate, and in the second upon the speaker of the
House of Representatives. The governor's power of veto extends to
separate items in appropriation bills, but in every case his veto may be
overridden by a two-thirds vote of the legislature. An amendment to the
constitution may be proposed by a two-thirds vote of the legislature,
and comes into effect on receiving a majority of the popular vote.
Members of the Senate must be at least twenty-five years old, must be
citizens of the United States, and must, at the time of their election,
have been citizens of the state for four years, and of the senatorial
district for one year; representatives must be at least twenty-one years
old, and must, at the time of their election, have been citizens of the
state for two years. By law, in Georgia, lobbying is a felony.
Habitual intoxication, wilful desertion for three years, cruel
treatment, and conviction for an offence the commission of which
involved moral turpitude and for which the offender has been sentenced
to imprisonment for at least two years, are recognized as causes for
divorce. All petitions for divorce must be approved by two successive
juries, and a woman holds in her own name all property acquired before
and after marriage. Marriage between the members of the white and negro
races is prohibited by law.
As the result of the general campaign against child labour, an act was
passed in 1906 providing that no child under 10 shall be employed or
allowed to labour in or about any factory, under any circumstances;
after the 1st of January 1907 no child under 12 shall be so employed,
unless an orphan with no other means of support, or unless a widowed
mother or disabled or aged father is dependent on the child's labour, in
which case a certificate to the facts, holding good for one year only,
is required; after the 1st of January 1908 no child under 14 shall be
employed in a factory between the hours of 7 P.M. and 6 A.M.; after the
same date no child under 14 shall be employed in any factory without a
certificate of school attendance for 12 weeks (of which 6 weeks must be
consecutive) of the preceding year; no child shall be employed without
the filing of an affidavit as to age. Making a false affidavit as to age
or as to other facts required by the act, and the violation of the act
by any agent or representative of a factory or by any parent or guardian
of a child are misdemeanours.
In 1907 a state law was passed prohibiting after the 1st of January 1908
the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors; nine-tenths of the
counties of the state, under local option laws, were already "dry" at
the passage of this bill. The law permits druggists to keep for sale no
other form of alcoholic drink than pure alcohol; physicians prescribing
alcohol must fill out a blank, specifying the patient's ailment, and
certifying that alcohol is necessary; the prescription must be filled
the day it is dated, must be served directly to the physician or to the
patient, must not call for more than a pint, and may not be refilled.[7]
The state supports four benevolent institutions: a lunatic asylum for
the whites and a similar institution for the negroes, both at
Milledgeville, an institute for the deaf and dumb at Cave Spring, and an
academy for the blind at Macon. There are also a number of private
charitable institutions, the oldest being the Bethesda orphan asylum,
near Savannah, founded by George Whitefield in 1739. The Methodist,
Baptist, Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopal Churches, and the
Hebrews of the state also support homes for orphans. A penitentiary was
established in 1817 at Milledgeville. In 1866 the lease system was
introduced, by which the convicts were leased for a term of years to
private individuals. In 1897 this was supplanted by the contract system,
by which a prison commission accepted contracts for convict labour, but
the prisoners were cared for by state officials. But the contract system
for convicts and the peonage system (under which immigrants were held in
practical slavery while they "worked out" advances made for
passage-money, &c.) were still sources of much injustice. State laws
made liable to prosecution for misdemeanour any contract labourer who,
having received advances, failed for any but good cause to fulfil the
contract; or any contract labourer who made a second contract without
giving notice to his second employer of a prior and unfulfilled
contract; or any employer of a labourer who had not completed the term
of a prior contract. In September 1908, after an investigation which
showed that many wardens had been in the pay of convict lessees and that
terrible cruelty had been practised in convict camps, an extra session
of the legislature practically put an end to the convict lease or
contract system; the act then passed provided that after the 31st of
March 1909, the date of expiration of leases in force, no convicts may
be leased for more than twelve months and none may be leased at all
unless there are enough convicts to supply all demands for convict
labour on roads made by counties, each county to receive its _pro rata_
share on a population basis, and to satisfy all demands made by
municipalities which thus secure labour for $100 per annum (per man)
paid into the state treasury, and all demands made by the state prison
farm and factory established by this law.
_Education._--Georgia's system of public instruction was not instituted
until 1870, but as early as 1817 the legislature provided a fund for the
education in the private schools of the state of children of indigent
parents. The constitution of 1868 authorized "a thorough system of
general education, to be for ever free to all children of the State,"
and in 1870 the first public school law was enacted. Education, however,
has never been made compulsory. The constitution, as amended in 1905,
provides that elections on the question of local school taxes for
counties or for school districts may be called upon a petition signed by
one-fourth of the qualified voters of the county, or district, in
question; under this provision several counties and a large number of
school districts are supplementing the general fund. But the principal
source of the annual school revenue is a state tax; the fund derived
from this tax, however, is not large enough. In 1908 the common school
fund approximated $3,786,830, of which amount the state paid $2,163,200
and about $1,010,680 was raised by local taxation. In 1908 69% of the
school population (79% of whites; 58% of negroes) were enrolled in the
schools; in 1902 it was estimated that the negroes, 52.3% of whom (10
years of age and over) were illiterates (i.e. could not write or could
neither read nor write) in 1900 (81.6% of them were illiterate in 1880),
received the benefit of only about a fifth of the school fund. Of the
total population, 10 years of age and over, 30.5% were illiterates in
1900--49.9% were illiterates in 1880--and as regards the whites of
native birth alone, Georgia ranked ninth in illiteracy, in 1900, among
the states and territories of the Union. Of the illiterates about
four-fifths were negroes in 1900. In addition to the public schools, the
state also supports the University of Georgia; and in 1906 $235,000 was
expended for the support of higher education. In 1906-1907 eleven
agricultural and mechanical arts colleges were established, one in each
congressional district of the state. Of the colleges of the university,
Franklin was the first state college chartered in America (1785); the
Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta, was opened in 1829; the State
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was established at Athens in
1872; the North Georgia Agricultural College, at Dahlonega, was opened
in 1873; the Georgia School of Technology, at Atlanta, in 1888; the
Georgia Normal and Industrial College (for women), in Milledgeville, in
1899; the Georgia State Normal School, at Athens, in 1895; the Georgia
State Industrial College for Coloured Youth, near Savannah, in 1890; the
School of Pharmacy, at Athens, in 1903; and the School of Forestry, and
the Georgia State College of Agriculture, at Athens, in 1906. Affiliated
with the university, but not receiving state funds, are three
preparatory schools, the South Georgia Military and Agricultural College
at Thomasville, the Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College at
Milledgeville, and the West Georgia Agricultural and Mechanical College
at Hamilton. Among the institutions generally grouped as denominational
are--Baptist: Mercer University, at Macon (Penfield, 1837; Macon, 1871),
Shorter College (1877) at Rome, Spelman Seminary (1881) in Atlanta for
negro women and girls, and Bessie Tift College, formerly Monroe College
(1849) for women, at Forsyth; Methodist Episcopal: Emory College (1836),
at Oxford, and Wesleyan Female College (1836) at Macon, both largely
endowed by George Ingraham Seney (1837-1893), and the latter one of the
earliest colleges for women in the country; Methodist Episcopal Church,
South: Young Harris College (1855) at Young Harris, Andrew Female
College (1854) at Cuthbert, and Dalton Female College (1872) at Dalton;
Presbyterian: Agnes Scott College at Decatur; and African Methodist
Episcopal: Morris Brown College (1885) at Atlanta. A famous school for
negroes is the non-sectarian Atlanta University (incorporated in 1867,
opened in 1869), which has trained many negroes for teaching and other
professions. Non-sectarian colleges for women are: Lucy Cobb Institute
(1858) at Athens, Cox College (1843) at College Park, near Atlanta, and
Brenau College Conservatory (1878) at Gainesville.
_Finance._--The assessed value of taxable property in 1910 was about
$735,000,000. A general property tax, which furnishes about
four-fifths of the public revenue, worked so inequitably that a Board
of Equalization was appointed in 1901. By the Constitution the tax
rate is limited to $5 on the thousand, and, as the rate of taxation
has increased faster than the taxable property, the state has been
forced to contract several temporary loans since 1901, none of which
has exceeded $200,000, the limit for each year set by the
Constitution. On the 1st of January 1910 the bonded debt was
$6,944,000, mainly incurred by the extravagance of the Reconstruction
administration (see _History_, below). Each year $100,000 of this debt
is paid off, and there are annual appropriations for the payment of
interest (about $303,260 in 1910). The state owns the Western &
Atlantic railway (137 m. long) from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to
Atlanta, which has valuable terminal facilities in both cities, and
which in 1910 was estimated to be worth $8,400,240 (more than the
amount of the bonded debt); this railway the state built in 1841-1850,
and in 1890 leased for 29 years, at an annual rental of $420,012, to
the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis railway.
Banking in Georgia is in a prosperous condition. The largest class of
depositors are the farmers, who more and more look to the banks for
credit, instead of to the merchants and cotton speculators. Hence the
number of banks in agricultural districts is increasing. The state
treasurer is the bank examiner, and to him all banks must make a
quarterly statement and submit their books for examination twice a
year. The legal rate of interest is 7%, but by contract it may be 8%.
_History._--Georgia derives its name from King George II. of Great
Britain. It was the last to be established of the English colonies in
America. Its formation was due to a desire of the British government to
protect South Carolina from invasion by the Spaniards from Florida and
by the French from Louisiana, as well as to the desire of James Edward
Oglethorpe (q.v.) to found a refuge for the persecuted Protestant sects
and the unfortunate but worthy indigent classes of Europe. A charter was
granted in 1732 to "the Trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia
in America," and parliament gave L10,000 to the enterprise. The first
settlement was made at Savannah in 1733 under the personal supervision
of Oglethorpe. The early colonists were German Lutherans (Salzburgers),
Piedmontese, Scottish Highlanders, Swiss, Portuguese Jews and
Englishmen; but the main tide of immigration, from Virginia and the
Carolinas, did not set in until 1752. As a bulwark against the Spanish,
the colony was successful, but as an economic experiment it was a
failure. The trustees desired that there should be grown in the colony
wine grapes, hemp, silk and medical plants (barilla, kali, cubeb, caper,
madder, &c.) for which England was dependent upon foreign countries;
they required the settlers to plant mulberry trees, and forbade the sale
of rum, the chief commercial staple of the colonies. They also forbade
the introduction of negro slaves. Land was leased by military tenure,
and until 1739 grants were made only in male tail and alienations were
forbidden. The industries planned for the colony did not thrive, and as
sufficient labour could not be obtained, the importation of slaves was
permitted under certain conditions in 1749. About the same time the
House of Commons directed the trustees to remove the prohibition on the
sale of rum. In 1753 the charter of the trustees expired and Georgia
became a royal province.
Under the new regime the colony was so prosperous that Sir James Wright
(1716-1785), the last of the royal governors, declared Georgia to be
"the most flourishing colony on the continent." The people were led to
revolt against the mother country through sympathy with the other
colonies rather than through any grievance of their own. The centre of
revolutionary ideas was St John's Parish, settled by New Englanders
(chiefly from Dorchester, Massachusetts). The Loyalist sentiment was so
strong that only five of the twelve parishes sent representatives to the
First Provincial Congress, which met on the 18th of January 1775, and
its delegates to the Continental Congress therefore did not claim seats
in that assembly. But six months later all the parishes sent
representatives to another Provincial Congress which met on the 4th of
July 1775. Soon afterward the royal government collapsed and the
administration of the colony was assumed by a council of safety.
The war that followed was really a severe civil conflict, the Loyalist
and Revolutionary parties being almost equal in numbers. 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. In the constitutional convention of 1787 its
delegates almost invariably gave their support to measures designed to
strengthen the central government. Georgia was the fourth state to
ratify (January 2, 1788), and one of the three that ratified
unanimously, the Federal Constitution. But a series of conflicts between
the Federal government and the state government caused a decline of this
national sentiment and the growth of States Rights theories.
First of these was the friction involved in the case, before the Supreme
Court of the United States, of _Chisolm_ v. _Georgia_, by which the
plaintiff, one Alexander Chisolm, a citizen of South Carolina, secured
judgment in 1793 against the state of Georgia (see 2 Dallas Reports
419). In protest, the Georgia House of Representatives, holding that the
United States Supreme Court had no constitutional power to try suits
against a sovereign state, resolved that any Federal marshal who should
attempt to execute the court's decision would be "guilty of felony, and
shall suffer death, without benefit of clergy, by being hanged." No
effort was made to execute the decision, and in 1798 the Eleventh
Amendment to the Federal Constitution was adopted, taking from Federal
courts all jurisdiction over any suit brought "against one of the United
States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any
foreign state."
The position of Congress and of the Supreme Court with reference to
Georgia's policy in the Yazoo Frauds also aroused distrust of the
Federal government. In 1795 the legislature granted for $500,000 the
territory extending from the Alabama and Coosa rivers to the Mississippi
river and between 35 deg. and 31 deg. N. lat. (almost all of the present
state of Mississippi and more than half of the present state of Alabama)
to four land companies, but in the following year a new legislature
rescinded the contracts on the ground that they had been fraudulently
and corruptly made, as was probably the case, and the rescindment was
embodied in the Constitution of 1798., In the meantime the United States
Senate had appointed a committee to inquire into Georgia's claim to the
land in question, and as this committee pronounced that claim invalid,
Congress in 1800 established a Territorial government over the region.
The legislature of Georgia remonstrated but expressed a willingness to
cede the land to the United States, and in 1802 the cession was
ratified, it being stipulated among other things that the United States
should pay to the state $1,250,000, and should extinguish "at their own
expense, for the use of Georgia, as soon as the same can be peaceably
obtained on reasonable terms," the Indian title to all lands within the
state of Georgia. Eight years later the Supreme Court of the United
States decided in the case of _Fletcher_ v. _Peck_ (6 Cranch 87) that
such a rescindment as that in the new state constitution was illegal, on
the ground that a state cannot pass a law impairing the obligation of
contracts; and at an expense of more than four millions of dollars the
Federal government ultimately extinguished all claims to the lands.
This decision greatly irritated the political leaders of Georgia, and
the question of extinguishing the Indian titles, on which there had long
been a disagreement, caused further and even more serious friction
between the Federal and state authorities. The National government,
until the administration of President Jackson, regarded the Indian
tribes as sovereign nations with whom it alone had the power to treat,
while Georgia held that the tribes were dependent communities with no
other right to the soil than that of tenants at will. In 1785 Georgia
made treaties with the Creeks by which those Indians ceded to the state
their lands S. and W. of the Altamaha river and E. of the Oconee river,
but after a remonstrance of one of their half-breed chiefs Congress
decided that the cessions were invalid, and the National government
negotiated, in 1790, a new treaty which ceded only the lands E. of the
Oconee. The state appealed to the National government to endeavour to
secure further cessions, but none had been made when, in 1802, the
United States assumed its obligation to extinguish all Indian titles
within the state. Several cessions were made between 1802 and 1824, but
the state in the latter year remonstrated in vigorous terms against the
dilatory manner in which the National government was discharging its
obligation, and the effect of this was that in 1825 a treaty was
negotiated at Indian Springs by which nearly all the Lower Creeks agreed
to exchange their remaining lands in Georgia for equal territory beyond
the Mississippi. But President J.Q. Adams, learning that this treaty was
not approved by the entire Creek nation, authorized a new one, signed at
Washington in 1826, by which the treaty of 1825 was abrogated and the
Creeks kept certain lands W. of the Chattahoochee. The Georgia
government, under the leadership of Governor George M. Troup
(1780-1856), had proceeded to execute the first treaty, and the
legislature declared the second treaty illegal and unconstitutional. In
reply to a communication of President Adams early in 1827 that the
United States would take strong measures to enforce its policy, Governor
Troup declared that he felt it his duty to resist to the utmost any
military attack which the government of the United States should think
proper to make, and ordered the military companies to prepare to resist
"any hostile invasion of the territory of this state." But the strain
produced by these conditions was relieved by information that new
negotiations had been begun for the cession of all Creek lands in
Georgia. These negotiations were completed late in the year.
There was similar conflict in the relation of the United States and
Georgia with the Cherokees. In 1785 the Cherokees of Georgia placed
themselves under the protection of the Federal government, and in 1823
their chiefs, who were mostly half-breeds, declared: "It is the fixed
and unalterable determination of this nation never again to cede one
foot more of land," and that they could not "recognize the sovereignty
of any state within the limits of their territory"; in 1827 they framed
a constitution and organized a representative government. President
Monroe and President J.Q. Adams treated the Cherokees with the courtesy
due to a sovereign nation, and held that the United States had done all
that was required to meet the obligation assumed in 1802. The Georgia
legislature, however, contended that the United States had not acted in
good faith, declared that all land within the boundaries of the state
belonged to Georgia, and in 1828 extended the jurisdiction of Georgia
law to the Cherokee lands. Then President Jackson, holding that Georgia
was in the right on the Indian question, informed the Cherokees that
their only alternative to submission to Georgia was emigration.
Thereupon the chiefs resorted to the United States Supreme Court, which
in 1832 declared that the Cherokees formed a distinct community "in
which the laws of Georgia have no force," and annulled the decision of a
Georgia court that had extended its jurisdiction into the Cherokee
country (_Worcester_ v. _Georgia_). But the governor of Georgia declared
that the decision was an attempt at usurpation which would meet with
determined resistance, and President Jackson refused to enforce the
decree. The President did, however, work for the removal of the Indians,
which was effected in 1838.
On account of these conflicts a majority of Georgians adopted the
principles of the Democratic-Republican party, and early in the 19th
century the people were virtually unanimous in their political ideas.
Local partisanship centred in two factions: one, led by George M. Troup,
which represented the interests of the aristocratic and slave-holding
communities; the other, formed by John Clarke (1766-1832) and his
brother Elijah, found support among the non-slave-holders and the
frontiersmen. The cleavage of these factions was at first purely
personal; but by 1832 it had become one of principle. Then the Troup
faction under the name of States Rights party, endorsed the
nullification policy of South Carolina, while the Clarke faction,
calling itself a Union party, opposed South Carolina's conduct, but on
the grounds of expediency rather than of principle. On account, however,
of its opposition to President Jackson's attitude toward nullification,
the States Rights party affiliated with the new Whig party, which
represented the national feeling in the South, while the Union party was
merged into the Democratic party, which emphasized the sovereignty of
the states.
The activity of Georgia in the slavery controversy was important. As
early as 1835 the legislature adopted a resolution which asserted the
legality of slavery in the Territories, a principle adopted by Congress
in the Kansas Bill in 1854, and in 1847 ex-Governor Wilson Lumpkin
(1783-1870) advocated the organization of the Southern states to resist
the aggression of the North. Popular opinion at first opposed the
Compromise of 1850, and some politicians demanded immediate secession
from the Union; and the legislature had approved the Alabama Platform of
1848. But Congressmen Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, Whigs, and
Howell Cobb, a Democrat, upon their return from Washington, contended
that the Compromise was a great victory for the South, and in a campaign
on this issue secured the election of such delegates to the state
convention (at Milledgeville) of 1850 that that body adopted on the 10th
of December, by a vote of 237 to 19, a series of conciliatory
resolutions, since known as the "Georgia Platform," which declared in
substance: (1) that, although the state did not wholly approve of the
Compromise, it would "abide by it as a permanent adjustment of this
sectional controversy," to preserve the Union, as the thirteen original
colonies had found compromise necessary for its formation; (2) that the
state "will and ought to resist, even (as a last resort) to the
disruption of every tie that binds her to the Union," any attempt to
prohibit slavery in the Territories or a refusal to admit a slave state.
The adoption of this platform was accompanied by a party reorganization,
those who approved it organizing the Constitutional Union party, and
those who disapproved, mostly Democrats, organizing the Southern Rights
party; the approval in other states of the Georgia Platform in
preference to the Alabama Platform (see ALABAMA) caused a reaction in
the South against secession. The reaction was followed for a short
interval by a return to approximately the former party alignment, but in
1854 the rank and file of the Whigs joined the American or Know-Nothing
party while most of the Whig leaders went over to the Democrats. The
Know-Nothing party was nearly destroyed by its crushing defeat in 1856
and in the next year the Democrats by a large majority elected for
governor Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894) who by three successive
re-elections was continued in that office until the close of the Civil
War. Although Governor Brown represented the poorer class of white
citizens he had taken a course in law at Yale College, had practised
law, and at the time of his election was judge of a superior court;
although he had never held slaves he believed that the abolition of
slavery would soon result in the ruin of the South, and he was a man of
strong convictions. The Kansas question and the attitude of the North
toward the decision in the Dred Scott case were arousing the South when
he was inaugurated the first time, and in his inaugural address he
clearly indicated that he would favour secession in the event of any
further encroachment on the part of the North. In July 1859 Senator
Alfred Iverson (1798-1874) declared that in the event of the election of
a Free-Soil resident in 1860 he would favour the establishment of an
independent confederacy; later in the same year Governor Brown expressed
himself to a similar effect and urged the improvement of the military
service. On the 7th of November following the election of President
Lincoln the governor, in a special message to the legislature,
recommended the calling of a convention to decide the question of
secession, and Alexander H. Stephens was about the only prominent
political leader who contended that Lincoln's election was insufficient
ground for such action. On the 17th of November the legislature passed
an act directing the governor to order an election of delegates on the
2nd of January 1861 and their meeting in a convention on the 16th. On
the 19th this body passed an ordinance of secession by a vote of 208 to
89. Already the first regiment of Georgia Volunteers, under Colonel
Alexander Lawton (1818-1896) had seized Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the
Savannah river and now Governor Brown proceeded to Augusta and seized
the Federal arsenal there. Toward the close of the same year, however,
Federal warships blockaded Georgia's ports, and early in 1862 Federal
forces captured Tybee Island, Fort Pulaski, St Mary's, Brunswick and St
Simon Island. Georgia had responded freely to the call for volunteers,
but when the Confederate Congress had passed, in April 1862, the
Conscript Law which required all white men (except those legally
exempted from service) between the ages of 18 and 35 to enter the
Confederate service, Governor Brown, in a correspondence with President
Davis which was continued for several months, offered serious
objections, his leading contentions being that the measure was
unnecessary as to Georgia, unconstitutional, subversive of the state's
sovereignty, and therefore "at war with the principles for the support
of which Georgia entered into this revolution."
In 1863 north-west Georgia was involved in the Chattanooga campaign. In
the following spring Georgia was invaded from Tennessee by a Federal
army under General William T. Sherman; the resistance of General Joseph
E. Johnston and General J.B. Hood proved ineffectual; and on the 1st of
September Atlanta was taken. Then Sherman began his famous "march to the
sea," from Atlanta to Savannah, which revealed the weakness of the
Confederacy. In the spring of 1865, General J.H. Wilson with a body of
cavalry entered the state from Alabama, seized Columbus and West Point
on the 16th of April, and on the 10th of May captured Jefferson Davis,
president of the Confederacy, at Irwinville in Irwin county.
In accord with President Andrew Johnson's plan for reorganizing the
Southern States, a provisional governor, James Johnson, was appointed on
the 17th of June 1865, and a state convention reformed the constitution
to meet the new conditions, rescinding the ordinance of secession,
abolishing slavery and formally repudiating the state debt incurred in
the prosecution of the war. A governor and legislature were elected in
November 1865, the legislature ratified the Thirteenth Amendment on the
9th of December and five days later the governor-elect was inaugurated.
But both the convention and legislature incurred the suspicion and
ill-will of Congress; the convention had congratulated the president on
his policy, memorialized him on behalf of Jefferson Davis, and provided
pensions for disabled Confederate soldiers and the widows of those who
had lost their lives during the war, while the legislature passed
apprenticeship, labour and vagrancy laws to protect and regulate the
negroes, and rejected the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the civil
rights were conferred upon the freedmen, Congress would not tolerate the
political incapacity and social inferiority which the legislature had
assigned to them, and therefore Georgia was placed under military
government, as part of the third military district, by the
Reconstruction Act of the 2nd of March 1867. Under the auspices of the
military authorities registration of electors for a new state convention
was begun and 95,168 negroes and 96,333 whites were registered. The
acceptance of the proposition to call the convention and the election of
many conscientious and intelligent delegates were largely due to the
influence of ex-Governor Brown, who was strongly convinced that the
wisest course for the South was to accept quickly what Congress had
offered. The convention met in Atlanta on the 9th of December 1867 and
by March 1868 had revised the constitution to meet the requirements of
the Reconstruction Acts. The constitution was duly adopted by popular
vote, and elections were held for the choice of a governor and
legislature. Rufus Brown Bullock (b. 1834), Republican, was chosen
governor, the Senate had a majority of Republicans, but in the House of
Representatives a tie vote was cast for the election of a speaker. On
the 21st of July the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, and a section of
the state constitution (which denied the power of state courts to
entertain against any resident of the state suits founded on contracts
existing on the 15th of June 1865) was repealed by the legislature in
pursuance of the congressional "Omnibus Bill" of the 25th of June 1868,
and as evidence of the restoration of Georgia to the Union the
congressmen were seated on the 25th of July in that year.
But in September of the same year the Democrats in the state
legislature, being assisted by some of the white Republicans, expelled
the 27 negro members and seated their defeated white contestants,
relying upon the legal theory that the right to hold office belonged
only to those citizens designated by statute, the common law or custom.
In retaliation the 41st Congress excluded the state's representatives on
a technicality, and, on the theory that the government of Georgia was a
provisional organization, passed an act requiring the ratification of
the Fifteenth Amendment before the admission of Georgia's senators and
representatives. The war department now concluded that the state was
still subject to military authority, and placed General A.H. Terry in
command. With his aid, and that of Congressional requirements that all
members of the legislature must take the Test Oath and none be excluded
on account of colour, a Republican majority was secured for both houses,
and the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified. Georgia was now finally
admitted to the Union by Act of Congress, on the 15th of July 1870.
The Reconstruction period in Georgia is remarkable for its comparative
moderation. Although there was great political excitement, there was not
as much extravagance in public administration as there was in other
Southern States, the state debt increasing approximately from $6,600,000
to $16,000,000. The explanation lies in the fact that there were
comparatively few "carpet-baggers" or adventurers in the state, and that
a large number of conservative citizens, under the leadership of
ex-Governor Brown, supported the Reconstruction policy of Congress and
joined the Republican party.
The election of 1871 gave the Democrats a majority in the legislature;
Governor Bullock, fearing impeachment, resigned, and at a special
election James M. Smith was chosen to fill the unexpired term. After
that the control of the Democrats was complete. In 1891 the Populist
party was organized, but it never succeeded in securing a majority of
the votes in the state.