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CHAPTER 35 1857 N a hot summer afternoon in June, 1857, thirty-six year old Judge Joseph Emerson Brown, of the Blue Ridge Circuit was helping his hands to cut wheat in his field on Town Creek near Canton in Cherokee County. About sundown he went home and was shaving and preparing to wash for supper, when Col. Samuel Weil, an attorney, then of Canton, but with the Judge, to become a future resident of Atlanta, rode rapidly up to the house on horseback. Said Weil excitedly, "Judge, guess who is nominated for governor of Milledgeville?" Brown guessed that John E. Ward had been the successful nominee, "No," said Col. Weil, "it is Joseph E. Brown, of Cherokee." Col. Weil had been in Marietta when the telegram came announcing Brown's nomination.1 Brown had indeed received the Democratic nomination in one of the hardest fought convention battles in Georgia history. His opponent, in the race for governor was thirty-four year old Benjamin Harvey Hill, nominee of the American or Know-Nothing Party, and also a future resident of Atlanta. The personality of the Democratic candidate of 1857 illuminated the attitude of the poorer class of white citizens in the state. He was born in Pickens District, South Carolina, in 1821, but in early youth moved, with his parents, to Union County, Georgia, a mountain region remote from centers of culture and out of touch with the current of politics. The slender resources of the family made it necessary for the future governor to lend a hand in the work of the farm, and, when quite young to plow behind oxen, the chief motive power of the region. Attaining the age of 19 with only the rudiments of an education, he set out, at that time, for Dr. Waddell's School in South Carolina, carrying with him a yoke of steers as part payment for tuition and board.2 Young Brown proved to be an excellent student, and was afterwards able to borrow money for a law course at Yale College. After graduation he returned to Georgia in 1846, and began practice in Cherokee County. During 1849-1850 he represented his District in the State Legislature. Born and reared without the personal service of slaves, he yet became a strong supporter of the institution of slavery and stood firmly for the rights of the South.3 The nomination and election as governor (57,568 to 46,828 for Hill) of a man with Joseph E. Brown's background, was in its moral effect, similar to the accession of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency in 1828. A shock to the aristocratic regime in Georgia, it placed at the helm of the State a man who was in close touch with what would now be called "the common man". It also added to the group of official leaders a strong thinker, with a new point of view and useful fresh ideas.4 Brown was destined to remain in the governor 's chair until 1865 and to guide his State through a deadly and destructive war. It was also during the panic year of 1857 that an illustrious Georgian attained cabinet rank. Howell Cobb, of Athens, was appointed Secretary of the Treasury under President Buchanan.5 The panic itself was touched off by the failure on August 24th, of the Ohio Life and Trust Company and had its inception in speculation following the O 424 ATLANTA AND ITS ENVIRONS discovery of gold in California, together with overcapitalization and over building of railroads. On October 14th there was a general suspension of specie payment by banks.6 Happily for the South, the financial stringency was much more active in the northern states. The cotton crop for the year was exceptionally large, and the price high, due to a brisk demand for the staple from abroad. Southern banks were generally able to avoid suspension of specie payments, with the result that merchants in the South, including those of Atlanta were not affected by the tight money market. It is not remembered that any Atlanta merchant failed during the panic. As a matter of fact Atlanta merchants owed less than their brethren in the North. The custom of dealing for cash, established by the early local merchants was still being largely followed, for limited capital made it mandatory. The granting of wide credit would have invited speedyinsolvency. Cash and small profits enabled Atlanta to weather the hard times of '57 with but little damage.7...

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