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Section VII THE ElGHTEEN-SlXTIES The Peace is Breached. The Result and Its Aftermath State House Moves to Town CHAPTER 38 1860 iTH the dawn of the sixties Atlanta entered its decade of greatest travail, a decade from which it emerged as changed as was Chicago after its fire of 1871 and San Francisco following the earthquake of 1906. Ante-bellum Atlanta all but disappeared in the crucible of war, but the seeds of its future survived the ordeal and flowered mightly in the years to follow. The strained relations between the North and the South began to be felt early in Atlanta. It has already been noted that the Kansas question caused considerable local excitement back in 1856. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, in October, 1859, and his subsequent execution, added to the tension. Indeed a straw in the wind of early January, 1860, the Newcomb incident, shows the trend of local feeling. It was reported in the Intelligencer as follows: "Newcomb has left.—A fellow named Newcomb, who caused the disturbance at Hayden's Hall on Tuesday night, January 3, 1860, has left. It was whispered around town on Wednesday that this individual was in the habit of drinking toasts to old Osawatomie [John] Brown, and stating that he should not have been hung. He was in the employ of Mr. John Ryan, dry goods merchant, and came here from the North. Mr. Ryan was waited on yesterday, by some of our citizens, and informed of the doings of this individual, when he very justly and very promptly gave him notice that anyone guilty of conduct savoring of Abolition could not clerk for him, and thereupon gave him his walking papers. Newcomb could not be found last night, although delegations of citizens would have been glad to pay him their respects could they have discovered him. He is doubtless off for parts unknown, and the sooner he treads Northern soil the better it will be for him." His full name was D. S. Newcomb, and he was from New York City.1 At the same time another, and much broader issue came to the fore. The matter of non-intercourse with the Northern States with respect to trade began to agitate the people of the South, and of Atlanta. It was thought by many that the South could and should be entirely independent of the North. This sentiment arose, of course, from the repeated and continuous hostility of the people of the Northern States toward slavery, but it is also true that the necessity for commercial independence in case of war between the two sections intensified the sentiment. It was also thought by some that if southern trade was withdrawn from the Northern wholesale merchants, the agitation of the slavery question would, in obedience to their self-interests, be abated, if not silenced.2 \V 472 ATLANTA AND ITS ENVIRONS A communication from someone signing himself "Longstreet," published in the Intelligencer for January 14, 1860, closed with the following rather warm paragraph: ". . . Strike, merchants of Georgia, at the black Republican and Abolition trade of the North! Repudiate it, give it no countenance, no quarter; reject it, spurn it, and spit upon it; In doing so you will not only display your own patriotism and loyaly to the South, but you will carry out the wishes, we may say the stern demands, of those from whom you expect to derive your profits from home. The times demand that no black Republican or Abolitionist shall profit by Southern trade, either directly or indirectly, from cupidity, nor from avarice.3 '3 This article together with others of a more reserved character inspired the calling of a meeting of local merchants for January 31st, to take the matter of withdrawing patronage from Northern merchants into consideration. The call was issued by the following Atlanta firms and individuals: W. Herring & Co., McMillan & Fleming, High, Butler & Co., J. M. Holbrook, Cox, Hill & Co., Hunnicutt & Taylor, Tomlinson & Barnes, Massey & Lansdell, Ezzard & Grier, Rucker & Woodail, Er Lawshe, Maddox & Watkins, J. D. Simms, William M. Williams, H. H. Witt & Co., J. D. Lockhart, F. A. Williams, Clarke & Grubb, Smith & Ezzard, Clarke & Lewis, W. H. DeShong, and David Mayer.4 The meeting was held on schedule with Alexander M. Wallace as chairman and Dr. James P. Hambleton, later of the Southern Confederacy newspaper , as secretary. A Committee consisting of Dr. B. M. Smith, William Herring, Sr., William Gilbert, Robert F. Maddox and Wm. M. Williams was appointed to draw up and submit...

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