The year 1880 and the decade that followed were critical times in the South, in the state of Georgia and in Dade County. The Civil War had been over for 15 years. The nation was also coming back from a terrible financial depression which began in 1873 and hit hard in Georgia. Without getting too far into the historical weeds, the crash was about the failure of railroad stock and the resulting runs on banks. Atlanta was already growing and had several large banks which were affected. In addition, it was already a major railroad hub and many Georgians owned railroad stock. As you may remember, the recession we all lived through in the early part of this century began in much the same way – with the failure or near failure of some very large banks and the related effect on the stock market.. Although Dade County was still very much a rural farming community in 1880, bank problems eventually wind up costing everybody so there was fallout here, but things were beginning to mend in 1880.
The Reconstruction era was ending in the South. Immediately after the Civil War, the former confederate states had been under the control of the federal government who had sent authorities down to oversee elections and otherwise be sure that the 13th, 14th, and 15 amendments passed after the war and guaranteeing rights to black people were enforced It had been intended by the hard core Republicans in Congress that this oversight would last for many years but, with the assassination of Lincoln and the ascendance to the presidency of Andrew Johnson, a pro-Union southerner but one who never lost his loyalty to the south, these punitive measures were quickly abandoned and things began returning to the pre-war status quo as far as possible. Dade County was a case study in how this was handled in Georgia and the process was well underway in 1880.
Donna Street is our local authority on one of the major aspects of what was called the Redemption era in Georgia politics and she can provide information on that period in great detail. In the interest of space, I will provide only a brief summary. Basically, the history of the South in this period involved returning those people to power who had held it before the war. This was not supposed to have happened – former leaders of the Old South were prohibited from holding office during Reconstruction and new people, including many blacks, had been elected to state and local offices under the watchful eye of the federal authorities but, by 1880, many of these authorities had gone back north so that old habits and traditions came right back.
In Georgia, a group of men came to power who were known as the “Bourbons” after a wealthy family who held and married into the thrones of Europe over many years Books have been written on who these men were and how they gained so much control to have so much control over this state. Again, a short summary: The Georgia Bourbons consisted of the trio of Alfred Colquitt, Joseph E. Brown, and John B. Gordon. Colquitt was from Monroe, Georgia, near Athens, a part of the state that was well-populated and wielded a great deal of political power in that day. He was a lawyer, preacher, Civil War soldier, and politician at the state and national levels and through all these connections, he wielded a great deal of political clout and would become governor in the late 1870’s.
Joseph E. Brown had been the governor of Georgia throughout the Civil War. He was known for his cantankerousness and his determination to have his way. During the early days of the war, when Confederate President Jefferson Davis called for a specific number of troops from each state to fight, Joe Brown informed him of how many he would allow him to have from Georgia. He insisted that he needed to keep enough troops in the state to protect it from possible invasion (and to be under his control, of course). It was stated in some newspapers of the time that Jefferson Davis had been heard to wonder aloud just whose side of the war Joe Brown was on.
If the name John B. Gordon, the third member of the Bourbon Triumvirate, seems familiar to you even though he lived more than 100 years ago, it is understandable. He was a Dade Countian – not by birth, but after his service in the war. He was a top general on the staff of Robert E. Lee and became famous for his elegant conduct during the surrender at Appomattox. (I’ll let you look that up for yourself.) As a young man, he was a plantation owner, and became a U.S. Senator in the 1880’s. He, like Colquitt, was to become governor of Georgia in the late 1880’s. It is very likely that Gordon was instrumental in the establishment of the KuKlux Klan in Georgia after the war. His membership in the “Bourbon Triumvirate” had a profound effect on our county as well as on the state and his doings were a big part of what was going on here in 1880.
During the 1880’s in Georgia very little happened in the way of politics and business in which these three men were not involved. They were kingmakers and kingbreakers and they used their power and their connections to advance their causes and their personal fortunes. John B. Gordon did a lot of his part of that here in Dade County.
by Joy Odom
Next: 1880 – Everyday Life and a Prison
