Address from Governor Brown to the people of Georgia.
Executive Department,
Milledgeville, May 17, 1861.
To the People of Georgia:
By their wicked and unprovoked aggressions upon our rights, our Northern neighbors have driven us out of the Union established by our fathers, and are now waging an unjust and unholy war upon us, and attempting to over throw the Government of equality established by us for our own protection. &They are collecting a large military force upon our borders.
They threaten to invade our territory with large armies; to sweep over it with fire and sword; to incite our slaves to insurrection and murder; to violate the sanctity of our homes, and to inflict the most cruel and outrageous wrongs upon our wives and daughters.
They appeal to the very basest passions of the human heart for the purpose of exciting their soldiers, and preparing them for the execution of their diabolical plans of rapine and plunder.
They promise to apportion our lands and divide our substance among their base mercenaries.
In some of their largest cities, ‘"beauty and booty"’ are made the rallying cry to induce the lowest rabble to enlist against us.
In aid to the Goverment of Mr. Lincoln, now a military despotism, disregarding all Constitutional guarantees and restrictions, while engaged in an unholy crusade against us, the people of the North are making large contributions from their private funds to equip and support troops in the field to fight against the South.
The Government of the Confederate States, which is the Government of our own choice, and is entitled to the fullest confidence, and most cordial support of every true Southern heart, has called for troops to meet these wicked invaders in the field of battle, and to drive them back.
Georgians have responded nobly to the call.
Thousands have already left their homes, their friends, their wives, their children, and all else that was dear to them on earth, and are now in the field, submitting to all the privations of camp life, and enduring all the hardships and fatigues of war for the defence of our glorious common cause.
Thousands more of our fellow- citizens must soon follow.
While our gallant soldiers have our warmest sympathies and our most fervent prayers, shall they not also have our material aid, and shall we not see to it that all the actual wants of themselves and their families are supplied?
The Government of the Confederate States having been recently organized, and having to encounter an expensive war during the first months of its existence, cannot be expected to supply promptly all things necessary to the comfort of large armies in the field.
The people of Georgia pay less tax in proportion to the value of their property than the people of any other State in either Confederacy.
The aggregate value of our private property is nearly eight hundred millions of dollars.
We could contribute ten millions of this to the support of our soldiers, as a free will offering, and feel none the poorer.
Let us not, then, subject ourselves to heavy taxation, or our posterity to heavy debt, but let us show to the world that we are fully enlisted in the noble cause of freedom, and that we have the ability and the will, by private subscription, to clothe and feed our glorious and gallant troops in the field and their families at home, while they are defending our wives, our children, our homes, and altars.
People of Georgia, as your Executive, I appeal not to your legislators to tax you, but I appeal to your patriotism and your well known liberality in behalf of the soldier and the soldier's family.
The soldiers must have clothing.
My appeal is first to the ladies, whose fervent patriotism, burning zeal, and energetic action in our glorious struggle, rekindle in our minds the memories of the immortal women of the Revolution of 1776, and convince us that while our daughters have improved upon their intelligence and refinement, and have more pecuniary ability to act, they have abated nothing of their patriotism and their devotion to the cause of freedom.--I know, therefore, that my appeal to the women of Georgia will meet a hearty and cordial response.
I request that each lady in Georgia prepare at as early a day as she conveniently can, such contribution of soldiers' clothing as she may desire to make, out of such material and of such color as she may be able to command — any kind of home-made cloth will be acceptable — and that each one deposit her contribution with the Clerk of the Superior Court of the county of her residence, who is requested to act as agent to receive it, and to keep a book in which he will enrol the name of each contributor, with an account of their contribution.
The Captains and justices of the Peace of each militia district in the State are respectfully requested to appoint meetings in their respective districts, and to bring this question before the people, and to act as agents for the ladies of their districts in forwarding their contributions, with a correct account of the articles contributed by each, to the Clerk of the Superior Court of the county.
As the contributions are brought in, the clerk is requested, at convenient intervals, to box and ship them at the expense of the State to the Quartermaster General of this State at Milledgeville, placing in each box a letter, giving the name of the county from which it comes.
I cannot doubt that all the railroad and express companies in this State, with their accustomed liberality, will forward all such packages to the Capitol free of charge.
So soon as the donations in each county have ceased to be made, I request the Clerk of the Superior Court to transmit the book containing the names of the donors, with the account of the donation of each to the Executive Office, to be deposited among the permanent records of the tate.
If each lady in the State should contribute but a single garment, the supply would be abundant for all our troops.
While a few may not be prepared to contribute, many will doubtless do much more than this.
To the lady making the most valuable contribution of clothing before the first day of August next, to be judged by the Quartermaster General, the Treasurer and the Comptroller General, I will present a beautiful golden cup, and will cause her name to be enrolled on a blank leaf of the Book of Minutes of the Executive Department with a statement of the reasons why it is so enrolled.
I will also cause the names of each of the nine ladies making the most valuable donations next after the one above mentioned, to be enrolled, each, on a separate leaf, in like manner in the order in which the honor is awarded to each by the three officers above mentioned.
My next appeal is to the gentlemen.
I propose that they raise by contributions $1,000,000 immediately, to be used by the state in equipping and providing for the wants of the Georgia troops.
I request the Justices of the Inferior Court of each county, or any two or more of them, to act as agents for this purpose, and to appoint such persons in the different Militia Districts as they may think proper to assist them.
I suggest that books of subscription be opened in each county on the first Tuesday in June next, or so soon thereafter as may be convenient, and that public meetings be held in each county for the purpose of discussing the question, and soliciting subscriptions.
I have requested our able and faithful Comptroller General to make out from the tax books and publish a statement of the amount which would be the just proportion of each county, should each determent to contribute its part of the one million dollars proposed to be raised.
The Treasurer of this State, on being informed by the Justices of the Inferior Court of the amount of the donation of the county, will direct the manner of its transmission to the treasury, and will receipt for the amount.
The Justices in each county are respectfully requested, so soon as the books of contribution are closed, to transmit them to the Executive Office that they may be preserved among the permanent records of the State.
As the Executive of the State, I will present a beautiful flag of the Confederate States to the county making the largest donation, in proportion to the value of its taxable property.
To the gentleman making the largest donation before the first day of August next, I will present a golden medal with appropriate inscriptions, and will enroll his name, with a statement of the cause of its enrollment, upon a blank leaf in the Book of Executive Minutes.
I will also enroll, in like manner, the names of the nine gentlemen making the next largest donations in the order in which they are entitled by the amount of their contributions.
Another suggestion, and I have done.
Our enemies are blockading our ports and cutting off our supplies from abroad.
A kind Providence has blessed us with the means of making within our own limits almost everything necessary to our support and comfort, and with a monopoly of the great staple which the world cannot do without.
It is said our enemies exempt cotton from blockade.
Why? Because they cannot do without it. I appeal to our planters, therefore, to refuse to ship a bag while the blockade lasts.
This will soon remove the blockade from our ports, and the increase of price will amply reward you for the loss you may sustain while you keep your cotton on hand.
I trust our people will hold public meetings and petition the Government at Montgomery to lay an absolute embargo upon cotton, permitting not one bag to pass out of the Confederate States while the blockade is maintained.
I appeal to our capitalists to go to work vigorously and prepare to manufacture such artistes as we most need.
I also appeal to our planters to redouble their energies for the production of all the supplies of provisions necessary to support our people at home and our armies in the field.
The prospect is most flattering for an abundant wheat harvest.
Let each planter, so soon as his wheat is cut, break and plant a few acres of his best wheat land iu an early kind of corn.
This would add hundreds of thousands of bushels to the crop; let each also plant a large crop of peas and turnips, and look diligently to the culture of everything that will sustain the life of man or beast, that we may be entirely independent of all supplies from abroad.
Finally, I appeal to all — ladies and gentlemen — to practice strict economy; dispense with every unnecessary luxury, and to devote all to our country till the battle is won and our independence acknowledged by all the civilized nations of the earth.
We hope for an early peace, but, if we are disappointed.
God has given us the physical strength, the material resources, and the means of support, which will, with proper energy, enable us to live and defend ourselves upon our own soil for the next twenty years to come.
Praying His divine protection, let us humble ourselves in his presence, implore.
His aid in our struggle, and with a firm reliance in the justice of our cause, let us resolve to achieve our independence or suffer extermination in the patriotic effort. 