The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-24
The Hill.Stephens Controversy. - Joe
Brown, etc.

The Macon (Ga.) correspondent Of the
Louisville Courier Journal writes:
MACON, May %, 1s74.-Every well-read
Georgian who was a citizen of the State
during the latter years of the war regards
the last chapter given by Mr.. Hill OF the
unwrittel history of that struggle as a
truthful, straightforward document. We
all know that what be says of Joe Brown
and his efforts to get up = counter revolu-
ton is too true, for the facts are recorded
upon the pages of every newspaper pub
ished at the time in the State. Indeed, the
truth was not half told Of the doings of
that man to break down the war and sur
render the whole Confederacy to the enemy
the very war he had done 80 much to illau-
gurate, but which was not year old before
he turned his back upon it. Brown was in
direct collusion with Holden and the Pools
of North Carolina, and every one thought
then, and thinks now for that matter, that
there was not day during its progress that
Mr.. Stephens would not have willingly gone
back into the Union upon conditions far
short of the provisions Of the Confederate
Constitution.
Brown is man of great personal ambi-
ton and far removed from fool. With
hundreds Of others, he Thought that he was
deserving of higher Office than the one he
held, and, because the cabinet and the gene
rails did not agree with him about this, he
tried to, aud too we'll succeeded, in running
all. He was the Samson who seized the
pillars OF the Confederate temple and buried
all and himself too in one common ruin for
no sooner had the raider, Wilson, entered
Macon than he sent file of soldiers to Mil
ledgeville, arrested Gov. Brown. and sent
him to Northern bastile. After he was
released he fawned around the Radical
party, favored its most extreme measures,
went to Chicago and helped to nominate
Grant, took the stump for him, was in col
fusion with Bullock aud his brigade of car
pet. baggers-buts still, after all his treachery
to his friends and his country, office "was
not for joe" With the exception of few
months as Supreme Judge, he has been
left out by the dispensers of Federal and
State offices.
One thing may be said of Grant: he has
bestowed tavors upon few Southern men Of
the character of Joe Brown. Grant is not
idiot enough Lot to know that if Brown was
capable Of betraying Davis, he would be-
tray Grant. Intensely mercenary in his dis
position, he made a fortune specializing
during the war, and although politically.
dead and forever, he is at least far removed
from being poor in purse. He is one Of the
partners Of Ben Hill in the lease of the State
road, and is the president of the company.
STEPHENS PLAYED OUT.
"a defeat can always be traced to one
man." said Napoleon. Mr.. Hill has truth
fully traced the failure and defeat of the
Confederacy to Brown, and has placed
Stephens in light not in the least envi-
able. Up to this time Stephens has main
tanned firm hold upon the confidence Of
the people of Georgia. In his opposition to
tlisunion they believed him honest and sin
cere and when he acceded to that which
he could not prevent, gave his adhesion to
the new government, accepted the second
office in it, they thought him sincere in
that, and one and all believed that his sup
port of the cause would not be a lukewarm
one. Mr.. Hill, however, makes a charge
against him no less severe than that against
Brown.
Since Stephens return to Georgia, he is
discovered to have lost much Of that vigor
pf mind he had before he went to Washing
ton. He is rapidly lapsing into intellectual
mbecility, as he has long since physically.
His life and his record are behind him.