The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-09-18
MINUTE MEN OF 90.
Ready for March at the Tap of a
Drum;
ATLANTA JUST BEFORE SECESSION.
For The Constitution.

y
They lived in times that tried mems souls
they were eager for the fray, and ready to
march at the first tap of the drum.
But where are they now-these gallant fell
lows with their blue cockades and their state
flags?
Their graves are scattered from the Potomac
to the Rio Grande-that is, the graves OF
some of them. A few of the survivors are still
with us, brave veterans bearing the scars OF
hundred battles; and there are other survivors,
original Minute Men, who failed to get even
sniff of gunpowder-early volunteers who were
disabled before they reached the 'front.' or kept
at home by circumstances over which they had
no control.
Atlanta was in fever of excitement during
the month of October, in the year OF grace,
eighteen hundred and sixty. The election OF
Lincoln was foregone conclusion, and good
citizens viewed the situation with alarm. An
appeal to arms seemed to be inevitable.
On the 31st of October Stephen A. Douglas
delivered speech in the city hall park, and
his utterances infamed public sentiment to
the highest pitch.
On the following night the first steps were
taken towards the organization of body of
Minute Men. Pursuant to published call,
number of the best citizens met OF the armory
of the Atlanta Grays.
The newspapers of that day tell the story
briefly, and without any fourishes, but be-
tween the lines of cold type one may see
threads of flame.
Resolutions were then offered recognizing
"the right OF any sovereign state to withdraw
from the partnership of States" and pledging
the meeting to stand by any southern state that
might secede, to the last extremity, and at all
hazards.
resolutions, and Colonel Thomas l.. Cooper
made an eloquent speech in which he said that
in case of Lincoln's election he would do all in
his power to induce Georgia to secede from the
union He offered supplementary resolutions
providing for the organization of an asSocla-
ton of Minute Men pledged to advocate peace
able secession and to defend their property and
their fresides, against federal power welded
by black republican administration. All
men "preferring independence out ofthe union
to dishonor, degradation and oppression in it,
were invited to join the society
Bir. w. 8. Bassford offered the following
resolution
WHEREAS News having reached us that Abra-
ham Lincoln has been elected president of the Uni
ted States by dominant free soil majority, whose
sole idea is the destruction OF our constitutional
rights and eternal hostility to our domestic lnsltu-
Resolved, That as citizens of Georgia and Fulton
county believe that the Time has come for US to
assert rights, and now stand ready to second
any action that the sovereign state OF Georgia may
oHe ~ IN iso nv With her sister stafes me sonth
| in forming southern contederacy.
On the 10th of November another meeting
| was held. The Hon. Lucius J. Gartrell made
speech, in which, according to the local chron-
| icler of those days, he said that the, greatest
| crisis that could befall people was then upon
the country. A sectional abolition majority
had elected to the first office IN the gilt OF the
| people Abraham Lincoln, the author of the
| irrepressible conflict. Should the free men of
| the south, who had no hand in this. submit?
| He spoke for himself No, never! He would
never submit to an administration elected on
the sole idea of hostility, to the south. and
| the destruction of her constitutional
| rights. Therefore he enrolled his name
| as a member of the association. He was in
favor of Georgia seeding from the union.
| That was the object of the association. He
| was in favor of building up southern govern
ment. That could be accomplished by uniting
the southern people, If this were done, there
| would be peaeeable secessions. There would
| be no coercion, no war. Hickman, of Penn
sylyania sI.cd said in congress that ii the south
attempted to secede, eighteen million northern
freemen would whip her back into the union.
| He defied Hickman and his hosts.
After this tits not surprising to read that the
speech twas received with the most unbound
| ed demonstrations of applause.
On the Sd of December, at another meeting,
| the Intelligencer said that Thomas l.. Cooper
| laid on the table of Chairman Alexander a
donation of beautiful blue ceokades presented
| by Mrs. John w. Leonard, for which vote of
thanks was returned.
Captain Wallace moved the appointment of
| a committee of safety of twenty-one members,
| whose duty it should be to summon before
them all suspected characters, with power TO
rid the community of all such when they
should be proven to be hostile and dangerous
to the rights and interests OF the city or state.
| After twenty-eight years the Minute Men of
sixty resemble the shadowy figures seen insa
| dream.
This plain, unvarnished chronicle, to the
readers of this peaceful and prosaic generation,
will be strangely suggestive.
1t will be noted that our very best men, pa
| :riotic, law-abiding citizens, Joined the Minute
| Mon. With the lights before them they could
hardly have done otherwise.
Some queer facts crop out of this old time
| gossip. When John b. Gordon, of Alabama,
walked up to the secretary table and signed
his name, who among the assembled patriots
dreamed that the tall and slender youth before
| them was destined to be one of the foremost
generals of the world-the right hand of Lee
the thunderbolt Of the confederacy?
1t will seem strange that some OF the most
prominent actors in those times were northern
men, but some of them were among the last to
surrender, and the last to be reconstructed.
F. S. Fitch, of Campbell figures in this
sketch as one of the speakers at meeting of
| the Minute Men. Poor Fitch He, too, was
| a northern man, but more fiery secessionist
ne<er lived He had ga soul of flame i'll a
body of gauze." For years after the war his
face was seen almost every day on our streets.
His bold editorial conduct OF the Griffin Star
during the reconstruction era is still remem-
bered by thousands.
"You may shed my blood, but you can't
dilute It'll" he said in speech delivered here,
lust after the war, and as he uttered the words
he shook his fist at an astonished crowd of
federal soldiers who were trying to overawe
the citizens.
And He Generally Has a Strong Pull.
From the Hotel Mail.
The dentist may not be much of politician
but he knows how to take the stump.