Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-04
THE GEORGIA CRACKER,
Some Words in Defense of a Much-Ma.
ligned Type of Southerner.

| some words In Defense OF q Much-Ma-
ligned Type of southerner.
| From the Atlanta (Ga) Chronicle.
| There was once a Georgia cracker and we are
his descendants. From the blended strains OF
English, Salzburger and Scotch Irish which
came to this country and which settled over the
Savannah from Yamacraw to Petersburg there
was evolved a cosmopolite who left his print
| upon history. He has carved out what Gen.
Toombs used to call "The State Of Georgy" He
grew tobacco and indigo; he traded with the In
dian for his peltry; he beat back the Spanish
into Florida and kept the savage off his claim.
He stoutly fought the British in the revolu-
ton and under Troup and the treaty he OPP
posed old John Adams and the general govern
| ment. He helped to build the steamboat and
invent the cotton gin; he reclaimed the
| swamps and dug gold out of the hills: he
drilled the militia and pulled the gander's
| neck on holidays; he hated everything wrong
and burned up the records of the Yazoo fraud;
he paid his just debts and rounded the
watermelon into perfection; he led the way to
secession with his pike and furnished more
troops than any other state; he was the first
one to revive after the war, retaining the
state and making the best of bad bargain.
He builds up his cities, digs out his
rivers and canals. leads the Union in
railway construction and spins more cotton
than any other southern commonwealth. He
is religious. patriotic, public spirited, believes
| in prayer and keeps the powder dry; in fact he
is the brother-german to Uncle Jonathan. He
is called the southern Yankee-the light of the
Georgia cracker Judge Longstreet wrote hui
morously but tenderly of him in those incom-
parable Georgia scenes Col. Thompson pic
tured him gallant and picturesque in that inde-
scribable 'Courtship of Maj. Jones'" Ready
for fight or a foot race, high toned and reflect
i've fll Of l,,s
by prejudice. hospitable, helpful, tender, quaint
and true. the Georgia cracker stands the peer
OF the knickerbocker on the Hudson or the
CAROLS of the Chesapeake.
The Georgia cracker was shrewd but full Of
principle. He could coin money out of the
sunshine and tan riches from the fur of the
gopher. He was not melancholy or Bourbon
ish-but full Of the now. He didn't watch his
roof thatch rot like the Arkansas settler-he
went to work and repaired it. He was willing
to work his lands with or without slaves. His
first charter prohibited serfdom, As it barred
out rum. He took his horn on NIichaelmas
with the lordly air of a Peter Stuyyesant and
kept the pledge all the rest Of the year with
the stern stoicism of a spartan. He worshiped
Andrew Jackson and yet believed in froup.
He sided with Joe Brown "agin the
banks. He was democrat by conviction
"a whig only by rerversion. He regarded
Henry Clays party as an sristocratic concern.
He boycotted La Fayette for meddling with
our iHstitutiOus. just as ne snuDDeQ Jay could
when he rode through the south in his palace car
Troup was a George crackers" so was Alex.
Stephens, with his pale face and bright eye; SO
was Ben Hill as he left the plough handles in
Jasper county to go to the State University; SO
was Sam Thurmond of Watkinsyille as he stead
lily fed the forge with one hand and turned the
pages OF Blackstone with the other: SO are we
all Georgia "crackers" descendants of God 9
people-the plain yeomanry Of an empire, the
thriftiest kindliest, most helpful folks ON earth
Sherman cut a swath forty miles wide and 800
miles long right in the heart and homes OF the
Georgia cracker. One hundred millions Of
property was wiped out in eight months. Now
The whole state from Dalton to Waycross bios
SONS like a rose. Iron and coal and granite are
quarried from the base of the Kennesaw, and
the railroads which have given us Cordele and
Americas and Brunswick have igated the last
wounds Of war. France has not leapt into
luxuriance more swiftly than south Georgia
from pillage and devastation. Look what the
Georgia cracker is doing! There is one
million of him. He is at work. .His children
are at school. He lives well, reads the papers
and thinks for himself He is building an en-
pire. There is nothing half 80 sweet to him as
the red old hills OF Georgia. Long may he live.
May his tribe increase and his shadow never
grow less!