Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-11
SOME HISTORIC SPOTS
Work of Women of Patriotic
Societies in Augusta.
IOLD-TIME CEREMONIALS
Rules of Precedence Observed by
the Aristocracy.
OLD GOV. BROWN RECALLED
One of Georgia's Ablest and Most
Influential Men-His Tilt With
ingalls, a Senate Joke.
OLD GOV. BROWN RECALLED
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.

| AUGUSTA, Ca. March 81. 1908.
The Daughters of the Revolution ana
the Colonial Danes have been making
good use of their organizations and their
| opportunities here in preserving and identi-
| fying historical houses and historical spots
and teaching reverence for history ana
| tradition The Daughters of the Revolu-
ton have their headquarters in quaint
| old cottage down among the cotton fac
| tories which a hundred years ago was
the residence Of George Walton. the first
governor of Georgia. a signer of the
Declaration Of Independence and man
of influence and authority in his gen.
Grafton. When the British retired in No
yember 177a, Walton was elected govern
or of the colony by self-appointed assem-
bly, of prominent citizens. and afterward,
In 1850. was elected to Congress He was
reelected six times in succession to the
House of Representatives. and then to
the United States Senate. He served two
terms as Governor of Georgia and after
ward as justice of the superior court until
his death He was one of the commits
soners who negotiated the treaty with
the Cherokee Indians for their removal
from Georgia beyond the great river. and
was identified with all the important
events of his day.
ne mousse III WHICH lie iScu. a SAoA
and a-h half frame structure with broad
porch and large windows. is surrounded
by high wall which protects the
grounds ard is filled with rare collec-
ton OF colonial furniture and other in
teresting relics of his time, made by the
local chapter of the Daughters of the
Revolution. who keep their records and
hold their meetings there.
Mr.. Walton entertained George Wash
ington and the Marquis de La Fayette in
hit v,,ifG Of
for those were ceremonious days and the
histories of Augusta have no brighter or
more interesting pages than those on
which these social events are recorded.
The aristocracy of the state filled the
Offices and raised the tobacco-before Eli
Whitney's invention of the cotton gin
made cotton planting profitable-and they
had rules of rank and precedence as
strict as those Of the Austrian court. I
find in a code of etiquette published about
the middle of the eighteenth century the
following Rules of Presidency Com
pared & Adjusted from the Several Acts
& Statutes made & provided in England
for the Settlement of the PRESIDENCY of
Men & Women in America by Joseph
Edmonson Mowbray. Herald:
Official Order of Precedence.
The following is the order of rank es-
tabished by that high authority:
Governor of the Province & his Wife.
Lieutenant Governor & his Wife.
Members of His Majestys Council &
their Wives.
Speaker of the House of Assembly & his
Wife
Chief Justice e. his Wife.
Associate Judges &; their Wives
Treasurer & his Wife.
Baronets and their Wives.
His Majesty's Attorney General & his
Wife
Judge of the Admiralty & his Wife.
Secretary of the Province & his Wife.
Members of the House OF Assembly &
their Wives.
The Mayor & his Wife.
The Aldermen & their Wives.
And that is as far the popua ion
was ella ssified. The baronets were those
who owned more than 1000 acres Of land
and any one who had the price could buy
the title with the soil.
Augusta was the capital of Georgia in
those days and was rival of Charleston
as a social center. 1t still retains the
impression OF dignity acquired then. The
capital wandered around for a century,
1t was removed from Augusta to Louis
vile and then to Milledgeville for various
reasons and finally "Old joe Brown. who
became the greatest man in Georgia. es-
tablished it permanently at Atlanta in
1866.
Peculiar, But Able Man.
dOV. foTOWn was a man pecuildF ma D.
its and disposition, but Oh great ability.
and exercised an extraordinary degree Of
influence. He ended his days in the United
States Senate, but did not cut SO much
of figure there as at home. He had a
| tall, spare figure with long beard: was
very bald on the top Of his head and
wore fringe Of hair. which fell upon his
coat collar His patriarchal appearance
suggested a Mormon elder.
Gov. Brown had way of rubbing his
hands when he was talking, as Senator
Ingalls, described it. Washing his soiled
fingers in invisible water with invisible
soap" ingalls,. on one occasion, being
provoked by something Brown did or
said. made him the target of one of the
philippics for which the senator from
Kansas was famous. He tore the senator
from Georgia to tatters and threw the
scraps into the alley. as it were. The
members of the Senate had seldom wit
human being. but Brown sat through it as
calmly as II II were a gentle summer
shower. and few days later. in an al
most inaudible voice, read from manu-
script a very mild milk-and-water defense
of himself against ingalls, terrible ex-
coriation. 1t was like shooting fire
cracker at a thirteen-inch rife.
But Gov. Brown thought he had made
| things even. and after he had finished his
dull and tedious reading, which nobody
his, Senator Ransom of North Carolina,
who was q great wag took Brown aside
and reproached him for being so severe.
You ought to have shown some mer-
cy," said Ransom.
But Ingalls, is alone to blame replied
Senator Brown. "He brought it on him
self. He provoked me. Let others be-
| ware"
| 1t was charged that Gov. Brown re-
moved the capital to Atlanta because he
| owned the railroad running there and had
a large amount OF real estate in the city.
But that was undoubtedly campaign
lie. His son. Joseph e. Brown. jr., is
taking an active part in the politics of
| the state. but Is by no means as able a
man as his father. He was a member
Of the railroad commission until recently.
and is now engaged In a political feud
with Gov. Hoke Smith, who removed him.
Career Of John Forsyth.
| Many distinguished men have lived in
Augusta. 1 have already told you about
Senator Crawford. who was Secretary
of the Treasury under Madison and Mon
roe. and minister to France at the time
Lof the abdication of Napoleon. He prac-
ticed law here, and one of his rivals was
John Forsyth. who was equally prominent
| In national affairs. Forsyth's father was
Virginia when the future senator was
only a year old and was United States
marshal for Georgia during the last
decade of the eighteenth century
| He lost his life in an attempt to enforce
| the law In 1875 a warrant was issued
to Forsyth for the arrest Of the Rev. Bev-
erly Allen. belligerent Baptist preacher,