Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

December 19

1793 Gov. George Mathews signed legislation creating Warren, Oglethorpe, McIntosh, Bryan, and Montgomery counties respectively as Georgia's 16th-20th counties. Warren County--created from portions of Columbia, Washington, and Wilkes counties--was named for Massachusetts' Gen. Joseph Warren, who was killed early in the American Revolution at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Oglethorpe County, created from portions of Wilkes County, was named for Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. McIntosh County, created from portions of Liberty County, was named for the McIntoshes who settled Darien in 1735 and their descendants. Bryan County, created from portions of Chatham County, was named for colonial planter and politician Jonathan Bryan. Montgomery County, created from portions of Washington County, was named for American Revolutionary War general Richard Montgomery.

1793 Gov. Mathews signed legislation to discourage the foreign slave trade by requiring any person importing slaves into Georgia from the West Indies or East or West Florida to pay the state a fee of £50 for each slave.

1819 Gov. William Rabunsigned an act prohibiting free blacks from purchasing or acquiring real estate in Georgia.

1823 Legislation was approved by Gov.George Troup providing for a system of registering births and birthdates in each county with clerk of the court of Ordinary [now termed probate court]. Rather than a system for collecting vital statistics on births, the registry was intended as a way of documenting the age of court witnesses.

1837 Lawyer, teacher, and Confederate general John Carpenter Carter was born in Waynesboro, Ga. He died Dec. 10, 1864 following the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee. [See Dec. 10 entry for biographical information.]

1839 Gov. Charles McDonald signed an act chartering the Georgia Historical Society.

1857 Gov. Joseph E. Brown signed an act creating Glascock County as Georgia's 122nd county. Created from portions of Warren County, the county was named for Gen. Thomas Glascock, who fought in the War of 1812 and Seminole War and later served in the Georgia General Assembly and Congress.

1859 Politician Mirabeau Lamar died in Richmond, Texas. Born in Louisville, Ga. on Aug. 16, 1798, Lamar became Gov. George Troup's private secretary in 1823. In 1828, he founded the Columbus Enquirer, and the next year was elected to the Georgia Senate. In 1833, Lamar founded the Georgia States Rights Party, and the following year he unsuccessfully ran for Congress. After receiving an invitation to visit Texas from James Fannin, Lamar traveled west. In Texas, he joined Sam Houston's army and distinguished himself in battle. In May 1838, Lamar was elected vice president of the Republic of Texas, followed that fall by election as president. In the Mexican War, Lamar served as captain of the Texas Mounted Volunteers and as lt. colonel in the Texas Rangers.

1860 The Georgia General Assembly adopted a pro-secession resolution that among other provisions noted:

"That, should any or all of the Southern States determine in the present emergency to withdraw from the Union and resume their sovereignty, it is the sense of this General Assembly that such seceding States should form a confederacy under a republican form of government; and to that end they should adopt the Constitution of the United States, so altered and amended as to suit the new state of affairs."

[Click here to read full text of resolution.]

1864 Despite the blustery exchange of letters two days previous, Confederate General Hardee had no intention of subjecting his small army to an attack by Sherman's powerful forces. Hardee's chief of artillery, Col. Charles C. Jones, Jr., wrote:

"At eight o'clock on the evening of the 17th the first pontoon bridge, spanning the Savannah River from the foot of West Broad Street to Hutchinson's Island was completed, and by half past eight o'clock P.M. on Monday the 19th the remaining bridges were finished and the route was in readiness for the retreat . . . ."

1868 Congress opened hearings on the threats, intimidation, and even loss of life blacks faced when trying to vote in Georgia.

1897 Martin Luther King Sr. was born to Delia and James Albert King in Stockbridge, Georgia. In 1926, he married Alberta Christine Williams, daughter of A.D. Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The following year, King became assistant pastor at Ebenezer. They lived up the street from the church at 501 Auburn Ave., where on Jan. 15, 1929, their first son, Martin Luther King Jr., was born. King Sr. attended Morehouse College, obtaining a bachelor of arts degree in theology in June 1930. After A.D. Williams died in 1931, King was chosen to succeed his father-in-law as pastor of Ebenezer, officially becoming pastor in April 1932. He became active with the Atlanta Baptist Ministers Union, and was elected as its president in 1935. The same year, King staged a protest against segregated elevators in the Fulton County courthouse and also participated in a call for black voter registration. In 1936, King led a membership drive for the NAACP in Atlanta and was active in civil rights causes for the remainder of his life. In 1946, King was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Morris Brown College. After 48 years with Ebenezer Baptist Church, "Daddy King" retired as pastor on Aug. 1, 1975. He died in Atlanta of a heart attack on Nov. 11, 1984.

1904 Future Georgia Secretary of State Benjamin Wynn Fortson, Jr. was born in Tignall, Georgia. After graduating from Georgia Tech and starting a career in banking, Fortson's life was changed by a near-fatal automobile accident. After reading and reflecting while convalescing, Fortson decided to turn his life to public service, despite being confined to a wheelchair. He was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1939, then to the Georgia House in in 1943. When secretary of state John Wilson died in 1946, Governor Ellis Arnall appointed Fortson to fulfill the term. Fortson did much more, serving in the post until 1978, being elected to nine consecutive terms.

"Mr. Ben"--as he was commonly called by friends--was an energetic and entertaining speaker, particularly in the area of American and Georgia history. He always kept his office door open to the public, while staying above petty (and not so petty) political squabbles. The best example of this occurred not long after Fortson took office -- when he refused to surrender the official state seal to any of the combatants in the three governor's controversy, hiding the seal under his wheelchair seat. Fortson was largely responsible for beautifying the state capitol grounds and for advocating for a new state archives building -- which was eventually named in his honor. He was also concerned about the appearance and condition of Georgia's state capitol and in January 1979 helped kick off the drive to regild the capitol dome. Unfortunately, before that project could be completed, Fortson died in Atlanta on May 19, 1979.

1961 The last of the jailed civil rights demonstrators were released in Albany. [Contributed by Dr. Lee Formwalt, Albany State University]

1970 Georgia Tech beat Texas Tech 17-9 in the Sun Bowl.

1998 In the first floor vote to impeach a U.S. president in 130 years, in a narrow and partisan vote, the U.S. House of Represesntatives voted in favor of two of four impeachment articles by the House Judiciary Committee against Pres. Bill Clinton [click here to read text of articles]. Approval required a majority of the the total membership of the House. On the two articles approved, the vote was almost entirely on party lines.

• Article I was approved 228-206. Voting in favor were 223 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Voting against were 200 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and one Independent.
• Article II was defeated 229-205. Voting in favor were 200 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Voting against were 200 Democrats, 28 Republicans, and one Independent.
• Article III was approved 221-212. Voting in favor were 216 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Voting against were 199 Democrats, 12 Republicans, and one Independent.
• Article IV was defeated 285-148. Voting in favor were 147 Republicans and one Democrat. Voting against were 203 Democrats, 81 Republicans, and one Independent.

On all four impeachment articles, Georgia's congressional delegation voted exclusively along party lines. Republican congressmen Jack Kingston (1st district), Mac Collins (3rd district), Newt Gingrich (6th district), Bob Barr (7th district), Saxby Chambliss (8th district), Nathan Deal (9th district), Charlie Norwood (10th district), and John Linder (11th district) voted in favor of all four articles. Democratic congressmen Sanford Bishop (2nd district) and John Lewis (5th district) and congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (4th district) voted against all four articles.

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved on Dec. 19:

1859 Homer (Banks County), Powder Springs (Cobb County), and Quitman (Brooks County)

1860 Colquitt (Miller County)

1893 Powellville (Coweta County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1740 In London, the Georgia Trustees met to discuss Georgia affairs. After agreeing to petition Parliament for an appropriation of £7,000 for the support of Georgia, the discussion turned to the controversial issue of the exercise of civil authority in Georgia. The Trustees had appointed William Stephens as their secretary in the colony, and they had attempted to administer the colony through orders sent to Stephens. However, as indicated in the Earl of Egmont's diary, many colonists listened instead to James Oglethorpe (who was now a colonel with his own regiment stationed at Fort Frederica):

"Mr. [James] Vernon hinted to the gentlemen the necessity of appointing some person in Georgia with greater authority than any now are invested with, in order that the Trustees' commands and instructions may be better executed than hitherto, instancing the misfortune of the light-house being ready to fall by means of a person in the colony who had neglected the repair, and prevented it when it might have been repaired in time. He meant Col. Oglethorpe, who assuming too much authority to himself, expects that whatever orders we send, though ever so peremptory, shall not be complied with till he give his own directions therein.

"The Trustees had before taken out of his hands the fingering the money, and now Mr. Vernon thought fit to take from him also any concern in the civil affairs of the colony. . . ."

Source: U.K. Historical Manuscripts Commission, Diary of the First Earl of Egmont (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1923), Vol. III, p. 169.

1775 From Savannah, royal governor James Wright wrote British secretary of state for the colonies Lord Dartmouth about the return of Georgia Whig delegates to the Continental Congress:

"The people who went from hence as delegates are returned, and it is said they have brought blank commissions from the Continental Congress to be filled up by the Council of Safety here to officers for a regiment of what they called 'Provincials' which is to be raised for this province to consist of eight companies of 75 privates, say 600 rank and file in a regiment. Thus, Your Lordship sees they are preparing throughout to support their usurped powers and to resist the King's troops when any may be sent. In this province, My Lord, we are more unhappily circumstanced than in any other, for there are very few men of real abilities, gentlemen or men of property in their tribunals. The parochial committee are a parcel of the lowest people, chiefly carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths &c. with a few at their head in the general Committee and Council of Safety. They are some better sort of men and some merchants and planters but many of the inferior class, and it is really terrible, My Lord, that such people should be suffered to overturn the civil government and most arbitrarily determine upon and sport with other men's lives, liberties and properties."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Georgia: History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), p. 40.

1884 The first telephone exchange in America opened in New Haven, Conn. in 1878 with 21 customers. Interest in the telephone spread quickly, and within five years Atlanta had a telephone exchange. The 1884 Atlanta telephone directory consisted of a single page with over 500 names. On Dec. 19, Atlanta merchant Samuel P. Richards got a phone for his home, as noted in his diary:

"We have telephone communication today with the store and some 564 other citizens. Our store number is 554 and the house 564. The cost is $104 per year. It is very convenient. I do not know whether it will pay or not but we must in a measure keep up with the times."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1966 reprint of 1954 original volume), Vol. II, p. 75.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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