Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

March 26

1736 After receiving £26,000 from Parliament the previous year, Georgia's Trustees had been advised to significantly cut their request for 1736. Consequently, on this day, the House of Commons voted the Trustees £10,000 for sustaining the colony of Georgia. [See "In Their Own Words . . ." below.]

1867 The Georgia Equal Rights Association met in Macon. Its primary goal was to encourage blacks to register and vote on a new state constitution.

1894 U.S. Senator Alfred H. Colquitt died in Washington, D.C. Born in Walton County on April 29, 1824, he graduated from Princeton University (1844). Returning to Georgia, Colquitt read law before being admitted to the bar in 1846. He began the practice of law in Columbus, Ga. but soon left to serve as a staff officer under Gen. Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War. Upon returning to Georgia, he married and moved to a plantation inherited by his wife in Baker County. He began his political career in 1849, as assistant secretary of the Georgia Senate. In 1852, Colquitt was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but served only one term because of his wife's illness. In 1858, he represented Baker County for one year in the Georgia House of Representatives. Colquitt was a vocal advocate of Georgia's secession and served in the secession convention in January 1861. He entered Confederate service as a captain in the 6th Georgia Regiment, was promoted to colonel in May 1861, brigadier general in Sept. 1862, and eventually major general. After the Civil War, Colquitt opposed Reconstruction policies, and became president of the Georgia Democratic Convention in 1870. In 1876, he was elected governor. Though his term saw Georgia's finances return to normal after the turmoil of the war and Reconstruction, there was also considerable controversy as several officials were investigated and charges of bargaining and corruption were leveled at him and the other two powerful Georgia politicians of the time -- John B. Gordon and Joseph E. Brown. In 1882 Colquitt was appointed to fill the term of U.S. Senator Benjamin Hill, who had died in office. Colquitt remained in this post until his death in 1894.

1916 The Committee of Fifteen -- a panel of some of Augusta's leading citizens who were heading the relief effort after the disastrous March 22 fire -- said immediate needs were for clothing, shoes, and bedding. Almost $35,000 had already been raised for the relief effort, but much more was needed.

1935 Gov. Eugene Talmadge signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly [see text] requiring every teacher in the public schools, colleges, and univesities of Georgia to sign an oath of allegiance of Georgia and the U.S. "and to refrain from directly or indirectly subscribing to or teaching any theory of government or economics or of social relations which is inconsistent with the fundamental principles of patriotism and high ideals of Americanism."

1937 Gov. E.D. Rivers signed an act of the General Assembly providing for state soil conservation districts in order to protect farm and grazing lands from erosion from wind and water caused by improper farming and other land-use practices. The act also created the State Soil Conservation Committee (which today exists as the State Soil and Water Conservation Committee).

1956 Despite his opposition to the National Democratic Party's stand on civil rights, Georgia Gov. Marvin Griffin said he was not interested in forming a third party and that he still supported Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.

1956 By this day, the Georgia State College of Business Administration had received six applications from African-Americans. Officially, the applications had neither been accepted or denied -- though college officials did note that the deadline for applying had been March 22.

1962 The U.S. Supreme Court issued its Baker v. Carr ruling, which established the legal precedent that apportionment of state legislative districts was subject to the 14th Amendment's "Equal Protection" clause. Though the case arose in Tennessee, it set in motion a series of federal court cases involving Georgia's county unit system and the state's system for allocating representation in the General Assembly.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1736 The Earl of Egmont recorded in his diary the vote by the House of Commons to appropriate £10,000 for the support of Georgia:

"This morning I . . . went to the House [of Commons], where on Lord Baltimore's motion, £10,000 was given the Georgia Trustees for the further support of the Colony. There were some noes to it, but nobody spoke against it. . . ."

Source: U.K. Historical Manuscripts Commission, Diary of the First Earl of Egmont (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1923), Vol. II, p. 250.

1933 Many of Georgia's citizens were frustrated by the state legislature's apparent lack of effort in dealing with the Great Depression. The legislative session had recently ended, with a lot of debate, but few meaningful bills passed. Dr. D. Witherspoon Dodge, in a March 26, 1933 sermon broadcast on an Atlanta radio station, gave strong voice to those frustrations. Dodge's sermon was excerpted in the Atlanta Constitution:

"To those who watched this bunch of hoodlums, it seemed that they were mostly a set of overgrown, irresponsible children. Social life, not state business, was the order of the day and very much the order of the night. I have not heard whether they had a horseshoe plot near at hand, where they could retire when they needed fresh air, but there was hardly another game in which they did not engage while the most serious of state situations demanded their undivided attention. They did not represent the people of Georgia and they did not represent God . . . In their bacchanalian festivities they gave evidence of a return to pure barbarism. And with their imposture of ignorance, incompetence, and attempted magic they resembled a bunch of tom-tom beaters, shamans, and medicine men. They represented the very devil himself in the hell that they raised and in which they have left the critical affairs of our beloved state."

Source: Atlanta Constitution, March 27, 1933.

January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

If you have a date related to Georgia history or people that ought to be included, or if know of entries that should be corrected, send a note to Ed Jackson or Charly Pou.

Go to Yahoo/The History Channel This Day in History page for Mar. 26

Go to Georgia History page

Go to GeorgiaInfo table of contents