Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

March 28

1722 James Oglethorpe was elected to the House of Commons from Haslemere, a Surrey town near Godalming (where the Oglethorpe's Westbrook Manor estate was situated) where Oglethorpe owned various properties [click here to see map]. This was the same parliamentary seat that his father and one of his older brothers had held.

1834 Businessman and politician Rufus Bullock was born in Bethlehem, New York. After a successful career constructing telegraph lines in several large northern cities, Bullock moved south to Augusta in 1857 . Working with The Southern Express Company, Bullock was soon constructing telegraph lines thoughout the South. Although he was personally opposed to secession, he continued to build telegraph and railroad lines for the Confederacy. The Civil War devastated Georgia's economy, and after the war Bullock found it difficult to obtain loans to rebuild his business. Told that the money would be available when Georgia was readmitted to the Union, Bullock became involved in politics. A Republican, he supported Reconstruction as the quickest and most efficient way to speed Georgia's economic recovery. In 1868, Bullock narrowly defeated ex-Confederate John B. Gordon in the gubernatorial race -- but his victory came at an inopportune time. The Democratic legislature, still bitter from the war and Reconstruction policies, opposed him at every step. Bullock was eventually forced to request that military control (which had ended in 1868) be reestablished. With such control in place and many ex-Confederates barred from office, Bullock faced a more cooperative legislature in 1870. This body approved the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, and Georgia was officially restored to the Union in the summer of 1870. But Bullock had made many enemies, and his administration was accused of corruptness and squandering the state treasury. As a result, Bullock quietly resigned in October 1871 and fled the state. He was arrested in New York and returned to Atlanta for trial. In court, prosecutors could not prove that Bullock had done anything illegal. The debt he had incurred had been used to redeem pre-war debts, build railroads, improve schools, and move the capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta. Vindicated in court, Bullock remained in Atlanta, resumed a successful business career, and became one of the city's leading citizens. He served on the boards of banks, railroads, and the Chamber of Commerce. Bullock also was on the board of directors and presided over opening ceremonies for the Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895. In 1903, with his health failing, he returned to his family home in Albion, N.Y., where he died there April 27, 1907.

1889 Atlanta lumber dealer George V. Gress and railroad contractor Thomas J. James attended an auction of a bankrupt traveling circus at the Fulton County courthouse. The two joined together for the winning bid of $4,485. James wanted the circus wagons and railroad cars for his business, while Gress was interested in the collection of circus animals -- which consisted of four lions, two wildcats, two deer, two monkeys, two snakes, and one each of the following: a hyena, gazelle, raccoon, elk, Mexican hog, camel, and dromedary. A few days later, Gress offered the animals and their cages to the city of Atlanta. Several days after that, the city council accepted and decided to locate the animals in Grant Park. Gress then took responsibility for building a large brick building to house the animals, giving Atlanta its first zoo. Gress' generosity did not end here. In 1893, he and Charles Northern purchased the cyclorama painting of the Battle of Atlanta, which they placed in Grant Park for public viewing. Over the next six years, Gress donated the $12,000 in admissions to see the cyclorama for use in helping Atlanta's poor children. Finally, in 1898, Gress donated the painting to the city of Atlanta.

1935 Gov. Eugene Talmadge signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly [see text] adopting a pledge of allegiance to the Georgia state flag, which states: "I pledge allegiance to the Georgia flag and to the principles for which it stands; Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation."

1961 Gov. Ernest Vandiver signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly protesting a threat by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to cut off all federal welfare funds if Georgia implemented an act of the legislature prohibiting welfare payments to any mother for more than one illegitimate child.

1961 Gov. Vandiver signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly appropriating $75,000 to complete the restoration of Fort McAllister in Bryan County.

1961 Gov. Vandiver signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly directing the construction and erection of monuments at Gettysburg and Antietam to honor Georgians killed in battle. The action came in conjunction with the Civil War Centennial and was prompted by the fact that Georgia was the only southern state without a memorial at either battlefield.

1968 Gov. Lester Maddox signed legislation allowing the commercial raising of alligators subject to regulation by the State Game and Fish Commission.

1972 Gov. Jimmy Carter signed Georgia's "Sunshine Law" mandating opening meetings of state boards and commissions, subject to a few exceptions (such as personnel matters, real estate acquisition, and proceedings of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles).

1988 Gov. Joe Frank Harris signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly ratifying the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides: "No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened." However, the U.S. State Department, which is formally responsible for monitoring the ratification of amendments by states, considers Feb. 2, 1988 as the date of the Georgia's ratification. Its rationale is that under the U.S. Constitution, there is no requirement for a governor to approve a state's ratification. Thus, the State Department considers the date that the second house of the legislature approves the ratification is the date of that state's ratification.

1998 In downtown Atlanta, Centennial Olympic Park was reopened after phase two of the construction schedule. Its completion was intended to make the park a continuing legacy of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1736 In Dec. 1735, James Oglethorpe had sailed from England with a new group of English colonists. Their destination, however, was not Savannah but rather St. Simons Island to the south. A second phase in the life of Georgia began in March 1736, when they arrived and began construction of a town to be known as Frederica. Shortly thereafter, Oglethorpe, Tomochichi, and a group of Indians left on a reconnaissance expedition to view the southernmost boundary of the lands claimed by the Creek Nation. Since Frederica was built on land claimed by both England and Spain, Oglethorpe was particularly interested in seeing firsthand the location and size of Spanish settlements and fortifications to the south. On Mar. 28, shortly after returning from this expedition, James Oglethorpe wrote two letters. One was a brief letter to the Trustees indicating how busy he had been:

". . . I . . . could not 'till three days since spare time to undress myself and have not lain in sheets from leaving the ships 'till then. The Indians and the Highlanders have behaved well with great courage, fidelity and affection, and the English that came with me are not far behind with them, particularly Mr. [William] Horton who has not undressed himself since he came there, though he has a tend and bed standing, which he has given to the sick and has been with me in an open boat in all the Southward expedition."

Rather than detail what he observed on the expedition to the south, Oglethorpe included a copy of a letter he had written the same day to Thomas Broughton, Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina:

"Pursuant to His Majesty's commands I have settled and fortified on the Island of Saint Simon's and have took the best measure that my small judgment suggested to me for putting the place into a condition of defense . . . .

"After this was done I went down to the frontiers to see where His Majesty's dominions and the Spaniards' join. A detachment of Creek Indians invited me to go down with them to show me how far their claim and possession extended. I found that they have been in quiet possession ever since the last war of all lands on the North side as far as the mouth of Saint John's River and that the Spaniards have two guards called lookouts on the South side of that river, the one 7 or 8 miles from the sea, the other at the sea point. . . . [H]aving viewed both the Spanish out-guards, I went 'round the Southward-most point of His Majesty's dominions in North America, which I called St. George's Point and is over against the Spanish lower lookout, from which it is separated by the mouth of Saint John's River which is there about a mile wide. From thence I returned and found that the Highland men, whom I had left upon an island at the Southward-most entrance of this port, had fortified themselves there. I called the new fort Saint Andrew's and the island [on which] it stands the Highlands.

"I shall be obliged to keep a boat on the River Saint John to prevent the Creek Indians from passing to hurt the Spaniards, the Governour of Augustine having informed me that he is very apprehensive of those Indians. And as I cannot answer for the Indians and that an hostility committed by them might be construed to be my doing, I shall acquaint him that I cannot be answerable for keeping up the tranquility but my maintaining a boat and guard to prevent them from passing the river.

"The gentlemen that brought letters from the King of Spain's Secretary of State and his ambassador at London to the Governour of Augustine and who came over in the ship with me is still at Augustine. Major Richards who conducted and the Governour full of civility and professions of friendship mixed with some complaints of the Creek Indians not permitted them to settle the Appellache Towns.

". . . The Governour has acquainted me that he will send an officer as his plenipotentiary to treat with me for settling the boundaries and the matter of the Appellache Towns. I have acquainted him that I am ready to receive his plenipotentiary or to meet him personally on the frontiers which is at Saint John's River. . . ."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), Vol. I, pp. 257-258.

1795 This day's Augusta Chronicle contained the following poem by an unnamed citizen upset over the Yazoo Land Fraud:

The Dishonorable Situation of Georgia

How much they real friends with horror view

The hellish fraud of that infernal crew

Of speculators who in spite of right

Insult thine honor and defy thy might.

See! this black host of cheating knaves now vieing,

Who shall exceed in villainy and lying;

See! some with prying search the state ransacks,

To find out rascals who will sell them tracts.

Source: Albert Saye, A Constitutional History of Georgia, 1732-1968 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1970), p. 151.

1865 While visiting her older sister near Albany, Eliza Frances Andrews was troubled by what might happen to a young slave her sister had turned over to the sheriff for repeatedly running away:

"Misses Caro and Lou Bacon spent the day with us, but I could not enjoy their visit for thinking of the poor boy [and slave], Anderson, who has been sent to jail. He implored me to beg "missis" to forgive him, and I couldn't help taking his part, though I know he deserves punishment. He refused to obey the overseer, and ran away four times. A soldier caught him and brought him in this morning with his hands tied behind him. Such sights sicken me, and I couldn't help crying when I saw the poor wretch, though I know discipline is necessary, especialy in these turbulent times, and sister is sending him to jail more as an example to the others than to hurt him. She has sent strict orders to the sheriff not to be too severe with him, but there is no telling what brutal men who never had any negroes of their own will do; they don't know how to feel for the poor creatures."

Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl: 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), p. 122.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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