Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

September 5

1752 Officially, this day did not exist in Georgia. See Sept. 3 entry for the reason.

1774 Of all the American colonies, only Georgia was not represented at the meeting of the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Delegates at the meeting adopted a declaration which included a boycott all British goods.

1856 Populist politician, lawyer, writer, and editor Tom Watson was born near Thomson, Georgia. Attending Mercer University for two years, he was read law and was admitted to the bar in 1875. In 1882, Watson was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. Resigning after a year, he returned to the practice of law. In 1890, based on his support of the Farmers' Alliance, he was elected to Congress, where he continued trying to work on behalf of distressed farmers. His main accomplishment in Congress was helping to launch a trial program in rural free delivery of mail. In 1891, Watson joined the Populist Party and launched publication of an an Atlanta weekly, the People's Party Paper. In his 1892 reelection campaign, Watson urged both white and black farmers to unite behind him. Losing that bid, he ran as the Populist Party's 1896 vice presidential candidate. After losing that election, Watson temporarily retired from politics, returning to the practice of law and taking up a new avocation--writing novels, histories, and biographies. He also again became an editor, establishing Watson's Jeffersonian Magazine in 1907. In 1904 and 1908, he agreed to run as the Populist Party's presidential candidate, but by now the party only attracted marginal voter interest. Despite his earlier efforts to court black voters, Watson by now was openly racist, calling for black disfranchisement and even expressing support for lynching. Catholics and Jews also received his disdain. In 1920, Watson mounted one last campaign--this time a successful effort in the race for the U.S. Senate on a platform to keep the U.S. out of the League of Nations. Two years later, he died leaving a complex legacy of populist reformer on one hand and bitter racist plagued by deep emotional problems on the other.

1916 Famous African-American author Frank Yerby was born in Augusta, Georgia. Noted for his popular works of historical fiction, Yerby moved to Spain in 1955 because of the racial discrimination he saw in the U.S. He died in Madrid on Nov. 29, 1991.

1942 The U.S. War Department gave the Georgia Air Depot in Houston County its first official designation--the Wellston Air Depot. Six weeks later, the War Department changed the name again--this time to the Warner Robins Army Air Depot.

1944 Fifty-one Georgians were wounded in European fighting as General George Patton's Third Army approached the French-German border.

1944 W.F. Barker, a field representative of the CIO, was arrested for trying to organize workers at a Newnan cotton mill. The arrest was a deliberate attempt to challenge a Newnan ordinance levying a $5000 annual fee on union organizers.

1956 The first units of the Heart of Atlanta Motel opened. The 120-room complex covered a square block and was advertised as the finest motor hotel between New York and Miami. In less than a decade, the motel was at the heart of a major court challenge to the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Refusal of the motel to accept black customers led federal prosecutors to sue that the motel was violating provisions of the 1964 statute. In the case of Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce includes the power to prohibit segregation in places of public accommodation if those places affect the flow of goods and people from one state to another.

1975 Nine years after the Braves began playing in Atlanta, pitcher Phil Niekro was recognized in pre-game ceremonies as the last member of the premier 1966 Atlanta Braves still active on the team.

Georgia cities and towns incorporated by acts approved on Sept. 5:

1883 Bremen (Haralson County) and Ward (Randolph County)

1887 Woodbury (Meriwether County)
 
 

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1767 In trying to convince Samuel Lloyd to be Georgia's agent in England, Savannah merchant James Habersham gave a glimpse of how Georgia's colonial government operated:

". . . [T]he Legislature here consists of the Governor, Council & Assembly, who must respectively concur in every act of legislation, having some resemblance to the Legislature of Great Britain of King, Lords & Commons - -The Council are appointed by the Crown, and act in two capacities namely, as a council of state to the Governor and as an Upper House in General Assembly -- The Assembly (by which you will understand, I mean throughout this letter, the house of Representatives) are chosen by the Majority of the Freeholders, and claiming the sole right of granting Money, as the Commons of Great Britain do, they also claim a right of nominating an Agent, because they say, they must provide for his Salary and for all other Expences in transacting the Provincial Business -- The provincial Agent has hitherto been Annually appointed, and consequently but for one year, by an Ordinance, in which the Council concur, and the Governor assents to it, and therein a Committee of twelve persons are named and appointed to correspond with him, namely five of the Council & Seven of the Assembly; and this I suppose to be the only legal way of constituting an Agent. . . ."

Source: Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VI, The Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 1756-1775 (Savannah, Georgia Historical Society, 1904), p. 59.

1863 Atlanta merchant Samuel P. Richards recorded in his diary:

"Nothing of much interest has occurred this week. There are rumors of Yankee raids upon Atlanta and part of our citizens comprising the 'Fire Battalion' have been called into camp at the City Hall. Col. Lee wants our Company to join this battalion, but we don't incline to do so, much. Lieut. Gen. Pemberton, who commanded at Vicksburg when it was surrendered, is now the guest of Bro. [Sidney] Root, awaiting the decision of a court of Inquiry in regard to that matter. Bro. Root thinks his case will be sustained by the court. By surrendering as he did on the fourth of July (which I wondered at his doing), he obtained terms that he could not have had if they had held out several days longer which they could not have done. The Yankees very much wished to get in on the 'glorious fourth,' and so granted more favorable terms to accomplish that end."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of original 1954 volume), p. 559.

1864 From Atlanta, Col. Fredrick Winkler of the 26th Wisconsin Infantry wrote his wife about a variety of matters, including preliminary news about the Battle of Jonesboro:

"I thought likely, at the very moment I should commence to write, orders to move would come, and so they did. We are now fixing up B camp. We expected that our brigade was all to return to Turner's Ferry, but we have found that we are all to come here; the balance of the troops were to come down in the afternoon and, as the Major could attend to them, I did not go back but concluded to find quarters for the night in the city. After some troubles I found a nice looking house, where they gave me some supper and we talked a while. Such a nice room as they gave me it is the first time I have been in one since I left home in April, but, when I went to bed, I found feathers too soft for me; I think I sleep better on a little bunk in a tent. We have reliable information now that there has been severe fighting in the neighborhood of Jonesborough, and it would seem that such a whipping the rebels never got before. If reports are true, our prisoners count by thousands, and the rebel dead and wounded that remain on the field are said to exceed all precedent. They burned two trains, consisting of eighty cars, loaded with arms and ammunition the night before we took the city. There was a good deal of powder and many filled shells on the trains which exploded and were thrown all over the neighborhood; besides a large number of small arms, there were also two batteries of twelve-pounders I exhumed from the ruins. We also found five very large siege guns in the city, which had only been brought up from Augusta two days before, and a number of smaller ones around in the city, all spiked. Their evacuation was certainly very precipitate. I think the military prospect is brightening and Mr. Lincoln will be re-elected, but, even if McClellan should be chosen, unless he repudiates every act and word of his past life, his course cannot be essentially different. It is quite remarkable how diametrically opposed McClellan's course has been to that advocated by the present peace faction of the Democratic party. They clamored a good deal about arbitrary arrests; he arrested the whole Maryland Legislature, when deliberating the good of the State. I believe they are opposed to a draft -- to being drafted at least; he urged a draft upon the Secretary of War three years ago. They want peace at any terms; he insists upon submission on the part of the South to federal authority. I do not think General Howard was ever seriously thought of as a Democratic candidate. He is a strong anti-slavery man and a staunch supporter of the administration. The fortifications around Atlanta was indeed very extensive; to surround them completely, would have taken an immense army, and the way to get them out was doubtless the one finally adopted -- to move upon its communications. This left two courses open to Hood, to retreat at once towards Augusta, or to meet General Sherman and stake the fate of the city, and perhaps his army, upon the result of a battle. He followed his pugnacious instincts and was badly beaten. It was doubtless Johnston's intention not to risk a battle, but to abandon the city and save his army. Hood has fought four battles, one north, one east, and one west, and finally one south of the city, and raided on our railroad. He gained the satisfactory result of holding the city long enough to see a great portion of it devastated and then left it, his army broken, reduced and demoralized, and valuable stores of munitions of war left a prey to the flames. We are encamped some ways out of the city, should think a mile or two, and the woods are so wild no one would suspect a city near. It is reported that Rousseau gave the raiding Wheeler a very severe threshing near Talona and took a big number of forces from him. I hope he did, and trust that the prisoners taken will be retaliated upon for rebel outrages upon our negro troops. When we take those very parties prisoners who committed those outrages, it is certainly just to inflict the punishment due them for the protection of those poor negroes who have gone into our army. I have not been in the city since the first day I came down. One curious thing is the bomb proofs we find in almost every yard; they are holes like cellars sunk into the ground, with a narrow entrance covered by an enormous heap of earth, with a narrow pipe or chimney through it for a ventilator. Many families sleep in these bomb proofs for weeks and pass the greater part of their days in them too. By far the greater portion of the inhabitants have left. That portion of the city nearest our lines is nearly demolished. We received an order from General Sherman last night, stating that the army had accomplished its undertaking in the complete reduction of Atlanta and would occupy the city and neighborhood until another campaign should be planned in concert with the other grand armies of the United States; then adds, the General in Chief will give notice when the movement will begin, and will establish headquarters in Atlanta and afford the army an opportunity to have a full month's rest with every chance to organize, receive pay, replenish clothing and prepare for a fine winter's campaign. Thus the General in Chief tells us of his plans for the future; it is well that he does, it will keep many from cherishing idle, demoralizing dreams of rest when there is work ahead. I expected another campaign this year. It is right that there should be one. The rebel army in its present demoralized state ought to be followed up, and the next three months certainly offer very good campaigning weather. I am ready for my part. If I could start out with four hundred muskets, as I did four months ago, it would be more gratifying. Three officers and thirty-two men killed, four officers and one hundred and fifty-three men wounded, are the casualties of the regiment in the last campaign; besides there is a large number of men sick in many of the large hospitals. That terrible army disease, scurvy, has made inroads upon us. This ever unchanging army ration is too bad. In Virginia we got potatoes, dried fruit, etc. -- here in such diminutive quantities -- I hope we will get some little extras for the men during this month of rest, for we have less than two hundred men fit for duty now.

Source: Civil War Letters of Major Fredrick C. Winkler, in 26th Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers Home Page

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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