and Schley, resulted from the ebbs and flows of the tide of fortune of parties closely matched in leadership and in numerical strength. The beaten leaders were wounded and not slain; defeated and not conquered; not disgraced or disqualified from entering the recurring conflicts between the contending hosts.

Many of the leaders and ambitious aspirants have changed party alignments and associations. Such changes have been attributed by the parties they left to resentments and disappointments, and to hopes of better success in the ranks of the party to which they had been opposed of becoming leaders and obtaining office. But such changes have usually taken place upon the change of issues, or the action of parties upon public measures, affording plausible and reasonable grounds for what were commonly denominated political somersaults. And they have been generally attended with warm reception by the party to which they acceded. Parties were never otherwise than so in need of as to desire and give encouragement to new recruits, and to be able to see the most patriotic motives on their part; while the party losing the leader professed to find out then that he had always been selfish and actuated by motives of personal ambition.

One of the most potent agencies that have tended to make Georgia a great State was, that, on all the issues of the past, the parties seeking to gain or hold power have been so equally divided as to keep the leaders, and the party press, perpetually vigilant and active. The policy of putting forward the ablest and best men for public honors was dictated by the exigencies, and the requirement for men of ability and spotless reputation as standard bearers and leaders. The espionage or guard over the public officers by political opponents has always been

a security against their wilful or negligent dereliction in official duties. The parties were usually led by men of ability, fair fame, and ambition on either side, feeling that they were the custodians of the honor and reputation of their respective organizations. The leaders were followed and supported by people of a common blood and heritage, who felt the sacred duty and trust of ever seconding and sustaining their leaders. The natural result, among people who have a rich country, ease and exemption from toil, with leisure to devote to the matters. of government, has been to make them intelligent in politics, and jealous of the fame of their leaders, and to erect a high standard of patriotism, and of official and personal integrity.

One of the striking evidences of popular virtue is that, from my earliest recollection, the most effective weapon with which to strike the enemy in a party contest has been to assail the candidate with whatsoever imparts personal dishonor, dereliction of official duty, or infidelity to any trust, provided the charges were true. But if false, they were the most powerful agencies of solidifying the party, and making its members active, and recoiled terribly upon the accusing party.

The active and controlling men are large parts of the sum total of the period, that must in some form, and to some extent, truly or erroneously, go into its history. But confidence falters in contemplation of the attempt to daguerreotype them, and to draw a picture to be seen after the objects have perished with the author and the heat and passion that are now realized shall have passed out of the sight and memory of men.

The State has a brilliant array of men in office. James M. Wayne, associate justice of the supreme court of the

United States, one of the men of large brain and good balance of mind of the old class of men still on duty; John C. Nicholl, justice of the United States district of Georgia, holding the circuit and district courts of the southern district of Georgia at Savannah; and the court of the northern district of Georgia, in which the jurisdiction of the circuit and district courts are blended, at Marietta. Both are men of learning and probity, and have the full confidence of the lawyers and people.

Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Charles J. McDonald, and Henry L. Benning, judges of the supreme court of the State. There are several superior court judges, who are perhaps inferior to them only in position, William B. Fleming, of Savannah, William W. Holt, of Augusta ; the bold, impetuous, and eloquent advocate without superior, the fearless, political speaker, and able jurist, Thomas W. Thomas, of Elberton; Orville A. Bull, of LaGrange, who is a staid and steady, and sterling man, as well as cautious and well-balanced jurist; James H. Stark, of Griffin, who came afoot to Georgia as a school teacher, and worked his way up to the level of the ablest and clearest-headed judges of the State. He is a man of terseness and brevity, and without eloquence, with a large heart and unbounded charity, of perennial humor and wit, whom it is easy to love as a friend; Robert V. Hardeman, of Clinton, a ruddy, bland, well-rounded, and somewhat ponderous man, whose body moves slowly, and mind in like manner, but with great certainty and reliability, and a man whose integrity is so long settled as to never be mentioned; Turner H. Trippe, of Cassville, who has been recalled to the bench in his advanced life, having served in that capacity many years ago; James Jackson, of Athens, somewhat young, but honored and

true representative of a historic family; Joseph E. Brown, of Canton, Dennis Fletcher Hammond, of Newnan, Alex. A. Allen, of Bainbridge, Peter E. Love, of Thomasville, A. E. Cochran, of Brunswick, David Kiddoo, of Cuthbert, Abner P. Powers, of Macon, and Edmond H. Worrell, of Talbotton.

David J. Bailey, of Griffin, a man of vigorous and bold mind, as lawyer and politician, and of tall and manly form, who has served with distinction in Congress, is the president of the State senate, and William H. Stiles who also represented the State in Congress with distinction, and the government of the United States as minister to Austria under President Polk, a man of elegance and polish, and a gifted orator, has accepted the honorable service of representative of Chatham county, in the Legislature, and is speaker of the House. Herchel V. Johnson is governor, and in the full splendor of mental and physical manhood.

It is noteworthy truth, that either but few men of feeble constitution, or short-lived tendencies, are called to high stations of honor in this State, or that such places tend to the promotion of longevity. All the governors who have been in office since John Clark retired in 1823, are still in life except George W. Towns who was somewhat frail, with all his grace of person, and John Forsyth, whose physical frame, and form and development, made him a marked man in any presence, and without superiors.

George M. Troup, whose life is a part of the history of this State for many years, is seventy-six years old, a large slaveholder on his plantations, with all the ease that wealth can purchase for the old, and all the freedom and independence of thought and speech that result from the remaining vigor of his strong and fearless mind.

Wilson Lumpkin, aged seventy-four, William Schley, aged seventy-one, and George R. Gilmer, sixty-six, all men of above average native capacity, and of large experience in public service, and of unquestioned probity and patriotism, are in the ease and comfort of home in private life, enjoying the reward of conscious public virtue and fidelity, and of duty well and faithfully performed. George W. Crawford, one of the most successful and popular of the modern governors, and one of the best of the old Whigs, lives in the ease of his private fortune, and declines the public honors in the gift of his party. He is fifty nine years old, and well preserved. Charles J. McDonald, after retiring from the executive office, pursued his law practice with success, and now discharges the arduous labors of justice of the supreme court; and no judge of that court since its organization, twelve years ago, has died.

Howell Cobb, one of the marked men of the State and of the Union, is still a comparatively young man. He was speaker in Congress before he was governor, and on his defeat for United States senator retired to private life until the next election for Congress in his district, when he accepted service in that body. He is supposed to be on the high road to the presidency of the United States by those who best comprehend his rare combination of mental powers and popular manners, his deep and unswerving patriotism, integrity and fidelity, with a large measure of ambition for that extraordinary distinction.

In Congress the array is exceptionally brilliant-Robert Toombs, one of the old Whig leaders, is a Democratic senator, with Alfred Iverson, an old Democrat.

In addition to Howell Cobb, who has returned to the House, we have one of the brightest intellects of the