has operated a constant and valuable interchange of ideas and practices among the planters. It has distributed new and valuable seeds for trial and adoption. It has revolutionized the old systems of planting, furnishing progressive methods and processes, increasing the yield and lessening the cost of production. Its periodical publications of farming intelligence have disseminated beneficial information, and formed the basis of valuable statistics and comparison of experiences. Its manuals upon special stock industries have been a liberal education to the people in such specialties. Each year adds to the efficiency and utility of this department.

The department of geology was inaugurated by the selection of Dr. George Little as State geologist, August 10, 1874. The department was run until the year 1879, when the General Assembly unwisely refused to appropriate the necessary funds to continue its operations. The benefit of a complete geological survey of the State may be understood from the valuable practical results that have followed from the partial survey that was made. Large mining and manufacturing enterprises have sprung into existence, drawing capital and increasing the taxable wealth of the State, based upon the revelation of the resources of the Commonwealth made by the geological department.

The recent death of Ex-Gov. Charles J. Jenkins recalls that during the term of Governor Smith, that venerable and illustrious citizen and chief magistrate of the State returned to the executive department the executive seal which he had carried with him when removed from his high office by the military. The Legislature of 1872 passed a resolution introduced by the Hon. J. B. Cumming authorizing the governor to present to Governor

Jenkins a gold copy of the executive seal with the suggestive inscription upon it, "Presented to Charles J. Jenkins by the State of Georgia," and the words "In arduis Fidelis." Governor Smith performed this agreeable duty through Hon. J. B. Cumming in an appropriate letter, to which Governor Jenkins made an eloquent response; in the recent legislative honors paid to the memory of Governor Jenkins, the orator Col. Charles C. Jones, Jr., made touching reference to this incident.

During Governor Smith's term Gen. John B. Gordon was elected to the United States Senate, in 1873, while Hon. Alexander H. Stephens was re-elected to Congress, from which he had retired to private life before the war. In 1875 the Hon. Benjamin H. Hill was elected to Congress.

Governor Smith was succeeded by Gov. Alfred H. Colquitt, who held the exalted office of chief magistrate from the 12th of January, 1877, until December 4th, 1882. The administration of Governor Colquitt was marked by many important public events and marked changes in the State government. The leading political occurrence during his terms was the sweeping alteration of the organic law of the State by the constitutional convention of 1877, of which the lamented Jenkins was the president. The Constitution of 1868, while it was a very good instrument, labored under the odium of having been framed by a body chosen under the strong dictation of bayonet rule, and there was a large element in the State who held it in such disfavor that after continued agitation of the subject the Legislature of 1877 passed an act giving the people an opportunity to vote a constitutional convention into existence if they desired it. The vote was a very small one, aggregating 87,238, and the convention was carried

by 9,124 majority. The body was a fair representative organization of the State's best men; there were 28 public men who had been governors, United States senators, congressmen, and judges The largest measure enacted was the creation of the commission to manage the railroads; the terms of officers were shortened, and salaries reduced; judges and solicitors were made elective by the Legislature instead of appointive by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate; the State House officers were made elective by the people instead of by the Legislature; the homestead was reduced; State aid was forever prohibited; the payment of the illegal bonds was forbidden; the increase of the public debt was inhibited; biennial sessions of the General Assembly were adopted; an attempt was made to restrict local legislation by requiring local notice, and burdening legislation with troublesome formalities. The people were allowed to vote on the question of locating the capital at Milledgeville or Atlanta, and the reduction of the homestead; the vote gave Atlanta a majority of 43,964; for the homestead of 1877, 42,722; and for the ratification of the new Constitution, 69,495.

The Legislature carried out the constitutional innovation for controlling the railroads by the creation of a commission. In October, 1859, Governor Colquitt appointed under this act as railroad commissioners, Ex-Gov. James M. Smith for six years, Major Campbell Wallace for four years, and Samuel Barnett for two years. Upon the expiration of Mr. Barnett's term in October, 1881, Governor Colquitt appointed Hon. L. N. Trammell, and Major Campbell Wallace was re-appointed in August, 1883, as his own successor. There has been a steady opposition by some of the railroads to the commission; the Savannah, Florida

& Western railroad made an effort in the United States court to resist the commission, but failed. The Georgia railroad in the State courts instituted suit for the same purpose, but met with defeat; every issue made in the law tribunals to dwarf the authority of the commission has failed. The Georgia railroad will carry its case to the Supreme Court of the United States, when there will be a final adjudication of the power of the Board.

It is generally conceded that the commission has sought to do justice to the railroads while endeavoring to protect the popular interest, and under its orders the business of the roads has increased. The practical workings of the body have been beneficial. The commission has made repute for itself and the State, and served as a model for other States.

Governor Colquitt's administration was a singularly beneficial one in practical results for the State. At the very inception of his term he was called upon by the General Assembly to send in a message giving suggestions upon public policy. He framed a document full of valuable ideas that were afterwards carried out to a large extent. He treated in this carefully prepared paper the questions of a complete return of property for taxation, of both a closer and cheaper collection of taxes, of reducing the cost of legislation, of cutting down the clerk hire of the General Assembly, of diminution of outlay in the printing, contingent, and building funds, of reducing the clerical force in all the executive departments, of abolishing superfluous offices and instituting a general system of small economies. He went into the details of these reforms, evincing his careful study of the subject and mastery of the questions involved.

During his terms there were paid into the public

treasury from outside sources $213,731.34, on old claims connected with the war of 1836 and the Western & Atlantic railroad; the sum of $216,683 27 was collected from the railroads of the State on back taxes of 1874, 1875, and other years, besides a larger annual railroad tax secured; the sum of $164,608.12 was collected in earnings from the Macon & Brunswick railroad that had not paid before anything to speak of; the floating debt of $200,000 was completely wiped out; the public debt was reduced from $11,095,879 to $9,343,500, or $752,379, in addition to four per cent. bonds redeemed; the rate of taxation was reduced from five-tenths of one per cent., or fifty cents on the hundred dollars, to two and a half tenths of one per cent., or twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars, or one-half; the practical effect of the reduction of the rate of taxation being that under the five-tenths rate the large sum of $1,229,268 was raised on taxable property of $245,853,750; while under the two and a half tenths rate at the close of Governor Colquitt's terms, $700,000 was raised on $270,000,000 of property, the people being relieved of $750,000 in round numbers, of actual annual taxation.

There were, during Governor Colquitt's admirable administrations, lengthy legislative investigations into several of the departments of the State government, including an examination into his own official act of endorsing $260,000 of the bonds of the Northeastern railroad. Governor Colquitt's conduct was fully endorsed, and he was re-elected governor by an overwhelming majority. The investigations into the State departments left the executive wholly unaffected. At the end of Governor Colquitt's term he was elected by the General Assembly to the United States Senate for the term of six years