volved in the campaign of opposition which was now waged upon Governor Colquitt, but this was the main grievance. However, the battle was fought and Governor Colquitt was not only endorsed by an overwhelming reelection, but his appointment of Governor Brown was subsequently ratified by the State Legislature.

Associating Governor Brown and Governor Colquitt together in this connection recalls an incident of the nominating convention of 1857, when Governor Brown was first named for Governor of Georgia. It is not generally known that it was by an unexpected motion of Linton Stephens that Governor Colquitt failed to step into the gubernatorial shoes which were then fitted to the farmer boy of Gaddistown. The convention had been unable to decide between the rival candidates before the body, and in order to break the deadlock which had lasted for several days, a committee was named to suggest a dark horse. Colonel I. W. Avery is authority for the incident. He says that after the ballots had been cast in the committee room Judge Linton Stephens moved that Joseph E. Brown be declared the compromise man. The motion was in the nature of a substitute, and, being put, it was carried; but when the ballots were subsequently counted for curiosity it was found that the majority vote had been cast for Alfred H. Colquitt.

When Governor Colquitt was reelected in 1880, it was for the term of two years, the tenure of office having been shortened by the Legislature; but at the end of his administration he was chosen for the full term of six years to succeed the lamented Benjamin H. Hill in the United States Senate, Hon. Pope Barrow, then of Clarke and afterwards from Chatham, being chosen for the unex

pired term. In the august assemblage which the gifts of his illustrious father hąd adorned years before Alfred H. Colquitt became an influential leader, whose views upon public questions were held in the highest respect on both sides of the chamber. Reelected for another term in 1888, he continued to wear the senatorial toga until his death in 1894.

Despite his political responsibilities and obligations Senator Colquitt often found time to occupy the pulpit. He spoke with great power from the sacred desk, and revived many of his father's golden accents. He was an eloquent advocate of temperance, and an ardent champion of Sunday-schools. Frequently on account of his strong convictions and his towering prestige he was called upon to preside over great religious assemblies; and he was even more widely known in the international realm of ethics than in the somewhat restricted sphere of politics.

Father and son, the Colquitts have both illustrated and honored Georgia beyond the measure separately allowed to most men; and without distinguishing invidiously between them Georgia will ever hold them both in her affection as Rome once held the Catos and England still holds the Pitts.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The Gubernatorial Convention of 1880 and the

B

Advent of Tom Watson.

ESIDES ending in the schismatic rupture which gave the State two recommended Democratic candidates for Governor, the famous gubernatorial convention of 1880 incidentally evolved a bit of oratory which constituted the maiden address on the political stage of an eloquent young Georgian whom the fates had decreed was to become eventually one of the foremost tribunes of his time, Thomas E. Watson.

The future young statesman from McDuffie had already provoked the accents of prophecy by his electrical eloquence on less conspicuous platforms. Before leaving Mercer University in the early seventies there were many wise seers who were able in large measure to forecast his life's work from the rich table of contents furnished by his undergraduate achievements. On the local stump and in the courtroom he had already commenced to gather his budding laurels, and now, with still another month to spend before reaching the age of twenty-four, he was about to become one of the central figures of the stormiest conventional scenes which the annals of Georgia had ever furnished, excepting alone the great debate over secession in 1860.