The inspiring and reconstructive work of the Constitution culminated in the Cotton Exposition of 1881. The whole country was warmed by a wave of prosperity in 1880, and the people of the South, invigorated and enthused, entered heartily into the purposes of the Exposition. When they came to see that wonderful collection of resources it was a revelation and an inspiration to them. The ball was in motion, and through the decade it has rolled with steadily increasing momentum. The development of the South has already gone beyond the expectation of the most sanguine, and already this region has a firm hold on iron and cotton, the two greatest industries on the continent.
Over all this helpful and inspiring work Captain Howell, the editor-in-chief, had a watchful eye. His heart and his purse were enlisted, and he backed up the vigorous work of his paper with earnest personal work. He was concerned in the leading enterprises as organizer and subscriber to the stock. In the flush of enthusiasm he was a balance-wheel. He added the safe counsel of a mature business man to the enthusiasm of his more youthful partner, and then backed him up with money and prodigious energy.
The Kimball House burned down one Sunday in August, 1883, and immediately the Constitution set to work to raise the immense sum needed to replace the magnificent hotel. It had been the pride of Atlanta. Conventions and distinguished visitors from all sections of the country had been entertained there. It was Atlanta’s reception room, and was a necessity. It must be replaced, and the Constitution threw itself in the breach. Captain Howell became president of the new Kimball House Company, and bent himself to the enormous task of raising $650,000. The whole town was enthused, and Mr. Kimball’s magic services were again called into requisition. On the 12th of August, 1884, exactly one year from the day the old building was burned, the directors of the new Kimball House took tea on the fifth floor, and within six months the magnificent structure was completed. At the grand banquet which celebrated the event Captain Howell presided, and Mr. Grady was one of the principal speakers.
In all this development and upbuilding the other owners of the Constitution backed up its work with personal effort and financial support. Mr. Hemphill and Mr. Inman are stockholders in almost everything about Atlanta, and Mr. Swann, though now a resident of New York, continues to invest his money largely in Atlanta enterprises.
Perhaps the greatest service the Constitution ever did for Atlanta and the State was its work for the location of the Capitol here. The Constitutional Convention of 1877 left the question of location with the people and the election was held that fall. A vigorous campaign was precipitated almost from the adjournment of the Convention. Atlanta was in great straits. The Capitol had been removed there from Milledgeville by the Republicans, and the rank odor of reconstruction times and of negro and carpet-bag rule hung over the spot where their disgraceful transactions had been enacted. The glorious memories of the past were associated with Milledgeville, where the great men of the century had been in training. Macon, Augusta, Savannah, and the press of Southern Georgia sought to array these cherished associations against Atlanta, the dashing new city that had the audacity to set new patterns and do things in her own vigorous way. Something had to be done; enormous obstacles had to be overcome, and Atlanta resolved to do the work. The city council met and decided to spare no pains or expense to get the Capitol. A general campaign committee was organized with Captain J. W. English at its head, and the work from that center was begun. In addition to this a prudential committee of three was appointed and given a carte blanche to carry the election, with unlimited means at its command. On this committee were ex-Governor, now Senator, Joseph E. Brown, Major Campbell Wallace and Captain E. P. Howell, editor of the Constitution. The advanced age of the other two members made it necessary for Captain Howell to take the heaviest part of the work upon his shoulders and he worked night and day. Every county in the State, except those about Macon and Milledgeville, was covered with men talking for Atlanta, and the whole State was flooded with Atlanta literature. Some of the most distinguished speakers in the State were on the hustings, and the heaviest timber was on Atlanta’s side. It was a campaign of hard work. Every voter, white and colored, was reached by type and talk; and when the day came Atlanta won by 44,000 votes majority.
While the leading citizens of Atlanta, including the editors and owners of the Constitution, were personally at work in the campaign, the paper was the chief point of attack in a bitter newspaper war. Rancor ran almost to bloodshed. Atlanta editors in those days were prepared to talk it out or fight it out as their adversaries pleased. An editor’s courage was in demand as constantly as his pen, and there was no milk and water in editorials. The Constitution held the fort for Atlanta, and its flag flaunted serenely in the worst of the war.
Then came a long fight for an appropriation to build a new Capitol. The Constitution steadily advocated it, and its influence was thrown into the Legislature to back up Mr. Rice, the Atlanta member, who introduced the bill. Finally when a million dollars had been appropriated, the editor, Captain Howell, was put on the Capitol Commission to succeed the late Mr. Crane as the member from Atlanta.
Since then the Constitution has been a power in political campaigns, and its influence was triumphantly exerted in behalf of Governor Colquitt in the famous Colquitt-Norwood campaign, when part of the Democratic Convention split off and nominated Norwood after Colquitt had been named by the majority. Mr. Grady took charge of Governor Colquitt’s campaign, and to his efforts, more than to anything else, Colquitt’s election was due. In the Bacon-Boynton campaign the Constitution’s influence was exerted for Governor Boynton, and finally for Governor McDaniel, when Major Bacon had almost run away with the nomination. When Governor Gordon dashed into the State in 1886 Mr. Grady took charge of the campaign headquarters in Atlanta and directed the work for Gordon. The General’s wonderful magnetism was backed up with such prodigious work as the State had never known. The local influentials all over the State were largely pledged to Major Bacon, and it was thought he had the nomination in his pocket. Week by week, as the returns came in, the Gordon column crept up on Bacon’s, and in the closing weeks the General swept by him with a rush.
The prohibition campaign of 1887 was one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of Atlanta, and the division and tension among friends and neighbors was strikingly shown by the position of the gentlemen who owned the Constitution. Captain Howell, the editor in chief, was an ardent anti, and Mr. Grady, the managing editor, was the leading advocate of prohibition. Mr. Hemphill and Mr. Inman were for prohibition, and other stockholders were against it. The campaign committees on both sides loaded down the columns of the paper with bristling communications, while the editor-in-chief and the managing editor had thrown their whole strength into the campaign on opposite sides. Both were on the hustings, and it so happened that both spoke the same night, Captain Howell to an opera house full of antis, and Mr. Grady to a big warehouse full of prohibitionists. The whole town was on the qui vive; one-half the people were hurrahing for Howell and the other were cheering for Grady. The editors drew more than the houses would begin to hold, and their audiences were in a frenzy of delight.
The speeches were the talk of the day, and for days afterward their arguments were discussed and repeatedly mustered into service by the other speakers.