The Reconstruction period in Georgia is remarkable for its comparative moderation. Although there was great political excitement, there was not as much extravagance in public administration as there was in other Southern States, the state debt increasing approximately from $6,600,000 to $16,000,000. The explanation lies in the fact that there were comparatively few “carpet-baggers” or adventurers in the state, and that a large number of conservative citizens, under the leadership of ex-Governor Brown, supported the Reconstruction policy of Congress and joined the Republican party.

The election of 1871 gave the Democrats a majority in the legislature; Governor Bullock, fearing impeachment, resigned, and at a special election James M. Smith was chosen to fill the unexpired term. After that the control of the Democrats was complete. In 1891 the Populist party was organized, but it never succeeded in securing a majority of the votes in the state.

List of Governors

I. Administration of the Trustees.
James Edward Oglethorpe[8] 1732-1743
William Stephens[9] 1743-1751
Henry Parker[9] 1751-1753
Patrick Graham[9] 1753-1754
II. Royal Administration.
John Reynolds 1754-1757
Henry Ellis 1757-1760
Sir James Wright 1760-1782
III. Provincial Administration.
William Ewen[10] 1775
Archibald Bulloch[11] 1776
Button Gwinnett[11] 1777
Jonathan Bryan[11] 1777
IV. Georgia as a State.
John A. Treutlen[12] 1777-1778
John Houston 1778-1779
John Wereat[13] 1779
George Walton 1779-1780
Richard Hawley 1780
Stephen Heard[13] 1780-1781
Myrick Davies[13] 1781
Nathan Brownson 1781-1782
John Martin 1782-1783
Lyman Hall 1783-1785
Samuel Elbert 1785-1786
Edward Telfair 1786-1787
George Matthews 1787-1788
George Handley 1788-1789
George Walton1789-1790Democratic-Republican
Edward Telfair1790-1793    ”      ”
George Matthews1793-1796    ”      ”
Jared Irwin1796-1798    ”      ”
James Jackson1798-1801    ”      ”
David Emanuel1801    ”      ”
Josiah Tattnall1801-1802    ”      ”
John Milledge1802-1806    ”      ”
Jared Irwin1806-1809    ”      ”
David B. Mitchell1809-1813    ”      ”
Peter Early1813-1815    ”      ”
David B. Mitchell1815-1817    ”      ”
William Rabun[14]1817-1819    ”      ”
Matthew Talbot[14]1819    ”      ”
John Clarke1819-1823    ”      ”
George M. Troup1823-1827    ”      ”
John Forsyth1827-1829    ”      ”
George R. Gilmer1829-1831National Republican
Wilson Lumpkin1831-1835Democratic-Republican
William Schley1835-1837Union
George Gilmer1837-1839Democrat
Charles J. McDonald1839-1843Union
George W. Crawford1843-1847Whig
George W.B. Towns1847-1851Democrat
Howell Cobb1851-1853Constitutional Union
Herschell V. Johnson1853-1856Democrat
Joseph E. Brown1857-1865    ”
James Johnson[15]1865    ”
Charles J. Jenkins1865-1868    ”
Thomas H. Ruger1868    ”
Rufus B. Bullock1868-1871Republican
Benjamin Conley[14]1871-1872    ”
James M. Smith1872-1876Democrat
Alfred H. Colquitt1876-1882    ”
Alexander H. Stephens1882-1883    ”
James S. Boynton[14]1883    ”
Henry D. McDaniel1883-1886    ”
John B. Gordon1886-1890    ”
W.J. Northen1890-1894    ”
W.Y. Atkinson1894-1898    ”
A.D. Candler1898-1902    ”
Joseph M. Terrell1902-1907    ”
Hoke Smith1907-1909    ”
Joseph M. Brown1909-1911    ”
Hoke Smith1911-       ”

A brief bibliography, chiefly of historical materials, is given by U.B. Phillips in his monograph “Georgia and State Rights,” in vol. ii. of the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1901 (Washington, 1902). Valuable information concerning the resources and products of the state is given in the publications of the Department of Agriculture, which include weekly and monthly Bulletins, biennial Reports and a volume entitled Georgia, Historical and Industrial (Atlanta, 1901). The Reports of the United States Census (especially the Twelfth Census for 1900 and the special census of manufactures for 1905) should be consulted, and Memoirs of Georgia (2 vols., Atlanta, Ga., 1895) contains chapters on industrial conditions.

The principal sources for public administration are the annual reports of the state officers, philanthropic institutions, the prison commission and the railroad commission, and the revised Code of Georgia (Atlanta, 1896), adopted in 1895; see also L.F. Schmeckebier’s “Taxation in Georgia” (Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. xviii.) and “Banking in Georgia” (Banker’s Magazine, vol. xlviii.). Education and social conditions are treated in C.E. Jones’s History of Education in Georgia (Washington, 1890), the Annual Reports of the School Commissioner, and various magazine articles, such as “Georgia Cracker in the Cotton Mill” (Century Magazine, vol. xix.) and “A Plea for Light” (South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. iii.). The view of slavery given in Frances A. Kemble’s Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation in 1838-1839 (New York, 1863) should be compared with R.Q. Mallard’s Plantation Life before Emancipation (Richmond, Va., 1897), and with F.L. Olmsted’s A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (New York, 1856).

The best book for the entire field of Georgia history is Lawton B. Evans’s A Student’s History of Georgia (New York, 1898), a textbook for schools. This should be supplemented by C.C. Jones’s Antiquities of the Southern Indians, particularly of the Georgia Tribes (New York, 1873), for the aborigines; W.B. Stevens’s History of Georgia to 1798 (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1847-1859) and C.C. Jones, jun., History of Georgia (2 vols., Boston, 1883) for the Colonial and Revolutionary periods; C.H. Haskins’s The Yazoo Land Companies (Washington, 1891); the excellent monograph (mentioned above) by U.B. Phillips for politics prior to 1860; Miss Annie H. Abel’s monograph “The History of Events Resulting in Indian Consolidation West of the Mississippi,” in vol. i. of the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1906 (Washington, 1908) for a good account of the removal of the Indians from Georgia; the judicious monograph by E.C. Woolley, Reconstruction in Georgia (New York, 1901); and I.W. Avery’s History of Georgia from 1850 to 1881 (New York, 1881), which is marred by prejudice but contains material of value. The Confederate Records of the State of Georgia were published at Atlanta in 1909. See also: E.J. Harden’s Life of George M. Troup (Savannah, 1840); R.M. Johnston and W.H. Browne, Life of Alexander H. Stephens (Philadelphia, 1878), and Louis Pendleton, Life of Alexander H. Stephens (Philadelphia, 1907); P.A. Stovall’s Robert Toombs (New York, 1892); H. Fielder’s Life, Times and Speeches of Joseph E. Brown (Springfield, Mass., 1883) and C.C. Jones, jun., Biographical Sketches of Delegates from Georgia to the Continental Congress (New York, 1891). There is much valuable material, also, in the publications (beginning with 1840) of the Georgia Historical Society (see the list in vol. ii. of the Report of the American Historical Association for 1905).