Augusta, November 28, 1865

Augusta, November 28, 1865

 AUGUSTA is a fine point for business; and when it is once more brought in connection with Charleston and Savannah by railroad, Atlanta, busy as she is now, and confident as she is of the future, will need to have sharper eyes and even yet more restless energy if she would not be distanced.

The close of the war found more cotton, probably, stored in and about this city than at any other point in the South. One feels justified, from all that is said, in estimating the amount at fully fifty thousand bales; and many dealers put the figure at sixty thousand, while a few even fix it as high as sixty-five thousand. Very little of this was burned, and most of it was in the hands of private parties. Consequently, there has been a large business here in the article all the fall, in which there is not yet very much abatement.
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In this Congressional District, the Fifth, the contest at the recent election was more animated than in any other district in the State, -- and one of the worst Rebels in the district carries the day.

Colonel James D. Matthews, of Oglethorpe County, is a lawyer by profession, and was a colonel in the Rebel army. He is the most uncompromising malcontent in the congressional delegation from this State, was by all odds the noisiest and bitterest Rebel in the late Convention, and is about as badly disposed toward the government and the new order of things as any man I have met in all my tour. He is of very cold, hard, severe, inflexible cast of countenance, has a taunting and aggressive manner, and speaks in a high, falsetto, sarcastic, impassioned tone of voice. His appearance, his manner, and his voice alike attest his individuality. He made many speeches during the Convention, and each of them was galling and venomous. He was the most audacious of those who demanded pardon for Jeff Davis, the most haughty of those who advocated the dogma of State sovereignty, the most galling of those who sneered at the supremacy of the nation, the most insolent of those who denounced the government for requiring a repudiation of the Rebel war debt, the most domineering of those who fought everything looking toward a recognition of the legal rights of the negro, the most stubborn of those who resisted the effort to establish co-operative action between the people and the Freedmen's Bureau.

The moral of this election is so plain that he who runs may read. And the city of Augusta, which would have General Steedman believe she is loyal, cast three fourths of her vote for this malignant Matthews!

In the stage between here and Milledgeville I rode a month ago with two gentlemen of considerable local weight and prominence, who were both anti-Secessionists in 1860-61. They talked of the approaching Convention, and of its probable
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action in redistricting the State for representatives. "Well, Colonel," said the younger, himself a man of over forty years, -- "well, Colonel, what will be our proper course when we are once more fully restored to the Union?" The answer came, after a moment's consideration, "We must strike hands with the Democratic party of the North, and manage them as we always have." There was a pause while we rattled down the hill, and then the questioner responded, "That's just it; they were ready enough to give us control if we gave them the offices; and I reckon they've not changed very much yet." There was then conversation on other matters; but half an hour later, after a mile or so of silence, the Colonel suddenly resumed, "Yes, sir, our duty is plain; we shall be without weight now that slavery's gone, unless we do join hands with them. Andy Johnson will want a re-election, and the united Democratic party must take him up; it shall be a fair division, -- we want the power and they want the spoils."

"I hate the Yankees with my whole heart," said a genteely dressed woman who sat just behind me in the cars the other day coming to the city. "And I hate them so bad that I'm going off to Texas to live," answered the gentleman with whom she talked.

At Atlanta I saw a family of seven persons, from the county above this, on their way to that region; at Greensboro I saw a family of thirteen, including the old folks, with daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, and having a wagonload of trunks, bound for that State; at Berzelia, twenty miles west of here, I fell in with a man who had just returned from an inspection tour, and would start for there next week at the head of a company of twenty. I asked him if he did n't like it in this State. To which he answered, "I am going to see if I can't get shet of the Yankees." A man whom I sat opposite at breakfast this morning told his neighbor that a common acquaintance from Athens left last
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week, and he knew of another family near Washington who would go in a few days. I have heard of very few persons who fall in with the Alabama scheme for emigrating to Brazil; but I am convinced that in the Central and Eastern sections of Georgia there are many who purpose moving to Texas, and only in one or two instances have I heard any reason assigned but a desire to get away from the Yankees.

Yet not all the people of this section are of such antagonistic spirit, -- not all of them are so at war with common sense and the conquering Yankee.