At the
same time the governor informed the superintendent of the mint that the
State of Georgia now held that institution. The superintendent said he
was willing to act under the orders of the governor.

At Jasper, the county seat of Pickens County, the feeling of loyalty to
the Union was very strong. The delegate from that county to the State
convention had refused to sign his name to the ordinance of secession.
Soon after the State had seceded, the citizens of Jasper planted a pole,
and raised on it a United States flag, and kept it floating there for
several weeks in open defiance of the Confederate and State authorities.
This was an event to be delicately handled. The slightest mistake would
have created a state of feeling in North Georgia that would have given
no end of trouble during the whole war. But the Union flag floating in
Pickens County irritated the rest of the State; and hundreds of appeals
were made to Governor Brown to send troops to Jasper, and have the flag
taken down by force. To these appeals he made but one response, and then
turned a deaf ear to all criticism. "Let the flag float there," he said.
"It floated over our fathers, and we all love the flag now. We have only
been compelled to lay it aside by the injustice that has been practiced
under its folds. If the people of Pickens desire to hang it out and keep
it there, let them do so. I shall send no troops to interfere with it."

While this wise management on the part of Governor Brown did not change
the sentiments of the Union men of North Georgia, it prevented any
serious outbreak, and kept them soothed and quieted throughout the war.
Matters were managed differently in East Tennessee; and the result
was, that the Union men of that section went into the business of
bushwhacking, and created a great deal of trouble. While Governor Brown
exercised authority without regard for precedent, the time and the
occasion being without precedent, he was very wise and very prudent in
meeting such emergencies as those that arose in North Georgia.

By the time the election for governor came on, Joe Brown had aroused a
good deal of opposition. He had had a controversy with the Confederate
authorities because the latter had enrolled troops from Georgia without
first making a requisition on the governor. He had seized several
cargoes of salt which the speculators had been holding for higher
prices. There was at that early day, and all during the war, a salt