the army in the field. It was a reflection on the patriotism of the
whole Southern population. The law was the occasion of a controversy
between Governor Brown and President Davis, in which Brown, in the
nature of things, had a decided advantage; for the Conscript Act wiped
out the whole theory of State rights, on which the people of the South
depended to justify secession. But Georgia did not stand in the way of
the law. It was enforced, and the terms of its enforcement did the work
of disorganization more thoroughly than the hard times and the actual
war were doing it.

In March, 1863, the governor issued a proclamation convening the
Legislature in special session to discuss the subject of bread. This was
a very important subject at that time. In his message, the governor said
that the time had come for the farmers to raise bread instead of cotton.
He also laid before the Legislature' the reports of the distribution of
the fund of two and a half millions of dollars for the support of the
indigent families of soldiers. These reports showed what havoc the war
had created among the people of a State which, not much more than two
years before, was one of the most prosperous in the country. The fund
had been distributed among more than eighty-four thousand people.
Of this number, about forty-six thousand were children, twenty-four
thousand were kinswomen of poor living soldiers, eight thousand were
orphans, four thousand were widows of dead soldiers, and five hundred
were soldiers disabled in service. Governor Brown, out of his own barn,
gave the people of Cherokee County four thousand dollars' worth of corn.
These events show the straits to which the people had been reduced by
two years of actual war.

It should be borne in mind, however, that the people had to fight the
Union army in front, and the speculators and extortioners in the
rear. Governor Brown tried hard to make the lives of this latter class
entirely miserable, and he succeeded in a way that delighted the people.
Wherever he could get his hands on a speculator or extortioner, he shook
him up. He made many seizures, and confiscated the hoards of a great
many men who had influence with some of the newspapers; and in this way
life in the State was made almost as exciting as the experience of the
soldiers at the front.

In 1863, Governor Brown wanted to retire from office. The strain on
his health and strength had been very severe, and he felt that he was
bre