ABOUT RECONSTRUCTION TIMES. HISTORY OF THE FIRST ACTION AGAINST CARPET BAG RULE IN GEORGIA. Col. C. B. Howard has written of the time, in June, 1867, when the State of Georgia was under military rule and the citizens were being annoyed with all sorts of indignities. Judge W. W. Clayton, a prominent citizen, had just been turned out of house and home because his daughters refused to pass under the United States flag, and hid their faces from yankee officers with their parasols. It was a few days before Alexander H. Stephens wrote a letter to Col. R. A. Alston, saying he considered the country in articula mortis, that if the South resisted reconstruction would be forced, and if they accepted it they were disgraced, and that it was a choice between martyrdom and suicide, and for himself he preferred martyrdom. The story of that meeting was told by Mr. S. A. Echols in a letter printed in the Sunny South during the summer of 1878, just after the controversy between Mr. Hill and Mr. Stephens over the question, " Who saved the State ? " In that article Mr. Echola gives a ong interview with Col. Alston, who told how he, Dr. J. P. Hambleton and Mr. Eli Hulsey, in discussing the deplorable situation, decided to call a Democratic meeting. They did so, and wrote a letter to Col. T. C. Howard, at Kirkwood, asking him to attend and preside. The papers refused to print the call and the city hall was secured only by consent of Gen. Pope. When the time came for the meeting the house was partly filled with Pope's officers and civil staff, and many of the Democrats present opposed any demonstration. Col. Howard walked into the room and looked around in astonishment. He had left the plow and walked into town. Charlie Herbst called on him soon afterward for a speech. Col. Alston said of it: " I never shall forget the scene and solemn dignity with which he rose. Never shall I forget how he was dressed an old coat with the lining torn out and hanging in strings, an unbleached homespun shirt, no cravat, a pair of brogan shoes, without socks. His handsome, intelligent face contrasted strongly with his apparel, and even a stranger would not have been surprised to hear something good, even from such a poorly dressed speaker. His first words were: ' My fellow countrymen, when I am called upon on an occasion like this, surrounded by circumstances like these (pointing to the eager Democrats), and these (pointing to the soldiers), and these (pointing to the scalawags), I feel that deep solemnity which the man of God feels, or at least ought to feel, when he rises in the pulpit to talk to dying sinners about the salvation of their souls.' He then went on to trace the history of this country from the settlement of New England and Virginia down to the breaking out of the Confederate war. He demonstrated that three generations had raised up in these different latitudes two entirely different races of people, that the bloody war which had resulted had been brought on by the love of constitutional freedom on the part of the South, and a love for religion and law battling a.gainst a total disregard of all compacts on the part of the North, and an utter disregard of public morality, constitutional law and Bible religion on the part of the North. That while slavery may have embittered the contest it was not the cause, but only one of the incidents of the struggle. That the constant and persevering invasions of our rights had proceeded from envy, hatred and malice. 'Yea,' said he, 'my countrymen, from the day that old John Adams left the white house,' pointing his finger at the portrait of Washington and saying, ' You and your people did this, there began a struggle which never ceased until it left this whole continent with crutches and crape in every household, which drew one broad line of charcoal from Dalton to Charlotte, N. C., and brought delicate women to cooking, scrubbing and scouring, where Sherman had left them any thing to cook, to scrub or to scour.' Here he paid a glowing and beautiful tribute to the women of the South, and passing on he said, 'But when I come to speak of the 150,000 dead heroes that lie slumbering in our soil, what shall I say?' Here he burst into tears. * * * Soon rousing himself, with bitter scorn he addressed Pope's people and said: 'And do you call upon me to disgrace the fortitude of women like these? Do you call upon me to desecrate the memory of heroes like these? Never! never! And what for, what to gain to save what little we have left? No, my friends, this would be to lose our all) to surrender the only jewel that even tyranny cannot wrest from us our honor. Even Wendell Phillips says, a few years longer and a change of a few thousand votes will cause the shackles to fall from our limbs. Yes, Wendell Phillips, the worst man who has cursed God's footstool for the last thousand years, always excepting that fiend and scourge of hell, .' When these words fell from his lips the consternation was painful. We all grasped arms and felt that the supreme moment had arrived. But Col. Howard thundered on and the crisis was passed. Turning to where we were standing he said: 'Go on, my little band of Democrats, bend your backs and take the blows, the anvil will yet wear out the hammer. Recollect that God has said in his word, "One man shall be equal to a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight," armed with the power of truth, therefore stand firm, and oh, when your hearts grow weary, when you are ready to exclaim, " How long, O Lord, how long," faint not, but look back more than 1800 years and behold the most sublime spectacle that assembled creations were ever called upon to witness. See the Son of God condescending to become man to save a sinful world, remembering that when he walked throughout Gallilee, armed with the power and majesty of God, distributing his loaves and fishes, whole multitudes followed him. But alas! when the day of his tribulation came, when he had no more loaves to divide, no more fishes to distribute, when we see him swinging upon the cross, whom do we see there then? One poor, lone, weeping woman! Ah, if you yankees had been there then, if you scalawags had been there then, if you timid Democrats bad been there then (the scorn dripping from his fingers), you would have gone to her and said: "Get up from here, Mary, never an office will you get for remaining here. The majority is against us. Let us yield." And this day you would have been peeping into the quivering guts of birds and animals to learn the will of God, and sacrificing to Jupiter, and we would have lost the Christian religion.'"