Joseph E. Brown

Georgia governor and U.S. senator Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894) is chiefly remembered for his political representation of the common man and his obstructionist attitude toward the policies of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

Joseph E. Brown was born in Pickens District, S.C., on April 15, 1821, but his family soon moved to the mountains of northern Georgia. At the age of 19 Brown attended school in Anderson District, S.C. He returned to Canton, Ga., where he directed the local academy and read law. In 1845, after admission to the Georgia bar, he left to attend Yale Law School. He graduated in 1846, settled in Canton, and began practicing law.

In 1849 Brown was elected to the state senate, where he demonstrated a capacity for work and innate political skill. In 1855 he became judge of the Blue Ridge circuit. A Democrat, Brown was elected governor in 1857, 1859, 1861, and 1863 - a record never equaled before in the history of Georgia.

Brown protected the interests of the average Georgian and sought measures to extend benefits to the plain people. He opposed legislation especially favorable to the banks of the state, advocated the establishment of free schools and endowment of the state university, reformed the administration of the state-owned Western and Atlantic Railroad, and improved the militia system.

Though Brown consistently maintained proslavery and secessionist attitudes, he was in constant conflict with the Confederate government: he was nearly fanatical in adhering to the doctrine of state sovereignty, while the exigencies of the Civil War forced President Davis to promote centralization of government. Brown opposed Davis's acceptance of state troops without the governor's permission and the appointment of officers to command Georgia troops. He disputed both the wisdom and constitutionality of the conscription law and at times obstructed its application; he protested against seizure of property without compensation; and he opposed the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.

At the end of the war in 1865, Brown was imprisoned briefly and then resigned the governorship. During Reconstruction he advised compliance with the congressional plan, an attitude which subjected him to widespread denunciation. He even joined the Republican party. In 1868 he was named chief justice of the state supreme court but 2 years later resigned to become president of the Western and Atlantic Company. By 1872 Brown had rejoined the Democratic party. He was elected U.S. senator in 1880 and twice reelected, serving until 1891. Brown died on Nov. 30, 1894.

Further Reading

The best full-length work on Brown is Louise Biles Hill, Joseph E. Brown and the Confederacy (1939). This is a well-documented study of Brown's career as Georgia's wartime governor and his significance in the failure of the Confederacy. Elizabeth Studley Nathans, Losing the Peace (1969), contains useful information on Brown's railroad interests and on his activities as a Republican. Brown is a prominent figure in E. Merton Coulter, Georgia: A Short History (1947; rev. ed. 1960).

Additional Sources

Parks, Joseph Howard, Joseph E. Brown of Georgia, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.

Joseph Emerson Brown was born April 15, 1821, in Pickens District, South Carolina. He was a graduate of the Yale Law School class of 1846, and was admitted to the Georgia bar.

In 1849 Brown entered politics and served in the Georgia Senate. In 1852 he was a presidential elector and in 1855 he served as a circuit judge.

Brown became governor of Georgia in 1857 and, for the next eight years, voiced his opposition to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, concerning involuntary service in the armed services and the elimination of the writ of habeas corpus. He was a strong supporter of states' rights and often spoke out against the authority of a centralized government. In 1865 he was imprisoned but was released by President Andrew Johnson shortly afterwards.

From 1868 to 1870 Brown again served in the judiciary, presiding as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

Brown entered federal government service in 1880, representing Georgia in the U.S. Senate for an eleven-year period, retiring in 1891. He died November 30, 1894, in Atlanta.

For other persons of the same name, see Joseph Brown.

Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894)

Joseph Emerson Brown (April 15, 1821 – November 30, 1894), often referred to as Joe Brown, was governor of Georgia from 1857 to 1865, and a U.S. Senator from 1880 to 1891. During the American Civil War, Brown, a former Whig, had constant disagreements with Confederate President Jefferson Davis, whom he saw as an incipient tyrant.

Brown was born in Pickens County, South Carolina. At a young age he moved with his family to Union County, Georgia. In 1840, he decided to leave the farm and seek an education. Brown, with the help of his younger brother James and his father's plow horse, drove a yoke of oxen on a 125-mile trek to an academy near Anderson, South Carolina, where the impoverished Brown exchanged the oxen for eight months' board and lodging. In 1844, Brown moved to Canton, Georgia, where he served as head-master of the academy at Canton. He went on to study law, and in 1847, he opened a law office in Canton. Brown was elected to the Georgia state senate in 1849 and soon became a leader of the Democratic Party in Georgia. He was elected state circuit court judge in 1855 and governor in 1857. As governor, he diverted state railroad profits to Georgia's public schools. He became a strong supporter of secession from the United States after Lincoln's election and South Carolina's secession in 1860.

As soon as the Confederate States of America was established, Brown spoke out against expansion of the Confederate central government's powers. He denounced Davis in particular. Brown even tried to stop Colonel Francis Bartow from taking Georgia troops out of the state to the First Battle of Bull Run. He objected strenuously to military conscription by the Confederacy. When Union troops under Sherman overran much of Georgia in 1864, Brown called for an end to the war.

After the war, Brown was briefly held as a political prisoner in Washington, D.C. He was chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1865 to 1870, when he resigned to become president of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. He supported President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policy, even becoming a Republican "scalawag" for a time. After Reconstruction, he became a Democrat again and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1880. Soon after his election to the Senate, Brown became the first Georgia official to support public education for all children—not a popular position at the time. He was re-elected in 1885, but retired in 1891 due to poor health. He died in 1894 in Atlanta, Georgia. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery.

His son, Joseph Mackey Brown, would also become governor of Georgia (twice.)

References

• Hill, Louise Biles. Joseph E. Brown and the Confederacy. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press 1972. ISBN 9780837157221
• Parks, Joseph Howard. Joseph E. Brown of Georgia. Southern biography series. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press 1977. ISBN 9780807101896
• Pelikan, Jaroslav, and Clifton Fadiman. The World treasury of modern religious thought. Boston: Little, Brown 1990. ISBN 9780316697705
• Roberts, Derrell C. Joseph E. Brown and the politics of Reconstruction. Southern historical publications, no. 16. University: University of Alabama Press 1973. ISBN 9780817352226
• Scaife, William R., and William Harris Bragg. Joe Brown's pets: the Georgia Militia, 1861-1865. Macon, Ga: Mercer University Press 2004. ISBN 9780865548831
•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Joseph E. Brown at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Political offices
Preceded by Herschel Vespasian Johnson	Governor of Georgia 1857–1865	Succeeded by James Johnson
Legal offices
Preceded by Hiram B. Warner	Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Georgia 1868-1870	Succeeded by Osborne Augustus Lochrane
United States Senate
Preceded by John B. Gordon	United States Senator (Class 3) from Georgia 1880–1891 Served alongside: Benjamin H. Hill, Middleton P. Barrow, Alfred H. Colquitt	Succeeded by John B. Gordon

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