Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

March 31

1826 In Washington D.C., a supplementary article to the Treaty of Washington was signed between the Creeks and U.S. Government correcting the original treaty by expanding the second tract from 47 to 50 miles and from 30 to 45 miles. The additional cession would become part of Carroll County.

1867 Major General John Pope arrived in Atlanta by special train from Chattanooga to take command of the Third District (which consisted of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama). He was welcomed by a number of Atlanta citizens, who after meeting him were apparently pleased with his selection. That evening, Pope boarded another train for Montgomery, Ala.

1911 Former Confederate general Alfred Iverson Jr. died in Atlanta. [See Feb. 14 entry for biographical information.]

1918 The first Daylight Savings Time went into effect nationwide on March 31 pursuant to the Standard Time Act of 1918, passed by Congress as a wartime measure to save energy by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. Repealed in 1919, Daylight Savings Time was again observed during World War II. Since 1967, with a few exceptions, Daylight Savings Time has been observed nationwide.

1968 Otis Redding's "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" topped the pop music charts nationwide.

1971 For his role in the "My Lai" massacre, a court martial jury at Fort Benning discharged Lt. William L. Calley from the U.S. Army and sentenced him to life imprisonment. After Pres. Nixon granted clemency, Calley would serve three years house arrest.

1976 The Georgia General Assembly adopted a joint resolution proposing a new state constitution for Georgia. That new document -- the Constitution of 1976 -- was ratified by voters in the Nov. 2, 1976 general election.

1996 In Charlotte, N.C., the University of Tenneesee's Lady Vols beat the University of Georgia's Lady Dogs 83-65 to win the NCAA basketball championship. 

1999 University of Georgia graduate Charlayne Hunter-Gault was awarded a George Foster Peabody Award -- her second. Stationed in Africa, Hunter-Gault chief correspondent in Africa for National Public Radio at that time, was recognized for "excellence in international reporting, from an undercovered and often misunderstood region of the world." Born Feb. 27, 1942 in Due West, S.C., she and her mother soon moved to Covington, Ga., while her father -- a U.S. Army chaplain -- was on active duty. In 1951, her father joined the family in a move to Atlanta. Ten years later, Charlayne Hunter joined Hamilton Holmes as the first black students to attend the University of Georgia. In 1963, she graduated with a degree in journalism, thus launching a long career in journalism that would include ten years with the New York Times, a long association with PBS's "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour," and an assignment covering Africa for NPR. Hunter-Gault won her first Peabody Award for her coverage of apartheid in South Africa. Other recognitions include two Emmys, 1986 Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists, and the American Women in Radio and Television Award. In 1988, Charlayne Hunter-Gault became the first African America to deliver the commencement address at her alma mater.

1999 Athletic director Vince Dooley announced that Rhode Island basketball coach Jim Harrick was the University of Georgia's new head basketball coach. In 1995, Harrick lead UCLA to the national championship. In his two years at Rhode Island, Harrick lead the team to its highest national ranking in history. 

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1825 The Marquis de Lafayette, a French hero of the American Revolution, visited Georgia in 1825. Gov. George Troup has his aide-de-camp, John Banks, escort the general from Milledgeville to Alabama. From Fort Mitchell, on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee River, Banks wrote Gov. Troup:

"We arrived here with Gen. LaFayette today at 11 O'Clock. . . . The reception the Indians gave the Gen. was quite odd and interesting. We found them in waiting, on the western bank of the Chatahoochee commanded by Chilly McIntosh. While we were crossing they gave several yells in concert; when we touched the bank they took the horse from the sulkey, seated the Gen. in it and pulled him up the hill where we found the Alabama escort under the command of Maj. Gen. [William] Taylor formed ready for the reception; they saluted him as he passed. After which he was introduced to Mr. [Thomas] Bibb who made him a very feeling and appropriate address; to which the Gen. replyed: but owing to the shortness of their stay I was not able to obtain copies of them. The Indians then formed and after going through some ceremonies during a Ballplay which, to those who never witnessed one before was very amusing. The Gen. appeared to be well entertained with it. The play lasted about an hour. The Gen. then dined and set out at 3 O'Clock on his rout to Montgomery, &c."

Source: Spencer B. King, Jr., Georgia Voices: A Documentary History to 1872 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974 reprint of 1966 original volume), p. 95.

1839 Writing in her journal from St. Simons Island, Fanny Kemble recorded another worship service she held with the slaves:

"Sunday [March 31], I had my last service at home with these poor people; nearly thirty of them came, all clean, neat, and decent, in their dress and appearance . . . . and at the end of the prayers, the tears were streaming over their faces, and one chorus of blessings rose round me and the child -- farewell blessings, and prayers that we would return; and thanks so fervent in their incoherency, it was more than I could bear, and I begged them to go away and leave me to recover myself. I am to go next Sunday to the church on the island, where there is to be service; and so this is my last Sunday with the people.

"When I had recovered from the emotion of this scene . . . I went and paid a visit to Mrs. G[owen] [wife of the plantation's overseer]; poor little, well-meaning, helpless woman, what can she do for these poor people, where I, who am supposed to own them, can do nothing?

"Certainly the laws and enacted statues on which this detestable system is built up are potent enough; the social prejudice that buttresses it is almost more potent still; and yet a few hearts and brains well bent to do the work would bring within this almost impenetrable dungeon of ignorance, misery, and degradation, in which so many millions of human souls lie buried, that freedom of God which would presently conquer for them their earthly liberty. With some such thoughts I commended the slaves on the plantation to the little overseer's wife; I did not tell my thoughts to her -- they would have scared the poor little woman half out of her senses. To begin with, her bread, her husband's occupation, has its root in slavery; it would be difficult for her to think as I do of it. I am afraid her care, even of the bodily habits and sicknesses of the people left in Mrs. G[owen]'s charge, will not be worth much, for nobody treats others better than they do themselves; and she is certainly doing her best to injure herself and her own poor baby, who is two and a half years old, and whom she is still suckling."

Source: Frances Anne Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1984 reprint of 1961 original volume), pp. 294-95.

1857 Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, the Milledgeville Federal Union responded with the following editorial:

"The late decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Dred Scott case, will bring the enemies of the South face to face with the Constitution of their country. They cannot escape the issue presented -- the observance of the laws of the land, or disunion. They can no longer dodge under such pretexts as "bleeding Kansas." That harp of one string has played its last tune, and must now be hung up. Or, if continued to be used by the reverends Henry Ward Beecher and Theodore Parker, it will not call forth the responses it was wont to do in the flush times of "bleeding Kansas." Many of the followers of these infidel preachers are not the fools or fanatics their conduct would seem to indicate. They acted upon principle, many of them, in their opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; and their zeal for free Kansas was excited to the highest pitch, by the lying agents of the Free State Party. But it is a quite different question now. The leaders of the Black Republican Party are denouncing the decision of the very Tribunal to which they had appealed, and are endeavoring to excite among the people of the North a bitter hostility to it. They will endeavor to organize a party on the basis of opposition to the decision of the majority of the Court in the Dred Scott case. But as fanatical as the people of New England are, they will hesitate to enter the ranks of a political party, organized for the express purpose of overturning a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. Some of our Southern editors depreciate the agitation to which this decision will give rise. But let it come. The fury of the storm has passed. The treasonable conduct of the leaders of the Black Republican party will be rebuked at their very doors. The issue they have raised will be met by the true-hearted, Constitutional, law-abiding men of the North, and thousands who followed Fremont and "bleeding Kansas," will find themselves allied with the Union men of the country, in sustaining the determination of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case."

Source: Milledgeville Federal Union, March 31, 1857.

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