Member of the U.S. Senate from Georgia
Augustus O. Bacon
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In office
August 14, 1911 ? February 15, 1913
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Preceded by
| William P. Frye
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Succeeded by
| Jacob Harold Gallinger
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In office
March 4, 1895 ? February 14, 1914
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Preceded by
| Patrick Walsh
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Succeeded by
| William S. West
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In office
1873-1874 1877-1881
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Preceded by
| Joseph B. Cumming (first term)
Thomas Hardeman Jr.
(second term)
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Succeeded by
| Thomas Hardeman Jr.
(first term)
Louis F. Garrard (second term)
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In office
1871?1886
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Born
| (
1839-10-20
)
October 20, 1839
Bryan County
,
Georgia
, U.S.
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Died
| February 14, 1914
(1914-02-14)
(aged 74)
Washington, D.C.
, U.S.
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Political party
| Democratic
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Education
| University of Georgia
University of Georgia School of Law
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Allegiance
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Confederate States
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Branch/service
|
Confederate States Army
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Rank
| Captain
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Unit
| 9th Georgia Infantry
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Battles/wars
| American Civil War
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Augustus Octavius Bacon
(October 20, 1839 – February 14, 1914) was a Confederate soldier, segregationist, and
U.S.
politician
. A member of the
Democratic Party
, he served as a
U.S. senator
from
Georgia
, becoming the first senator to be directly elected after the ratification of the
17th Amendment
, and rose to the position of
president pro tempore of the United States Senate
.
[1]
Controversy arose during the
American Civil Rights Movement
over a provision in his
will
that created a
racially segregated
park in his hometown of
Macon
, which led to two
U.S. Supreme Court
decisions. He was a slave owner.
[2]
Biography
[
edit
]
Augustus Octavius Bacon was born in
Bryan County, Georgia
. He graduated in 1859 from the
University of Georgia
(UGA) in
Athens
,
Georgia
, and from the
University of Georgia School of Law
in its inaugural class of graduates in 1860. While at UGA, he was a member of the
Phi Kappa Literary Society
.
He was a soldier in the army of the
Confederate States of America
during the
American Civil War
. Following the end of the war, he served in the
Georgia State House of Representatives
from 1871 to 1886, for much of that time as House speaker.
[3]
He made his home in
Macon
.
[4]
Bacon was elected as one of Georgia's
United States senators
in 1894 and was re-elected to three subsequent terms.
[3]
[5]
Bacon held several committee chairmanships (Committee on Engrossed Bills, Committee on Private Land Claims,
Committee on Foreign Relations
).
[3]
He considered himself an
Anglophile
, once remarking that "all the blood in me comes from English ancestors," but he did not want America to become an
imperial power
along the same lines as the
United Kingdom
; he opposed the
Spanish?American War
and the subsequent occupation of the
Philippines
on those grounds.
[6]
He served as one of several alternating
presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
during the
62nd Congress
(1911 to 1913), as part of a compromise under which Bacon and four senators from the
Republican
majority rotated in the office because no single candidate in either party was able to secure a majority vote.
[7]
While in the Senate, Bacon was one of a number of members of Congress who tried to get "better" streets in
Washington, D.C.
, named after their home states. Although most of these efforts failed, in 1908 Bacon succeeded in having Brightwood Avenue (or Brookeville Pike) renamed
Georgia Avenue
.
[8]
The old Georgia Avenue became Potomac Avenue.
[9]
Bacon died of a
coronary occlusion
on February 14, 1914, in
Washington, D.C.
, at the age of 74.
[1]
[3]
He was buried at
Rose Hill Cemetery
in
Macon, Georgia
.
Legacy
[
edit
]
After his death, Senator Bacon's 1911 will established a "whites only" park in Macon which was to be held in trust by the city. During the
Civil Rights Movement
, the use of the park, known as Baconsfield Park, was the subject of two related
Supreme Court
cases.
The first,
Evans v. Newton
, was decided in 1966.
[10]
The Court held that the use of the park for "whites only" was invalid under the
Fourteenth Amendment
Equal Protection Clause
. Because the park was held in
trust
by a public entity, the Court held that it could not exclude non-white persons. Although the city tried to maintain the segregationist intentions of Senator Bacon by transferring the trust to private trustees,
Justice Douglas
’ majority opinion explained that a park is public in nature and may not exclude non-white persons from using the park for recreation.
A subsequent Supreme Court case,
Evans v. Abney
, was decided in 1970.
[11]
After the Court held that Baconsfield Park was unable to perform a segregationist function, the state court held that "Senator Bacon's intention to provide a park for whites only had become impossible to fulfill and that accordingly the trust had failed and the parkland and other trust property had reverted by operation of Georgia law to the heirs of the Senator." The decision involved the doctrine of
cy pres
, and it was necessary for the court to determine Senator Bacon's probable intention in the matter. The Court concluded that, if Senator Bacon had been able to know that his objective was impossible or illegal, he would have preferred that the land revert to his
heirs
. The
Supreme Court of the United States
affirmed the decision of the
Supreme Court of Georgia
, holding that refusing to apply the doctrine of cy pres did not violate the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
. Bacon's heirs then sold the property to private developers, who converted the land near North Avenue and Nottingham Drive to commercial use.
[12]
Bacon County, Georgia
, established shortly after his death in 1914, is named in his honor.
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Senator Bacon Dies. His, Illness Brief. Blood Clot in Heart the Cause, Complicated with Kidney Trouble and Broken Rib. To Have A State Funeral. Services in Senate Chamber Tuesday. President Wilson Typewrites Tribute to Distinguished Georgian"
.
The New York Times
. February 15, 1914.
- ^
"Congress slaveowners"
,
The Washington Post
, 2022-01-19
, retrieved
2022-01-23
- ^
a
b
c
d
Marquis Who's Who, Inc.
Who Was Who in American History, the Military
. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1975. P. 22
ISBN
0837932017
OCLC
657162692
- ^
a
b
Krakow, Kenneth K. (1975).
Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins
(PDF)
. Macon, GA: Winship Press. p. 1.
ISBN
978-0-915430-00-0
.
- ^
"S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903"
.
GovInfo.gov
. U.S. Government Printing Office. 9 November 1903. p. 15
. Retrieved
2 July
2023
.
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2015-04-19
. Retrieved
2012-04-14
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
page 1339
- ^
"President Pro Tempore"
.
United States Senate
. See footnote 4
. Retrieved
October 11,
2018
.
- ^
Kelly, John (26 October 2008).
"The Mud Really Flew over the First Georgia Avenue"
.
Washington Post
. Retrieved
31 October
2016
.
- ^
John Kelly,
"The Mud Really Flew Over The First Georgia Avenue"
,
The Washington Post
, October 26, 2008.
- ^
"Evans v. Newton, 382 U.S. 296 (1966)"
.
Justia Law
. Retrieved
2018-10-11
.
- ^
"Evans v. Abney, 396 U.S. 435 (1970)"
.
Justia Law
. Retrieved
2018-10-11
.
- ^
Stephanie Barron, Jessica Carrier, Chad Moore, William Sanders, and Andrew Smith, "The Case over Baconsfield Park,"
Remembering the Civil Rights Movement
, c. 2012.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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