WEBVTT - Part Three: America's First Fascist Governor 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:02.920 Also media. 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:09.520 Oh, Sophie, one of these days, I'm gonna do that, 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:11.280 and it's gonna sound like I'm doing another like a 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.360 tonal shriek. But then I'm just gonna like jump right 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.440 into the opening soundtrack from The Lion King, and you're 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:18.720 gonna be fucking amazed. 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:20.759 What's so wild is when you did that, I was 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.400 immediately thinking of Lion King, like I think you're almost there. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:25.720 Were I was very very close. I was very close. 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.600 I wasn't thinking the Lion King. I'll say it. I'm 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:31.560 not going to be grit ced. 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:33.920 You grew up with the bad Lion King, not the 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:34.440 good one. 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:36.000 That's not true. Fuck off. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.240 Yeah, I assume you were raised on the Donald Glover 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.120 Lion King. What a mistake, What a horrible mistake. 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.000 Why would you ever do another version? Garrison was not 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.360 born last Thursday? What are we doing? 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.959 I don't remember when the new Disney movies come out. 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.560 I just know they have off putting cgi versions of 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.959 all together for four years. 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:04.520 It's terrible. Sound right, I think it doesn't sound Wronger, No, 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:06.679 it's been four years. Sophie's well, yeah, slightly. 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.600 I'm going to tell you right now, my mental health 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:10.880 is going to plummet the day you're able to rent 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:12.520 a car. It's going to be a disase. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.200 It's coming soon. It's coming soon. 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.760 The the the Donald Glover Lion King predates predates us, 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:20.000 because that was twenty nineteen. 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.520 Okay, okay, all right, all right, all right, anyway, welcome 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.520 to behind the Bastards. I guess we have this new 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.200 cold open thing, which I'm still not super familiar with. 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.760 But uh, it's pretty pretty chilly. So it's pretty chilly 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:34.000 in here. 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.520 It's pronounced chile Garrison, and it's it's correct. The difference 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.520 between you know you you're yeah. Sorry, I don't have 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:42.680 an additional bit beyond that, but I got you there, 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:43.440 nailed it. 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:45.640 I really set you up for that one. 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.760 He really did. What are we talking about today, buddy? 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.080 Oh? Just a normal guy from the nineteen thirties, seemed 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:54.360 to Eugene Talmage. 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.280 Hell yeah, let's get back into. 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:02.320 It right where we left off. Jean had as little 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.680 racism convention to try to oust FDR. Right, he has 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:10.400 his eyes set on the presidency, and he was really. 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.920 The only tactic for ousting FDR was it was racism. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.920 Yeah, ever shooting workers, Yeah, because everyone else loved him. 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.600 They're like, well, he's not racist enough. Let's try that. 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:21.800 Let's see if that works. 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:26.440 The other pressing problem for Gene at this junction is 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:28.840 that in the previous year, the state failed to secure 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.720 an appropriation spill, so there's no way for the state's 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.679 finances to work going into nineteen thirty six. And this 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.440 is kind of Gene's main problem, especially after his little 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:44.360 failed racism convention. So at this point we're kind of 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.600 early in nineteen thirty six. The state does have money, 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:51.120 it just has no legal process to divert or spend 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.200 that money. So in order to use the cash, Gene 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:58.600 needs to convince the treasurer to sign checks on unappropriated funds, 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:04.119 which is technically constitutional, but by I would say, creatively 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.239 interpreting the law. Gene claimed that he could write check 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.120 some money appropriated as far back to nineteen thirty three, 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.960 using funds that were not paid in full. He also 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.960 requested that various state departments hold on to their tax 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.400 collections or just give them directly to Gene and fully 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.120 bypass the treasury. So this was his plan to kind 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.960 of hold on to money. Now, Unfortunately for Gene, the 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.560 treasurer had already begun receiving tax payments from the various 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.200 state departments, and by February thirteenth, the state had begun 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:39.680 to run out of operating funds. Now days later, Gene 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.640 proclaimed the state would have the exact same appropriations bill 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.280 as in nineteen thirty five, arguing that since the legislature 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:49.240 already approved that budget, it was thus legal indefinitely, which 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:54.120 is not just not how state budgets work. Now, the 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.040 Treasurer was of the opinion that this whole affair was 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.160 veering on unconstitutionality. 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:01.840 He was worried, Garrison, I need you to say that 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:02.440 word again. 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.840 Okay, all right, it's it's a long's there's a lot 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:05.680 of syllables in here. 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:15.920 Unconstitutional, unconstitutionality is unconstitutionality, Okay, okay, okay, unconstitutionality. That's probably 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:16.280 a word. 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.000 Yeah, it's mostly a word. It was, it was he 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.520 was scared of his unconstitutional word. I'm pretty sure this 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:24.760 is a word, Sophie. You've no. 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.400 I'm so tired. I'm so tired. 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:33.280 I can't it's a word. Unconstitutionality. That's a word. 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:34.080 Robert and I are. 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:35.479 Both so fucking tired. 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:36.400 You can just tell. 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.839 According to according to the Cornell Law Institute. 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:41.320 So there you go. 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.360 Shout out Cornell. My grandma went there. Now. 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.040 The treasurer, a guy named George Hamilton, was also worried 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.800 that Talmage might just try to personally seize all the 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:55.080 states cash kept in banks around the state, possibly with 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.800 millions falling falling into the direct control of Gene. So 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.719 treasure Hamilton asked FDR to secure state bonds in federal 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.240 vaults so that Gene couldn't legally access them, and FDR 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:10.360 was apparently happy to make life harder for Eugene Talmage. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.279 I'm going to quote from Gene's biography by William Anderson. Quote, 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.560 the Treasurer carefully drilled his staff on what to do 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.040 in the event he was thrown out of office. They 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.000 were to remove all collateral bonds and cash from state vaults, 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.200 set an eight hour timelock on the empty vault, and 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:28.800 run for the Federal Reserve and the local banks where 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.480 they were to deposit both cash and bonds. Speed was 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.120 essential because of the closeness of the treasurers at the 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:40.880 Governor's office. Unquote. It's just like they were basically had 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.680 their offices just across the hallway. We don't they have enough. 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:45.360 You know what we don't have enough of in modern 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:50.320 politics is capers. You know there is the capers. That's 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:50.800 a caper. 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:57.119 Yeah, there's some good capers in this episode, so uh speak. 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:02.240 Speaking speaking of capers, I love bagels. Now, Talmidch wanted 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.200 to test his own power by asking the school superintendent, 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.360 a guy named M. D. Collins, and the asylum warden 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.760 to put in requests for money, pressuring the treasurer to 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.080 write the checks. Now, the treasurer caught worded this ahead 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:17.920 of time, and, not wanting to be caught denying funds 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:22.000 to schools and mental patients, he contacted the superintendent ahead 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.600 of time and made secret arrangements to send him into hiding, 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.839 putting him up in putting him up in an Atlanta hotel. So, 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.400 as expected, Jeane went looking for the superintendent and was 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.000 quite pissed when he just couldn't find him anywhere in 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:37.360 the city. 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.800 Again, what happened to Caper's right? Why don't we do 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.960 this anymore? All we got all we have now is 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:51.480 like fascism and very disappointing. Governors want to I want 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.520 a caper, Tim Walls, go steal the declaration of independence, 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:57.040 you know, get out there. 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.960 They didn't have like sell phoes, they didn't have like email. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:04.559 You couldn't send official requests digitally. You had to actually 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:06.799 you had to actually find five physically. 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.800 And then it was very easy to just put someone 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.400 in a basement and gape them there. 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.440 Yeah, just keep someone hiding in a hotel in downtown 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.440 Atlanta and you just like can't find us. 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:18.560 No, they might as well be on the fucking moon. 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:23.040 Yeah. So, on February twentieth, as Gene was still looking 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:27.320 for mister Collins, the Comptroller and the Treasurer publicly announced 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:29.080 that they would not be signing checks for the governor, 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.400 claiming his proclamation was invalids having a grandfather clause which 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.760 avoided the old unspent appropriations, and declared this now a 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:40.000 constitutional battle. The press had basically all turned on Jeane 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.120 at this point, tired from his antics, and an Atlanta 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:48.640 Constitution headline read the Governor's legal attempt at dictatorship Now 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:49.720 four years later. 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.000 You got to have some respect for a title that 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:52.920 tells it like it is. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.200 There's some this some pretty good like nineteen thirties headlines 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:58.240 that we're going to get to today. 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.000 Yeah, I mean journalists made a comfortable income and had 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:06.000 like support staff and stuff back then. So yeah. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.560 Now, four days later, Jean wrote an executive order firing 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:14.040 a comptroller Harrison and a treasurer Hamilton, and both of 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.120 whom declared that they would have to be literally thrown 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.960 out of office. I'm going to quote from Anderson again. Quote. 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.240 This tactic was designed to make Gene look militaristic, a bully, 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.000 a dictator who ruled not by law but by force. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.080 Since Jean's martial law order from September nineteen thirty four 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:32.480 was still in effect, that's like a year and a 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:34.760 half later. He just had the state under marshal law 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.439 for like a year and a half. He had the 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.840 National Guard at his disposal. Upon hearing the men would 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.520 not leave, he ordered the adjunct to General Lindley Camp, 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.760 who had been waiting for this, to take a couple 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.479 of plainclothes men and get Harrison out of his office. 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:50.600 It was early in the morning. Camp was not a 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.480 violent man. He asked Harrison politely but firmly, to leave. 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.240 You're no longer comptroller, and you'll have to leave this office. 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.640 Camp said Harrison, and seated behind his desk looked disappointed 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.320 that no armed force had shown up. He asked, where 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.439 are the soldiers? Camp leaned long over the desk and drawled, 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:19.880 I'm some soldiers. Harrison got up and incredible. Some soldiers 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.120 is pretty good. There's not all all of. 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.199 The riz in every single elected leader in the country 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:27.520 right now doesn't add up to that line. I'm sorry, 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:29.760 we just we just we don't have that kind of 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:31.559 we don't have that kind of juice anymore. 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.520 Oh, Treasurer Hamilton put up. 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:39.200 Sophy say, it's the quietly getting up and leaving for me. 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:43.920 Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like, you can't respond to that. 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:45.079 You just have to get up to leave. 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.360 You've lost You've lost that engagement. It's time to just 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:50.640 leave the room now. 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.080 Hamilton, the treasurer, put up a bit more of a fight, 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.280 at least according to Jean's assistant Henry Sperlin, who recounted 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.320 the ordeal quote, I went in in fan Hamilton sitting 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.640 at his desk. I told him he would have to 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:08.360 leave his office at once. He pulled a large pistol 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.240 out and placed it on the desk and said, I 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:17.240 am my favorite negotiating tactic. It's good, he said, I 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.040 am constitutionally elected to this office, and I have the 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:21.160 means to protect it. 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.520 You just convinced me to run for office, because man, 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.000 that would be fun. That would feel good, That would 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:28.560 feel good. 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:34.000 Continuing from Spurlin quote, I turned around and went back 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.320 across the hall to the Governor's office and told him 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:38.920 that George had a big pistol on the desk and 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.120 was refusing to leave. Jean blew up. 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:44.640 Knowing the Times that was like a thirty eight. 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.079 Jean blew up and started yelling for the adjunct to 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.400 General at the top of his lungs, Lindley, Lenley, Lenley. 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.240 About that time, the Adjunct General came walking through the 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.040 door and said, to keep quiet, Governor. I heard you 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.480 all the way across the street. 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:01.239 So fine. 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:06.040 So the actric General, along with some some soldiers, went 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.600 into Hamilton's office and literally picked him up out of 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.480 his chair, and while being carried out at his office, 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.760 Hamilton yelled to his assistants who were running around with 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.160 the last of the Treasury's bonds in cash. 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:20.600 Wow. 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.080 Anderson says that that the guardsman just. 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:25.679 The wrong turn in this country. 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.160 We took, we took a wrong turn in this country. 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.680 So much more exciting. We used to do it, right, 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.880 That's a democracy you can be proud of. Right, then 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:35.920 you're reading about. 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.560 Yeah oh yeah. Now. Anderson says that the guardsman brought 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.040 his assistants were just like running from the capitol in fear, 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.160 when in actuality, they were taking the last of the 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:53.840 state's money to be deposited in FDR's federal vaults. So 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.240 after Hamilton was read from the Capitol, he contacted the 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.199 bank telling him that he was still in fact the 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.440 legal treasurer and instructed them to not pay out any 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.000 money and told the post office to not deliver any 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.000 mail directed to the Treasurer to Jean's new replacement, a 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.679 guy named Toby Daniel, and the post office complied with this. 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:16.640 I guess people justked Hamilton. I'm Nico from Maerson here. Quote. 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.160 It had been a long and busy day in the 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.679 state government, a day which ended in total confusion about 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:26.200 who controlled what. Hamilton was seen just before dark attacking 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.559 his nameplate and title on a door across town as 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.440 Jane prepared to move on the state vaults. Unquote. I 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.640 dislike that Treasurer. Hamilton just set up his own like 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.840 fake office across town be like, you know, I'm obviously 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.800 still the treasurer. I'm gonna make myself my own office. 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.640 So the next day, Jean's new treasurer, Toby Daniel, went 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.520 to the vaults and he found them sealed shut with 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.560 this eight hour time lock. Jane was never known as 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.480 a patient man, so he ordered locksmith's to cut open 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.120 this safe with gas torches. As soldier stood. Guard men 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.880 cut open the vaults to find nothing. They were complete. 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.760 That's completely empty. Oh that's fun. That's that's a good God. Damn, 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.120 it's a good image. Yeah, Eugene talented with a cigar 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.040 and some soldiers looking at people cut open a vaults 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:21.040 gas torches. Do it find nothing? Yeah? No, It's like 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:29.240 it's a fantastic caper. So Gene was extremely upset at this, 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:31.880 and he said, seemed. 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:33.600 Like the kind of guy who would take that in 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:35.480 the spirit of good fair play. 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:40.120 No, no, no. He sent Toby Daniel to the Fulton 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.840 National Bank to cash out one hundred grand, but the 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.120 bank refused to honor the check. Every sequence of events 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:49.360 left Gene just getting more and more pissed. He wrote 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.880 an angry letters to bank president, telling him that the 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.000 bank would have to now pay seven percent interest on 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.720 this state's nine hundred thousand dollars, and if they didn't 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.400 want to deliver cash to Toby Daniel, the governor's executive assistant, 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.240 would be authorized to accept the state's money. The bank 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.920 continued to refuse to hand over any cash, saying that 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.520 it was the quote unquote unanimous decision of the council 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.680 of all the clearinghouse banks that they could not feel 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.280 entirely safe until there had been some judicial determination over 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.040 the question of the state's financial situation. To quote Anderson 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.160 here quote Hamilton's strategy had worked. Gene exploded in anger, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.080 turning his fury erroneously on the legislature and the federal government. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.120 He said a clique in the House of Representatives had 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.960 hatched a plot a year earlier in Washington, trying to 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.520 force the state to call an extra session to drain 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.200 off money and force Jane to raise taxes. He said 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:45.480 the mess was deliberately brought on by the new Deal unquote. Now, 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.520 the Georgia Constitution required that the treasurer be bonded before 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.200 assuming office, but no local bonding company wanted to be 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.320 anywhere near this shit show. But Jean's friend John Whitley, 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:00.360 found an insurance company all the way in Fort's Scott, 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:04.760 Kansas that would bond Toby Daniel for three hundred thousand dollars. 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.320 Jean asked the highway board chairman, a guy named mister Wilbur, 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.600 to put up sixty five thousand, which he quite reluctantly 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.560 agreed to, and John Whitley covered the rest. Jean's lstreak 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.640 continued when it was learned just days later that seventeen 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.680 million dollars in federal road funds were being held because 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.920 Jeans spent three million dollars of this money on other 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.600 state expenses, which not allowed. Not cool. You can't do that. 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.720 I mean, I feel like you should be able to 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.800 do whatever you can get away with as the governor, right, 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:35.600 like that ought to be the rule. It's like cheating 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:37.760 at poker. Right, as long as they don't catch you 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:38.800 in the act, you're good. 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.000 The problem is that that they is that they always 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:42.320 caught him. That was the problem. 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.000 Yeah, that is an issue. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.360 And George Hamilton at this point was promising to fight 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.240 to the last to see that the law shell rule 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.160 and not a tyrannical despot who has gone mad with 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:59.160 egotism Now, According to the Atlanta Journal, thirty six out 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.280 of forty four state papers were now against Talmage, with 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:07.280 the Gainesville Eagle writing he has out heralded Herod in 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.800 a despotic dictatorial action that transcends the throttling of Louisiana 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:18.720 by Huey Long. Anderson writes. A survey of newspapers from 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.240 across the state reflected the shock and repulsion many had 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.560 felt for this latest example of Talmadge enforcing his will. 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.080 The Cordell Dispatch worried he's gonna be worse than Hitler 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.160 or Mussolini, which which isn't true. 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.440 That's not that this is this is nineteen thirty gotta 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.880 get At this point in twenty twenty four, we could 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.280 confidently say not as bad as either of those kids. 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.480 Cornell Dispatch debugged, Sorry, your prediction was wrong. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.280 It would have been pretty funny if, like his his 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:50.400 term had ended with the United States Marines occupying Atlanta, 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.000 like the just bombing it to craters. 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:57.360 Yeah, so that that would has that would has been 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.720 debunked there. The nineteen thirty six prediction did did not 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:01.560 come to pass. 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:04.879 That's a tragic situation. 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.840 The Columbias Inquirer wrote that he is a quote paper 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:12.719 machet dictator, a sort of amusing political clown who slipped 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.400 into the governor's office during the storm of the depression, 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.920 which is I would say is more accurate. The Brunswick 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.800 News asked how long Georgia would have to be quote 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.960 misruled by this crazy governor who suffers hallucinations of grandeur 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:30.080 and imaginary greatness. Gene's answer to all of that was 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:32.000 that this was a political plot to keep him off 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.560 the campaign trail, saying, this invasion of states rights can 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:37.439 hold me in Georgia, but the New Deal is going 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:41.720 to be defeated this year. So at this point, Roosevelt's 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:43.840 and supporters were trying to get the state Democratic Chairman, 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.480 Hugh Howell to call for a presidential primary to further 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.159 embarrass Gene during the financial crisis and add to the 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:53.240 pressure facing Talmage. But Howell and Talmadge knew what was 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.520 up and didn't take the bait, especially since Roosevelt was 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.439 absolutely dominating Talmage in even like the most like rule polls. 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.280 He was not very popular during this whole financial crisis. 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.920 On the first of March, the third month into this crisis. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.199 Gene met with all the banks and asked for the 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.920 state's money to be released, which they again denied. Anderson notes, 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.199 quote it was the kind of request he did not 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.680 like to make, particularly since they refused him. He stormed out, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.359 saying he would scorch the bankers. His plan was to 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.040 write checks to pay for school bills. If the bankers 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.600 refused to honor them, public pressure would be directed away 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:31.920 from Gene. It didn't work, unquote, so in response to this, 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.560 Gene quote unquote fired the banks, and the bank's attorney 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.960 asked the Fulton Superior Court to rule on which treasurer 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.080 could legally sign checks. Gene filed a lawsuit with the 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.560 Post Office for not delivering the Treasurer's mail to Daniel, 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:47.240 and Daniel filed a lawsuit in a lower court against 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.120 Hamilton and hopes that would force him to reveal where 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.040 the collateral bonds were being kept, as still nobody could 0:18:53.040 --> 0:19:00.840 find where they were. So at this point, you like 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.400 all of the business leaders for calling for a special 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:07.119 legislative session to end this crisis. The editor of the 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:12.399 Constitution of the newspaper privately promised a glowing editorial of 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:14.840 Gene if he called for a special session to pass 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.840 an appropriations bill, prompting other papers to do the same, 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.480 with a Gene then emerging from this crisis as a hero. 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.439 But the editor warned that if Gene refused to call 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.800 a session, the newspaper would do everything in its power 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.919 to get him impeached the majority of the state Senate signification. 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.479 Imagine a newspaper having any juice at all in an 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:38.480 election at this point the constitution in simple period of time. 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:42.240 At this point like this, this specific paper held a 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:43.520 great deal of power in the state. 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:45.320 Yeah, no, no, no, I mean that used to be. There 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:47.040 were a lot of papers that were powered both like 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:49.320 regionally and in the cut. Like, it's just we're in 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:51.520 a completely different media situation now. 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.359 Nowadays the AJAC is still like an influential paper in 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.159 like city and state politics in Georgia, but it's not 0:19:59.200 --> 0:19:59.960 what it was and then I. 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.640 Thirties, No one you would not have I mean, it'd 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.159 be fascinating to see someone try, but like an editor 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.439 go out and say, like, we will write you a 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.200 great editorial if you if you carry out this policy, right. 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:14.439 But if you don't, we're gonna get too beached. 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.200 Yeah, like that's just a completely different planet in terms 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.280 of print media influence. 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:22.840 At this point, i'm majority of the Senate sign a 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:26.240 petition pleading for a special session, but Gene claimed that 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.159 there was no emergency, thus no reason to call for 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.080 a special session, and on March fourteenth, the court ruled 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.760 that neither Hamilton nor Daniel could withdraw money that had 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.880 not been appropriated, but did not yet rule on which 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:42.920 man was the legal treasurer. When Gene tried to get 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.280 checks written on oil tax money, a judge legally prohibited 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.800 money from being paid out to the new comptroller, and 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:51.479 on March eighteenth, the oil companies threatened to withhold their 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:55.639 tax payments until Gene removed their monetary liability to quote 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:59.119 Anderson quote. The next day, Hamilton asked the courts to 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:01.600 a judge him as trusure, and the state's labor leaders 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.480 saw an injunction against Daniel. On March twenty third, the 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:06.960 state revenue commissioner quit. By the end of that week, 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.080 Jeane had bought radio time to defend his actions and 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:11.680 explain his reasons for fighting FDR. On air, he said 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.040 he was no dictator, but that he had no alternative 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:16.240 but to run the state's finances in order to feed 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:21.200