USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. II > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
3. To rest authority " somewhere" to impress horses, carts, or teams for the public works.
4. To revise the militia laws, so as to make them more stringent in their provisions, and more certain in their operation; and to inquire whether it may be proper at the present time to embody and organize a negro corps as part of the militia of the province ?
But little was done by this Assembly; harmony did not prevail in its deliberations ; differences continually rose between the upper and lower houses ; members absented themselves and were fined, placed under arrest, and reprimanded by the Speaker at the bar of the House; several adjournments over long intervals took place ; and the Governor at last, on the 15th November, 1780, adjourned the Commons' House of Assembly to the 17th of January, 1781. Before that day came, at the urgent request of some of the members of the House, and the merchants and traders, Sir James called the Assembly together again on the 11th December, 1780, to " recommend to their serious consideration the pre- sent defenceless state of the province, particularly the inlets and sea islands." To remedy this, it was pro- posed to build a galley from seventy to eighty feet keel, with from fifteen to twenty oars on a side; to carry a six-pounder in the bow, and four two-pounders, twelve swivels and twenty muskets, and fifty whites and ten VOL. II.
21
322
GEORGIA AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
refugee negroes. But it was found that the cost of such a galley, its equipment, and support, would be beyond the means at command, and the Assembly adjourned, without any definite action in the matter.
All subsequent attempts at royal legislation in Geor- gia were to little purpose. The British found them- selves gradually driven into a smaller compass, as the lines of the so-called " rebels" were pushed on towards Savannah. The headquarters of the American army were shortly after established at Ebenezer, and scarcely anything was left to the Governor but the town of Sa- vannah, which then contained 240 houses and 750 white inhabitants, exclusive of officers and soldiers under General Alured Clarke; and this town, says one of the British officers, " was so closely blockaded by the rebel army, that it was dangerous to go without our lines." This state of things continued until the 14th June, 1782, when orders were received at Savan- nah, by Sir James Wright, for the evacuation of the province, and measures were accordingly taken to comply with the requisition.
It was during the period when British rule was tem- porarily re-established and the hopes of the patriots were well-nigh extinct, that the smothered disaffection which had been at first excited in two or three minds, in reference to the manner in which the Executive Council had been constituted, and to the extraordinary powers which had been conferred upon it by an irre- sponsible meeting of citizens, gathered force, and burst out in a movement which threatened for a time to rend asunder the little liberty that was yet left in Georgia.
George Walton, who had been taken prisoner when
1
323
ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
Savannah was captured, in 1778, and had been ex- changed after the 'siege, in 1779 ; in conjunction with Richard Howley, George Wells, and a few others, spared no pains to spread discontent towards the existing gov- ernment ; they represented some of the members of the Council as favorable to the Tories, and unqualifiedly condemned the whole body " and all their proceedings as illegal, unconstitutional, and dangerous to the liber- ties of the State." Accordingly, these men called upon the people to choose delegates to an Assembly, to be convened in Augusta, in November, 1779; notwith- standing the Executive Council had issued their writs of election for deputies to the Assembly, as provided for by the Constitution of 1777. The friends of Wal- ton met in Augusta; and, on the 4th November, chose him Governor, for the short remainder of the year; and also a delegate to Congress. The so-called Assem- bly also appointed a body of councillors, so that there were two Executive Councils exercising authority at the same time, yet neither of them was constitutional, and no act of either was strictly legal. The conse- quence was, that this aspect of affairs "occasioned the most violent parties and convulsions," and introduced a confusion in civil affairs which the historian, with his present imperfect materials, cannot fully unravel.
While this disaffection was being engendered by the enemies of the first Executive Council ; that body, for- seeing some of the evils, endeavored to ward them off by publishing a declaration of their powers in these words :-
" Whereas, some jealousies, natural to a people tena- cious of their liberties, have arisen among some of the citizens of this. State, respecting the power of this
324
GEORGIA AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
Board; and whereas it behooves the rulers of a free country, at all times, to take every step in their power to give all reasonable satisfaction to the inhabitants thereof, and to put a stop to such jealousies and com- plaints as may take place ; and whereas the citizens of this State above-mentioned conceive, by virtue of the delegation which authorizes this Board to proceed on the executive department of government, they have power to act in the judicial and legislative depart- ments; we do hereby declare and make known to all whom it may concern, that we are not invested with any such judicial or legislative powers, and that it never was nor ever will be our intention to assume to ourselves any such powers by virtue of the above-men- tioned delegation, and that we neither mean to con- travene or destroy the Constitution of the State, which we think must have due operation, whenever a time of less disquiet will admit of its being adequate to the exigency of Government."
The proceedings of this second self-constituted As- sembly and Council, were principally marked by their attempts to traduce the character of General McIn- tosh ; attempts which had begun during the adminis- tration of Governor Treutlen, when the General, as a Continental officer, refused to obey the orders of the Executive ; and which had been fostered by his enemies with a steadiness and earnestness worthy of a better cause.
The Council of Walton had caused a letter to be prepared and sent to the President of the Continental Congress, expressing the dissatisfaction of the people of Georgia at the appointment of General McIntosh to command in the State; and declaring, that "it is
325
ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
highly necessary that Congress should, whilst that officer is in the service of the United States, direct some distant field for the exercise of his abilities." This letter purported to be from William Glascock, Speaker of the House of Assembly, acting for and in behalf of that body; and was officially transmitted, with other public papers, by George Walton, then the Governor of the State, to the President of Congress. The effect of this was, that Congress, on the 15th February, 1780, voted to "dispense with the services of Brigadier-General McIntosh, until the further order of Congress." It was subsequently proved, however, that Glascock never wrote or saw the letter to which his name was appended; that it did not emanate from the Assembly, nor did it receive it's sanction; but that it was the product of Walton, and a few of his ill- judging friends and advisers, for the purpose of black- ening the character of McIntosh, and removing him from any command in the State.
Three years later, when the painful subject was again before the public, the whole correspondence and doings of Governor Walton and his Assembly were carefully reviewed by the Legislature, which, upon a report of a committee of the Assembly, voted "that the resolves of Council, dated Augusta, 12th Decem- ber, 1779, and the letter from the Governor (Walton) to the President of Congress, dated 15th December, 1779, respecting the General, were unjust, illiberal, and a misrepresentation of facts;" that the so-called Glascock letter was "a forgery, in violation of law and truth, and highly injurious to the interests of the State, and dangerous to the rights of its citizens."
The Assembly also expressed their sense of the vir-
326
GEORGIA AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
tues and merits of General McIntosh, and ordered the Attorney-General "to make the necessary inquiries, and enter such prosecution as may be consistent with his office and duty."
Thus was General McIntosh cleared of the malig- nant charges of his enemies, and his character publicly indorsed by the Legislature of his State. Yet, strange to say, the very Legislature which passed the resolu- tion condemning the course of Walton, and directing the Attorney-General to enter prosecution, had only the day before elected Walton as Chief Justice of Georgia, and placed him over the very tribunal before which he should have been brought and tried for his " unjust and illiberal" conduct. Of course, the prose- cution was never attempted.
The reins of government, which had been usurped by Walton and the Assembly which sat for four or five weeks in the close of 1779, were resumed by an Assembly, called agreeably to the provisions of the Constitution, which met at Augusta, in January, 1780; when Richard Howley was chosen Governor, and Wil- liam Glascock, Speaker of the House. George Wells, Stephen Heard, John Lindsay, and Humphrey Wells, were appointed members of the Executive Council ; George Wells being elected President of that body.
As might have been expected from the constitution of this Assembly, made up mostly of the friends of Walton and Howley, early steps were taken to cast odium upon the Council of State chosen in July, 1779; and on the 15th January, 1780, the Assembly, having recited in a preamble some of the evils which resulted from the action of that Council, such as "exercising powers and authorities unknown to, and subversive of,
327
ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
the Constitution and laws of the State;" "creating different political opinions, and thereby weakening the authority of legal government," and giving the enemy a means whereby they could foment dissensions, where unity was needed; "resolved and declared, and it is hereby resolved and declared, that the said Council, and the powers they exercised, were illegal and un- constitutional."
The condition of the State at this time was truly alarming. Many of its best and most reliable citizens had been driven away, and were in exile in other States; the paper currency had so depreciated, that it was scarcely possible to pay the expenses of govern- ment ; political power was mostly in the hands of "a triumvirate;" the aspect of affairs was " hastening from bad to worse with great rapidity;" justice had, in some glaring instances, given place to tyranny ; boisterous demagoguism, and fealty to the dominant party, passed for patriotism; and many good men who had previously, and who subsequently, occupied high positions in the State, mourned the fearful evils, which they saw so clearly displayed, but which they could not then mitigate or remove.
On the 1st February, 1780, the Assembly, anti- cipating " from the events of war, it may so happen that the ministers of government of this State might not be able to do or transact the business of the State within the limits of the same," unanimously resolved, " that his honor the Governor, or, in his absence, the President and Executive Council, may do and transact all and every business of government, in as full, ample, and authoritative manner, in any other State within the confederation, touching and respecting of this
1
328
GEORGIA AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
State, as though it had been done and transacted within the limits of the State."
The next day, in consequence of hearing " that the British troops in Savannah have received a reinforce- ment from New York," the Governor issued a procla- mation, " to the end that the good people of this State may have notice of the same, and that proper exer- tions may be made for repelling the common enemy," " commanding and requiring the people to stand firm to their duty, and exert themselves in support and defence of the great and glorious independency of the United States; and also to remember, with grati- tude to Heaven, that the Almighty Ruler of human affairs hath been pleased to raise up the spirit and might of the two greatest powers in the world (France and Spain), to join with them, and oppose and destroy the persecutor of their liberties and immunities."
On the 3d February, the Governor was " requested to issue orders for embodying one-half of the militia of this State immediately," to rendezvous at Augusta. Colonel Twiggs was also desired to collect his men, and as many volunteers as possible, and take post at the same place. The Assembly censured General Lincoln for removing the Continental troops, and de- clared, that he stood "answerable for all the conse- quences which may follow that unadvised measure."
Aware of the almost defenceless state of Augusta, the seat of government, which, it was stated, " might be surprised by twenty men," and feeling that it was " unsafe and impolitic for the Governor and Council to remain thus exposed," the Assembly designated Heard's Fort, in Wilkes County, as "the place of meeting for transacting the business of the govern-
329
ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
ment of this State, as soon after leaving Augusta as may be."
Acting upon this recommendation, the Executive Council, on the 5th February, adjourned to meet at Heard's Fort. Governor Howley was requested to take his seat in the Continental Congress, to which he had been elected by the Assembly; and "the Hon. George Wells, Esq., the President, with three mem- bers of this Board," were declared to be "fully com- petent to the transaction of all public business, as effectually as though the Governor was in the State."
Death shortly removed President Wells from his seat in the Council, and, on the 18th February, Ste- phen Heard, of Wilkes County, "was appointed to fill that station for the remainder of the year."
At this time, republican Georgia consisted of only two counties, Richmond and Wilkes; as all south of a line drawn from Hudson's Ferry, on the Savannah, to the Ogeechee, was in possession of the British; and this small portion was now menaced with danger from British troops and Indian foes, and reduced to alarm- ing distress ; a distress greatly augmented by internal dissensions. While the Assembly was voting the pro- ceedings of the nine members of the body, called " The Supreme Executive Council," illegal, unconsti- tutional, and dangerous to the liberties of the State ; the Grand Jury of Richmond County, the foreman of which was John Wereat, the President of that Council, made a presentment to the General Court, in March, 1780, before the Hon. William Stephens, Chief Justice, and his Associate Justices; in which paper, among other things, they declare on oath, and present as a grievance, " as a manifest breach of the Constitution,
330
GEORGIA AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
a meeting, composed of about the number of twenty, in the month of November last, who called themselves ' The House of Assembly,' and actually assumed and exercised the legislative and executive powers of go- vernment, contrary to the express letter and spirit of the Constitution, which we conceive to be a precedent dangerous to the rights and liberties of the good people of this State. 'Tis much to be apprehended, and is the fixed opinion of many of the citizens of this State, that this mutilated Assembly, at the eve of a general election, was rather contrived to answer the private purpose of some artful and designing individuals, than for the real interest and benefit of the State."
Thus discordant were the counsels of the leading men of the times; and the strength of the republican party was wasted by the political animosities of those who should have moved in fraternal union towards the attainment of their great object,-the rescuing the State from the hands of the enemy, and the upholding of its declared independence.
The capture of Charleston not only deprived the South of its army, but enabled Lord Cornwallis to spread his posts in the back country of Carolina and Georgia, and hold both States under his military power. No sooner had the sad news of the capitula- tion of General Lincoln, in May, 1780, reached Au- gusta, than the Republican government retreated to Heard's Fort, the place designated by the Assembly. Governor Howley was requested, by a vote of the Ex- ecutive Council, on the 23d May, "to retire to some place of safety, either South or North Carolina; as, from longer delay, his situation might endanger the liberty of his person ;" and the public moneys were
331
ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
directed to " be placed in the hands of the President, and to be paid off as the occasions of public service may require, under his direction and that of the Ex- ecutive Council in the absence of the Governor."
Thus was Georgia reduced to the verge of political death. The government, such as it was, was admi- nistered by President Heard and a few members of the Council in Wilkes County ; and when Mr. Heard retreated to North Carolina, Myrick Davies was chosen President in his place. The condition of the republi- cans in Georgia was indeed deplorable. Driven from Savannah and the seaboard; compelled to evacuate Augusta ; hemmed in by hostile Indians on the fron- tier; and confined mostly to a few settlements in and around Wilkes County, they lived in daily peril; had almost daily skirmishes with regulars, tories, or In- dians; were harassed with alarms, were surprised by ambuscades, were pinched with want, and had one long bitter struggle for simple existence, with scarcely a ray of hope to light up the future.
The principal cities of Georgia and South Carolina being now in the hands of the British, and the royal government having been re-established in the Province of Georgia ; rumors were heard in various quarters1 that it was the design of the ministry in England to make new overtures of peace to the Americans, but to leave out of consideration the claims of Georgia and perhaps of South Carolina, regarding Georgia, at least, as now completely restored to the British rule and throne. These accounts reached the ears of the delegates in Congress from Georgia ; and with a promptness worthy
1 Curwan's Journal and Letters, p. 328, speaks of them. Madison Papers, i, 65-71.
332
GEORGIA AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
of all praise, they immediately issued a small pamphlet entitled " Observations upon the effects of certain late Political Suggestions," by the delegates from Georgia.
These " observations" were written and published in Philadelphia, in January, 1781, and signed by George Walton, W. Few, and R. Howley. To them they ap- pended a valuable table, showing the progressive com- merce of Savannah, from 1755 to 1772, compiled by William Brown, Comptroller and Searcher of his Ma- jesty's Customs in Savannah, the truth of which was sworn to before Anthony Stokes, the Chief Justice of the Province.
In the opening paragraph of this tract, they remark : "From the most recent accounts that have been re- ceived from Europe, there is the greatest reason to expect, that a new commission will issue from the Court of London for the purpose of again sounding the temper of America upon the subject of pacification ; in which the State of Georgia, and perhaps that of South Carolina, will not be regarded as part of the American Union, but excluded as having been again colonized to England by new conquest."
" The uti possidetis also has been much talked of in Europe as a probable basis for the peace; and this re- port, although rejected with marks of abhorrence by all descriptions of men in America, circulates with ter- ror, as it is pretended to be drawn from the armed neutrality."
The delegates then forcibly remark, in reference to Georgia, which would be particularly affected by the operation of such principles : "They united in the one cause, and have sacrificed their blood and fortunes in its support; and, therefore, it would be unjust and in-
333
ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
human for the other parts of the Union separately to embrace the result of the common efforts, and leave them under the yoke of a bankrupt and enraged tyrant. To preserve the States entire is the object of the alli- ance with France, and it cannot be the interest of the other great branch of the family compact, that we should again make a part of the British Empire."
Entering at once upon the subject of the importance of Georgia to the Union, they show, that in its com- merce and agricultural productions; in its sea-coast and harbors; in its ship-timber and pine forests ; in its position as a check to the encroaching power of Spain and England; "Georgia is a material part of the Union, and cannot be given up without affecting its essential interest, if not endangering its existence." With great justice and political sagacity do the dele- gates declare : "As to America, no part of it could expect to be free long, while England retains both ends of the Continent."
How far this publication prevented the consumma- tion of the rumored uti possidetis, is not known. Cer- tain it is, that such a plan as settling a peace to the exclusion of Georgia, was never formally proposed ; yet the report of such a movement must have been undoubted, or such a labored defence of the rights and importance of Georgia would not have been published.
The possibility that the uti possidetis might be en- forced as a basis of treaty by the armed neutrality of Europe, produced alarm in the minds of many. To conciliate Spain, for the double purpose of obtaining from her pecuniary aid and of keeping her from yield- ing to the British emissaries, who were now at work at Madrid, seeking to detach his Catholic Majesty from
334
GEORGIA AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
the war, the delegates from South Carolina and Geor- gia, then under military occupancy by the British, were willing to give up the claimed right of naviga- ting the Mississippi, rather than, by insisting upon it, to defeat a peace on a full Continental basis. Mr. Jay had been instructed to insist upon the right of "the free navigation of the river Mississippi, into and from the sea,"' as the ultimatum of peace ; but the majority of the members of Congress, moved by the impending danger, coincided with the delegates, and the instruc- tions of Mr. Jay were altered, permitting him, if re- quired to do so, to recede from his demand for the free navigation of the Mississippi, below the thirty-first degree of north latitude ; provided, above that latitude, the Americans could have equal rights of navigation with the subjects of Spain. As soon, however, as the menacing crisis was over, Congress revoked these in- structions, and insisted upon and secured its first de- mands.
The whole transaction forms an interesting and in- structive page in our history ; especially when viewed as to what might have been the result, had the con- cessions authorized by these fears been made by Mr. Jay; and had the outlet of the Mississippi been closed to the commercial enterprise of a people destined soon to find, in the valley of that great river, the heart and centre of the Union.
The policy of the British conqueror of Carolina, in compelling men to take arms against their country, and visiting with almost unparalleled barbarity of punishment the helpless victims which war threw
1 Vide letter of Madison, in Madison Papers, vol. i, Appen. iv.
335
ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
into the hands of the enemy ; stirred up the masses of the people, and caused them to rally once more under their leaders, for the purpose of recovering their State and their liberties. Under the animation of feeling inspired by these movements, a better state of things dawned upon Georgia, in the year 1781. Augusta had been recovered from the enemy, and an Assembly had convened there, when, on the 16th August, Dr. Nathan Brownson was elected Governor; and Edward Telfair, Colonel William Few, Dr. Noble Wimberley Jones, and Samuel Stirk, were appointed delegates to Congress.
At the next meeting of the Assembly, in January, 1782, held also at Augusta, John Martin was elected Governor; and such was the brighter condition of affairs, that in his inaugural address to the House, he was enabled to say: "I am extremely happy in find- ing the virtuous struggles made by the good citizens of this State, against our cruel and unnatural enemies, have at length nearly secured to us those blessings for which we have so long contended ; and doubt not but, by a continuance of those exertions, and the support we have every reason to expect, we shall, in a short time, reap the happy fruit of our labors." But little business was transacted by this Assembly, and they adjourned to July ; but the exigencies of public busi- ness, and the necessitous condition of the State, made it necessary for Governor Martin to recall them by proclamation, to meet at Augusta on the third Tuesday in April, 1782.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.