USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. II > Part 32
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This committee were appointed by ballot, and con- sisted of General James Jackson, William Few, James Jones, John Moore, David B. Mitchell, James H. Ru-
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therford, David Emanuel, - Frazier, and George Franklin.
This committee entered upon their duties with promptness and energy. They met, indeed, with many obstacles, and were threatened with violence by the enraged advocates of the supplementary bill; but they were not the men to be intimidated by the threats of assassins, or turned aside from their duty by the impotent rage of those whose iniquities were recoiling upon their own heads.
On the 22d of January, General Jackson, from the committee, reported, " that they have had the same under their serious consideration, and lament that they are compelled to declare, that the fraud, corruption, and collusion, by which the said act was obtained, and the unconstitutionality of the same, evinces the utmost depravity in the majority of the late Legislature." " It appears to your committee, that the public good was placed entirely out of view, and private interest alone consulted; that the rights of the present gene- ration were violated, and the rights of posterity bar- tered, by the said act; and that by it, the bounds of equal rights were broken down, and the principles of aristocracy established in their stead. The committee (whilst they thus with shame and confusion acknow- ledge that such a Legislature, intrusted with the rights of their constituents, should have existed in Georgia), cannot, however, forbear to congratulate the present Legislature and the community at large, that there are sufficient grounds, as well with respect to the uncon- stitutionality of the act, as from the testimony before the committee, of the fraud practised to obtain it, to pronounce, that the same is a nullity in itself, and not
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YAZOO SPECULATIONS.
binding or obligatory on the people of this State : and they flatter themselves that a declaration to that effect, by a legislative act, will check that rapacious and ava- ricious spirit of speculation which has in this State overleaped all decent bounds, and which, if it were to continue, would totally annihilate morality and good faith from among the citizens of the State. The com- mittee, for this purpose, beg leave to report, 'An Act for declaring the said usurped act void, and for ex- punging the same from the face of the public record ; and they also herewith report testimony taken be- fore them, on the subject of the fraud practised to obtain it."
The bill was then introduced and read the first time. In its progress through the House and Senate, it under- went much discussion and some modification; but it finally passed, by a vote of forty-four to three, in the House, and of fourteen to four, in the Senate, and was concurred in by the Governor, on the 13th of Febru- ary, 1796.
This act, commonly called "The Rescinding Act," was drawn up by General Jackson, and displays marked ability in the discussion of the great constitutional questions to which it relates. The preamble declares, that " the free citizens of this State, or in other words, the community thereof, are essentially the source of the sovereignty of the State; and that no individual, or body of men, can be entitled to, or vested with, any authority which is not expressly derived from that source; and the exercise or assumption of powers not so derived, become, of themselves, oppression and usurpation, which it is the right and duty of the people, in their representatives, to resist, and to re-
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store the rights of the community so usurped and in- fringed.
" That the will or constitution of the people is the only foundation of the legislative power or government thereof; and so far as that will or constitution ex- pressly warrants, the Legislature may go, but no far- ther; and all constructive powers, not necessarily de- duced from that expressed will, are violations of that essential source of sovereignty and the rights of the citizens, and are therefore of no binding force or effect on the State, but null and void."
The act then states, that " the last Legislature, not confining itself to the powers with which that body was constitutionally invested, did usurp a power to pass the obnoxious act, contrary to constitutional au- thority and repugnant to the democratical form of government of the State. That the act is repugnant to the 4th section, 4th article of the Constitution of the United States, and to the 16th section of the 1st article of the Constitution of this State; that it was a virtual transfer of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the State over the territory disposed of; that there was no necessity or pressing urgency for the sale of such an immense tract; and that it exposed the State to a great loss of revenue from the relinquishment of taxa- tion." The bill then recites, in a clear and succinct manner, the ground on which Georgia bases its right to the western territory; and states, that "the same and every part thereof is hereby declared to be vested in the State and people thereof, and inalienable but by a convention called by the people for that express purpose, or by some clause of power expressed by the people, delegating such express power to the Legisla- ture, in the Constitution."
·
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It then proceeds to state, that fraud had been prac- tised to obtain this bill; and the evidences of such fraud, establishing thereby cause which "would be sufficient in equity, reason, and law, to invalidate the contract, even supposing it to be constitutional, which this Legislature declares it is not." Having in this long preamble laid down the principles on which the act was based, the bill declares-Be it therefore enacted, Ist. That the act of the 7th January, 1795, entitled " An Act supplementary," &c., " be, and the same is hereby, declared null and void," &c.
The 2d enacting clause orders this act to " be ex- punged from the face and indexes of the books of record of the State; and the enrolled law or usurped act shall then be publicly burnt, in order that no trace of so unconstitutional, vile, and fraudulent a transac- tion, other than the infamy attached to it by this law, shall remain in the offices thereof."
The 3d clause directs that none of the laws, grants, deeds, agreements, &c., respecting any contracts under that law, shall be admitted as evidence in any court of law or equity, to establish a title to the said territory.
The 4th section requires the return to the compa- nies of the money which may have been paid by them into the treasury.
The 5th asserts, that the right of applying for, and the extinguishment of, Indian claims to any land within the boundaries of this State, as herein described, being a sovereign right, is hereby further declared to be vested in the people and government of this State, to whom the right of pre-emption of the same belongs.
The last clause requires that this law be promul- gated by the Governor throughout the United States,
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"in order to prevent frauds on individuals, as far as the nature of the case will admit."
On the 25th of January, General Jackson, as chair- man of the Investigating Committee, reported to the House sundry affidavits, " on the corruptions practised to obtain the act;" and by a resolution of the House, " all such proofs relating to the fraud and corruptions practised to obtain the act for the disposal of the western territory," were to be entered on the Journals of the House, "in order that the testimony so given may be perpetuated, as well for the satisfaction of the Legislature, and to show the grounds on which they proceeded, as to hand down to future Legislatures the base means by which the rights of the people were at- tempted to be bartered." Accordingly, some twenty affidavits, showing more or less fraud, were spread on the Journals. It is not necessary, however, to repro- duce any of them here. It can serve no good end to parade before the public now, the names of men who in times of intense political strife were held up to ig- nominy and reproach, especially as many of the per- sons thus branded were subsequently received into public favor,-one having been since the act elected President of the Senate; four, members of the Senate ; four more, members of the House ; two, elevated to the bench, as judges; one, made a justice of the peace ; and one appointed a trustee of the University of Georgia. There were circumstances, both inculpatory and exculpatory, which, had they been known at the time, would have added to that catalogue names which now are esteemed spotless, and which would have re- moved from it names which now are branded with legislative condemnation.
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Two days after the act was concurred in by the Go- vernor, both branches of the Legislature adopted a report, presented by the committee to whom was refer- red the mode by which the records were to be ex- punged of all traces of the usurped act, and the act itself burned,-suggesting " that, where it can possibly be executed without injury to other records, the same shall be expunged from the book of records, by cutting out the leaves of the book wherein the same may have been recorded ; a memorandum thereof, expressing the number of pages so expunged, to be signed by the Pre- sident of the Senate, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to be countersigned by the Secre- tary and Clerk,-which memorandum shall be inserted in the room or place of such expunged pages, in such manner as the President and Speaker may direct. That where records and documents are distinct and separate from other records, the same being of record, shall be expunged by being burnt. That the enrolled bill, and usurped act, passed on the 7th day of Janu- ary, 1795, shall, in obedience to the act of the present session, be burnt in the square, before the State House, in the manner following : A fire shall be made in front of the State House door, and a line to be formed by the members of both branches around the same. The Secretary of State (or his deputy), with the commit- tee, shall then produce the enrolled bill and usurped act from among the archives of the State, and deliver the same to the President of the Senate, who shall examine the same, and shall then deliver the same to the Speaker of the House of Representatives for like examination ; and the Speaker shall then deliver them to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, who
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shall read aloud the title of the same, and shall then deliver them to the Messenger of the House, who shall then pronounce-' GOD SAVE THE STATE ! AND LONG PRESERVE HER RIGHTS !! AND MAY EVERY ATTEMPT TO INJURE THEM PERISH AS THESE CORRUPT ACTS NOW DO !!! '"
In conformity with this programme, the House of Representatives, the same day, sent a message to the Senate, informing that body that they were ready to receive them in the Representatives' Hall, in order to proceed to the duty prescribed. The Senate proceeded to the Hall, and there joining the Representatives, marched in procession to the spot selected, preceded by the committee bearing the proscribed bills in their hands. When they reached the spot where the fire was kindled, the committee delivered the acts to the President of the Senate. That officer handed them to the Speaker of the House, by whom they were passed into the hands of the Clerk, who gave them to the Messenger,-who, uttering the prescribed words, laid them on the fire, and the Legislature stood in solemn circle around until the documents were burned to ashes.
Tradition states that the more enthusiastic friends of the rescinding bill resolved that the usurped act should not be burned by common fire; and, therefore, with a sun-glass, one of them drew down fire from heaven and kindled the funeral pile of the condemned documents, which were thus consumed as by the burning rays of the lidless eye of Justice. No authentic document of the day alludes to such a method of kindling the fire, though it is not impossible, in the ardor of the mo- ment, that such may have been the fact.
The scene, aside from such a romantic circumstance,
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was sufficiently striking and impressive. The sudden revolution in public opinion in one year, by which the citizens so changed their views upon the subject of the western territory, was a marvellous reaction in the popular mind. The passing of such an act, rescinding and nullifying the doings of a previous Legislature by so large a majority (almost unanimous), in the face of obstacles and dangers so numerous, was still more astounding as an index of the people's will. The ex- punging from the records of the State the acts and doings pertaining to the bill for disposing of the west- ern territory, was a higher manifestation of feeling than had ever been known to exist in Georgia before, and one which had rarely been done in any legislative assembly; but, the ordering of these documents to be burned, the legislative procession, the formal delivery of them from the archives of the State, through its high officers to the humblest servant of the Representatives, the solemn appeal to God, as the papers were laid upon the fire, and the stillness which marked the few minutes which it required to consume them, was a spectacle not only never beheld in Georgia before, but unknown to any Assembly on this continent; and it indicated, as nothing else could, the intense sense of indignation at the dishonor cast upon the State, and the equally intense desire to burn out the infamy ; purifying, as by fire, the archives of the State from such fraud-be- gotten records.
It was a scene worthy to employ the pencil of some gifted artist ; and a picture that should, as far as pos- sible, reproduce the old State House and its surround- ings; the features and dresses of the men of those times ; the circle just formed around the kindling fire,
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and the Messenger in the act of uttering the words,- God save the State ! as, lifting up the acts on high, he is about to lay them upon the blazing fire,-would grace, with peculiar propriety, the hall of legislation,- telling to the eyes of future generations, what history tells to the mind, how nobly Georgia, though for a moment overborne by intrigue and deception, threw off the odium, and purged herself of the infamy of the usurping act.
The people of Georgia were prepared for the passage of the rescinding bill, and hailed its signature by the Governor with every demonstration of joy. Not so, however, the several companies, whose rights were thereby revoked, and whose claims summarily re- jected. The news of the rescinding act was to them an astounding measure. Some of the companies had disposed of parts of their lands to other companies at a great advance on their purchase. The lands them- selves had become suddenly enhanced in value, by reason of the Spanish treaty, which confirmed the ter- ritory, unmolested by the authority of the King of Spain, to Georgia; and the New England Mississippi Company, made up of many reliable and excellent men, had already invested large sums in the grants which had been issued.
All persons thus interested viewed the act with dis- may. The friends of the former bills were loud in denouncing it as a fraud, overtopping even their own so-called fraudulent act; and it excited intense ani- mosity and bitterness throughout the Union. Several pamphlets were written on both sides; suits at law were entered in various courts; appeals to Government were sent in from different quarters; and the contro-
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versy between the companies and Georgia was main- tained for several years. It is not necessary to follow the results of this annulling act through all its tortu- osities in law and equity ; or to repeat the objections which were made against its validity and binding force. Suffice it to say that the question was sifted to its very foundation. The testimony and pro- ceedings of the two Legislatures were scrutinized with an analytical skill that brought every fact to the cru- cible ; yet, after all the war of opinions, and the clash of interests, and the thunder of volleying pamphlets, and the crimination and recrimination of individuals ; the well-grounded and sober judgment of the people has settled down into the opinion that the act of '95 was an abuse of legislative authority, and a wasteful and shameful surrender of territorial rights; and that the act of '96 was necessary, as a self-protecting law, to bring back alienated territory, to efface public in- famy, to settle the great question of constitutional rights, and to vindicate anew the title of Georgia to her western territory.
In March, 1798, the subject having been brought before Congress, a bill, entitled, " An act for an ami- cable settlement of limits with the State of Georgia, and authorizing the establishment of a government in the Mississippi territory," was passed, empowering the President "to appoint three commissioners,-any two of whom shall have power to adjust and determine, with such commissioners as may be appointed under the legislative authority of the State of Georgia, all interfering claims of the United States and that State to territory situate west of the Chattahoochee, north of the 31° of north latitude, and south of the cession
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made to the United States by South Carolina. And also to obtain and accept, through said commissioners, or otherwise, a relinquishment or cession of the whole, or any part of the territory, both as to jurisdiction and soil claimed by or under the State of Georgia, and out of the ordinary jurisdiction of the same."
After various modifications of this bill, commis- sioners were appointed by the United States and Georgia,-those for the United States being James Madison, Albert Gallatin, and Levi Lincoln,-and those for the State of Georgia being James Jackson, John Milledge, and Abram Baldwin. These com- missioners, after careful and deliberate conference, entered into a convention, or agreement, which Mr. Jefferson, the President, laid before Congress, on the 26th of April, 1802. Agreeably to this convention, Georgia ceded most of her western territory to the United States for the sum of $1,250,000,-Congress agreeing to confirm the titles of all actual settlers within the ceded territory who were there prior to October, 1795; agreeing, also, to extinguish for Georgia the Indian title to the country between the Alatamaha and the St. Mary's, and all other lands in Georgia. Congress approved these measures, the cession was made, and thenceforth the contest of claimants was transferred from Georgia to the Federal Government ; and there it remained for many years before a final disposition of the whole subject was made by Congress in 1814.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1798, AND CONCLUSION.
IN accordance with the 4th Article of the Amend- ment of the Constitution, established at Louisville, in May, 1795, there were elected, in the year 1797, three persons from each county to form "a Convention for the purpose of taking into consideration the further alterations and amendments necessary to be made in the Constitution."
Before the meeting of that Convention, the term of office of Governor Irwin had expired; and James Jackson was, on the 12th January, 1798, a second time elected to the Executive Chair. This honor he did not, as in 1788, feel at liberty to decline, and he was accordingly inaugurated into his high office.
Considering the prominent part which General Jack- son had acted in opposition to the Yazoo sale,-being regarded by all parties as the principal person in crush- ing these gigantic monopolies,-this election displayed at once the opinions of the people as to the measures which he had introduced, and their confidence in him personally.
The Speaker of the House, in communicating to him the fact of his election, said, "Your appointment VOL. II. 32
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by a large majority of the House, evinces the great confidence which the representatives of the people re- pose in you. The critical posture of our affairs ren- ders it peculiarly necessary that the Chief Magistracy of this State should be filled by a person of experience and approved patriotism. Your repeated exertions in the service of your country, leave no room to doubt that you will accept the office which has been thus honorably conferred upon you ; and that you will dis- charge the duties of this important trust in such a manner as shall give general satisfaction."
Governor Jackson entered upon his duties with zeal, intelligence, and patriotism. He found many ques- tions to be decided, which demanded all his wisdom ; many concurring events which it required great pru- dence and energy to control; and difficulties to be ad- justed with the General Government, the State of South Carolina, and the Indian tribes, which taxed the powers of his statesmanship ; but in each he maintained the honor of Georgia, and his own official dignity.
Many of the questions which then largely occupied the public mind, were local and temporary, and are of but little historical value : such as depredations com- mitted by the Indians; difficulties connected with run- ning the Indian line; troubles incident to the Yazoo and Rescinding Acts ; the settlement of a proper militia system ; the apportionment of representatives ; and the raising and investment of State funds.
The subject which rose in importance above all the others, was, the evident necessity for a new Constitu- tion for the State. Experience had shown some serious defects in the Constitution of 1789, which the Conven- tion at Louisville, in 1795, was not able to remove, on
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account of the intense excitement occasioned by the recent passage of the Act for the disposal of the West- ern Territory.
That Convention, therefore, in their troubled and hasty session, made but few amendments to the Con- stitution, and left the instrument to the calmer and wiser deliberation of the Convention which had been elected to meet in 1798.
Much of the excitement, which prevented sober ac- tion in 1795, had passed away; and the people, and their representatives, were prepared to act with true energy and discretion. The delegates elected to Con- vention, met in Louisville, on Tuesday, the 8th of May, and twenty-one counties were represented by fifty-six members. Jared Irwin, the late Governor, who had signed the Rescinding Act, was elected by ballot Pre- sident, and James M. Simmons, Secretary.
After appointing a committee, " to prepare and re- port such rules as may be necessary for the good order and government of the Convention," and resolving that it would attend Divine service the next day, "at 11 o'clock, in conformity to the Proclamation of the Pre- sident of the United States," the Convention adjourned till Thursday. On Thursday two more counties were represented, and a code of rules was adopted for the government of the body.
On Friday, 11th of May, the Convention resolved to take into consideration the Constitution and amend- ments, section by section ; and on Monday following, resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole upon it ; and in this way they sat, day by day, until the 30th of May. Some of the more important sections were referred to committees, to examine and report; all
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propositions, however, were first discussed in commit- tee of the whole, and then reported to the Convention, which took final action upon them. As the several parts of the Constitution were not passed in the order in which they are now arranged, a committee, of which Mr. Powell was chairman, was appointed to ar- range the different sections under the proper articles ; which, being done, and the same being engrossed upon six pages of parchment, was read, article by article, and then signed, the members being called upon to sign by counties. It was signed by all, except General Gunn, of Camden, and Colonel Thomas Glascock, of Richmond, who asked and received leave to decline signing, because by the 23d Section of Article I, the State claimed and reasserted its right of possession and jurisdiction over territory which they claimed as grantees under the usurped act of 1795.
A committee was then appointed, consisting of James Cochran, of Liberty, Jesse Mercer, of Wilkes, and John Morrison, of Burke, to have the great seal of the State affixed to the instrument, and to have the same depo- sited in the office of the Secretary of State. This being done, after voting the thanks of the Convention to the presiding officer, Ex-Governor Irwin, the body ad- journed sine die.
The signing of the Constitution was announced to the public by the discharge of sixteen rounds of artil- lery; and the people everywhere received it with peculiar joy.
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