A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Part 51

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 648

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During the year 1794. when Governor Mathews oceupied the execu- tive chair, there ocenrred in this state an episode to which the historians have seemingly attached little importance; but it possesses a flavor of intense human interest, if not a bearing of any great value upon the future course of events. We call it an episode because it ended in fail- nre: but had it succeeded there is no telling to what extent it might have influenced the current of history. Gen. Elijah Clarke, of the Rev- olution, who at this time was well advanced in years but still full of the martial spirit, conceived the idea of organizing an independent government on the west side of the Oconee River, in what was then the domain of the Creek Indians.

General Clarke was undoubtedly a patriot. In the drama of inde- pendence, he had played a most heroic part, having been chiefly instru- mental in the overthrow of Toryism in upper Georgia; and if his fame as a fighter was eclipsed in some measure by this exploit of his later life it was because the precise nature of his enterprise was not fully under- stood by his crities. He contemplated nothing akin to treason. The collapse of his splendid scheme exposed him to consequences such as failure invariably entails; but in sheer justice to the stern old warrior

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it must be said that when the proper time eame he fully expected to annex his republie to the State of Georgia.

General Clarke was weary of incessant troubles along the exposed frontier. To put an effectnal quietus upon the Indians and to solve by the sword a problem which was dark with menace to the peace of thou- sands, beeame his fixed resolve; and, while it was born of a sudden impulse, it gripped him with the power of a divine inspiration. Trained in the use of weapons, he preferred, like a true frontiersman, to argue a disputed point by resort to arms rather than by appeal to reason. Be- sides, during the unsettled period which followed the Revolution, force was still a greater power than law.

But the entry of General Clarke upon the territory of the Indians formed no part of his original intentions. Ile sought in the beginning an altogether different object. When the French emissary, Genet, came to this country, in 1794, to arouse popular hostility toward Spain, he found General Clarke a sympathetie listener. Moreover the latter, whose hatred of the Spaniards amounted to an obsession, was easily prevailed upon to accept a commission from France in a campaign, the deelared purpose of which was to seize Florida and to recover Louisiana. As it happened, the resources granted him for this purpose were wholly in- adequate, and the scheme itself proved abortive; but, finding himself at the head of an organized force, on the borders of Georgia, he cast his eyes toward the fertile lands beyond the Oconee River; and, into the meshes thus invitingly spread by the tempter, General Clarke fell.

There was no thought of treason to Georgia involved in this seheme of conquest. But he acted in an arbitrary manner, without consulting the state authorities, and in bold defiance of treaty agreements. Col. Absalom H. Chappell, an accurate historian, has given us a full account of the whole affair; and, while he does not uphold the general's course, he aequits him of any wrongful intent. The following review of one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of our state is summarized from Colonel Chappell's graphie account. After giving us a sketch of Alex- ander McGillivray, the wily half-breed chief, who commanded the Creeks at this time, he then turns to General Clarke. Says he :

"On the eivilized side [i. e., of the Oconee War], there was also a prominent representative eharaeter whom we should not overlook: a nobly meritorions yet unhappily, before the end of his career, a some- what erring soldier and patriot-General Elijah Clarke. The very military reputation which he had brought out of the Revolution made him the man to whom all the upper new settlements looked as the most competent of leaders and the most fearless of fighters. There never failed to come trooping to him, at his bugle eall, from field and forest, bands of armed men, at the head of whom he would repel incursions and pursue and punish the flying foe even in the distant recesses of bis wild woods. To be forward and valiant in defending the settlements from the Indian tomahawk was, in those days, a sure road to lasting gratitude and admiration.

"But destiny, which had hitherto been his friend, began at length to be his enemy and to impel General Clarke into improper and ill-starred but not ill-meant courses. His first error was in lending himself to the schemes of the mischief-making Freneh minister, Genet; his next in

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setting on foot the Oconee Rebellion, as it was called-missteps, both of which were owing rather to accidental circumstances at the partieu- lar time than to any intentional wrongdoing on his part.

"Genet was worthy to represent such a erew as the Jacobins under Robespierre; and he became drunk with the wild unschooled spirit of liberty. Nowhere did he meet with more encouragement than in South Carolina, due to the Huguenot element in the south of the State. The strong feeling of French consanguinity added foree to the universally prevalent sentiment of gratitude to France as our ally in the Revolu- tion. General Clarke's strong and bold nature sympathized with France. Genet wanted to seize Florida and to recover Louisiana from the Spaniards. He therefore presented the matter to General Clarke. The latter was not a diplomat, but a frontiersman, who was more familiar with woods than with courts, and who saw nothing whatever in the way of international complications. He disliked Spain as much as he loved Georgia. She was the ancient enemy of his State. He sought to render a patriotie serviee-for which reason he accepted the eom- mission .*

"Commissions for subordinate officers were likewise placed in his hands. He was given money and means also, but in too limited an amount for so great an enterprise. His authority was everywhere ree- ognized by French emissaries, and from the Ohio to the St. Mary's, his orders were obeyed in the making of preparations. Men thronged to him from South Carolina and Georgia, fired by the splendor of the projeet and the renown of the leader. The points of rendezvous were principally along the Oconee. Nor did the Indians manifest any hos- tility toward the adventurers, for they were ancient friends of the French, with whom they were allied in the French and Indian Wars.

"But the enterprise never reached the stage where General Clarke was to stand forth, trumcheon in hand, the avowed leader. Washington's administration was too strong and vigilant for Genet. Our obligations of neutrality toward Spain were fully maintained. The reeall of Genet was demanded. Of course, the consequences were disastrous to General Clarke. He was left standing, blank, resourceless, aimless, on the Indian side of the wilderness."

It was in these untoward circumstances that General Clarke, with his men, in May, 1794, began to bestow thought upon the Indian terri- tory, where already they saw themselves quartered in arms. Nor did they think long before they took the overstrong resolution of seizing upon the country and of setting up for themselves an independent gov- ernment. No seruples or impediments deterred them. To a man, they regarded the country as lost to Georgia by the perpetual guarantee made to the Indians by the Treaty of New York. A written constitution was adopted. General Clarke was chosen civil and military chief. A commit- tee of Safety was organized, with law-making functions. But whether a name was ever bestowed on the infant state or whether it expired with- out baptism, no record or tradition remains to tell. Nor is there any

* Stevens and White both state that he was commissioned a major-general in the Freneh army, with a pay of $10,000, but neither of them cites the documentary evi- dence on which this statement is based.

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copy of the constitution now to be found. But in the first volume of the "American State Papers on Indian Affairs" there is preserved a letter from General Clarke to the Committee of Safety. dated Fort Defiance, September 5, 1794, which places beyond doubt the adoption of the constitution and the other facts of organization .*

The new trans-Oconee Republic was too splendid a scheme for the petty numbers and resources of General Clarke's command. Stevens, in his history of Georgia, has mixed matters. He represents the Oconee war as eventuating in the French project, with which General Clarke became identified. On the contrary, it was the failure of the French project which led to the Oconee war.

In justification of General Clarke's course may be pleaded the ani- mosity which had long prevailed between the State of Georgia and the Creek Indians. The latter had been the allies of the British. In the Treaty of Augusta, in 1783, they had ceded the Oconee lands, but had refused to let Georgia enjoy them. They kept no faith; and, during the next year, not only raised the warhoop again, but rushed into an alliance with Spain. Later they were parties to another treaty, by which they eeded the Tallassee country, in the lower part of the state, only to repudiate it afterwards. Both at Augusta and at Galphinton, General Clarke had been one of the commissioners for Georgia. He was actuated less by the prevailing land-greed than by sagacious states- manship, and he looked to a permanent preservation of peace with the Indians. Still another treaty had been signed at Shoulder Bone, in 1876. Yet the war had not ceased.

Suchi was the status of affairs when the new Government of the United States was launched in 1789 and Washington called to the helm. It was barely a year thereafter that the Treaty of New York was con- summated, abrogating the other treaties and buying peace at the price of a retrocession of Tallassee, in addition to a perpetual guarantee to the Indians, on the part of the United States, regardless of Georgia's paramount rights. Yet the Indian did not keep even this treaty, because it did not coneede to them everything else which they claimed.

General Clarke was speedily overwhelmed by public eensure and total discomfiture. National and state governments acted in concert against him and finally put him down. Governor Mathews, with his revolutionary laurels untainted at this time by the Yazoo fraud, thun- dered at the obnoxious general, prompted by Washington, who preferred wisely to remain behind the scenes and to be neutral where the author- ities of the states were adequate to deal with the local situations. Judge Walton also condemned him in charges to grand juries, though in lan- guage of marked consideration and respeet. These, however, were not sufficient. The next step was more decisive. The citizen soldiery were called out; and, to General Clarke's surprise, they promptly obeyed orders. As the storm thickened around him, there were none to come to his suecor. Even his hosts of friends stood aloof. They could not

* " American State Papers, Indian Affairs," Vol. I, pp. 500-501, Library of Congress, Washington, District of Columbia.

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uphold him in violating the Treaty of New York, which the state was bound to respect.

It redounds to General Clarke's honor, however, that he no sooner became aware of the great error in which he was entangled than he abandoned it, ere he had shed a drop of blood. He never expected to raise his hand against any foe save the hostile Indians and Spaniards. This explains his ready and absolute submission when, on being assured that neither his men nor himself would be molested, he struck colors and disbanded his followers and returned, chagrined, to his home in Wilkes, on the approach of Generals Twiggs and Irwin, under the governor's order, with a body of the state troops.

In further defense of General Clarke it may be said that, with the Oconee River as a permanent guaranteed boundary between the State of Georgia and the Indians, it was clear to him that the state could never attain to much prosperity or importance, but must continue feeble and poor. Enlargement toward the west was what she needed to make her powerful. So he seized the opportunity which confronted him in 1794 of making himself master of the trans-Oconee territory by means of the French resources and preparations, to which he had fallen heir.

On July 28, 1794, at the suggestion of General Knox, secretary of war, Governor Mathews issued this proclamation :

"Whereas, I have received official information that Elijah Clarke, . Esq., late a Major-General of the militia of this State, has gone over the Oconee River, with intent to establish a separate and independent government on lands allotted to the Indians for hunting grounds within the boundaries and jurisdictional rights of the State of Georgia afore- said, and has induced numbers of good citizens of the said State to join him in the said unlawful enterprise; and whereas, such aets and pro- ceedings are not only a violation of the laws of this State, but tend to subvert the good order and government thereof, I have therefore thought fit to issue this proclamation, warning and forbidding the citizens of the said State from engaging in such unlawful proceedings, hereby strietly enjoining all persons whatsoever who have been deluded to engage therein immediately to desist therefrom, as they will answer the contrary to their peril; and I do hereby strictly command and require all judges, justices, sheriff's, and other officers, and all other good eitizens of this State to be diligent in aiding and assisting to apprehend the said Elijah Clarke and his adherents, in order that they may be severally brought to justice."

No sooner did Governor Mathews issue this proclamation against General Clarke than the latter reappeared in Wilkes and surrendered himself to the authorities : but after examining the laws and the treaties, both State and Federal, it was ordered by the court that Elijah Clarke be and is hereby discharged. The vote of the jury was unanimous. The effect was to embolden Clarke. Being pronounced guiltless of any of- fense, he reerossed the Oconee to his posts.

Thereupon the President authorized the governor to embody the militia and to call into service the Federal troops, if necessary, in order to disperse the settlers. Lieutenant-Colonel Gaither, of the United States army, was on hand to co-operate. Before Governor Mathews, in accord-

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ance with instructions, resorted to force, he once more tried the effect of negotiations and sent Generals Twiggs and Irwin to Fort Advance.

Says General Twiggs, in his official report: "I proceeded to the unauthorized settlement on the southwest side of the Oconee and, on the presentation of Georgia's claim, read the letter from the War De- partment, together with Judge Walton's charge to the Grand Jury of Wilkes and the law opinion of the attorney and Solicitor General. After a full explanation of the papers above recited, I entered into a friendly conference with him, pointing out the danger of the situation, but with- out effect. Lastly, I ordered them to move within the temporary lines between us and the Creek Indians; but after an interview with his men he answered that he preferred to maintain his ground. Troops, both State and Federal, were therefore concentrated at Fort Fidius, on the Oconee, and such a disposition made of them that General Clarke, upon promise of General Irwin of immunity if he should vacate the post, marched out of the place and the State troops took possession of the works. On September 28, they were set on fire, together with Fort Defiance, and several other garrisoned places were completely demol- ished."

On October 12, 1794, the governor informed the Secretary of War that the posts were burnt and destroyed, and the whole affair happily terminated without loss of blood.

Says the authority from whom we quote: "General Clarke was most unfortunate in these transactions of his last years. But because he fell into error, we cannot submit that his merits should be unduly shaded or shut out from view and his character transmitted to the future, aspersed with epithets of disparagement. He died, ranking to the last, among Georgia's most cherished heroes and benefactors. He was em- phatically the Ajax Telamon of the State in her days of greatest trial. In weighing such a man-such a doer and sufferer for his country- indictments which might have crushed meaner persons are but as dust in the balance against the rich ponderous ore of his services, and we hasten to shed a tear on whatever may tend to soil his memory and to pronounce it washed out forever. Georgia has been blessed with many signal favors. But never has it fallen to her lot to have a son, native or adopted, whom she could more proudly boast and justly honor, or who has imprinted himself more deeply on her heart, than Elijah Clarke."

To the foregoing account of this affair, condensed from an article by Colonel Chappell, we need only to add that one of the counties of Georgia bears the name of this illustrious soldier of the Revolution. Athens, its county site, became the seat of the University of Georgia. On Broad Street, in the classic city, a handsome monument commemo- rates the achievements of the elder Clarke." But the grave of the general is still unmarked. Until recent years it was in fact

* Erected by Elijah Clarke Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Athens, Georgia.

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unknown. Some of the members of the Clarke family lie buried in Wilkes County, near the battlefield of Kettle Creek. General Clarke was a resident of this county and a commanding officer in this battle. But a number of counties were subsequently formed from Wilkes, in any one of which he might have been buried. It is a matter of record, however, that he owned an extensive plantation in what is today the County of Lineoln ; and, during the year 1912 a well-known genealogist,* while engaged in making researches, discovered the old soldier's will in the ordinary's office at Lincolnton. So putting these two things to- gether-the finding of his will and the fact of his residence-there is little room for doubt that somewhere on what is today known as the Oliver plantation the mortal ashes of General Clarke lic entombed. It is true that White, in his "Collections of Georgia" states that the widow Clarke, some twenty-eight years later, was buried beside her husband at Woodburn; and while there is no such place in Lincoln known at pres- ent by this name, the same is equally true of Wilkes; and the probabil- ity is that it was merely the name which General Clarke, after the fashion of the period, gave to his Lincoln eounty plantation. At any rate, there is every reason to believe that in this locality rest the ashes of General Clarke, the most illustrious of all the soldiers of Georgia in the Revo- lution.

* Miss Helen M. Prescott, Genealogist, Joseph Habersham Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Atlanta, Georgia.

Vol. 1-25

CHAPTER VII

GEORGIA IN RATIFYING THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION WAS NOT UNMINDFUL OF HER RESIDUARY RIGHTS-CLASHES WITH THE GENERAL GOVERN- MENT -- THE CASE OF CHISHOLM VERSUS GEORGIA IS FILED IN THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT-EDMUND RANDOLPH, OF VIRGINIA, MAKES A STRONG ARGUMENT AGAINST GEORGIA AND IS SUSTAINED BY A MAJORITY OF THE BENCH, JUDGE IREDELL DISSENTING-JUDGMENT Is ENTERED AGAINST GEORGIA BUT REMAINS UNENFORCED-MEAN- WHILE THE ELEVENTH AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION Is RATIFIED, PUTTING AN END TO ALL LITIGATION AGAINST A SOVER- EIGN STATE-GEORGIA'S VICTORY ONE OF PROFOUND AND FAR-REACH- ING EFFECT-BUT ANOTHER SENSATION IS SPRUNG-THE YAZOO FRAUD-HISTORY OF A MOST DRAMATIC EPISODE-ALL FACTS CARE- FULLY WEIGHED IN JUSTICE TO BOTH SIDES-COL. N. J. HAMMOND'S OPINION-PROBABLY AN EXAGGERATED AFFAIR-ONLY A REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION, TO WHICH SOME OF THE BEST MEN IN THE STATE WERE PARTIES-GOVERNOR MATHEWS APPROVES THE YAZOO PURCHASE- How HE CAME TO SIGN THE BILL-HOW THE VOTE STOOD-JAMES JACKSON RESIGNS HIS SEAT IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE TO FIGHT THE YAZOO SPECULATORS-TAKES HIS SEAT IN THE LEGISLATURE- FEELING RUNS HIGH-NUMEROUS DUELS FOUGHT-THE RESCINDING ACT-SIGNED BY JARED IRWIN AS GOVERNOR-BURNING THE RECORDS BEFORE THE STATE HOUSE DOOR-FIRE CALLED DOWN FROM HEAVEN -AN OLD LEGEND- JAMES JACKSON BECOMES GOVERNOR-WATKINS' DIGEST-GOVERNOR JACKSON'S IRE IS AROUSED BECAUSE THIS DIGEST CONTAINS THE YAZOO ACT-HIS VINDICTIVE COURSE-MARBURY AND CRAWFORD'S DIGEST-YAZOOISTS APPEAL TO CONGRESS FOR REDRESS -GEORGIA AVOIDS FURTHER TROUBLE BY CEDING HER WESTERN LANDS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-TERMS OF THIS CESSION-OUT OF THESE LANDS ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI ARE CARVED THE PROB- LEM OF QUIETING THE YAZOO CLAIMS TRANSFERRED TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-JOHN RANDOLPH OBSTRUCTS THE YAZOOISTS -- ATTI- TUDE OF JEFFERSON-FINALLY IN 1810 THE YAZOO SALE IS HELD TO BE VALID-DECISION RENDERED BY CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN MARSHALL -MEANWHILE JAMES JACKSON DIES IN 1806 WHILE A SENATOR IN WASHINGTON-HIS DEATH THE RESULT OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN DUELS.

When Georgia ratified the Federal Constitution on January 2, 1788, with a unanimity of sentiment and with a promptness of action far-reach- ing in its effect upon other states, she did not mean to imply by this attitude that she was careless of her residuary rights. The time was near at hand for Georgia to show exactly where she stood in this matter

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and to emphasize in a serious clash with the United States Government her retention of every attribute of sovereignty which she had not in express terms surrendered to the Federal Government.

This forensic battle-for such it was-grew out of an issue involved in the celebrated case of Chisholm versus Georgia before the Supreme Court of the United States. At the August term of the Supreme Court in 1792, an action was brought by a Mr. Chisholm, of South Carolina, to recover a sum of money by suit against the State of Georgia.# Due notice was served by the United States marshal upon the State of Geor- gia, through both her governor and her attorney-general. But these officers of the state refused to recognize the legality of the summons. They held that Georgia as a sovereign state could not be sued by a eitizen, and consequently there was no legal representative to appear for her before the Supreme Court when the case was called.

Mr. Edmund Randolph, who was then attorney-general of the United States, moved a postponement of the ease until the February term, 1793; and it was so ordered. At this time a written remonstrance was filed by the State of Georgia, protesting against the exercise of jurisdiction ; but in accordance with express instructions the lawyers presenting this remonstrance made no arguments. Mr. Randolph, in requesting the court to enter judgment against the State of Georgia, launched into a profound discussion of the American system of government. He argued that while the states were sovereignties they might combine in govern- ment; that they had actually so combined in the Articles of Confedera- tion; that, when these had proven ineffective, they had framed a Federal Constitution establishing a new order of things. Said he, in discussing further our form of government: "It derives its origin immediately from the people and the people are individually under certain limitations subject to the legislative, executive and judicial authority thereby estab- lished. The States are in faet assemblages of these individuals who are liable to process. I hold it therefore no derogation of sovereignty in the States to submit to the Supreme Judiciary of the United States." The court sided with Mr. Randolph.

Chief Justice Jay and Justice Wilson both made strong arguments for the national character of the system, established by the Federal Constitution in 1787. But Justice Iredell rendered a dissenting opinion, in which he supported the views held by Georgia's state officials. Said he : + "Every State in the Union, in every instance where its sovereignty has not been delegated to the United States, I consider to be as com- pletely sovereign as the United States are in respect to the powers sur- rendered. The United States are sovereign as to all the powers actually surrendered. Each State in the United States is sovereign as to all the powers reserved. It must necessarily be so, because the United States have no claim to any authority but such as the States have surrendered · to them." Since the power to try suits against a state had not been expressly given to the general government he argued that such a power was not possessed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

* "United States Supreme Court Reports," Dallas, II, pp. 419-480; "Georgia and Stato Rights," U. B. Phillips, p. 24.

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A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Part 51

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868- Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 648

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 648