USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 53
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To quote Mr. Phillips, the chief immediate effect of this cession of Georgia's western lands was to place within the sphere of the Federal Government the whole problem of quieting the Yazoo claims. Georgia was relieved of this problem; but to the Federal Government it continued for years to be a source of endless contention. Congress was divided on the question of giving relief to the Yazoo complainants. President
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Jefferson did not think these claims valid but on grounds of policy fa- vored some plan of conciliation. John Randolph, of Roanoke, took the ground that any interference by the Federal Government in the matter would constitute an infraction of the rights of Georgia; and in this con- tention he was upheld by a majority sentiment. Georgia's delegation in Congress, led by the dauntless Troup, stubbornly fought the claims of the Yazooists.
But, on February 16, 1810, Chief Justice John Marshall rendered a decision in the case of Fletcher versus Peck, in which the validity of the Yazoo sale was held. As a result of this decision the rights of claim- ants were established. Randolph, with a majority behind him, still de- layed matters but in 1814 an act was passed appropriating $5,000,000 with which to quiet the Yazoo claims; and so at last this hideous night- mare was ended. General Jackson, the relentless foe of the Yazooists, had been in his grave for eight years, dying, while a senator, at the seat of government. He passed away, on March 19, 1806, at the age of forty- nine, and his ashes lie entombed in the Congressional Cemetery, on the banks of the Potomac. Enfeebled by wounds received on the field of honor, Senator Jackson paid with his life the penalty attaching to his fiery crusade against the Yazooists; but he did not reckon with conse- quences when Georgia's honor was at stake. Life's fitful fever o'er, here peacefully until the resurrection sleeps Georgia's modern Prometheus.
CHAPTER VIII
LOUISVILLE BECOMES THE CAPITAL OF THE STATE IN 1795, WHEN THE YAZOO AGITATION IS AT ITS HEIGHT-HOW LOUISVILLE BECAME THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT-GEORGIA'S FIRST PERMANENT CAPITAL- FEDERALS AND REPUBLICANS-PARTISAN POLITICS-GEORGIA AT FIRST INCLINED TOWARD FEDERALISM BUT ALIENATED BY SUIT OF CHISHOLM VERSUS GEORGIA IN THE SUPREME COURT-ALSO BY GOVERNMENT TREATIES MADE WITH THE INDIANS IN NEGOTIATING WHICH GEORGIA WAS UNREPRESENTED-FEDERALISM GRADUALLY DECLINES-NEW COUNTIES CREATED IN 1793-SCREVEN-OGLETHORPE-HANCOCK- MONTGOMERY-MCINTOSH-BRYAN-WARREN-THE PINE BARREN FRAUDS-THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1795-LIST OF DELE- GATES-DUE TO POPULAR EXCITEMENT, AN EARLY ADJOURNMENT IS EFFECTED-FEW IMPORTANT CHANGES-FOUR NEW COUNTIES CRE- ATED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF 1796-BULLOCH-JACKSON- JEFFERSON -LINCOLN-GEORGE WALTON IS AWARDED THE TOGA BY APPOINT- MENT TO SUCCEED JAMES JACKSON-THE LEGISLATURE OF 1796 ELECTS JOSIAH TATTNALL-ABRAHAM BALDWIN IN 1799 SUCCEEDS JAMES GUNN-GEORGIA'S ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1796 CAST FOR JEFFER- SON AND CLINTON-MEMBERS OF CONGRESS DURING THIS PERIOD.
To complete the story of the Yazoo Fraud we have been obliged to anticipate many developments which have carried us beyond the period of Georgia's history to which this section is devoted. Let us now retrace our steps. While popular excitement over the Yazoo transaction was at its height, the seat of government was transferred from Augusta to Louisville, after having remained in the former town for a period of ten years.
The celebrated Yazoo Act of 1795 was passed at the last session of the Legislature to meet in Augusta.
The equally famous Rescinding Act was passed at the first session to convene at Louisville.
At the close of hostilities with England the center of population in Georgia was found to be somewhere in the neighborhood of Galphinton, on the Ogeechee River; and such was the inconvenience experienced by residents of the up-country settlements in reaching Savannah, a town on the remote sea-board, that the desirability of transferring the seat of government to some point further inland became a topic of discus- sion.
On January 26, 1786, when the Legislature met in Augusta, the fol- lowing commissioners were appointed to select a location: Nathan Brownson, William Few, and Hugh Lawson. They were instructed to find a site, "most proper and convenient," for the end in view, whereon
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to erect publie buildings; and, by way of further stipulation, was added the clause, "provided the same shall be within twenty miles of Gal- phin's Old Town." On fulfillment of these conditions, they were au- thorized to buy 1,000 acres of land and to lay out a part thereof in a town, "which should be known by the name of Louisville."
However, it appears that little progress was made toward putting this measure into effect for several years. There were various diffi- eulties to be overcome but finally in the Constitution of 1795 the new town was designated as the permanent capital. The demoralized condi- tion of the state, due to the bitter hand-to-hand struggle with poverty, in the years which immediately succeeded the Revolution, was doubt- less the chief eanse for the delay. Says a local historian: * "The first Legislature, under the Constitution of 1777, assembled in Savannah. It assembled there partly because the royal governors had always lived there and partly because it was the largest town in the State. But Savannah was never officially proclaimed the capital. In December, 1778, Savannah was captured by the British and from then until January, 1784, the Legislature met at Augusta, with the exception of two terms, one of which convened at Heard's Fort, in Wilkes county, and the other at Ebenezer, in Effingham county. In January, 1784, the Legislature again met in Savannah. But the people in upper Georgia had now discovered the great convenience of having the capital in Augusta. Accordingly for the next two years there was constant agita- tion. Hence the act in 1786 to appoint commissioners to lay off a town within twenty miles of Galphin's Old Town, and to see to the ereeting of buildings for the use of the government. There were delays, due to the laek of funds and to the death of the contractor in charge of the work, and the buildings were not finally completed until March, 1796. The state-house then erected in Lonisville was the first one ever erected by the state. It was near the center of the town, which was modeled upon the plan of Philadelphia, with broad streets running northwest and southeast, and northeast and southwest. The first session of the Legis- lature was held in Lonisville in 1796. It is not known exactly when the last session was held there, but a report of the Aets of the Legislature, printed in Louisville, in 1805, records an act passed at Louisville, De- cember 2, 1804, 'to make the town of Milledgeville the permanent seat of government of this State and to dispose of a certain number of lots therein.' Louisville must, therefore, have been the eapital as late as 1805, as it evidently took months at least. to ereet the buildings and to prepare the town of Milledgeville for the purpose.
"When the capital was removed to Milledgeville, the state-house was turned over to the county of Jefferson. It was used for some years as the county court house but finally it became so dilapidated that it was necessary to replace it with another. This, in 1894, was in turn replaced by one of the handsomest court buildings in the State, at a cost of $50,- 000. Louisville was not very prosperous after the capital was changed to Milledgeville, until the Louisville and Wadley Railroad was built about 1875, eonmeeting the town with the C'entral. Ever since then the
* William W. Abbott, Jr., in the October, 1910, number of the Georgian, a college magazine published at Athens, Georgia.
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town has been fairly prosperous, a statement attested by the fact that it supports two banks, has an oil mill and a guano mixing plant, and does a good mercantile business. The population of the town is about 1,500." To the foregoing resume it may be added that the Louisville Gazette, founded in 1796, was one of the pioneer newspapers of Georgia. The handsome oak press used in publishing the Gazette was bought in Eng- land. It was afterwards sold to the Georgia Messenger at Macon. Ac- cording to a local authority," when the present courthouse was built an excavation was made which disclosed the foundation of the old state capitol ; and by a singular coincidence, this corresponded exactly with the plans for the new edifice.
Political sentiment, during Washington's administration, was broadly divided into two parties: Federalists and democrats. The lat- ter in those days styled themselves republicans, but they were staunch followers of Thomas Jefferson, were opposed to the centralizing tenden- cies of the Government, and were strong supporters of home rule. Fed- eralism was never numerically very strong in Georgia; though a vigorous organization might have been effected, had the course of events been differently shaped. Georgia's need of protection predisposed her on entering the Federal Union to support a strong central government and inclined her to principles advocated by the federalists; but Georgia became estranged from the party when the Federal Government began in 1790 to negotiate treaties with the Indian tribes on her soil-and to confirm these tribes by solemn guaranties in the possession of certain lands without inviting her to participate in these conventions. The neighboring State of South Carolina was a stronghold of federalism; but while the rich Charlestonians, led by Pinckney, were pronounced federalists, the Savannalı aristocrats led by Jackson, were staunch demo- crats. Georgia's indifference to federalism was accentuated into a stronger feeling when a citizen of South Carolina sued the state. It will be remembered that in this famous case known as the suit of Chisholm against Georgia, the Supreme Court of the United States sustained Chis- holm; but the judgment was not enforced and in 1799 this issue was forever removed by the Eleventh Amendment to the Federal Constitu- tion. The result of all this litigation was to make Georgia more than ever tenacious of her sovereignty and to put the emphasis of her politi- cal creed upon State Rights. Consequently federalism in Georgia was short-lived. Gen. George Mathews, a federalist, was strong enough to secure the governorship twice, but he was a popular man in the up- country, independent of his politics. For years, there were a few scat- tering federalists in Georgia, some of them men of means, but as a politi- cal factor federalism ceased almost entirely to exist when democracy triumphed in Jefferson's election to the Presidency in 1802.
Streams of immigrants pouring into Georgia during this decade rap- idly increased the state's population. Most of these new settlers came from Virginia and North Carolina to occupy the virgin soil of Georgia's rich uplands. But some of them settled further to the South. When the Legislature met in 1793 there was a great demand for new counties, coming from settlers on the frontier belt. The counties created at this
* Judge W. L. Phillips, of Louisville, Georgia.
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session were: Sereven, Oglethorpe, Hancock, Montgomery, MeIntosh, Bryan and Warren.
To glanee rapidly over these: Sereven was laid off from Burke and Effingham and named for Gen. James Sereven, an officer of the Revolu- tion, killed in a skirmish at Midway Church. Jacksonboro was the original county-seat; but the seat of government was afterwards ehanged to Sylvania. Some of the settlers were men of ample means, who ae- quired extensive tracts of land.
Oglethorpe was laid off from Wilkes and named for the illustrious founder of the colony, General Oglethorpe. Lexington, the county-seat, was named for the famous town in Massachusetts which witnessed the opening fires of the Revolution. Lexington, Georgia, became one of the state's historie towns, a eenter of wealth, refinement and thrift in ante- bellum days. Here was the home of Governor Gilmer, of the two Lump- kins, Wilson and Joseph Henry, of William H. Crawford, of Stephen Upson, of Thomas W. Cobb, and of many other noted men. Here we find the oldest Presbyterian church in the synod of Georgia, founded by Rev. John Newton, in 1785. Most of the early settlers of Oglethorpe eame from Virginia and were tobacco planters who settled on Broad River. Some of these were men of wealth and, besides numerous slaves, brought many of the comforts of civilized life into this belt of the wilderness.
Haneoek was laid out from Washington and Greene, with Sparta for its eounty-seat, and was named for John Hancock, of Massachusetts, whose name headed the immortal seroll of independence. The early set- tlers of Hancock were in the main Virginians, well-to-do people, like those who settled in Oglethorpe. Sparta derived its name from the Spartan characteristics of its pioneer inhabitants. This was in after years the home of Dr. W. W. Terrell, of Bishop George F. Pierce, of Judge Linton Stephens, and of other noted Georgians. Two schools in this eounty were destined to acquire wide celebrity, one at Mount Zion and one at Powelton. The latter became the center of a strong Baptist community and the home in after years of Jesse Mercer and of Gover- nor William Rabun. The famous Bemans taught at Mount Zion; and here at a later time Governor William J. Norteen began his career as a teacher.
MeIntosh County was detached from Liberty and ramed for the eele- brated MeIntosh family several members of which were prominent in the Revolution. It formed a part of the old original Province of St. John. Darien, its county-seat, was an old Seoteh settlement, an account of which is elsewhere given. Quite a number of the early settlers of MeIntosh were of Puritan stock; but those in the neighborhood of Da- rien all came direct from Seotland.
Bryan was laid off from Effingham and Liberty and named for Jona- than Bryan, one of Georgia's earliest colonial patriots. Some of the richest plantations on the coast oeeupied a strip of land in this county called Bryan's Neck. Here Senator Augustus O. Bacon was born. The old Town of Hardwiek has been identified as occupying a site on the south side of the Ogeechee, fifteen miles inland. Fort Argyle, built in 1733, as a bulwark against the Spaniards, stood on the west side of Vol. 1-26
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the Ogeechee in what is now Bryan. Most of the carly settlers of this county were of Puritan origin, belonging to the old Midway settlement.
Warren was laid off from Richmond, Columbia and Wilkes and named for Dr. Joseph Warren, a Revolutionary patriot, who fell at Bun- ker Hill. Warrenton was designated as the county-seat. Most of the county's early settlers were from Virginia. One of these, John Cobb or Cobbs, was an ancestor of the Cobbs of Athens. Here in after years was born the great Judge Lamar, author "Lamar's Digest" and father of the noted Federal jurist who bore the same odd name. Here was cradled also the great orator of secession, William L. Yancey, of Alabama.
Montgomery was laid off from Washington and named for Gen. Richard Montgomery, an early martyr of independence, who fell on the heights of Quebec. Mount Vernon, the seat of government, was named for Washington's renowned home on the Potomac River. The original settlers of Montgomery were chiefly Scotch-Irish Presbyterians whose ancestors had been banished for adhering to the cause of the Stuarts. Most of them came directly from North Carolina and were kinsmen of the men who in 1775 signed the Meeklenburg Declaration of Independence.
But the rapid growth of settlements on the frontier belt of Georgia, while indicating a healthy increase of population and a wholesome infu- sion of rich blood, exposed the state at this time to the avaricious greed of designing schemers, who resorted to down-right trickery in victimiz- ing innocent settlers. To this period of the state's history belong the Pine Barren frauds. We need not concern ourselves with details; but in some way these sharpers obtained fictitious grants to immense areas of land, in the unsettled parts of Georgia, chiefly along the Oconee River, where the undulating hills were densely wooded with pines. These tracts are today embraced in Montgomery, Wheeler, Laurens, Emanuel and Johnson counties, all of which formed a part of the old parent County of Washington. We blush to record the fact, but, in some way, these land pirates, managed to acquire what seemed to be bona fide grants, to which the great seal of the state was affixed, conveying to them vast tracts of land, not one acre of which had been legally secured, not one acre of which belonged to them by right, but which rep- resented in the aggregate over 7,000,000 acres, in the rich heart of the Georgia midlands. If any one is specially interested in this chapter of Georgia's history, we refer him to Absalom H. Chappell's little volume of "Miscellanies," a rare work now out of print but still to be found in old libraries. Of course, hundreds of conveyances made at this time were perfectly legal, but so widespread was the mischief caused by these fraudulent land grants that all the large conveyances of 1794 and 1795 were afterwards repudiated because of the suspicion of fraud which they aroused. According to Doctor Smith, as late as the year 1899 men have appeared in Georgia with old grants to land which never existed. These grants were all supposed to be located in Washington, chiefly in what was afterwards Montgomery, Emanuel, Johnson and Laurens counties; but in the aggregate they represented more land than all the county contained. Whenever one of these spurious documents was brought to light it was promptly repudiated by the state and no lands were actually taken under them, but the speculators who had
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secured the fraudulent patents sold them to parties ignorant of the true state of things and for years an earnest effort was made by defrauded purchasers of worthless script to secure some indemnity from the state, but without success .*
But while the General Assembly did not convene at Louisville until 1796, a convention called for the purpose of revising the state's funda- mental law met at the new seat of government in May, 1795, amidst the general upheaval produced by the Yazoo Fraud. There was a provision made in the Constitution of 1789 for a convention of the people to be held within six years. It stipulated that in the general election of 1794 three persons should be chosen from each county as members to a con- vention "for taking into consideration the alterations necessary to be made in this Constitution, who shall meet at such time and place as the General Assembly may appoint."
Accordingly delegates were chosen in 1794 to attend a convention at Louisville in May of the year following. Some of the counties, when this convention met, were not represented by a full quota of delegates. Glynn, in a sparsely settled district, sent only one member; while Liberty, though in a wealthy belt, does not seem to have been repre- sented at all. However, there are no authentic records extant. It is not unlikely that Liberty's delegation was late in arriving. We can find nothing at this late day beyond a meagre newspaper account, giv- ing a list of delegates who probably answered to the first roll call. This list is as follows: t
Chatham-Josiah Tattnall, Jr., Thomas Gibbons, Noble W. Jones.
McIntosh-Joseph Clay, John Wereat. These delegates did not live in MeIntosh but were chosen by its electors to represent them.
Burke-B. Davis, D. Emanuel, Thomas King.
Elbert-L. Higginbotham, Stephen Heard, Wm. Barnett. Glynn-John Girardeau.
Greene-David Gresham, Phil Hunter, W. Fitzpatrick.
Richmond-John Milton, George Walker, Phil Clayton.
Sereven-B. Lanier, Wm. Skinner, P. R. Smith.
Warren-Levi Pruitt, John Cobbs, P. Goodwin.
Washington-Jolın Rutherford, George Franklin, R. Wilkinson.
Wilkes-B. Catchings, Silas Mercer, D. Creswell.
The convention organized by electing Dr. Noble Wymberley Jones, of Chatham, president.
To quote Bishop Stevens, the principal contest was over the appor- tionment of representatives among the counties. # The basis of repre- sentation was adjusted somewhat; and several new counties having been formed, these were allotted representatives. The time for holding the annual sessions of the General Assembly was changed from the first Monday in November to the second Tuesday in January; all elections by the General Assembly were to be held in joint session; senators thereafter were to be elected annually instead of triennially ; and Louis- ville was to be the new seat of government. There was some discussion
* "Story of Georgia and the Georgia People," George G. Smith, pp. 176-178.
+ Story of Georgia and the Georgia People," George G. Smith, p. 178.
# "History of Georgia," II, p. 407.
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of the Yazoo Act, passed on January 7, 1795, at Augusta, but it was finally decided to refer the matter of its repudiation to the Legislature of 1796. No further changes were made. Political excitement was so intense that a majority of the members recognized the wisdom of leaving all further revision to a later convention to be held when normal condi- tions were restored. Accordingly a convention was called to meet at the new seat of government in 1798, to which three delegates from each county were to be chosen in the general election of 1797.
When the Legislature of 1796 convened at Louisville, it was amidst the greatest upheaval known to the state since the days of the Revolu- tion; but the nefarious Yazoo Aet having been rescinded the work of creating new counties began afresh. At this time Bulloch, Jackson, Jef- ferson and Lincoln were added to the growing list. Bulloch was laid off from Sereven and Bryan, with Statesboro for its county-seat and was named for the distinguished Archibald Bulloch, an early colonial patriot, who died at the outbreak of the Revolution, while president of the execu- tive council. He was an ancestor of ex-President Roosevelt.
Jackson was detached from Franklin and named in honor of Senator James Jackson who at this session of the Legislature, having defeated the Yazooists, called down the fire of heaven to consume the records of this transaction. Jefferson, the county-seat of Jackson County, was named for the illustrious sage of Monticello. This little town was in after years the scene of experiments which resulted in the discovery by Dr. Crawford W. Long of the anesthetic power of sulphuric ether : one of the greatest boons ever conferred upon suffering humanity. It opened a new era in surgery by putting an end to the terrors of the knife and by enlarging the area of surgical treatment.
Jefferson was organized out of Burke and Warren and named for Thomas Jefferson, then a member of Washington's Cabinet. Louisville, its county-seat, was so called for Louis the Sixteenth of France. Louis- ville was designated as the state's permanent capital and the future seat of government was located at this point by a commission chosen for this purpose in 1786. In the immediate neighborhood of Louisville were the homes of some of Georgia's most distinguished men at this time, including the Cobbs, the Whitakers, the Gambles, the Gunns, the Berri- ens, the Hardwicks, the Lawsons and the Wrights. Here Gen. Howell Cobb was born. This was also the birthplace of the second president of the Republic of Texas, Gen. Mirabeau B. Lamar. Most of the early settlers of this region, especially in the neighborhood of Galphinton, were Scotch-Irish. There was a trading-post at Galphinton before the outbreak of the Revolution, named for a pioneer Scotchman whose dealings with the Indians in colonial days extended over all this region.
Lincoln was detached from Wilkes. It was named for Gen. Benjamin Lincoln of the Revolution, who, though not a Georgian, defended the soil of this state against British invasion. According to recent dis- closures made by courthouse records, the celebrated Elijah Clarke lived in the upper edge of this county, in what was then Wilkes. The noted Col. John Dooly, of the Revolution, and the eccentric Judge John M. Dooly, of a later day, were residents of Lincoln; and in this county was born the late Dr. Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, diplomat, educator and clergyman, whose effigy has been placed by his adopted State of Ala-
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bama, in Statuary IIall, Washington, District of Columbia. Lincoln was also the home of Thomas W. Murray, a noted legislator. Judge Longstreet drew one of his best known sketches in "Georgia Scenes" from what he called "the Dark Corner of Lincoln," a descriptive phrase which has persisted down to the present time but which no section of the county is bold enough to claim.
When James Jackson relinquished his seat in the United States Senate to fight the Yazooists, Governor Mathews named as his successor the revered George Walton. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, he had twice served the state as governor and once as chief-justice. He had also been a member of the great convention of 1787 ealled to frame the Federal Constitution. Governor Walton was a federalist. His appointment by Governor Mathews under a temporary commission and his defeat by Josiah 'Tattnall before the Legislature, in 1796, leave little doubt upon this point.
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