USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 67
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The difficulty between the two men grew out of a trivial remark made by Colonel Mitchell at the dinner table of a friend, to which re- mark Major Beall took exception. As a result there sprang up between these gentlemen a quarrel which proved to be so persistent that a resort to weapons offered the only sane solution and accordingly they agreed to adjust matters between them by fighting a duel at Hamburg, South Carolina, just opposite the City of Augusta. Capt. Joseph Morgan, second for Major Beall, and Mr. John P. Booth, second for Colonel Mitchell, arranged the details. Two rounds were fired without effect, after which, mutual friends, a number of whom were present, intervened to prevent further hostilities. The courage of both men having been attested, a reconciliation was effected and the combatants shook hands on the field.
Unfortunately, some comment upon the duel made by Doctor Baber, who attended as surgeon to Major Beall at Hamburg, South Carolina, was resented by Colonel Mitchell. The latter subsequently published a card which gave offense to Doctor Baber, who, after a brief controversy on the subject, demanded of Colonel Mitchell the satisfaction due a gentleman under the code. The challenge was accepted, and rifles, at a distance of ten paces, were selected as the weapons. In the spring of 1826, the parties met at Hamburg, South Carolina, the scene of the former duel; and, on the second fire, Colonel Mitchell fell, mortally wounded. The ball penetrated the lungs causing almost instant death.
Dr. Isaac W. Mitchell, a brother of the deceased, was present at the duel, acting in the capacity of surgeon, and attended upon the dying man in his last moments. It was a sad duty to perform, but the ordeal was soon over, and there were no pangs of lingering distress, thanks to the deadly work of the bullet. Doctor Mitchell was a life-long resident of Thomas County, Georgia, where he amassed a large property and died well advanced in years. Colonel Mitchell, at the time of his death, was still a young man, aged thirty-three, and unmarried. Exceptionally well equipped for his profession, he was a man of splendid talents, but
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sensitive to a fault and inclined to be somewhat rash and dictatorial, especially when aroused by anger.
Doctor Baber survived his hostile encounter with Colonel Mitchell by twenty years, and was still in the prime of life when he came to his death in a most tragie and sudden manner. As narrated by Judge Richard H. Clark, the circumstances are these : Among the patients of Doctor Baber was a man with consumption, named Jarrell, in East Macon. On Saturday the doctor made for him a prescription which contained cyanuret of potassium. This drug consists largely of the elements of prussie acid, and if taken in too large a dose is a deadly poison. The prescription was put up by George Payne, then and now a prominent druggist of Macon and a most excellent man. Detecting the mistake, Mr. Payne, nevertheless, filled the prescription, but tied it to the valve and wrote the patient not to take it, that it was a killing dose, and to show the prescription, with his note, to Doctor Baber, when he arrived. The next morning early Doctor Baber made his accustomed visit and was disappointed and irritated that his patient had not taken the medicine the day before, as he directed. The dose was a teaspoonful. "To satisfy you there is no danger in it," said the doctor to the patient, on the impulse of the moment, "I will take a double dose."
Suiting the action to the word, he swallowed two teaspoonsful, stag- gered to a chair, and in seventeen minutes, drew his last breath. The mistake was due to a misprint in the formulary used by Doctor Baber. Afterwards, due to the notoriety which this affair attained, the entire edition was called in and destroyed by the publisher, but no amends could restore the life of one of the most useful public men of the state. The excitement which prevailed throughout the City of Macon on the fatal Sunday morning which witnessed this tragic occurrence was most intense. It was Macon's dark Sabbath.
On January 25, 1828, at Fort Mitchell, in the Creek Nation, on what is now the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee River, just below the present City of Columbus, occurred the famous duel between George W. Crawford and Thomas E. Burnside. Both principals were then tal- ented young lawyers, residing at Appling, in Columbia County, Geor- gia. The former was a kinsman of the renowned William H. Craw- ford and was himself destined to become scarcely less distinguished in the political history of Georgia. He served his state as governor and held the portfolio of secretary of war in the cabinet of General Taylor, after which he presided over the historic secession convention, at Mil- ledgeville, in 1861. As a lawyer, he encountered few equals at the bar ; and for his services in prosecuting the celebrated Galphin claim against the United States Government, he received a fee of $80,000.
Burnside, who was fated to fall in this encounter on the threshold of what promised to be a brilliant career in public life, was an uncle of the noted Federal commander, Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, afterwards governor of Rhode Island and United States senator.
The duel between Crawford and Burnside grew out of a newspaper
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article published, without signature, in one of the Augusta papers, criticizing Hon. Peter Crawford, a Whig. Peter Crawford was for years prominent in Georgia politics and was at this time in very poor health. George W. Crawford, incensed at this attack upon his father by an unknown writer, demanded the authorship of this offensive card. But the editor declined to disclose the writer's name. Col. D. W. Lewis, who was afterwards Governor Gilmer's private secretary, says that the writer of the article in question was a lady and that it was for this reason that Mr. Crawford's demand was refused.
However, Thomas E. Burnside assumed responsibility for the article, whereupon he promptly received a challenge from George W. Craw- ford to mortal combat. He seems to have been reluctant to fight, but at a time when the Code Duello was in vogue, he well knew the conse- quences to himself and to his political fortunes, should he refuse to meet his antagonist on the field. He, therefore, accepted the challenge and repaired at once to the scene of combat. But, on the night before the fatal meeting-perhaps with some premonition of the result in mind- he dispatched the following note to Mrs. Burnside :
Fort Mitchell, January 24, 1828.
Dear Wife and Mother:
Tomorrow I fight. I do it on principle. Whatever may be my fate, I believe I am right. On this ground I have acted and will act. I be- lieve I shall succeed, but if I do not I am prepared for consequences. Kiss the children and tell them that if I fall my last thought was of them.
Yours most affectionately,
THOMAS E. BURNSIDE.
This pathetic fragment sounds not unlike the message which Alex- ander Hamilton, on the eve of his fatal meeting with Aaron Burr, ad- dressed to Mrs. Hamilton, on the subject of duelling. Nor was the fate of the two men dissimilar. Thomas E. Burnside fell mortally wounded in the encounter which followed. His body was interred, with every show of respect, in the private burial ground of Colonel Crowell, whose residenee was not far from the spot on which the unfortunate man fell. More than two weeks elapsed before Burnside's family re- ceived the sad news, which, when it finally came, after so long a period of suspense, almost cost Mrs. Burnside her life; but she rallied her strength for the sake of her children and afterwards removed to Dahlo- nega, Georgia, where she resided until her death.
Burnside was held in high esteem by his countless friends and col- leagues at the bar. He was a native of South Carolina, where he was born in 1794, and after settling at Appling for the practice of law, he represented Columbia County in the General Assembly of Georgia. The late Judge W. A. Burnside, for years a trustee of the North Georgia Agricultural College, was his son. Numerous tributes were paid to Burnside's character, and from these honors it may be inferred that he was a man of splendid parts. At Appling, a mass-meeting of his personal and political friends was held, over which Turner Clanton pre- sided. There was also a meeting of the bar of his circuit at which reso- lutions were adopted and a movement launched for erecting a monu- ment.
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According to Col. W. P. Price, this duel between Burnside and Crawford caused great excitement in Georgia and, more than any other personal conflict, it led the people of this state to make a crusade against duelling and to demand reform in the method of seeking satisfaction for aggrieved honor. Governor Crawford always deplored the unfortunate affair and, down to the day of his death, expressed the tenderest solici- tude for the bereaved widow and children, whose helpless condition he caused. On more than one occasion it is said that he substantially befriended them, by seeking the help of intermediate parties, without letting his own name be given, and for more than one act of kindness from an unknown friend the family was indebted to George W. Crawford.
But the Code Duello has passed. There is not a state in the Union nor a country on the globe in which the practice has not been condemned by public sentiment, crystallized into forms of law ; and even in France, where the custom originated, its expiring gasp has at last been heard. On this side of the water it has slept the sleep of the dead for a score of years; and, except in the literature of a former time, its baleful effect upon our civilization is no longer seen or felt. In some respects, it was not an unmixed evil. It made men observant of the proprieties of speech, knowing full well the responsibility which attached to words. It protected the weak against the strong; and it safeguarded the honor of woman. There was no place for cowardice under a code which put an iron emphasis upon manly virtue and which served to revive, in many of its finer phases, the heroic age of knighthood. But, when everything to the credit of duelling has been said and written, it still remains that for sheer destructiveness, its only rivals in the world's modern life have been pestilence and war. No arithmetic can count the graves it has dug, compute the hopes of happiness it has dashed to the ground, or number the hearthstones over which it has hung the pall of a pre- mature desolation. But the fates have kindly intervened. With re- morseless irony it has come to pass that, for this writer of epitaphs, an epitaph has at last been written; that, for this insatiate archer, there has come at length an arrow whose point has found the pulsing heart- center of life; and that, goaded by the nightmare of its own hideous dreams, this murderous custom has at last fallen underneath its own fire on the field of honor.
LAST DUEL FOUGHT IN THE SOUTH .- On August 10, 1889, perhaps the last duel fought in the Southern States, according to the strict ethics of the field of honor, occurred in Alabama, near the Georgia state line, between J. R. Williamson and Patrick Calhoun, both of whom were captains of industry and railway magnates interested in southern rehabilitation. The former, since deceased, was then president of the Rome, Chattanooga and Columbus Railroad, with headquarters in Rome; while the latter, a direct lineal descendant of the Great Nullifier of South Carolina, was at this time attorney for the West Point Terminal Company, with offices in Atlanta. It was a bloodless affair .- "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," Vol. II, p. 44.
CHAPTER X
JOHN CLARK BECOMES GOVERNOR-HE DEFEATS MR. TROUP AFTER A HEATED CAMPAIGN IN 1819-CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TWO CANDI- DATES CONTRASTED-MIR. TROUP A LEADER OF THE CRAWFORD PARTY, TO WHICH GENERAL CLARK HAD LONG BEEN A BITTER OPPONENT- GENERAL CLARK IS SUPPORTED BY THE UPCOUNTRY SETTLERS AND BY THE SMALL FARMERS IN THE LOWLANDS-MIR. TROUP IS SUPPORTED BY THE ARISTOCRATS OF THE COAST AND BY THE PROFESSIONAL ELEMENT -GEORGIA IMPATIENT FOR A REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS- BOTH THE CREEKS AND THE CHEROKEES STILL HOLD LARGE BODIES OF LAND -- GOVERNOR CLARK, AN OLD INDIAN FIGHTER, IS IN SYMPATIIY WITH THIS FEELING-CONGRESS IS MEMORIALIZED BY THE STATE LEGISLA- TURE-ON JANUARY 8, 1821, A TREATY IS NEGOTIATED WITH THE CREEKS AT INDIAN SPRINGS-SOMETHING ABOUT THIS HISTORIC LO- CALITY, A FAMOUS RENDEZVOUS OF THE RED-SKINS, AFTERWARDS A POPULAR HEALTH RESORT-LANDS ACQUIRED BETWEEN THE OCMULGEE AND THE FLINT-PARCELS EXCEPTED-OPENED TO SETTLE- MENT UNDER THE LOTTERY ACT OF 1821-FIVE NEW COUNTIES FORMED-DOOLY, FAYETTE, HENRY, HOUSTON AND MONROE-GOVER- NOR CLARK IS RE-ELECTED IN 1821 AFTER A SECOND HEATED CON- TEST-MAJ. FREEMAN WALKER RESIGNS FROM THE UNITED STATES SENATE ON ACCOUNT OF ILL-HEALTH, AND IS SUCCEEDED BY NICHOLAS WARE-BOTH ELEVATED TO THE SENATE FROM THE MAYOR'S CHAIR OF AUGUSTA-AN EXTRAORDINARY LEAP- GEORGIA IN THE SIXTEENTH CONGRESS-THE SOUTHERN JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IS CREATED-THOS. W. HARRIS ITS FIRST JUDGE-SLAVERY BECOMES A DISTURBING FACTOR IN AMERICAN POLITICS-THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE OF 1820-GEORGIA GAINS A NEW CONGRESSMAN-THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1820 -FOUR NEW COUNTIES FORMED IN 1822-DEKALB, PIKE, CRAWFORD AND BIBB -- THE FLINT CIRCUIT IS CREATED, WITH ELI S. SHORTER ON THE BENCH-UNITED STATES SENATOR WARE DIES IN NEW YORK- THOMAS W. COBB IS AWARDED THE TOGA-RICHARD HENRY WILDE SUCCEEDS MR. COBB.
NOTES : THE MCINTOSH RESERVE-THE MCINTOSH TRAIL.
But to resume our narrative. The death of Governor Rabun, on October 24, 1819, as we have already seen, brought Matthew Talbot to the helm of affairs. Mr. Talbot, as president of the Senate, became gov- ernor by virtue of his office and entered at once upon his duties as chief magistrate; but he did not enter the race as a candidate to succeed Gov- ernor Rabun. The latter's death having occurred within a few weeks of the time set for his retirement, there were already two strong candidates
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in the field. One of these was Gen. John Clark. He stood at the head of the great political faction known by his name as the Clark party and was a man of powerful influence in the state at this time, especially among the uplanders. Opposed to him was George M. Troup, who had lately resigned his seat in the United States Senate. Mr. Troup belonged to the Crawford party, an organization whose leader was the great Wil- liam II. Crawford. As a young man, Mr. Troup had been a protege of old Governor James Jackson, of Savannah. On the death of Jackson in 1806 Mr. Troup assumed the leadership of the Crawford party in South Georgia ; and when Mr. Crawford withdrew from state politics he be- came the recognized champion of the entire aristocratic element. So uncompromising a fighter was Mr. Troup-so pronounced his convic- tions on publie issues-so bold his advocaey of State Rights-that the faction to whose leadership he was called at once took his name and became known as the Troup party of Georgia.
Mr. Troup had served for eight years in Congress (1807-1815), and for two years in the United States Senate (1816-1818), when he entered the race for governor; and he possessed some prestige, therefore, in national polities. General Clark was not unknown in military circles outside the state as a soldier who had served his novitiate in the Revolu- tion, under an illustrious father and who had later achieved some note as an Indian fighter, but his reputation was in no sense national. Mr. Troup was a man of culture, cecentrie perhaps, but well educated. Gen- eral Clark, on the other hand, could lay claim only to the rudiments of an education. IIe was far more skillful with the sword than with the pen. But he was a man of hard common sense and of strong will power. Mr. Troup was an aristocrat, stiff as a poker in his manners, peculiar in his style of dress, pompous, haughty, almost imperious, in his personal bear- ing. General Clark was a plain man of the people, blunt of speech, but honest, outspoken and fearless, Governor Gilmer to the contrary not- withstanding. The frontiersmen looked upon General Clark with an awe akin to veneration. In the upcountry his word was law. Every old soldier was his sworn friend and every man who came from North Carolina or whose ancestors came from North Carolina was a supporter of General Clark by virtue of this fact. Moreover, the small farmers in the lower belt were also allied with the Clark faction. It will be remem- bered that in a former chapter of this work we discussed at some length the earliest division of the state into parties. One of these was composed largely of Virginians who followed Crawford; while the other was made up chiefly of North Carolinians who adhered to the Clarks.
These contrasted characteristics will serve to throw some light upon the campaign of 1819. It was a stubbornly contested fight ; and, though the stump speaker had not arrived as yet in Georgia, the partisan editor was on hand and wielded a rancorous pen in the bitter controversies of this period.
Georgia was becoming impatient for a removal of the Indian tribes. Eighteen years had elapsed since the cession of 1802, at which time the state had relinquished its western lands to the Federal Government with the express understanding that all Indian titles to the remaining terri- tory were to be extinguished. Several bodies of land had been acquired from both the Creek and the Cherokee Indians; but in each instance
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these lands had been acquired by direct purchase. The Creeks still held 10,000,000 acres of land in Georgia, having eeded an equal amount, while the Cherokees still retained 6,000,000 acres, having eeded only 1,000,000. These uneeded lands lay north of the Chattahoochee and west of the Oemulgee.
General Clark had been an Indian fighter. His anxiety to rid the state of these savage tribes was well known. At any rate, within a month after his inauguration as governor a memorial was addressed to Con- gress by the State Legislature urging a removal of the Indian tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River.
This memorial brought results. On January 8, 1821, a treaty was negotiated with the Creeks at Indian Springs by two commissioners rep- resenting the United States Government: Daniel M. Forney, of South Carolina and David Meriwether, of Georgia .* Under the terms of this treaty, all the remaining lands of the Creek Indians between the Oemul- gee and the Flint rivers, extending as far north as the Chattahoochee, were ceded by the Creeks for a stipulated sum, of which it was agreed that $250,000 was to be used in compensating citizens of Georgia for property taken from them by the Indians. The excepted parcels of land still retained by the Creeks under this treaty were: (1) 1,000 acres of land around the springs; (2) 640 aeres on the Ocmulgee River, inelud- ing the improvements of MeIntosh ; and (3) a tract of land around the agency, to be retained by the United States Government, however, until the agency was discontinued. There were three commissioners present, on the part of the State of Georgia, to wit: J. MeIntosh, David Adams, and Daniel Newman, but none of these signed the agreement.
Some information in regard to this noted place of rendezvous for the Creek Indians, afterwards a famous health resort for the whites, will be of interest in this connection : t
During the year 1792, when this locality was a wilderness, Douglas Watson, a scout employed by the United States Government to inspect the frontier, came to Georgia, and, while passing through this neighbor- hood, happened upon a little spring in a dense cane brake. What he took to be the smell of gunpowder guided him to the spot; but when he learned that it was from a fissne in the rocks that this peeuliar odor of brimstone proceeded he quickly left the neighborhood, in superstitious dread of consequences. However, the magie waters were in time dis- covered by other travelers and soon there began to flock to Indian Springs a multitude of health-seekers. It is said that the medicinal virtues of Indian Springs were known to the savages from the earliest times. In 1800, Gen. William McIntosh, the famous Creek Indian chief, here ereeted a cottage, so it is said, where he usually spent the winter months. Subsequently, according to local tradition, a Mr. Allison built here a double log cabin. These were the earliest structures erected in the neighborhood, and both were destroyed by fire. In 1823, General McIntosh and Joel Bailey, erected the first hotel. The building still
* "Indian Affairs," Vol. II, pp. 248-249.
t Our authority for these statements is an address delivered by Judge J. H. Lumpkin, July 1, 1911, at Indian Springs, Georgia, on the occasion of a tablet unveil- ing by the D. A. R.
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stands in excellent preservation and is today known as the Varner House. There are still to be seen on the doors and mantels, some fine specimens of hand-carving, done, it is said, with a pocket knife in the hands of General MeIntosh. The famous chief was well known to the guests who frequented the establishment. His two wives were both re- fined and handsome women of the full Indian blood.
In what is known as the Lottery Act of 1821, passed at an extra ses- sion of the State Legislature, these newly acquired Creek lands were erected into five counties, to wit, Dooly, Fayette, Henry, Houston, and Monroe .*
There was another sharp contest for the governorship before the Legislature in 1821. Governor Clark was a candidate for re-election and opposed to him was his old antagonist, Mr. Troup. Feeling was bitter on both sides. Those who supported the governor were called Clarkites. Those who favored the rival candidate were called Tronpers. There was apparently an even division of sentiment among the legislators. Amid breathless excitement a ballot was taken, the result of which was a major- ity of two votes for Governor Clark.
Mr. Troup's disappointment in sustaining a second defeat at the hands of his old rival was keen. This feeling was likewise shared by his friends. But there was no abandonment of the fight, except for the moment. Plans were laid for another campaign in 1823, at which time the Troupers were to win.
It devolved upon the Legislature of 1821 to elect a successor to Hon. Freeman Walker, whose resignation as United States senator was ten- dered at this time. Though still comparatively a young man-not yet forty-Major Walker was in precarious health; and he lingered for only a few years after relinquishing official responsibilities. Dying in 1827, he was interred in the family burial plot, today enclosed within the grounds of the Arsenal, on the Sand Hills, near Augusta. Richard Henry Wilde, the poet-statesman, wrote a magnificent epitaph for his tomb.
Major Walker was Augusta's first mayor. He was filling this office when elected to the United States Senate; and by a singular coincidence his successor in the office of mayor likewise became his successor in the United States Senate. This was Hon. Nicholas Ware, upon whom the Legislature of 1821 conferred the toga. The mayor's chair of Augusta seemed to be a stepping-stone to political honors in the nation. Even for such a leap to be made once was a circumstance sufficiently rare to elicit comment ; but for such a leap to be made twice in succession made it appear as if the fates were juggling with Georgia's politics.
Georgia was represented in the Sixteenth Congress (1819-1821) by the following members : Joel Abbot, Thomas W. Cobb, Joel Crawford, John A. Cuthbert, Robert R. Reid and William Terrell.
Two of these: Joel Abbot and Robert R. Reid, were re-elected to the Seventeenth Congress (1821-1823). The new members of the delegation were : Alfred Cuthbert, George R. Gilmer, Edward F. Tattnall, and Wiley Thompson. Mr. Cuthbert was elected to succeed his brother John,
* For additional partienlars in regard to these counties, see the section of this work on Georgia Miscellanies.
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a member of the preceding Congress. Judge Reid's career in Congress ended with the expiration of his term in 1823. Saddened by the death of his wife, he seemed to lose all interest in public affairs. He also be- came indifferent to his law practice. Finally, however, accepting a Federal judgeship in the Territory of Florida, he left this state, to be identified no more with its political fortunes.
In 1819 the Southern Judicial Circuit was created by an act of the Legislature and to preside over the courts of this circuit Judge Thomas W. Harris was elected.
Long to be remembered in the annals of Savannah was the year 1820. Besides witnessing a disastrous fire, in which over 400 buildings were reduced to ashes, entailing a loss of $1,000,000, it sustained a devastating scourge of yellow fever, to which thousands fell victims.
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