A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Part 72

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

USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 72

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

NOTES : EARLY GOLD MINING IN GEORGIA.

Though the first discovery of gold in Georgia, according to White, was made on Duke's Creek, in Habersham County, in 1829, it is gen- erally believed in Lumpkin County that the first discovery of gold in this state was made some time previous to the above date, on the Calhoun property, three miles to the south of Dahlonega. Prof. S. W. MeCallie, Georgia's present state geologist, makes this remark in connection with the claim. Says he: * "This early discovery is substantiated by living witnesses; but whether it antedates the find at Duke's Creek is an open question. It appears quite probable that the early discoveries followed each other, in such rapid succession, that it is now practically impossible to decide definitely the question of priority. However, at present, the best information seems to be in favor of Duke's Creek." If not the place where the yellow metal was first discovered in Georgia, 'it very soon became the center of the greatest mining operations in Georgia ; and the mines at Dahlonega contained the largest deposits of precious ore known to the United States.

It cannot be stated with any degree of precision when the Indian word "Dah-lon-e-ga," was first coined ; but the meaning of it is "yel- low money." Whether it was first applied by the Indians to the place, or whether it was used by them merely as an expression which canght the fancy of the white is equally problematical. The discovery of gold in North Georgia operated as a spur to hasten the departure of the Cherokees toward the West. It created an eagerness on the part of the white population to possess themselves of the red man's home among the mountains, and they began to call upon the Government, in the most imperious tones, to redeem the old agreement of 1802. The

* "Gold Deposits of Georgia," 1896, published by the State Geological Depart- ment, Bulletin 4-A, pp. 274-275, Atlanta, 1896.

Vol. 1-36

561

562

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

complications of the following years were only the malarial symptoms of this same gold fever; and while the final outcome was divinely ordered in furtherance of wise ends, it was destined to leave a scar upon our history which time has not effaced.

As soon as the removal of the Indians was accomplished, the United States Government, in 1838, established at Dahlonega a branch mint, which, continuing in' operation, until 1861, coined 1,381,748 pieces of gold valued at $6,115,569.

Benjamin Parks, by whom the yellow metal was first discovered on what afterwards became the property of the great John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, was still living in the neighborhood of Dahlonega as late as 1894. During the summer of this year, P. J. Moran, the famous staff correspondent and editor of the Atlanta Constitution, visited the gold fields of Lumpkin for the purpose of preparing an arti- cle for the press. Here he found Mr. Parks. The old man was ninety- four years of age, but his eyes still retained a glint of the old fire which lit them in his youthful days when he first discovered gold in the hills. The story which he gave Mr. Moran is substantially reproduced from the newspaper files of 1894. Said the aged argonaut :

"It was just by accident that I came across it. I was deer hunting one day, when I kicked up something which caught my eye. I exam- ined it and decided that it was gold. The place belonged to Rev. Mr. Obarr, who, though a preacher, was a hard man and very desperate. I went to the owner and told him that I thought I could find gold on his place, if he would give me a lease of it. He laughed, as though he did not believe me, and consented. So a lease for forty years was writ- ten out, the consideration of which was that I was to give him one- fourth of the gold mined. I took into partnership a friend in whom I could confide. I went over to the spot with a pan, and, turning over some earth, it looked like the yellow of an egg. It was more than my eyes could believe.

"The news went abroad. Within a few days it seemed as if the whole world must have heard of it, for men came from every state. They came afoot, on horseback, and in wagons, acting more like crazy men than anything else. All the way, from where Dahlonega now stands to Nucklesville, there were men panning out of the branches and making holes in the hillsides. The saddest man in the country was preacher Obarr, from whom I had leased the land. He thought the lease was a joke; but he now learned that it was something serious. One day he came to me and said :

" 'Mr. Parks, I want your lease.'

" 'But I will not sell it to you,' I replied.

" 'Why not ?' he asked.

" 'Well,' I answered, 'even if I were willing, it is now out of my power; for I have taken a partner, and I know he would never consent to it. I have given him my word and I intend to keep it.'

" 'You will suffer for this yet,' said Obarr menacingly, as he went away.

"Two weeks later, I saw a party of two women and two men ap- proaching. I knew it was Obarr's family, intent upon trouble. Know-

563

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

ing Obarr's fondness for litigation, I warned my men to be prepared for action, but to take no offensive step.

" 'Mr. Parks,' were Obarr's first words, 'I want the mine.'

"'If you were to offer me ten times its value,' I replied, 'I would not sell it to you.'

" 'Well, the longest pole will knock off the persimmon,' said he with an implied threat.

"At the same moment, Mrs. Obarr broke the sluice-gate to let out the water. There was a laborer in the ditch, and the woman threw rocks in the water, in order to splash him. Failing to make the man aggressive, she burst into tears; whereupon her son advanced to attack him. I caught him by the collar and flung him back. Then the party went off, swore out warrants against us, and had us all arrested. This was all done for intimidation, but it failed to work. The next thing I heard was that Obarr had sold the place to Judge Underwood, who, in turn, sold it to Senator John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Then I lost my fortune .. Senator Calhoun wanted to buy my lease, and I sold it for what I thought was a good price. The very month after the sale, he took out 24,000 pennyweights of gold, and then I was inclined to be as mad with him as Obarr was with me. But gold mining is like gambling-all luck."

According to the late Prof. W. S. Yeates, who was at one time state geologist of Georgia, an expression which Mark Twain has made classic in two hemispheres originated at Dahlonega. Says Professor Yeates : "One of the most active and enthusiastic spirits of the flush times was Dr. M. F. Stevenson, au amateur geologist and mineralogist, who was full of the belief that Georgia was one of the richest mineral States in the Union. When, in 1849, the miners around Dahlonega gathered to take action on the project of deserting the mines in Georgia and going in a body to the new fields of California, this earnest believer in Geor- gia's great mineral wealth mounted the court-house steps in Dahlonega, and, addressing a crowd of about 200 miners, plead with them not to be turned by the stories of the wondrous discoveries in California, but to stick to the Georgia fields, which were rich in possibilities. Point- ing to Findley Ridge, which lay about half a mile to the south, he ex- claimed : 'Why go to California? In that ridge lies more gold than man ever dreamt of. There's millions in it.' This last sentence was caught up by the miners and taken with them to California, where for years it was a by-word among them. It remained for Mark Twain, who heard it in common use, in one of the mining camps of California, to broadcast it over creation by placing it in the mouth of his world- renowned character, Colonel Mulberry Sellers." *

EARLY GOLD-MINING IN GEORGIA .- According to the testimony of not a few resi- dents in this neighborhood, some of whom have passed the patriarchal limit of four- score years, gold was found in Lumpkin County prior to the date given for its dis- covery in White County, on Duke's Creek, in 1828. Mr. Reese Crisson, one of the best-known of the practical miners who came to Dahlonega in the early days, was heard to say on more than one occasion that when he came to Dahlonega, in the above-named year, it was some time after the discovery of gold in this neighborhood. Mr. Joseph Edwards, a man of solid worth, still living at a ripe old age near

* "Gold Deposits of Georgia," Bulletin 4-A, pp. 274-275, Atlanta, 1896.

564

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Dahlonega, corroborates this statement. He also was one of the early miners; and, on the authority of Mr. Edwards, gold had been discovered in Lumpkin for some time when he came to Dahlonega in 1828. At any rate, the discovery of gold brought an influx of white population into Cherokee Georgia, some mere adventurers, some possessed of the restless spirit of discontent, ever on the lookout for something strange and new, but most of them men of high character, anxious to develop the rich treasures hidden in the hills of this beautiful section of Georgia. The Indians were still here and must have known of the gold deposits, though perhaps ignorant of their value; hence the name "Taloneka, " signifying "yellow metal."

In 1836 the United States Mint was established at Dahlonega. Skilled workmen were brought from Philadelphia to put the mint into operation; and among the number who came at this time was the Rev. David Hastings, a Presbyterian minister, whose cultured family imparted a tone of refinement to the rough mining camp and formed the beginning of Dahlonega's social and intellectual life. His grand-daughter, Miss Lida Fields, was a noted educator, whose popular history of the United States is still a standard text-book in the public schools. Gov. Allen D. Candler, one of Georgia's most distinguished sons, was born near the old mint .- "Georgia's Land- marks, Memorials and Legends." L. L. Knight. Vol. II.

CHAPTER XVII

GOVERNOR GILMER DEFEATED FOR RE-ELECTION-WILSON LUMPKIN IS CALLED TO THE HELM- HE REFUSES TO OBEY A CITATION FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES- THE MISSIONARIES WIN, BUT THE VICTORY IS FRUITLESS-ANDREW JACKSON DECLINES TO ENFORCE THE JUDGMENT RENDERED BY CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL- HIS CHARACTERISTIC REMARK-WORCESTER AND BUTLER REMAIN AT HARD LABOR UNTIL RELEASED BY THE STATE AUTHORITIES ON THE CONDITIONS OF CLEMENCY FIRST OFFERED-WHEN THE INDIANS ARE REMOVED THE WHOLE OF CHEROKEE GEORGIA IS MADE INTO ONE COUNTY : CHEROKEE-LATER THIS EXTENSIVE DOMAIN IS SUB- DIVIDED INTO TEN COUNTIES: CHEROKEE, CASS, COBB, FLOYD, FOR- SYTH, GILMER, LUMPKIN, MURRAY, PAULDING, AND UNION-JOHN W. HOOPER MADE JUDGE OF THE NEW CHEROKEE CIRCUIT-WALKER COUNTY CREATED IN 1833-POLITICAL SENTIMENT IN THE NATION BEGINS TO DIVIDE ON THE TARIFF- JOHN C. CALHOUN ENUNCIATES HIS FAMOUS DOCTRINE OF NULLIFICATION-CALLED FORTH BY THE LEGISLATION OF 1828-JACKSON AND CALHOUN BECOME POLITICAL ENEMIES-THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1832- JACKSON IS RE- ELECTED, DEFEATING HENRY CLAY-GEORGIA, THOUGH OPPOSED TO A PROTECTIVE TARIFF, SUPPORTS JACKSON-REASONS FOR GIVING HER VOTE TO OLD HICKORY-THE GREAT ANTI-TARIFF CONVENTION OF 1832 AT MILLEDGEVILLE-FORSYTH AND BERRIEN ENGAGE IN A JOINT DEBATE LASTING FOR THREE DAYS-ORATORY AT ITS HIGH TIDE- ONLY A PARTIAL VICTORY WON BY THE ANTI-TARIFF AGITATORS- SOUTH CAROLINA TAKES MORE RADICAL ACTION-COERCION IS THREATENED, BUT MR. CLAY'S COMPROMISE POURS OIL ON THE TROUBLED WATERS-POLITICAL CHANGES-THE STATE RIGHTS PARTY Is ORGANIZED-THE UNION PARTY IS ALSO LAUNCHED TROUPERS AND CLARKITES DISAPPEAR-JUDGE KING SUCCEEDS MR. TROUP AS UNITED STATES SENATOR-HIRAM WARNER MADE JUDGE OF THE NEW COWETA CIRCUIT-JOHN FORSYTH BECOMES ATTORNEY-GENERAL IN JACKSON'S CABINET-ALFRED CUTHBERT SUCCEEDS HIM IN THE FED- ERAL SENATE-THE METEORIC SHOWER OF 1833-THE STATE'S CENTENNIAL.

Governor Gilmer was not re-elected to the executive chair in the fall of 1831. It will be remembered that, in the preceding campaign, there were two candidates of the Troup party in the field, and that, while the Clark party was declining in strength, it held the balance of power at this crisis and secured the election of Governor Gilmer by giving him a strong support. Alienated, however, by failing to receive dne recogni- tion from Governor Gilmer, the Clark party, in the election of 1831,

565

566

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

supported Wilson Lumpkin. Mr. Lumpkin also received a strong sup- port from the Troup faction, and was, therefore, elected. From 1827 to 1831, Mr. Lumpkin had been a member of Congress, where he had been instrumental in securing an act for the removal of the Cherokee Indians .* But Governor Gilmer found consolation in defeat, for he was immediately returned to his old seat in the National House of Representatives.

Governor Lumpkin, soon after his inauguration, submitted to the Legislature, on November 25, 1831, copies of a citation lately received from the Supreme Court of the United States to the State of Georgia. These directed the state, through its governor, to show cause why cer- tain judgments rendered by the state court against Messrs. Worcester and Butler should not be set aside. Accompanying these papers there was a vigorous message from Governor Lumpkin in which he avowed luis intention "to disregard all unconstitutional requisitions of whatever character or origin and to protect the rights of the State." t On Decem- ber 26th, the Legislature adopted strong resolutions upholding Governor Lumpkin and justifying the state's policy with respect to an extension of its jurisdiction over the Cherokee Nation.

To quote Mr. Phillips again : ¿ "The hearing on the writ of error in Worcester's case came up before the Supreme Court during the course of the year 1832. The case was argued for the plaintiff by Messrs. Sergeant, Wirt, and E. W. Chester. The State of Georgia was, of course, not represented. * *

* It was the opinion of the court that the judgment of the Georgia county Superior court ought to be reversed and annulled. The case of Butler versus Georgia, similar in all respects to that of Worcester, was in effect decided in the same manner by the opin- ion rendered in Worcester's case. The judgment for which the Chero- kees were so long hoping was thus finally rendered; but they rejoiced too soon if they thought that by virtue of it their troubles were at an end.

"Governor Lumpkin declared to the Legislature, November 6, 1832, that the decision of the court was an attempt 'to prostrate the sov- ereignty of this State in the exercise of its constitutional criminal juris- diction,' an attempt at usurpation which the State executive would meet with the spirit of determined resistance. The unchanged attitude of Georgia boded ill for the hopes of the Cherokees. But the position of the Federal Executive rendered the situation desperate in the last de- gree for those Indians who were still determined not to give up their homes. President Jackson simply refused to enforce the decision of the Supreme Court. He intimated that since John Marshall had rendered his decision, he might enforce it. Of course, the Chief Justice had no authority beyond stating what he thought right in the case.

"Worcester and Butler remained at hard labor in the Georgia peni- tentiary, and the Cherokee chiefs began at length to realize that no re- course was left them against the tyranny of the State. As far as the two missionaries were concerned, they felt that their martyrdom had

* " History of Georgia, " R. P. Brooks, p. 204.

+ H-J, 1831.

# "Georgia and State Rights," U. B. Phillips, pp. 80-82.

567

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

been sufficiently long, and adopted the course of conciliating the State in order to secure their liberation. They informed the Attorney-Gen- eral of Georgia on January 8, 1833, that they had instructed their counsel to prosecute their case no further in the Supreme Court. Appreciating the change in their attitude, Governor Lumpkin pardoned both of them, January 10, on the same conditions offered them some months before, and ordered their release from prison. Most of the people of Georgia approved of the pardoning of Worcester and Butler, but the Governor's action found many critics among the ultramontanists. The attacks upon Mr. Lumpkin grew so strong that in view of his prospective candidacy for a second term as Governor his friends saw fit to publish the various documents and considerations which had led to a release of the two missionaries."

Having asserted jurisdictional rights over the Cherokee domain, it next devolved upon the state to make a survey of the Cherokee lands; and this course was urged upon the Legislature by Governor Lumpkin. Accordingly, under an act approved December 26, 1831, all the lands lying west of the Chattahoochee and north of the Carroll County line were divided into one great county to be known as the County of Chero- kee .*

But the next Legislature subdivided this area into ten counties, to wit : Cherokee, Cass, Cobb, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding and Union. Cherokee memorialized the nation which was soon to be deported to the far West; Cass was named for Gen. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, then a greatly admired leader; Cobb was named for the late Senator Thomas W. Cobb, of Greensboro; Floyd commemorated the services to the state of Gen. John Floyd, of Camden; Forsyth and Gilmer honored two distinguished governors, John Forsyth and George R. Gilmer, the former of whom was also United States senator, minister to Spain, and secretary of the treasury, in two presidential cabinets; Lumpkin bespoke the state's admiration for its chief executive, then in office, Governor Wilson Lumpkin; Murray was given the name of a popular citizen of Lincoln County, Hon. Thomas W. Murray, for many years speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives; Paulding was named for John Paulding, one of the captors of Major Andre; and Union was so named to commemorate the strong national sentiment which pre- vailed among the Georgia mountaineers in the days of nullification. These lands were still occupied by the Indians but the surveyors were nevertheless ordered to proceed with the work of running the various county lines. We reserve a discussion of what followed for a subsequent chapter.

This Legislature also created the Cherokee Judicial Circuit, of which Hon. John W. Hooper became the first judge.

Under an act approved December 18, 1833, a new county was cre- ated out of Murray and named Walker, in honor of the late Maj. Free- man Walker, of Augusta, a former United States senator.

Political sentiment in the nation was beginning to divide upon a new issue-the tariff; and its differentiating effect upon party alignments was strongly felt in Georgia. To encourage manufacturing enterprise

* Acts, 1831, p. 74.

568

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Congress in 1816 had imposed a tariff on certain articles imported from foreign countries, making these articles much dearer in price than articles of the same kind manufactured at home." There was little op- position for a decade at least to this protective measure, the design of which was to safeguard the nation's infant industries. But when the manufacturing interests of New England made powerful by this system of governmental favoritism began to acquire an increasing ascendeney over Congress and to dictate legislation, the South began at the same time to assume a hostile attitude toward protection. Wholly an agricul- tural section, the South had received no benefit whatever from these protective tariffs. On the contrary she had experienced resultant hard- ships therefrom.

In 1828, following the passage of a measure imposing a heavy pro- tective tariff npon the people, John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, be- gan to enunciate his famous doctrine of Nullification. He was at this time vice president of the United States, an office to which he had been elected in 1824, under President Adams; and he continued to hold this same high office, under President Jackson. But all friendly relations between Jackson and Calhoun were severed by the former's determina- tion to enforce submission to the obnoxious act of 1828.

Nullification, as defined by its great author, was the right of a state, when dissatisfied with an unjust law, to declare such law of no effect within her borders. This doctrine was a natural outgrowth of Mr. Cal- houn's theory of the American Government, to wit, that it was not a union of individuals but a league or compact between sovereign states, any one of which had a right to judge when the compact was broken. Meetings were held all over the cotton belt for the purpose of expressing popular opposition to the Tariff Act of 1828.

Says Mr. Evans: "The people resolved to wear their own home- spun rather than buy Northern goods and to raise their own hogs and horses rather than buy from the west. In the Congress of 1828, many representatives from Georgia and South Carolina appeared dressed in homespun, which was woven on the looms of their own State." t Hon. John MacPherson Berrien resigned from President Jackson's cabinet because of his opposition to its protective policies. We are strongly tempted in this connection to discuss the rupture of President Jack- son's cabinet, especially with reference to the somewhat dramatic role played by the famous Peggy O'Neill who during the Jackson adminis- tration made a football of American politics and incidentally broke a President's cabinet into splinters. But strictly speaking this does not belong to the history of Georgia. }

In a resolution approved December 27, 1831, the Legislature of Geor- gia condemned the Tariff of 1828 as a violation of the Federal Constitu- tion, inexpedient, oppressive, nnequal, and destructive to the great lead- ing interests of the South, pecuniary 'and political .**

* "History of Georgia," R. P. Brooks, p. 173.

t "History of Georgia," Lawton B. Evans, p. 224.

# For an account of this affair, the reader is referred to Vol. II, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians, " by L. L. Knight, chapter on "Berrien, the American Cicero." Aets, 1831, p. 312.

569

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

But South Carolina went still further and threatened to nullify the tariff law. Calhoun's fatal philosophy was beginning to bear fruit.

Inevitably the protective tariff became a dominant issue in the presi- dential campaign of 1832; but President Jackson was re-elected, defeat- ing Henry Clay. Strange to say, he received Georgia's undivided sup- port, consisting in this election of eleven electoral votes. But there were other grounds on which her support was based. General Jackson had subdued the Indian outbreaks upon her borders. He had defeated the seasoned veterans of Packenham in the great Battle of New Orleans. He had withdrawn the Federal troops from the Cherokee Territory, had revoked the appointment of Worcester as postmaster at New Echota, and had strongly advocated a removal of the Indian tribes to the West ; and for these things Georgia could not forget him. The state's electoral vote this year was cast by the following electors : from the state at large, Beverly Allen and Henry Holt; district electors, Elias Beall, Henry Jackson, David Blackshear, William Terrell, W. B. Bulloch, John Whitehead, John Floyd, Wilson Williams and Seaton Grantland .*

But opposition to the protective principle was by no means effectually suppressed. During the summer of 1832, at Athens, quite a number of prominent Georgians who were then attending the commencement exercises of Franklin College held a meeting on the campus and passed a resolution calling for an anti-tariff convention to assemble at Milledge- ville, in the fall of 1832, during the annual legislative session.

Pursuant to this eall, 131 delegates, representing sixty-one coun- ties met at Milledgeville, on November 12, 1832. Ex-Governor George R. Gilmer was elected chairman. This convention will ever be famous for the great debate in which two of Georgia's most illustrious sons, Berrien and Forsyth, were pitted against each other in an argument which lasted for three days. We quote the following account from the pen of an eye-witness to this historie encounter between two intellectual giants.t Says he :

"On motion of Mr. [W. H.] Torrance, it was decided to appoint a Committee of Twenty-One, whose duty it should be to report resolutions expressive of the sense of the Convention in regard to the best mode of obtaining relief from the Protective System, to report what objects ought to engage the attention of the Convention, and to suggest the most effective means of accomplishing the same. [Time was required for selecting this important committee; and consequently, after transacting a few minor matters, the Convention adjourned.]

"On the second day, Mr. Forsyth moved that a committee of five be appointed by the President to examine and report at the next meeting by what authority the various persons present were empowered to act as delegates, the credentials which they possessed, etc. Mr. Torrance, in lieu thereof, moved as a substitute that a Committee of Elections be named to inquire into the right of any member to hold his seat, whenever the same should be eontested. Both motions were laid on the table for the time being. The President then announced the Committee of Twenty-One, to wit: Messrs. Blackshear, Berrien, Forsyth, Cum-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Part 72

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