USA > Georgia > Miscellanies of Georgia, historical, biographical, descriptive, etc > Part 13
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Had Great Britain allowed this line to remain unaltered, had she thought proper, during her brief domination, to let alone this, her first fixation of the Northern boundary of West Florida, very different from what actually took place would have been many subsequent circumstances and events in relation to a vast and interesting region. In the first place, had this line of the thirty-first parallel remained un- disturbed, that Spanish claim of title afterwards so earnest- ly urged against the United States for all the country be- tween the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi lying above that parallel, would have lacked its only plausible founda- tion, and in all likelihood would never have been brought forward. Consequently, that Spanish Protectorate of the In- dians and interference with them against us, which origina- ted wholly out of this claim of title, would never have
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occurred. It is altogether probable likewise that the Yazoo Fraud itself might never have been hatched, and in case it had been, it is almost certain it would have failed of success- ful accomplishment. For the litigious state of the title between our country and Spain was the main root from which it sprang, inspiring, as we have seen, a -hope of achieving the vast purchase, or. champerty rather, at very little cost. How adroitly the Yazooists intermingled insinu- ations against the title of Georgia with the arts of bribery, corruption and influence with which they prosecuted their purchase before the Legislature, needs not to be told in de- tail here. Verily, it required the combined force of these and all other base means they could command, to effect the passage of their monstrous scheme .- And then, further- more, had Great Britain never changed this line, the very word Yazoo would have remained in its original obscurity, nor would ever have been raised into notoriety, nor fastened as a name on a large and interesting portion of the earth's surface.
But Great Britain, in the course of a few years was led, by reasons not now worth emunerating, to make a great change of the line as at first established by her, -a change destined to be prolific of no little strife between her two conquering successors, Spain and the United States. Car- rying the Northern boundary of West Florida much further up, she made it to start from the Mississippi at the mouth of the Yazoo and to run from thence due East to the Chat- tahoochee, striking the latter river not far from what is now West Point. Naturally, this line soon became famous as the new upper boundary of British West Florida, and it got to be familiarly known as the Yazoo line, and the country above and below it to an indefinite extent came to be called the Yazoo country. Wherefore, upon the subsequent recon- quest of British West Florida by Spain, which took place in May, 1781, it is not strange that Spain should have claimed, as she did, to have become the owner, by virtue of that con- quest, of all the country bearing the name of British West
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Florida, that is, of all South of the Yazoo line. But not content with this, she went much further, and without either logic or justice on her side, extended her pretensions to all the territory on the North of the line to which the vague name of Florida had of old been applied by her, asserting that she was remitted to her ancient claims there also by her reconquest of West Florida, although British West Florida did not reach so far up. From the foregoing it is seen how it happened that the vast region of which we are discoursing acquired the name of Yazoo, and why in the first legislative sale, that of 1789, the two main purchasing companies took Yazoo (the word not having yet become ob- noxious) as part of their name and were called the Virginia Yazoo and the South Carolina Yazoo Companies. Hence, also, in the act of 1795, although all four of its companies eschewed the now tainted name and it was not allowed to occur in the law from the beginning to the end, yet it con- tinued to stick like the shirt of Nessus, and neither the lands, the law, the companies, the enacting Legislature; nor any- thing else connected with the transaction have ever been able to this day to get rid of the abhorred designation.
It was more than a dozen years after the establishment of this Yazoo line by Great Britain that the important event occurred to which we have just above adverted, namely, the Spanish reconquest of West Florida from that power in May, 1781, a date at which our Revolutionary war was yet in " mid volley,"-eighteen months before the provisional, and more than two years before the definitive treaty of Peace, Limits and Independence between the mother coun- try and the United States. This reconquest was a long premeditated thing with Spain. All the while after the treaty of Paris, she had been ill at ease under the loss of Florida, for which she had never felt that Great Britain's relinquishment of her shadowy claims West of the Missis- sippi deserved to be called an indemnity, or was anything more than a mere empty salvo to Spanish pride. She had been constantly on the watch, therefore, for an opportunity
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of revenge and reseizure, and found it at last, so far as West Florida was concerned, by leaping on Great Britain while she was oppressed by a tripple war with her rebellious colo- nies, and their French allies and the unallied Dutch. Never was conquest more complete and unequivocal, the British Governor, Chester, making an absolute surrender of the province and retiring with the British Forces and function- aries, and leaving everything in the hands of the victorious Spaniards. Nor was there ever any attempt at recapture.
The effect was that, as between Great Britain and Spain, all British West Florida from the Gulf up to the Yazoo line became undoubtedly Spanish, nor was there aught left to England within that space capable of being conveyed by her in any way to the United States or any other power.
And yet what in fact did England do ? Here is what she did : By both the aforementioned treaties, provisional and definitive, she ceded the whole country, as well below as above the Yazoo line, to the United States down to the 31st parallel, wholly disregarding the aforesaid Spanish recon- quest. And what is stranger still, she did on the very day she made this definitive cession to the United States, to-wit, on the 3d day of September, 1783, enter into a conflicting treaty with Spain conveying in full right to her East and West Florida, without saying one word about their boundaries, leaving Spain consequently at liberty and in a position to contend for whatever boundaries she pleased against us.
Behold here what a wanton bequest of territorial dispute and quarrel our chagrined and vanquished Mother country threw at parting into the laps of the United States and Spain .:- A bequest, too, which, so far as related to the re- gion South of the Yazoo line, seemed at first glance decid- edly to throw the advantage on the side of Spain and against this country. But it was only at the first glance that it had that seeming. For upon close scrutiny it became clear that the United States were entitled to go behind these con- flicting treaties into which Britian had entered with Spain
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and ourselves, and to treat the one made with us as being not so much a cession or the source of our title as an acknowl- edgement by the mother country of our pre-existing rights and boundaries acquired, sword in hand, by successful war and our Declaration of Independence. By this mode of viewing the subject (and it is certainly the true one), our territorial rights and limits recognized by the treaty of 1783 are made to relate back and take effect from a date anterior to the Spanish conquest of 1781, and to be superior conse- quently to the Spanish claim founded on that conquest, just as our Independence itself is to be regarded not as a grant or concession from Great Britain, but as a right acknowledged by her to be already ours, conquered by war and dating back to the 4th of July 1776. We see thus that revolution and the sword are the true fountain head from which we trace in this case our territorial title and boundaries as well as our blood-purchased right of self-government :- Of both which the above mentioned British treaties with us are to be con- sidered but as a recognition and settlement.
Such is the principle, not the less sound because a little subtle, which comes to our rescue, supplanting in our favor the Spanish claim of title to all that part of the contested territory lying South of the Yazoo line. It is not surprising, however, that Spain should have been exceedingly averse to yielding up so fine and large a region on so fine a point as this. But when she went further, and upon the ground of having conquered British West Florida, overstepped the Yazoo line and advanced pretensions to an immense country which had never been embraced in that province, no wonder the American Continent grew impatient and almost lost respect for a power that juggled in this manner for more than it could with decency claim.
Thus, upon comparison of the two titles, Spanish and Georgian, as they stood previously to the treaty of San Lorenzo, that of Georgia on which alone the United States relied and triumphed in their negotiations with Spain, is found to be prior in time and consequently stronger in point
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of right ( prior tempore, ergo portior jure,) than the Spanish title ; both being founded on conquest from Great Britain and our conquest being the oldest of the two by nearly five years. But even supposing the title of Spain, though van- quished in her diplomatic strife with our country, to have been in reality better than that of Georgia by means of which the United States vanquished it, yet the United States would be precluded after the victory from assuming an altered language and denying the superiority and validity of the title of Georgia under which that victory had been won. For Governments no more than individuals, after conquering under a flag, whether of war or of words, have a right to turn upon it and rend it. The wise and beneficent princi- ple of estoppel so well known in law and so sacred to peace, honor and the repose of rights and property, here comes into play, and not only forbade the United States from setting up the vanquished Spanish title in opposition to that of Georgia, but furthermore required that this vanquished title should not be allowed in the hands of the United States to have the effect of vesting any right whatever, against Georgia, but should be made to enure, for whatever it might be worth, to her benefit alone, and to the perfect clear- ing and firm establishment of her right and title.
SECTION IV.
Such is a condensed account of the Spanish title and of its eventual surrender to the United States who were contest- ants against it under the elder and better title of Georgia. The leagued speculators forewarned by Gen. Gunn, knew, as we have seen, as early as 1794, how certain and near at hand this surrender was, and by the many able and distin- guished men whom they counted in their ranks, (among whom were prominent politicians, eminent jurists and learn- ed judges ;) they were all the while kept well enlightened as to the manner in which this surrender whenever it should happen, would work ; that it would enure, as we have above stated, to the benefit of Georgia and to the disembarrass-
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ment of her right in and to the immense territory they were seeking to purchase from her. But whilst their confidence in the clear title of what they were aiming to buy from Georgia was thus perfect and free from doubt, they dread- ed not a little the enhanced estimation of the lands and other difficulties which they foresaw rising up in their path in case they should fail to consummate their purchase in advance of the coming Spanish cession. Among those other difficulties was the ever haunting danger from the patriotic competition of the United States government. For though they had succeeded in triumphing over it in 1789, they saw it again starting up and all the while threatening them. To which when we add the vast unprincipled cupidity by which they were devoured and the mania then widely prevalent for speculating in wild lands, we behold the reasons which stimulated the Yazooists to the hurried and profligate efforts of which they were now guilty in order to grasp, while they might, an enormous prize which they apprehended would not remain long within their reach.
These efforts they consequently commenced making very soon, not waiting even for the meeting of the Legislature. For months beforehand, the ringleaders and their most wily, trusted accomplices were hard at work to secure suc- cess from that body when it should assemble. They kept, however, a thick veil over their machinations. It was quite unknown to the public how they were busied. Little was it supposed that they were industriously occupied in per- fecting their schemes, in tampering with the elections to the Legislature, in enlisting men of influence far and wide, and in getting up funds for the purpose of corruption and paying for the lands. Even upon the assembling of the Legislature in November, no siege was at first laid ; no lobby showed itself; no demonstration of any sort was for sometime made. Every thing was kept still, quiet, unsuspected, awaiting a very significant, pre-arranged, auxiliary event, namely, the re-election of Gen. Gunn for another six years to the United States Senate, which was no sooner accomplished than it
6
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was hailed everywhere by his associates as a great prelimi- nary triumph, and an auspicious prelude to the grand Yazoo campaign, which was now at once boldly opened at Augusta under the leadership of Gunn himself, robed in all the bravery of his renewed Senatorial dignity-A dignity basely sought by him on this occasion with the direct intention of prostituting its great influence to the shame and betrayal of the people who honored him, and to the vile enrichment of himself and his confederates, who had not over estimated the importance of his election to their cause, rightly judg- ing that a Legislature which should re-elect such a man to so noble a station would not be found proof against the aug- mented bad influence with which they had thereby armed him, nor be beyond the reach of those arts of corruption that were pre-determined to be exerted by himself and his co- workers, who took it for granted from their failure at the preceding session that such arts would have to be employed in order to success now .*
Quickly then upon Guun's re-election the veil was entire- ly thrown off by the Yazooists and four great land compa- nies developed themselves that had evidently been already organized and in waiting for that signal. These companies soon perceived that in playing the part of competitors against one another they would be greatly in each other's
* Extract from Mr. Randolph's speech on the Yazoo claims in the House of Representatives of the United States, January 31st, 1805: "There is another fact, too little known, but unquestionably true, in relation to this business. The scheme of buying up the Western territory of Georgia did not originate there. It was hatched in Philadelphia and New York (and I believe in Boston, of this, however, I am not certain), and the funds by which it was effected were principally furnished by monied capitalists in those towns. The direction of these resources devolved chiefly on the Senator (Gunn), who has been mention- ed. Too wary to commit himself to writing, he and his associates agreed upon a countersign. His re-election was to be considered as evidence that the tem- per of the Legislature of Georgia was suited to their purpose and his Northern confederates were to take their measures accordingly. In proof of this fact, no sooner was the news of his re-appointment announced in New York than it was publicly said in a coffee house there, "Then the Western territory of Georgia is sold."-Benton Ab. of Congressional Debates, Vol. III, p. 331.
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way and that by combining their resources and influence they would almost certainly be able to control the Legislature to their purposes. They hastened accordingly to enter into a coalition, the parties to which, more grasping than their predecessors of 1789, resolved on seizing and partitioning among themselves all the immense country from the Ala- abama and Coosa in the East and the Mississippi in the West, and from the Northern boundary of Georgia along the 35th parallel down nearly to her Southern limit on the 31st degree of latitude-a region of surpassing natural ad- vantages and comprising some forty or fifty millions of acres of what was mostly very fertile land in a very fine climate, every where well watered and abounding in good navigable rivers.
Over the proposals and efforts of the combined speculators to buy this almost imperial expanse the State's unworthy representatives higgled and hesitated for some time, not, as the upshot showed, in order to obtain a better price for the State, but with a view only to bigger bribes for themselves. At length, paid to their own full satisfaction for their votes. they sold the whole coveted region at one "fell swoop" of legislation for the sum of $500,000 to the four leagued com- panies, the purchase money being apportioned among them as also were the lands, according to their own wishes and dictation ; the State getting one-fifth of the money in hand and receiving mortgages on the lands themselves for the remainder, which was fully paid before the expiration of a stipulated credit of ten months. The Georgia Company was the leviathan of the coalition, paying just one-half of the gross amount of the purchase money, $250,000, the Georgia- Mississippi Company paying $155,000, the Upper Mississip- pi Company, $35,000, and the Tennessee Company, $60,000, each getting by metes and bounds lands proportioned to their respective payments.
In this gigantic transaction we behold shamelessness and audacity, falsity and artifice vying with the pecuniary cor- ruption by which it was disgraced. For instance, the Leg-
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islature had the hardihood, as we are informed in the pre- amble to the Rescinding Act, to accept this price of $500,000 in the face of a proposition by other parties equally reliable to pay $800,000, which was refused for no better reason than the smaller bribes, or perhaps the no bribes, by which it was backed. How grateful the bare idea that the failure of these higher bidders was owing to their virtue ! Moreover, also, during the time the measure was on hand the speculators gross- ly misrepresented the amount of the lands they were seeking to buy, pretending that they amounted to not more than 21,000,000 or 22,000,000 of acres .* After the bargain was clinched they quickly made the discovery that they had got- ten at least 40,000,000 acres. And then the pretense set up in the Act of a necessity to sell these lands in order to raise funds to pay the State troops and to extinguish the Indian title to lands lying elsewhere, is transparently false and hyp- ocritical on the very face of the law. Further still, among the numerous badges of fraud and villainy by which the case is deformed, not the least remarkable is that these great ter- ritories were clandestinely sold, as it were, by the Legisla- ture without any notice whatever having been given to the public that they were for sale.
* In the debate on the Yazoo Claims in January, 1805, in the House of Repre- sentatives, Mr. Lucas, of Virginia, said :
"It ought to be observed that the four land companies, who are original purchasers under the Act of the Legislature of Georgia, passed on the 7th of January, 1795, stated in their petition containing their proposal to the Legisla- ture to purchase certain lands belonging to the State of Georgia, that the lands contained within the bounds which were described in their petition amounted to 21,750,000 acres. It was evidently upon the faith of this statement that the Legislature consented to sell that land for $500,000. However, it is now as- certained that the quantity of land thus described amounts to 35,000,000 acres and the companies themselves compute it to be near 40,000,000. From this it appears evidently that the companies have deceived the Legislature by stating what was not true. *
"The Legislature have consequently sold twice as much land as they intended to sell, or which is the same thing, they have sold it one-half cheaper than it was their intention, and all this loss is the result of the false statement given by the land companies."-Benton's Ab. of Congressional Debates, Vol. 111, p. 323.
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But in order to see this Yazoo affair in its full turpitude, it is necessary to advert to another law enacted at the same session. I mean the Act passed for the purpose of making provision for paying with Indian lands the State Troops for their services in defending the State in the Indian war which had been so long pending and which, indeed, was not yet perfectly terminated. This law authorizes Surveys and Head Rights in favor of the citizen soldiers to be located on lands yet in the occupancy of Indians lying in the Tallassee country and to the South of the Oconee. Such and so thorough, however, was the change of ideas that had been wrought among the people of Georgia by the policy and principles of Washington as displayed and enforced in his warfare against the Yazoo sale of 1789, that whatever they may have previously thought on the subject, they now cer- tainly disclaimed all right of entering themselves or of authorizing by their laws and grants, others to enter on the Indian lands within the limits of the State until the Indian title should be first extinguished and the consent of the general Government given. Accordingly in this State Troops Act, care was taken to insert a clause declaring that the Act was not to go into operation until after the extinction of the Indian title, and in regard to the Tallassee country, not until after obtaining the consent of the General Government. Such were the restrictions the Legislature felt bound to put into a Law appropriating Indian lands for so favorite an object as that of compensating our citizen soldiers.
But when it came to the Yazoo Law and the selling of a realm of Indian territory to gangs of profligate specula- tors for almost nothing in comparison with its value, a mighty change comes over the Legislature. It now no longer gave heed to the principles and policy of Washing- ton. There is now no waiting for the extinguishment of the Indian title, or the consent of the General Government ; no postponement of the operation of the Law for these or any other events. On the contrary the sale is absolute, im- mediate, unconditional, trammeled with no delays, contin-
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gencies or restrictions. In a word the restrictions studious- ly inserted in the State Troops law are as studiously left out here, and the door is intentionally left open for the State's bribing grantees and whoever might become their sub- purchasers to possess themselves, so far as the terms of the Law are concerned, of the Indian lands at their own pleas- ure and by their own arts and means. And in order to add strength to such their claim under the law and place it be- yond cavil, recourse is had to an extraordinary and most discreditable Legislature trick-A lying Title is prefixed to the Law. It is falsely christened an "Act supplementary" to the State Troops Act. Thus, by forging the relation of principal and supplement between the two laws and thereby making them for all purposes of judicial interpretation one and the same law, the construction was the more strongly necessitated that the insertion of the restrictions in the State Troops Law and their omission in the Yazoo Law was tanta- mount to their express exclusion from the latter, accord- ing to the universally recognized legal maxim, Inculsio unius est exclusio elterius. Behold here by what unwor- thy parliamentary legerdemain the Yazooists contrived to strengthen the argument of their exemption from restrictions demanded at once by righteousnesss and good policy and by the laws and constitution and treaties of the Union; restric- tions also to which our meritorious citizen soldiers were subjected by the very same Legislature that in the very same breath exempted the Yazooists therefrom. Certainly we see here a device altogether worthy of the law-learning and technical artifice and skill which abounded in the Yazoo ranks ; a device moreover, which nothing but Yazoo corruption could have carried in triumph through the two Houses of the General Assembly and then through the Ex- ecutive Branch of the Government also. For corruption must have found its way there too, if not directly to the very breast and pocket of the Governor, which we would fain hope was not the case, yet undoubtedly to those by whom he was advised and influenced.
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