USA > Georgia > The Revolutionary records of the State of Georgia, Volume I Pt 2 > Part 4
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And Be it Further Enacted by the Authority Afore- said that the said Commissioners or a Majority of them be empowered and required and they are hereby empowered and required to proceed to, and begin the
CONFISCATION .- BANISHMENT, 1782. 393
sales of the said forfeited Estates both real and personal in forty days from and after the passing of this Act on the following terms and Conditions to wit, Seven Years Credit to be given to purchasers of the landed or other Real Estates; and four Years credit to be given to pur- chasers of the personal Estates; That the said sales be public, and held on or between the hours of Ten O Clock in the forenoon and three in the afternoon, with Power of Adjournment from day to day or otherwise, in such place or places as the said Commissioners or a Majority of them shall Judge most Convenient. That the said Com- missioners or a Majority of them do and shall issue thirty days Notice previous to the Commencement of the said sales, and that the highest bidder, be deemed and con- sidered a purchaser. That the said Commissioners or a Majority of them, shall take a personal obligation from every purchaser of any part or parts of the real or landed Estates, with a Mortgage of the same: for the payment of the purchase money at the tinre appointed by this Act. together with sufficient security for the payment of Inter- est Annually at the rate of seven pounds Per Cent Per Annum, which payment of principal and Interest shall be rendered in Mexican dollars or other Monies in Gold or Silver. That the said Commissioners or a Majority of them shall take the bonds in the name of his honor the Governor or Commander in Chief of the State for the time being and his successor in office: and that the said Commissioners or a Majority of them be fully empow- ered And Authorized, and they are hereby empowered Authorized and Required to execute sufficient titles and Conveyances for vesting the Estates Real and personal in the persons who shall respectively purchase the same. their heirs Executors, Administrators or Assigns re- spectively for the terms for which they were sold. That the said Commissioners respectively, shall previous to their entering into the execution of their Office, give Se- curity to the Amount of three thousand pounds specie
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REVOLUTIONARY RECORDS.
to his honor the Governor or Commander in Chief of the State for the time being And take the following Oath of Office. I. A. B. do solemnly Swear that I will deligently, truly, and impartially execute the duty of a Commissioner for the sale of the forfeited cstates, Agreeable to the directions of the Act, for the benefit of this State. So help me God
AND WHEREAS notwithstanding the Scenes of Cruelty and distress which the Wives and Children of Numbers of the good and faithful Citizens of this State under went humanity dictates that a reasonable support and Maintenance should be allowed to the Families that may have remained among us belonging to persons whose es- tates are Confiscated by this Act. ---
Be it Therefore Enacted by the Authority afore- said that the said Commissioners or a Majority of them be hereby empowered and authorized, and they are hereby authorized and required to grant a reasonable and tem- porary maintenance to the families of such persons as are banished by this Act untill the Legislature shall here- after direct or order a fixed Support for the said fam- ilies. -
AND WHEREAS it is necessary for the public benefit that all embezzlements, removals, or concealments of the forfeited Estates should be prevented.
Be it Therefore Enacted by the Authority afore- said that any person or persons who shall from and after the passing of this Act. wilfully or intentionally Conceal or embezzle any part or parts of the personal property Confiscated by this Act, from the Commissioners ap- pointed by this Act for taking the same into their Cus- tody or Care or who shall Convert the same to their own use and behoof with intent to defraud the State, and pre-
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vent the Commissioners from selling or otherwise dispos- ing of the same. that all and every person or persons so offending as aforesaid shall be guilty of felony and on Conviction thereof shall suffer death. ----
AND WHEREAS doubts may arise whether the Inhabi- tants of this State who Possess no Grants for the lands formerly purchased of the British Commissioners in Wilkes County, commonly called and known by the name of the ceded lands are enabled to give landed security where the same is required by this Act. --
Be it Therefore Enacted by the Authority afore- said that the said inhabitants are and they are hereby declared capable of offering and giving such ungranted lands as security to the Commissioners for the sales of the forfeited Estates in every of these cases where se- curity is required by this Act.
AND WHEREAS from the irruption of the Enemy and the devastation which followed, various of the good peo- ple of the State may have lost their Grants or titles to their lands.
Be it Therefore Enacted by the Authority afore- said that all and every person under this description and who are publickly known to be possessed of the lands the titles or grants of which are so lost or destroyed, shall be capable of Giving such lands in Security, And such security shall be received in all and every of those cases where landed Security is required by this Act.
AND WHEREAS several sales of Real Estates, forfeited and Confiscated by the Act of Attainder and Confisca- tion which was passed on or about the first day of March, one thousand seven hundred and seventy eight, took place, the terms of which sales were not complied with.
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REVOLUTIONARY RECORDS.
Be it Therefore Enacted by the Authority afore- said. that all and every sale of any part or parts of the said real Estates, the terms of which were not strictly complied with, and fulfilled on the part of the purchaser or purchasers, in the manner and form prescribed and required in the Rules and Regulations for selling the said real Estates, be deemed and held null and Void, and such sale or sales are hereby declared to be null and Void to all intents and purposes whatsoever. And the Commissioners Appointed by this Act. are empowered and required to take the said Real Estates into their Custody and care, and to be subjected to sale under the Power and Authority of this Act. -
And Be it Further Enacted by the Authority afore- said that the said Commissioners or a Majority of them be empowered and required, and they are hereby empow- ered and required to proceed to the sales of the forfeited real Estates, which have been settled heretofore, or which by public notoriety, are known or Generally under- stood to contain a Certain or supposed Number of Acres, under the description, which the said Lott, Plantation. or tract of Land. Island or Islands as the case may be, Generally bears: And also to the sales of all such other unsettled Real Estates as the said Commissioners or a Majority of them can receive a well informed knowledge of from wise and faithful Citizens who are or may be Acquainted with such unsettled tracts of land.
And Be it Further Enacted by the Authority afore- said, that the State will and do Guarantee and defend the Commissioners appointed by this Act or a Majority of them in all their proceedings for Carrying the Powers and Authority given them by the same into full effect ; and will also warrant and forever defend all and every sale or sales which the said Commissioners or a Majority of them shall make to any purchaser or purchasers of
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any part or parts of the Real and personal Estates Con- fiscated by this Act.
And Be it Further Enacted by the Authority afore- said that the said Commissioners be allowed a Commis- sion of one and a half Per Cent on all sales of the real and personal Estates; besides all Reasonable and Just expences incurred in carrying this Act in Execution.
And Be it Further Enacted by the Authority afore- said that the Commissioners shall and they are hereby required from time to time. once in two months make Out returns of all their proceedings, and deliver the same to his Honor the Governor or Commander in Chief for the time being, with the Inventories of the different Estates; and all such Account of Sales as may be finished, and also all bonds and Securities and sums of Money Received by them.
And Be it Further Enacted by the Authority afore- said that this Act shall be a public one, And Judi- cially taken notice of as such; and that the same, shall have the most full, liberal and General Construction for the purpose of carrying the same into execution, in the most beneficial Manner: and if the said Commissioners or any of them be impleaded or sued, or any person Acting under their Authority for any matter or thing done by Virtue of this Act, they, or he may plead the General issue, and give this Act and the special Matter in evidence and on Verdict or Judgment against the Plaintiff, or on his non suit, or discontinuance, the per- son or persons so sued shall recover treble Costs.
Signed by Order of the House
State of Georgia ! SAMUEL SALTUS Augusta May 4th 1782. Speaker of the General Assembly
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REVOLUTIONARY RECORDS.
On the 29th of December, 1778, seven days before the expiration of the term for which Governor Houstoun had been elected, the British captured Savannah and the state government was dispersed, and for many months a con- dition of anarchy prevailed in Georgia, no department of the government being in the discharge of its constitu- tional functions. None of our historians have ever made it clear how this condition was brought about. McCall, our first historian, falls into palpable error. He says, "after the metropolis of the state had fallen into the bands of the enemy. the legislature had dispersed without appointing a Governor for the succeeding year." thus conveying the idea that the legislature was in session when the attack was made, whereas it was not in session, and had not been for a month at least. The constitution provided that "it shall be an unalterable rule that the House of Assembly shall expire and be at an end yearly, and every year, on the day preceding the day of election mentioned" (in the constitution). The day mentioned! in the constitution on which members of the legislature must be elected "yearly and every year" was the first Tuesday in December. The term of the legislature of 1778, Governor Houstoun's legislature, therefore expired and was at an end "on the day before" the first Tuesday in December. 1778. It therefore could not have been in session when Savannah was attacked, for its term of serv- ice had expired. Its successor, the legislature for 1779. had been elected. but the constitution provided that "the representatives shall meet on the first Tuesday in January following" their election. Hence this legislature, the leg- islature chosen in December. 1778, could not meet in regular session and organize until the first Tuesday in January, 1779. It is true that the constitution provided that "the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council shall have power to call the House of Assembly together in any emergency," and if an emergency had
WITHOUT ORGANIZED GOVERNMENT. 399
arisen he would have called the members elected for 1779, not the old legislature of 1778, for its term had expired. But there is no evidence that either was called, and it is therefore almost a certainty that no legislature was in session at the time Savannah was attacked and captured.
Bishop Stevens, in his excellent history of Georgia, did not attempt to account for the anomalous condition, but says there existed "a confusion in civil affairs which the historian with his present imperfect materials cannot fully unravel": while Colonel Jones does not attempt to elucidate the subject, but passes it over without com- ment.
The real causes of this period of anarchy were these : under the Constitution of 1777, the Governor was elected by the legislature for a period of one year, and in his oath of office he was required to swear that "f will peaceably and quietly resign the government to which I have been elected at the period to which my continuance in said office is limited by the constitution." The President of the Execu- utive Council, upon whom alone the executive duties de- volved in case of a vacancy in the office of Governor, was also elected at the same time for one year and took the same oath as the Governor; consequently each of these officers went out of office at the expiration of one year from the date of his election, there being no provision in the constitution for their holding over till their successors were elected, this provision never having been incorpo- rated in the organic law until 1798. Thus the office of Governor became vacant, and there was no legislature in session to fill the vacancy. An election for members of a legislature to convene in Savannah on the first Tuesday in January, 1779. had been held on the first Tuesday in
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December, 1778: but seven days before it would have met and elected Governor Houstoun's successor the city was captured by the enemy, and it was therefore impossi- ble for it to meet there. When Savannah was menaced by the British in December, 1778, the House of Assem- bly, in which alone the power to remove the seat of gov- ernment was lodged, not being in session, Governor Hous- toun's Executive Council, a few days before the expira- tion of their term, assumed the responsibility of ordering the temporary removal to Augusta, but the British com -. mander pushed a column of soldiers to that place and oc -. cupied it before the government could be established there.
Repeated efforts were made to convene the legislature, elected the preceding December, to elect a Governor and reorganize the state government, but it was impossible to secure the attendance of a quorum, the members elected being scattered, some refugees in other states, some within. the enemy's lines and some, but not enough to make a quorum, in that part of the state still held by the patriots.
Thus, when Savannah fell, Georgia was left without a Governor, without a legislature, without an Executive Council, and without even a temporary seat of govern- ment. The last meeting of Governor Houstoun and his Council, as appears from their book of minutes still pre- served and printed in Volume II of our compilation of . Revolutionary Records, was held in Savannah on the 26th of December, 1778. Immediately following this minute. on the same page, is the following entry in the hand- writing of their Secretary :-
"The town of Savannah being taken by the British on the 28th of December put a final end to public business of a civil nature." This was the end of Governor Hous- toun's administration and of organized government in Georgia for a long period of time, but not of the efforts
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of the patriotic men who had been elected to the legisla- ture for the year 1779, but who had not organized before the fall of Savannah, and could not have organized, under the terms of the constitution, had the town not been taken, before the first Tuesday in January, 1779, the day fixed in the constitution for the regular annual meetings of the legislature and the election of a governor. Immedi- ately after the fall of Savannah, Augusta having been designated by the Executive Council as the temporary seat of government. some of the members elect attempted to convene the legislature there for the purpose of elect- ing a Governor and reorganizing their state government, and to this end repaired at once to that place, arriving there in advance of the British troops sent by Colonel Campbell. British commander at Savannah, to occupy the town.
Immediately following the last entry in the book of the Minutes of Governor Houstoun's Council, quoted above, is this entry :--
"The members chosen on the 7th of this instant by the Honorable House of Assembly for a Council of this State, met at the house of Matthew Hobson, in Augusta, and proceeded to the choice of a President and adjourned till the meeting of the next convention.'
It will be observed that the name of the President elected is not given, and we are left to conjecture as to who was chosen. The next entry in the book is as fol- lows :--
"GEORGIA.
January 9th, 1779.
Agreeable to resolve of the Convention of the Repre- sentatives of the State of Georgia in Assembly met, which resolve is as follows, viz-
26 Ir-vol 1
.
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REVOLUTIONARY RECORDS.
RESOLVED, that the members chosen for a Council, cr a majority thereof, act as a committee, empowered by this convention to recommend every thing they may deen expedient in the place of a Council for this State, until the convention meet again to clothe them with power to act as an Executive Council."
These entries clearly show that everything that was done by the patriots, struggling to maintain the semblance of a state government, was irregular. "The Honorable House of Assembly" which on the 7th of January nomi- nated an Executive Council, was not a legal legislature, but a mere irregular assemblage of a minority of the members elected in the preceding December. Had the as- semblage constituted a majority of the members elect. they would have at once organized in due form by elect- ing a Speaker and have chosen a Governor to succeed Governor Houstoun. But they did not do this. They were not in fact a legislature, but only a minority of the members elected to the legislature. Realizing this they did not assume to be a legislature, but called themselves a "convention" and as such, having before them a list of the names of all the persons who had been elected to this legislature, those absent as well as those present, they nominated from the list before them the requisite number to constitute an Executive Council, but while the number thus nominated to be an Executive Council was sufficient, and while all of them were probably present, they were not called an Executive Council, but a "Committee." be- cause the body which nominated them, being a mere mi- nority of the House of Assembly, was not competent to select an Executive Council. Hence the body naming them was not called a "House of Assembly" but a "Con- vention," and the body named was called a "Committee," not an Executive Council.
Finally, on the 27th of July, 1779, about twenty-five
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members of the legislature, elected in the preceding De- cember, met in Augusta, the British having previously evacuated that place, and in conjunction with a number of leading patriots, not members, formed a convention which, to avoid further continuance of the anarchy which prevailed, adopted, signed and promulgated the following document appointing a body of nine persons of the high- est character for patriotism and integrity, all members- elect to the legislature, to act as a "Supreme Executive Council," clothing them with all the powers conferred by the constitution on the Executive Department, and ad- monishing them to adhere strictly to the spirit of the constitution.
"STATE OF GEORGIA, RICHMOND COUNTY.
"WHEREAS, from the invasion of the British forces in this State great evils have arisen and still exist to disturb the civil government of the said State, and which, in a great measure, have prevented the Constitution of the land from being carried into such full effect as to answer the purposes of government therein pointed out: And whereas, it becomes incumbent and indispensably necessa- ry at this juncture to adopt such temporary mode as may be most conducive to the welfare, happiness, and security of the rights and privileges of the good people of the said State. and the maintenance and existence of legal and ef- fective authority in the same as far as the exigence of affairs requires, until a time of less disquiet shall happen and the Constitution take its regular course: to the end therefore that government may prevail and be acknowl- edged, to prevent as far as may be anarchy and confusion from continuing among us, and fully to support the laws of the land derived under the Constitution thereof: We therefore. the representatives of the people of the Coun- ties of Wilkes, Richmond, Burke, Effingham, Chatham,
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REVOLUTIONARY RECORDS.
Liberty, Glynn, Camden, and other freemen of the State, having convened and met in the County of Richmond in the State aforesaid for the purposes of considering the present disturbed situation of the State, and for applying as far as is in our power some remedy thereto, and having maturely and seriously considered the same, do recommend that the following persons be appointed by the good peo- ple of this State to exercise the supreme authority thereof, who shall, before they enter on the execution of their office, take the following oath, viz: I, A. B., elected one of the Supreme Executive Council of the State of Geor- gia, do solemnly swear that I will, during the term of iny appointment, to the best of my skill and judgment, ex- ecute the said office faithfully and conscientiously, without favor, affection, or partiality: that I will, to the utmost of my power, support, maintain, and defend the State of Georgia, and use my utmost endeavors to support the people thereof in the secure enjoyment of their just rights and privileges; and that I will, to the best of my judg- ment, execute justice and mercy in all judgments: so help me God.
"And we, and each of us, on our parts. as free citizens of the State of Georgia aforesaid, do for ourselves nomi- nate, authorize, empower and require you, John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Habersham, Humphrey Wells, Wil- liam Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, William Gib- bons, senior, and Myrick Davies, Esquires, or a majority of you, to act as the Executive Supreme Council of this State: and to execute from Tuesday, the twenty-seventh instant, to the first Tuesday in January next, unless sooner revoked by a majority of the freemen of this State, every such power as you, the said John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Habersham, Humphrey Wells, Wil- liam Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, William Gib- bons, senior and Myrick Davies, Esquires, or a majority
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SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.
of you shall deem necessary for the safety and defence of the State and the good citizens thereof; taking care in all your proceedings to keep as near the spirit and mean- ing of the Constitution of the said State as may be.
"And you the said John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Habersham. Humphrey Wells, William Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, William Gibbons, senior, and Myrick Davies, Esquires, or a majority of you. hereby have full power and authority, and are authorized, empowered. and required. to elect fit and discrete persons to repre- sent this State in Congress, and to instruct the delegates so chosen in such matters and things as will tend to the interest of this State in particular, and the United States of America in general: the said delegates taking care. from time to time, to transmit to you, the said Council, or other authority of the State for the time being, an ac- count of their proceedings in Congress aforesaid : to regu- late the public treasury of the said State, to borrow or otherwise negotiate loans for the public safety : to regu- late the militia, and appoint an officer, if necessary, to command: to appoint, suspend, and discharge all civil officers if it shall be found expedient ; to demand an ac- count of all expenditures of public money, and to regulate the same, and, where necessary, order payments of money : to adopt some mode respecting the current money of this State, and for sinking the same: to direct and commission the Chief Justice of the State, or assistant Justices, or other Justices of the Peace, and other officers of each County: to convene courts for the trial of of- fences cognizable by the laws of the land in such place or places as you shall think fit: always taking care that trial by jury be preserved inviolate, and that the proceed- ings had before such courts be in a summary way so that offenders be brought to a speedy trial and justice be amply done as well to the State as to the individuals.
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"You, or a majority of you, the said council, have full power and hereby are requested, on conviction of offend- ers, to order punishment tobe inflicted extending to death ; and when objects deserving mercy shall be made known to you, to extend that mercy and pardon the offence, remit all fines, mitigate corporal punishments, as the case may be, and as to you or a majority of you shall seem fit and necessary. And you, the said Council or a majority of you, at all times and places when and where you shall think fit, have hereby full power and competent authority to meet, appoint your own President, settle your own rules, sit, consult, deliberate, advise, direct, and carry in execution all and every act, special and general, hereby delegated to you, and all and every such other acts, meas- ures, and things as you or a majority of you shall find expedient and necessary for the welfare, safety, and hap- piness of the freemen of this State.
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