USA > Georgia > The bench and bar of Georgia: memoirs and sketches. With an appendix, containing a court roll from 1790-1857, etc., volume I > Part 16
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After further directions as to other places, and the aid of friendly chiefs to be kept with the Commissioners, the Governor
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says, "Should such participation be denied you, you will enter your formal protest against that denial, and proceed to avail your- selves, within the jurisdiction of Georgia, of all the testimony you can obtain." June 18, 1825.
66. The Georgia Commissioners to Gen. Gaines :-
Enclosed you will receive a copy of a letter of instructions from his Excellency the Governor of Georgia to us as Commissioners in behalf of the State, for the purposes therein mentioned. It is important to the Commissioners that your answer to the application of his Excellency the Governor to admit the Commissioners to a full and free participation of the council of the Indians should be received as early as practicable. June 20, 1825.
67. Gen. Gaines to Messrs. Jourdan, Williamson, and Torrance, Commissioners :-
In reply, I have to observe that, however much I might be aided by the light of your experience, I do not feel myself authorized, without new instructions from the Department of War, to comply with your demand to be admitted ' to a full and free participation of the council of the Indians.' The council is assembled for the purpose of enabling me to discharge duties of a very delicate and important nature confided to me by the General Government. I deem it proper, therefore, that I should exercise the entire control of every subject to be acted on, and of every expression uttered to the council by any officer or citizen permitted to address it, whether of the United States or of any individual State or Territory. Without such control our councils would be involved in confusion, and they would be wholly useless,-if not worse than useless. June 21, 1825.
68. The Georgia Commissioners to Gen. Gaines :-
We are instructed to say that our Government disclaims in the strongest terms any wish or intention in any wise to embarrass your movements as connected with any matter growing out of the present unfortunate and peculiar situation of the Creek nation of Indians. The Government of Georgia has created the commission, under which we have the honor to act, for no other purpose than to inquire into the facts as connected with the conduct of an officer of your Government,-the conduct of which officer has been arraigned by the Government of Georgia at the instance of the President of the United States. In the investigation of the conduct of that officer the State of Georgia has great interest. It is of the highest importance to her that there should be a full and clear development of all the facts, which, if had, it is believed, will fully establish the several charges as preferred.
To arrive at the certainty of all these facts in the most imposing and official manner, it was considered by our Government necessary to consti- tute the present mission. It was further determined by the same Govern- ment to be of the first consequence that the members of that mission should present themselves, clothed in their official character, in the council of the Indians to be convened by you,-believing that in the councils
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information might be elicited material to the points in issue between the State of Georgia and the Agent for Indian Affairs. For this purpose, and no other, we have been directed by our Government to repair to this place, and to inform you of the same, and to respectfully ask for admittance therein. We have done so by request only ; we have not demanded it. That permission has been denied to us.
We therefore, in pursuance to our instructions, as also a proper sense of duty toward our Government, do hereby enter our formal protest against such denial,-believing that in consequence of being debarred a participation in those councils the State of Georgia will unquestionably be deprived of that which is to her of vital interest and great magnitude. June 21, 1825.
It would extend this memoir beyond reasonable limits to give an abstract of the correspondence between the Georgia Commis- sioners and the agents of the General Government, some of which was racy enough. Col. Samuel Rockwell, as counsel for Col. Crowell, was present at some, if not all, of the examinations of witnesses for the State. The interrogatories were generally in writing, and the answers were specific. A great deal of testimony was collected in this way,-much to inculpate the Agent, and some to sustain or discredit certain witnesses, as the interest of the party, or the occasion, might require. The report of the Com- missioners, embodying all this matter, Jetters, affidavits, and exami- nations, formed about one hundred pages in print,-all of which was laid before the Legislature by Gov. Troup and a copy forwarded to the President. In what degree the character of the Agent was affected by the evidence, or whether the President erred in retain- ing him in office, the author expresses no opinion, as President Adams, Gov. Troup, Gen. Gaines, and Col. Crowell are all dead, and charity forbids that reproach should be cast on the memory of those who cannot repel what may be unjust.
As a specimen, however, of the indiscretions into which men of high position were betrayed, three affidavits are here copied from the documents in question,-two relating to the conduct of Gen. Gaines, and the other proving conclusively that, if the Alien and Sedition Laws passed under the administration of the first President Adams had been in force on the 4th day of July, 1825, or there- about, Col. Williamson, one of the Georgia Commissioners, would have been liable to a criminal prosecution for defamatory words con- cerning the second President Adams :-
PRINCETON, INDIAN NATION :
Personally appeared John Winslett, before me, Thomas Triplett, Acting Agent for Indian Affairs, who, being duly sworn, says that on Saturday last, the 2d inst., at a house occupied by a negro of Chilly MeIntosh, who
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had whiskey for sale, William W. Williamson, one of the Commissioners from Georgia, in a conversation with this deponent and others, consisting of Benjamin Hawkins, Josiah Gray, Indians, who understood English, Samuel B. Nichols, Isaac Burns, Nelson Kent, and others, among other things asserted that he had been threatened since he had been here, but not by the red people; and, after some other remarks, he observed that the President of the United States had acted like a damned insignificant rascal, for taking notice of reports which had the effect of stopping the survey. JOHN WINSLETT.
Sworn to before me, this 4th day of July, 1825.
THOMAS TRIPLETT, Acting Agent Indian Affairs.
Witness, T. P. ANDREWS, Special Agent.
The above affidavit appears among the papers attached to the address of Major T. P. Andrews, which was published in the National Intelligencer of September 22, 1825, in reply, as he states, to the reports of the Georgia Commissioners.
The following affidavits were part of the evidence transmitted with the special message of Gov. Troup to the Legislature, Novem- ber 21, 1825 :-
Affidavit of the Rev. Iverson L. Brookes.
GEORGIA, BALDWIN COUNTY :
Personally appeared before me the Rev. Iverson L. Brookes, who, being duly sworn, saith that while at the Indian Springs, in the State of Georgia, in the month of July past, on Tuesday, the 19th day of the month, he was introduced to Gen. E. P. Gaines by Maj. Joel Bailey, who keeps the public tavern at that place. After the introduction, this deponent and Gen. Gaines entered into conversation about the Indians, the treaty, and other matters connected with them, in the public room, near the outer door. Several persons were present,-principally white men, and a few Indians of the friendly or MeIntosh party. In that conversation General Gaines stated, in speaking of the possessions of the United States beyond the Mississippi, that the General Government possessed no lands in that quarter free from the encumbrance of Indian titles or the occupancy of white settlers, who could not be removed without entering into formal treaties. He further said it was the most heels-over-head piece of busi- ness in the General Government that, perhaps, ever occurred in the con- duct of wise men, to engage by treaty with the Indians to exchange with them territory when they had none to exchange.
In speaking about the treaty, he stated that in regard to the treaty he thought he had sufficient evidence in his possession to convince him that the commencement and whole process of it was founded in the deepest fraud and treachery, and that every individual eoneerned in it was damned : he paused a while, and then said, politically damned. In conversing further about the treaty and the land, after making some remarks not par- ticularly recollected, he turned to the Indians who were present, and said, I tell these Indians the white people will cheat them out of their lands, get all their money, and then kick them to hell!
In speaking about Crowell, he stated he believed him a pure and up-
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right man ; that he had done more than his duty, and the only thing he blamed him for was signing the treaty as a witness, and that he (General Gaines) would rather have lost his right arm than to have done it. Talking of the Indians, he said they were disposed to be reconciled and return to the nation, except Chilly MeIntosh and the small party attached to him ; that he did not care whether he did or not,-that he was no chief. and had plenty of property to live either among the Indians or whites. He further said that the people of Georgia were a reflecting people ; that they were under the influence of intriguing politicians, and that he had no doubt they would ultimately approve his conduct. This deponent further saith that the conversation was a long one, and during its continuance General Gaines was occasionally highly excited, and spoke with much warmth,-so much so toward the conclusion as to induce this deponent to break off rather unceremoniously and turn to Major Bailey to settle his bill.
I have endeavored to recollect as well as I can the expressions of General Gaines : though in some cases I may have used different words, I am confident that I have retained the sense of them.
IVERSON L. BROOKES.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 17th of October, 1825.
I. T. CUSHING, J. P.
Affidavit of Col. Michael Watson .*
GEORGIA, BALDWIN COUNTY :
Personally appeared Michael Watson, a citizen of the county of Houston, who, being duly sworn, saith that in the month of August last, and, he believes, on or about the tenth or eleventh day of that month, that he was at the Indian Springs, in Monroe county, in said State ; that, in a conver- sation that was held between and among several persons then at the Springs, Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, of the United States Army, being present. the subject of conversation turned upon the late Indian treaty and the proposed survey then about to be made by the order of his Excellency George M. Troup, Governor of the State of Georgia. He (Gen. Gaines) stated, in public company, that if Gov. Troup made the survey or attempted it, that he would be tried for treason and hung; that General Gaines also stated that Governor Troup and his friends were intriguing demagogues : that in the same conversation General Gaines manifested and expressed much warmth of hostile feeling toward Governor Troup and his friends.
The conversation was boisterous in some respects ; and it excited much warmth of feeling in the spectators and those concerned, that the whole of General Gaines's conversation and observations were directed against the constituted authority of Georgia and the supporters of her adminis- tration.
MICHAEL WATSON.
Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 10th day of November, 1825. ELI S. SHORTER, J. S. C.
In his annual message of November 8, 1825, Gov. Troup says :-
* The affidavit of the Hon. C. B. Strong, laid before the Legislature by Gov. Troup in the same message, will be found in the memoir of Judge Strong, vol. ii. of this work.
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The President having ultimately resolved to refer the treaty to Con- gress for reconsideration because of alleged intrigue and treachery in obtaining it, the resolution adopted by the Executive to prosecute the survey under the act of the Legislature of the 9th day of June last was changed, and the change immediately communicated to the President. It would be uncandid, fellow-citizens, to disguise that, but for the pro- posed reference to Congress, the survey would have been commenced and prosecuted.
The treaty was not set aside by Congress or in other respects annulled, although a new treaty had been formed by the Secretary of War, to which the authorities of Georgia paid no attention, but proceeded to survey and distribute the land under the old treaty, with which Col. Campbell's name is honorably identified. The Legislature voted him the confidence and gratitude of the people of Georgia ; and surely that was a proud compensation for the tem- porary injustice which had been done him by the agents of the General Government, who secmed to have acted more like retained counsel for the hostile Indians than as seekers of truth on which to render an unbiased judgment.
As the author never saw Col. Campbell, he can give no descrip- tion of his efforts at the bar from his own knowledge; and, no cor- respondent having performed this task, very little can be added to the memoir. He was a man of talents, upright and agreeable in his social relations, long a trustee of the University of Georgia, the warm friend of popular education ; and, had he lived, there is no doubt he would have been called to the State Executive. He was the political friend, as he was the brother-in-law, of Gen. John Clark, both having married sisters of Col. William W. Williamson, one of the Georgia Commissioners. Col. Campbell died on the 31st of July, 1828, in the forty-second year of his age. A quota- tion from Gov. Gilmer* will conclude the memoir :-
Col. Campbell had none of the rowdy habits of the North Carolina Wilkes settlers. He avoided violence, and was courteous and kind to everybody. Though his talents were not of the highest order, nor his public speaking what might be called eloquent, he was among the most successful lawyers at the bar and useful members of the Legislature. He was very industrious, and ever ready to do the part of a good citizen. The amenity of his temper was constantly shown in the delight which he derived from pleasing the young. His house continued, as long as he lived, to be one of their favorite resorts.
Col. Campbell's son John gave carly proofs of the extraordinary acumen which has since made him the great lawyer of the South. Whilst he was a student of Franklin College, his father visited Athens, and was invited to attend a meeting of the Demosthenian Society, of which both
* Georgians, p. 208.
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father and son were members. Col. Campbell held forth by request upon the topic of debate. When he was done speaking, John asked leave to answer the gentleman, and so knocked all his father's conclusions into non sequiturs, that it was difficult to tell which had the uppermost in the father's feelings,-mortified vanity or gratified pride. John Campbell has lately been appointed an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States,-the highest honor, except that of Chief-Justice, which can be conferred by the Government upon a lawyer. All who know him con- cur in the opinion that the office will be well filled.
Col. Campbell's daughter Sarah* was remarkable in early childhood for intellectual precocity, and in womanhood for superior attainments. She married Daniel Chandler, one of the handsomest and very cleverest young men of Georgia. He removed to Alabama, where he has long practised law with distinguished success.
NOTE TO THE MEMOIR.
As Mr. Justice Campbell, of the Supreme Court of the United States, has been aptly introduced in the work of Gov. Gilmer, the author begs leave to subjoin a sketch of that distinguished jurist, which was first published in the Monitor of March 8, 1843, among "Heads of the Alabama Legislature," which the author prepared for the press. This is the more appropriate, because Judge Camp- bell obtained license to practise law in Georgia under a special act of the Legislature, in 1829, of which the following is the caption :-
An act to admit David J. Bailey, of Butts county, Hiram Hemphill, of Lincoln county, JOHN A. CAMPBELL, of Wilkes county, Gray 1. Chandler, of Warren county, Robert McCarthy, of Monroe county, William A. Black, of Chatham county, and Robert Toombs, of Wilkes county, to plead and practise law in the several courts of law and equity in this State.
HEADS OF THE ALABAMA LEGISLATURE.
Mr. CAMPBELL, of Mobile, is generally considered a man of the clearest and most vigorous intellect in the House of Representatives. He was a member six years ago, and had great influence in maturing the relief law at the called session of 1837. Indeed, the adoption of that measure is said to have been owing almost entirely to his arguments for its necessity. As he rarely deals in generalities when he has a point to accomplish, he on that occasion took up the productions of the State compared with the indebtedness of the people, and proved, beyond any reasonable doubt, that an extension of bank-debts and a fresh loan of five millions for circulation would enable the industry of the people to cancel all their embarrassments by the time the loans became due. This was a mode of stating the ques- tion which no experience at that time could gainsay; and the proposition of relief, in its broadest form, ripened into a statute. Whatever miseal-
" The late David B. Butler, Esq., of Macon, also married a daughter of Col. Campbell .- M.
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culation or error may have existed as to the principle, no one has ever suspected the perfect sincerity of Mr. Campbell in the part he acted. He was governed by a spirit desiring only the public good, and perhaps he is as ready now to admit that the plan was unsuited to the emergency as its strongest opponent at the called session. In those days there prevailed a public delirium on monetary affairs. All heads had run wild with adven- ture, and all minds were intent upon the remedy of expansion. What the result has been, every man's experience is the most conclusive tes- timony.
We have adverted to this chapter in the public life of Mr. Campbell, not for the purpose of judgment, but merely in illustration of that peculiar and convincing power of argument with which he is eminently gifted. At the late session, Mr. Campbell, as chairman of the Bank Committee, was looked to for that platform in relation to the currency and the engage- ments of the State which his superior information on that subject and his known habits of labor so well qualified him to present. A mass of documents unprecedented for variety and extent in the Legislature, which required close investigation and much time to reduce into system, was re- ferred to the committee. On all these Mr. Campbell bestowed the most searching examination, and made a report not less able than it was com- prehensive and satisfactory. The entire action of the House was directed in the main, though not in exact detail, by the suggestions of that paper and the bills which accompanied it. The foundation having been thus laid, a superstructure was afterward raised, not in every respect suitable to Mr. Campbell's taste,-though he submitted, after a hard and valiant contest, with manly deference, to overpowering numbers.
Our position as reporter in the House enabled us to record much of the transactions of that body, and also to make our readers acquainted with its business-men. Among these Mr. Campbell stood foremost. On some occasions his masterly powers were exhibited with a cogency of argument which, if it did not command assent, was at least unanswered. His strong efforts (and he seldom makes any other) were listened to with a depth of attention which was accorded to very few speakers in the House. To the character of a statesman and political financier Mr. Campbell unites the highest honors of the law. In the Supreme Court, if he is not without a rival, he at least is without a superior.
For a man of his talents, reputation, and general advantages, Mr. Campbell is singularly inattentive to his personal appearance and to those common social blandishments which are valued not the less in public than in private life. Ile is cold, taciturn, reserved,-not the least symptom in his manners that he courts society,-absorbed in thought, with heavy brow, yet unassuming expression of countenance. At times he is pleasant, and always respectful when it becomes necessary for him to converse. He is said by some of his political opponents to be an artful man in his own way,-that he can drill his party and arrange the order of action with much skill. We have no authority to deny this charge, other than to state, if it be true, the usual mode of judging men fails in relation to Mr. Campbell. There is a total absence of all art in his looks and movements ; though some writer has said that it is the consummate office of art to con- ceal art and thereby make it the more successful.
He seems to hold all elegance and imagination in utter contempt, as un- worthy a practical man. As a member of the Democratic party, he stands alone in Alabama for greatness of conception in all that relates to our
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political system. We do not say that he has never fallen into error of opinion ; we cannot ascribe to him infallibility ; but, as an honest man in the most extensive signification of the term, Mr. Campbell enjoys uni- versal respect and confidence. He is a native of Georgia, and son of the late Col. Duncan G. Campbell, a distinguished citizen of that State. Mr. J. A. Campbell is probably thirty-eight years of age.
VI.
AUGUSTIN S. CLAYTON.
THIS distinguished man has written his own history at the bar and in the many situations which he has filled worthily to himself and usefully to the public. With regard to his ancestors, his nativity, education, and early life, something will be said in another part of this memoir. The usual course will be somewhat varied, by proceeding at once to the manhood of AUGUSTIN SMITH CLAYTON and following him in his career of activity.
In 1810 he was twenty-seven years of age when selected by the Legislature to compile the statutes of Georgia from 1800. This work he completed, and soon afterward prepared a volume of Forms for Justices of the Peace and other public officers, with the common and statute law applied to the duties of each. It had a large circulation, being the first of the kind in Georgia. With careful revision by L. Q. C. Lamar, Esq., another edition went through the press, a few copies of which may still be found in the offices of some of the older members of the bar and magistrates.
His rank in the profession caused him to be elected a judge of the Superior Court in 1819, when there was a little more aristo- cracy of merit in fashion than the popular taste now chooses to patronize for judicial dignities or other high employments, and was re-elected in 1822. Besides performing the labors of his circuit faithfully and with much reputation, Judge Clayton con- tributed to the press many profound articles on the sources of Federal power, the sovereignty of the States, our Indian relations, and all that class of topics which divided the people of Georgia into two great political parties, designated as Troup and Clark, after the competitors for the Executive. The communications signed " Atticus," sustaining Gov. Troup and his measures, push-
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ing the doctrine of State sovereignty far ahead of any previous avowals by politicians, were masterly performances, and exerted great influence over public opinion. Troup was elected Governor by the people in 1825; but the Legislature contained a majority of Clark men. The consequence was that Judge Clayton was not re-elected, though a candidate. IIe was succeeded by the Hon. William H. Underwood, as Judge of the Western Circuit. In 1828, he was restored to office ; and during his term the great dis- turbances took place in the Cherokee nation, which taxed his energy of character and judicial firmness to an extent of which some details will be given.
In 1829, the Legislature extended the laws of Georgia over the territory occupied by the Cherokee Indians within the limits of the State, annexing it to the jurisdiction of certain bordering counties, by which the Western Circuit embraced a share.
Passing over the mania which drew hundreds of adventurers from all quarters-home and abroad-to trespass on the public lands in search of gold, so that Gov. Gilmer was induced to convene the Legislature in 1830 several weeks in advance of the usual time, only two or three principal cases with which Judge Clayton became officially identified are here noticed. One of these was the Indian Tassels for killing another Indian ; a second was the case of Butler and Worcester, two missionaries who continued to reside in the nation contrary to law, which made it a penitentiary offence for any white person to reside among the Indians without first taking an oath of allegiance to the State of Georgia, except public agents. The third difficulty arose by an attempt on the part of the Chero- kees, through their counsel, Mr. Wirt, to assert their independent national character before the Supreme Court of the United States against the alleged usurpation of Georgia. Mr. Wirt wrote a letter to Gov. Gilmer, suggesting the propriety of making a case by consent, the purport of which was communicated by Gov. Gilmer to Judge Clayton, under date of July 6, 1830. The following is the closing paragraph of Gov. Gilmer's letter* to Judge Clayton :-
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