USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 18
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
many, that it was with difficulty the most turbu- lent of them could be restrained from taking up arms at once, and committing depredations on the exposed frontiers.
This hasty measure, however, Tecumseh repre- sented as calculated to defeat the great plan of operations which he was labouring to concert ; and enjoined the utmost secrecy and quietness until the moment should arrive, when, all their preparations being ready, they might be able to strike a decisive blow. In the mean time, they were to be industriously employed in collecting arms and ammunition, and other necessaries of war.
In this manner Tecumseh with his wild follow- ers held conferences in the numerous towns of the Creek territory, gaining many proselytes, and meeting with but occasional opposition from those chiefs who either feared the consequences of an outbreak, or were stipendiaries of the federal government.
Having ordained Josiah Francis, a half-breed, chief prophet of the whole Creek nation, whose word was to be regarded as infallible, and whose directions were to be implicitly followed, Tecum- seh next established a regular gradation of sub- ordinate prophets to disseminate his doctrines through the different parts of the nation, and then, attended by a few of his proselytes, set out for his own tribe.
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INDIAN HOSTILITIES.
From this time a regular communication was kept up between the Creeks and the northern tribes in relation to the great enterprise which they were concerting together ; while the parties carrying it on, growing daily more insolent and unmanageable, committed frequent depredations and murders upon the frontier settlements.
These outrages became at length so numerous as to attract the attention of the federal govern- ment. Colonel Hawkins, the Indian agent, de- manded the punishment of the murderers; and some of the chiefs who were desirous of preserv- ing their friendly relations with the United States, despatched a party of warriors to put the criminals to death. No sooner was this done, than the spirit of the greater part of the nation, which from motives of policy had hitherto been in a great measure suppressed, suddenly burst through all restraint, and arrayed the peaceful and the hostile Indians against each other in a civil war.
It is not difficult to conceive in what manner hostilities thus provoked were gradually extended beyond the limits of the Indian territory, and, as a measure of retaliation, fell upon the white population of the frontiers.
The war with Great Britain was also at this period at its height ; and Georgia was not found wanting, either in patriotism toward the country at large, or in defence of her own population.
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Volunteers flocked from all quarters, many of whom attached themselves to the army of General Floyd, and assisted to gain that splendid series of victories over the Indians by which General Andrew Jackson has rendered his name distin- guished in history.
The early successes of the British arms in Canada were more than counterbalanced by the naval triumphs achieved upon Lake Erie and upon the ocean; by the rout of the combined British and Indian forces at the battle of the Thames, where the fierce Tecumseh fell; by the repulse of the British before Baltimore, which atoned for the disastrous retreat of the militia at Bladensburg, and the occupation of the capital ; by the successes of Jackson against the southern Indians, and by the crowning glory of the war, the battle of New Orleans.
Happily for both countries, the war was not of long duration. It was closed by the treaty of peace signed at Ghent, on the 26th of December, 1814, and formally ratified by the United States on the 17th of February, 1815.
Nothing of peculiar importance arrested the progress of Georgia for the next seven years. The delays and impediments which had constantly arisen in relation to the entire extinguishment of the Indian title to lands as guarantied to Geor- gia in 1802 by her compact with the federal government, induced the legislature of 1823 to
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TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.
require of Governor Troupe to use his exertions to bring the matter to a speedy termination.
He accordingly opened a correspondence with the secretary of war, which resulted in a com- mission to Duncan G. Campbell and James Meri- wether, two distinguished Georgians, to treat with the Creek Indians. A council was accordingly held in December, 1824, at Broken Arrow, on the Chattahoochee; but the negotiation failed, owing, it was alleged, to the adverse influence exerted by the agents of the United States.
Early in February, 1825, the commissioners again met the Indians in council at the Indian Springs, and on the 12th of that month succeeded in concluding a treaty with the chiefs then pre- sent, which was subsequently transmitted by President Monroe to the senate, and by that body solemnly ratified, notwithstanding a strong protest against it by Crowell, the Indian agent.
In May, 1825, an extra session of the legisla- . ture was called by Governor Troupe, for the pur- pose of providing for the immediate survey of the land acquired by the late treaty. An act was passed accordingly, and in connection with it, a strong resolution was adopted calling upon the president to remove Crowell, the Indian agent, from office, as the enemy of Georgia, and as faithless to his government. .
John Quincy Adams had in the mean time succeeded Mr. Monroe a's President of the United
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
States. Hc declined removing the agent, but instituted an inquiry into his conduct. He ap- pointed a clerk of bureau for that purpose, and at the same time commissioned Major-general Gaines to repair to Georgia, suppress the disorders already arisen in the Indian nation, and compose its dissensions.
The presence of these high functionaries by no means tended to smooth the asperities of Georgia. A bitter feud then existing between two great parties in the state-though mainly on personal grounds-increased the agitation of the public mind. General Gaines allied himself with the party in opposition to Governor Troupe, and, in conjunction with the clerk of bureau, reported against the treaty, the merits of which neither of them had been instructed to inquire into. A very exciting correspondence now ensued between the executive of Georgia and the federal govern-
ment. A survey was determined on by the former, and prohibited by President Adams. Troupe demanded the recall and court-martial of General Gaines, as the legislature had previously requested the removal of Crowell. The president retained both in their respective offices. All Georgia was now in a ferment. A new election for governor took place soon after, and the course of Troupe was sustained by the votes of the peo- ple. Even the legislature, although opposed to the governor in both branches on mere party
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IMPENDING DANGERS.
politics, resolved, that " full faith ought to be placed in the treaty; that the title of Georgia under it was vested and absolute; and that the right of entry immediately on the expiration of the time limited by it should be insisted on and carried into effect." They again required the removal of the federal agent, which was again rejected.
Affairs between the state and general govern- ment were now speedily approaching a serious issue. In January, 1826, Governor Troupe issued his orders for the militia to be divided into three classes, and expressed his belief that the general officers could not find themselves indifferent to the crisis in which the country was placed. The federal government had already assembled on the Chattahoochee and Flint a force of four hun- dred regulars, and the peace of the union seemed every day in danger of being disturbed by that most deplorable of all evils-a civil war.
In this emergency, a new treaty was made with certain Creek chiefs at Washington on the 24th of January, 1826, which, while it annulled the treaty of 1825, ceded to Georgia nearly all the land covered by the old treaty, and extended the time of surrender to the 1st of January, 1827.
But Georgia would accept nothing less than the conditions of the previous treaty. In July, 1826, commissioners were appointed to run the line as laid down by the contract of 1802. As
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
soon as this was accomplished the survey was commenced, and met with no resistance from the federal government until February, 1827, when the president ordered those surveyors to be ar- rested who should overstep the boundary laid down in the late treaty at Washington. Governor Troupe immediately retaliated by directing the proper legal officers of Georgia to bring to jus- tice, by indictment or otherwise, all the parties who might be concerned in arresting the survey- ors ; and sent orders to the major-generals of the sixth and seventh divisions of militia, to hold their commands in readiness to repel any hostile invasion of the state.
This energetic opposition had its effect. The surveyors were not arrested; the surveys were completed ; and the entire domain covered by the old treaty was organized and disposed of by lot- tery in 1827.
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SOIL OF GEORGIA.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
The soil of Georgia-Tide-swamp lands-Sea Islands-Swamp lands of the Savannah, Alatamaha, Ogechee, and the Great St. Illa-Character of the soils in the middle regions of the state-Lands in south-western Georgia-Cherokee Georgia -The gold region-Railroads-Cotton manufactories-Fi- delity of Georgia to the Union-Sends volunteers to Florida -Mexico-Conclusion.
THE natural quality of the soil in Georgia is very variable. The general poverty of the pine lands gave rise at an early day to an impression that a great proportion of the land in the pro- vince was infertile. As population increased, it was found that the tide-swamp lands on the southern frontier of the state would yield, with fair cultivation, immense quantities of rice, which constituted then, as it does now, one of the staple productions of Georgia. For the finer descrip- tions of cotton, the Sea Islands have long been famous, both at home and abroad. The tide- swamp lands of the Savannah, the Alatamaha, the Ogechee, and the great St. Illa, are now con- sidered as among the most valuable soils in the state. The inland swamps are also very produc- tive, but they labour under the disadvantage of a greater uncertainty in regard to their crops.
In the middle region of the state, the soil is of
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
a rich red loamy character, producing cotton, tobacco, and all the grains. A careless system of husbandry has done much to impoverish this healthy and beautiful region, but with increase of intelligence, new and better modes of cultivation are being introduced, and the prospects are fa- vourable to a restoration of these choice lands to their original fertility.
In the southwestern portions of the state, there are large bodies of very superior land. In the counties of Randolph, Decatur, and Early, and in other sections between the Chattahoochee and the Flint, lands are to be found of inexhaustible fer- tility, producing every thing which the comfort or necessity of man requires. In Cherokee Geor- gia there are also large bodies of fertile land. The valleys of Chattooga, Cass, Floyd, and Mur- ray, are exceedingly rich, producing wheat, corn, potatoes, and other vegetables; but are not so well adapted to the purposes of the cotton planter as the soils of the middle region. In Oglethorpe county there are bodies of land which have been cultivated for more than half a century, and which still produce seven and eight hundred pounds of cotton to the acre.
The northwestern part of the state is the gold region of Georgia, which, from its richness and extent, is the most remarkable feature of the primary rock formation. Its western boundary is the western base of the Blue Ridge. " The rich-
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THE GOLD MINES.
est deposits are found occupying a belt along the eastern slope of that range of mountains, varying in width from fifteen to twenty miles; but gold has been discovered at various points one hundred - miles to the east of it, as far as Columbia county, and thence in a line, nearly parallel to the prin- cipal belt, to Alabama. The gold is found in both vein and deposit mines. In the former it generally occurs in quartzose veins, running through rocks of gneiss, mica schist, talcose schist, and chlorite schist. The quartz forming the veins is usually of a cellular structure, gene- rally discoloured by iron, and with the cavities more or less filled with a fine yellow ochre. The gold, which varies much in the size of its particles, is found either in small scales, (its most usual form,) in the cavities or the fissures of the quartz, or in the yellow ochre, or in combination with the sulphurets of iron, of copper, and of lead, or united with silver. It sometimes, but rarely, exists in the adjoining schistose rocks.
" The deposit mines are of alluvial formation, obviously produced by the washing down of the detritus of the auriferous veins into the adjoining valleys. The schistose rocks, which are of a more perishable character, having crumbled away, and left the quartz veins exposed, the latter have fallen down from a want of support, and have been swept by torrents into the valleys below. The quartz pebbles, and the harder portions of
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
the including rocks, and the gold, being heavy, would be deposited at the bottom of the streams, and would occur in the greatest quantity when there were the greatest inequalities. The lighter materials would at first be swept down to a lower point, or be deposited along the borders of the streams ; but, with a change of the beds of the streams, or a diminution of their velocity, these materials would gradually accumulate over the original beds of pebbles and gold, and the valleys would ultimately present the appearance which they now do, of a stratum of several feet of allu- vial loam covering another of water-worn pebbles of quartz and schist, containing particles of gold, the whole resting on an original bed of schistose rocks, similar in constitution and dip to those of the surrounding hills. The quartz pebbles are usually flattened on the sides, indicating their compression in the veins, and are more or less water-worn, as they have for a longer or shorter period been exposed to the action of the currents of water."
The first discovery of gold in this state was made on Duke's Creek, Habersham county, in 1829. The mass weighed three ounces. After this, discoveries were rapidly made in all direc- tions from Carolina to Alabama, and some of the mines were immensely rich. The gold obtained for the first few years was from the alluvion of the streams; after which many diluvial deposits
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HER GOLD MINES.
were found, and subsequently many rich veins. The gold in the veins is generally imbedded in sulphuret of iron in quartz, sometimes in quartz alone, and, in a few instances, in micaceous and talcose slate, the auriferous pyrites being inter- spersed in minute crystals through the slate. The first-mentioned class are common, and abound everywhere, running parallel with the formation of the country, the general direction of which is northeast and southwest, corresponding with the Alleghany chain of mountains. These veins are usually enclosed in micaceous or talcose schist, - some in chlorite and hornblende, rarely in gneiss or granite. In some instances the root of the vein is slate, and the floor granite or gneiss. The decomposition of the different strata varies from fifty to one hundred feet, and decreases as you near the mountains, where the overlying rocks terminate, and the veins cease to be auri- ferous. A few veins have been found which traverse the formation in which they are enclosed, and in every instance the gold is found to contain from fifteen to sixty-six per cent. of silver, whereas all parallel veins are alloyed with copper, from one-eighth to one-fortieth, and without a trace of silver. Of the former class is the Potosi mine, in Hall county, which runs northwest by west, is one foot wide, (average,) and was immensely rich in pockets. The first cropped out and extended about twelve feet deep by fifteen laterally, yield-
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
ing over ten thousand pennyweights. Some ten feet from that, another pocket occurred, much richer, the gold being enclosed in felspar, with octahedral crystals of quartz radiating from it without a particle of gold. These veins are evi- dently of comparatively recent formation. Ore which yields twenty-five cents per bushel is con- sidered profitable, provided the veins are large enough to furnish abundantly, and there is no extra expense. Where there is much water it requires expensive machinery, and the ore must be rich, and the vein of considerable size, to jus- tify it. Many mines have and do yet yield much more-from fifty to one hundred cents per bushel, and a few even more, even reaching to several hundred dollars per bushel. Of such are the Calhoun and Battle Branch veins, and also the celebrated 1052 mine near Dahlonega. These are technically called pocket-veins, as the gold is found in limited portions of them, the rest with- out any. The greatest depths yet reached do not exceed eighty feet below the water-level, nor more than one hundred and forty feet below their out- crop; whereas, in the old world, they have gone more than two thousand feet. We consequently can form no opinion relative to their productive- ness. Generally the mines are abandoned as soon as the water appears; the operators being men of but little capital, and ignorant of the proper mode of working below the water-level. Another
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RAILROADS AND MANUFACTURES.
and more powerful reason is, that, with but few exceptions, the veins become poorer as you de- scend, and below the water very poor.
The mode of working the mine or ores is by amalgamation. The ore is first reduced to pow- der, either wet or dry, by the action of stamps or pestles, weighing from one hundred to five hun- dred pounds ; after which it passes through dif. ferent-sized screens or grates, and then through various amalgamating machines, by which the quicksilver is made to take up the particles or dust of gold, forming an amalgam, which is dis- tilled in a retort, saving the quicksilver for further use, and the mass of gold is melted in a crucible Its average fine- into bars or ingots for coining. ness is twenty-three carats. From the best in- formation received, the amount obtained from 1829 to 1838 was sixteen million pennyweights, and from that time until 1849 four million ; every year diminishing, notwithstanding the great improvements in machinery and increased practi- cal knowledge.
But the future prosperity of Georgia is not so much assured by the production of her gold- bearing regions, or the operations of her indus- trious agriculturists, as by her wise and well- regulated system of railroads, and the admirable provision by which she has of late years encou- raged manufactures generally, and in an especial manner those for the fabrication of cotton-cloths
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
-a branch of business for which the state is ad- mirably adapted, from her immense facilities in the way of water-power.
Already, there are railroads stretching from Savannah to the Tennessee line, with branch roads, either finished or in contemplation, to Augusta, Athens, Atlanta, Macon, and Columbus ; and in various portions of the state admitting of such a purpose, cotton-mills have been for a long time in successful operation.
These facilities for the transportation of staple productions, joined to the creation of a home- market, will gradually tend more and more to develop the latent resources of Georgia, and place the industrial position of the state upon a firm and indestructible basis.
True to the Union, notwithstanding her occa- sional difficulties with the federal government, she encouraged her sons to volunteer their ser- vices in those harassing campaigns in Florida, where the oozy bivouacs and the pestilential miasma of the everglades were far more destruc- tive to human life than the weapons of the Semi- noles. In the recent war with Mexico, also, the brave yeomanry of Georgia were among the fore- most to respond to the call of their country, and were honourably distinguished by the prompt and gallant ardour with which they performed their various and responsible duties.
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CONCLUSION.
And here we bring this volume to a close, hav- ing been careful to omit no fact of importance, and to present as many points of interest in the narrative as strict truth to history would allow.
The authorities mainly relied upon in this work have been McCall's History of Georgia, Pickett's History of Alabama, White's Statistics of the State of Georgia, and Hildreth's History of the United States.
THE END.
STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON AND CO. PHILADELPHIA.
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