USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
167
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
789-1800.]
airds both, and rich men, and clashed with the independent Virginian, but he was in great favor with the common people. In May the convention met again. Its members vere :
Chatham-Asa Emanuel, Justus H. Scheuber.
Greene -. Jos. Carmichael, Henry Carr.
Effingham-Benj. Lanier, Jno. Green, Nathan Brownson.
Burke-David Emanuel, Hugh Lawson, Wm. Little.
Richmond-Abraham Marshall, Wm. F. Booker, Leon- ard Marbury.
Wilkes-John Talbot, Jeremiah Walker.
Liberty-Lachlan McIntosh.
Glynn-Alex Brisett.
Washington-Jared Irwin, John Watts.
Franklin-Joshua Williams, M. Woods.
This convention was called merely to review and, if it saw fit, to accept the Constitution which had been prepared for its revision by the convention of January. The Consti- tution submitted was a carefully prepared document and provided for two Houses, a Senate and a House of Repre- sentatives. Senators must be twenty-eight years old, and have £250 in property, and members of the House £150; no clergyman should be a member of either House; repre- sentation was to be equalized as far as possible; the Senate should elect the governor on a nomination from the Lower House; the requirement of the former Constitution that one should be a Protestant in order to hold office was abrogated. This Constitution was accepted and remained in force for near ten years.
It was in full force in October, and the first Assembly held under it met in November. Seaborn Jones was Speaker of the House, and ex-Governor Brownson Presi- dent of the Senate. The House, as required by the Con- stitution, sent to the Senate the names of two candidates to be voted for for governor. Ex-Governor Houston and ex-
168
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. V.
Governor Telfair were the parties nominated. When the vote was counted it was found that each had the same vote. On the next ballot Governor Telfair was unanimously chosen.
The first Thanksgiving Day ordered by the United States authorities came while the Assembly was in session, and one of the first acts of the new Legislature was to provide for the observance of this day.
The church in Augusta had now been made habitable, and was being supplied for the time by Dr. Palmer of the Richmond academy. He was requested by the Leg- islature to provide a form of prayer and to preach a Thanksgiving sermon, which he did to the great satisfaction of the body, who very decorously at- tended service, and who the next day returned thanks to Mr. Palmer for his well-adapted sermon.
Georgia had already GEORGE WASHINGTON. elected her two senators, and now made provisions for electing the three members of the House.
General Washington, who was making a tour through the United States, came to Augusta from Savannah and was re- ceived by the governor with due formality. The president always fixed his quarters at a public house, and positively refused to be entertained privately, but accepted the civili- ties which were always extended, so he had his dinings and the inevitable ball, attended the commencement of the Richmond academy, and gave the young students sundry
169
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1789-1800.]
copies of the classics, which had been offered as prizes, with his autograph in them.
There had been up to this time no great deal of political strife in Georgia. The bitter antagonisms of the past had been personal rather than political, and the sectional feel- ing had not been as yet manifest. Savannah and the low- country had ruled the State from its first settlement without resistance or protest, but it now became evident that the people of the up-country were not to be ignored or over- shadowed by the wealthy and cultured men of the low- country. These educated low-country men were all Demo- crats in public life and aristocrats in their social affinities. They were bitterly opposed to Federalism and sympathized with the French, and so when Mr. Telfair of Burke, for- merly of Chatham, offered for governor the second time he was defeated by the rugged and uneducated Federalist, Colonel Geo. Mathews, who had only been in the State ten years, and who had been governor for one term already.
While Governor Mathews was in office that irrepressible old soldier, Elijah Clarke, decided the time had come to take possession of the Indian lands on the west of the Oconee, and so gathering a body of daring spirits about him they went together into the wilderness. Governor Mathews ordered him to withdraw, but he refused, and only after the militia was ordered out would he return.
It was during this period that Georgia became greatly excited by what many Georgians have always called the Yazoo fraud. Such was the extent of the angry feelings aroused by the act thus characterized that anything like a calm consideration of the matter was impossible then, and for fifty years afterward there was but one side of the case looked at; and such is the verdict of history even now, that I may find it difficult to make a fair, calm and judicial statement of the facts concerning the sale of the western lands.
170
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. V.
The English colonial office before the Revolution, against the protest of South Carolina, recognized the colony of Georgia as having the title to all the lands lying west of Savannah river, containing what is now Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and when England recognized the State of Georgia as free and independent, she gave to this State, composed then of less than thirty thousand people, a clear title to all that land. That part of this territory beyond the Chattahoochee was claimed by two separate parties. The Spanish claimed it by right of conquest, and the State of South Carolina claimed that it was a part of the original grant to the proprietors to which she had fallen heir.
The United States Government now came in with the plea that as large expenses had been incurred by the Con- tinental Congress in conducting the war to a successful conclusion, and as the public lands had been pledged for payment of the national debt, that Georgia was bound in. honor to do as Virginia and the other States had done, to relinquish her title to this unoccupied section. The gen- eral government also claimed that by the Constitution which Georgia had adopted the United States was the only party who had a right to treat with the Indians, and that Georgia by accepting the Constitution virtually gave her consent to the cession of this territory.
Georgia consented to make the cession, but the condi- tions she laid down were such that the general government refused to accept her proposition. Mr. Chappel, who ex- amined closely into the matter, is of the opinion that these conditions were made purposely offensive by those who expected and intended to buy the land for a mere pittance. (Chappel's Pamphlet on Yazoo Fraud.)
The treasury of the State was empty, the State troops were unpaid, the people were not able to pay heavy taxes and were unwilling to pay any. The State currency was
171
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1789-1800.]
greatly depreciated, and the only hope of relief was the sale of the Indian lands.
In 1789 three companies-the Virginia Yazoo Company, the South Carolina Land Company, and the Tennessee Land Company-each composed, of prominent men, pro- posed to purchase the land. The members of the South Carolina Land Company mentioned in Watkins were Alex- ander Moultrie, Isaac Huger, Wm. Clay Snipes, and Thos. Washington; and the Virginia Yazoo Company were Patrick Henry, David Ross, Wm. Cowan, Abraham B. Venable, Jno. B. Scott, Wm. Cock Ellis, Francis Watkins, and John Watts; and of the Tennessee Land Company, Zach Cox, X Thos. Gilbert, John Strother, and, as appears from a record in the Wilkes county court, Steven Heard, Wm. Downs, Henry Candler, Jno. Gardner, Middleton Woods, + Wm. Cox, and Thos. Carr were admitted into the com- pany after the purchase was made .* This last company, which purchased the valley of the Tennessee, was exclu- sively a Georgia company.
These companies bought fifteen million five hundred thousand acres for about two hundred thousand dollars, payable in two years. The sale was made in good faith, and as far as we can see no complaint was made about it. Ed Telfair was governor and he signed the act; and it would have been a fact accomplished if the purchasers had been able to pay the amount agreed on, but they were not able to pay in coin, and tendered State currency and certificates, which the Legislature refused to receive, and the sale was declared a nullity because of this failure of the purchasers to pay the price. There was no charge of corruption made against any of the parties engaged in this first purchase, although they were fairly warned by the authorities of the general government that they could not
* See original record in Washington.
-
172
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. V.
lawfully sell the land to which the Indian title had not been extinguished and which they proposed to buy.+
In 1794 the land was still unsold. The soldiers were . clamorous for money, the treasury was still empty, and there was little hope of replenishing it unless Georgia could realize something from her rather uncertain interest in these western lands. It was known they were for sale and five companies came forward to buy them. Four of these companies united and agreed to give Georgia five hundred thousand dollars in cash for her interest, the pur- chasers to take the titles as they were and to get rid of all difficulties and arrange matters with the general gov- ernment and with Spain and the Indians. These companies were the Georgia, the Upper Mississippi Company, the Georgia-Mississippi Company, and the Tennessee Land Company. These companies were not all Georgians, but a company of Georgians offered seven hundred thousand dol- lars for the property on somewhat different conditions.
The combined companies bought the land, but Governor Mathews vetoed the bill. They then had another intro- duced which was not so objectionable to him, and it finally passed.
There was a sharp contest between the rival companies and much lobbying. There was a small party who was unwilling to sell at all, a larger one who preferred the Augusta company, and a majority who favored a sale to the consolidated companies.
At last, after a long discussion, on February 7, 1795, the sale was made by a vote of 10 to 8 in the Senate, and 19 to 9 in the House.
The senators who voted for the bill were : Mr. King, Mr.' Wright, Mr. Oneal, Mr. Wylie, Mr. Walton, Mr. Hampton, Mr. Cauthorn, Mr. Gresham, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Mann.
+ They were severely censured afterward, but not at that time.
173
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1789-1800.]
Those who voted against it were : Mr. Milledge, Mr. La- nier, Mr. Morrison, Mr. Irwin, Mr. Blackburn, Mr. Pope, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Wood.
The members of the House who voted for the sale of the lands were: Mr. T. P. Carnes, Mr. Longstreet, Mr. Gindrat, Mr. Lachlan McIntosh (not General McIntosh), Mr. Gres- ham of Greene, Mr. Mowbray, Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Moore, Mr. Howell, Mr. Musgrove, Mr. Harden, Mr. Watkins, Mr. Stephen Heard, Mr. Worsham, Mr. Thomas Heard, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. King, Mr. Rabun, Mr. Geo. Walker.
The members who voted against it were; Mr. George Jones, Mr. D. B. Mitchell, Mr. John Jones, Mr. McNeal, Mr. Clement Lanier, Mr. Shepherd, Mr. J. B. Maxwell. (U. S. State papers.)
The governor reluctantly signed the bill and it was a law. The members of the combined companies are not all given in Watkins's Digest, where alone the act is found, but as there given they were Senator Gunn, Judge McAlister, Judge Nathaniel Pendleton, George Walker, Nicolas Long, Thomas Glascock, Ambrose Gordon, Thos. Cumming, Jno. B. Scott, Jno. C. Nightingale, Wade Hampton, Zack Coxe,/ Mr. Maher. There were associated with them many whose names are not given, among them the celebrated Judge James Wilson of Pennsylvania.
Among those whose bid was not accepted, but who tried to buy the lands for a little over a cent an acre, were General John Twiggs, Jno. Wereat, Wm. Gibbons, Wm. Few.
No men stood higher in Georgia than the men who com- posed these several companies and the members of the Legislature who made the sale, and no men were in higher repute than some of these in an after time. The charge has been made, and is by many believed, that this sale was effected by corrupt means, and it has been known in history as the Yazoo fraud.
It was charged that the companies who made the pur-
174
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. V.
chase bribed the men who sold the land by giving them, shares in the land companies, and there was a color of truth to the charge brought out when it was found that all who voted for the sale did have shares of stock in the land com- pany except one man, Robert Watkins. The governor who signed the bill was never accused of being a participant in any of the profits. The members of the Legislature did have stock in the companies, but it was never proved that any one of them had not paid for his stock a fair price and was guilty of selling his vote.
The excitement on this subject did not, however, imme- diately follow the passage of the act. It was quietly ac- quiesced in, and but for the efforts of one man would prob- ably have received no further attention than had been given to the act of 1789. The first of the purchase money was paid, the title passed, when James Jackson, the senator from Georgia, in a series of articles signed Sicillius, vio- lently assailed the act. These articles appeared in the two papers in Georgia, the Gazette in Savannah and the Chronicle in Augusta. They attracted wide attention and secured general indorsement. General Jackson resigned his seat in the Senate and came home and ran for State senator from Chatham, with the avowed purpose of having the act repu- diated by the Legislature. The act was rescinded, and it was ordered that it be consumed by fire, and in front of the newly occupied State-house in Louisville the engrossed act was burned.
The money paid was to be refunded to those who called for it, and the Legislature ordered that all record of the act should be expunged from official documents.
The first digest of Georgia laws made by Watkins, for- which the State had subscribed largely, was rejected be- cause it contained the 'odious act, and for a hundred years. with the masses in Georgia the one thing needed to render
175
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1789-1800.]
a public man odious was to say he was connected with the Yazoo fraud.
It is not my province to express any opinion on the issues involved, nor to take any part in the angry discussion of those days, but I think it due to the truth of history to make a full statement of the whole matter. That the sale was made legally there was no question, and though a free and sovereign State might repudiate the act of her officials and refuse to carry out an obnoxious measure, it was evident to all that if the matter could come before any court, State or Federal, the act would be recognized as regular; and it was quietly decided to end the discussion by rescinding the act and selling the land to the United States government, and leave it to settle with the claimants. This was done during the next decade, though in doing it the fiery Jack- son, one of the commissioners, became involved in a diffi- culty which resulted in a duel with Mr. James Seagrove, a representative of the United States. A treaty was made between "the two sovereignties," * and Georgia thus sur- rendered her western lands. The price agreed on was $1,500,000 in cash, and the extinction of the title of the Indians to all lands east of the Chattahoochee.
At the time the sale was made, and for many years after- ward, the conviction was general that the sale was fraudu- lent and all connected with it were criminal, and Judge Chappel, in his pamphlet, is exceedingly severe on all who had part in it. I have confined myself to a simple state- ment of facts, and leave my readers to draw their own con- clusions. If these facts, which are easily verified, remove the odium which for this hundred years has rested on men whose character was otherwise untarnished, and show that there was no proof of criminal intent, and that this Legis- lature was not exceptional in being the only bribed body
* Language of the treaty.
176
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. V.
in Georgia history, it ought to be a gratifying fact to all Georgians.
The Supreme Court of the United States in a celebrated decision on this subject did not admit any fraud, and sus- tained the legality of the sale .*
The Legislature elected in 1795 was elected on the one issue of repudiating and annulling the acts of the one which preceded it, and Jared Irwin, a Scotch-Irishman by descent but a native of North Carolina, who had been a brave soldier and a famous Indian fighter, was chosen as governor.
There was little difficulty encountered in carrying any measure which looked to the undoing of that which had been done the year before, and as soon as the acts could be passed the act of 1794 was declared null and void, and the order was made to return the money paid to those who applied for it.
The excitement in the State rose very high. It was openly charged that every man in the Legislature who voted for it but one had shares in the company and was corruptly influenced, and one man at least lost his life be- cause of his course.
The list I have given of the members of the House con- tain the names of men whose reputation was never assailed before. It is I think clearly shown that the members of the Legislature and many others had shares in the venture, but it has never been shown that they did not come hon- estly by them or designed to defraud the State.
While there may be some question as to whether those connected with the Yazoo act were guilty of fraudulent
* I have referred to all the sources of information on this subject. acces- sible to me, and while each separate statement has been carefully estab- lished, I have not attempted to support each by designating the place where it is to be found. The books referred to are Stevens's History, White's Statis- tics, Chappel's Tract, Watkins's Digest, U. S. State papers, the Georgia Ga- zette, Journal of the Legislature, Gilmer's Georgians, Cranch Reports, Vol. 6.
177
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1789-1800.]
intent, there can be none that the Pine-barren frauds, were many of them frauds pure and simple. These frauds were the securing of fictitious grants to immense areas of pine lands in the unsettled parts of Georgia, chiefly Montgom- ery county. It is needless to enter now into a detailed statement of how these frauds were brought about; how, as will appear from a study of the list of headrights append- ed to this history, grants for not only thousands of acres were made, but hundreds of thousands, where not a single condition had been met. Men had granted under the great seal five hundred thousand acres of land, not one foot of which had been legally secured and not an acre of which they had in possession. How many grants of large bodies of barren land were legal we have no means of knowing, but all the large grants of 1794 and 1795 are suspicious, and nearly all of them were repudiated. It was never designed by the men who secured the grants to take possession of them, but it is possible that those in whose names they stand were innocent purchasers.
Judge Chappel in his "Reminiscences" recovers this almost lost chapter in Georgia history, and as late as the year 1899 men have appeared in Georgia with old grants to land which never existed. These grants were all profess- edly located in Washington, or what was afterward Eman- uel, Johnson and Laurens counties, and a much larger amount was granted in the new county of Montgomery, which was cut off from Washington. There were granted altogether over seven million acres-more land than was to be found in all the territory of the county.
The State repudiated nearly all these grants and can- celled the patents, and no lands were actually taken under them; but the speculators who had secured possession of the fraudulent patents sold them to parties ignorant of the true state of things, and an earnest effort has been made for
12
178
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. V.
many years by the defrauded purchasers of worthless scrip to secure from the State some compensation for their losses.
Judge Chappel, who was in the Legislature and on a committee to look into this question, in 1839, has given a full account of these Pine-barren frauds in his interesting " Reminiscences."
A convention had been called by the Legislature of 1794 to revise the Constitution, and it met in the spring. of 1795. It was composed of the following members:
Chatham-Josiah Tattnall, Jr., Thos. Gibbons.
McIntosh-Jos. Clay, John Wereat. These gentlemen did not live in McIntosh but were permitted to represent it and were elected by the electors in that county.
Burke-B. Davis, D. Emanuel, Thos. King.
Elbert-L. Higginbottom, S. Heard, W. Barnett.
Glynn-Jno. Girradeau.
Greene-David Gresham, Phil Hunter, W. Fitzpatrick. Richmond-John Milton, Geo. Walker, Phil Clayton.
Screven-B. Lanier, Wm. Skinner, P. R. Smith.
Warren-Levi Pruitt, Jno. Cobbs, P. Goodwin.
Washington-John Rutherford, Geo. Franklin, R. Wil- kinson.
Wilkes-B. Catchings, Silas Mercer, D. Creswell.
It made no changes in the Constitution and only a few additions to it, and referred the question of repudiating the- sale of the Yazoo land to the succeeding Legislature.
This convention made provision for another convention which should meet in 1798 and which met accordingly .. It was the largest which had ever assembled in Georgia, and the ablest. All the previous Constitutions had pro- hibited ministers of the gospel from being members of the. General Assembly.
Jesse Mercer, a sterling young Baptist preacher, was a member of the convention, and when it was proposed to. introduce the same provision into the new Constitution, he-
179
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1789-1800.]
proposed to amend by excluding also lawyers and doctors. The amendment resulted in having the whole provision re- jected, and since that time it has been no disqualifica- tion for a member of the Legislature to be a minister of the gospel.
The convention was composed of the following dele- gates :
Bryan-Jos. Clay, J. B. Maxwell, Jno Pray.
Burke-Benj. Davis, Jno. Morrison, Jno. Milton.
Bulloch-James Bird, Andrew E. Wells, Charles McCall.+ Camden-James Seagrove, Thos. Stafford.
Chatham-James Jackson, James Jones, George Jones. Columbia-James Simms, W. A. Drane, Jas. McNeal. Effingham-John King, John London, Thos. Polhill. Elbert-Wm. Barnett, R. Hunt, Benj. Mosely.
Franklin-A. Franklin, R. Walters, Thos. Gilbert.
Glynn-Jno .. Burnett, Jno. Cowper, Thos. Spalding.
Greene-Geo. W. Foster, Jonas Fouche, Jas. Nisbet.
Hancock-Chas. Abercrombie, Thomas Lamar, Matthew Rabun ..
Jefferson-Peter Carnes, Wm. Fleming, R. D. Gray.
Jackson-George Wilson, James Pittman, Joseph Hum- phries.
Liberty-James Cochran, James Powell, James Dun- woody.
Lincoln-Henry Ware, G. Wooldridge, Jared Grace.
McIntosh-Jno. H. McIntosh, Jas. Gignilliat.
Montgomery-Benjamin Harrison, John Watts, John Jones.
Oglethorpe-John Lumpkin, Thos. Duke, B. Pope. Richmond-R. Watkins, G. Jones.
Screven-Lewis Lanier, J. H. Rutherford, Jas. Oliver. Washington-John Watts, Geo. Franklin, Jared Irwin. Warren-John Lawson, A. Fort, W. Stith.
Wilkes-M. Talbott, B. Talliferro, J. Mercer.
180
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. V.
This convention formed a Constitution which was not materially changed until after the war between the States. The ablest men in the State, men of the broadest culture and the strongest minds, were in the body which formed it, and the instrument was worthy of the men who gave it life. The convention was pronounced in its condemnation of what it believed to be a gigantic fraud, and made stringent provisions against a repetition of such an occurrence.
General Jackson having now secured his ends, was elected governor, and the Legislature chosen was in perfect accord with him. He had rather a stormy time as governor. He had denounced many of the leading men in Georgia as conspiring to rob the State. He was devoid of fear, and pursued his foes with ferocity, and they were not disposed to spare him. He was very bitter toward the Watkins family, and had Colonel Watkins arrested and tried by court-martial for having taken, without the consent of the commander-in-chief, Jackson himself, some old Indian guns which were in the arsenal in Augusta, with which Watkins armed his militia on a muster day. John Berrien, the treasurer of the State, who had been a gallant officer during the Revolution, had been victimized by a dishonest clerk who had made way with some of the funds offered to the treasury by the Yazoo purchasers, and which the State had refused to receive. The treasurer promptly made good the loss out of his private property, but he was impeached for embezzlement, and he believed the prosecution was orig- inated by the governor. In neither case was there convic- tion,* but so bitter was the feeling that there was more than one street brawl and duel resulting in a bloody end.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.