Volume III Part 66 (1/2)

By the G.o.d of Heaven, if we go on in this way, our nation will sink into disgrace and slavery. (John Tyler.)

Millions of acres are easily digested by such stomachs. They buy and sell corruption in the gross. (John Randolph.)

When a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights. The people can act only by their agents and, within the powers conferred upon them, their acts must be considered as the acts of the people. (Marshall.)

The Honorable William Longstreet was an active and influential member of the Georgia Legislature during the winter of 1794-95. He was also a practical man. An important bill was then before that body, and Mr.

Longstreet employed effective methods to forward its pa.s.sage. The proposed legislation was to authorize the sale to four speculating land companies[1359] of most of that territory which comprises the present States of Alabama and Mississippi.

”Why are you not in favor of selling the western lands?” frequently asked Representative Longstreet of his fellow member, Clem Lanier.

”Because I do not think it right to sell to companies of speculators,”

was the answer. ”Better vote for the bill,” observed his seat mate, Representative Henry Gindrat, one day as they sat chatting before the Speaker of the House took the chair. ”It will be worth your while.

Senator Thomas Wylly says that he can have eight or ten likely negroes for his part.”

That afternoon Senator Wylly came to Lanier and began to talk of the land bill. A Mr. Dennison sauntered up. Wylly left, and the newcomer remarked that, of course, he advised no legislator how to vote, but he could not help noticing that all who favored the sale of the lands ”were handsomely provided for.” If Lanier should support the bill, he would be taken care of like the rest. He was buying, Dennison said, from members who wished to sell lands allotted to them for agreeing to support the measure.

Once more came Longstreet, who ”presented a certificate ent.i.tling the bearer to two shares of twenty-five thousand acres each,” as security that Lanier would be rewarded if he voted for the sale bill. The obdurate Representative, who wished to probe the depths of the plot, objected, and Longstreet a.s.sured him that he would immediately procure ”another certificate ... for the same number of acres.” But Lanier finally declined the bribe of seventy-five thousand acres of land.[1360]

Representative Gindrat had offered to sell his shares for one thousand dollars, the price generally given; but, securing ”a better market,”

declined that sum.[1361] Representative Lachlan M'Intosh received six shares in one of the land companies, which he sold at a premium of two hundred and fifty dollars each.[1362]

After the bill had pa.s.sed, Senator Robert Thomas, who had no means of acquiring ready cash,[1363] brought two thousand dollars to the house where he boarded and asked Philip Clayton, the owner, to keep it for him. Clayton was curious--did Senator Thomas get the money for his share of the lands? he inquired. ”It is nothing to you; take care of it,”

answered the suddenly affluent legislator, smiling.[1364]

Representative Longstreet offered Representative John Shepperd one hundred thousand acres, but Shepperd was not interested; then Philip Clayton, the tavern-keeper, offered him seventy pounds to go home for the session.[1365]

A saturnalia of corruption was in progress in the little village of Augusta, where the Legislature of Georgia was in session.[1366] The leading men of that and neighboring States were on the ground urging the enactment of the law in which all were interested. Wade Hampton of South Carolina was on hand. State and National judges were present. James Wilson of Pennsylvania, a.s.sociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was there with twenty-five thousand dollars in bank bills.[1367]

William Smith, Judge of the Superior Court of Georgia, added his influence, receiving for his services as lobbyist thirteen thousand dollars. Nathaniel Pendleton, Judge of the United States Court for that district, urged the legislation and signed and issued the certificates for shares that were given to the members for their votes.[1368]

Directing all was General James Gunn, United States Senator from Georgia: his first term in the National Senate about to expire, he was now reelected by this very Legislature.[1369]

A majority of Georgia's lawmaking body thus became financially interested in the project, and the bill pa.s.sed both houses. But Governor George Mathews vetoed the measure, because he thought the time not propitious for selling the lands, the price too low, the reservations for Georgians too small, and the principle of monopoly wrong.[1370]

Another bill was prepared to meet some of the Governor's objections.

This was introduced as a supplement to a law just enacted to pay the State troops.[1371] Again every possible influence was brought upon the Legislature to pa.s.s this bill with utmost dispatch.[1372] Some members, who would not support it, were induced to leave the tiny Georgia Capital; others, who were recalcitrant, were browbeaten and bullied.

Senator Gunn, the field marshal of this legislative campaign, strode about the village arrayed in broadcloth, top boots, and beaver hat, commending those who favored the bill, abusing those who opposed it. In his hand he carried a loaded whip, and with this the burly Senator actually menaced members who objected to the scheme.[1373] In a little more than one week the bill was rushed through both houses. This time it received the reluctant approval of the Governor, and on January 7, 1795, became a law.

In such fas.h.i.+on was enacted the legislation which disposed of more than thirty-five million acres of fertile, well-watered, heavily wooded land at less than one and one half cents an acre.[1374] The purchasers were four companies known as The Georgia Company, The Georgia Mississippi Company, The Tennessee Company, and The Upper Mississippi Company. The total purchase price was five hundred thousand dollars in specie or approved currency, one fifth to be deposited with the State Treasurer before the pa.s.sage of the act, and the remainder to be paid on or before November 1, 1795. The Governor was directed to execute a deed in fee-simple to the men composing each company as tenants in common; and the deferred payments were secured by mortgages to the Governor, to be immediately foreclosed upon default of payment, and the one fifth already deposited to be forfeited to the State.

Two million acres were reserved for exclusive entry by citizens of Georgia, and the land companies were bound to form settlements within five years after the Indian t.i.tles had been extinguished. The lands were declared free of taxation until they should be so occupied that the settlers were represented in the Legislature.[1375] Governor Mathews executed deeds in compliance with the law, and, the entire amount of the purchase money having been paid into the State Treasury before November 1, the mortgages were canceled and the transaction was closed in accordance with the provisions of the statute. So far as that legislation and the steps taken in pursuance of it could bring about such a result, the legal t.i.tle to practically all of the domain stretching from the present western boundary of Georgia to the Mississippi River, and from the narrow strip of Spanish territory on the Gulf to the Tennessee line, was transferred to the men composing these four land companies. The greatest real estate deal in history was thus consummated.

But even while this bill was before the Legislature, popular opposition to it began. A young man of twenty-three was then teaching in a little school-house at Augusta, but he was destined to become United States Senator, Minister to France, Secretary of the Treasury, and candidate for President. Enraged at what he believed the despoiling of the people by a band of robbers using robbers' methods, young William H. Crawford hurried to his home in Columbia County, got up a pet.i.tion to the Governor to reject the bill again, and hurried to the Capital where he presented it to the Chief Executive of the State.[1376] But Governor Mathews, against whom no man, then or thereafter, charged corrupt motives, persisted in signing the measure.

And it must be said that the bill was not without merit. Georgia was but thinly populated, not more than fifty thousand human beings inhabiting its immense extent of savanna and forest. Most of these people were very poor[1377] and unable to pay any public charges whatever. The State Treasury was empty; the State troops, who had been employed in the endless Indian troubles, were unpaid and clamoring for the money long due them; the State currency had so depreciated that it was almost without value. No commonwealth in the Union was in worse financial case.[1378]

Moreover, the t.i.tles of the Indians, who occupied the country and who were its real owners, had not been extinguished. Under the Const.i.tution, the National Government alone could deal with the tribes, and it had long been urging Georgia to cede her claims to the United States, as Virginia and Connecticut had done. Indeed, the State had once offered to make this cession, but on such terms that Congress had refused to accept it. The purchasers now took whatever t.i.tle Georgia had, subject to these burdens, the State to be saved from all annoyance on account of them.

The tribes were powerful and brave, and they had been prompt and bold in the defense of their lands. The Creeks alone could put nearly six thousand fighting men in the field, and the Choctaws had more than four thousand trained warriors.[1379] The feeble and impoverished State had never been able to subdue them, or to enforce in the slightest degree the recognition of the State's t.i.tle to the country they inhabited.

Georgia's right to their lands ”depended on her power to dispossess the Indians; but however good the t.i.tle might be, the State would have been fortunate to make it a free gift to any authority strong enough to deal with the Creeks and Cherokees alone.”[1380]