Some writers on the early history of Georgia have been under the
impression that the speculation known as the Yazoo Fraud had its
beginning in the efforts of General Elijah Clarke and his followers to
settle on the Indian reservation lying west of the Oconee River; but
this is not the case at all. General Clarke's movement was the result
of an enterprise which was aimed against the Spaniards; and, though the
facts have no real connection with the Yazoo speculation, they may
be briefly told here, especially since Stevens, in his "History of
Georgia," turns them all topsy-turvy.
Genet was the first envoy sent to represent the wild and revolutionary
republic of France,--the republic of Robespierre and the Jacobins. He
represented, as well as any man could, the ideas and purposes of those
who had wrought such havoc in France. He was meddlesome, wrong-headed,
unreasonable, and bold with it all. He sailed from France in a
ship which he commanded himself; and instead of going straight to
Philadelphia (then the seat of government), where his business called
him, he landed at Charleston in South Carolina. War was then pending
between France and Spain; and Genet, after landing in Charleston, found
ready sympathizers in the French Huguenots of South Carolina, and indeed
in all those who had fought for American liberty. There were two reasons
why the fiery appeals of Genet to the people of Carolina to take up
arms against Spain were received enthusiastically. One was, that the
Spaniards in Florida had been at constant war with the people of Georgia
and Carolina, and had committed many crimes and depredations. The other
was, that the people felt grateful to France for the aid she had given
the American Colonies in their efforts to shake off the yoke of Great
Britain.
Genet's plan was to raise in this country an army large enough to seize
the Spanish possessions in Florida, and to reconquer Louisiana. For
the reasons stated, Genet found the people enthusiastic in favor of his
enterprise. The enthusiasm was intense. It crossed the Savannah,
and found General Elijah Clarke, with his strong nature and active
sympathies, ready to embrace it. His military prestige in the South
commended him to Genet as the man to lead the military enterprise
against the Spanish settlements in the South. Accordingly he was given
command of the army that was to be raised, and was made a major general
in the French service with a pay of ten thousand dollars.
Having secured a commander whose courage and resources in the field
could be depended on, Genet went from Charleston to Philadelphia
overland, stirring up sympathy for his enterprise and enlisting men. His
success was greater than he had dreamed of. He found but one thing in
his way, and that was the firmness and vigilance of George Washington.
This great man set his face sternly against the project; but such was
the enthusiasm of the people--artfully stirred by Genet, who was as
accomplished as he was unscrupulous,--that a French party was formed.
Genet took advantage of the formation of this party to arouse prejudice
against Washington; and such was his success, that John Adams, who
was afterwards President, says that there was a multitude of men in
Philadelphia ready to drive Washington from the executive chair.
A considerable army was raised, recruits reported to General Clarke from
the Ohio River to the St. Mary's, and everything was ready for action.
At that moment the heavy hand of Washington descended on the enterprise.
The recall of Genet was demanded, the French party went to pieces,
the project collapsed, and Elijah Clarke was left without resources,
surrounded by a considerable force of men who had come at his bidding
to take part in the attack on the Spanish possessions. These men were on
his hands, expecting the fulfillment of promises that had been made to
them. What was to be done? It was at this critical period that the eyes
of General Clarke turned to the Indian reservation west of the Oconee.
He marched his men to these lands, and took possession. He, and those
who engaged in the movement for settling the lands, had risked their
lives for their country on a hundred battlefields. They thought that
the lands that had been claimed by the King belonged to those who had
conquered the King's armies. They were right in principle, but wrong
in action. The lands that had belonged to the King now belonged to
the people, not as individuals, but as a corporate body,--to the whole
people represented by the State government. These principles had not
been made as clear by discussion in General Clarke's day as they have
been made since. He engaged in no speculation. He boldly settled the
lands, and was prepared to boldly hold his position. The settlement was
made in 1794. On the 28th of July, Governor George Matthews issued a
proclamation forbidding the settlement, and likewise directed one of
the judges to issue a warrant for the general's arrest. At the Superior
Court of Wilkes County, Clarke surrendered himself to the judge, who
referred the case to the county justices. These judges made a decision,
setting forth the fact that Elijah Clarke had surrendered himself into
custody; that, being desirous to do speedy justice to the State as well
as to the party charged, they had proceeded to maturely consider the
case; and that after examining the laws of the State, and the treaties
made and laws passed by the United States, they gave it as their
"decided and unanimous opinion that the said Elijah Clarke be and
is hereby discharged." Encouraged by this decision, General Clarke
returned to his settlement with the intention of holding the lands; but
finally both the Federal and the State governments moved against
him, and he abandoned the enterprise. The policy that Clarke began in
settling the Indian lands without regard to the rights of the savage has
since become the policy of the government. It is not a wholesome
policy, nor is it authorized by the moral or civil law; but it has been
unblushingly carried out nevertheless.
The Yazoo Fraud was a far different matter. The very name of it was
foreign to Georgia. It was borrowed from the Indian name of a small
stream which empties itself into the Mississippi River. When the
Colony of Georgia was first settled, the land granted to Oglethorpe was
described as lying along the Savannah River, extending southward along
the coast to the Altamaha, and from the head waters of these rivers
westward to "the South Seas." Afterwards Great Britain changed the line
which he had established. She carried the boundary line of West Florida,
a part of her possessions, higher up. The new line started from the
Mississippi at the mouth of the Yazoo River, and ran due east to the
Chattahoochee at a point near where the town of West Point now stands.
As the upper boundary of British West Florida this line came to be known
as the Yazoo line, and the country above and below it to an indefinite
extent came to be known as the Yazoo country. No boundary can now be
fixed to the region then known as the Yazoo country. At the close of
the Revolutionary War, Great Britain made a treaty which has been
interpreted as vesting in the United States and in Georgia the right
and title to these lands, reaching from the Chattahoochee to the Yazoo
River, and extending on each side of this line to a distance that has
never been estimated.
The Yazoo Fraud itself had a somewhat vague beginning. From the best
information that can now be obtained, it may be said that it was set on
foot in 1789, shortly after the close of the Revolution, by a sharper
who was famous in that day. He was known as Thomas Washington, but his
real name was Walsh. Washington, or Walsh, is described as being a very
extraordinary man. He had fought in the service of Georgia, but he
had the instinct of a speculator; and when the war was ended, he gave
himself up to the devices of those who earn their living by their
wits. He was a man of good address, and his air of candor succeeded in
deceiving all whom he met. Those who dealt with him always had the worst
of the bargain.
When Washington, or Walsh, began to operate in Georgia through agents,
he found the way already prepared for him. The War for Independence
had barely closed, when certain individuals, most of them men of some
influence, began to look on our Western possessions with a greedy
eye. They had an idea of securing these lands and setting up a new
government,--a sort of Western empire. To further their designs they
began by forming themselves into an association called the "Combined
Society," the members of which were bound to secrecy by oaths and other
solemn pledges. The purpose of the Combined Society became known, and
the force of public opinion compelled the members to disband. Some of
them were men of aristocratic pretensions.
Thus Washington, or Walsh, found a great many sympathetic people in
Georgia. He was too well known in the State to undertake any scheme to
which his name was attached: so he worked through an agent, a man named
Sullivan. This man Sullivan had been a captain in the patriot army; but
he had headed the Philadelphia mob which insulted Congress, and he was
compelled to flee to the Mississippi to save his neck. When the old
Congress went out, Sullivan felt free to return. He came to Georgia,
representing, or pretending to represent, the Virginia Yazoo Company, of
which the celebrated Patrick Henry was a member, and made application to
the State Legislature for the purchase of the Western lands. Sullivan's
description of the Yazoo lands was so glowing that another company
was formed in Georgia. Some of the members of the new company formerly
belonged to the Combined Society, but others were men of good standing.
This company employed active agents; but no corrupt means were used so
far as is now known, though some members of the General Assembly were
interested. The efforts of the company were successful. Their act was
passed, and the sale made. Immediately the people began to oppose the
scheme, and to demand the repeal of the act The demand grew into a State
issue, and the new Legislature declared the sale null and void.
[Illustration: The Yazoo Scheme 134]
For a while the land grabbers were quiet; but in 1794 it seemed to the
most eager of the speculators that the time had come for them to make
another effort to secure the rich Western lands that belonged to the
State. They were evidently afraid, that, unless they made haste to get
hold of the lands, the people's Legislature would divide them out or
sell them to the Federal Government. So they formed another conspiracy,
and this time they laid their plans very deep. Acting on the principle
that every man has his price, they managed, by bribery and other
underhanded schemes, to win the sympathy and support of some of the
most prominent men in the State,--men whose names seemed to be far
above suspicion. Some of the highest judges lent their aid to the land
grabbers. Members of Congress were concerned in the scheme. Generals
and other high officers of the militia took part in it. Nothing was left
undone that was calculated to win the support of men who, up to that
time, had enjoyed and deserved the confidence and respect of the
State. The extent of the bribery and corruption that existed would be
altogether beyond belief if the records were not left to show it. The
swindlers were both bold and cunning, and in one way or another sought
to win the support of all the leading men in the State. And they came
very close to succeeding.
The Legislature held its session in Augusta at that time; and while the
Yazoo land sale was up for discussion, the agents of the land grabbers
swarmed around it, coaxing, bribing, and bullying the people's
representatives. Among these agents was a judge of the Supreme Court of
the United States, from Pennsylvania, with twenty-five thousand dollars
in his hands. There was a judge of the United States District Court for
Georgia, paying shares in the land company for the votes of members. A
United States senator from Georgia, James Gunn, who had neglected to
return to his post of duty in Congress, was seen bullying members with a
loaded whip, to secure their support for the land-sale scheme. A judge
of the State courts was also present, with other prominent citizens,
buttonholing the members of the Legislature, offering them shares,
sub-shares, and half sub-shares to secure their votes. General James
Jackson, who was then a United States senator from Georgia, was told by
a prominent judge of the State that he might have any number of acres he
pleased up to half a million, without the payment of a dollar, if he
would use his influence in behalf of the corrupt schemes of the land
grabbers. In reply, General Jackson said he had fought for the people of
Georgia; that the land belonged to them and to their children; and that,
should the conspirators succeed, he, for one, would hold the sale to be
void. Many weak men in the Legislature were intimidated by threats; and
some who could not be persuaded to vote for the sale, were paid to go
home, and remain away from the Legislature.
In this way the representatives of the people were persuaded and bribed
to support the scheme of the land grabbers. In 1795 the bill was passed,
selling to four companies--the Georgia Company, the Georgia
Mississippi Company, the Upper Mississippi Company, and the Tennessee
Company--thirty-five million acres of land for $500,000. Nothing was now
wanting to complete the fraud but the signature of the governor. If he
put his name to the bill, it became a law. If he refused to sign it,
the scheme of the swindlers would fail. General George Matthews was the
governor at that time, and, though two of his sons had been made members
of the land-grabbing companies, it was hoped that he would refuse to
sign the bill. The hope was justified by the fact that he had refused to
sign a similar bill, and had given some very good reasons for it. It
was known, too, that he was a man of great courage, and honest in his
intentions; but the influence brought to bear on him was too great. His
judgment was weakened by the clamor of the prominent men around him, who
had become the paid agents of the swindlers. He resisted for some time,
but finally agreed to sign the bill. The secretary of Governor Matthews,
a man named Urquhart, tried to prevent the signing of the bill by
working on the governor's superstitions. He dipped the pen in oil,
thinking that when Matthews came to write with it, and found that the
ink refused to flow, he would take it as an omen that the bill should
not be signed. The governor was startled, when, after several efforts,
he found the pen would not write; but he was not a man to let so
trifling a matter stand in his way. He directed his secretary to make
another pen, and with this he made the land-steal bill a law. By a
stroke he made the bill a law, and also signed away his own popularity
and influence. The people of Georgia never trusted him afterwards; and
he left the State, finding it unpleasant and uncomfortable to live among
those who had lost their respect for him. Yet no charge of corruption
was ever made against him.
When the people learned that the Yazoo Fraud had become a law, they rose
up as one man to denounce it. Those who lived in the neighborhood of
Augusta determined to put to death the men who had betrayed them. They
marched to the legislative halls, and were only prevented from carrying
out their threats by the persuasion of the small minority of the members
that had refused to be coaxed, bullied, or bribed into voting for the
Yazoo Fraud. But the indignation of the people continued to grow as
they learned of the corrupt methods that had been employed to pass the
measure. Meetings were held in every county; and public opinion
became so strong that those who had voted for the Yazoo Fraud found it
dangerous to remain in the State. A senator from Hancock County became
so alarmed that he fled to South Carolina. He was followed by one of his
neighbors, found in a lonely cabin at night, and shot to death. Except
in one or two counties, the men who voted for the Yazoo Fraud were
compelled to hide themselves until the anger of the people had cooled.
In his "Sketches of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia," Governor
George R. Gilmer tells a little story that will serve to show the state
of feeling in Georgia at that time. After the Yazoo Fraud was passed,
the people of the counties held indignation meetings. A meeting was
called in Oglethorpe County, and on the morning of the day, a citizen on
his way to town stopped at the gate of a neighbor to wait until he could
get ready to go. The man who was getting ready was named Miles Jennings.
The citizen, waiting, saw Mr. Jennings put a rope in his pocket.
"What is that for?" the citizen asked.
"To hang Musgrove!" replied Mr. Jennings, Musgrove being the name of the
member of the Legislature.
When the two neighbors arrived at the courthouse, all the people had
assembled. Mr. Jennings hitched his horse and went into the crowd,
pulled the rope from his pocket, and, holding it above his head where
all could see it, cried out,--
"Neighbors! this rope is to hang Musgrove, who sold the people's land
for a bribe!"
[Illustration: Rope to hang Musgrove 138]
The words of Jennings and the sight of the rope made the people furious.
Musgrove had been given a hint by Jennings's neighbor, and he had made
good his escape. But for that, no human power could have saved him.
The whole State was in a condition of excitement that is hard to
describe. Grand juries made presentments, county and town meetings
passed resolutions, and petitions were sent from hand to hand, and
signed by hundreds of people. A State convention, called to alter the
constitution, had been chosen to meet in May, 1795, but the members had
been chosen at the same time that the members of the corrupt Legislature
had been elected; and a majority of them had been "tarred with the same
stick," as the saying goes. The presentments, resolutions, and petitions
crowded so fast upon the convention, that it was decided to postpone the
changing of the constitution to a time when the people were in a better
humor. The convention referred all the papers it had received to the
next Legislature, and adjourned in some confusion.
This added to the excitement and anger of the people. They were in doubt
how to act. Delay would give the land grabbers time to sell the lands
they had secured through bribery and corruption. But whom could the
people trust? They had been betrayed by many of their highest judges,
by one of their United States senators, and by a large majority of their
Legislature. A great many believed that all the powers of government had
come to an end.
During the troubled times of the Revolution it had been the custom of
military officers having the confidence of the people to convene the
Legislative Assembly when an emergency seemed to call for it. In the
midst of their doubt and confusion, the people applied to General
Twiggs, the senior major general, to convene the Legislature in order
that action might be taken before the swindlers sold the lands they had
obtained by fraud; but General Twiggs refused to act in a case in which
he had no clear right and power, so the people remained for the time
being without a remedy.
From the very beginning of this scheme to defraud the people of the
State, it had been bitterly opposed by General James Jackson, who was
representing Georgia in the United States Senate. He denounced it in the
Senate. He corresponded with the most eminent men in the State, he wrote
to the newspapers, and in every possible way held up to the scorn and
contempt of the public the men who were trying to defraud the State of
its rich Western lands. On the other hand, the conspirators left nothing
undone to injure the reputation of General Jackson. His character was
attacked, and his life was several times threatened. As early as the
spring of 1795, he took occasion in full Senate, and in the presence
of General James Gunn (the Georgia senator who was representing the
swindlers), to denounce the scheme as "a speculation of the darkest
character and of deliberate villany."
By his bold, even violent opposition to the Yazoo sale, General Jackson
had made himself the leader of the people. Therefore in 1795, while he
was still senator, many of the people requested him to resign, so that
he might use his influence and great talents in bringing about the
repeal of the obnoxious law. He tendered his resignation at once, and
returned home. He was elected a member of the Legislature, and devoted
all his time and all his energy to blotting out the odious law. He
became a member of the committee appointed to investigate the means used
to pass the law, and under his leadership the whole scandalous affair
was probed to the bottom.
In electing the new Legislature, the only issue was Yazoo and
anti-Yazoo. The people were successful in electing men who favored
the repeal of the law. There was no other business before the General
Assembly until this matter was disposed of. The body was flooded with
the petitions and remonstrances that had been sent to the convention.
The Legislature had met in January, 1795. At once a day was set to
"consider the state of the Republic." On that day the petitions and
presentments were considered, and referred to a committee, of which
General Jackson was appointed chairman. On the 22d of January the
committee reported not only that the act was unconstitutional, but that
fraud had been practiced to secure its passage. On these grounds they
declared that the act was a nullity, and not binding on the people of
the State.
The bill declaring the sale void was drawn up by General Jackson. It
passed both Houses by large majorities, and was signed by Governor
Irwin. The feeling of the Legislature was so strong, that, after the
Yazoo act had been repealed, it was decided to destroy all the records
and documents relating to the corruption. By order of the two Houses a
fire was kindled in the public square of Louisville, which was then the
capital. The enrolled act that had been secured by fraud was brought out
by the secretary of state, and by him delivered to the President of the
Senate for examination. That officer delivered the act to the Speaker
of the House. The Speaker in turn passed it to the clerk, who read the
title of the act and the other records, and then, committing them to the
flames, cried out in a loud voice, "God save the State and preserve her
rights, and may every attempt to injure them perish as these wicked and
corrupt acts now do!"
The flames in which the records were burned were kindled by means of
a sun glass, so that it might be truly said that fire came down from
heaven to destroy the evidences of corruption. There is a tradition that
when the officers of the State had met to destroy the records, an old
man, a stranger to all present, rode through the multitude, and made
his way to where the officials stood. Lifting up his voice, he declared,
that, feeble as he was, he had come there to see an act of justice
performed, but he thought the fire in which the records of corruption
were to be destroyed should come from heaven. The people watched him in
silence. He drew from his bosom with trembling hands a sun glass, and in
this way burned the papers. Then, says tradition, the white-haired old
man mounted his horse and rode away, and was never seen again.