Newspaper Page Text
No 21 Vol. Vl.]
, legislature of Georgia.
From the Georgia Journal , Extra, of Nov. 2.
This day the Governour transmitted to both
branches of the Legislature, the following
M3BA® SI
Executive Department, Ga. )
Milledgeville, Nov. 2, 1824. >
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate,
and of the House of Representatives,
It is a matter of gratulation that since the last
Assembly of the Legislature, the United States
have continued in a state of peace with all na
tions, courting amicable relations with all by a
just and impartial system, and exhibiting at the
same time the armour necessary to command res
pect to our rights every where. Connected with
such happy auspices, the present year has been
made memorable by the landing of General, late
Marquis La Fayette, on the soil where the
first years of his distinguished life were devoted,
by purse and sword, to defend all that we held
sacred of political and civil rights. It was due to
him to be invited by the Chief Magistrate, in the
name of the people of the state to our bosoms, and
it was accordingly done.
When it is said the United States have so far
caused their lights to be respected by all nations,
it is by no means to be understood that such a
state of things can be lasting. The wisest policy
—the most pacifiek dispositions will not assure us
against a change. At this moment an organized
confederacy of despots in Europe, more formida
ble than ever known before, shake their bloody
sceptre at all nations who contend for freedom
and the rights of man. The United States and
Great Britain present the only barrier to the des
truction ol liberty, else the spirit which animates
the Greek in his glorious struggle with the Turk
would have been extinguished, South America
subdued, and our fire-rides assailed. So long as
the United States and England are leagued against
them, these enemies of the human race dare not
commit themselves to the seas. Meanwhile the
progress of the mind always seeking liberal prin
ciples will make the cause of right and justice
stronger every day, until this array of tyrants
shall be broken and scattered, and liberation from
thraldom be complete and universal.
The strongest operative principle of the Amer
ican institutions in diffusing blessings of all kinds
among savage and civilized men, is the principle
of universal toleration, religious and political.—
This principle, having its foundation in the Amer
ican constitutions of government, is dispensing its
beneficent influences every where, to the utter
most ends of the earth ; and in perfect accord and
harmony with the precepts of the gospel, it will
make that gospel more and more active in the
reclamation of human nature in regions where the
rose never bloomed, and where the savage con
tinues to hunt his fellow-man as the beast of the
forest. In fact,, for the spreading of the beuign
doctrines of Christianity among the idolater and
the heathen, there is reason to believe that an all
foreseeing I'rovidence has made this great, and I
hope unambitious nation, its chief instrument. If
the millenium is to come, American institutions,
under the same direction, will bring it to pass.
Then, for the first time, comes the epoch of uni
versal peace. Before that, it is our business and
our duty to be prepared for war. No sovereign
state, whatever be its relation to others, should
suffer itself to be wronged or insulted The
weaker, the more strenuously it should insist on
its rights, the more vigorously defend them. The
Romans never counted the number of their eue
inies, and it is better that all perish, than that one
tittle of honour be surrendered. Maintaining,
however, with reason, justice and firmness, those
Tights which belong to us, we ought to make it our
Care scrupulously to respect the rights of others.
I call your attention, therefore, to the state of
our militia—under a good sy-tern, a bulwark—un
der a bad one, a rope of sand. It is recommend
ed to you most earnestly, to revise your system.
Pains have been taken to give to it all the efficacy
of which it was susceptible. Wanting an ener
getiek principle to enforce itself, it would not have
been made available for even a temporary organi
zation, but for the virtue and patriotism of our cit
>izens. These virtues in some degree supplied the
defects of the law, and will enable me to m..ke a
tolerably’ satisfactory estimate of the military
power of the state. 1 cannot in a message like
this enter into detail, but you have accompanying
documents which will suffice to show partially the
defects and the remedies. But suffer me to en
treat that in this revision you look to a military
system purely abstracted from, and having no
connexion with the civil polity. The citizen is a
different being from the soldier. Carry the civil
law into the camp, the latter becomes a fungus
upon state. Instead of perfect subordination and
discipline, which regard his own preservation and
the safety- of the country, he looks constantly to
his civil privileges—makes the law for his own
government, and decides partially when he shall
look the enemy in the face—when betake himself
to flight. In no country can such a military sys
tern be maintained as a reliance for defence. Ev
en under the laws of the United States, when the
militia take the field, they are subjected to mar
tial law. It is the novelty of this restraint which
in war gives rise to so many difficulties, and cau
ses so many embarrassments before the militia are
qualified for active service j and how easy for the
citizen to learn that, consulting his own safety
and the safety of the state, the moment he takes
his position in the ranks, his first duty and his first
virtufe is obedience, and bow habitually easy in
-war will be the practice thus acquired in time of
peace. It will be vain to attempt to discipline
th* militia in times of pence, unless the strictest
subordination and obedience can be commanded
among all ranks, from the general to the private
The basis of any good system is organization.
Without permanent organization it need not be
attempted to uniform, equip, arm or discipline.
The organization of the company is the basis of
the whole, and it is ascertained by sufficient ex
perience that it is extremely difficult to maintain a
complete organization of companies under the
present system. The supineness and indifference
of the peuple who elect the company officers in a
period of peace, their carelessness in attending
elections at all, and consequently the very im
proper selections which are frequently made have
had a tendency to impair the value of the com
mission, which ought always to be held honoura
able. The uncertainty of preferment too, which
ought to he the sure reward of merit, deters young
men of good character from snking commissions
of the lower grade. In fine, the numerous resig
nations constantly occurring and the disinclina
tion frequently manifested for this service, shew
the defect to be radical and to require an effectu
al remedy. A uniform prescribed for the militia.
THE MISSIONARY.
cheap and equally useful in the ordinary occupa
tions of life, would have a tendency to diffuse
more generally that military pride so essential to
the character of the soldier. The time, it is hop
ed will arrive when, under th* wise provisions of
the act of Congress for this purpose, the whole
body of the militia of the United States will be
supplied with arms and equipments. In this event
it will be desirable to establish in each county a
central depot of arms, to be used on field days,
and as the publick service may require.
As one of the prominent evils of the existing
system, is the habitual non-execution of the sanc
tions and penalties prescribed by the laws, you
will find it indispensable, as well for the enforce
ment of these, as for the uniform and regular ex
ecution of their general provisions to provide for
the appointment of an Adjutant General, with
adequate rank and emoluments, having his office
at the seat of government, and if it be thought
proper, to establish drill schools for the officers in
central points of divisions or brigades, their gene
ral superintendence and direction should be con
fided to him under the orders of the Commander
in Chief. The reports of Maj. Gen. Newnan and
Brig. Gen Harden, merit your attention.
Intimately connected with the defence is the
publick education of the country. Every citizen,
to be qualified efficiently to defend his rights and
those ot Ins country, should possess intelligence
enough clearly to understand them, and this in
the complex relations of our political system, is
at once the more necessary and the more difficult.
The rich and the poor now unite in the acknowl
edgement of the advantages accruing from an en
larged system of education which will qualify
them equally for all the occupations, civil and
military, to which the state may call them. In
the front of the higher academick institutions al
ready organized, you will take pleasure to recog
nize Franklin College, an ornament, and under
proper endowment, an institution of first utility
to Georgia. Next, the academies of counties on
ly requiring a fostering hand to cause them to
flourish and produce fruits worthy of the fathers
who laid the foundations. I recommend to yon
to give to these institutions liberally and unspar
ingly, according to their wants. But above all 1
recommend that to the poor of our fellow-citizens
you extend a bountiful hand. A poor and honest
man is the noblest work of God. How much
more worthy your cart; the children, who under
your protecting auspices might be the best of men,
under your neglect, the worst. Nothing is more
eay than to comprehend all under the expanded
wings spread over these institutions, by the con
stitution and the law* which limit your discretion
in nothing, but the duty always imposed on you
to take care that of publick monies appropriated
to any object, a strict accountability be exacted.
The rule of apportioning annually a specifiok sum
among the different counties in proportion to rep
resentation as adopted by an act of the last Le
gislature, is not only a fair oue, but of easy exe
cution.
T lie period has arrived when Georgia can no
longer postpone the great work of iuternal im
provement. If considerations of the highest order
could not prevail, state pride would be a motive
sufficiently stroDg to determine her. Some of her
sisters are already far in advance of her. Almost
all of them have to a greater or less extent em
barked in it. She sees the most enterprising and
persevering among them already deriving advan
tages from it, which place them in the first rank
of opulence and power. A state, therefore, like
Georgia, blessed by Providence with the means of
reaching the highest commercial prosperity, by a
road plain, direct and practicable, will no longer
linger in the rear. She will begin, and with a
little patience and perseverance, instead of de
caying cities and a vascillating trade, and what
is most humiliating, that trade seekiug an empo
rium elsewhere than within her own limits, she
will witness the proud arid animating spectacle
of maritime towns restored and flourishing, new
ones rising up—her trade steady and increasing—
her lands augmented in value and improved in
cultivation—the face of the country beautified
and adorned ; and she may witness what was once
deemed impossible to tinman efforts, the western
waters mingling with her own, and the trade of
Missouri and Mississippi floating through her own
territory to her own sea ports, and ail this within
the compass of her own resources, provided the
ordinary economy, prudence, and foresight be
employed to and improve them.
The first and most important step will be to com
mand an Engineer of science and practical skill,
and measures have been taken to procure the ser
vices of such an one. As it is indispensable that
the rank among the highest of his profession,
follows that his compensation should be fixed at
such a rate as other stales have assigned to the
like order of talents and qualification, lam per
suaded you will not hpsitate so do this. The Le
gislature of Georgia is too enlightened to under
value the services of mind, and looking to her
true interest in this particular, she will find the
best economy in the highest compensation. The
critical accuracy necessary in every stage of the
proceeding, the minuteness of observation, the
correctness of calculation and the application of
the mathematical science to the whole, require
the first order of cultivated mind, and under the
direction of such a mind there is moral certainty
that mistakes or errours of a fatal character will
not occur. In avoiding these you save an expen
diture in comparrison with which the salary of a
life time would be as nothing. The laborious to
pographical explorations and surveys which must
precede the plans and estimates for the execution
of the great works, will also require time; for they
are these which will determine what ought first to
be undertaken—what most beueficial—what most
practicable—what least expensive.
In calling your attention to the Judiciary, I
am only directing it to objects with which it has
been familiar. To bring justice as near as possi
ble to the home of every citizen, at the least pos
sible expense and with the greatest possible ex
pedition, are maxims of the common law, sound
and salutary. Ihe best maxims upon paper are
of little value unless carried into practical effect.
In England, where they have been long disregard
ed, but whence we derive our models, they have,
at this moment, the worst system of practical ju
risprudence of any country on earth, and this
chiefly from the neglect of those very maxims.
The delays & expenccs of justice are ruinous ; so
much so that the very best part of their system,
the High Court of Chancery, has become a nuis
ance to the country. Os what avail are the best
principles of juridical science to any people, if
in practice they are constantly abused ? In our
system there is quite enough of delay and ex
pense, and these may he diminished by discard
ing some silly maxims of the common law. But
again, it is to he considered that justice should
not only be rendered cheaply, expeditiously, and
Os all the dispositions and hSit/which leadto Washington,
MOUNT ZION, (HANCOCK COUNTY, GEORGIA,) MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1824-
conveniently,it should be rendered also with uni- 1
ounity : that is, in all like cases there should 1
be like decisions, in the practice under onr sys
tem, it is impossible to assure this desirable result,
rom two causes. Ist. From a numser of Judges
acting separately and apart. 2d. From a want
or time to mature their decisions in the more im
portant cases. It has no doubt fallen within the
observatmn of all ofyou, that frequeHly the most
difficult and complex questions ari.e before onr
ju ges, and they have no more time for the inves
tgation of them, than for the desision of the
most plain and simple ones. I advis; you there
orc, if, for the sake of uniformity, a ways so de
sirable in the administration of justice, you deem
it expedient, to organize a Court of Errors—that
you so organize it as not to enhance the expense
to suitors. It is before such courts, as commonly
organized, that this evil is sorely felt by the citi
zen. The expense is mcreased. An argument
is admitted t and this is the source of the expense.
I lie argument is good for nothing. Itye parties
before the court want not the argument— they
want the decision. They will be quite content
with the argument of the judges ; andifthe judg
es, selected for their legal wisdom specifically to
decide questions of law submitted by ihe records
of the courts below, cannot decide cortectly with
out a laboured rediscussion of such questions, not
by themselves, but by others who ought not to be
their superiors—such a court will only be an evil,
by the amount of unnecessary expense thus in
curred. Otherwise much of good might result
from it, more especially if it be made the duty of
the court to pass finally upon all questions at the
first term.
1 he compilation and digest of the Statute Law
of Lngland in force in this country, has been con
fided, according to your direction to William
Schley, Esq. And Charles Harris, Thomas U P.
Charlton and William Davis, Esqs. gentlemen of
distinguished eminence at the bar bave been ap
pointed with supervisory powers to advise from
time to time alterations or amendments as the
work progressed ; so that whilst by this concert
and co-operation it will be rendered more perfect
and complete, its final adoption as part of the
code of this state will also be rendered more cer
tain. In connection with this important subject,
inay I be permitted to suggest a like revision and
digest of its companion, the common law ; or,
returning to the dark ages what belongs to them,
wonld it not be worthy of the generation in which
we live, it Georgia, by embodying the best parts
of the common aud statutory law of England, the
Homan civil law and the Napoleon Code, (the
last by far the best system extant,) were to sup
ply for herself a code of Jurisprudential Ethics,
which, having their foundations in reason, justice
and common sense, would be alike applicable to
all limes and all circumstances; and relieving
Georgia from a dependence on foreign legislation,
relieve her from reflections humiliating to her
pride and mortifying to her self-lo''e.
The mollified penal code of Georgia had two
humane objects in view— Ist. To spare the life
of the criminal whenever it could be done with
safety to society. 2d. To reform him by con
finement and hard labour—a system which is con
stantly exhibited in contrast to the bloody one of
England, and which from its congeniality with the
American character and feeling, it would he de
sirable to perpetuate. Our code however is in its
theoretical detail defective, and I have no doubt
that our judges, who are most familiar with its
virtues and its faults, will pronounce it so. Its
mode of execution is at least equally so. The
remedy of both is within your power, and to ap
ply it, it is only necessary to understand clearly
what the defects are. It will be seen on the most
superficial survey, that we passed at once from
the extreme of severity to the extreme of lenity
It was never believed that under any tolerable
system of criminal jurisprudence, punishment
could be dispensed with, and yet the object of re
form accomplished. This, however, is our sys
tem iu practice. There is not even the appear
ance ol punishment connected with our Peniten
tiary establishment, unless the restraint upon the
liberty of roaming at large for the commission of
crime, be considered so. The far greater propor
tion of the convicts at all times are better fed,
clothed and lodged, than they have been accus
tomed to be; and whilst they perforin the work
necessary to keep the body in a healthful state,
they enjoy, not merely the benefits of society, hut
exactly that description of it which, in or out of
the establishment, they would seek and court.
The punishment in ordinary cases, should be hard
labour and solitary confinement—hard labour by
day and solitary confinement by night. The
practice of crowding four or six convicts in the
same dormitory, is replete with evils which inevi
tably and directly defeat the very end of the in
stitution. Not only is vice rendered more vicious
by it, but the hope of reformation is forever cut
off from those who, not hardened in iniquity, are
willing to contemplate in darkness and solitude
their first offences against the law, and the gloomy
consequences which never fail to follow them.
Every species ot association or intercouise be
tween the convicts ought to he suppressed, unless
it he that kind of it, which is indispensably neces
sary to the performance of the work in which they
are engaged. Some lessons have been taught by
the experience of the oldest institutions in the U.
States, which ought not be lost to us in looking
to the improvement of our own. The oldest and
most obdurate offenders acknowledge that contin
ued solitary confinement is the severest, the most
irksome aud tedious of all the punishments they
have suffered, nevertheless they continue obdu
rate and unreclaimed. This fact, whilst it affords
additionol proof of the policy which would pre
vent association or intercourse between older and
younger offenders, and between these and stran
gers of every description, may show also the ex
pediency of dispensing with continued solitary
confinement in most of the aggravated cases, and
in place of it, prolonging the time for which they
are committed. The report of the Principal Keep
er of the Penitentiary, will disclose some judicious
observations relative to the present state of police,
discipline and financial economy of the institu
tion, and certain suggestions for reform and im
provement in each.
With unfeigned regret 1 feel myself constrained
to expose the state of the controversy in which
Georgia has been reluctantly involved with the
U. States. That every disposition existed origi
nally on the part of this government to pursue our
claims against the general government with mode
ration and good temper, is manifest from the pro
ceedings themselves. The Executive branch of
it unequivocally disclaims to have been prompted
on his part by any other than the most friendly
feelings towards the constituted authorities of the
U. States, and he fondly trusts that whatever of
irritation has been engendered, or unkind senti
ments expressed, the cause is to be sought excla-
sively in the deep conviction felt by the Govern- I
ment of Georgia, that Georgia was about to suffer !
flagrant wrong and injustice, by the course of po- :
licy adopted by the U. States in their intercourse !
with the Indians. Nor were any complaints eli
cited of this, other than such as were made in the
most decorous and respectful terms, before the
delegation of Georgia found themselves in an atti
tude of humiliation at Washington, by the com
parison, forced upon them, between their own
relation and that of certain other delegation, to
the Executive government of the U. States, in
their Intercourse with it. Nor was any measure
resorted to here of an imcourteous character, un
til the President of the United States, in a mes
sage to Congress, had so treated the claims of
Georgia and the rights of the Indians as to fore
close the former forever from making any further
claim or demand upon the latter, provided there
should be a recognition by Congress or by Geor
gia, of the doctrine a*serled by that message.
The Governour would have been wanting in duty
to the people, whom on that occasion he represen
ted, if he had not seized the first moment to pro
test, in the strongest language, against such doc
trines; and whatever may have been offensive in
the manner of the protest which lie interposed, he
insists that in regard to the matter, truth was in
every part of it maintained with the most scrupu
lous fidelity. The principle asserted by the mes
sage was, essentially, that the Cherokees were
now the fee simple proprietors of the soil they oc
cupy, and of consequence that no right of territo
ry could lawfully pass from them without their
voluntary and express consent—A principle so
strange and novel, asserted for the first time in
the history of the government, connected as it
was with the declaration just previously obtained
from the same Indians, that they never would
consent to part with another foot of territory,
amounted to an absolute denial of our rights and
the destruction of our claims either upon the U.
States or upon the Indians now and forever. It
was in contestation of this novel and strange prin
ciple the Governour of Georgia found it to be his
duty to address himself to the Executive govern
ment of the United States, in very plain language.
The United States government seemed not to
have understood our motto or our emblem, or un
derstanding, to have disrespected them. All our
obligations, therefore, to the U.States aud to our
selves, our love of peace,of harmony and of union,
prompted to this as the only means of warning
the United States government, in due time, that
they were precipitating themselves upon a crisis,
the least deplorable of the results of which would
be the entire destruction of the weaker party—
results which could not be sought by the United
States, and which we on our part, had the strong
est motives to avoid. There is yet time to avert
them, and it is confidently believed they will be
averted. It is impossible for the United States,
upon a deliberate re-examination of the subject,
ever to persuade themselves that it would be pos
sible for the State of Georgia, or any other State
possessing even limited sovereignty, to make a
tame abandoiv-'o.it and surrender of indisputable
and sacred lermorial rights, to such pretensions
as the U States government have thought proper
to urge in behalf of the Cherokees. The docu
ments having relation to this unpleasant subject,
accompany this message, and I will add little else
to the matter of them, save a simple fact, to show
how much the United States government have
deceived themselves by asserting the principle
just adverted to. In the year 1785, the United
States concluded a treaty at Hopewell, with the
Cherokees, in the first article of which it is decla
red “that the United States give peace to them
and receive them into the favour and protection
of the United States,” and in the 4th article of
which it is further declared, “ that the boundary
allotted to the Cherokees for theirhuntinggrourids
shall be” so and so, comprehending these very
lands which we now demand of the United States.
And this concession of even a usufructuary inter
est is made on certain conditions stipulated in the
treaty and which of course, if violated en the
part of the Cherokees, would cause a forfeiture of
even this right of hunting. The treaties of Gal
phinton and Shoulderbone, between Georgia and
the Creeks, held in the years ’BS and ’B6, contain
similar stipulations, recognizing the right of soil,
sovereignty and jurisdiction to be in Georgia and
the United States, and the right of hunting only
in the Indians, and within such limits as Georgia
and the United States have designated. You
will perceive, therefore, that whatever might hate
been the kind of tenure by which lands were ac
knowledged to be holden by the Indians before
the treaty of Hopewell, after that treaty, so far
as respects the Cherokee title to their lands, the
tenure was definitively settled. If the fee simple
had been with them before, from that moment
it departed from them, and vested in Georgia.
It could vest nowhere else, because the United
States at that time rt cognized the paramount
claim of Georgia. Now it would behoove the
United States to show how Georgia was divested
of this title. She could not be divested but in
virtue of her own express consent, aud then it be
hooves the United States to shew the treaty,
grant, or concession, in which such consent was
given. So far from the United States being able
to do this, we produce the articles of agreement
and cession to show a confirmation to us of this
same territory thus acquired by the treaty of
Hopewell. Suffer me to add that the United
States have, in theory and practice, uniformly
acted upon the principle of the treaty of Hope
well with regard to all other Indians; that is to
say, conceding the right of use to the Indians,
they have reserved to themselves the allodial title,
with which is essentially connected jurisdiction
and sovereignty. And that lor some reasons or
other altogether unexplained, the case of Georgia
has been made an exception, both in theory or 1
practice.
The Commissioners of the U. States in their
negotiations at Ghent, asserted the rights of the
sovereignty and soil of all the Indian country
within their boundaries to the United States, and
consequently that the Indians were mete tenants
at will. They asserted moreover, what is un
doubtedly true, that the system adopted by the
United Stages towards the aborigines is more lib
eral and humane than that practised by any other
nation before them. The treaty of Hopewell is
the basis of all other treaties with the Cherokees.
Its provisions are confirmed expressly by the sub
sequent ones of Philadelphia in ’94, Tellico in’
’9B, and Tellico in 1805. Disregarding the stip-1
ulations of these treaties, the U. S. acknowledge [
the fee simple to be in the Indians. The Indiaus
therefore may rightfully cede certain portions of j
territory in fee simple, to private citizens of Geor- 1
gia. Georgia in the last resort is forced to draw j
the sword against her own flesh and blood. The j
Unite ! States will then be the primary agent
m fomenting cjvil war between the citizens of
[Price $3 50 per aim.
Georgia ; and what will be more unnatural—the
citizens of Georgia resident in the Cherokee coun
try, will appeal to the government of the United
States to vindicate their supposed rights, against
the assaults of their own brothers. Thus the U.
States, by their new doctrine, overthrow the en
tire system of polity before established in their in
tercourse with the Indians, and will, if they per
severe, reduce Georgia to the necessity of resort
ing for redress to measures depending* on herself
alone.
As to the guaranties contained in these treaties,
they are guaranties to the Indians of the right of
hunting on the grounds alloted them as securities
against the trespasses of the whites, who might in
terfere with that use, and not guaranties of fee
simple title. How could the treaties expressly
take from the Indians the fee simple in one article
and guaiantee it to them in another? If the Unit
ed States have encouraged the Cherokees to make
expensive improvements on the lands of Georgia,
and such improvements are assigned as the reason
for not making the relinquishment, the U. States
are bound in honour and justice to pay the full
value of them, and to give to the Cherokees terri
tory of their own elsewhere, corresponding in
extent arid fertility with that which they abandon.
The government of Georgia solemnly disavows
any intention to do the least injustice to the
Cherokees. On the contrary it would respect
their rights, as it would those of any other people,
and will contribute its full quota at all times, as
it has done in past times, to civilize, improve aud
perpetuate, a race of men of great nobleness of
spirit, and with whom she has generally lived on
terms of peace and friendship, but it can scarcely
be expected by the Cherokees themselves, that
obvicus aud indisputable rights of citizens of
Georgia should he yielded to any interest of theirs
whether real or imaginary.
The government of the United States have
thought proper to state an account current with,
the state of Georgia. In this account Geo-gia is
charged with an aggregate of $7,735,243, made
up of the following items, viz: $1,250,000 under
the articles of agreement and cession—s9sß,9s4.
paid in extinguishment of Indian claims—sl,244,-
137 (or 995,310 acres of Arkansas land at the
minimum price of $1 25—and $4,284,151 paid
to the Yazoo claimants. It is perfectly fair and
quite consistent with usage, that Georgia, on her
part should state an account also ; and taking the
rule adopted by the U. States government, viz:
the present minimum price of the publick lands,
the account would stand thus—Bo,ooo.ooo acres
ceded to the United States at $1 25 per acre,
$100,000,000 —from which deducting the above
amount, charged to Georgia by the United States,
will leave a nett balance of $92,264,757, gratui
tously presented by Georgia to the United -States.
It will be recollected, however, that from Ihe date
of the contract with Georgia in 1802, until the
24th day ol April, 1820, the minimum price of
the publick lands, have been fixed at $2 per
acre, and when it is considered that between the
two periods no lands were sold fur less, and large
quantities were sold for more, the account can
thus be stated—Bo,ooo,ooo at $2 per acre, $160,-
000,000; making the same allowance for Atkah
sas lands exchanged with the Cherokees, and
giving credit to the Uuited States for $1,990,620,
instead of $1,244,137, the balance due to Geor
gia would be $151,518,274. The whole revenue
of the United States would not pay it in seven
yearsto pay it in one year would involve the
mass of the population of the U. S. in infinite dis
tress. The interest would have enabled Geor
gia to dispense with taxes—to educate all her cit
izens at the publick expense—to have armed and
equipped her militia—to have made a garden of
the face of the country, intersected every where
by turnpikes and canids and studded with the
monuments of art. Foregoing these advantages
for the benefit of the U. States, Georgia would
have been the last to remind the Uuited States
that sacrifices had been made on their account, if
the federal government postponing the rights and
interests of Georgia, to the imaginary rights of the
Indians, had not forced upoD her a comparison of
what she is, with what she might have been.
But it cannot even be conjectured upon what
grounds Georgia has been charged with the amount
paid to the Yazoo claimants. Georgia was not
consulted iu the compromise with those claimants.
She never therefore gave her assent to the com
promise. On the coutrary, so firr as she could,
she did, by her delegation in Congress, resist it.
Georgia, so long as she remained a moral agent,
could never assent. The act was, in effect and
substance, a formal decree of the highest authori
ties known to the constitution of the U. States, in
perpetual testimony of the reward which awaits
those who shall in future time successfully bribe
and corrupt the representatives of the people to
sell their country: and as in this case it was the
Legislature of Georgia which had been so bribed
and corrupted, it could aot be expected by the U.
States that her assent ever could be given. It
would have been equally reasonable, if the U. S.
had surrendered the entire country to the claim
ants, and charged Georgia with the value of it.
No time was lost in transmitting to the Presi
dent the Memorial of the last Legislature on the
subject of citizens’ claims against the Creek In
dians, which had been provided for by the treaty
concluded at the Indian Springs. The answer of
Ihe President, communicated through the Secre
tary of War, is submitted. You will see that the
decision of which we complained is considered
final, and that no revisal of it need be expected.
The provision of the treaty was undoubtedly de
signed to cover the whole amount of every descrip
tion, and of every date, up to the year 1802, the
justness and fairness of which could be substanti
ated by sufficient evidence—Nevertheless the
President has thought proper to reject claims for
property takeu and destroyed, only because it
happened to be destroyed, although the broad
and comprehensive words of the treaty are “Pro
perty taken or destroyed,” and he has moreover
resorted to the rules of interpretation prescribed
by the law of nations to expound treaties conclu
ded with savages, by which a farther considerable
amount is deducted from the claims of Georgia,
pre-existing treaties, not having, according to
those rules, specifically provided for them. This
construction is the more unreasonable, as those
treaties were concluded, not by Georgia, fcut by
the U. States, who ought not now to cause the
j citizens of Georgia to suffer by their own neglect
:or omission. Georgia, however, haviDg improv-
I idently assented to refer those claims to the arbi
. trement of the 1 resident alone without appeal,
! whatever reason she may have to complain of the
| injuttice of the decision, she is precluded from
j resorting to any measures of her own for rt-dresa.
I The Indißns well understanding that the aggregate
1 of the claims amounted to more than $250,000,
i intended that the entire sum should be applied to
J the satisfaction of them. According to tbe rules