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292 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
then barely more than a lad, nevertheless a fighter and a veteran of the Revolution,
he added another trophy of war to his belt of victories.
Then came an episode in the career of Elijah Clarke which has somewhat eclipsed
and darkened his fame as a patriot, viz., his effort to establish a trans-Oconee
republic and his connivance! with foreign powers. But nothing in the way of real
dishonor attaches to his motives even in these transactions, not withstanding the odor
of treason which seems to invest them. He was an old soldier who had never cul
tivated the grace of restraint and who had always commanded an independent body
of troops, subject to no higher power than himself, and he merely sought in his own
way to rid Georgia of the incubus of an Indian problem. The fact that two European
powers made overtures to him is testimony -of the most pronounced character to his
military genius. Misjudged by his friends and maligned by his foes, General Clarke
retired to his home in Wilkes, where death eventually brought him "surcease of sor
row. '' He died on January 15, 1799. His last will and testament is on record in
the County of Lincoln; and, while there is no positive evidence in regard to the place
of his burial, the local traditions point clearly to Lincoln, which was cut off from
Wilkes soon after the decease of the old hero.
Iron and velvet were strangely mixed in the character of this singular man. His
life presents an enigma, in the solving of which the historians are at sea. He wag
the very embodiment of gentleness in shielding the defenseless women and children
of the Broad River District, but in dealing with the Tories there was no milk of
human kindness in his breast. To the quality of mercy he was an absolute stranger ;
and Shylock himself was not more remorseless in exacting Iris pound of flesh from
the '' Merchant of Venice.'' He squared accounts with the Tories by pinning them
to the letter of the Mosaic law—'' an eye for an eye and a tooth, for a tooth.'' But
when we remember what he suffered at the hands of the Tories, who turned his family
out of doors, who burned his home to ashes, who murdered an inoffensive son in the
presence of his wife, and whose hands were red with the blood of babes in the
cradle, we can hardly blame him for registering an oath to be revenged upon the
perpetrators of deeds so foul in the face of heaven. Without training in the school
of arms—an uneducated rustic—he was not unlike the great Confederate horseman,
Gen. N. B. Forrest. In the opinion of not a few critics the latter was 'the foremost
soldier of the Civil war; and there will be no one to challenge the statement that
among the soldiers of Georgia in the American Revolution the stalwart form of the
victor of Kettle Creek lifts by far the loftiest plume.—"Georgia's Landmarks,
Memorials and Legends," L. L. Knight, Vol. I.
THE TORIES : GEORGIA 's REIGN op TERROR.—In proportion to the population there
were more Tories in Georgia than in any other state. Some of them were no doubt
honest people, who really believed that the Americans were wrong in rebelling against
the English government; but) many of them were mean and selfish men, who only
wished to be on the strong or winning side. By the British subjugation of Georgia
nearly all of the patriots of fighting age were driven out of the state, leaving their
property and their helpless families behind, while the Tories remained unmolested
at home. James Wright, the royal governor, came back from England and was.
once more placed at the head of the Georgia government.
By the 1st of February, 1779, the British were in almost complete possession of
the state. The commander, Colonel Campbell, issued a proclamation calling on the
people to take the oath of allegiance' to the King and Government of England. He
promised that those who would take the oath should not be molested but declared
that those who refused would be driven from the colony and what property they left
would be confiscated. Frightened by this threat, a great many people took the oath
and became British subjects; these people were called Tories. But many refused
to take the oath because they would rather suffer banishment, or even death, than
give up the heroic struggle for independence; these were called Patriots. So the
people of Georgia were divided into these two parties, Tories and Patriots, and
they hated each other with a bitter hatred.
Soon after the fall of Savannah, a reign of terror was inaugurated. Between
the British and the Tories, there was no end to the suffering inflicted upon the state;
but the Tories were far worse than the British. They formed themselves into mili
tary companies, which were nothing more than bands of ruffians. They roved over