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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 301
judicial departments which we have seen the Constitution itself did not strictly adhere
to, and such further limitations as were contained in the six provisions already
referred to as constituting the "bill of rights of this Constitution. It provided that
schools should "be erected in each county and supported at tiro general expense ol
the State,'' as the Legislature should point out and direct. No provision was made
by this Constitution for the creation of a state institution of higher learning, and by
an act entitled "An Act for the more full and complete establishment of a public
seat of learning," passed on January 27, 1785, there was created what is now the
University of Georgia, the first chartered State University in America.
The salaries of the public officers were left to be fixed by law. No limitations
were laid upon the powers of taxation either as to amount or as to the manner of its
exercise. A comparison with the Constitution adopted a century later will show how
little comparatively the domain of legislation was encroached upon. Besides the
largeness of its legislative powers, the Legislature performed other important duties
of a political, administrative and judicial nature, such as the election of the governor
and the appointment of the governor's council; the appointment of registers of pro
bate and of justices of the peace; the admission of attorneys at law to practice before
the courts of the state, their trial and suspension for malpractice, and the right to
call every officer of the state to account.—"MeElreath on the Constitution," pages
67-77.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY DURING THE REVOLUTION.—The government of the state
continued to be administered by the president and the council of safety until the
convening of the General Assembly and the organization of the government under the
new Constitution. During the latter part of February, 1777, the president, Archibald
Bullock, died, and Button Gwiniiett was elected by the council of safety as president
and commander-in-chief to succeed him. The Constitution having been proclaimed,
President Gwiniiett issued his proclamation ordering elections to bo held under the
Constitution in all of the counties for members of a General Assembly to convene
in Savannah on the 8th day of May, 1777. The elections were held in accordance
with this proclamation, and the Legislature met at the time and place designated. It
promptly entered upon the task of organizing the government by the election of John
Adam Treutlen, governor; Noble Jones, speaker of the House of Assembly, and
Jonathan Bryau, John Houston, Thomas Chisholm, William Holzeridorf, John Fulton,
John Jones, John Walton, William Few, Arthur Ford, John Coleman, Benjamin
Andrew and William Peacock, members of the executive council. This Legislature
remained in session almost continuously until September, and enacted a number of
laws uecessa.ry to put the government under the Constitution into operation, and to
provide for the public defense. One of the first of these laws was "An Act defining
Treason,'' aimed at) the '' Tories,'' who took sides against the state and aided or
abetted its enemies in the war with Groat Britain.
The second Legislature under the Constitution met in Savannah on the 6th day
of February, 1778, and on the 10th day of that month elected John Houston, governor.
The first act passed was a bill of attainder, approved on the first day of March, 1778,
attainting Sir James Wright and 116 other persons of high treason, and declaring
their estates, both real and personal, confiscate to the state. After Savannah fell on
the 29th of December, 1778, Governor Wright returned and reestablished the royal
government, and in March, 1780, writs of election were issued for the election of a
Commons House of Assembly, returnable on the 5th of May. The election was accord
ingly held and on the 9th of May the house was organized, although a constitutional
quorum was not present, the governor and council deciding, '' That, from the neces
sity of the thing, they should be taken as a house and proceed to business." The
two principal bills passed by this house were "An Act to Attaint of high Treason
the several persons hereinafter named, who are either absent from this province, or
in that part of it which is still in rebellion against his Majesty, and to vest their real
and personal estate in his Majesty, etc.," and "An Act to disqualify and render
incapable the several persons hereinafter named, of holding or exercising any office
of trust or; profit in the Province of Georgia." The first of these acts contained
the names of twenty-four civil and military officers of the state, and the latter act
contained the names of 151 officers and citizens who had espoused the cause of the
republican government.