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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 331
avoid confusion and to perfect his titles he was required to make proper
returns.
Bounties to Revolutionary soldiers to be paid in Head Rights were
first authorized 'by an act passed August 20, 1781, at which time to
encourage patriotism each soldier who was able to exhibit to the Legis
lature a, certificate from his commanding officer as to his faithful dis
charge of duty, was to be given 250 acres of land, when the expulsion
of the British was successfully accomplished. On February 17, 1783, an
act was passed providing for a land court to be opened at Augusta, where
all soldiers on presentation of certificates were to receive each 250 acres
of land, under Head Right grants, to be exempt from taxes for a period
of ten years. If the grantee chose to waive this exemption, he was to
receive an additional 15 per cent of land, making his Head Right call for
287y2 acres of land.
Under the provisions of this act over 4,000 Revolutionary soldiers
received Head Rights to land lying chiefly in the two new counties of
Franklin and Washington. With only a very few exceptions, these old
soldiers waived exemption and assumed the payment of taxes to
begin at once. Thousands were induced to settle in Georgia by reason
of the state's liberal policy. For years subsequent to the Revolution,
they continued to locate in Georgia and numbers of these acquired land
under the various lottery acts of a later period. All the Head Right
lands in Georgia, north of the Altamaha, lie east of the Oconee River;
all south of the Altamaha lie east of the old original County of Wayne.
As we have already seen, Georgia, at the close of the Revolution,
granted handsome estates to Gen. Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island and
to Gen. Anthony Wayne, of Pennsylvania, both of whom had accepted
the state's generous gifts and become citizens of Georgia. The Legis
lature of 1794, in keeping with this policy of rewarding the state's
benefactors, granted 20,000 acres of land to Count D'Estaing for his
heroic devotion to the cause of liberty, especially as evinced in his
gallant but unsuccessful effort to raise the siege of Savannah. Deeply
affected by this recognition of his gallantry, the noble count, who was
then suffering from a dangerous wound, wrote a letter of grateful
acceptance to Governor Houstoun, in which he said: '' The mark of its
satisfaction which the State of Georgia was pleased to give me, after I
had been wounded, was the most healing balm which could have been
applied to my pains."
Georgia's great educational needs loomed before her far-sighted law
makers at this time with colossal import, forming a pillar of cloud by
day and a pillar of fire by night. Governor Hall, in his message to the
Legislature of 1783, had stressed these needs and in response thereto the
General Assembly had chartered two academies, one for Richmond and
one for Burke. But the Legislature of 1784 went still further by making
a grant of 40,000 acres of land, with which to endow a college or seminary
of learning. This was the germinal inspiration of our State University
at Athens originally known as Franklin College. The land thus granted
by the State Legislature was located in the two newly created counties,
viz., Washington and Franklin; and the proceeds arising from its sale
were to be utilized in the erection of buildings and in the purchase of