Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 335
lution, was called Greene. Most of its early settlers were veterans of
the war for independence.
There was held in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786, a conference out
of which grew the call for a convention to organize a more stable govern
ment. The Articles of Confederation had failed to meet the needs of the
nation. As independent sovereignties, each of the original thirteen
states was jealous of its own individual rights and powers; and with no
cohesive force to unite them the nation was in imminent peril, not only
from foes without but from dissensions within. The Continental Con
gress was wholly powerless to deal with this awkward situation and was
soon to be superseded by a new form, of government. But the details of
this change are reserved for a subsequent chapter. Georgia, from first
to last, was represented in the Continental Congress by the following
delegates: Archibald Bulloch, 1775-1776; Lyman Hall, 1775-1777; John
Houstoun, 1775-1777; Noble Wymberley Jones, 1775-1776, 1781-1783;
John J. Zubly, 1775-1776; Button Gwinnett, 1776-1777; George Walton,
1776-1779, 1780-1781; Nathan Brownson, 1776-1778; Edward Lang-
worthy, 1777-1779; Edward Telfair, 1777-1779,1780-1783; Joseph Wood,
1777-1779; Joseph Clay, 1778-1780; William Few, 1780-1782, 1785-1788;
Richard Howley, 1780-1781; William Gibbons, 1784-1786; William
Houstoun, 1784-1787; Abraham Baldwin, 1785-1788; John Habersham,
1785-1786; and William Pierce, 1786-1787.*
MULBERRY GROVE: THE GENERAL GREENE ESTATE WHERE THE COTTON GIN WAS
INVENTED.—Fourteen miles above Savannah, on the south side of the river, stood the
dignified old mansion of Gen. Nathanael Greene, surrounded by 2,170 acres of the
best river bottom land in Georgia. Besides recalling the illustrious soldier, who
ranks second only to Washington, the Mulberry Grove Plantation was the scene of
.Eli Whitney 's great invention: the cotton gin. This was formerly the home of
the royal lieutenant-governor, John Graham; but having been forfeited to the
State of Georgia, it was given to General Greene in appreciation of his services,
in expelling the British invader from Georgia soil. The estate was one of the
finest in the neighborhood of Savannah, a statement sufficiently attested by the
fact that the lieutenant-governor sought to recover the sum of £50,000 sterling,
by way of indemnification. President Washington, on his visit to Georgia, in
1791, stopped at Mulberry Grove to pay his respects to the widow Greene.
The dwelling remained in an excellent state of preservation until recent years,
when it was partially wrecked by a storm, after which it was not rebuilt. The
site formerly occupied by the old homestead is now the property of Mr. Van E.
Winckler.—'' Georgia 's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," L. L. Knight, Vol. I.
GEORGIA'S OLDEST SURVIVING NEWSPAPER.—To the City o'f Augusta belongs the
credit of possessing the oldest newspaper in Georgia: the Chronicle and Constitutional
ist. It is the outgrowth of two very early sheets which were years ago combined: the
Chronicle, founded in 1785, and the Constitutionalist, founded in 1799. Much of
the history of Georgia has been reflected in the columns of this time-honored journal,
and in those of the papers which united to form it; nor is it invidious to say that
few organs of public opinion in the South have been so dominant in shaping plat
forms and policies. The old Chronicle itself was formerly a compound. Back in
tho '40s sometime, its owners purchased the Sentinel, a paper edited by Judge
Longstreet, whose pen could be trenchant and caustic as well as playfully humorous.
It was the era of polemics; and bitter beyond anything known to recent years
were the acrimonious controversies of ante-bellum days. The olive-branch was
unknown. Harsh words almost invariably ended in personal encounters, and
quarrels over trifles were frequently adjourned to the field of honor; but the fear
'Biog. Gong. Directory, 1774-1911," p. 26.