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358 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
Town Hall to consider the alterations proposed by the convention of
January last to the Constitution formed by the convention of 1788:
and on Wednesday they finally adopted and ratified the new form of
government to commence in October next. . . . The new form being
an assimilation to the Federal Constitution, its notification and deposit
was announced to the town by a discharge of eleven cannon, in honor
of the federated States; when his Honor, with the President and mem
bers of the Convention and the President and members of the Council
repaired to the Government House and drank a glass of wine to its pros
perity." Rhode Island and North Carolina were not yet in the Union,
which accounts for the above reference to only eleven federated states.
Says a well-known student of constitutional law:* "One of the
most important features of this constitution was its organization of the
legislative department so as to apply the county unit principle to the
enactment of legislation. Under the former Constitution, the executive
council voted by counties, but they did not act at all in the matter of
legislation except in an advisory capacity. Under the new Constitution,
the composition of the House of Representatives was, to a certain extent,
based upon population, and in that body each county might have a
diverse voice through the votes of its several members, but before pro
posed legislation could be enacted into law, it had to pass the Senate in
which each county had a single and equal voice without respect to
population."
Governor George Handley occupied the executive chair from Janu
ary 1, 1788, to January 1, 1789, and witnessed the evolutionary process
out of which grew the new state constitution. On January 1, 1789, he
was succeeded by former Governor George Walton, a signer of the Dec
laration of Independence, who had held this office during the Revolu
tionary period. He was now called to the helm for a second time. The
new state constitution went into effect in October, at which time Gov
ernor Walton was succeeded by Edward Telfair, Georgia's first gov
ernor to be elected after her entrance into the Federal Union. He
defeated former Governor John Houstoun, with whom he tied on the
first ballot, winning on the second. Governor Telfair was a wealthy
Scotchman, with large interests in both Burke and Chatham. He held
office until 1793, when former Governor George Mathews, a Federalist,
living in the up-country, an uneducated man, but possessed of a strong
native intellect, won the governorship.
But to return. On November 26, 1789, shortly after Governor Tel-
fair's induction into office, Georgia's first Thanksgiving day was ob
served. At this time the state was called upon to join the Nation in
offering thanks to a kind Providence for past favors and mercies. One
of the first acts of the new Legislature was to invite Dr. Palmer, of the
Richmond Academy, to preach a special thanksgiving sermon at
St. Paul's. Upon this service the members decorously attended and
on the day following they voted Dr. Palmer a resolution of thanks.for
his excellent discourse.
The first president of the State Senate of Georgia was Dr. Nathan
Brownson, of Liberty County, a former governor.
'' McElreath on the Constitution of Georgia,'' p.