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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 359
The first speaker of the House of Representatives, under the new
constitution of 1789, was Hon. Seaborn Jones, of Richmond. This body
as the House of Assembly had existed since 1751.
On December 8, 1790, the Legislature divided the state into three
congressional districts, having been alloted three representatives in Con
gress by the Federal Constitution of 1787. The counties composing
these districts were as follows :* Chatham, Glynn, Effingham, Camden
and Liberty, comprising the lower or eastern district; Burke, Richmond
and Washington, the middle district; and Wilkes, Franklin and Greene,
the upper or western district. James Jackson was chosen to represent
the lower district; Abraham Baldwin, the middle district; and George
Mathews, the upper district. These were Georgia's representatives in
the First Federal Congress. If Georgia was represented during the
early part of the session, her representatives must have been chosen on
a general ticket, without regard to districts.
To the Second Congress, which convened on March 4, 1791, Anthony
Wayne was elected from the lower district; Abraham Baldwin from the
middle district; and Francis Will is from the upper district, t Francis
Willis succeeded General Mathews, who not long thereafter was called
to the governorship. In the lower district, Gen. Anthony AYayne—the
illustrious "Mad Anthony" of the Revolution—appeared on the face
of the returns to have defeated Maj. James Jackson, the incumbent.
Accordingly, he received a certificate of election. But Major Jackson
filed a contest revealing the fraud by which his opponent had been
elected, whereupon the seat was declared vacant. But a motion to seat
Major Jackson resulted in a tie, which was decided against him by the
adverse vote of the speaker. On returning to Georgia, Major Jackson
caused articles of impeachment to be brought before the Legislature
against Henry Osborne, judge of the Superior Court, for falsifying and
forging the election returns of Camden County; and such was the weight
of evidence adduced to sustain the charges that Judge Osborne was
removed from office. 1 General Wayne, it seems, had unwittingly
become the tool of Major Jackson's enemies. There is no evidence to
show that he was a party to any corrupt transaction; and a contest was
filed by Major Jackson more for the purpose of thwarting his foes than
with any desire to unseat a gallant comrade-in-arms, especially since
General Wayne, in 1782, had deputized him to receive the surrender of
Savannah, which was then in the hands of the British. When a new
election was ordered, Hon. John Milledge, a friend to both parties, was
chosen to represent the lower district in Congress.
Soon after this political episode, an Indian outbreak on the north
west frontier of the nation led to General Wayne's appointment by
President Washington as commander-in-ehief of the armies dispatched
against these belligerent tribes of the forest. Resuming once more an
active military life, General AYayne did not return again to Georgia;
but, dying on the shores of Lake Erie, some four years later, he was
taken for burial to his native town of Chester, in the State of Pennsyl
vania. Georgia continued to venerate his memory, and some time later
* '' History of Georgia," W. B. Stevens, II, p. 394.
t "Biog. Gong. Directory, 1774-1911," p. 33.
{ '' McElreath on the Constitution,'' p. 96.