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CHAPTER VIII
LOUISVILLE BECOMES THE CAPITAL OF THE STATE IN 1795, WHEN THE
YAZOO AGITATION Is AT ITS HEIGHT—How LOUISVILLE BECAME THE
SEAT OF GOVERNMENT—GEORGIA'S FIRST PERMANENT CAPITAL—
FEDERALS AND REPUBLICANS—PARTISAN POLITICS—GEORGIA AT FIRST
INCLINED TOWARD FEDERALISM BUT ALIENATED BY SUIT OF CHISHOLM
VERSUS GEORGIA IN THE SUPREME COURT—ALSO BY GOVERNMENT
TREATIES MADE WITH THE INDIA-NS IN NEGOTIATING WHICH GEORGIA
WAS UNREPRESENTED—FEDERALISM GRADUALLY DECLINES—NEW
COUNTIES CREATED IN 1793—SCREVEN—OGLETHORPE—HANCOCK—
MONTGOMERY—MC!NTOSH—BRYAN—WARREN—THE PINE BARREN
FRAUDS—THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1795—LIST OF DELE
GATES—DUE TO POPULAR EXCITEMENT, AN EARLY ADJOURNMENT Is
EFFECTED—FEW IMPORTANT CHANGES—FOUR NEW COUNTIES CRE
ATED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF 1796—BULLOCH—JACKSON—JEFFERSON
—LINCOLN—GEORGE WALTON Is AWARDED THE TOGA BY APPOINT
MENT TO SUCCEED JAMES JACKSON—THE LEGISLATURE OF 1796
ELECTS JOSIAH TATTNALL—ABRAHAM BALDWIN IN 1799 SUCCEEDS
JAMES GUNN—GEORGIA'S ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1796 CAST FOR JEFFER
SON AND CLINTON—MEMBERS OF CONGRESS DURING THIS PERIOD.
To complete the story of the Yazoo Fraud we have been obliged to
anticipate ma-ny developments which have carried us beyond the period
of Georgia's history to which this section is devoted. Let us now retrace
our steps. While popular excitement over the Yazoo transaction was
at its height, the seat of government was transferred from Augusta to
Louisville, after having remained in the former town for a period of ten
years.
The celebrated Yazoo Act of 1795 was passed at the last session of the
Legislature to meet in Augusta.
The equally famous Rescinding Act was passed at the first session to
convene at Louisville.
At the close of hostilities with England the center of population in
Georgia was found to be somewhere in the neighborhood of Galphinton,
on the Ogeechee River; and such was the inconvenience experienced by
residents of the up-country settlements in reaching Savannah, a town
on the remote sea-board, that the desirability of transferring the seat
of government to some point further inland became a topic of discus
sion.
On January 26, 1786, when the Legislature met in Augusta, the fol
lowing commissioners were appointed to select a location: Nathan
Brownson, William Few, and Hugh Lawson. They were instructed to
find a site, '' most proper and convenient,'' for the end in view, whereon
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