Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

408 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
Columbia—James Simms, AY. A. Drane, James McNeal.
Effingham—John King, John London, Thomas Polhill.
Elbert—Wm. Barnett, R. Hunt, Benj. Mosely.
Franklin—A. Franklin, R. Walters, Thomas Gilbert.
Glynn—John Burnett, John Cowper, Thomas Spalding.
Greene—George W. Foster, Jonas Fouche, James Nisbet.
Hancock—Charles Abercrombie, Thos. Lamar, Mathew Rabun.
Jefferson—Peter Games, Wm. Fleming, R. D. Gray.
Jackson—George Wilson, James Pitman, Joseph Humphries.
Liberty—James Cochran, James Powell, James Dunwody.
Lincoln—Henry Ware, G. Wooldridge, Jared Grace.
Mclntosh—John H. Mclntosh, James Gignilliat.
Montgomery—Benjamin Harrison, John Watts, John Jones.
Oglethorpe—John Lumpkin, Thos. Duke, Burwell Pope.
Richmond—Robert Watkins, Seaborn Jones.
Screven—Lewis Lanier, J. H. Rutherford, James Oliver.
Washington—John Watts, George Franklin, Jared Irwin.
Warren—John Lawson, A. Fort, Wm. Stith.
Wilkes—Matthew Talbot, Benj. Taliaferro, Jesse Mercer.
Since Governor Jackson's personality was in a sense the axis around
which this great convention revolved we are not surprised to find in the
Constitution of 1798 a paragraph declaring the sale of Georgia's west
ern lands constitutionally null and void and repudiating the whole
transaction. Moreover a concurrence of two-thirds of the members of
the General Assembly was made requisite in future before any vote,,
resolution, law or order could pass granting a donation in favor of any
person. Section twenty-three, defining the boundaries of the state, also^
came from the pen of Governor Jackson; and he is credited with hav
ing written in addition a part of the section establishing a new judicial
system.
Says Mr McElreath:* "Among the other prominent and influen
tial members of the convention were: James Powell, of Liberty county,
chairman of the committee of the whole house; Robert Watkins, of
Richmond, who wrote section eighteen, article one, which provided that
every senator and representative should, before taking his seat, purge
himself of having been guilty of corrupt practice in securing his elec
tion; Dr. George Jones, of Chatham, who wrote section seven, article
four, concerning the promotion of the arts and sciences by the establish
ment of seminaries of higher learning, thus embodying in the funda
mental law the recommendation of Governor Lyman Hall to the Legis
lature of 1783 and providing the permanent legal foundation upon
which the State university was established at its present site in 1801 ;
Peter Carnes, of Elbert, who wrote section eleven, article four, pro
hibiting the importation of slaves after the first day of October, 1798;.
Rev. Jesse Mercer, of Wilkes, who wrote section eighteen, article four,
regarding religious freedom; and Jonas Fouche, of Greene, who wrote
section eight, article three, which provides for the digesting and pro
mulgation of the law." ,
Georgia, in the great Convention of 1787, called to frame the Fed-
' McElreath on the Constitution,'' pp. 97-98.