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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 415
When the younger Tattnall came to the governorship, an act of belated
justice was performed. In recognition of his own gallant part in the
Revolution, the Legislature lifted the edict of outlawry which had kept
his father in England for twenty years, restored to him the ancient
family seat at Bonaventure and accorded to the old royalist full rights
as a citizen. Too feeble to return to America, however, the elder Tatt
nall remained in England; but the grateful son made due acknowledg
ment when he came to approve the measure, adding thereto these
words: "With lively expression of gratitude I affix my signature
to this, act."
Governor Tattnall had been a member of the Legislature of 1796
and had supported the famous Rescinding Act. Some few days later,
his colleagues in this body elected him to succeed James Jackson in the ;
United States Senate. Again, after a lapse of five years, he was called
to succeed this same illustrious Georgian in the office of governor.
But ill health necessitated an almost immediate relinquishment of
the executive helm. Resigning the governorship, he repaired to the
Bahama Islands; but the change was made too late. After lingering
for more than a year, he died at Nassau, New Providence, but his ashes
were brought back to Georgia, to rest among the trailing mosses of his
beloved Bonaventure.
To succeed him as governor, the Legislature in 1802 elected John
Milledge, of Augusta, a zealous champion of education, then serving a
term in Congress.
Meanwhile, the Legislature of 1801 created two new counties: Tatt-
nal and Clarke. The first of these was named for Josiah Tattnall, then
governor of the state. It was detached from Montgomery, in a fertile
region of pines. Clarke was named for an illustrious soldier of the
Revolution, General Elijah Clarke, of whom we have already spoken at
some length. Its county seat, Athens, was the site of Franklin College,
an institution whose doors were first opened to students in the fall of
1801. With this great school the name of Governor Milledge is immor
tally associated.
To the credit of Georgia, be it said—though the youngest of the
original thirteen states—that she heads the long list of American com
monwealths extending state aid to higher education.*' Georgia was the
first state in the entire Union to provide by legislative enactment for
an institution of learning to be supported either in whole or in part
by popular taxation and to be of college • rank. This step .was taken
four years prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, when the
states were still bound together by the loose Articles of Confederation.
The close of the Revolution found the far-sighted lawmakers of Georgia
looking toward the future. They reasoned that the success of repub
lican government depended in the last analysis upon the intelligence
of the people; and not only were leaders demanded to supply the vacant
places in the ranks, but germinal centers of influence were needed
to stimulate the development of thought.
Accordingly, on February 25, 1784, an act was passed by the Legis-
* These facts have been collated from an official volume entitled '' A Historical
Sketch of the University of Georgia," by A. L. Hull, Atlanta, 1894.