Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

540 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
been adopted, making the office of governor elective, by a direct popular
vote. Anxious to measure strength with his old antagonist in a contest
of this character, General Clark once more became a candidate for this
high office. The new law changing the method of election had emanated
from the Clark party in the State Legislature.* There was good reason,
therefore, to expect that, in a contest before the people, the Troup party
would be worsted; and, under ordinary circumstances, such might have
been the result. But Governor Troup's vigorous Indian policy had made
him strong with the people living on the exposed frontiers as well as
with .those residing in towns and cities. "Troup and the Treaty" be
came the battle cry of his followers in a campaign the memories of which
lingered for more than a generation. Says Mr. Evans: "All the old
party strife broke out anew. Every argument was used to affect the
election; bitter hatred sprung up even in families and among friends, f
Churches were rent asunder by political discussions. Scarcely a day
passed without its bloody toll. Newspaper controversies were bitter.
Quarrels, begun on street corners or in hotel corridors, frequently led to
duelling pistols on the Field of Honor. It was an era of polemics. The
election was held in October. But there were no telegraph wires in those
days to announce the result and it was not until the Legislature met in
November to canvass the returns that the issue was definitely and finally
settled. Governor Troup was re-elected over his opponent by a major
ity of 682 votes. However, the Clark party organized the Legislature;.
and had the contest been left to the General Assembly, as in former
elections, General Clark would have been the next governor. J
This was General Clark's last contest for public honors in Georgia..
Embittered by the result, he accepted from President Jackson the post
of Indian agent, which made him virtually the custodian of the public-
lands of Florida. It was not an office to which any great honor attached,,
but the salary enabled him to live in comfort and to extend hospitality
in a style to which he had long been accustomed. Besides, he still re
tained extensive holdings of real estate in Georgia. - Perhaps Col.
Absalom H. Chappell has correctly summarized the achievements of
this unique Georgian in the following paragraph. Says he: " During;
a long career he courted and acquired great enemies, both personal and
official, and honorably illustrated if he did not augment the name he
inherited, leaving it more deeply imprinted, if not higher enrolled, on
Fame's proud catalogue."
Governor Clark took up his residence in West Florida, on St. An
drew's Bay, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. Here, on October 15,
1832, he died of yellow fever. His wife soon followed him to the grave;
and a few years later relatives erected a substantial shaft of marble-
which today rises above them on these lonely shores. The Daughters,
of the American Revolution have already taken steps looking toward a
reinterment of General Clark's body in the soil of his native state, and
there is at least a likelihood that the old hero will soon sleep with the-
nation's dead at Marietta.
* Georgia Journal, February 24, 1824.
t "History of Georgia," Lawton B. Evans, p. 205.
} Georgia Journal, December 27, 1825.