[1438] Ib. 50-53. Harper's pamphlet is valuable as containing, in compact form, all the essential documents relating to Georgia's title as well as the sale and rescinding acts. Other arguments on both sides appeared. One of the ablest of these was a pamphlet by John E. Anderson and William J. Hobby, attorneys of Augusta, Georgia, and published at that place in 1799 "at the instance of the purchasers." It is entitled: The Contract for the Purchase of the Western Territory Made with the Legislature of Georgia in the Year 1795, Considered with a Reference to the Subsequent Attempts of the State to Impair its Obligations.
[1439] See report of Attorney-General Charles Lee, April 26, 1796, Am. State Papers, Public Lands, i, 34; report of Senator Aaron Burr, May 20, 1796, ib. 71; report of Senator James Ross, March 2, 1797, ib. 79.
[1440] Except by John Milledge of Georgia, who declared that "there was no legal claim upon ... any part of that territory." Robert Goodloe Harper said that that question "must be determined in a Court of Justice," and argued for an "amicable settlement" of the claims. He himself once had an interest in the purchase, but had disposed of it three years before when it appeared that the matter must come before Congress (Annals, 5th Cong. 2d Sess. 1277-78); the debate occupied parts of two days (see also ib. 1298-1313). In view of the heated controversy that afterward occurred, it seems scarcely credible that almost no attention was given in this debate to the fraudulent character of the transaction.
[1441] May 10 1800, Sess. i, chap. 50, U.S. Statutes at Large, ii, 69.
[1442] The entire commission was composed of three of the five members of Jefferson's Cabinet, to wit: James Madison, Secretary of State; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury; and Levi Lincoln, Attorney-General.
[1443] Report of the Commissioners, Am. State Papers, Public Lands, i, 132-35. "The interest of the United States, the tranquillity of those who may hereafter inhabit that territory, and various equitable considerations which may be urged in favor of most of the present claimants, render it expedient to enter into a compromise on reasonable terms."
[1444] Annals, 8th Cong. 1st Sess. 1039-40.
[1445] Ib. 1099-1122, 1131-70.
[1446] Perez Morton and Gideon Granger. Morton, like Granger, was a Republican and a devoted Jeffersonian. He went annually to Washington to lobby for the Yazoo claimants and assiduously courted the President. In Boston the Federalists said that his political activity was due to his personal interest in the Georgia lands. (See Writings, J. Q. A.: Ford, iii, 51-53.)
[1447] Memorial of the Agents of the New England Mississippi Company to Congress, with a Vindication of their Title at Law annexed.