And passed in the negative—yeas 51, nays 52.
So much of the said original motion as is contained in the second clause thereof, being again read, in the words following, to wit:
“That, when the Governors of any people shall have betrayed the confidence reposed in them, and shall have exercised that authority with which they have been clothed for the general welfare, to promote their own private ends, under the basest motives, and to the public detriment, it is the inalienable right of a people, so circumstanced, to revoke the authority thus abused, to resume the rights thus attempted to be bartered, and to abrogate the act thus endeavoring to betray them:”
The question was taken that the House do agree to the motion for postponement of the said second clause of the original motion; and resolved in the affirmative—yeas 52, nays 50.
So much of the said original motion as is contained in the third clause thereof, being twice read, in the words following, to wit:
“That it is in evidence to this House, that the act of the Legislature of Georgia, passed on the seventh of January, 1795, entitled ‘An act for appropriating a part of the unlocated territory of this State, for the payment of the State troops, and for other purposes,’ was passed by persons under the influence of gross and palpable corruption practised by the grantees of the lands attempted to be alienated by the aforesaid act, tending to enrich and aggrandize, to a degree almost incalculable, a few individuals, and ruinous to the public interest:”
The question was taken that the House do agree to the motion for postponement of the said third clause of the original motion; and resolved in the affirmative—yeas 54, nays 49.
So much of the said original motion as is contained in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh clauses thereof, being again read, in the words following, to wit:
“That the good people of Georgia, impressed with general indignation at this act of atrocious perfidy and of unparalleled corruption, with a promptitude of decision highly honorable to their character, did, by the act of a subsequent Legislature, passed on the thirteenth of February, 1796, under circumstances of peculiar solemnity, and finally sanctioned by the people, who have subsequently ingrafted it on their constitution, declare the preceding act, and the grants made under it, in themselves null and void; that the said act should be expunged from the records of the State, and be publicly burnt, which was accordingly done; provision at the same time being made for restoring the pretended purchase-money to the grantees, by whom, or by persons claiming under them, the greater part of the said purchase-money has been withdrawn from the treasury of Georgia.”
“That a subsequent Legislature of an individual State has an undoubted right to repeal any act of a preceding Legislature; provided such repeal be not forbidden by the constitution of such State, or of the United States.”