Chatham County GaArchives History .....Savannah Duels - Chapter IV 1923
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 25, 2004, 3:45 pm

CHAPTER IV. 

JAMES JACKSON, CHIEF OF SAVANNAH DUELLISTS.

IN HIS FIRST AFFAIR LIEUT. GOV. WELLS WAS SLAIN— STABBED IN AN ASSAULT BY
WATKINS, ONLY TO LATER RECEIVE A BULLET FROM HIM IN A DUEL—EXCHANGED SHOTS WITH
EX-MAYOR GIBBONS IN DUEL GROWING OUT OF THE JACKSON-WAYNE CONTESTED ELECTION—THE
GREAT ANTAGONIST OF SENATOR GUNN IN THE YAZOO LAND GRANT AGITATION—REFUSED
CHALLENGE FROM JACOB WALDBURGER.

    FOLLOWING the McIntosh-Gwinnett duel came the duel in which Lieutenant
Governor George Wells was killed. This introduces us to one of the most vibrant
personalities in the early political history of Georgia, James Jackson,
revolutionary hero, organizer and leader of the Jeffersonian party in this
state, United States Senator, milliner of the sale of the vast western empire of
Georgia to the speculating land companies—a truly notable man whose life is an
inspiration in sterling patriotism and unselfish devotion to the public weal,
one of that exceptional type whose careers and characters should be more
impressed upon the receptive minds of the children of to-day.

    Valiantly Jackson had fought for the liberties of his adopted country. He
had only come to Georgia from England in 1772, a mere stripling of fifteen
years. Early identifying himself with the patriot forces, he threw himself into
the war with all the zeal and recklessness of one whose life counted for naught
compared with the cause. His bravery in various' encounters with the British,
from old Midway church to Cowpens, won for him promotion. In 1780, when the
difficulty came with Wells, he had the rank of major and was held in high esteem
for unfailing courage and exceptional ability.

    Wells had not been quite as prompt as the less mature Jackson in espousing
the severance of the ties which bound the colony to England. He was a planter of
some prominence, near the old town of Queensborough, in what is now Jefferson
county. When the patriots assembled at Tondee's tavern put forth their ringing
resolutions of August 10, 1774, many of the residents of St. George's Parish
adopted counter resolutions of protest, and condemned the Savannah action as
"reflecting improperly upon the King and Parliament". Heading the list of
signers was the name of George Wells. Like many others, North and South, who
were subsequently ardent patriots, the hope was still entertained that a
satisfactory peaceful solution would be found and open rebellion avoided.

    The next year, though, St. George's was represented at the Provincial
Congress assembled at Savannah, but Wells was not among its delegates.
Comparatively little of his career is now ascertainable but presumably he
identified himself with the American cause at an early stage and became a
leading factor in his parish in promoting the struggle for independence. In
June, 1776, he was appointed by the Council of Safety a Justice of the Peace for
St. Paul's Parish. Soon after a bench warrant was issued against him for some
unknown cause. After the failure of the siege and attack on Savannah in 1779
many patriots refugeed to the vicinity of Augusta. The actions of the old
Executive Council were resented. Divisions had unfortunately too often marked
the patriots in Georgia. Wells apparently had personal grievances as the basis
for his bitterness. Elected Colonel of the Lower Battalion of the Augusta
District in June, 1779, complaints were soon made about his conduct. The
original protest was sent to him that he might make a reply. He refused to
return it and in August the old Executive Council declared that he "had thereby
in a great measure acknowledged the heinous charges set forth against him", and
ordered that "he no longer be recognized as colonel". In November George Walton,
Richard Howley, George Wells and others set up a deliberative body which they
called the General Assembly, with William Glascock as president. Walton was
elected Governor and Wells one of the new Executive Council. The next year
Howley succeeded Walton as Governor and Wells was made president of the
Executive Council, and on Howley's departure to take his seat in the Continental
Congress Wells and three others, Ste^Kens says, "were announced as fully
competent for the transaction of all public business".

    This was in February, 1780. The next month came the meeting with Jackson in
which Wells met his death. It was a period when the patriot cause was at its
lowest ebb in Georgia. As has been pointed out, "Unseemly dissensions had arisen
among leading citizens and the land was a prey alike to external and internal
foes". The cause of the irreconcilable clash between Wells and Jackson has never
been clearly defined. The challenge evidently passed from Jackson and grew out
of arbitrary methods of Wells as acting governor—probably an instance of a too
aspiring and domineering nature unwisely entrusted with an uncertain executive
authority. Jackson described himself in later years as of fiery disposition, and
Wells is depicted as "governed by jealousy, inordinate ambition, and a desire
for power and place". Jones says of him and his associate leaders that they were
"jealous of the honors accorded to others who like themselves were engaged in a
lethal struggle for independence". "In the agonies of extreme peril human nature
could not forget its passion, or subdue its petty animosities".

    Where they met is not positively known to-day. They took no seconds with
them. It was a simple agreement to fight out their differences, that the
distance parting them should be but a few paces, and that the shooting
apparently should continue until one or the other, or both, fell. The desperate
nature of the duel is evidenced by the fact that Jackson was dangerously wounded
in both knees and Wells was killed on the spot. When found by friends Jackson
lay helpless but a few feet from the body of Wells. Surgeons sought to amputate,
but Jackson refused to consider the sacrifice of a limb. Exigencies of the
service forced the surgeons away and Jackson remained a cripple for months,
returning to active duty as quickly as his physical condition allowed. His
biographer, Charlton, searched thoroughly for an explanation of the duel but to
no avail. All that rewarded him among Jackson's papers was a memorandum
lamenting the necessity of the meeting which had been forced upon him by Wells'
overbearing disposition. Resuming his position with the army, Jackson took part
in the retreat through South Carolina and the other operations1 of the closing
months of hostilities. So high a premium was put upon his patriotic services
that to him was accorded the honor of being the first American soldier to enter
Savannah on July 12, 1782, when the British evacuated and the patriots took
possession of the city.

    Next of Jackson's duels was probably that with Thomas Gibbons, Savannah's
most noted lawyer of that period. This was a political duel. In 1789 Jackson was
elected to represent in the First Congress the First Georgia District, then
commonly referred to as the Lower or Eastern District. When he came up for
re-election two years later the opposition elements induced Gen. "Mad Anthony"
Wayne to oppose him. General Wayne had accepted from the State the gift of a
plantation near the city and made it his home. He was Jackson's old commander
and there-was no personal ill will between them. Wayne's campaign was largely
managed by Gibbons, an astute politician, and Jackson's defeat was brought
about, it was charged, by corrupt practices in Camden and Effingham counties.
Gibbons had made his home temporarily in Effingham in order to be on the ground
and personally direct the maneuvers. In that county, it was charged, nine more
votes were polled than there were names on the registration list, while the
return for Glynn was alleged to have been suppressed and a false return made in
favor of Wayne, showing a larger vote than there were adult male inhabitants in
the county. For misconduct in this matter the Superior Court Judge there was
subsequently impeached and by unanimous vote of the legislature deprived of his
office and denied the privilege of holding office in Georgia for thirty years.
    Jackson and his friends naturally resented his defeat as a result of such
illegalities and a contest was filed at Washington. The hearing was held before
the House of Representatives at the national capital, beginning March 12, 1792,
and Jackson appeared for himself. He carefully avoided utterances that might
seem to attack the honor of Gen. Wayne or to wound him. But Gibbons was not
spared. In his early remarks he referred to Gibbons as one "whose soul is
faction, and whose life had been a scene of political corruption; who never
could be easy under government." Here he was called to order. After apologizing
to the House Jackson continued with the statement that the "proofs were strong
against Gibbons of abominable corruption; that this corruption was in a great
measure of his charges; that Gibbons had gone out of his own county, not merely
to use an undue influence with the electors, but to corrupt even the magistrates
themselves." Gibbons, it was claimed, induced two citizens, not magistrates, to
preside at the Effingham election, that minors were permitted to vote at his
behest, and that the very election return was drawn up by the Savannah attorney.
Knowledge of the ignoble part Gibbons had played during the revolution did not
lessen the intensity of Jackson's feelings or the severity of his strictures.

    What had occurred in Effingham, Jackson declared, was minor compared to "a
scene of iniquity in Camden," where names of persons unknown had been added to
the poll and the judge had become "the tool of a faction."

    Many years later, in a letter to the "Georgian," Charlton told of the
applause Jackson's fiery oratory aroused in the gallery of the House and of the
visible evidences of approbation from the members on the floor, many of whom in
the former sessions had come to know and appreciate his high qualities of
manhood and statesmanship.

    On a motion to seat Jackson the vote stood 29 to 29. The Speaker of the
House voted in the negative, and a resolution was then adopted declaring "the
seat of Anthony Wayne as a member of the House" vacant. A new election was
ordered. Jackson and Wayne both declined to run in this and John Milledge,
Jackson's intimate friend and political lieutenant, was elected. Wayne soon
after left Georgia to assume the duties of commander-in-chief of the American
army, to which he was appointed by President Washington a month after losing his
seat in Congress. He died three years later while forcing the Indians of the
Ohio territory to submission. As Chappell said in his "Georgia Miscellanies",
"There was never any imputation against Gen. Wayne in connection with the
election of 1791. It was the not uncommon case of a candidate's partisans,
without his participation or privity, doing wrong things and going criminal
lengths for him from which he himself would have revolted."

    Little is known about the subsequent duel between Jackson and Gibbons except
the statement that they exchanged three shots and neither was hit. They are said
to have become friends later. Gibbons is described as "a man of very strong
character, great courage and ability, and much noted throughout a long and
prosperous after life." His income as a lawyer is said to have been $15,000 a
year, probably equivalent to $60,000 to-day, his earning power at the bar
exceeding that of any other Georgia lawyer unless it be Jackson himself, who
abandoned a practice equally as lucrative to serve the public. A man of Gibbons'
position and temperament could hardly afford to rest tamely under Jackson's
charges before the House of Representatives, and the duel, only an allusion to
which has come down to us, doubtless occurred soon after the unseating of Wayne.
Gibbons was mayor of Savannah (1791-92) at the time of the Jackson-Wayne
campaign, retiring from that office the day the hearing began at Washington. He
and Mayor Mitchell alike fought political duels shortly after their terms in the
City Hall expired. Their predecessors and successors in the mayoralty were
fortunate enough to avoid the necessity of resorting to the code, although some
of them were equally hot-headed and courageous and went through campaigns of
intense bitterness.

    Gibbons served as mayor again in 1794-95 and in 1799-1801, and as an
alderman in 1795-98. On the expiration of his term as the city's chief executive
in 1795 his fellow citizens nominated and elected him an alderman, and then
delivered an address to him urging that he occupy that position. "Sensible that
the prosperity of the city depends greatly on the wisdom of its Council", said
they in their memorial, "They trust, Sir, that on the present occasion they may
not be deprived of your abilities, so eminent, distinguished and useful." This
was signed by many citizens. Gibbons replied: "I cheerfully concur and will to
the best of my abilities execute the duties", a somewhat different spirit from
the reluctance and refusal of many men of affairs to-day to assume civic
responsibilities.

    It has been generally believed that Jackson exchanged shots with Gen. Gunn,
but no authentic record of any meeting exists. No one questions that ample
provocation existed on both sides to provoke hostilities. But there were other
duels to Jackson's credit, in one of which he was severely wounded, and a
personal encounter that almost took on the appearance of an attempt at
assassination. This grew out of the repeal of the Yazoo land grant act. Jackson,
it will be recalled, did the unparalleled thing of resigning from the United
States1 Senate, at the request of the citizens of Savannah, to run for a seat in
the legislature and assist in overthrowing the ring that had put through the
sale of the public lands for a pittance. In a letter to Josiah Tattnall Jackson
denounced this as "A confiscation of the rights of unborn generations to supply
the rapacious graspings of a few sharks. Two-thirds of Georgia will be owned by
residents of Philadelphia in six months." Largely through his instrumentality
the transaction was wiped from the state's records. His' signal success in this
almost cost him his life.

    Enemies galore were the result. Men who saw fortune slipping from their
grasp, or political influence forever disappearing, as a result of his exertions
in the General Assembly to thwart and undo their work, conceived the most
intense hatred for him. One of these enemies, Robert Watkins, of Augusta, made
an atrocious assault upon Jackson as he was leaving the state capitol at
Louisville, to which he had gone to get some papers soon after the legislature
had adjourned. This was in 1796. Jackson told the story in a letter to Milledge
and once more we are furnished a vivid picture of the personal vindictiveness of
the political strife of that time and of the brutality that lay thinly veneered
among many public characters.

    Watkins' awaited Jackson outside of the capitol with "a posse of his Yazoo
friends" to assist him.

    As Jackson came out Watkins said to him: "General, the session is now over.
I do not mean to act the assassin, but the gentleman. I consider you the leader
of a damned venal set or faction who have disgraced their country".

    "This was done to draw on dispute", wrote Jackson. "Flesh & blood of such
texture as mine would not bear it, & the lie and stick involuntary flew on him;
until my little Lucas stick broke, I finely frapped him, but the third blow it
broke in my hand & till then he had not struck me; but now at his mercy I
received one blow on the head which for a moment stunned me, & I Fell.

  "I rose and my blood rose with me—I made at him & was told he had pistols.
This made me recollect one I had carried, apprehensive of an attack from John
Greene who had been under the necessity of telling was a damned lyar a night or
two before, & I immediately exclaimed, ' 'Tis well, we are on a footing. Clear
the way.'

    "It was proposed by Flournoy, one of his partisans, for us to fight in the
morning—I replied that I never fought a base assassin but on the spot. I met him
& ordered him to take his ground.

    "I should have killed him, for I fired as soon as we were open to each
other, but my hand was knocked up by one of the party, & as soon as I fired he
ran at me with a bayonet at the end of his pistol. We closed and twice I threw him.

    "I soon found that I was his Master as to strength & was beating him
handsomely, when a scoundrel by the name of Wood turned Watkins on me and the
Assassin strove to gouge me. Driven to necessity I was compelled to put one of
his fingers in my mouth which made him. relinquish his attempt after skinning my
eye.

    "He then sprung another bayonet, for the first one was either taken from him
or returned to him, & he had a pair on purpose, & stabbed at me repeatedly. I
was all the time unarmed. He stabbed me in the left breast which fortunately
entered my collar bone and ran me through my shirt and grazed my ribs a second
time—a half inch lower in the breast the Doctors pronounced, would have finished
my business.

    "The nature of this infamous attack, as I had sent Tattnal three weeks
before with an assurance that any private matter could be accommodated when Mr.
Watkins pleased—his eating and drinking in company—his telling our worthy friend
Jones (who went to him the day before solicitous for my safety, as he had heard
an attack was intended on me, but did not suspect Watkins, but Greene & who went
unknown to me) with a ‘Pshaw, who would attack General Jackson', and laughed at
it—all these argue a blackness and depravity of mind horrid in so young a man.

    "A single line would have carried me to any rendezvous he chose to
appoint—but he was deceived. I could whip two of him at any time, and
notwithstanding my wound I was turning on him the third time when a few of my
friends collected & tore me from him. Yazoo made out a tale for him, but the
mass of the people despise the attack as pitiful, dastardly and assassinating."

    The allusion to Watkins striving to "gouge me" recalls that gouging out an
eye with the thumb when an opponent was on the ground was one of the pleasant
features of physical encounters then and until a very much later period in
Georgia history among a certain type of men, but it was not to be expected that
those of high standing would indulge in it, no matter how much they despised and
hated one another. Even among the lowest, though, it was not ethical to gouge
out an eye if the victim had already lost one.

    Jackson's political foes were not willing to let matters stand with a mere
thrust or two of a dagger affixed to a pistol. They sought his life. On April
11, 1796, he wrote to Milledge:

    "They are anxious to get me to Duelling, & would not quit until I was put
out of the way. The wife and five children—the sixth I have reason to believe
will shortly be in existence—are powerful reasons to prevent engagements which
may not only be fatal to myself, but those who have right to look to me for
support.

    "I have fear respecting Tattnal. I know that he will put up with no improper
conduct of Mr. Gunn. My resolution as to this champion of the party's is taken.
I will fight him if he demands it but if he takes any other measures I am
resolved to take their own steps with him."

    As stated, there appears to be no positive evidence that Jackson and Gunn
ever fought, but it is regarded as very probable that they did exchange shots,
the temper and courage and mutual attacks of the two men seeming to render a
meeting inevitable. But Watkins came back and before long he and Gen. Jackson
confronted one another, awaiting the signal to fire, with ten paces between them.

    Watkins had been a supporter of the bill for the sale of the Western lands,
although, unlike many of the others, he is said not to have been guided in his
vote by the gift of a large block of stock through Senator Gunn. He and his
brother had for some years been engaged in a compilation of the state's
statutes, of which no digest then existed, and the need of which was apparent to
all. In 1799 the legislature appropriated $1,500 to further the work. When it
was completed, though, and found to contain the obnoxious Yazoo act, despite the
fact that it also gave the rescinding act, Governor Jackson's wrath broke loose
again. He refused to sign the warrant to cover the appropriation, fought the
acceptance or recognition of the digest in an official way by the state, and
revived the vindictive hatred that had merely slumbered after Watkin's murderous
assault of four years before.

    This time, though, the bitter animosity could not find expression in an
ambuscade like that of 1796. Recourse was had to the formalities of the code and
under its provisions three meetings are said to have taken place, in the last of
which, on the third shot, Jackson received a severe wound in the right thigh,
incapacitating him from continuing the duel. The governor was then in the full
vigor of manhood, but forty-four years of age, with indomitable courage
strengthened and sustained by an impetuously passionate temperament.

    Under the impact of the bullet from Watkins' pistol the governor sank to the
ground, but the second quickly assisted him to his feet and he announced himself
ready for another exchange of shots. Only the insistence of the surgeon and the
expostulation of his friends forced him to desist and permit himself to be
carried from the field. The story goes that Watkins helped to bear his
antagonist away, perhaps with some polite fiction of hope that the wound would
not prove serious, whereupon Jackson observed:

    "Damn it, Watson, I thought I would give you another shot."

    A study of Jackson's character convinces one that the governor's regret that
he could not have another chance to wing Watkins was keener and more sincere
than any expression which may have dropped from the lips of Watkins.

    Shipp says in his "Life and Times of William H. Crawford", that, in this
last of the three duels fought by them, "Jackson and Watkins conversed with
great elegance and entire politeness on different matters, while the seconds
were arranging the terms of the combat that within the next minute was expected
to put an end to at least one of them." Quite a contrast with the scene at the
old capitol when Watkins assailed him as the leader of a "damned venal set" and
sought to gouge out Jackson's eye when the wounded statesman had him down. The
two pictures give a color of truth to the statement that the code prevented
murderous brawls and, in that tumultuous period, saved instead of destroying life.

    One of the duels fought by Jackson and Watkins grew out of the adoption of
the State Constitution in 1798. An old pamphlet, written by Watkins, states that
Gen. Jackson and Watkins were both delegates to the convention that was to
prepare a constitution for Georgia. Watkins, than an officer in the militia, was
not satisfied with certain features of the constitution as finally presented to
the convention for adoption. "Unwilling to withhold my signature," said he, "I
claimed and exercised the privilege of giving to the country the following
emphatic declaration" of the features1 objectionable to him, "and signed the
constitution accordingly." Not a great while after, Gen. Jackson having been
chosen Governor, issued the following:

                "Executive Mansion, Louisville, Ga., 12th July, 1798.

   "It is further ordered that the conduct, &c., of Robert Watkins,
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Richmond militia, with his declaration published June
30, 'that he shall never feel himself bound in any situation to support certain
parts of the Constitution' be laid before the Legislature at their next session."

    The Governor goes on to say that the Legislature is to determine whether
Col. Watkins and two others who had assumed the same attitude "ought to hold
commissions under the Constitution, considering the circumstances." There ensued
a long correspondence, conducted with asperity on both sides out of which grew a
duel between the Governor and Watkins.

    From the governor's chair Jackson returned again to the United States Senate
and died in that service in 1806. His body lies in the Congressional Cemetery at
Washington. Col. Thomas Benton paid a tribute to this great Savannahian, saying
in part: "He was a man of marked character, high principles and strong
temperament—honest, patriotic, brave, hating tyranny, oppression and meanness in
every form; the bold denouncer of crime in high as well as in low places; a
ready speaker, and as ready with his pistol as his tongue, and involved in many
duels on account of his hot opposition to criminal measures. The defeat of the
Yazoo Fraud was the most signal act of his legislative life, for which he paid
the penalty of his life, dying of wounds received in the last of his many duels,
which his undaunted attacks upon that measure brought upon him."

    The original holders of lands under the Yazoo act were quick to "unload"
large areas at enormous profits. Whereas they had secured thirty-five million
acres of land at less than one and one-half cents an acre, large tracts were
disposed of in the North at ten to fifteen cents an acre. The vast domain the
Georgia legislators had sought to transfer to the speculating syndicate is
described as extending from the Chattahoochee to the Mississippi and from the
thin fringe of the Spanish territory on the Gulf to the border of Tennessee.
Innocent purchasers, of whom there were many, after the succeeding legislature
annulled the act, sought redress from Congress. For years the question was
fought out there. In one of his noted speeches, John Randolph, referring to the
right of a State to set aside a contract made by a corrupted legislature or
officials, said: "When the governors of a people shall have betrayed their
public trust for their own corrupt advantage, it is the inalienable right of
that people to abrogate the act thus endeavoring to betray them."

    The Virginian's sentiment appealed to the people, but the logic did not
appeal to Chief Justice John Marshall, when the question finally came before the
Supreme Court. Another Georgia case had protected a sovereign state from suit.
By indirect methods a case between individuals North was finally made and
brought to the highest legal tribunal. Marshall upheld the "fundamental
principle of the law of public contract" and gave another great basic opinion to
the country. Backed by this favorable decision, the friends in Congress of the
holders of deeds to lands under the Yazoo act triumphed and in 1814 that body
appropriated five million dollars to settle all claims against the lands, the
vast territory having been transferred by Georgia to the United States. The
Georgia legislature, though, in 1807 had placed itself unequivocally on record
as opposed to this when it adopted resolutions declaring that when the cession
of the territory was made it was not the intention "to evince any desire to
compromise claims that originated in fraud and which were rendered invalid by
the State sovereignty."

    Daniel Webster, then serving his first term in the House, was one of those
who assisted in putting through the measure that recompensed the holders of the
Yazoo land certificates. Many New Englanders had invested in Georgia lands sold
by the legislature to the speculating companies, and Webster was ardent in
having their claims for millions of acres lying beyond the Chattahoochee
redeemed by the national government.

    "The Yazoo bill is through, passed by eight majority," wrote he. "It excited
a great deal of feeling. All the Federalists supported the bill, and some of the
Democrats. Georgians, and also Virginians and Carolinians, opposed-it with great
heat. Our feeling was to get the Democratic support of it."

   Referring to this great Georgia case, Beveridge closed the incident with this
statement:

    "Thus John Marshall's great opinion was influential in securing from
Congress the settlement of the claims of numerous innocent investors who had, in
good faith, purchased from a band of legislative corruptionists. Of infinitely
more importance, however, is the fact that Marshall's words asserted the power
of the Supreme Court of the United States to annul State laws passed in
violation of the National Constitution, and that throughout this Republic a
fundamental principle of the law of public contract was established."

    One is tempted sometimes to wonder whether John Marshall would loom quite so
large as a Chief Justice if Georgia and Georgians had not provided the cases on
which he could base his "epochal decisions."

    There was one time, and perhaps only one time, when James Jackson
deliberately turned down a challenge. There is an element of pathos in the
story—politics severing what should have been a close relationship for life,
charges of ingratitude by Jackson, offensive personalities on each side of the
controversy, and the approach of the grim spectre of death closing a too
prolonged correspondence.

    Jacob Waldburger, of South Carolina, was placed in Jackson's office by his
half-brother and guardian, David Keall, in 1783, to study law. There he remained
four years, at the same time living with Jackson's family on terms of close
intimacy. When he entered on the practice of his profession for himself
Waldburger seems to have quickly dug a chasm between himself and Jackson by
allying himself in a measure with the general's political foes. Waldburger's
explanation was that he found Jackson's fighting temperament had brought him
into disputes with many Georgians, that he did not think it incumbent on him to
avoid these people because of this, and that he selected friends and political
associates without regard to Jackson's sentiments toward them.

    Doubtless through Jackson's influence Waldburger was sent to the
legislature. This was when the first bill for the sale of public lands was up.
He opposed it, not on account of the policy itself, but because he considered
the price too low. Being absent from Savannah at the next election, on his
return he found himself dropped from the legislature. Going to Augusta he became
one of the purchasers of stock in the new Yazoo company, but soon sold out at a
profit.

    The fight Jackson made on the Yazoo act has -been told. The papers held
columns of vituperative anonymous attacks. Jackson was no less caustic in his
replies. Letters attributed to him abounded in classical allusions. Characters
from ancient history and mythology were drawn upon to depict the characters of
his enemies. In one such letter, signed "Gracchus," there were allusions so
pointed that the public accepted them as referring to young Waldburger.
Waldburger took them to himself and believing his old law mentor was the author
sent Capt. James Robertson, of the Chatham Artillery (April, 1796), with a
letter asking if he were the author. General Jackson regarded this as an
impertinence. He not only declined to give the information but continued in his
letter to berate Waldburger, whom he connected with certain letters signed
"Civic." In one of them Jackson had been assailed as an "exotic," and not a
native American. Referring unmistakably to Waldburger, Jackson said: " 'Civic'
may be one of those poor consumptive objects who some ten years since came into
the state and in the most submissive manner begged even Gracchus's assistance
for admission to the bar to gain his daily bread." Further allusions followed of
the most bitter type, such as "big with ingratitude and treason," "grinding his
neighbors for pelf he cannot enjoy himself," and as being "allied with traitors
who, with many others, owe their return from banishment to the humanity and
exertions of the man you take Gracchus to be, and who was told at the time those
exertions were made he would live to regret them." At the close the General
dismissed Waldburger as "meriting only the school boy lash."

    The correspondence covered many columns before the affair closed. Jackson
had been accused by his enemies of helping to transfer the confiscated
Zuberbuhler property— which had been set aside for the Chatham Academy—to
Waldburger as one of the legal heirs. So bitter did he feel toward his former
law student that he intimated that Waldburger himself "might have lent a hand in
the composition of these attacks." "Had you possessed the generosity your
affected valour would seem to imply, you would before this day have given the
lye to the assertion." Further, in his opinion, the descriptions in the letter
by Gracchus were a close fit for Waldburger. "I took you, Sir, a little boy and
treated you with all the affection of a parent and maintained you without reward
with the best my house afforded. * * * * Did you not with tears in your eyes
assure me that you esteemed me as a father? * * * * How did you return this
parental conduct?" The general then declared Waldburger had "joined with a
(political) party to break down my character and reputation."

    "I suppose you may be so angry at this plain talk that you may think of a
challenge—to cut it short and prevent your wasting paper on the occasion, be
pleased to remember that if I enter the lists it cannot be with an ungrateful
boy, who may wish to repair a shattered character. I shall not avoid any proper
invitation. To keep my word with Capt. Robertson I have taken this notice of
you—any further correspondence is inadmissible."

    Waldburger was too sensitive to stand this and sent Capt. Robertson to
Jackson, who declined to accept either a written or verbal challenge. Waldburger
then published a card setting forth the facts from his viewpoint, declaring that
the attack on him "was wanton and unprovoked," that he was absent from Savannah
when "Civic's" attacks on Jackson were published, and inasmuch as Jackson had
"utterly refused to receive a challenge, or give me that satisfaction due from
one gentleman to another, I therefore pronounce General James Jackson an
ASSASSIN of reputation AND A COWTARD."

    Jackson had gone to Louisville before this card appeared. On his return he
published a short reply: "My letter inserted (in the Columbian Museum) by my
friend Mr. J. Benj. Maxwell, will convince the world what impropriety there
would have been in my noticing Mr. Waldburger as a gentleman. His publication
only excites in my breast emotions of pity and contempt, instead of resentment.
The story at Augusta might well be remembered—I mean the patience with which
this hero bore the whip of Mr. Seagrove," an allusion to an encounter Waldburger
had when in the Assembly.

    This called for further angry recriminations and further explanations.
Waldburger pointed out that the assault on him took place in 1788, "when I was
really but a boy although a member of the legislature." He published a letter
from Seaborn Jones, stating that Jones had borne a challenge from Waldburger to
James Seagrove, who refused to meet Waldburger. "Then Waldburger posted him
(Sea-grove) in the customary manner in one or two of the most public places in
Augusta. Mr. Waldburger acted with great propriety and firmness on that
occasion." Referring to the private griefs of Jackson, in the loss of members of
his family, Waldburger caustically closed: "It would not be amiss how soon the
Great Author of nature consigned him (Jackson) to his original condition."

    Four newspaper columns were required by Waldburger to review the whole
unpleasant story. His pride was touched by Jackson's intimation, as he thought,
of his having been a pauper • student-at-law. His mother, he pointed out, was a
woman with a handsome competency, and he had property of his own. Although in
Jackson's law office, he asserted he was really most indebted to George Walton
for his legal learning. There was an allusion to the paucity of Jackson's law
library and a covert sneer that the General had little practice, as well as at
the character of the bar in 1782-83. General Jackson denounced this. At that
time "John Hous-toun, Mr. Stebbins, Mr. Howley, Mr. Stirk were among the
practitioners—men of accepted ability." "As for my practice, trifling as it may
have been considered, as my books will prove, it afforded me from 3,000 to 3,500
lbs. sterling per annum."

    The mental strain of the conflict with Jackson had reacted on Waldburger's
physical condition, he suffering from tuberculosis. It seems most cruel to-day,
but Jackson closed his last letter with an allusion to the fact that the doctors
had informed him that Waldburger was at the point of death: "Let him depart in
peace, and I hope he will meet with more mercy at the tribunal he is soon to
appear than he had tenderness for my reputation." A few months later Waldburger
died in the Bahamas.


Additional Comments:
From:

ANNALS   OF   SAVANNAH

SAVANNAH DUELS AND DUELLISTS

1733-1877
BY

Thomas Gamble

COPYRIGHT 1923
REVIEW PUBLISHING & PRINTING COMPANY SAVANNAH, GEORGIA




File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/history/other/gms407savannah.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/

File size: 37.5 Kb