Statewide County GaArchives History - Books .....Prefatory Note 1908
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Book Title: The Revolutionary Records Of The State Of Georgia

PREFATORY NOTE.

   The following compilation contains all authentic records and documents
relating to the Revolutionary period of Georgia history that the compiler has
been able to find after a most careful, thorough and diligent searh. While it is
not presented as a complete compilation, it is believed that it contains most of
the official records made during the period of which it treats, certainly all
that are now in existence, and to supply the place of original papers not now in
existence, well authenticated copies and extracts from contemporaneous
publications have been utilized.

   That many official records of this important period, once in existence, have
been irretrievably lost, cannot be doubted, because our early historians have
made copious extracts from many that cannot now be found. Among the most
valuable records known to have been lost and, consequently, not now available
for this compilation, are the Minutes of the Executive Office up to the
fourteenth of January, 1778, the Journal of the proceedings of the
Constitutional Convention of 1776-7, not a vestige of which, nor even a list of
the names of the delegates who sat in it, having been anywhere discovered, and
the Journals of the several sessions of the legislature held prior to the
seventeenth day of August, 1781. The destruction of these Minutes and Journals
was a serious and irreparable loss. We have, however, the net result of the
labors of the convention and these legislative sessions in the Constitution of
1777, and the Acts of these legislatures, all of which are included in this
compilation.

   Several causes conspired to bring about this ever to be regretted loss of
important records and documents. First of all, when, in December, 1778,
Savannah, the seat of government, was captured by the British, all the records
of the state made prior to that time were also captured and either carried away
or destroyed, except a few relating to the Office of the Secretary of State,
which were saved only by the vigilance of the incumbent of the office, John
Milton, who, disregarding the orders of Governor Houstoun, conveyed his records
first to Charleston and then, when that city was threatened, to Newbern, North
Carolina, and, finally, when that state was invaded by the enemy, to Annapolis,
where they remained till after the close of the war.

   Many records made after the fall of Savannah, during the progress of the war,
either fell into the hands of the enemy and perished or were lost in
transportation, from place to place, in the effort to save them from
destruction; while the loss of such as are known to have survived the war is
probably mainly due to the carelessness of historians and persons, who
contemplated writing histories and afterwards abandoned the idea, in borrowing
them and never returning them to the Archives Rooms of the Capitol. In this way
it is positively known some of them were lost.

   Again, we have abundant reason to believe that during the progress of the War
for Independence, when a state of semi-anarchy prevailed from the cessation of
British rule when the royal governor was arrested, and before the constitutional
government was thoroughly established in all of its departments, many things of
an official character were done of which no written record was ever made, and
this condition of semi-anarchy prevailed in the state during almost the entire
period of the war, for Governor Martin said in his inaugural address in January,
1782, that then it could be said for the first time that the government provided
for in the constitution was organized and in operation in all of its
departments. One of our most careful and painstaking historians, speaking of the
conditions which prevailed in the state at this time, has said, "The government
of Georgia during the Revolutionary period was feeble, uncertain and
peripatetic. Few records of this transition stage in the development of the
state have been preserved, and they are at best fragmentary and unimportant,"
and our research has established the truth of what he said.

   Still, notwithstanding this paucity of official records, due to the causes
mentioned, much matter of an official or semi-official character has been found
which is of too much interest to be omitted, and yet to include it in this
compilation, disjointed and disconnected as it is, without explanation or
comment, much of it would be almost, if not quite, unintelligible. The compiler
has therefore deemed it not improper to include it in an introductory with such
comment and reference to contemporaneous occurrences as seem necessary to weave
all of it into a connected narrative, and thus make it intelligible to the reader.

   Some of these scattered and disjointed papers thus utilized have been found
in the Archives Rooms and in out-of-the-way places in the Capitol, and others
have been copied from contemporaneous publications or subsequent compilations,
among the latter the Georgia Historical Society's Compilations, White's
Historical Collections, Force's Archives, Drayton's Memoirs, and a few others,
but everything which has been admitted is believed to be of unquestioned
authenticity.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

THE 
Revolutionary Records 
OF THE
STATE OF GEORGIA

VOLUME I


INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS, COUNCIL OF SAFETY, PROVINCIAL
CONGRESS, CONSTITUTION OF 1777, CONFISCATION AND BANISHMENT, SALES OF
CONFISCATED ESTATES, 1769 to 1782.

COMPILED AND PUBLISHED UNDER AUTHORITY OF
THE LEGISLATURE
BY
ALLEN D. CANDLER
ATLANTA, GA.
THE FRANKLIN-TURNER COMPANY
PRINTERS, PUBLISHERS, BINDERS
1908


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