YAZOO FRAUD. 51 



At this time the whole State was in a ferment. The peo- 

 ple were amazed at the perfidy of the Legislature. They had 

 sold to certain companies, for $500,000, 35,000,000 acres of 

 land, and had rejected for a portion of the public domain, not 

 greater in extent, $800,000, offered, but without bribery, by 

 persons "of as large a capital, and as much respectability and 

 credit, and on terms more advantageous to the State.'" 

 Presentments of Grand Juries, resolutions, remonstrances, and 

 petitions of the people, were made and signed by hundreds in 

 every county. A Convention for altering the Constitution 

 had been called to meet in May, 1795 ; but the members had 

 been chosen at the same time with those of the corrupt Legis- 

 lature. Many of them were the same men, and others were 

 of the same kidney. The presentments, resolutions, remon- 

 strances, and petitions, crowded so fast upon the Convention, 

 that a revision of the Constitution was deferred to a more tem- 

 perate period. The Convention referred all the papers to the 

 next Legislature, and broke up in confusion. The people be- 

 came more and more excited. Betrayed by one senator in 

 Congress, by their legislators at home, by many high judicial 

 officers, and by their Convention, they looked around them for 

 aid — certain of having suffered wrong, doubtful of redress. 

 It was by many believed that the powers of government had 

 ceased, upon the principle that all Constitutions fail, when 

 their purpose, the public welfare, is defeated. Others believed 

 that those powers would cease on the first Monday in Novem- 

 ber, 1795, the Convention having altered the time of Lecrisla- 

 tive meeting to the first Tuesday in January, 1796, without 

 making provision for the intermediate administration. Under 

 the last impression, an application was made from Columbia 

 county to Major General Twiggs, as the senior major general, 

 calling upon him to convene a Legislature for the first Monday 

 in December, 1795, in conformity with the custom of military of- 

 ficers high in confidence during the troubles of the Revolution. 

 It was apprehended that a sale would be made by the Companies 

 to the United States before the first Tuesday in January, and it 

 was desired that the Legislature should meet on the first Mon- 

 day in December, to annul the act before the forms of legisla- 

 tion could be completed at Philadelphia. Hence the application 



