JACKSON COUNTY. 347 



resorted to other methods to destroy his influence. His char- 

 acter was assailed — and we may add, his Hfe often placed in 

 jeopardy. The defeat of the Yazoo Act was the absorbing 

 subject of his thoughts. In every step which he took, he 

 firmly believed that he was engaged in a righteous cause. 

 Noble man ! Heaven willed that you should live to see your 

 efforts to defeat this scheme of unparalleled fraud, crowned 

 with success. In 1795, whilst he was a Senator in Congress, 

 many of his fellow-citizens, especially of Scriven and Chat- 

 ham counties, requiring his aid to oppose the machinations of 

 the Yazoo speculators, earnestly desired him to resign. He 

 complied with their request, returned home, was elected a 

 member of the Legislature, became a member of the commit- 

 tee appointed to investigate the conduct of their predecessors, 

 and, let it be known to the people of Georgia, and let them tell 

 their children, that to Gen. James Jackson chiefly is due the 

 credit of having this odious act repealed. The whole corrup- 

 tion was overturned, and it was determined to obliterate it 

 from history and to commit the very records of it to the flames. 

 This was executed in a solemn manner. Tradition informs 

 us that when the public functionaries were assembled in the 

 State House Square in Louisville, to commit the registers of 

 dishonour to the flames, a venerable man, whose head was 

 whitened with the frosts of fourscore winters, unknown to 

 any present, rode through the multitude, and made his way to 

 the officers of the government. Alighting from his horse, he 

 commenced an address, in which he stated he had been led there 

 by a desire to see an act of justice performed ; that he did not 

 think that earthly fire should be employed to manifest the in- 

 dignation which the occasion required, but the fire should come 

 from heaven. With his trembling hands, he took from his 

 bosom, whilst a deathlike silence prevailed amidst the throng, 

 a burning-glass, and applying it to a heap of papers, the con- 

 flagration was completed. Meanwhile the old man retired 

 unperceived, and no traces of him could afterwards be found. 

 Citizens of Georgia ! long ere this ye should have erected a 

 monument to the memory of your Jackson. In the establish- 

 ment of the University in Athens, Mr. Jackson cheerfully 

 co-operated with Baldwin, Milledge, and other friends of edu- 



