538 TATTNALL COUNTY. 



from the pains of the confiscation laws, and elected Colonel 

 Tattnall Senator in Congress, to serve out General Jackson's 

 term. It was believed that the speculators, having been de- 

 feated in Georgia, would renew the war against her rights 

 in the Federal Legislature, and Tattnall's talents and influence 

 were called into requisition to defeat them on the floor of the 

 national Senate. His correspondence with the Executive of 

 Georgia shows with what fidelity he discharged his trust on 

 this and on every other matter interesting to the State. In 

 general politics, he was of the republican party. In 1798 he 

 retired for a short period from public life to Bonaventure, 

 extending a refined and elegant hospitality to all who visited 

 him. In November, 1801, he was elected Governor of Geor- 

 gia. In the same year, by the same Legislature, he was 

 made a Brigadier General. As further evidence of his great 

 popularity, and the sense Georgia had of his purity of charac- 

 ter and high public service, the Legislature took off" the name 

 of his father from the confiscation acts, with full liberty to 

 remove into the State with his property, subject to his sole 

 and entire future disposal, and restored him to all the rights of 

 citizenship. Gov. Tattnall had the inexpressible pleasure to 

 sign the act absolving his own father, — the only act, it is 

 believed, ever approved by a Governor of Georgia with words 

 of comment preceding the Executive signature. These were 

 words of gratitude from a public servant to his country, for 

 good rendered to his earthly parent. Nor was this all ; for 

 the same Legislature laid off* the county of Tattnall, and gave 

 it its name. The government, a brigadier generalcy, the par- 

 don of his father, and a county named after hirp, at one and 

 the same session ! 



In 1802, from extreme ill health, he surrendered the Exe- 

 cutive chair. In October he sent a message to the Legisla- 

 ture, about to meet at Louisville, giving an account of the 

 affairs of the State during his short administration, expressing 

 his sorrow that the rupture of a blood-vessel rendered it im- 

 possible for him to be with them, and that it was necessary 

 for him to withdraw from public life. He assured them that 

 were he blessed with sufficient health, both duty and inclina- 

 tion would forcibly urge him to a continuance in office for 



