www.sethkaller.com Open in urlscan Pro
216.92.116.197  Public Scan

Submitted URL: http://www.sethkaller.com//item//2442/-26589.99/-Georgia/-Constitution/-of/-1798/-Prohibits/-Both/-the/-Importation/-of/-S...
Effective URL: https://www.sethkaller.com//item//2442/-26589.99/-Georgia/-Constitution/-of/-1798/-Prohibits/-Both/-the/-Importation/-of/-S...
Submission: On August 23 via api from US — Scanned from US

Form analysis 0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

SETH KALLER, INC.


INSPIRED BY HISTORY

 * Home
 * About Us
   * About Seth Kaller, Inc.
   * Guarantee
   * Press Coverage
   * Publications
   * Exhibitions
     
   * History Articles
   * Terminology
   * Accessibility
     
   
 * Available Treasures
   * Abraham Lincoln
   * African American History
   * Albert Einstein
   * Alexander Hamilton
   * Books
   * Civil War and Reconstruction
   * Constitution and Bill of Rights
   * Declaration of Independence
   * Early Republic (1784 - c.1830)
   * Finance, Stocks, and Bonds
   * George Washington
   * Gettysburg
   * Gilded Age (1876 - c.1900)
   * Great Gifts
   * Inauguration and State of the Union Addresses
   * Israel and Judaica
   * Maps
   * Pennsylvania
   * Presidents and Elections
   * Prints
   * Revolution and Founding Fathers (1765 - 1784)
   * Science, Technology, and Transportation
   * Thomas Jefferson
   * War of 1812
   * Women's History and First Ladies
   * World War I and II
 * Freedom Documents
   * Declaration of Independence
   * Constitution
   * Emancipation Proclamation
   * The 13th Amendment
   * Gettysburg Address
   * George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation
   * George Washington vs Bigotry
   * Declaration of Sentiments
   * Is it Real?
   
   

 * Log In




OTHER AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY OFFERINGS

 * Frederick Douglass Celebrates His Return to America a Free Man, and Reunion
   with His Family, While Telling of His Treatment During the Voyage
 * Cinque, Leader of the Amistad Revolt Autograph at an Abolitionist Fundraiser
   in Philadelphia
 * Martin Luther King Jr. Inscribes Stride Toward Freedom to Pioneer Civil
   Rights Leader A. Philip Randolph

More...

 * Abraham Lincoln Signed Check to “William Johnson (Colored)”—Who Accompanied
   the President to Antietam and Gettysburg
 * New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves – 1794 Land Deed
   from John Jay’s Brother for First African Free School in New York City
 * Very Early State Department Printing of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
   and William Seward’s Cover Letter, Sent to American Minister in Argentina
 * Abraham Lincoln Introduces Ulysses S. Grant’s Superintendent of Freed Slaves
   to the American Freedmen’s Inquiry Commission
 * President Kennedy Sends a Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute to Civil Rights
   Leader A. Philip Randolph
 * Former President and Future Confederate Supporter John Tyler Forcefully
   Defends the Fugitive Slave Act and the “Southern Cause,” Attacks the NY
   Press, and Plays up His Own Service in the War of 1812
 * Selma, Alabama Hotel Albert Archive, Including Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
   “Freedom Day” Registration Filled Out Moments Before He was Violently
   Assaulted
 * Lyndon B. Johnson Signing Pen for Voting Rights Act of 1965
 * Booker T. Washington Writes Brief Notes for Speeches
 * President Grant Preliminary Order Seeking to End Ku Klux Klan Violence in
   South Carolina
 * The Dreadful Dred Scott Decision, First Edition with Added Illustrations
 * Jackie Robinson says a talk radio host “needs to do a lot of soul searching.”
 * Powerful Anti-Slavery Argument Likely by John Laurens
 * “George Washington” - Keith Carter Photograph
 * 1778 Muster List, Including Rejected African American Recruit
 * Bold Cartoon on Fugitive Slave Law
 * Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail in Liberation Magazine
 * Rare Jim Crow Broadside from Father of American Minstrelsy
 * [Thomas Jefferson]. 1807 Acts of Congress, Including Law Abolishing Slave
   Trade, the Insurrection Act, and Lewis & Clark Content. First Edition.
 * His Grandmother-in-Law Can’t Spare a “Stacker” for John Augustine Washington
   III – Letter Delivered by Freed Washington Family Slave West Ford Includes
   List of Mount Vernon Slaves
 * Rare New York Senate Print of Proposed State Law to Combat the Dred Scott
   Decision
 * Arthur Ashe’s United Negro College Fund Benefit Silver Bowl Trophy
 * “Black bellied Yankees” at The Battle of Fort Blakely
 * Saving Free-Born African American from Life of Slavery
 * William Monroe Trotter - the first African American to earn a Phi Beta Kappa
   key at Harvard - pushes a petition calling for mercy for still imprisoned
   soldiers of the 24th US Colored Infantry
 * Congressmen Who Signed Thirteenth Amendment Abolishing Slavery
 * Dewey Attacks FDR’s Running Mate Harry Truman for Alleged Ku Klux Klan Ties
 * John Brown’s “Fort” as Tourist Attraction
 * Slavery Divides New York Legislature in 1844
 * A Copperhead Newspaper Prints, Then Criticizes,
   the Emancipation Proclamation
 * New Hampshire Ridicules South Carolina’s Attempts
   to Game the System After Rejecting the 14th Amendment
 * Quaker Farmer Writes to Congressman Morgan to Condemn Stephen Douglas’
   Nebraska Bill Allowing Slavery in New Territories
 * Senator Sprague of Rhode Island Writes About Fascinating Debates in Congress
   Involving Freedom for the Families of African American Recruits and the
   Limits of Free Speech in the Senate
 * Stirring Pamphlet Defense of Abner Kneeland in His Massachusetts Trials for
   Blasphemy
 * “Genealogy of Thos Moseley’s Family” Lists Births of Fourteen Enslaved People
   in Virginia and Kentucky
 * Gerald Ford Defends His Early Commitment to Civil Rights
 * 16 x 20 Inch Photograph of St. Augustine, Florida, African American Cart
   Driver
 * Discontent with Gilded Age Presidential Politics
   and the Influence of “the negro vote”
 * The Success of Black Troops At Petersburg, Virginia, Under Butler
 * “The Slave Sale, or Come Who Bids?” Abolitionist Sheet Music
 * Swedish immigrant uses racist “Pickaninny” imagery on a hand-painted envelope
 * “Black Republican” Salt River Ticket
 * Elmer W. Henderson – Who Defeated Railroad Dining Car Segregation –
   Congratulates African American Inventor for American Institute of Chemists
   Award
 * Peter Cooper’s Letter to Lincoln Regarding Emancipation
 * 1966 Civil Rights Charge of Discrimination Form
 * Alex Haley Signed Check

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


OTHER CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS OFFERINGS

 * Constitutional Convention, Pennsylvania Ratification Debates, More, in 1787
   Newspaper Run
 * Bill of Rights: September 23, 1789 with Penultimate 2nd Amendment Text
 * Connecticut Broadsheet Reports Ratification of U.S. Constitution by Rhode
   Island, Hamilton’s Funding and Assumption Plans, and Other Debates

More...

 * Early Printing of the Original Twelve Articles of the Bill of Rights
 * Early Printing of the U.S. Constitution, in American Museum—One of the First
   Two Magazine Printings of the Constitution
 * Bill of Rights: First House of Representatives Draft, Rare July 31, 1789
   Newspaper Printing
 * Debating the Bill of Rights Amendments in 1789
 * Rare “Address to the People of the State of Connecticut,” the Report of
   Delegates from 97 Towns Who Met to Call for a Democratic Non-Theocratic State
   Constitution
 * Confederation Congress sends proposed Constitution to the states for
   ratification
 * New York’s 1788 Declaration of Rights—Important Precursor to the Bill of
   Rights
 * Connecticut Prepares for New Federal Constitution, Establishes Plan to Elect
   Senators and Representatives
 * Iconic Pillars Illustration -- Celebrating Massachusetts’ Ratification and
   the Process of Erecting the “great federal superstructure”
 * U.S. Constitution – Contemporary List of States with Ratification Dates and
   Votes
 * Adams Defends U.S. Constitution, First French Edition
 * The New U.S. Senate Considers Bill to Organize the Federal Judiciary: Full
   Text of the Senate Bill to Establish the Supreme Court, Federal Judicial
   Districts and Circuit Courts, as Well as the Position of Attorney General
 * Maryland Ratifies the Constitution, Suggests Amendments; and Pennsylvanians
   Speak Out Against the Slave Trade
 * A History of Harvard University; North Carolina Debates Ratifying the
   Constitution; and a List of Newly-Minted U.S. Senators
 * (On Hold) The U.S. Constitution – Very Rare Printing on the Second Day of
   Publication
 * Virginia’s Ratification of the U.S. Constitution and Proposals for the Bill
   of Rights

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


OTHER EARLY REPUBLIC (1784 - C.1830) OFFERINGS

 * Charles Thomson’s Secret Journal of the Confederation Congress, Including
   Detailed Description of the Great Seal and Negotiations for the Treaty of
   Paris to End the Revolutionary War
 * George Washington’s “Justice and Public Good” Letter, Written Just Before
   Becoming the First President of the United States
 * Thomas Jefferson Signed Act of Congress Authorizing Copper Coinage (the First
   Legal Tender Produced by U.S. Government)

More...

 * Jefferson-Signed Patent Act of 1793
 * Thomas Jefferson Signed Judiciary Act of 1793
 * Jefferson’s Excessively Rare Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom
 * Thomas Paine: “Contentment”
 * To Avoid Abuse from “bigots in religion...politics, or...medicine,” Thomas
   Jefferson Declines to Publish Benjamin Rush’s Private Correspondence
 * Alexander Hamilton’s Initial Steps to Create a National Banking System
 * Congress Begs the States for the Power to Regulate Trade and Negotiate
   Treaties
 * George Washington Signed Military Commission, Preparing for a Decisive
   Victory Against Native Americans and the British in the Midwest
 * Constitutional Convention, Pennsylvania Ratification Debates, More, in 1787
   Newspaper Run
 * Charles Thomson (One of Only Two Men to Sign the Declaration of Independence
   on July 4) Sends Treaty of Paris Proclamation Officially Ending the
   Revolutionary War
 * Jefferson’s Autograph Notes Explaining Napier’s Rule on Spherical Triangles,
   a Branch of Geometry Crucial to Astronomy, Geodesy, Navigation, &
   Architecture
 * Thomas Jefferson Transmits the First Patent Act to Governor of New York
   George Clinton, Who Later Replaced Aaron Burr as Jefferson’s Vice President
 * Declaration of Independence Signer Samuel Huntington’s Copy of an Act of
   Congress Signed by Thomas Jefferson
 * Former President and Future Confederate Supporter John Tyler Forcefully
   Defends the Fugitive Slave Act and the “Southern Cause,” Attacks the NY
   Press, and Plays up His Own Service in the War of 1812
 * President Adams Writes to an Old Friend, Reflecting on the Vicissitudes of
   High Office
 * William Henry Harrison as Presidential Candidate Determined “to Make no
   Pledges” - While Affirming His Anti-Masonic Position
 * Alexander Hamilton Writes to His Beloved Wife, Eliza, About the Deteriorating
   Health of Her Younger Sister, Peggy
 * Early Printing of the Original Twelve Articles of the Bill of Rights
 * Hamilton’s Advice to Holland Land Company on a New Law Relating to New York
   State’s Prohibition Against Foreigners Owning Land
 * George Washington’s Second Thanksgiving Proclamation, Sent to American
   Consuls
 * Hamilton LS to Bank of New York Advising That Collectors Will No Longer
   Receive Its Notes
 * John Quincy Adams’ Copy of a Scarce South Carolina Printing of the Monroe
   Doctrine
 * Alexander Hamilton Signed Registration for Schooner Robert of Baltimore
 * Hamilton Serves as Surety for Loan to Fellow Attorney and Second in His Duel
   with Burr
 * Newport, Rhode Island Land Deed to Oliver Hazard Perry, Signed by the Wife,
   Six Daughters and Two Sons-in-law of Moses Mendes Seixas, Who Inspired George
   Washington’s Famous “to bigotry no sanction” Letter
 * Rare document of Newport Jewish leader Moses Seixas – who wrote address that
   elicited George Washington’s most famous statement on religious freedom and
   citizenship
 * The Justice Department’s First Publication: Attorney General Edmund
   Randolph’s Suggestions to Improve the New Federal Judiciary, Including
   Supreme Court Fixes
 * Steamboat Inventor Robert Fulton and Six Other Commissioners Ask the Governor
   of Georgia to Support Federal Funding of the Erie Canal
 * Thomas Jefferson Signed Act of Congress for Compensating Court Officers,
   Jurors, and Witnesses
 * Mexican Revolution Hero José María Morelos taunts Spanish viceroy he met in
   military school: any bad news is fake news, he alone resisted, and his troops
   “attack and “don’t leave the action until they are victorious...”
 * George Washington’s Famous Letter to American Roman Catholics: A Message of
   Thankfulness, Patriotism, and Inclusiveness
 * Thomas Jefferson Pays Import Duty on Famous Louis Chantrot Obelisk Clock
 * Major General Alexander Hamilton Message to Father of American Viticulture
   During Quasi-War with France
 * Richard Varick’s Appointment as Mayor of New York City
 * Bill of Rights: First House of Representatives Draft, Rare July 31, 1789
   Newspaper Printing
 * Hamilton LS on Declaration-Signer Philip Livingston's Estate, Ten Years After
   His Death
 * James Monroe Defends his Actions in Futile Defense of Washington in War of
   1812
 * Daniel Webster Details a Duel Challenge by Congressman John Randolph
 * Manuscript Eulogy to George Washington Penned by R.I. Senator Foster During
   Senate Session
 * Very Early 1790s Naturalization Certificate for Famous French Physician – One
   the First Persons to Become an American Citizen Under the First
   Naturalization Act
 * Significant Collection of the Worcester Magazine, Publisher Isaiah Thomas’
   Protest against Advertising Tax. Filled with News of Shays’ Rebellion, and
   Federalist and Anti-Federalist Essays
 * New Hampshire Acts Organizing the Election of 1792 -Washington’s re-Election
 * Rare “Address to the People of the State of Connecticut,” the Report of
   Delegates from 97 Towns Who Met to Call for a Democratic Non-Theocratic State
   Constitution
 * The Second Naturalization Act - Establishing Laws for Citizenship
 * President John Quincy Adams’ Remarks & Toast Commemorating William Penn’s
   Landing
 * Confederation Congress sends proposed Constitution to the states for
   ratification
 * Secretary of State Pickering certifies five Acts of Congress relating to the
   Whiskey Rebellion, debtor’s prison, the estate of General Nathanael Greene,
   etc.
 * President Jefferson Sends, Rather than Delivers, His First State of the Union
 * Large 1801 Folio Engraving of Thomas Jefferson as New President
 * The News in 1815: 104 Issues of the Boston Patriot
 * [Thomas Jefferson]. 1807 Acts of Congress, Including Law Abolishing Slave
   Trade, the Insurrection Act, and Lewis & Clark Content. First Edition.
 * Connecticut Prepares for New Federal Constitution, Establishes Plan to Elect
   Senators and Representatives
 * George Washington’s Address to the Roman Catholics in America
 * Relieving Persons in Debtors Prison
 * [George Washington] Rare Broadside Instructing Ships’ Captains re Impressment
   of American Seamen
 * Iconic Pillars Illustration -- Celebrating Massachusetts’ Ratification and
   the Process of Erecting the “great federal superstructure”
 * Charter of the Marine Society of the City of New York, Printed in 1788 with
   Franklin’s Passy Type
 * Accusing Recently Retired Hamilton of Financial Malfeasance
 * Draft of Thomas Jefferson Circular, Addressing Duties of Consuls &
   Vice-Consuls
 * Justice William Paterson Hold State Law Unconstitutional in Charge to Jury
 * Newspaper Belonging to John Quincy Adams Reports Transfer of the Floridas to
   the U.S.
 * U.S. Constitution – Contemporary List of States with Ratification Dates and
   Votes
 * “John Bull and the Baltimoreans” Lampooning British Defeat at Fort McHenry in
   Baltimore Following their Earlier Success at Alexandria
 * Congress Authorizes a Mint, and President Washington Proclaims the Location
   of the Permanent Seat of Government
 * President Washington Approves Establishment of Mint and Issues First Veto
 * A Fatal Duel Set Up by N.C. Congressman & Later Republic of Texas’s Secretary
   of State
 * “An Act to Incorporate the Subscribers to the Bank of the United States”
 * Madison’s Optimistic First Message to Congress: A Prelude to the War of 1812
 * War of 1812 Hero, Early New Mexico Explorer, and the “First American Buried
   in California Soil”
 * Adams Defends U.S. Constitution, First French Edition
 * British Lieutenant Inventories Ammunition and Ordnance Taken from Americans
   in Burning of Washington
 * Early Printing of a Bill to Establish the Treasury Department
 * Signed by Hamilton’s Second in Fatal Duel
 * Harvard’s 1786 Graduating Class and Their Theses, Dedicated to Gov. James
   Bowdoin
 * John Marshall’s Supreme Court Decides Osborn et al. v. The Bank of the United
   States, landmark 11th Amendment Case
 * Opposing the African Slave Trade - 1790 New Haven Sermon
 * Eighteenth-Century Archive from Hartford Free Grammar School, the Second
   Oldest Secondary School in America
 * Caleb Cushing, U.S. Congressman,
   Calls for Annexation of Canada
 * Secretary of War Orders Payment for Georgia State Militia Called Out to
   Prepare for War With the Creeks
 * September 1789 Printing of the Act Establishing the Treasury Department,
   Along With Important Congressional Debates on Organizing the Federal
   Judiciary
 * The New U.S. Senate Considers Bill to Organize the Federal Judiciary: Full
   Text of the Senate Bill to Establish the Supreme Court, Federal Judicial
   Districts and Circuit Courts, as Well as the Position of Attorney General
 * Continuing Controversy Over Contested 1824 Election, Maryland Governor
   Accuses North Carolina Congressman of Lying To Hide His Vote for J.Q Adams
   over Andrew Jackson
 * Harvard’s 1791 Graduating Students and Theses, Dedicated to Governor John
   Hancock and Lieutenant Governor Samuel Adams
 * William Pinkney, Ripped Off by the Government
   for His Work on Jay’s Treaty, Declares
   “I Do Not Owe The Government One Farthing”
 * Elisha Boudinot: Vermont Voters Disgraced Themselves by Reelecting a
   Congressman Who Was Jailed for Violating the Sedition Act
 * Receipt for Jewelry for Rachel Jackson
 * Jonathan Williams - First Superintendent of West Point and First Head of the
   Army Corps of Engineers - Assesses New York Harbor Defenses
 * Director of Ordnance on Loan of Gunpowder to DuPont and Private Individuals;
   forwards Copy of Prior Letter Informing Secretary of War John Calhoun of his
   Objection
 * First Army Chief of Ordnance Rails against Military Waste in a Very Modern
   Essay
 * James Madison’s Second Inaugural Address,
   in a Rare New York Irish Newspaper
 * Henry Clay ALS, Responding to St. Nicholas Society Speech, Takes a Jab at
   Martin Van Buren
 * Maryland Ratifies the Constitution, Suggests Amendments; and Pennsylvanians
   Speak Out Against the Slave Trade
 * Jefferson’s Response to the New Haven Merchants’ Remonstrance, and his First
   Inaugural Address
 * James Monroe & Congress Support the Independence Movements of Spain’s
   American Colonies
 * James Madison’s First Inaugural Address, Asserting Neutral Rights in Prelude
   to the War of 1812
 * Franklin on Revealed Religion, and South Carolina on Freedom of Religion
 * N.J. Congressman Praises Andrew Jackson After His 1824 Presidential Election
   Loss in the House of Representatives
 * Reporting the Infamous XYZ Affair
 * Ohio Reformers Use Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion
   to Justify Their Own Behavior
 * July 4, 1810 Oration by Democratic-Republican Declaration Printer John Binns
 * 1790 Massachusetts Newspaper Discussing Nantucket Whalers
 * An Act to Incorporate the Ohio Insurance Company
 * John Hancock Addresses Massachusetts Legislature
 * The U.S.S. Chesapeake Prepares for the Mediterranean, and the Senate Debates
   Judiciary Establishments
 * During Peninsular War in Europe and Rebellions in Latin America Transmitting
   Order of Spanish Colonial Cuban Government Restricting American Imports to
   Cuba
 * Jefferson’s Proclamation on the State of Affairs with England (1807)
 * A History of Harvard University; North Carolina Debates Ratifying the
   Constitution; and a List of Newly-Minted U.S. Senators
 * Andrew Jackson’s First Inaugural Address in Maryland Newspaper
 * (On Hold) The U.S. Constitution – Very Rare Printing on the Second Day of
   Publication
 * The Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution and Founding

Georgia Constitution of 1798 Prohibits Both the Importation of Slaves and
Emancipation by Legislation

Click to enlarge:
Select an image:





“There shall be no future importation of Slaves into this State, from Africa or
any foreign place, after the first day of October next. The legislature shall
have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the consent of
each of their respective owners, previous to such emancipation.”

This 1798 Georgia Constitution, the state’s third, better defined legislative
power, established popular elections for the governor and authorized a state
supreme court. Unlike its predecessors that made no mention of slavery, this
Constitution prohibited the further foreign importation of slaves into Georgia.
However, it also forbade the legislature from emancipating slaves without the
consent of their owners or restricting the immigration of slaves from other
states with their owners. Practically, it also did not prevent the extensive
internal slave trade from other slave-holding states.

[GEORGIA]. The Constitution of the State of Georgia. As Revised, Amended and
Compiled, by the Convention of the State, at Louisville, on the Thirtieth Day of
May, MDCCXCVIII. Augusta: John Erdman Smith, 1799. 36 pp., 4¾ x 8 in. Browned
throughout; half calf over marbled boards.



Inventory #26589.99       Price: $19,000

Add to Cart Ask About This Item Add to Favorites

Historical Background
Georgia adopted its first Constitution in 1777 to replace its colonial
government. It became the fourth state, and the first in the South, to ratify
the proposed U.S. Constitution on January 2, 1788. Weeks later, the Georgia
Assembly appointed delegates to be convened after nine states had ratified the
federal Constitution “to take under their consideration the alterations and
amendments that are necessary to be made in the Constitution of this State.”
When New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in
June 1788, the new federal compact became effective, and the Georgia State
Constitutional Convention convened in Augusta in November 1788. Rather than
amending the 1777 Constitution, the convention proposed an entirely new
Constitution to conform to the newly adopted U. S. Constitution, which was
referred to a second convention that assembled in Augusta in January 1789, and
adopted on behalf of the people by a third convention in May 1789. The new
Georgia Constitution mirrored the U.S. Constitution by establishing three
branches of government and providing for a bicameral legislature and a single
chief executive. It also provided for a convention in five years to consider
alterations.

In 1794-1795, Georgia Governor George Mathews and the Georgia legislature
approved the sale of more than forty million acres of Georgia’s western lands
(modern Alabama and Mississippi) for $490,000 to four companies at approximately
1½ cents per acre. In exchange for their cooperation, the companies offered
Georgia officials shares in these companies or bribes. After initially vetoing a
similar bill, Governor Mathews signed the bill authorizing the sale into law,
known as the Yazoo Act, on January 7, 1795. When the details of this wholesale
legislative corruption became known, there was widespread public outrage and
protests to the federal government. Reformer Jared Irwin was elected Governor of
Georgia and in February 1796 signed a bill nullifying the Yazoo Act. Another
reformer, U.S. Senator James Jackson succeeded Irwin as governor from 1798 to
1801. The state refunded money to many people who purchased land, but others
refused the refund, preferring to keep the land. When the state did not
recognize their claims, the matter ended up in the courts, eventually reaching
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1810. In the landmark decision of Fletcher v. Peck,
the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a state law by deciding that the land
sales were binding contracts and could not be retroactively invalidated by
legislation. In 1802, because of the controversy, Georgia ceded all of its
claims to lands west of its modern border to the federal government.

When the convention called for in the 1789 Constitution convened in May 1795,
outrage over the Yazoo Land Scandal was at its height, and the convention met
for only two weeks and made a few changes in representation and terms for state
senators. It also made provision for another convention to meet in Louisville,
Georgia, in May 1798. 

When the Constitutional Convention of 1798 assembled in Louisville, Governor and
former and future U.S. Senator James Jackson (1757-1806) quickly became the
leading force. He insisted on establishing a definition of Georgia’s boundaries
in the Constitution, securing a declaration that the Yazoo sale was void, and a
guarantee against future sales of public lands to speculators. On May 30, 1798,
sixty-eight delegates signed the finished document. James Gunn and Thomas
Glascock, both elected despite their involvement in the Yazoo Fraud, refused to
sign it. The convention did not submit the new Constitution to the people for
ratification but declared it to be effective immediately. It served as the
state’s Constitution until 1861.

Although it followed the pattern of the Constitution of 1789, the Constitution
of 1798 was almost twice as long as its predecessor. Unlike the former, which
did not mention slavery, the new constitution forbade the “future importation of
Slaves into this State, from Africa or any foreign place,” but it also
prohibited the legislature from passing laws “for the emancipation of slaves
without the consent of each of their respective owners.” The new Constitution
provided for the same punishment for murdering a slave as for the same offence
against a free white person, except in cases of slave insurrection or “unless
death should happen by accident in giving such slave moderate correction.”

The Constitution was first published in Louisville, Georgia, in 1798, but soon
thereafter, John Erdman Smith (1755-1803), the German-born publisher of The
Augusta Chronicle and Gazette of the State from 1786 to 1803, issued this
edition. Smith used a quotation from the 1789 Georgia Constitution on the
masthead of his newspaper: “Freedom of the press and trial by jury shall remain
inviolate.”

This copy is signed on the title-page by George R. Clayton (1779-1840), who
served as secretary for the Executive Department in Louisville, Georgia, from
1801 to 1806; as Georgia’s state treasurer from 1806 to 1825; and as cashier of
the Branch Bank of the State of Georgia at Milledgeville.

References: ESTC W36205; Evans 35541. The 1798 Louisville printing is Evans
33790.


        Add to Cart Ask About This Item Add to Favorites

 


© 2024 Seth Kaller, Inc. • Historical Documents • Legacy Collections   Telephone
(914) 289-1776   E-mail: info@sethkaller.com   Accessibility

ShareThis Copy and Paste