The Trans-Oconee Republic was a short-lived, independent state west of the
Oconee River
The Oconee River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map Accessed April 21, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its origin is in Hall County and it terminates where it joins ...
(in the state of
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
). Established by General
Elijah Clarke
Elijah Clarke (1742 – December 15, 1799) was an American military officer and Georgia legislator.
Career
Elijah Clarke was born near Tarboro in Edgecombe County, Province of North Carolina, the son of John Clarke of Anson County, North Car ...
in May 1794, it was an attempt to head off the new
Federal government
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
's ceding of lands claimed by Georgia back to the Creek. In September 1794, state and federal troops forced Clarke and his followers to surrender and leave the settlements. The armed forces destroyed the houses and forts.
Background
In February 1794, General Elijah Clarke, a popular veteran of the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, resigned his current commission in the Georgia
state militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
in order to lead an expedition against the East Florida colony. Clarke had become involved in a French-supported scheme to invade East Florida, which was then controlled by the
Kingdom of Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
.
When the invasion failed to develop, General Clarke and several hundred of his followers moved instead to establish an independent state west of the Oconee River —on hunting grounds reserved by the federal
Treaty of New York (1790)
The Treaty of New York was a treaty signed in 1790 between leaders of the Muscogee and U.S. Secretary of War Henry Knox, who served in the presidential administration of George Washington.
A failed 1789 attempt at a treaty between the United S ...
exclusively for the
Creek Indians
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsGeorge R. Lamplugh, ''Politics on the Periphery: Factions and Parties in Georgia, 1783-1806'' Newark, University of Delaware Press, 1986, pp. 64-68, accessed 19 Nov 2010
Clarke's
frontier
A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...
smen made settlements on lands in present-day
Greene
Greene may refer to:
Places United States
*Greene, Indiana, an unincorporated community
*Greene, Iowa, a city
*Greene, Maine, a town
** Greene (CDP), Maine, in the town of Greene
*Greene (town), New York
** Greene (village), New York, in the town ...
, Morgan, Putnam, and Baldwin counties of Georgia. The settlers built several towns and forts over the next few months. They also wrote and ratified their own constitution, indicating the permanent intention of their endeavor. With little overt opposition from the Creek, they were taking control of the lands before the state or federal governments could react.Christopher J. Floyd, "Trans-Oconee Republic" ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'', 2004-2010, accessed 19 Nov 2010
Conflict with the Federal government
The United States government viewed Clarke's actions as a violation of the Treaty of New York, which provided recognition of Creek lands in an effort to maintain peace and guarantee their neutrality. President
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
pressured the Georgia Governor, George Mathews, to remove the illegal settlers from the Creek lands. Mathews initially ignored the "unauthorized military expedition," because he shared the state's resentment of the treaty and was well aware of Clarke's popularity as a hero of the Revolution. He took only token measures to stop Clarke and his party, such as issuing a proclamation in July 1794 that went unenforced. It is unlikely that Mathews had enough public support to move against Clarke at that juncture, but the tide of public opinion eventually changed.
In late August, Judge
George Walton
George Walton (c. 1749 – February 2, 1804), a Founding Father of the United States, signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia and also served as the second chief executive of Georgia.
Early life
Wal ...
issued a charge to an Augusta grand jury in which he condemned the actions of Clarke and his followers, and explained that they constituted a threat to the state and federal powers. He said Clarke and his followers were attempting to steal the western lands, "the richest jewel the state of Georgia possesses," before other Georgians had a fair chance to acquire title to them by legal state action. (Clarke had welcomed settlers to join the enterprise, intending to take control of the land from the Creek before the state and federal government could react. He had forbidden issuing large tracts of the land in the new republic to speculators or other investors who would not settle there.) In any case, Walton's charges changed public opinion to a degree that allowed the Governor to muster a sufficient force of militia to march against Clarke.
In September, 1,200 Georgia militiamen, led by General
Jared Irwin
Jared Irwin (1750 – March 1, 1818) served twice as elected Governor of Georgia (1796–1798) and (1806–1809). He first was elected to office as a reformer based on public outrage about the Yazoo land scandal. He signed a bill that nullifi ...
acting in conjunction with federal troops stationed on the Oconee, surrounded and isolated General Clarke's fortifications. After some negotiation, Clarke agreed to surrender, provided that he and his men would not face prosecution for their actions. Clarke and his followers departed, and the militia burned down the new settlements and fortifications.
Legacy
Clarke's establishing of the illegal settlements coincided with increasing interest in the state in the disposition of Georgia's western land claims, which at that time stretched as far as the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
. From 1785 on, speculators from other states had lobbied hard to encourage the sale of lands and extinguish Creek and other Indian land claims, despite their guarantee by federal treaty.
In late 1794, the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill allowing a portion of the lands west of the Oconee River, the same land which Clarke's followers had recently occupied, to be distributed among veterans of the Revolution and various Indian conflicts. A supplementary act (the Yazoo Act) attached to the bill provided for the sale of of western land to four private land speculation firms: the Georgia Company, the Georgia-Mississippi Company, the Upper Mississippi Company, and the new Tennessee Company, persuaded the Georgia state assembly to sell more than . As many of the firms' members included many political insiders, the whole enterprise was scandalous and came to be known as the
Yazoo Land Fraud
The Yazoo land scandal, Yazoo fraud, Yazoo land fraud, or Yazoo land controversy was a massive real-estate fraud perpetrated, in the mid-1790s, by Georgia governor George Mathews and the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia politicians sold large ...
.
References
Further reading
* Edwin Bridges, "To Establish a Separate and Independent Government," ''Furman Review'' 5 (1974): 11-17.
* Edward J.Cashin, ''The King's Ranger: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier'', Fordham University Press, 1999
* Louise Frederick Hays, ''Hero of Hornet's Nest: A Biography of Elijah Clark, 1733 to 1799'' (New York: Stratford House, 1946).
George R. Lamplugh, ''Politics on the Periphery: Factions and Parties in Georgia, 1783-1806'' Newark, University of Delaware Press, 1986
* Richard K. Murdoch, ''The Georgia-Florida Frontier, 1793-1796: Spanish Reaction to French Intrigue and American Designs'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951).