Mississipi

1804 · 1502190017 — City of Washington : A. & G. Way 1804-01-01. Hardcover. Very Good. Ocatvo. 7 109 p. ; 22 cm. Bound in publisher's paper wraps. In custom made box. Small stain to front wrap. Wear to extremities. Library stamp to second page from NYPL dated 1902. Contemporary owners name to head of title page of Thomas Dwight Massachusetts representative during the 8th Congress. Dwight's notations to some pages. Shaw & Shoemaker 7540. Sabin 52708 OCLC 1484388 <br> An extremely important Yazoo document. The Yazoo land scandal was a massive fraud perpetrated from in the mid-1790s by Georgia governor George Mathews and the state legislature. They sold large tracts of land in the Yazoo lands in what are now portions of Alabama and Mississippi to political insiders at very low prices in 1794. <br>With the end of the American Revolutionary War most of the states of the new Union attempted to extend their territorial claims from the Proclamation line of 1763 to the lands towards the Mississippi River. <Br> The Yazoo scandal began after the Bourbon County Act was dissolved in 1788 under pressure by the federal government a secret society was formed called the Combined Society formed with purpose money by land speculation. The group gained power in the state legislature and in the following year three companies The South Carolina Yazoo Company The Virginia Yazoo Company which was headed by Patrick Henry and the Tennessee Company built by the society's interests formed to buy land from Georgia. These venture were exposed and the deal for the land fell through in 1792 though the members of the Society still wished to develop Georgia lands. <br>In 1794 four companies were formed with several principal being from the original members of 1789 purchases and high ranking Georgian politicians to purchase 40 million acres of land for $500000. On January 7 1795 Governor Mathews signed into law a bill authorizing the sale of the 40000000 acres known as the Yazoo Act. When the details of the sale were revealed public outrage was widespread and people protested to federal officials and Congressmen. Jared Irwin and U.S. Senator James Jackson led the reform efforts: Irwin was elected Governor of Georgia and less than two months after taking office signed The Rescinding Act on February 13 1796 nullifying the Yazoo Act. <br> On the same day of The Rescinding Act 11 million acres of the Yazoo land was sold to the New England Mississippi Land Company who felt the repel was illegal for $1138000 a 650% profit in 13 months' time. The lands west of Georgia would be ceded to the United States government in the Compact of 1802 for 1.25 million. This last act threw land holders into a limbo and claims by third-party owners who had innocently purchased land from the original companies would not be resolved till 1816. <br> With the last private sale prior to the Compact of 1802 coupled with the 11th amendment the landmark case of Fletcher v. Peck would occur. John Peck of Massachusetts bought land from someone who could trace his title to the state of Georgia from 1795 when the Act was legal. He then sold 15000 acres to Robert Fletcher of New Hampshire based on a warranty deed warranting good title. The two were obviously citizens of different New England states and in June 1803 Fletcher sued Peck in federal circuit court in Massachusetts on diversity grounds alleging that the title was bad and requesting the return of his money. This landmark Yazoo document attempts to serve the land holders affected by the 1802 Compact the fledgling court case as well as an attempt to repel the sale by the State of Georgia. City of Washington : A. & G. Way hardcover