of vague and ridiculous dogmas. The freedom of
action and familiarity of language, where there are few social
restraints to prevent universal intercourse, familiarizes every class
of the community with the peculiarities of each, and forms an outlet
for the wit and humor of the whole. This was the stimulant to mirth
and hilarity, for which no people are so much distinguished as the
Georgians of the middle country. At the especial period of which I now
write, her humorists were innumerable. Dooly, Clayton, Prince,
Longstreet, Bacon (the Ned Brace of Longstreet's Georgia Scenes), and
many others of lesser note, will long be remembered in the traditions
of the people. These were all men of, eminence, and in their time
filled the first offices of the State. The quiet, quaint humor of
Prince is to be seen in his Militia Muster, in the Georgia Scenes; and
there too the inimitable burlesque of Bacon, in Ned Brace.

CHAPTER VII.

WITS AND FIRE-EATERS.

JUDGE DOOLY--LAWYERS AND BLACKSMITHS--JOHN FORSYTH--HOW JURIES WERE
DRAWN--GUM-TREE _vs._ WOODEN-LEG--PREACHER-POLITICIANS--COLONEL
CUMMING--GEORGE McDUFFIE.

John M. Dooly was a native of Lincoln County, Georgia, where he
continued to reside until his death, and where he now lies in an
undistinguished grave. He was the son of a distinguished Revolutionary
soldier, whose name, in consideration of his services in that struggle,
has been given to a county in the State. In early life he united
himself to the Federal party, and from honest convictions continued a
Federalist in principle through life. But for his political principles,
his name in the nation to-day would have been a household word,
familiar as the proudest upon her scroll of fame. In very early life he
gave evidence of extraordinary powers of mind. With a limited
education, he commenced the study of the law when quite young. But
despite this serious defect, which was coupled with poverty and many
other disadvantages incident to a new country impoverished by war, and
wanting in almost everything to aid the enterprise of talent in a
learned profession, soon after his admission to the Bar he attracted
the attention of the community, and especially the older members of the
Bar, as a man of extraordinary capacity, and already trained in the
law. So tenacious was his memory of all that he read or heard, that he
not only retained the law, but the author and page where it was to be
found. His mind was eminently lo