people were in a better
humor. The convention referred all the papers it had received to the
next Legislature, and adjourned in some confusion.

This added to the excitement and anger of the people. They were in doubt
how to act. Delay would give the land grabbers time to sell the lands
they had secured through bribery and corruption. But whom could the
people trust? They had been betrayed by many of their highest judges,
by one of their United States senators, and by a large majority of their
Legislature. A great many believed that all the powers of government had
come to an end.

During the troubled times of the Revolution it had been the custom of
military officers having the confidence of the people to convene the
Legislative Assembly when an emergency seemed to call for it. In the
midst of their doubt and confusion, the people applied to General
Twiggs, the senior major general, to convene the Legislature in order
that action might be taken before the swindlers sold the lands they had
obtained by fraud; but General Twiggs refused to act in a case in which
he had no clear right and power, so the people remained for the time
being without a remedy.

From the very beginning of this scheme to defraud the people of the
State, it had been bitterly opposed by General James Jackson, who was
representing Georgia in the United States Senate. He denounced it in the
Senate. He corresponded with the most eminent men in the State, he wrote
to the newspapers, and in every possible way held up to the scorn and
contempt of the public the men who were trying to defraud the State of
its rich Western lands. On the other hand, the conspirators left nothing
undone to injure the reputation of General Jackson. His character was
attacked, and his life was several times threatened. As early as the
spring of 1795, he took occasion in full Senate, and in the presence
of General James Gunn (the Georgia senator who was representing the
swindlers), to denounce the scheme as "a speculation of the darkest
character and of deliberate villany."

By his bold, even violent opposition to the Yazoo sale, General Jackson
had made himself the leader of the people. Therefore in 1795, while he
was still senator, many of the people requested him to resign, so that
he might use his influence and great talents in bringing about the
repeal of the obnoxious law. He tendered his resignation at once, and
returned home. He was elected a member of the Legislatu