The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-03-14
Who Defied the National Gov
eminent Seventy
Years Ago.
TOLD ON TROUP'S TOMBSTONE
Near VaIdosta is the Story of the Wire
grass Governor Who Dared Defy
John quincy Adams.

1t is now seventy years since John
Quincy Adams sat in the presidential
chair-a long life time; and yet it is
nearly as long since the last governor
of Georgia that the southern tier of
counties furnished the state, turned
from the tranquility of plantation life
to the turmoil of politics.
There were giants In those days, and
George Mcintosh Troup, governor of
the Empire state of the south, was one
of them. Washington and Adams,
Jefferson, Monroe and Madison were
in those dim days something more
than unsubstantial shadows of the
past. They were the men of the day
men who wore the robes of office,
not as cloaks convenient for cupidiUy,
but with something of the antique Sc
verify of Rome before the fall. They
were firm flesh and blood realities
creatures to be loved and hated, ven
Grated and denounced. Above all
were they men to be reckOned with;
and, as will be seen, Governor TrOup
so reckoned with one, at least, of them
as to leave the world grim specimen
of the stuff from which his rugged
character was hewn.
Among these heroic figures the last
wiregrass governor of Georgia moved
at ease. A smaller man would have
been lost-a greater man would, per-
haps, have held larger place in the
memory of those who call Georgia
home, and upon whose affections the
state can never call in vain.
Such as he was-and he fully filled
the frame Fate carved for HIM Gov
ernor Troup was above all Georgian
One of the first to espouse the cause of
states rights in the south, he was
once nominated for the presidency by
some party now forgotten-devoted
to that faith, and to his dying day his
vigorous pen and his powerful mind
were devoted to the establishment of
his convictions. Educated at Prince
ton University, he had the further ad-
vantage, it is said, of term at oxford
England. Upon his return he es-
tablished himself as lawyer in Sa-
vannah, where he married his first
wife, a Miss Mccormick. His second
marriage united him with the Carriers,
of VIrginia-one of the Old DOmin-
ions historic houses; and his subse-
quent purchase of large landed es-
tate near what is now Valdosta trans
formed the brilliant young lawyer in
to an equally successful planter. His
plantation was christened Valdosta,
and at his death his body was buried
beneath the oaks that had sheltered
HIM in life.
1t was during his tenure of Office
that the opportunity came-as 1t comes
once to every man-to crystalline his
entire character in one memorable
deed, 1t was at the time when that
portion of the state above Macon had
been set aside as an Indian reserva-
ton. The Indians had heen removed
and the land should have reverted to
the state, which had. in fact, never re-
linquished its claim TO the territory.
But the authorities at Washington
held other views and a counter claim
was set up to the disputed lands. An
interminable correspondence ensued,
and, with John Adams, the second,
at one end and Governor Troup at the
other, the controversy was not per-
mitted to flag for want of fuel. The
end came at last. Wearied of conten-
ton but firm in his convictions, the
sturdy old wiregrass governor at last
dung back at President Adams these
memorable words:
"The arguments now being exhaust
ed, Georgia must appeal to arms"
1t was the last word in the contro-
versy. Adams dropped his case
Troup won his, and the disputed ter
ritOry is now peopled by the descend
ants of the citizens TO whom the state
eventually sold it.
such was the last wiregrass govern