The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-10-20
SOUTH CAR0LINIANS
WERE DRUNK, TOO.
The Legislature solemnly Rat1-
fed the Error.
From the Atlanta Journal.

cups at the Beaufort convention
which fixed the boundary between
Georgia and the Palmetto State. Mr..
W. G.. Chafee. of Greenwood, S. c.,
writes The Journal an interesting
letter, calling attention to the fact
that by the third section Of the Beau.
fort convention, the purport Of which
seems to been overlooked. the South
CaroIinians ceded the whole of their
State to Georgia, and this was SOL
emnly ratified by the Legislature.
Mr.. Chafee insists that, the South
Carolina commissioners were too
hospitable to remain sober while the
Georgians were drunk, and the quo
tation he makes seems to be good evi
dence of that fact Mr.. Chafee's let
ter is as follows:
GREENWOOD, Sept. 81, 1897
TO the Editor of The Journal T:
Il note in The State, columbia,
S C., an article of muca historical
interest, b7 Mr.. w. G. Cooper, re-
Gently published in The Journal
under the head lines, "How South
Carolina Got the Better of Georgia"
"'Tbe caption of the article is en-.
tirely misleading, for if the records
are to be relied on, South Carolina is
but a province of Georgia and her
metropolis by the sea entitled to no
greater distinction than that of
suburb of the fourishing city of At
lanta
Mr.. Cooper courteously suggests
that only the Georgia commissioners
at the Beaufort convention looked
too often upon the wine when it was
red.
In those good old days the three
honored and honorable commission
ers from South Carolina would never
have permitted their Georgia friends
to remain alone under the table, but
doubtless there with them continued
their mutual deliberations upon the
high affairs of State then before
them.
In that halcyoned age our ances-
tors from the Palmetto State translat-
ed their motto (animis opibusque pa.
ratD into the congenial words cal
ways ready to take drink" 4"
BE il also remembered that 1t had
not then been even necessary for the
governor of North Carolina to remind
the bibuious laggard from his sister
State of the woful lapse of time be-
tween cups
The Beaufort treaty is one of the
most remarkable documents that has
ever found its way through legisla
tive body and into the statute book
of state, inasmuch as after fixing
the boundaries Of South Carolina and
Georgia, it, in spirit Of true South
Carolina generosity, most complais-
antly cedes to Georgia the whole
State of South Carolina unless per-
chance the State existed in a narrow
strip of land extending from the
source of Tugalo river to the Missis.
sippi. Section one of the Beaufort
treaty, which fixes the boundaries
of the two States where their re-
spective territories are contiguous,
reads as follows
The most northern branch or
stream of the river Savannah from
the sea or mouth Of such stream to
the fork or confluence of the rivers
now called Tuga1o and Keowee and
from thence the western branch or
stream OF the said river
Tugalo till it intersects the northern
boundary line of South Carolina, if
the said branch or stream extends so
far orth, reservipg all the islands in
said rivers Tugaio and Savannah to
Georgia but if the head spring or
source of any branch or stream of
said river Tugalo does not extend to
the north boundary line of South
Carolina, then west line to the Mis-
sissippi to be Fdrawn from the head
spring or source of the said branch
or stream of Tugalo river, which
extends to the highest northern latl-
tudc, shall forever hereafter form the
separation, limit and boundary be
tween the states of South Carolina
and Georgia y
Section third reads ss follows:
"The state of South Carolina shall
not hereafter claim any lands to the
eastward. southwark. southwestward
or west of the boundary above es
tablisbed, but hereby relinquishes
and cedes to the state of Georgia all
the right, title and claim which the
said state of South Carolina hath to
the government, sovereignty and
jurisdiction in and over the same and
also the right and pre- emption of the
soil from native Indians, and all other
the estate, property and claim which