The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-01
A CONFLICT OF WILLS.

A OONEAICV Ot W44AS.
 In The Macon Telegraph some days ago there was an article on .the old Indian town of Cheehaw, in the course of which the author quotes two interesting letters which show how two hard-headed men sometimes run foul of each other. 1t seems that some Georgia troops had com mitted a really outraged attack on the Cheehaw village snd General Jackson. who was then in command of this mili- tary district, wrote, to Governor Rabun of Georgia on May '. ISIS, in .iis charac- teristic style:
 Such base cowardice and murderous conduct as this transaction affords has no parallel in history. and shall meet with its merited punishment. You, sir, as Gov ernor of State within my military di- vision. have no right to give military order while am in the field; and this being an open and violent infringement of the treaty with the Creek Indians Captain Wright must be prosecuted and punished for this outrageous murder. and I have ordered him to be arrested and confined in irons, until the pleasure of the President of the United States is known upon the subject. If he has left Hartford before my orders can reach him, tuit upon yOu, dS 0OVeEftOF OI 0tof- gia. to aid me in carrying into effect my oi der for his arrest and confinement, which I trust will be afforded. and Cap tain Wright brought to condign punish ment for this unparalleled murder.
 This was eminently Jacksonian. as all know who have any knowledge of old Hickory's style. and some Governors woulc have quaked in their shoes and would have lost no time in complying with the re- quest, but Governor Rabun was made of about the same material that Jackson was, and without delay or hesitation handed back the following hot one:
 Had you. sir, or General Glascock. been in possession of the facts that produced that you would not have indulged in q strain so indecorous and unbecoming. had. on March 21 last. stated the situation of our bleeding frontier to you and re- quested you, in respectful terms, to de- tail a part of your overwhelming force for our protection, or that you would furnish supplies, and I would order out more troops, to which you have never naughty tone. that l. as Governor of State under your military division, have no right to give a military order whilst you are in the field. Wretched and con temptible. indeed. must be our situation if this be the fact. When the liberties of the people of Georgia shall have been prostrated at the feet of a military des- potism, then. and not till then, VIII your imperious doctrine be tamely submitted to. You may rest assured that if saw ages continue their depredations on our unprotected frontier, l shall think and act for myself in that respect.
 To an officer of Jackson's fiery and dom- at hax, been worse than a red rag to mad bull. but he seems not to have been able to help himself. for the Governor evidently had the best of 1t. His idea of States rights was about as we'll developed as that held forty years later, and he didn't propose to let any military officer over ride his own authority or the rights of his State. Jackson may have ''cussed few" when he read the letter but that didn't phase Georgia or her Governor.
 And by the way, this was not the only instance of Georgias backbone. All the early Governors seem to have been in- tensely jealous of their rights, and were always ready to uphold the authority of the State against all the world, including Uncle Sam himself. In 1s25-6 there came rear being a clash of arms over the ques- tion of Creek Indian land claims and boundaries, and on other occasions the Governors were almost at daggers points with the Federal officials
 As an evidence of the way great men may be In error on important questions. 1t is stated in the article from which we gather the foregoing facts that in 1S412 exPresident John Quincey Adams, who was then a Representative in Congress, alluded in a speech to the Jackson Ra- bun episode. stating that Jackson declared martial law In Georgia and that the Gov ernor was right in yielding to the claim" He was promptly corrected by Judge Warren. who showed that the claim of authority advanced by Jackson was promptly and successfully resisted" by the Governor. It is certain that Cover nor Rabun was one of the few men who ever got the best of Jackson on ques- tion of power and in a conflict of wills. It was something like the old puzzle of | an irresistible force. striking an immov- | able obstruction.