Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

February 12

1733 Under the New Style calendar, this is the day celebrated as Georgia Day to mark the landing of James Oglethorpe and the first colonists at Yamacraw Bluff. According to the Old Style of dating in effect at the time, the colonists actually arrived Feb. 1, 1732/33. For the story of how Feb. 1, 1732/33 (Old Style) represents Feb. 12, 1733 (New Style), click here.

1811 Reconstruction provisional Gov. James Johnson born in Robinson County, N.C. He attended the University of Georgia with Alexander Stephens, graduating in 1832. After studying law, Johnson was admitted to the bar in 1835 and practice law in Columbus. In 1851, he was elected to Congress, where he served on term. Johnson was opposed to the secession movement, and he did not participate in the Civil War. After the war, Pres. Andrew Johnson named him provisional governor of Georgia. That fall he lost the election, and subsequently served as U.S. customs collector in Savannah (1866-1869) and superior court judge (1869-1875). In 1875, Johnson returned to the practice of law in Columbus. He died in Chattahoochee County on Nov. 20, 1891.

1825 A group of Lower Creek chiefs led by William McIntosh signed the Treaty of Indian Springs giving up all remaining Creek lands in Georgia. Subsequently, a group of Upper Creeks assassinated McIntosh on April 29, 1825 at his home on the Chattahoochee River. Opposition by Creeks to the Treaty of Indian Springs would lead to subsequent treaties in 1826 and 1827 whereby all Creek lands in Georgia were ceded to the state. [Click here to read text of treaties.]

1909 Arising from the Niagara Movement, W.E.B. Du Bois and other key blacks founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The organization was incorporated in 1910.

1933 Georgia celebrated the bicentennial of the arrival of James Oglethorpe and the first colonists to Yamacraw Bluff on Feb. 12, 1733 (New Style). In honor of the event, the U.S. Post Office issued a 3-cent James Oglethorpe commemorative stamp.

1962 A civil rights bus boycott began in Macon, Ga.

1983 Day-long parades and celebrations were held in Savannah marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of Georgia. As part of the Georgia's Semiquincentenary (a term that literally U.S. means half of 500 years), the U.S. Postal Service issued a 13-cent postal card featuring a painting of Oglethorpe's initial meeting with Tomochichi.

1999 In Washington D.C., Georgia's two U.S. senators voted in the impeachment trial of Pres. Bill Clinton. On Dec. 19, 1998, the House of Representatives had voted two impeachment charges against Pres. Clinton: (1) that he had given "perjurious, false and misleading testimony" to a federal grand jury, and (2) that he had conspired to "prevent, obstruct and impede the administration" of justice. Conviction and removal from office required a two-thirds vote by the Senate -- something no knowledgeable observer predicted would occur on the day of the vote. Meeting in executive session, the Senate voted "not guilty" on the first count by a vote of 55-45, and tied on the second by a 50-50 vote. However, anything less than a two-thirds "guilty" vote amounted to an acquittal. As for Georgia's two senators, on the first charge:

• Sen. Paul Coverdell joined 44 other Republicans in voting "guilty", and
• Sen. Max Cleland joined 44 other Democrats and 10 Republicans in voting "not guilty."

On the second charge:

• Sen. Coverdell joined 50 other Republicans in voting "guilty", and
• Sen. Cleland joined 45 other Democrats and 5 Republicans in voting "not guilty".

The vote marked the second time in U.S. history that a sitting president had been impeached by the House and tried by the Senate. As with the case of Pres. Andrew Johnson in 1868, both presidents were acquitted (though Johnson escaped by a single vote). However, in 1868, Georgia was not represented in Congress because of Reconstruction. So, the Feb. 12, 1999 impeachment vote marked the first occasion in history for Georgia's senators to participate in a trial to remove a president.

Georgia towns and cities first incorporated by acts approved on Feb. 12:

1951 Lake City (Clayton County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1743 From Frederica, James Oglethorpe wrote the Trustees in response to the public criticisms of Georgia that former colonist Thomas Stephens was making in London. Among Oglethorpe's solutions to Georgia's problems were eliminating rum and promoting more marriages:

". . . It was not 'till after the war obliged me to be upon the frontier that the laws for the welfare of the colony and the Trustees' orders were disobeyed at Savannah. There has been since my coming away nothing but continual complaints between the Magistrates and inhabitants and between each other. . . . since this spirit has been stirring, the town and district of Savannah has decreased daily in men. I find they say at the bar they drank rum publicly. I believe it may at Savannah have been drank plentifully by the great sickness and mortality there, but here there has been no such thing and the people have been healthy.

"The mortality in America is chiefly owing to distilled liquors. The mixing with water makes them less hurtful, but is very far from making them wholesome.

" . . . I can assure you if rum is allowed in any shape here the soldiers will be unfit for action and the inhabitants for labour, and sickness will be as fatal as at Jamaica which will then be imputed to the climate.

"The first measures for us at Trustees to take is after supporting religion to encourage marriage and the rearing up of children.

". . . The sending over single women without families that could protect them might be attended with indecencies, but the giving passage to the wives, sisters and daughters of recruits and a small maintenance 'till they go on board would be a remedy to this and much the cheapest way of peopling the country, since after their arrival they are no further expense, for their husbands can maintain them.

"We have found also that the married soldiers live easiest, many of them having turned out very industrious planters. . . ."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), Vol. II, pp. 658-661.

1838 In Dec. 1835, a faction of Cherokee leaders resigned to removal to the West, signed the Treaty of New Echota in which they agreed to give up all claims to Cherokee lands in the East. That action was in violation of Cherokee law and was opposed by the majority of Cherokees. On the other hand, most Georgia politicians were anxious to have the Indians removed -- by force if necessary. Yet, over two years after the signing of the Treaty of New Echota, many Cherokees had no intention of leaving voluntarily, as noted by this letter to Georgia governor George Gilmer written by Thomas MacFarland from Rossville, near the Georgia-Tennessee boundary:

"In accordance with a promise made to you before leaving Milledgeville, I very cheerfully write you a line on the subject of our Cherokee affairs. On my way home some three weeks ago, I travelled on business [in] a kind of zig-zag direction through the Nation, passing through Forsyth, Cherokee, Cass and Floyd counties. I found many of the Cherokees repairing their fences and clearing up their fields, preparatory to making another crop, some of them erecting cabins as though there was not the least prospect of their early removal. And, although very few are preparing to emigrate, yet they all continue quiet and peaceable. They still appear to entertain the hope of effecting a new treaty and getting a longer time to remain in this country.

"I conversed with scarcely any persons on my route who entertained any serious apprehension of danger. I believe there is less excitement at this time among our own citizens than at any previous period since I came into the country. The most intelligent of our people believe that when the Cherokees become convinced that they will be compelled to go West, although the great mass of them will be exceedingly dissatisfied, yet that the few desperate spirits which may be among them will not have sufficient influence over the more intelligent and calculating portion of the Nation to incite them to commit hostilities and that nearly all the Georgia part of the Nation at least will depart in peace. . . ."

Source: Edward J. Cashin, A Wilderness Still The Cradle of Nature: Frontier Georgia (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1994), p. 124.

1862 Fort Pulaski, located on an island near the mouth of the Savannah River, was almost surrounded by Union naval and ground forces. Nevertheless, its Confederate defenders felt the fort's massive walls could not be penetrated by artillery shells. And, stocked with a year's provisions, there was an air of confidence, as evidenced by this letter from Theodore Montfort to his wife:

". . . You can see from the ramparts some sixty or seventy Yankee vessels. You can see their tents and hear their drums from an island over on the South Carolina side. We are almost surrounded by them and may, I think, very probably will be very soon cut off from Savannah and consequently from all communications with our families. We have, however, twelve months' provisions in the fort and before they can perish us out the yellow fever will come to our assistance and run them off. As to taking the fort, they never can do it by fighting. We are perfectly protected. Neither shell [n]or balls can hurt us. . . . I am discharging my duty to my country and family. I am at this time deprived of the pleasure of being with you, which is a great loss. Yet to be with you while the country needs my services and while your own safety and protection makes it necessary for the enemy to be sent back, I should be unworthy to be your husband or a free man. Therefore, I am prepared to submit to any inconveniences, to make any sacrifice and face any danger that duty may require. Nothing less would be right, nothing more is required. . . . "

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Georgia History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), pp. 147-148.

1867 Commenting on the rapid growth of Atlanta despite Reconstruction, the editor of the Milledgeville Federal Union wrote in his newspaper:

"Atlanta is certainly a fast place in every sense of the word, and our friends in Atlanta are a fast people. They live fast and they die fast. They make money fast and they spend it fast. They build houses fast, and they burn them down fast. . . . They have the largest public buildings, and the most of them, and they pass the most resolutions of any people, ancient or modern. To a stranger the whole city seems to be running on wheels, and all of the inhabitants continually blowing off steam. In short, everything and everybody in and about the place seems to be moving very fast except Mayor Williams, who, the last we heard from him, was steadfast and immovable."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of 1954 original volume), Vol. I, p. 768.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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