y. Almost immediately after the
election of Clarke, the opposition presented the name of George M.
Troup, who had been voted for as an opposing candidate at the time of
Clarke's election. It was but a little while before the State trembled
with the agitation which seemed to disturb every breast. None could be
neutral. All were compelled to take sides or be crushed between the
contending parties or factions; for this division of the people was
only factious. There was no great principle upon which they divided; it
was men only. Clarke and his friends favored the pretensions of Mr.
Calhoun to the Presidency solely because he was the enemy of Crawford,
and they were subsequently transferred to the support of Jackson as
readily as cattle in the market.

For two years was this agitation increasing in intensity, and so bitter
had it made animosities arising out of it, that reason seemed to reel,
and justice to forget her duty. Men were chosen indiscriminately to
office because of party proclivities. Intelligence and moral worth were
entirely disregarded--families divided--husbands and wives
quarrelled--father and sons were estranged, and brothers were at deadly
strife. There was no argument in the matter; for there was nothing upon
which to predicate an argument. To introduce the subject was to promote
a quarrel. Churches were distracted and at discord, and the pulpit, for
the first time in Georgia, desecrated by political philippics. Pierce
then, as now, was the leading minister of the Methodist Church in the
State, and abstained in the pulpit, but made no secret of his
preferences upon the street. Duffie travelled everywhere. He had by
unkindness driven from him his wife with her infant child, and, in her
helpless and desperate condition, she had taken refuge with the Shaking
Quakers in the West, and remained with them until her death. His son
came to him after maturity, and was established by him on a plantation
with a number of slaves; but, having inherited all the brutal ferocity
of his father, it was not long before he murdered one or two of them.
Incarcerated in the county jail, his father invoked party aid to
release him, openly declaring it was due to him for party services in
opposing that son of the Devil--John Clarke. Whether his party or his
money did the work I know not; but the miserable wretch escaped from
jail, and was never brought to trial.

Peter Gautier was another prominent preacher-politician, and exer