confidentially, and implored
him not to issue the order. He assured him that a collision was
inevitable if he did, and caused him to pause and consult his advisers,
who declared their conviction that the first treaty was the law of the
land, and that Georgia held vested rights under it. In obedience to
this advice, Mr. Adams made no further effort to prevent the action of
Georgia, and the lands were surveyed and disposed of by the State,
under and according to the terms of the first treaty, and she retains a
large strip of territory that would have been lost to her under the
last treaty. My information of these facts was derived from Twiggs,
Clinch, and Henry Clay. Who the friend was to whom the letter was
intrusted, I never knew. I mentioned to Mr. Clay the facts, and he
stated that they were true, but no knowledge of them ever came to him
until the expiration of Mr. Adams' Administration. General Taylor
stated to me that long after these events had transpired, and after the
resignation of Colonel Clinch, General Twiggs had made the
communication to him. As nearly as I can remember, Twiggs made the
statement to me in the language I have used here. On returning from the
ratification meeting, at Canton, of the nomination of Mr. Clay for the
Presidency, in 1844, before we reached Baltimore, I was in a carriage
with General Clinch and Senator Barrow, of Louisiana, and stated these
facts, and Clinch verified them.

General Gaines was, of all men, the most unfit for a position like that
in which he was placed. He was a good fighter, a chivalrous, brave man;
but he was weak and vain, and without tact or discretion. His
intentions were, at all times, pure, but want of judgment frequently
placed him in unpleasant positions. The condition of the minds of the
people of Georgia, at this time, was such, that very little was
necessary to excite them to acts of open strife, and had Mr. Adams been
less considerate than he was, there is now no telling what would have
been the consequence. He was extremely unpopular at the South, and
this, added to the inflamed condition of public opinion there, would
assuredly have brought on a collision. Had it come, it might have
resulted in a triumph of Southern principles, which, at a later day,
and under less auspicious circumstances, struggled for existence, only
to be crushed perhaps forever.

It was universally the wish of the people of Georgia to have possession
of the land properly belongin