rican merchant vessel as it was leaving harbor. Three men were
killed, eighteen wounded, and four sailors seized. This outrage inflamed
the whole country, and in December of that year Congress passed a law
preventing American vessels from leaving their ports to trade with
foreign nations. This law was deeply resented by the New England States,
and they held at Hartford, Conn., the first secession convention that
ever met in this country.

[Illustration: British Impressement of Americans 188]

Georgia was foremost among the States to denounce and resist the
aggressive acts of Great Britain. In 1808 the Legislature sent an
address to the President of the United States, approving the measures he
had taken, and declared that the people of Georgia were strong in their
independence, and proud of their government, and that they would never
wish to see the lives and property of their brethren exposed to the
insult and rapacity of a foreign power; but if the war should come, they
would, in proportion to their number and resources, give zealous aid to
the government of their choice.

The British, meanwhile, made arrangements to force a cotton trade with
Georgia and South Carolina, and for the purpose fitted out a number
of vessels of from ten to fifteen guns each. These vessels were to
be employed in opening the ports of Georgia and Carolina. A war brig
anchored at Tybee, and two of its officers went to Savannah. When they
had made known their purpose, they were peremptorily ordered away. They
returned to their vessel and put to sea; but as they were leaving, they
fired at a pilot boat in the harbor, and committed other outrages.

This incident and others aroused the indignation of the people. The
Legislature passed resolutions, addressed to the President of the
United States, declaring that all hope of a peaceful termination of
the difficulty had been lost, that the duty of the United States was to
maintain its sovereign rights against the despots of Europe, and that
the citizens of Georgia would ever be found in readiness to assert the
rights and support the dignity of the country whenever called on by the
General Government. By the time the treaty of peace was made, the day
before Christmas in 1814, the war spirit in Georgia had been roused
to the highest pitch by the numerous outrages committed by the Indian
allies of the British.

But the story of the Indian troubles belongs to a chapter by itself.

THE CREEKS