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268:. These companies persuaded the Georgia state assembly to sell more than 40,000,000 acres (160,000 km) of land for $ 500,000. Many Georgia officials and legislators were offered shares in these companies or bribes to secure their agreement to the sale. On January 7, 1795, Governor Mathews signed into law a bill authorizing the sale of the 40,000,000 acres (160,000 km), known as the Yazoo Act.
92:(1810), the Court ruled that the contracts were binding and the state could not retroactively invalidate the earlier land sales. It was one of the first times the Supreme Court had overturned a state law, and it justified many claims for those lands. Some of the land sold by the state in 1794 had been shortly thereafter resold to innocent third parties, greatly complicating the
214:. This area included the Natchez area and was in the area also claimed by Spain. The state appointed civil and judicial officers for the new county, but under pressure from the federal government, Georgia dissolved Bourbon County in 1788. The federal government opposed Bourbon County because of the unresolved Spanish claim, and because claims to the area by the
334:, the governors and legislature of Georgia made overlapping land grants in the eastern part of the state, effectively granting three times more land than existed in the state. Although land grants were supposed to be limited to 1,000 acres (4 km) per individual, the state awarded multiple grants of 1,000 acres (4 km) to certain people.
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signed a deal to sell 20,000,000 acres (81,000 km) of land to the Yazoo companies for $ 207,000, or about 1 cent per acre. These lands were located north of the mouth of the Yazoo River and extended eastward from the
Mississippi. The deal collapsed in 1792 when the companies sought to pay with
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called the
Combined Society was formed; the members' sole purpose was to make money by land speculation. This group secured influence in the Georgia legislature to further its aims. In 1789 three companies, The South Carolina Yazoo Company, The Virginia Yazoo Company (which was headed by
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The territory that was the subject of these purchases included most of the land that had been the subject of the 1789 purchase attempt, and a significant portion of it was resold to buyers in other parts of the country who were not aware of the shaky nature of the transactions.
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In 1794, four new companies were formed: the
Georgia Company, the Georgia-Mississippi Company, the Upper Mississippi Company, and the new Tennessee Company. Their principals included individuals active in the 1789 purchases, as well as leading Georgia politicians such as
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But the matter was not over. The state refunded money to people who had purchased land, but some refused the money, preferring to keep the land. The state did not recognize their claims, and the matter was to wind through courts for the next decade. In 1802 the state
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led the reform efforts: Irwin was elected
Governor of Georgia and, less than two months after taking office, signed a bill on February 13, 1796 nullifying the Yazoo Act. The state burned all copies of the bill except for one that had been sent to President
308:), along with the ongoing legal disputes. Claims by third-party owners who had innocently purchased land from the original companies were not fully resolved until 1816. Spanish claims to the Georgia territory were resolved with the 1795
82:, to political insiders at very low prices in 1794. Although the law enabling the sales was overturned by reformers the following year, its ability to do so was challenged in the courts, eventually reaching the
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decision marked one of the first times the Court overturned a state law, deciding that the land sales were binding contracts and could not be retroactively invalidated by the passage of superseding legislation.
104:. In exchange the government paid cash and assumed the legal liabilities. Claims involving the land purchases were not fully resolved until legislation was passed in 1814 establishing a claims-resolution fund.
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depreciated old currency, which the state refused to accept. The existence of the
Combined Society was also exposed in 1792; some of its principals continued to be active in attempts to develop Georgia lands.
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151:, excepting only the coastal areas of those states). Some of this territory was claimed and occupied by Native Americans, and southern portions of the territory were also claimed by
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507:, recommending consideration of proposals from private companies for the sale of western lands, December 9, 1794. One of many Yazoo Land Fraud documents in the
111:, another land scandal that took place in east Georgia at about the same time. In this case, the state's high-ranking officials were making multiple gifts of
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When the details of the sale were revealed, public outrage was widespread, and people protested to federal officials and
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area. This attempt never got off the ground because its major proponents became involved instead in an effort to establish the
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296:. Jackson resigned as Senator to run for office as next Governor of Georgia. He was elected and took office two years later.
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for the same parcels, resulting in the issuance of grants totaling much more land than was available in the state of
Georgia.
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The first attempt of
Georgia to organize settlement in this area was a 1784 proposal to establish Houstoun County in the
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Kennedy, Brenden (2017). "'Not Worth a Pinch of Snuff': The 1789 Yazoo Land Sale and
Sovereignty in the Old Southwest".
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Legal challenges to
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Map of the American Deep south, showing the three areas which constituted the 1789 Yazoo land scandal.
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presence. Some Georgia authorities and speculators thought these developed lands could be seized.
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all claim to lands west of its present border (which were organized into the
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The origins of the Yazoo land scandal lay in the desire of the U.S. state of
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Yazoo: Law and Politics in the New Republic. The Case of 'Fletcher v. Peck'.
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Lamplugh, George R. (2010). "James Gunn: Georgia Federalist, 1789-1801".
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The State of Franklin (in red) superimposed on a map of modern Tennessee
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Politics on the Periphery: Factions and Parties in Georgia, 1783-1806
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Historical marker at the site of the Georgia Capitol at the time
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Report of the committee to the Georgia House of Representatives
70:. Georgia politicians sold large tracts of territory in the
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List of federal political scandals in the United States
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in the area east of the Mississippi and south of the
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had been settled during the British administration of
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575:Political corruption scandals in the United States
494:(1966). Providence, R.I.: Brown University Press.
487:(1991). Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press.
107:The Yazoo land fraud is often conflated with the
394:"Treaty regarding Georgia's western lands, 1802"
459:. University of Delaware Press. pp. 148–.
330:During the same period, in what was called the
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485:Georgia Land Surveying History and Law
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58:perpetrated, in the mid-1790s, by
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536:, University of Tulsa Law School
560:History of Georgia (U.S. state)
302:ceded to the federal government
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368:Lamplugh, George R. (2015).
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