The Memories of Fifty Years | Page 2

William H. Sparks
some things,
the reading of which may revive incidents and persons long forgotten.
In the West, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas, there are
many--the descendants of those who participated in events transpiring
fifty years ago--who have listened at the parental hearth to their recital.
To these I send this volume greeting; and if they find something herein
to amuse and call up remembrances of the past, I shall feel gratified.
To the many friends I have in the Southwest, and especially in
Louisiana and Mississippi, where I have sojourned well-nigh fifty years,
and many of whom have so often urged upon me the writing of these
Memories, I commit the book, and ask of them, and of all into whose

hands it may fall, a lenient criticism, a kindly recollection, and a
generous thought of our past intercourse. It is an inexorable fate that
separates us, and I feel it is forever. This sad thought is alleviated,
however, by the consciousness that the few remaining sands of life are
falling at the home of my birth; and that when the end comes, as very
soon it must, I shall be placed to sleep amid my kindred in the land of
my nativity.
THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I
. REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS.
Middle Georgia--Colonel David Love--His Widow--Governor
Dunmore-- Colonel Tarleton--Bill Cunningham--Colonel Fannin--My
Grandmother's Bible--Solomon's Maxim Applied--Robertus Love--The
Indian Warrior-- Dragon Canoe--A Buxom Lass--General
Gates--Marion--Mason L. Weems --Washington--"Billy Crafford"

CHAPTER II
. PIONEER LIFE.
Settlement of Middle Georgia--Prowling Indians--Scouts and their
Dogs--Classes of Settlers--Prominence of Virginians--Causes of
Distinction--Clearing--Log-Rolling--Frolics--Teachers Cummings and
Duffy--The Schoolmaster's Nose--Flogging--Emigration to Alabama

CHAPTER III
. THE GEORGIA COMPANY.
Yazoo Purchase--Governor Matthews--James Jackson--Burning of the
Yazoo Act--Development of Free Government--Constitutional
Convention--Slavery: Its Introduction and Effects

CHAPTER IV

. POLITICAL DISPUTATIONS.
Baldwin--A Yankee's Political Stability--The Yazoo Question--Party
Feuds and Fights--Deaf and Dumb
Ministers--Clay--Jackson--Buchanan-- Calhoun--Cotton and Free
Trade--The Clay and Randolph Duel

CHAPTER V
. GEORGIA'S NOBLE SONS.
A Minister of a Day--Purity of Administration--Then and Now--Widow
Timberlake--Van Buren's Letter--Armbrister and Arbuthnot--Old
Hickory Settles a Difficulty--A Cause of the Late War--Honored Dead

CHAPTER VI
. POPULAR CHARACTERISTICS.
A Frugal People--Laws and Religion--Father Pierce--Thomas W.
Cobb-- Requisites of a Political Candidate--A
Farmer-Lawyer--Southern Humorists

CHAPTER VII
. WITS AND FIRE-EATERS.
Judge Dooly--Lawyers and Blacksmiths--John Forsyth--How Juries
were Drawn--Gum-Tree _vs._
Wooden-Leg--Preacher-Politicians--Colonel Gumming--George
McDuffie

CHAPTER VIII
. FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Governor Matthews--Indians--Topography of Middle Georgia--A New
Country and its Settlers--Beaux and Belles--Early Training--Jesuit
Teachers--A Mother's Influence--The Jews--Homely Sports--The
Cotton Gin--Camp-Meetings

CHAPTER IX
. PEDAGOGUES AND DEMAGOGUES.
Education--Colleges--School-Days--William and Mary--A Substitute--
Boarding Around--Rough Diamonds--Caste--George M. Troup--A
Scotch Indian--Alexander McGilvery--The McIntosh Family--Button
Gwinnett --General Taylor--Matthew Talbot--Jesse Mercer--An
Exciting Election

CHAPTER X
. INDIAN TREATIES AND DIFFICULTIES.
The Creeks--John Quincy Adams--Hopothlayohola--Indian
Oratory--Sulphur Springs--Treaties Made and Broken--An Independent
Governor--Colonels John S. McIntosh, David Emanuel Twiggs, and
Duncan Clinch--General Gaines--Christianizing the Indians--Cotton
Mather--Expedient and Principle--The Puritanical Snake

CHAPTER XI
. POLITICAL CHANGES.
Aspirants for Congress--A New Organization--Two Parties--A
Protective Tariff--United States Bank--The American System--Internal
Improvements --A Galaxy of Stars--A Spartan Mother's
Advice--Negro-Dealer-- Quarter-Races--Cock-Pitting--Military
Blunders on Both Sides--Abner Green's Daughter--Andrew
Jackson--Gwinn--Poindexter--Ad Interim-- Generals by Nature as Civil
Rulers

CHAPTER XII
. GOSSIP.
Unrequited Love--Popping the Question--Practical Joking--Satan Let
Loose--Rhea, but not Rhea--Teachings of Nature--H.S. Smith

CHAPTER XIII

. INFLUENCE OF CHILDHOOD.
First Impressions--Fortune--Mirabeau B. Lamar--Dr. Alonzo
Church--Julius Cæsar--L.Q.C. Lamar--Texan
Independence--Colquitt--Lumpkin--What a Great Man Can Do in One
Day--Charles J. Jenkins

CHAPTER XIV
. A REVOLUTIONARY VETERAN.
Tapping Reeve--James Gould--Colonel Benjamin Talmadge--The
Execution of Major André--Character of Washington--A Breach of
Discipline-- Burr and Hamilton--Margaret Moncrief--Cowles Meade

CHAPTER XV
. CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.
Governor Wolcott--Toleration--Mr. Monroe--Private Life of
Washington --Thomas Jefferson--The Object and Science of
Government--Court Etiquette--Nature the Teacher and Guide in all
Things

CHAPTER XVI
. PARTY PRINCIPLES.
Origin of Parties--Federal and Republican Peculiarities--Jefferson's
Principles and Religion--Democracy--Virginia and Massachusetts
Parties--War with France--Sedition Law--Lyman Beecher--The
Almighty Dollar--"Hail Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle"

CHAPTER XVII
. CONGRESS IN ITS BRIGHTEST DAYS.
Missouri Compromise--John Randolph's Juba--Mr. Macon--Holmes
and Crawford--Mr. Clay's Influence--James Barbour--Philip P.
Barbour-- Mr. Pinkney--Mr. Beecher, of Ohio--"Cuckoo,
Cuckoo!"--National Roads --William Lowndes--William Roscoe--Duke

of Argyle--Louis McLean-- Whig and Democratic Parties

CHAPTER XVIII
. FRENCH AND SPANISH TERRITORY.
Settlers on the Tombigbee and Mississippi Rivers--La Salle--Natchez
--Family Apportionment--The Hill Country--Hospitality--Benefit of
African Slavery--Capacity of the Negro--His Future

CHAPTER XIX
. THE NATCHEZ TRADITIONS.
Natchez--Mizezibbee; or, The Parent of Many Waters--Indian
Mounds-- The Child of the Sun--Treatment of the Females--Poetic
Marriages-- Unchaste Maids and Pure Wives--Walking Archives--The
Profane Fire-- Alahoplechia--Oyelape--The Chief with a Beard

CHAPTER XX
. EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
Chicago--Crying Indians--Chickasaws--De Soto--Feast of the Great
Sun--Cane-Knives--Love-stricken Indian Maiden--Rape of the Natchez
--Man's Will--Subjugation of the Waters--The Black Man's
Mission--Its Decade

CHAPTER XXI
. TWO STRANGE BEINGS.
Romance of Western Life--Met by Chance--Parting on the
Levee--Meeting at the Sick-Bed--Convalescent--Love-Making--"Home,
Sweet Home"-- Theological Discussion--Uncle Tony--Wild, yet
Gentle--An Odd Family--The Adventurer Speculates
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