involving a group of Southern and Boston capitalists. In January,
1795, the Georgia Legislature, by special act, sold millions of acres
in different parts of the State of Georgia to four land companies.
The people of the State were convinced that this purchase had been
obtained by bribery. It was made an election issue, and a
Legislature, comprising almost wholly new members, was elected. In
February, 1796, this Legislature passed a rescinding act, declaring
the act of the preceding year void, on the ground of its having been
obtained by "improper influence." In 1803 the tracts in question were
transferred by the Georgia Legislature to the United States
Government.

The Georgia Mississippi Land Company was one of the four companies.
In the meantime, this company had sold its tract, for ten cents an
acre, to the New England Mississippi Land Company. Although committee
after committee of Congress reported that the New England Mississippi
Land Company had paid little or no actual part of the purchase price,
yet that company, headed by some of the foremost Boston capitalists,
lobbied in Congress for eleven years for an act giving it a large
indemnity. Finally, in 1814, Congress passed an indemnification act,
under which the eminent Bostonians, after ten years more lobbying,
succeeded in getting an award from the United States Treasury of
$1,077,561.73. The total amount appropriated by Congress on the
pretense of settling the claims of the various capitalists in the
"Yazoo Claims" was $1,500,000. [Footnote: Senate Documents,
Eighteenth Congress, Second Session, 1824-25, Vol. ii, Doc. No. 14,
and Senate Documents, Twenty-fourth Congress, 1836-37, Vol. ii, No.
212. After the grants were secured, the companies attempted to
swindle the State of Georgia by making payments in depreciated
currency. Georgia refused to accept it. When the grant was rescinded,