Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Dissertations Department of History 4-23-2010 "Our Good and Faithful Servant": James Moore Wayne and Georgia Unionism Joel C. McMahon Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation McMahon, Joel C., ""Our Good and Faithful Servant": James Moore Wayne and Georgia Unionism." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2010. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/15 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “OUR GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT”: JAMES MOORE WAYNE AND GEORGIA UNIONISM by JOEL C. MCMAHON Under the Direction of Dr. Wendy H. Venet ABSTRACT Since the Civil War, historians have tried to understand why eleven southern states seceded from the Union to form a new nation, the Confederate States of America. What compelled the South to favor disunion over union? While enduring stereotypes perpetuated by the Myth of the Lost Cause cast most southerners of the antebellum era as ardent secessionists, not all southerners favored disunion. In addition, not all states were enthusiastic about the prospects of leaving one Union only to join another. Secession and disunion have helped shape the identity of the imagined South, but many Georgians opposed secession. This dissertation examines the life of U.S. Supreme Court Justice James Moore Wayne (1790-1867), a staunch Unionist from Savannah, Georgia. Wayne remained on the U.S. Supreme Court during the American Civil War, and this study explores why he remained loyal to the Union when his home state joined the Confederacy. Examining the nature of Wayne’s Unionism opens many avenues of inquiry into the nature of Georgia’s attitudes toward union and disunion in the antebellum era. By exploring the political, economic and social dimensions of Georgia Unionism and long opposition to secession, this work will add to the growing list of studies of southern Unionists. INDEX WORDS: James Moore Wayne, Unionism, Disunion, Secession, American South, Savannah, Georgia, Supreme Court of the United States, Civil War, Antebellum Georgia “OUR GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT”: JAMES MOORE WAYNE AND GEORGIA UNIONISM by JOEL C. MCMAHON A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2010 Copyright by Joel C. McMahon 2010 “OUR GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT”: JAMES MOORE WAYNE AND GEORGIA UNIONISM by JOEL C. MCMAHON Committee Chair: Dr. Wendy H. Venet Committee: Dr. Clifford M. Kuhn Dr. Charles G. Steffen Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2010 iv DEDICATION For my parents, James and Genevieve McMahon. Because of them, I am a Yankee by birth and Southern by the grace of God. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a dissertation often can be an infuriatingly lonely endeavor; however, researching a dissertation topic is not. Though often conceived as a solo effort, the dissertation, because of the assistance of so many people from so many places, is really a group project. It is a long-term process that requires the author to weave together threads of information gathered from disparate sources and stitch together patches of knowledge garnered from many archives and libraries. Behind every yellowed document and fragile book I touched, and within every library and archive I visited, are the people who help make history come alive. I have chased quite a few ghosts while trying to understand the life and times of James Moore Wayne, and I am indebted to many who helped me research, write and complete this dissertation. First, I would like to thank the archivists and librarians at the following institutions: the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, Georgia; the Atlanta History Center; the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation in Savannah, Georgia; the Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia; the Savannah College of Art and Design Library in Savannah, Georgia; the Girl Scouts of America; the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace and Museum in Savannah, Georgia; National Archives and Records Administration in Morrow, Georgia; the Georgia Archives in Morrow Georgia; Pullen Memorial Library at Georgia State University and the Georgia State University Law Library in Atlanta, Georgia; Woodruff Memorial Library at Emory University Library in Atlanta, Georgia; Weltner Library at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia; vi Georgia Institute of Technology Library and Information Center in Atlanta, Georgia; Princeton University Library; the Morris County, New Jersey Historical Society; the Supreme Court Historical Society; Clemson University Library in Clemson, South Carolina; the North Georgia College and State University Library in Dahlonega, Georgia; the University of Georgia Library in Athens, Georgia. In particular, I would like to thank archivist and genealogist Willard Rocker of the Washington Memorial Library in Macon, Georgia, who patiently and proficiently helped me decipher census records and tax digests. Second, I would like to thank my current and former colleagues and students at Georgia State University, Baker College, Mercer University, Georgia Perimeter College, and North Georgia College and State University who have supported and encouraged me over the years. In particular, I would like to thank Professors Tim Rennick, Chuck Steffen, and Kit Wellman of Georgia State University who taught me how to teach. In addition, Professors Doug Reynolds and Mohammed Hassen Ali, also of Georgia State University, offered levels of professionalism, collegiality, patience, and understanding that I can only now approximate and can only hope one day to achieve. In addition, I learn more from my students than I could ever teach, so it is and always will be an honor to be a part of their journey. Third, without the support and sound advice Dr. Wendy Hamand Venet of Georgia State University, under whose direction I wrote this dissertation, I would have never finished this project. Dr. Venet tolerated my periodic vents, listened attentively when I launched on speculative tangents, lured me back to terra firma vii when I rambled about the “flawed historical methodologies” I encountered, and understood without question when I put the project on hold several times over the years. For every false start I made and every delay I imposed, Dr. Venet always made herself available upon my return. Dr. Venet helped me transform passion into practice and realize the process was much more important than proving a hypothesis. I am indebted to the other members of my committee, Dr. Chuck Steffen and Dr. Cliff Kuhn, both of whom helped me close gaps in my analysis and identify possible avenues of inquiry. Finally, I owe a massive debt of gratitude to my family, who never stopped believing in me . even when I did. To Michele, my wife, that you for being my biggest fan . even when I do not deserve it. Your dreams are my dreams. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v CHAPTER 1. JAMES WAYNE AND GEORGIA UNIONISM: MEMORY, HISTORY AND METHOD 1 Secession and the Location of Sovereignty 13 Our Good and Faithful Servant 25 A Crowded Historiography 35 Methodology and Structure 50 2. JAMES WAYNE AND THE POLITICAL DIMENSION OF GEORGIA UNIONISM 59 Gladiatorial Activities: James Wayne’s Political Biography 70 Politics, Personalities, and Georgia’s Anti-Party System 81 “Noble Wayne”: Georgia’s First Supreme Court Justice 108 3. JAMES WAYNE AND THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION OF GEORGIA UNIONISM 122 The Wills and Ways of Two Generations of Georgians 128 Georgia’s Antebellum Economy 145 Jeremiahs and Judges: Georgia’s Political Economy and Economic Development 158 Tipping Point and Take-Off: Georgia on the Eve of the Civil War 172 4. JAMES WAYNE AND THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF GEORGIA UNIONISM 190 The Peculiar Institution in Georgia 200 The Peculiar Solution: Colonization 231 The Presidential Solution 245 5. CONCLUSION: A HOUSE DIVIDED 258 EPILOGUE: JAMES WAYNE IN BLACK AND WHITE 280 BIBLIOGRAPHY 290 1 CHAPTER ONE JAMES WAYNE AND GEORGIA UNIONISM: MEMORY, HISTORY AND METHOD “For men adapted their recollections to what they were suffering.”1 Thucydides “I know it is high treason,” wrote John Adams to Thomas Jefferson in 1819, “to express doubt of the perpetual duration of our vast American Empire and our free institutions . but I am sometimes Cassandra enough to dream that slavery might rend this mighty fabric in twain.” John Adams was not the only member of the Revolutionary generation who feared disunion. Noting that many of Adams’s contemporaries grappled uncomfortably with the peculiar institution, historian Elizabeth Varon states that “sectional antagonisms related to slavery shaped the constitutional Convention of 1787.” Subsequent generations inherited Adams’s fear and insecurity about the staying power of the nation, but this “jarring fear” of disunion was countered by the enduring and steadfast hope of those who held that 1 Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, Vol. 1, Henry Dale, trans. (London: George Bell and Sons, 1902), 123. 2 the bonds of union were strong enough to withstand the many political divisions, economic challenges, and competing social visions posing threats to the stability and survival of the Union.2 United States Supreme Court Justice James Wayne, a staunch and steadfast Georgia Unionist before and during the Civil War, was one of those who believed resolutely in the promise, the pragmatism, and the perpetuity of the Union. Erroneously remembered by history as a man whose views departed dramatically from those of other men of prominence in Georgia, evidence suggests that Wayne was not such an anomaly in his home state. Many antebellum Georgia leaders and ordinary Georgians exhibited “militantly Unionist” tendencies similar to those so strong and enduring like the ones of Wayne.