"A FREE REPRESENTATION is what we fought for, A FREE REPRESENTATION is  what we obtained; A FREE REPRESENTATION is what our children should be taught to LISP, and our YOUTHS to relinquish only with their LIVES." 

 —James Jackson (1791) 

 A Solid Chip Off the Old Savannahian Block: Old Fort Jackson 

In 1772, at age 15, James Jackson immigrated to Savannah from Devonshire, England. An old country lawyer known to his family, John Wereat, had settled in Savannah, and the young boy apprenticed under him. To be sure, with his fiery temper, James Jackson became more than a local handful. 

During the American Revolutionary War, the teenage Jackson took up arms against his mother country. He fought for his new nation's independence with unquestioned bravery and exceptional dedication. It was said of him: "He did not sheathe his sword on his Nation's behalf until Independence became a fact." 

Given his harsh temper, Jackson gained a reputation as the Prince of Duelists. At that time, political factionalism was often a blood sport in Georgia. In his early 20s, James Jackson killed Georgia's Lieutenant Governor George Wells in a duel in February 1780. Jackson was wounded in both knees. 

When the British abandoned Savannah in 1782 after the American Revolution came to its victorious end, General Anthony Wayne (see PFS-109) offered James Jackson the honor of receiving the keys to the city from the Brits. Jackson later became a Major General in the Georgia Militia in 1792. 

Politics became James Jackson's next domain. In 1789, elected to the first United States House of Representatives to serve the new nation, Jackson was a vigorous opponent of Alexander Hamilton's plan to assume each state's debts from the Revolutionary War. Having accumulated little war debt, Georgia should not have to work off the debts of other states, or so Jackson argued. 

Defeated by Anthony Wayne, his former military commander, for re-election to Congress in 1791, Jackson charged campaign election tampering occurred, took his case before Congress, and lost by a single vote. Jackson was elected Senator from Georgia in 1793. He was elected Governor of Georgia, serving from 1798-1801, then returned to the US Senate, serving until his death at age 48 in 1806. 

Jackson's most significant contribution to Georgian politics was overturning the Yazoo Land Fraud Corruption of 1795. He resigned his seat in the Senate, then returned to Georgia to win a Georgia legislative seat so he could personally organize a campaign to uncover the corruption and set the matter right. Charges soon came against Governor George Mathews and his cronies in the Georgia legislature, who sold large tracts of land in present-day Alabama and Mississippi to political insiders at low prices. 

Any political opponent to James Jackson had to consider his fiery temperament and willingness to take any controversial argument 'outside' for a bloody street brawl or even a duel to the death. However, in this case, Jackson primarily brought his legal skills to help clean up the Yazoo Land Scandal. 

Some of the corruption involved a secret society called the 'Combined Society,' organized for land speculation and private profit. Georgia was firming up its borders and had land claims west to the Mississippi River. A Yazoo related lawsuit reached the US Supreme Court in a precedent-setting case. 

With its main fortifications built between 1807 and 1814, Old Fort Jackson mostly sat out the military conflicts that impacted Savannah. In over two hundred years, the fort came under fire only twice. Once by Union forces in October 1861, and another after Union troops occupied the fort. The Confederate ironclad CSS Savannah shot at the fort just before being scuttled in the Savannah River to avoid Union capture. James Jackson likely died prematurely from wounds suffered in one of his duels.