There were not at this time a dozen newspapers in the State.  With all of them had Bartlett to do battle for the cause in which he had enlisted, and right valiantly did he do it.  He was a fluent and most caustic writer, and was always ready, not only to write, but to fight for his party, and would with his blood sustain anything he might say or write.  Like most party editors, he only saw the interest of his party in what he would write, and would write anything he supposed would further the ends of his party.  Almost immediately after the election of Clarke, the opposition presented the name of George M. Troup, who had been voted for as an opposing candidate at the time of Clarke’s election.  It was but a little while before the State trembled with the agitation which seemed to disturb every breast.  None could be neutral.  All were compelled to take sides or be crushed between the contending parties or factions; for this division of the people was only factious.  There was no great principle upon which they divided; it was men only.  Clarke and his friends favored the pretensions of Mr. Calhoun to the Presidency solely because he was the enemy of Crawford, and they were subsequently transferred to the support of Jackson as readily as cattle in the market.

For two years was this agitation increasing in intensity, and so bitter had it made animosities arising out of it, that reason seemed to reel, and justice to forget her duty.  Men were chosen indiscriminately to office because of party proclivities.  Intelligence and moral worth were entirely disregarded—­families divided—­husbands and wives quarrelled—­father and sons were estranged, and brothers were at deadly strife.  There was no argument in the matter; for there was nothing upon which to predicate an argument.  To introduce the subject was to promote a quarrel.  Churches were distracted and at discord, and the pulpit, for the first time in Georgia, desecrated by political philippics.  Pierce then, as now, was the leading minister of the Methodist Church in the State, and abstained in the pulpit, but made no secret of his preferences upon the street.  Duffie travelled everywhere.  He had by unkindness driven from him his wife with her infant child, and, in her helpless and desperate condition, she had taken refuge with the Shaking Quakers in the West, and remained with them until her death.  His son came to him after maturity, and was established by him on a plantation with a number of slaves; but, having inherited all the brutal ferocity of his father, it was not long before he murdered one or two of them.  Incarcerated in the county jail, his father invoked party aid to release him, openly declaring it was due to him for party services in opposing that son of the Devil—­John Clarke.  Whether his party or his money did the work I know not; but the miserable wretch escaped from jail, and was never brought to trial.