The Independent View: The Yazoo Case that Started the First Third Party in America

I am reading Zephyr Teachout's "Corruption in America", Harvard University Press. Here is the legal case the started the first Third-Party in America, the "quids".

The tertium quids (sometimes shortened to quids) refers to various factions of the American Democratic-Republican Party during the period 1804–1812. In Latin, tertium quid means "a third something". Quid was a disparaging term that referred to cross-party coalitions of Federalists and moderate Democratic-Republican.

The land scandal happened in George. States barely knew their own borders, so the public might not notice that land was sold, or for how much. Speculators were well-connected and used personal influence to persuade their political friends that the sale was good for the speculators, the state got income, and the public would not miss it.

The land covered thirty-five million acres, close to the Yazoo river, that is today, Mississippi. But the land was part of several Native American tribes and other sections were deserted. Georgia's Governor had the power to sell land if it was tilled for at least twelve months. Instead the land was given away to people who had no intention of working the soil and flipped it for a large profit.

In 1789, Patrick Henry and a coalition of companies, wanted to buy thirty-five million acres near the Yazoo river. The public reacted angrily, and the Georgia government modified the contract, they would only accept gold or silver as payment. The modification successfully killed the deal.

Not to be dissuaded, a few years latter, he created the Virginia Yazoo Company, the South Carolina Yazoo Company, and the Tennessee Company, calling it the "Combined Society". This time Henry sold shares to the George Legislature. Records show that every member of the Legislature, except one, voted yes to the sale.

Some acres sold for less than one cent. Local papers called this "the greatest real estate deal in history".

This deal led the groundwork for cases that reached the Supreme Court. The Court decided, in less than a month, that the act was unconstitutional and had been fraudulently passed. In response, the new Legislature passed a law declaring the act void and approve paying the purchases of the land, compensation far less than they originally paid.

Pro-Yazoo and Anti-Yazoo division reflected the lines between the early parties: Federalist and Democratic-Republicans. Yazoo supporters, the Federalist, argued that the sale could not be nullified. The Anti-Yazoo faction, Democratic-Republicans, thought the Georgia Legislature clearly had the right to void a corrupt contract and pay some type of restitution.

Virginia Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke denounced the Yazoo Purchase compromise of 1804 as totally corrupt. After Randolph failed in the impeachment of a Supreme Court justice in 1805, he became embittered with Jefferson and Madison, complaining, "Everything and everybody seem to be jumbled out of place, except a few men who are steeped in supine indifference, whilst meddling fools and designing knaves are governing the country."

He broke with Jefferson and James Madison in 1806, his Congressional faction was called "quids", the first third-party. Randolph was the leader of the "Old Republican" faction that insisted on strict adherence to the Constitution and opposed any innovations. He summarized Old Republican principles as: "love of peace, hatred of offensive war, jealousy of the state governments toward the general government; a dread of standing armies; a loathing of public debts, taxes, and excises; tenderness for the liberty of the citizen; jealousy, Argus-eyed jealousy of the patronage of the President.