Editing Chisholm v. Georgia (section)

==Background of the case==
On October 31, 1777, the Executive Council of Georgia authorized Thomas Stone and Edward Davies, as commissioners of the state, to purchase goods from Robert Farquhar, a South Carolina merchant, to help stationed [[Continental Army]] troops in Savannah who were in dire need of supplies. Stone and Davies agreed to give Farquhar $169,613.33 (in indigo or continental currency) for his merchandise. However, at the time of Farquhar's death in 1784, he had not received payment for his merchandise. The estate filed a claim for the debt with the Georgia legislature in 1789, but was met with a committee report refusing payment. Instead, the committee suggested the estate sue Stone and Davies, as they had withdrawn the funds meant for Farquhar from the state treasury.

=== Prior history ===
Alexander Chisholm, a merchant in Charleston and an executor to Farquhar's [[Estate (law)|estate]], brought suit against the state of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Georgia. The circuit court heard the case in October 1791 under the caption of ''Farquhar's Executor v. Georgia''.<ref name="Chisholm v. Georgia: Background and Settlement"<ref name=doylearticle1967>{{cite journal |last1=Mathis |first1=Doyle |title=Chisholm v. Georgia: Background and Settlement |journal=The Journal of American History |date=June 1967 |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=19–29 |doi=10.2307/1900316|jstor=1900316 }}</ref>{{rp|20–22}} Chisholm sought £100,000 sterling in payment and damages. Georgia governor [[Edward Telfair]] argued that Georgia was "a free, sovereign and independent State...[and] cannot be drawn or compelled... to answer, against the will of the said State of Georgia, before any Justices of the federal Circuit Court for the District of Georgia or before any Justices of any Court of Law or Equity whatsoever",<ref name=doylearticle1967/>{{rp|22}} a stance of sovereign immunity. [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|Associate Justice]] [[James Iredell]], who heard the case while [[Supreme Court of the United States#Justices as circuit justices|riding circuit]], along with U.S. District Court Judge [[Nathaniel Pendleton]], dismissed the case, citing a lack of jurisdiction under the [[Judiciary Act of 1789]], on grounds that a state could not be sued by a citizen of another state in [[United States Circuit Court|federal circuit court]].<ref name=doylearticle1967/>{{rp|23}}

=== Supreme Court ===
Chisholm subsequently filed a new suit before the Supreme Court under its [[Original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States|original jurisdiction]], likely in the February 1792 term. The case, captioned as ''Chisholm, Executor v. Georgia'', sought damages amounting to $500,000.<ref name=doylearticle1967/>{{rp|23}} When no representative for Georgia appeared before the Court in the August 1792 term, plaintiff's counsels John Hallowell and [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Edmund Randolph]] consented to hold over the case until the February 1793 term. Despite additional provision of notice by the Court, no attorneys or representatives for the state appeared in the February 1793 term. The Court then proceeded to hear Randolph's arguments.<ref name=doylearticle1967/>{{rp|23–24}}