Dooly inadvertently played into Stuart's plans when he seized a Creek delegation that had come to visit Galphin in order to hold them as hostages until he had satisfaction for his brother's death. With great effort, Galphin and the rebel authorities compelled Dooly to release the delegation and, later, to surrender a fort where he and his supporters had barricaded themselves. Galphin then persuaded the Creek delegates that they were being protected from a plot to murder them by Emistisiguo and other British agents. As the headman had arranged such assassinations for the British before the war, the story had credibility. The delegates, upon returning home, led a war party that would have killed Emistisiguo and David Taitt but for the physical intervention of rising Creek leader Alexander McGillivray. After various delays, Captain Dooly stood trial in Savannah and then resigned his commission. He must have believed that while continental authorities could not or would not move against Indians, they could deal effectively with him.(n31) Tough Times Dooly's problems came at a time when his neighbors debated related issues. Dr. George Wells, the protégé of the pioneer Georgia populist politician Button Gwinnett, organized a clique in the Ceded Lands that petitioned the American commander of the southern forces to invade and seize the Creek lands. Both Wells and Gwinnett had controversial pasts as perennial failures and misfits, the type of characters who often lead, if not create, radical factions in revolutions. Wells spearheaded a petition drive to have the Continental Congress remove Georgia's continental commander, Lachlan McIntosh, on the grounds that he was incompetent, the "murderer" of Gwinnett in a duel, and connected by blood with pro-British Indian leaders. John Dooly had every reason to have supported, or even assumed a leadership position in Wells's movement. Nonetheless, he, Clarke, and other Whig leaders in the Ceded Lands did not sign Wells's petition. John Coleman, formerly of Virginia and a wealthy leader in the Ceded Lands, also opposed the petition and even wrote to McIntosh complaining that "Gentlemen of Abilities, whose characters are well established, are the only persons objected to, to govern and manage in State affairs with us. The Consiquence [sic] of which I fear, we too soon will see to our sorrow."(n32) Within a year, John Dooly did make a comeback. Progress in local government moved quickly in the new state of Georgia and Dooly took advantage of