Although there was little money and few goods available, men who had performed well during the revolution were rewarded with plentiful land that the Tories had abandoned. Colonel Clarke considered America’s victory to give Georgians the right to disregard the restrictive British-Indian treaties of the past, and began to expand the state’s settled territory at the expense of the natives. Restrained by national policies of the Continental Congress, he attempted to negotiate new treaties with the Cherokees and Creeks, putting pressure on the tribal leaders while claiming that the victorious Americans had built great ships and would soon have the trading items the Indians wanted. The Creeks were especially suspicious, but two of the chiefs, Tallassee King and Fat King, were richly bribed with presents and promises and signed away large land grants. Although all other Georgia chiefs renounced the agreements, state officials claimed the treaties were legal.

Still on the state lands committee and an active military leader, Elijah Clarke and his son John received more and more land, eventually paying taxes on 19,100 acres in Wilkes and Washington counties. The committee tabulated the certificates issued to returning veterans, each of whom received grants of at least 1871/2 acres. Two thousand nine hundred and twenty-three had stayed in Georgia and fought; 694 had left Georgia and fought in some way; 555 were never in service but had enrolled as Minutemen; 200 Continental soldiers had come from other states to help Georgia; and 9 received land because they had served in the navy. Most of the revolutionary soldiers simply moved westward, and Colonel James Jackson directed that the state build forts even on unceded lands to protect the settlers. In 1838, the last twelve thousand Indians were rounded up in Georgia by federal troops and forced to leave, with the survivors of the long “Trail of Tears” ultimately settling in Oklahoma.

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When Ethan Pratt returned to Wrightsborough, he was asked to meet with his commanding officer, and Colonel Jackson urged Ethan to move to Savannah and continue to serve with him in the military and in other public and private endeavors. It was obvious to everyone that Jackson had a bright future in mind for him, but Ethan was determined to return to his homestead, expand his landholdings as much as possible, raise a family, and perhaps participate in the political development of north Georgia. The two men continued a close friendship, of great mutual benefit. As Jackson became a U.S. congressman, senator, and then governor of the state, Ethan expanded his landholdings beyond the original combined Morris and Pratt properties, and also served as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives.