USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. I > Part 24
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318
EXPORTS INCREASE.
ten months, than have been since the colony was set- tled." "Our exportations for a year past is an evident proof, that if proper labouring hands could have been had years before, this colony before now would have demonstrated its utility to the mother country and the West India Islands. Two days ago a large ship ar- rived here, addressed to my partner and I, which is the fifth sea vessel which has been here to load within a year ; more, I may affirm, than has ever been loaded in this colony before, since its first settlement, with its real produce."
Such were the feeble beginnings of the commerce and mercantile operations of Georgia.18 Kept down by the ill legislation of the Trustees, it was no sooner re- lieved of its oppressions, than it asserted its rights, and established its beneficial sway.
In closing this review of the Trustees' policy, it must be admitted that their plan of colonization was extreme- ly defective, and often contravened the very object of their incorporation. They legislated on too narrow a platform; and instead of taking broad and generous principles, such as became the originators of so noble a design, took positions which a few short years proved to be untenable; cherished hopes which were soon blasted ; and, compelled to abandon all their primary purposes, their policy had no permanence, their insti- tutions no solid basis, and both crumbled away when they surrendered up their charter to the king.
18 Letters of James Habersham.
CHAPTER X.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE COLONY.
THE proposition to found a new colony in America, which should be an asylum for the persecuted, and a home for the impoverished, enlisted at once the sym- pathies of the clergy, and the beneficence of the Church.
As ministers of that Gospel which was in an especial manner to be " preached to the poor ;" and as servants of Him who, though himself having " not where to lay his head," yet came to " heal the broken-hearted," and to " open the prison doors to them that were bound ;" the clergy readily entered into this scheme of benevo- lence, and by personal labours, individual subscriptions, pulpit exhortations, and published sermons, did much to awaken attention to the noble design, and to call out the fostering care of the people and government of Eng- land. Among the original twenty-one Trustees were five clergymen of the Established Church, and four others were afterwards added. More than one hun- dred clergymen and churches received, at their own request, commissions to take up collections for car- rying out so philanthropic a design; and the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, bishops, archdeacons, deans,
320
REV. DR. HERBERT.
chapters, besides collegiate and parochial clergy, gave liberally, and some munificently, to the funds of the Trustees.
In the first embarkation came over a distinguished divine, the Rev. Dr. Herbert, who volunteered his ministerial services as missionary among the emigrants, until they should be settled in their distant home ; and such was the care which the friends of the undertaking felt in the moral welfare of the colonists, that they put on board the first ship, for their use and instruction, one hun- dred and fifteen Bibles and Testaments, one hundred and sixteen Common Prayer Books, seventy-two Psalters, three hundred and twelve Catechisms, fifty-six Bishop Gibson's Family Devotions, besides four hundred and thirty-seven other religious volumes. And in addition to these, there were also given to the colony, during · the first two years, over two thousand six hundred Bibles, Testaments, and religious books, and about one thousand dollars in contributions for building a church and supporting a missionary.1
Among the earliest benefactions was a pewter chalice and patine, presented by the Rev. Samuel Wesley, for " present use," as he said, " until silver ones were had," which were sent to Savannah in December, 1732.2 But about six months after, the same reverend gentleman was made the medium of presenting to the Trustees, by a benefactor who did not wish to be known, a silver chalice and patine, for the use of the first church in the town of Savannah; which were also sent to Georgia in May, 1733.3 Little did Mr. Wesley, in presenting them,
1 MS. Journal of Trustees, i. 35.
2 General Account of the 'Trustees, subjoined to a Sermon preached before the Trustees by Dr. Burton, London,
1733. Journal of Trustees, i. 31, 35, 63.
3 Appendix to Dr. Burton's Sermon, 47-48.
321
REV. SAMUEL QUINCY, MISSIONARY.
think that his brother would administer the sacrament from these vessels at the Lord's table in Savannah; or that an act performed with these in his hands, would result in his persecution, indictment, and flight from Georgia.
At the meeting next following the first embarkation, a memorial was drawn up, and ordered to be presented to the "Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts," setting forth that "they had appointed a site for a church, and a sufficient glebe for the minister;" and desiring the society to make an allowance for a mis- sionary, and the usual benefaction of books and furni- ture.4 The society consenting, the Rev. Samuel Quincy, A.M., was appointed missionary to Savannah, to supply the place of Rev. Dr. Herbert, who left America three months after the colony landed in Georgia, and died on his passage to England.
The new missionary was the kinsman of the Quin- cys of Massachusetts, so distinguished in politics and literature, and of whom it has been said, that "the Quincys have been friends to liberty and the rights of the people from the most ancient times ;" the name of their common ancestor being in the "Magna Charta" of England. He was a native of Boston, and was ordained deacon and priest in 1730, by Doctor Waugh, Bishop of Carlisle.6
Embarking for Georgia, in March, 1733, he reached Savannah the following May, and continued at his post until October, 1735; when, unable longer to brook the "insolent and tyrannical magistrate to whom the
4 Journal of Trustees, i. 40. His- Hawkins, 8vo, London, 1845, 92. torical Notices of the Missions of the Church of England in the North Amer- ican Colonies, &c., by Rev. Ernest lina, 361.
5 Holmes's Annals, ii. 235, note.
6 Dalcho's Church of South Caro-
21
322
JOHN WESLEY APPOINTED MISSIONARY.
government of the colony was committed," and finding that "Georgia, which was seemingly intended to be the asylum of the distressed, was likely, unless things greatly altered, to be itself a mere scene of distress," he applied and obtained leave to return to England.7
The Rev. John Wesley was appointed to succeed him, who reached Georgia in February, 1736, and im- mediately entered upon his clerical duties, by expound- ing to the people, who, at Oglethorpe's suggestion, had landed near Tybee to return thanks to God for their safe deliverance, the second lesson for the day, (Mark vi.,) several parts of which he thought " wondrously suited to the occasion."
About a week after, while yet on board the ship, at the mouth of the river, Tomochichi and six or seven more Indians, attended by Mrs. Musgrove as inter- preter, came on board. Addressing the missionaries,8 Tomochichi said : "I am glad you are come. When I was in England, I desired that some would speak the Great Word to me. And my nation then desired to hear it. But now we are all in confusion. Yet I am glad you are come. I will go up, and speak to the wise men of our nation; and I hope they will hear. But we would not be made Christians as the Spaniards make Christians. We would be taught before we are baptized."
7 In 1742 Mr. Quincy was elected he officiated two years, and then moved rector of the parish of St. John's, Col- to Boston, where, in 1750, he pub- lished a volume entitled, " Twenty Sermons, &c., preached in the Parish of St. Philip's, Charleston, South Caro- lina." He was much esteemed by the commissary and the clergy of Caro- lina, and stood high in the opinion of the Society. leton, South Carolina, in which he con- tinued until 1745, when, at the request of the vestry of St. George's, Dorches- ter, he was appointed by the Veneral le Society missionary in that parish. This cure he resigned the following year, when he was elected assistant minis- ter of St. Philip's, Charleston. Here 8 Wesley's Works, i. 129.
323
BEGINS HIS MINISTRY IN SAVANNAH.
Mr. Wesley answered : "There is but one, He that sitteth in heaven, who is able to teach a man wisdom. Though we are come so far, we know not whether He will please to teach you by us or not. If He teaches you, you will learn wisdom ; but we can do nothing."
Intent upon the work set before them, the brothers, John and Charles Wesley, rowing by Savannah, passed on to pay their " first visit in America to the poor heathen ;" but they found the Indians absent, and so returned, disappointed, to their floating home. "On Sunday, 7th of March," writes John Wesley in his journal, " I entered upon my ministry at Savannah, by preaching on the epistle for the day, being the thir- teenth of the first of Corinthians. In the second lesson, Luke xviii., was our Lord's prediction of the treatment which he himself (and consequently his followers) was to meet with from the world ; and his gracious promise to those who are content, Nudi nudum Christum sequi : Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or friends, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, which shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come everlasting life." Speaking of this first public exercise in Georgia, he goes on to say : "I do here bear witness against myself, that when I saw the number of people crowd- ing into the church, the deep attention with which they received the word, and the seriousness that afterwards sat on all their faces, I could scarce re- frain from giving the lie to experience, and reason, and Scripture, all together. I could hardly believe that the greater, the far greater part of this attentive and serious people, would hereafter trample under foot
324
EARLY SUCCESS.
that word, and say all manner of evil falsely of Him that spake it."
He entered upon his labours with great enthusiasm, was disposed to be pleased with everything, and wrote to his mother, " The place is pleasant beyond imagi- nation," expressing to her a desire that some of " the poor and religious persons of Epworth and Wroote would come over to him." He had here seven hun- dred parishioners, but no church having been built, they held service in the court-house, which at first was filled with hearers, attracted by the fervour of his discourses, the piquancy of his style, and the de- votedness of the preacher ; and so popular was he during the first few weeks, that a ball and public prayers beginning on one occasion at the same time, " the church was full, while the ball-room was so empty that the entertainment could not go forward."9
Intimate in his associations with the Moravians, his mind, predisposed to asceticism, early imbibed the severe notions of these "monks of Protestantism,"10 and he carried them out by his frequent fastings, and rigid mortifications; and even his theological views became more than tinged with the doctrines of the United Brethren.
Charles Wesley, as the Secretary for Indian affairs, and chaplain of Oglethorpe, had gone with the Gene- ral to Frederica on St. Simons. Here he was destined to meet trials and vexations of no ordinary character. The record which he has left us of these is long and painful, and shows the bitterness of his persecutions, and the depth of his sufferings. All his troubles arose from the slanders of two brawling women, who, having lost their virtue in England, so won upon the Wesleys
9 Wesley's Journal, i. 132.
1 º Madame De Staël's " Germany," vol. iii.
325
CHARLES WESLEY AT ST. SIMONS.
by their professions of penitence and reform, that Ogle- thorpe, who distrusted their sincerity, was persuaded by the two brothers to receive them, though reluc- tantly, among the emigrants ; assuring the Wesleys that they would have cause to repent it.11 The pre- diction was true, they did repent it; for, originated by them and seconded by others, plans were soon laid to ruin Charles Wesley with Oglethorpe, or take him off by violence; for his preaching, and his life, were a constant and galling reproof to the heterogeneous society of Frederica. In what he conceived to be his duty Charles Wesley was very resolute, and he attempted the doubly difficult task of reforming some of the female colonists, and reconciling their petty feuds, and hatred of each other ; but instead of suc- ceeding, he only found the truth of the proverb, " He that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears," for he made them cordially agree in hating him, and caballing to secure his removal. On the evening of the second day of his residence at Frederica, he re- ceived, he said, the first harsh word from Oglethorpe. The next day he received a singular answer. "I know not," says he, " how to account for his increas- ing coldness." No! because his simple and affec- tionate heart did not understand the secret intrigues which were plotting for his destruction, nor the for- geries which were palmed off upon Oglethorpe, to alienate him from his secretary and chaplain. He had not been six days in Frederica before he wrote, "I would not spend six days more in the same manner for all Georgia." His situation was truly alarming ;
11 Grahame's History of the United had access to the Journal of Charles States, i. 198, (London edition,) who Wesley.
326
SICKNESS OF CHARLES WESLEY.
many persons lost all decency in their behaviour towards him, and Oglethorpe's treatment of him showed that he had received impressions to his disadvantage. At the same time he was totally ignorant of his accusers, or of what he was accused; but conscious of his own in- nocence, he courted investigation of every charge, and firmly relied on his personal and clerical integrity.
At this time he had but few of the necessaries of life, was compelled to lie on the ground, and was abused and slighted in the most indecorous manner. "I could not be more trampled upon," says he, "were I a fallen minister of state. My few well-wishers are afraid to speak to me; the servant that used to wash my linen sent it back unwashed;" and some had the unblushing effrontery to request that he " would not take it ill if they seemed not to know me when we meet."
" Thanks be to God," he exclaimed, after one of these severe mortifications, " it is not yet made a cap- ital offence to give me a morsel of bread."
Sick, neglected, esteeming it to be a great prize to get a bedstead on which a poor scoutman had died, and scarcely lying upon it before it was given away from under him, no wonder he envied the scoutman his quiet grave, or that he looked upon the General as the chief of his enemies. How must his thoughts at this time have turned to the quiet retreats of Oxford, or the endearing tenderness of Epworth, as he lay tossing with a raging fever, alone and unattended. But the dark hour of trial was wearing away, and light and joy were soon to shine into and gladden his heart.
The natural benevolence of Oglethorpe, repressed by the industrious tale-bearers of Frederica, rose at last
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327
RETURNS TO ENGLAND.
above the suspicions which clouded his mind ; and fearing that, in the excitement consequent on his har- assed situation, he had formed too hasty a judgment, his heart relented, and he sought an interview with his much injured secretary. The scene of their reconcil- iation is one of thrilling interest, and strongly illus- trates the character of each. Mutual explanations without crimination, mutual tenderness without re- serve, mutual assurances of future friendship without hypocrisy, marked this singular interview. The storm had passed away, and all was bright and calm. Forci- bly had been illustrated to him the text from which, during these troubles, he had preached a sermon : " Keep innocency and take heed to the thing that is right, for this shall bring a man peace at the last."12
In May he went to Savannah to attend to his official business as Secretary for Indian Affairs ; and, having countersigned all the licences of the traders, he sent in to Oglethorpe his resignation of this civil office, as conflicting with his clerical functions; but he was un- willing to accept it, and, at his earnest solicitation, he consented to hold it a little longer. In July he was sent to England as bearer of despatches to the Trus- tees, and he accordingly sailed from Charleston on the 16th of August, in a ship that was "very leaky, and with a mere beast of a man for a captain." Obliged to put into Boston by stress of weather, and the un- seaworthiness of the vessel, he was cordially welcomed and entertained by the ministers and citizens of Massachusetts. After a detention there of three weeks, he again embarked, though feeble in health,
12 These events, and others of a 78-90) Life of Wesley. Watson's kindred nature, are related in Moore's Life of Wesley, 34.
(vol. i. 220-231) and Whitehead's (i.
3:28
RESIGNS HIS SECRETARYSHIP.
and much reduced by disease ; and, after a severe and tempestuous passage, he reached England in the be- ginning of December, 1736, " blessing the hand that had conducted him through such inextricable mazes, and willing to give up his country again whenever God should require it."
To oblige Oglethorpe, Wesley retained his office of secretary until April, 1738, and still resolved to return to Georgia. While recovering from an attack of pleu- risy, he was called upon to embark for Georgia, but his physicians absolutely forbade "it, and he again sent in his resignation to Oglethorpe, who, unwilling to lose so honest and faithful an officer, still urged him to retain his place, promising to supply it by a deputy until he was sufficiently recovered to follow." This he declined ; in May his resignation was accepted, and his connection with Georgia closed.
In contemplating the facts just recited, we find causes of condemnation in the conduct of both Oglethorpe and Wesley, and yet in both of them much to extenuate their blame. Charles Wesley was young, guileless, and inexperienced. Cloistered from early age within aca- demic halls, renouncing all fellowship save with a few kindred spirits, seldom looking beyond the horizon of college life, he was evidently unfitted to undertake the curacy of such a parish as fell to his lot in Georgia. Shrinking in his disposition, distrustful of himself, and having a perplexing secular office united with his min- isterial duties, he knew not how rightly to blend the two so as to avoid clerical austerity on the one hand, and undue worldliness on the other. In his pastoral intercourse with the people, he lacked judgment and discretion ; his zeal was not tempered with prudence. Ardent in the workings of his own piety, he too often
329
ERRORS OF WESLEY AND OGLETHORPE.
reproved with harshness the delinquencies of others, and visited with injudicious censure sins which had been far more effectually reproved by mildness and affection ; and yet he himself was a man of the finest sensibilities, formed for the endearments of friendship, delighting in the atmosphere of love. But at Frede- rica he found nothing congenial to his nature, and he failed in properly blending love and discipline, the chidings of clerical authority with the monitions of brotherly kindness.
Oglethorpe was in error in allowing himself to be so hastily betrayed into enmity to Charles Wesley. Harassed and perplexed by the contentions and troubles among the people, to colonize whom he had sacrificed so much; in jeopardy, not only from the mutinous conduct of the men around him, but from the hostile Spaniards on his rear; he was still more exas- perated by the general complaints urged against men in whom he had expected to find his most useful auxiliaries in promoting contentment and subordina- tion. He was intimately acquainted with his elder brother Samuel, who addressed him a highly laudatory poem on his voyage to Georgia, in which he descanted on the virtues and benevolence of Oglethorpe, and the blessings present and expected of the colony which he had planted. He also esteemed the learning and abilities and purity of Charles Wesley, and honoured the worth of his brother John. But when insinua- tions, thick and dark, were uttered by every voice, his hasty temper yielded to the offensive rumours, and he too readily gave credence to the reports which pure malignity had originated. But no sooner was he disabused than he frankly acknowledged his error, and made every amend for his conduct. This temporary
330
JOHN WESLEY AT SAVANNAH.
rupture but made more firm their future friendship. Ever after the esteem of each was mutual and rever- ential, and perpetuated till death.
The condition and circumstances of John Wesley at Savannah were at first much better, but afterwards much worse than those of his brother at Frederica. While Charles was suffering under the displeasure of Ogle- thorpe, and the evil aspersions of bitter enemies, John could write, " How different are the ways wherein we are led ; yet, I hope, toward the same end ! I have hitherto had no opposition at all ; all is smooth, and fair, and promising. Many seem to be awakened ; all are full of respect and commendation. We cannot see any cloud gathering ; but this calm cannot last ; storms must come hither too ; and let them come when we are ready to meet them." They did come; the calm was soon dissipated ; the clouds gathered black- ness, and the storm burst upon him with relentless fury.
The first feelings of dislike towards him arose from his rigid adherence to all the rubrics of the Church of England. This he began to exhibit in his first official act, which is thus recorded by himself: "Saturday, 21st of February, Mary Welch, aged eleven days, was baptized, according to the custom of the first church and the rule of the Church of England, by immersion. The child was then ill, but recovered from that hour." And this practice he insisted on, so that he refused to baptize infants except by immersion, unless the parents would certify " that the child could not well endure it."
On the first Sunday of his services in Savannah, he gave notice that he should administer the Lord's Sup- per on every Sunday and holyday, and in the celebra- tion of this he was so strict that he would not admit
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331
HIS PECULIAR VIEWS.
one of the most pious men in the colony to communion, because he was a dissenter, unless he would submit to be re-baptized.13 He soon also divided the public prayers, " according to the original appointment of the Church still observed in a few places in England," beginning the morning prayers at five, the litany, com- munion office and sermon at eleven, and the evening service at three ; seemingly forgetful, that by an order of Archbishop Grindal, as far back as 1580, the morn- ing services were united, because of the represen- tations made to him, " that the people neglected morning prayers, and attended only the mid-day or communion service, on account of sermon being at that time."
These unusual practices chafed a people already angry at his pointed and pungent discourses ; and they fretted at these requisitions, by which he would bring them into a bondage to revoked or obsolete rubrics. He roused an opposition which a more yielding, but not less church-like course would have totally avoided; and thus by his injudicious zeal estranged many from his really edifying services. Such was the growing feeling towards him, when an affair took place which resulted in his departure from Georgia.
Unsuspecting in his nature, and but little accus- tomed to female society, he had allowed his affections to be ensnared by the artifices of a lady who possessed many attractions both of mind and body, but whose moral character seemed to lack that modesty and in- tegrity, the absence of which makes even beauty de- ceitful, and favour vain. By her studied graces and apparent piety she was enabled to kindle in the breast
13 Wesley's Works, vi. 108-9.
.
332
WESLEY IN LOVE.
of the almost stoical missionary, the first fire of earthly affection that ever burned upon the altar of his heart. In a short time Wesley was the accepted lover of Miss Hopkins.
His companion, Delamotte, who had watched all her proceedings, told Wesley his suspicions, that sin- ister motives were veiled under a fair exterior, and he plainly asked him if he intended to marry her. Startled by the question and suspicions of Delamotte, he waived an answer, and called on Mr. Nitschman, the Moravian Bishop, to consult him on the subject. The answer of the bishop being unsatisfactory, he had recourse in his difficulty to the Elders of the Moravian Church ; but they had already been informed by Dela- motte of his suspicions, and therefore, when Wesley appeared, they asked with some suddenness, "Will you abide by our decision ?" With evident reluc- tance he replied, "I will." "Then," said the bishop, " we advise you to proceed no further on this busi- ness." Wesley replied, "The will of the Lord be done."
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