USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. I > Part 27
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40 Original Letters to Venerable Society, ix., No. 153.
41 Ib. x., No. 184.
42 Stephens, ii. 403.
43 Journal of Trustees, iii. 27.
361
JONATHAN COPP AT AUGUSTA.
tees renewed their commands to have the work proceed- ed in with all expedition ; but it was not completed until 1750, when, on Saturday, 7th of July, it was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. The day of this solemn service was also noted in the memories of the people, as being the anniversary of the establishment of the first court of judicature, seventeen years before ; and also as the anniversary of the day when Oglethorpe defeated the Spaniards on their invasion of Frederica. 44 The petition of Zouberbuhler for help was favourably entertained, corroborated as it was by a memorial45 from the principal inhabitants of Augusta, stating the spiritual destitution of the place. The Rev. Jonathan Copp was, in 1751, sent over as missionary to Augusta. This gentleman was a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College; but there being then no bishop in America, he was obliged to go to England for orders, where, in December, 1750, he was ordained deacon and priest, by Dr. Sherlock, Bishop of Lon- don.46 Before his arrival, the gentlemen of Augusta had built a " handsome and convenient church," op- posite one of the curtains of the fort, and so near as to be protected by its guns, which was the farthest point the Church of England had yet penetrated into the Indian territory. The inhabitants also agreed to build a parsonage, cultivate the glebe, and give £20 per year towards his salary. Such evidences of zeal inspired Mr. Copp with high hopes of comfort and success; but when he reached there, though he found a congrega- tion of nearly one hundred persons, and eight commu- nicants, he did not find any parsonage or glebe-land,
44 MS. Documents from Board of Trade, iv. 8. Original Letters, &c., xi. No. 191.
45 Tb. xi. No. 189.
46 Dalcho's Church of South Caro- lina, 361.
362
THE GERMANS AT EBENEZER.
and had but little hope of receiving even the £20 per year offered by the committee. Separated from any brother clergyman by one hundred and thirty miles of wilderness, on the frontier of civilization, bordering on the Indian territory, and daily liable to the merciless attacks of savages, with but little to cheer, and much to discourage, with small emolument and arduous labour, he continued in the work of a missionary until 1756, when he was invited to the rectorship of St. John's parish, in South Carolina, where he laboured until he died, in 1762.
The Germans at Ebenezer prospered in spiritual things under the instructions of their pastors Bolzius and Gronau. For several years they worshipped in the Orphan House, " enjoying the privilege they had long sought for in vain, of hearing the Word of God in its purity."47 Two small edifices, however, were soon erected in the German settlements, which the Salzburgers called "Zion " and " Jerusalem" churches. Amid all the turmoils of the colony, the Ebenezer peo- ple were quiet and unaffected. Labouring with dili- gence in their various pursuits, trained to virtue and peace by their faithful ministers, and aiming rather to glorify God than aggrandize themselves, they gained the commendations and respect of all. Cut off by their language from free intercommunication with the other inhabitants of Georgia, they were the more closely knit together among themselves, and grew up year by year a united and happy, because a peaceful and Christian, community.
Their ministers were pious, diligent, and zealous ;
47 Urlsperger Dritte, Continvation, American Lutheran Church, 40. &c., Halle, 1740, 2026. Hazelius,
363
DEATH OF REV. MR. GRONAU.
they were benefactors to the poor, friends to the dis- tressed, counsellors to the enquiring ; guiding the tot- tering steps of the sick and the aged through the dark valley of death, and gently leading the young and tender in those ways of wisdom which are ways of pleasantness, and in her paths which are peace. The people met with a great loss (Friday, 11th of January, 1745) in the death of the junior pastor, Israel Chris- tian Gronau. The disease which terminated his life, was contracted in the discharge of his ministerial duty. He took cold while preaching to the Germans in Savannah ; and this, settling upon his lungs, event- uated in a consumption, which, in less than a year, laid him in the grave. Filled with the love of souls, he made his bed a pulpit, whence he taught the peo- ple ; and his sickness, borne so patiently, and gloried in so triumphantly, was a more powerful sermon than ever fell from his lips in the days of his strength and service. His colleague, Bolzius, gives a simple and touching account of his illness and death, and pays a pathetic tribute to his piety and worth. He died lift- ing up holy hands; for, desiring one that stood by him to support his raised arms, he exclaimed, " En komm, Her Jesu, amen, amen, amen!" and having said this, he closed his eyes and mouth, and entered into the joy of his Lord.48 He was succeeded in his sacred office by the Rev. H. H. Lemke, who reached Ebenezer in the spring of 1746, and whose ministry and services were peculiarly acceptable to Pastor Bol- zius and the Salzburg people.49
In addition to the German congregation at Ebene-
48 Urlsperper, Der Drenzehenden
49 Der Ausferhlichen, &c., part 3d, Continvation, &c., 23-25. Hazelius, 180. Hazelius, 64. 61, 62.
364
REV. JOHN U. DRIESLER.
zer, there was also, for several years, a Salzburg church at St. Simons, composed of a few emigrants, and of the men who had enlisted under Captain Hermsdorf for the protection of Georgia. This con- gregation, consisting of about sixty persons, was or- ganized in 1743 by the appointment of the Rev. John Ulrick Driesler to be their pastor, who was well spo- ken of by Bolzius50 and Whitefield,51 and supported by General Oglethorpe. On the return of the Rev. Mr. Bosomworth, the Trustees appointed Mr. Driesler schoolmaster at Frederica, and requested by a formal resolution52 that the Rev. Dr. Burton would appoint him to officiate for him as chaplain to General Ogle- thorpe's regiment. This appointment, evincing the esteem and confidence of the Trustees, reached Geor- gia after the decease of Mr. Driesler; who died at Fred- erica at the close of 1744, lamented by his people, and acknowledged by all as a faithful servant of the Most High.53
The Moravians who came over with Spangenberg and Nitschman,54 did not long remain in Georgia. At the departure of the first company from Herrnhut, Count Zinzendorf had given them written instruc- tions,55 in which he particularly recommended that they should submit themselves to the wise directions and guidance of God in all circumstances, seek to pre- serve liberty of conscience, avoid all religious disputes, and always keep in view that call, given unto them by God himself, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ
-
50 Urlsperger, Der Drenzehenden Continvation, 6.
51 Whitefield's Works, ii. 84. Ha- zelius, 60.
52 Minutes of Common Council, iii. 167.
53 Hazelius, 63.
54 Vide page 124.
55 Loskiel's " History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America :" London, 1794, part ii., 2.
365
MORAVIANS IN GEORGIA.
to the heathen ; and further, that they should endeav- our as much as possible to earn their own bread.
Their patient industry enabled them not only to fulfil the latter of these injunctions, but also to repay the money advanced them in London, and charitably serve their poor neighbours also.
One of their main designs was to convert the In- dians to Christianity, and their first attempt was the establishment of a school-house for Indian children among the tribe of Tomochichi, near Savannah, at a place called Irene, (Eipývy ?) At this school-house some of the " Brethren " lived; aiming, by thus domesti- cating themselves among the Indians, to acquire over them a more lasting influence. In this plan they were aided by the Rev. Benjamin Ingham, one of Wesley's associates, who began to compile a grammar of the Creek language.
In 1738 the Rev. Peter Boehler, to whose teachings . John Wesley attributed his conversion,56 arrived in Georgia to take charge of the mission. How much John Wesley leaned on the Moravians for spiritual help, has been already seen; and what his confidence in Peter Boehler was, the ardent and enthusiastic lan- guage of his journal fully testifies. Whitefield, how- ever, looked upon them with rather a different feeling, and complained that their conduct57 " first divided his family, and then his parish in Georgia." And Ste- phens animadverts58 with much severity upon an in- stance of their cruelty which came to the notice of the magistrates. In fact, a community organized upon their principles, could find but little that was conge-
56 Wesley's Works, i. 181, 186, 193.
57 Whitefield's Works, ii. 215.
58 Journal, ii. 101.
.
366
LEAVE THE COLONY.
nial to them in Georgia, and but few points wherein they could hold fellowship with the colonists.
When the province was threatened with a Spanish invasion, they were called upon to arm in the common defence. This they refused, having declared when in London, that they neither would nor could bear arms on any consideration ; and the Trustees granted them the desired exemption. It produced, however, so much dissatisfaction, that a portion of them left in 1738, and went to Pennsylvania, whither Mr. Spangenberg had gone before. The departure of these gave peace for a little season only to those who remained; for, upon a new application to them to bear arms in 1739, the rest, with Peter Boehler, left the country, and in 1740 joined their brethren in Pennsylvania. Thus ended the first mission of the United Brethren in America.59
Several of the Moravian ministers who came to Georgia were men of eminence in their denomination. Four of them were, Christian Gottleib Spangenberg, David Nitschman, Peter Boehler, and Martin Mack.
Spangenberg had formerly been adjunct Professor of Theology in the University of Halle, in Saxony. At London, whither he had retired, he met the Brethren Toeltschey and Layshart, and, becoming a convert to their doctrines, went over to Herrnhut, and joined the congregation of Zinzendorf. He was the one commis- sioned by the Count to treat with the Trustees con- cerning a settlement in Georgia, which he was happily enabled to effect. After leaving Savannah, he visited Pennsylvania and the island of St. Thomas, and, going over to Europe, was there ordained bishop. Shortly
59 Loskiel, part ii. 5.
367
NITSCHMAN-BOEHLER-MACK.
after he returned to America, the whole affairs of the Brethren in the British colonies having been committed to his care. He remained, with the exception of one voyage to Europe, until 1762, when he returned to Europe. Bishop Spangenberg was also an author, and wrote the life of Count Zinzendorf, an " Exposition of Christian Doctrine as taught in the Protestant Church of the United Brethren, or Unitas Fratrum," (" The Idea Fidei Fratrum,") and a Manual for Missionaries.
David Nitschman, one of the companions of Wesley in his voyage to Georgia, was also a Moravian Bishop, and one of the first missionaries among the negroes in the Danish West India Islands. Thence he passed over to Germany, and returned in 1740 to America, where, with a company of brethren and sisters, he founded the settlement of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. The rest of his life was passed in the duties of his office in Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware.
Peter Boehler was from the University of Jena, and was ordained a minister in the Moravian Church in 1737. On the departure of Bishop Spangenberg for Europe, in 1762, Boehler was one of the two bishops who succeeded him in the general superintendency of the United Brethren in North America.
Martin Mack was one of those who came to Georgia and removed thence to Pennsylvania, where he long laboured among the Indians, and afterwards was set apart as Bishop of the Moravian Church among the negroes in the Danish West India Islands.60
60 Notices of these Brethren are found scattered throughout Loskiel ; Crantz's History of the United Breth- ren, translated by La Trobe (Benjamin;) " History of the Protestant Church of
the United Brethren," by Rev. John Holmes, 2 vols. ; Oldendorf's History of the Missions in the West India Islands.
368
INFLUENCE OF MORAVIANS.
Among others mentioned in the annals of the Mora- vian missions, who, for a time, resided in Georgia, are Layshart, Hayger, and, more intrepid, more laborious, more self-denying, perhaps, than all, the noble, devoted Zeisberger.
The Moravians left no impress of their peculiar in- stitutions on Georgia. They came indeed to the col- ony while it was in a formative state, but they did not remain long enough to become influential with the people, and fashion the plastic mass according to those ideas of staidness and piety which have ever charac- terized the United Brethren. Like the Germans at Ebenezer, they were shut out by their language from mingling much with the other colonists ; and neither, therefore, ever had an influence proportioned to their worth or numbers. Could their virtues have aided in moulding the rising institutions of Georgia, and shap- ing that public opinion which is the embodiment of a nation's thought, many of the calamities of unhappy Georgia might have been altogether avoided, and many virtues might have been developed that would have reflected glory upon her name.
The religious history of Georgia, during this period, would not be complete did we omit to mention the ser- vices of the Hebrew congregation which came to Geor- gia in the first year of its colonization. True to their ancient faith, and zealous for the worship of the " God of Israel," they no sooner landed on our shores than they resolved to open a synagogue, to which they gave the name of Mickva Israel. A room was obtained and fitted up for the purpose, with the same Hechal, Safer Tora, cloaks, and circumcision box, which are used to this day in the synagogue of Savannah. In this tem- porary house of God, divine service was regularly per-
369
HEBREW CONGREGATION.
formed, and the great "I AM" was worshipped in the same language in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob prayed ; which was heard on Sinai, and in the gorgeous Temple of Solomon; and in which the inspired men of God poured forth their sublime and far-seeing prophecies.61 The guide and rule of their service was the " Minhag Sephardim," and the officers of the synagogue consisted of a Parnass, Gabay, and several adjuntas. They were not able to employ a regular Hazan, but the worship was conducted by the volun- tary services of the brethren, who, even in the pine forests of Georgia, did not forget the God of their fathers, or to lift up their voices in prayer, with " their faces turned towards Jerusalem."
In 1740, owing to the removal of many of the breth- ren, there were not left enough to form a congregation, and the services were for a time suspended.
This short sketch of the religious condition of Geor- gia up to the time of its erection into a royal province, furnishes many points of interest amid many causes of sorrow. It is a matter of interest that religion was planted with the first settlers, and that the English, the Salzburgers, the Moravians, the Presbyterians, and the Israelites, severally brought over with them the ministers or the worship of their respective creeds. The moral element of civilization, that without which the others are powerless to give true and lasting ele- vation, entered largely into the colonization of Geor- gia, and did much to nurture and strengthen the infant colony. But it is a matter of sorrow, that though many
61 The Occident and American Jew- by one of the first company of Jews, ish Advocate, vol. i. 248, 379, 486. Mr. Benjamin Sheftall, and there fur- The facts stated in Occident, 379, 486, nished to the public by his grandson, Mordecai Sheftall, Esq., of Savannah. are derived from a Hebrew MS. kept
24
370
INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON A COLONY.
of the clergy acted up to their high responsibilities, there were several who were destitute of that piety and loftiness of character which were necessary to secure respect for their office ; while the people them- selves, ignorant, corrupt, and split into angry factions, were in no state to listen to the teachings of the pul- pit, or profit by the instructions of their various pastors. Yet nothing was so needed to humanize the feelings, call out the affections, and elevate the soul of the peo- ple, as religion. It would have quieted all disturb- ances, evoked industry, introduced peace, and pre- served the colony from many of the ills and dangers brought upon it by the machinations of wicked and seditious men. Without " goodness," says Lord Ba- con,62 which, " of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing ;" a truth which the condition of Savannah sadly illustrated ; for all its busy idleness, its harmful clubs, its mischievous fac- tions, sprung from the absence of that " goodness" which the Bible only can instil. History, calmly look- ing upon these indubitable facts, is constrained to declare, that moral principle, founded on practical piety, is the corner-stone and the top-stone of the edifice of a good government, and, without it, no people can be- come what a commonwealth should be, "one huge Christian personage-one mighty growth and stature of an honest man."63
62 Works, i. 270.
63 Milton's Prose Works, Phil. ed., 2 vols., 1845. i. 17.
BOOK THIRD.
GEORGIA UNDER ROYAL GOVERNMENT.
CHAPTER I.
SETTLEMENT OF LIBERTY COUNTY.
ON the surrender of the charter to the King in 1752, it passed under the control of the " Board of Trade and Plantations " acting " under His Majesty,"1 com- posed of the lords commissioners appointed for the superintendence of colonial affairs, of which the Earl of Halifax was then at the head. This nobleman greatly interested himself in the colonies, and when Acadia was ceded to England by the treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle, (October 7, 1748,) the scheme which had been projected for settling that peninsula, which was now called Nova Scotia, was taken under his paternal care ;? and the capital of the colony, in honour of his generous assistance, received the name of Halifax. He was eminently qualified for his station, as well by his natural and acquired abilities, as his practical knowledge of the details of colonial settlements; and he presided over the Board of Trade and Plantations with honour to himself, comfort to the provinces, and benefit to the Crown.
1 Stokes's " View of the Constitu- 2 Smollett, ii. 311. Haliburton's tion of the British Colonies," &c., History of Nova Scotia, i. 136. Lond . 1783, 115.
372
ORIGIN OF THE DORCHESTER PEOPLE.
In November, 1752, a proclamation issued by the lords justices under advice of His Majesty's Privy Council, was sent over to Georgia, and publicly read in Savannah,3 declaring the royal pleasure that the magistrates and officers in the said colony of Georgia, should continue in the exercise of their respective offices until His Majesty's pleasure shall be known, and other provision be made for the due government and ordering of the province. Nothing could be more indicative of the prospective success of the province under the anticipated change of rulers, than the fact that in 1751 and 1752 the preliminary applications were made by the entire people of Dorchester, South Carolina, to take up lands in Georgia, whither they soon emigrated and settled at Midway river, in what is now Liberty county. The narrative of this pilgrim colony, of pilgrim sires, constitutes an interesting page in the history of Georgia. Colonial retrospect does not always bring renown; but here honour, piety, and worth blend in the origin and progressive exist- ence of this Dorchesterian band which emigrated to Georgia. Early in the year 1630, a little company of Puritans gathered from the counties of Devon, Dorset, and Somersetshire, met in the new hospital at Ply- mouth, England;4 and after a day of fasting and prayer, elected the Rev. John Warham of Exeter and Rev. John Maverick5 to be their pastors, and resolved to settle in New England. They sailed on the 30th of March, 1630, in the Mary and John, a ship of four hun- dred tons, commanded by Captain Squeb,6 and reached
3 MS. Doc. from Board of Trade, v. 34.
4 Rev. Dr. Harris's Account of Dorchester, Mass. Hist. Col., Ist se- i. 29. ries, vol. ix.
Morton's New England Memorial, p. 162 ; Davis's edition, Boston, 1826. 6 Winthrop's Hist. of New England,
373
THEIR EARLY SUFFERINGS.
America in two months. But so far from fulfilling his engagement to take them to Charles river, " The cap- tain put us," says a passenger, " ashore, and our goods on Nantucket point, and left us to shift for ourselves in a forlorn place in this wilderness."7 They soon, how- ever, selected a place called by the Indians Matapan, but to which they gave the name of Dorchester, " be- cause several of the settlers came from a town of that name in England, and also in honour of the Rev. Mr. White of that place." Dorchester, therefore, is the third oldest town in New England.
In common with all early emigrants, they suffered many privations and hardships, but they bore them with a Christian manliness and fortitude. Their hearts quailed not at every lion in the way ; dangers nerved them with courage, and trials but increased their energy. "Oh ! the hunger," says Captain Clap, himself an eye-witness of what he describes, " that many suffered, and saw no hope, in the eye of reason, to be supplied only by clams, and muscles, and fish. We did quietly build boats, and some went fishing ; but bread was with many a scarce thing, and flesh of all kinds as scarce. And in those days when our straits, though I cannot say God sent a raven to feed us as he did the prophet Elijah, yet this I can say to the praise of God's glory, that he sent not only poor ravenous Indians which came with baskets of corn on their backs to trade with us, which was a good supply unto many, but also sent ships from Holland and from Ireland with provisions, and Indian corn from Vir- ginia, to supply the wants of his dear servants in this wilderness, both for food and raiment.
7 Capt. Roger Clap, in Winthrop's New England, i. 28.
374
SPIRITUAL NEEDS OF CAROLINA.
" Thus God was pleased to care for his people in time of straits, and to fill his servants with food and gladness. Then did all the servants of God bless His holy name, and love one another with pure hearts fer- vently."
We could follow with much pleasure the gradual rise of this little settlement, tracing step by step its increasing influence and usefulness ; but we must pass over half a century of its existence in order to come more directly to the topic under consideration.
By the charter of Charles II. and the constitutions of Locke, the Anglican Church was the only one recog- nized in South Carolina, though there were provisions in both, favourable to other creeds. During its infancy, Carolina presented the strange spectacle of a colony founded by bigoted churchmen, and governed by dis- senters. Blake was a Presbyterian, and Archdale a Quaker. But though described by the latter as "an American Canaan, a land that flows with milk and honey,"8 it was a spiritual desert; for several years elapsed before there was a priest to bear the ark or minister at the altar. There were, however, "sundry godly Christians there, both prepared for and longing after all the edifying ordinances of God."9 Their Mace- donian cry was heard, and answered. Joseph Lord, of Charlestown, who, four years before, had graduated at Harvard College, and who was then teaching school in Dorchester, and studying theology with its pastor, of- fered to go thither ; and on the 22d of October, 1695, those designing to emigrate with him were embodied in a church, over which he was solemnly consecrated
8 " A New Description of that fer- lina," &c.
tile and pleasant Province of Caro-
9 Rev. John Danforth's Sermon.
375
A CHURCH FORMED FOR CAROLINA.
pastor.10 The churches of Boston, Milton, Newton, Charlestown, and Roxbury, by their delegates or pas- tors, assisted in the services. The gathering of this little flock, "to encourage the settlement of churches and the promotion of religion in the southern planta- tions," is a bright epoch in the moral history of New England. Sixty years before, the village of Dorches- ter had planted the first church in Connecticut; and now she had gathered another, to send to the far- distant borders of the South. In little more than a month they were ready to embark; and their faith and ardour kept pace with the advancing hour of sep- aration. The parting scene was made solemn by the holy services of religion. They gathered together for the last time in New England, in the house of God, and their former pastor, Mr. Danforth, preached a most af- fectionate and moving valedictory. The passage se- lected was from Acts xxi. 4, 5, 6, in which is detailed the parting scene between the disciples at Tyre and Paul and his companions ; and the peculiar applicability to their own circumstances, rendered it singularly inter- esting and appropriate. We can but faintly imagine the effect of such a discourse, from him who for thirteen years had broken to them the bread of life, and whose ministrations they now enjoyed for the last time. Around them were the cherished scenes of childhood ; the hearths of their kindred blazed here and there, with their thrilling associations. The thought of their homes, their parents, and their own companions, their sacred tabernacle, and their beloved village, now about to be relinquished forever, rushed to their minds with overwhelming potency. But, at the sacramental table,
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