USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. I > Part 28
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10 Harris's Dorchester.
376
EMBARKS FOR THE SOUTH.
they had dedicated themselves to the service, and they drew not back from the eucharistic covenant. On the 5th of December they sailed; and when the sun sank beneath the western hills, the first missionaries which ever left the shores of New England were offering up their evening sacrifice on the bosom of the Atlantic. There was something morally sublime in the spectacle which they presented. It was not the departure of one minister, or of one family, but of a whole church. There were women there in their feebleness, and children in their helplessness ; there were the young in their buoy- ancy, and the aged in their gravity ; all relations of life were there, and all had been consecrated to God. The distance which they emigrated was geographically short ; but at that period, a century and a half ago, the undertaking fully equalled in its dangers the most hazardous voyages of the present day ; and a moment's meditation will convince us, that there was even more heroism in leaving Dorchester for Carolina in 1695 than in sailing from Boston to India in 1847. The first part of their voyage was boisterous and unpleasant ; and on the eighth day they kept a fast, on account of the perils to which they were exposed, and He who holds the winds and the waves in the hollow of his hand heard their cries; so that on the 20th they landed in Carolina.11 Following the course of the Ashley river, they found on its north-easterly bank, about twenty miles from Charleston, a rich piece of land, whose virgin soil and stately woodlands, with their interlacing vines and ever-
11 Many of the facts mentioned here are from an excellent little pam- phlet, " A Short Account of the Con- gregational Church at Midway, Geo.," by John B. Mallard, A.M. In this
narrative Mr. Mallard has felicitously brought together from the records of the church and from public and private sources all the principal facts pertain- ing to this interesting settlement.
377
FOUND DORCHESTER IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
green misletoe, and drapery of moss, were well adapted to their purposes. This they immediately selected for their future home, and, in memory of their native place, gave to it the name of Dorchester. Here, upon the 2d of February, 1695, they raised their grateful Ebene- zer, by celebrating, for the first time in Carolina, the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The colony of Carolina derived many important advantages from New England, but nothing which at all equalled the bene- fits conferred through the emigration of this Christian church, and the planting of it, with all its precious ordinances and influences, in the vicinity of its capital. It was a work honourable to the character, and worthy of the religion, of the Puritans. Rev. Mr. Danforth, in his valedictory sermon, above referred to, said, speak- ing of the southern plantations, that " there was not in all that country neither ordained minister nor any church in full Gospel order." The impression which this passage conveys is at variance with actual facts, as there were both churches and clergymen in South Carolina prior to the arrival of the pious Dorchesterians.
Rev. Mr. Lord remained over twenty years with his people, when he returned to Massachusetts, and on the 15th of June, 1720, was installed pastor over the church in Chatham. Rev. Hugh Fisher was his suc- cessor at Dorchester, who, dying on the 6th of October, 1734, was in turn succeeded by Mr. John Osgood, a recent graduate of Cambridge, and a native of Dor- chester, South Carolina, at which place he was ordained March 24th, 1734-5. Under his ministry the church greatly prospered, though the period was one in which their temporal affairs were much deranged by the Spanish war. " About two years ago," he writes in 1746, " the number of communicants in our church
378
PROPOSE REMOVAL.
were but little over thirty ; now there are above seventy." The unhealthiness of their location, the · narrowness of their lands, the increase of their popu- lation, and the tendency of the younger members of their community to remove, in order to make profita- ble settlements, caused them to look about for a place to which all might emigrate, and thus, while they pre- served the compactness and unity of their congrega- tion, secure sufficient tracts of land for their extended plantations. Having heard of the good character of the lands in Georgia, they resolved, with cautious policy, to spy out the land before they left their present abode. Accordingly, on Monday, the 11th of May, 1752, three persons set off from Beech Hill for Georgia, to view and report upon the lands lying between the Ogeechee and Altamaha. In five days they reached a place which, being half-way from the one river to the other, was called Midway, which they selected as a most desirable place, and of which they obtained from the President and assistants a grant of 31,950 acres. The proposition to remove was not altogether unanimous: "Several used their endeavours to frustrate the scheme, notwithstanding which, an inclination to remove seemed considerably to get the ascendant." The superstitious, who looked to good omens at the beginning, as favourable to future success, had some fearful data from which to prognos- ticate grievous evils to the new settlement. These are partially detailed in the church records of Midway, which say: " In the beginning of August six persons set off by land, and seven more by water, to survey the lands and make settlements. Those by land being disappointed in the coming of the schooner, on board of which were their provisions and negroes, were
379
SETTLEMENT BEGUN AT MIDWAY.
obliged to return without accomplishing all they in- tended. Such as were on board the schooner, meeting with contrary winds, were so long in their passage, that they spent most of their provisions before their arrival, and were, therefore, obliged to return. On the 15th, while the schooner lay in the harbour, (near St. Catharine's Island,) there arose a hurricane, which was, in Carolina, the most violent that ever was known since the settlement of the English there, and which, in many places, left not one tree in twenty standing. On the 16th they attempted to put out to sea, and could not, and therefore went within land to Tybee, where meeting with head-winds, they sailed up to Savannah, where several leaving the vessel, went home by land. The rest, who remained in her, had a tedious long passage, and were met by a second hurricane before they got home, but were then also in a safe harbour. In their passage to Georgia, one negro fell overboard and was drowned, and those who went up by land had two of their horses drowned in their return. These adverse providences were very dis- couraging to most, and brought the affair of our remov- ing to a very considerable stand." The settlement was begun on the 6th of December, by two families ; but death met them early in their new home, and the day after their arrival took one of their little group to his silent dwelling. The house appointed for all the living, was the first made in the Midway settlement.
In small detachments the remainder of the people left Carolina, and by March, 1754, the pastor and whole church had settled in Georgia. Their first care was to provide for the services of religion, and a temporary log-house on Midway Neck was used as a church, and the first sermon preached there on the
380
PEOPLE ENTER INTO MUTUAL COMPACT.
7th of June, 1754. Aiming to keep the original prin- ciples which they had all along retained, and actuated by motives of prudence, piety, and security, the congre- gation convened at the log meeting-house, in August, 1754, for the purpose of entering into a mutual compact, and framing certain articles for the civil and religious government of their territory.
According to the articles of this incorporation, they agreed to build a meeting-house, to support, to the extent of their means, a ministry and its ordinances ; to settle all disputes by arbitration ; to commit the public business to three men chosen each year ; to have an annual meeting, or parish assembly, to consult for the good of the society ; to be governed in secular matters by the majority, and in ecclesiastical affairs to allow church members a double vote ; and, in order to secure one of the ends for which they removed from South Carolina, the purpose of having their " children after them compactly settled together," they covenanted that no member of the corporation should " sell his settlement or tract of land, or any part thereof, to any stranger or person out of the society, without first giving the refusal of its pur- chase to the society." In this annual assembly of all the settlers, this annual election of selectmen, and this being governed by the will of the majority, we find the germs of that republicanism for which that people were subsequently so noted. Their policy was, in- deed, exclusive, but that very feature was designed, and proved to be, a safe-guard to their children, to their church, and to the integrity and purity of the whole corporation. They were founding a home for their posterity, and they strove, therefore, to guard it from those mercenary and alienating influences which
381
PLAN OF GOVERNMENT REPORTED.
would so easily divide its unity, destroy its morals, and disperse its members.
The accession of such a people was an honour to Georgia, and has ever proved one of its richest bless- ings. The sons of that colony have shown themselves worthy of its sires; their sires were the moral and in- tellectual nobility of the province.
On the 19th of April, 1753, the Lords of the Com- mittee of Council for Plantation Affairs, to whom had been referred by the Privy Council, on the 18th of January, the subject and " the necessity that appeared to them for the immediate establishing a form of civil government in His Majesty's colony of Georgia,"12 ordered that the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations do prepare and lay before them, such a plan as they shall conceive proper and best adapted to the colony. This Board reported to His Majesty's council at Whitehall, on the 5th of March, 1724, and recommended,13 " That of the' different constitutions now subsisting in his Majesty's dominions in America, that form of government established by the Crown in such of the colonies as are more immediately subject to its direction and government, appears to us the most proper form of government for the province of Geor- gia." "We should therefore propose that a govern- ment should be appointed by commissioners under the great seal, in like manner as the governors of His Majesty's other colonies and plantations are appointed, with powers and directions to call an assembly, to pass laws, to erect courts of judicature, to grant lands, and to do all other necessary and proper things, in such manner, and under such regulations, as shall, upon due consideration, appear to be the best adapted to the
12 Board of Trade, v. 34. 13 Ib. v. 52.
382
WHAT OFFICERS REQUIRED.
.
present circumstances of the colony ; all which mat- ters, as well as every other regulation necessary to be made for the better ordering and governing the col- ony, conformable to the plan proposed, will come under consideration when we shall receive His Majesty's directions to prepare instructions for the Governor, and therefore we shall not trouble your Lordships with a detail of them at present.
" We would likewise propose, that twelve persons should be appointed by His Majesty, to be his Council of the said colony, with the same powers, authorities, and privileges, as are given to, or enjoyed by, the Council of His Majesty's other colonies.
" That the Governor be appointed Vice-Admiral of the said colony, with the same powers and authorities as are usually given to the Governors of other His Maj- esty's colonies; and that he, together with such other officers as shall be thought proper to be appointed, do constitute a court of admiralty for the regulation of matters subject to the admiralty jurisdiction.
" That proper officers be appointed for the better col- lecting and regulating His Majesty's customs and du- ties, and for other matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, and the Commissioners of the Customs.
" That for matters relative to His Majesty's revenue of quit-rents, and grants of land, there be appointed a register and receiver of quit-rents, and surveyor of lands.
" That a secretary be appointed for the transaction of all affairs usually belonging to the office of secretary in the other colonies, such as registering of deeds, and keeping the public records, and who may likewise act as Clerk of the Council.
383
PLAN APPROVED-SEAL ORDERED.
" It will also be necessary that a provost marshal should be appointed to execute the office of sheriff until the province is divided into counties ; and we would further propose that an attorney general should be appointed to assist the Governor and Council in matters of law which may come before them in their judicial capacity.
" These are all the establishments which appear to us necessary to be immediately made. The charge there- of, including an allowance heretofore usually given by the Trustees to a minister and two schoolmasters, the contingent charges of government, and the bounty upon the culture and produce of silk, will, at a moder- ate computation, amount to about three thousand pounds per annum during the infancy of the colony, and until it shall be in a condition to bear the expense of its own establishment, which we submit to your Lordships' consideration."
This plan was approved, and the Lords Commis- sioners were directed to propose a governor, council- men, and such other officers as they thought necessary, having first "informed themselves of the manners and character of the same." On the 21st of June, 1754, the king in council directed a silver seal to be made for the colony, bearing on one side a figure represent- ing the genius of the colony offering a skein of silk to the king, with the motto: "Hinc laudem sperate Coloni," and around the circumference, "Sigillum Provincia nostræ Georgia in America ;" and on the obverse, His Majesty's arms, crown, garter, supporters, and motto, with the inscription, " Georgius Il. Dei Gratia Magnæ Britannia Fr. et Hib. Rex, Fidei Defen- sor, Brunswici et Lunenbergi Dux, Sacri Romani Im- perii Archi Thesaurarius et Elector."14
14 Board of Trade, 61, 65.
1
384
NAMES OF CIVIL OFFICERS.
Thus the colony passed through its transition state, increasing in wealth, population, commerce, and im- portance. The civil officers in Georgia, consisting of Patrick Graham, as President, and James Habersham, Noble Jones, Pickering Robinson, and Francis Harris, as Assistants, were intelligent, faithful, and zealous men, and ably conducted its affairs, especially the intricate and delicate relations with the Indians, who had for some time been kept in a feverish state by the unwarranted proceedings of some officers in South Carolina, by the tampering of the French, and more than all, by the discords originated by artful colonists for private purposes and malignant ends. Having executed the trust reposed in them, with universal applause, they were now prepared to give the thriving colony into the hands of the king, and, at his bidding, take their respective parts in that new and royal gov- ernment which he had established.
Two governmental eras of Georgia having passed, we now stand at the opening of the third and more exciting period, in the far-off vista of which we see the turbulence of revolutions, and the dark and bloody scenes of war.
CHAPTER II.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR REYNOLDS.
ON the nomination of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, Captain John Reynolds, of the Royal Navy, was, on the 6th of August, 1754, ap- pointed by the King, Governor of Georgia. Shortly after he sailed from England in the Port Mahon, man- of-war, and alınost landed from his barge at Savannah (October 29th, 1754,) before any inhabitant of the town knew of his arrival.
But no sooner was this known than joy discovered itself in every countenance, and was manifested by the most public demonstrations. As he ascended the bluff, the people who crowded to behold the new Governor, received him with loud acclamations, and at night bon-fires and illuminations added to the general exhi- bition of delight.1 The next day he was introduced to the President and assistants in council, before whom his commission was read; and at its conclusion he was conducted to the President's chair, on taking which he announced the dissolution of that Board, and the for- mation of a new and royal Council, under letters patent from the Crown. The names of the new councillors were then read, and the body adjourned.º
South Carolina Gazette, Nov., 1 1754.
2 Minutes of Proceedings of Gov- ernor's Council.
25
386
POWER AND TITLES OF THE GOVERNOR.
On the following morning, according to their sum- mons, the Council again met, when the Governor took the several oaths required,3 and administered the proper forms to the councillors and officers under him ; and being thus formally invested with the pow- ers of government, it was ordered that his commission as Captain General and Vice Admiral of the province " be forthwith read and published at the head of the militia now under arms before the council chamber." It was listened to with profound attention, and saluted with several rounds of musketry and the shouts of loy- alty. The day was closed by a public dinner, at which the new Governor was entertained by the Council and principal inhabitants. The political institutions of the Trustees, which, by royal proclamation, had been con- tinued under the superintendence of the Lords of Trade and Plantations, now became extinct, and a different system of government was established.
The official title of Reynolds was, " Captain Gene- ral and Governor in chief of His Majesty's province of Georgia, and Vice Admiral of the same." The title by courtesy was, " His Excellency."
The power vested in a colonial governor was very great. Acting for and in behalf of the King, he en- joyed prerogatives which in their sphere were little less than those of royalty itself; and his title showed the blending of civil, military, and naval power, in and over the field of his jurisdiction. As Captain General, he had entire command of the militia, and the appoint- ment of officers, and until the establishment of the staff of
3 See these oaths in MS. Minutes of the Proceedings of the Governor's Council, and in Stokes's View of the Constitution of the British Colonies, &c., 8vo, Lond. 1784, 178. The author
of this work was for several years " Chief Justice of Georgia." His work is exceedingly valuable, as giving a constitutional view of affairs in Ame- rica prior to the Revolution.
CROWN OFFICERS. 387
the army in North America in 1760, command over the regulars stationed within the limits of his government. As Vice Admiral, he could, in time of war, issue his · warrant to the judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty, to grant commissions to privateers. As Governor, he was one of the constituent parts of the colonial legis- lature, and had the sole power of convening, adjourn- ing, proroguing, and dissolving the General Assembly. He could veto any bill passed by that body ; had the appointment of all officers not appointed directly by the Crown, and could even supply vacancies in these until the pleasure of the King should be known. He had the custody of the great seal, and as Chancellor within his province, had the same powers as the Lord High Chancellor of England. He presided at the Court of Errors ; granted probate of wills, and letters of ad- ministration on intestate effects ; and, as Ordinary of his province, could collate to all vacant benefices where the Church of England was established by law ;4 in fine, could " do all other necessary and proper things in such manner, and under such regulations, as should, upon due consideration, appear to be best adapted to the circumstances of the colony."
The Crown officers designated by the new commis- sions were-
JAMES HABERSHAM, Secretary of the Province.
WILLIAM CLIFTON, Attorney General.
ALEXANDER KELLET, Provost Marshal. WILLIAM RUSSEL, Naval Officer. THOMAS YOUNG,
WILLIAM BRAHM, Surveyors.
SIR PATRICK HOUSTOUN, Bart., Register of Grants.
4 Stokes, 184.
.
388
POWERS OF THE COUNCIL AND ASSEMBLY.
And PATRICK GRAHAM,
SIR PATRICK HOUSTOUN, Bart., JAMES HABERSHAM, ALEXANDER KELLET, WILLIAM CLIFTON, NOBLE JONES, PICKERING ROBINSON, FRANCIS HARRIS, JONATHAN BRYAN, WILLIAM RUSSEL,
Councillors.
The second branch of the Legislature was the Gov- ernor's Council. This body usually consisted of twelve members, appointed and commissioned by the Crown to be associated with the Governor as an advi- sory body, and as a check upon the lower house. Vacancies were filled, not by the Governor or them- selves, but by mandamus from the Crown. Each councillor was required to subscribe the test, and to take the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, abjuration, and office. They stood in the same relation to the Governor, that the Privy Council did to the King. When sitting in their legislative capacity they were styled the " Upper House of Assembly," constituting in some respects a provincial House of Lords.
They had also a judicial character, and in this aspect sat with the Governor as Judges of the Court of Er- rors or of Appeal, and in the Courts of Chancery. Their term of office was regulated by the pleasure of the King, though the Governor, with the consent of the Council, could suspend a member, subject however to the reversion or approval of the Crown. Of this body Patrick Graham, the last President under the Trustees and Board of Trade, was the first presiding officer.
389
REYNOLDS' FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF SAVANNAH.
The Commons House of Assembly, or third legisla- tive branch, was to be composed of nineteen members, returned from the several settlements agreeably to the writs of election issued by the Governor and Council. This was to represent the people and their interests, and the qualifications of the persons eligible to a seat were stated in the writs of election. The delibera- tions were mostly conformed to the precedents estab- lished by the House of Commons in Parliament. David Douglass was chosen the first Speaker of the Commons House of Assembly in Georgia.
Such, in general, was the apparatus, executive and legislative, of the royal government of Georgia. It was similar to what obtained in the other colonies, depend- ing immediately on the Crown, and secured to the Anglo-Americans the rights and immunities of British subjects.
If Governor Reynolds had formed very high expecta- tions of the country which he was sent over to govern, he was soon undeceived ; for, misruled by the Trustees, and fettered by the ill-devised regulations which the . Lords of Trade and Plantations " had moulded into its original constitution," Georgia presented a sad and deso- late appearance, and the eye of the Governor soon saw the nakedness and wretchedness of the land. His first letter to the Board of Trade6 gives a very sad picture of colonial affairs. " The town of Savannah," he writes, "is well sit- uated, and contains about one hundred and fifty houses, all wooden ones, very small, and mostly old. The biggest was used for the meeting of the President and assist- ants, and wherein I sat in council for a few days; but one end fell down whilst we were all there, and ob-
5 Burke's Speech on Economical 6 MS. Documents from Board of Reform, Works, ii. 198, Boston, 1826. Trade, v. 129.
.
390
ESTABLISHING OF COURTS.
liged us to remove to a kind of shed, behind the court- house ; which being quite unfit, I have given orders, with the advice of the Council, to fit up the shell of a house which was lately built for laying up the silk, but was never made use of, being very ill calculated for that purpose. * But it will make a tolerably good house for the Assembly to meet in, and for a few offices besides.
"The prison, being only a small wooden house, with- out security, I have also ordered to be mended, and some locks and bolts to be put on for the present."
He had not yet visited the other portions of the province, or he would have been even more sickened by the desolation that now brooded over places once thriving and prosperous.
. The first legislative efforts of the Council were directed to securing the friendship of the Indians ; for which purpose the Governor sent two letters to the head men of the upper and lower Creeks, announcing his appointment, expressing his affection, and promis- ing some further and substantial tokens of His Majesty's regard.
A subject of vast importance to the interests of the colony, and one which early engaged the attention of the Council, was the establishing of proper courts of judicature. The Governor brought it before that body on the 8th of November, by reading to the Board the royal instructions upon that point; but as the newly- appointed Attorney General had not arrived, its con- sideration was postponed until he could be consulted. He entered upon his office a few days after ; and on the 12th of December delivered in the Council the report which he had been ordered to make, relative to the appointing of courts of judicature.
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