USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. I > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
This petition, referred at first to a committee of the Privy Council, was by them submitted to the considera- tion of the Board of Trade, who, after a second com- mitment, made their report, that the attorney and soli- citor-general should be directed to prepare a draft of a charter. This report, being laid before his majesty, was by him approved, and he directed the proper officer to make out the charter.8 The charter thus prepared was approved by the king, but in consequence of the formali- ties of office, did not pass under the great seal until the 9th of June, 1732.
8 These several memorials and petitions are copied into Georgia MS. trans- cripts.
63
PROVISIONS OF THE CHARTER.
This instrument constituted twenty-one noblemen and gentlemen a body corporate, by the name and style of the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia, in America; giving to the projected colony the name of the monarch who had granted to them such a liberal territory for the development of their benevolence.9
By the provisions of this charter, which commenced with a recital of the causes which led to the proposed colonization, this body was entitled, for twenty-one years, to all the legal rights and immunities of a body corporate. They were to meet yearly, on the third Thursday in the month of March, when new members were to be elected. They were to have a common council, of fifteen members ; and when the members of the corporation were increased, the common council was also to be augmented to twenty-four. The offices of President, of the Trustees, and Chairman of the Board of Common Council, were to be rotary by election. The members of the corporation were debarred from holding any office of profit, or receiving any salary, fees, perquisite or profit whatsoever. They were au- thorised to take subscriptions and collect moneys ; and were required to lay, annually, before the chancellor,
9 In the London Magazine for Oct., 1735, are the following lines, " On giving the name of Georgia to a part of Carolina :"
" While ripening slow, the future purpose lay, And conscious silence plann'd the op'ning way ; Kind o'er the rising schemes an angel hung, And dropt this counsel from his guardian tongue : Wish you, this way, the royal pair inclined ? To Carolina be a Georgia joined ; Then shall both colonies sure progress make,
Endeared to either for the other's sake ; Georgia shall Carolina's favour move, And Carolina bloom by Georgia's love."
20
64
PROVISIONS OF THE CHARTER.
or speaker, or commissioners for the custody of the great seal of Great Britain, an account of all moneys and effects by them received or expended. They were empowered to make constitutions, laws and ordinances for the government of their province ; to set, impose, and inflict reasonable pains and penalties upon offend- ers. It granted to them " all those lands, countries and territories situate, lying and being in that part of South Carolina, in America," between the Savannah and Altamaha; and westerly, from the heads of the said rivers, respectively, in direct lines, to the Pacific, and the islands within twenty leagues of the coasts. It gave them permission to transport and convey out of Great Britain into the said province of Georgia, to be there settled, as many subjects, or foreigners willing to become subjects, as shall be willing to inhabit there. It also declared, that "all and every the persons" " born within the said province, shall have and enjoy all liberties, franchises and immunities of free denizens, as if abiding and born within Great Britain." It also established and ordained that there shall be liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God to all persons inhabiting, or who shall inhabit, or be resident within the province ; and that all such persons, except Papists, shall have a free exercise of religion, so they be con- tented with the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same, not giving offence or scandal to the government. It was further provided, that no grant of land should be made to any one of the corporation, or to any one in trust for any member of the same ; and no grant of land to any other individual was to exceed five hundred acres. They were authorised, also, to establish judi- catories, courts of record, or other necessary courts, embracing all cases which could come within the limits
4
65
PROVISIONS OF THE CHARTER.
of colonial judiciary, whether criminal or civil, capital or venial. It decreed, that no act of the common coun- cil or corporation should be effectual and valid, unless eight members, including the chairman, should be present. It permitted this board to appoint whatever magistrates, civil or military, by land or sea, the prov- ince required, except such as were connected with the revenue department. It required them to defend the province by all military means, both by sea and land, against either internal or external foes. It con- stituted the governor of South Carolina chief com- mander of the Georgia militia; and, finally, declared, that at the expiration of twenty-one years, such a gov- ernment should be established as should then be judged best, in which the governor, and all officers, civil and military, should be nominated and appointed by the king.
This was the great legal instrument which lay at the political foundation of Georgia. Its provisions were commensurate with its design ; and its privileges were as ample as the benevolence which called it into being. It gave to those over whom it stretched its fostering care, the privileges of freeborn Britons-the privileges of English law, and, with one exception, the privileges of religious liberty. Nor was this exception the result so much of England's Protestantism as Eng- land's politics. It was but transferring to the charter of Georgia some of the civil disabilities which then lay upon Romanists in the mother country-disabilities growing out of civil rather than ecclesiastical relations. The exception was wrong in the abstract ; but, inter- posing itself as Georgia did between the Protestant colonies on the north, and the French and Spanish possessions on the south, it was determined to draw around it such an ecclesiastical cordon as should effec-
?
5
66
THE DESIGNS OF THE TRUSTEES.
tually prevent any Romish intrigues or ascendency in a colony thus singularly situated.
The charter revealed two purposes as the object of this colonization-the settling of poor but unfortunate people on lands now waste and desolate; and the inter- posing of this colony as a barrier between the northern colonies and the French, Spanish, and Indians on the south and west. These designs the trustees amplified and illustrated in their printed papers and official cor- respondence ; and before we enter upon the results of their labours, it is well to turn back a century, and look at what they proposed to accomplish by estab- lishing such a colony.
In a published account of their designs prior to their being carried into execution,10 " the trustees state that they intend to relieve such unfortunate persons as can- not subsist here, and establish them in an orderly manner, so as to form a well-regulated town. As far as their fund goes, they will defray the charge of their passage to Georgia-give them necessaries, cattle, land, and subsistence, till such time as they can build their houses and clear some of their land. They rely for success, first, on the goodness of Providence, next, on the compassionate disposition of the people of Eng- land ; and they doubt not that much will be spared from luxury and superfluous expenses, by generous tempers, when such an opportunity is offered them, by the giving of £20 to provide for a man or woman, or £10 to a child forever."
" By such a colony, many families who would other- wise starve, will be provided for, and made masters of houses and lands ; the people of Great Britain, to whom these necessitous families were a burden, will
1 º Force's Tracts, i. 2d paper, 5.
67
THE BENEVOLENCE OF THEIR PURPOSE.
be relieved ; numbers of manufacturers will be here employed for supplying them with clothes, working tools, and other necessaries; and by giving refuge to the distressed Salzburghers and other Protestants, the power of Britain, as a reward for its hospitality, will be increased by the addition of so many religious and industrious subjects."
Oglethorpe, in his "New and Accurate Account," de- clares11-" These trustees not only give land to the unhappy who go thither; but are also empowered to receive the voluntary contributions of charitable per- sons to enable them to furnish the poor adventurers with all necessaries for the expense of the voyage, occupying the land, and supporting them till they find themselves comfortably settled. So that now the un- fortunate will not be obliged to bind themselves to a long servitude, to pay for their passage ; for they may be carried gratis into a land of liberty and plenty, where they immediately find themselves in possession of a competent estate, in a happier climate than they knew before ; and they are unfortunate, indeed, if here they cannot forget their sorrows."
This was the main purpose of the settlement ; and such noble views were " worthy to be the source of an American Republic." Other colonies had been planted by individuals and companies for wealth and dominion ; but the trustees of this, at their own desire, were restrained by the charter "from receiving any grant of lands in the province, or any salary, fee, per- quisite, or profit whatsoever, by or from this under- taking." The proprietors of other colonies were looking to their own interests ; the motto of the trus- tees of this was, " Non sibi, sed aliis." The proprietors
11 Geo. Hist. Col. i. 58.
1
68
THE PRODUCTION OF SILK, WINE, OIL, &c.
of other colonies were anxious to build up cities and erect states, that should bear their names to a distant posterity ; the trustees of this only busied themselves in erecting an asylum, whither they invited the indi- gent of their own, and the exiled Protestants of other lands. It was the first colony ever founded by charity. New England had been settled by Puritans, who fled thither for conscience' sake-New York, by a company of merchants and adventurers in search of gain-Mary- land, by Papists retiring from Protestant intolerance- Virginia, by ambitious cavaliers-Carolina, by the scheming and visionary Shaftesbury and others, for pri- vate aims and individual aggrandizement ; but Geor- gia was planted by the hand of benevolence, and reared into being by the nurturings of a disinterested charity.
But the colony was not to be confined to the poor and the unfortunate. The trustees granted portions of five hundred acres to such as went over at their own expense, on condition that they carried over one servant to every fifty acres, and did military service in time of war or alarm. Thus the materials of the new colony consisted of three classes : the upper, or large landed proprietors and officers-the middle, or free- holders, sent over by the trustees-and the servants indented to that corporation or to private individuals.
Subsidiary to the great design of philanthropy was the further purpose of making Georgia a silk, wine, oil, and drug-growing colony. "Lying," as the trus- tees remark, "about the same latitude with part of China, Persia, Palestine, and the Madeiras, it is highly probable that when hereafter it shall be well peopled and rightly cultivated, England may be supplied from thence with raw silk, wine, oil, dyes, drugs, and many other materials for manufactures, which she is obliged
69
ADVANTAGES OF RAISING SILK IN GEORGIA.
to purchase from southern countries." The secretary of the trustees, in his official account of the " Reasons for Establishing the Colony of Georgia," says :19 "The Italian, French, Dutch, Indian, and China silks, im- ported, thrown and wrought only, (including what are clandestinely run,) may, on the most moderate compu- tation, be reckoned to cost us five hundred thousand pounds per annum ; which may all be saved by raising the raw silk in Georgia, and afterwards working it up here, now we have attained the arts of making raw silk into organzine, and preparing it for our weavers, who can weave it into all sorts of wrought silks in as great perfection as any nation of the world; so that we only want the staple, (or raw silk,) and to have it at a reasonable rate. With this Georgia will abun- dantly supply us, if we are not wanting to ourselves, and do not neglect the opportunity which Providence has thrown into our hands.
" The saving this five hundred thousand pounds per annum is not all; but our supplying ourselves with raw silk from Georgia carries this further advantage along with it, that it will provide a new or additional employment for at least twenty thousand people in Georgia, for about four months in the year, during the silk season ; and at least twenty thousand more of our poor here, all the year round, in working the raw silk, and preparing such manufactures as we send in return; or to purchase the said raw silk in Georgia, to which country our merchants will trade to much greater advantage than they can expect to do in Italy ; and yet the exportation to this place will (as I said before) be, in all probability, preserved."
Oglethorpe, also, in his " New and Accurate Account,"
12 Geo. Hist. Col. i. 209.
70
ADVANTAGES OF RAISING SILK IN GEORGIA.
writes :13 " We shall be their market for great quanti- ties of raw silk; perhaps for wine, oil, cotton, drugs, dyeing stuffs, and many other lesser commodities. They have already tried the vine and the silk-worm, and have all imaginable encouragement to expect that these will prove most valuable staple commodities to them. The raw silk which Great Britain and Ireland are able to consume, will employ forty or fifty thousand persons in that country. Nor need they be the strongest or most industrious part of mankind : it must be a weak hand indeed that cannot earn bread where silk-worms and white mulberry trees are so plenty. The present medium of our importation of silk will not be the mea- sure hereafter of that branch of trade, when the Geor- gians shall enter into the management of the silk-worm. Great Britain will then he able to sell silk manufac- tures cheaper than all Europe besides; because the Georgians may grow rich, and yet afford their raw silk for less than half the price that we now pay for that of Piedmont. The peasant of Piedmont, after he has tended the worm and wound off the silk, pays half of it for the rent of the mulberry trees and the eggs of the silk-worm; but in Georgia the working hand will have the benefit of all his labour. This is fifty in a hundred, or cent. per cent. difference in favour of the Georgians ; which receives a great addition from another considera- tion, viz., the Georgian will have his provisions incom- parably cheaper than the Piedmontese, because he pays no rent for the land that produces them-he lives upon his own estate. But there is still another reason why Great Britain should quickly and effectually encourage the production of silk in Georgia; for, in effect, it will cost us nothing : it will be purchased by the several
13 Geo. Hist. Col. i. 68-9.
71
FURTHER OBJECTS OF THE TRUSTEES.
manufacturers of Great Britain, and this, I fear, is not our present case with respect to Piedmont ; especially if (as we have been lately told) they have prohibited the importation of woolen goods in that principality."
Wine was to be raised in sufficient quantities, not only for part of our consumption at home, but also for the supply of our other plantations, instead of our going to Madeira for it. Flax, hemp, and potashes were to be produced in such abundance, that the balance of trade with Russia was to be reduced £130,000; and indigo, cochineal, olives, dyeing woods, and drugs of various kinds, were to be as abundant as the demand for their consumption.
Incident to their primary design was the expectation of thereby relieving the mother country of a body of indigent paupers and unfortunate debtors. It was argued, that these people were not only unprofitable, but absolutely an expense to the government ; that their detention in England was a physical, moral, and. pecuniary loss to the nation ; while their emigration to America not only freed the country from those who would otherwise be burdensome to its charities, but made them profitable to themselves, to Georgia, and to England itself; and Livy was quoted, to show that the Romans often sent some of their citizens abroad for the very increase of her power.
Thus, the poor-rates were to be reduced, the parishes relieved, the workhouses emptied, the debtors' prisons thrown open, and even the population of the kingdom advanced, by the plantation of Georgia.14
The extension of Christianity was another aim which they kept in view. They reasoned that the good dis-
14 Jolial Child's Calculations, Geo. Hist. Col. i. 229.
72
ENTHUSIASM OF THEIR VIEWS.
cipline15 established by the society, would reform the manners of those miserable objects who should be by them subsisted ; and the example of a whole colony, who should behave in a just, moral, and religious man- ner, would contribute greatly towards the conversion of the Indians, and taking off the prejudices received from the profligate lives of such who have scarce any- thing of Christianity but the name.
Such were the principal purposes of the trustees in settling Georgia. Extravagance was their common characteristic ; for in the excited visions of its enthu- siastic friends, Georgia was not only to rival Virginia and South Carolina,16 but to take the first rank in the list of provinces depending on the British crown. Neither the El Dorado of Raleigh, nor the Utopia of More, could compare with the garden of Georgia; and the poet, the statesman, and the divine lauded its beau- ties, and prophesied its future greatness. Oglethorpe, in particular, was quite enthusiastic in his description of the climate, soil, productions, and beauties of this American Canaan. "Such an air and soil," he writes, " can only be fitly described by a poetical pen, because there is but little danger of exceeding the truth. Take, therefore, part of Mr. Waller's description of an island in the neighbourhood of Carolina, to give you an idea of this happy climate :17
"' The kind spring, which but salutes us here, Inhabits there, and courts them all the year. Ripe fruits and blossoms on the same trees live- At once they promise, when at once they give. So sweet the air, so moderate the clime, None sickly lives, or dies before his time.
Heaven, sure, has kept this spot of earth uncurst, To shew how all things were created first.' "
15 F crce's Tracts, i. Brief Acct., 6. 16 Force's Tracts, i. Brief Acct., 7. 17 Geo. Hist. Col. i. 51.
73
ORGANIZATION OF THE COLONY.
With such blazoned exaggerations, strengthened by the disinterested efforts of a noble and learned body of trustees, and by the personal supervision of its dis- tinguished originator, it is no matter of wonder that all Europe was aroused to attention ; and that Swiss and German, Scotch and English, alike pressed forward to this promised land. Appeals were made by the trus- tees to the liberal, the philanthropic, the public-spirited, the humane, the patriotic, the Christian, to aid in this design of mercy, closing their arguments with the noble thought : "To consult the welfare of mankind, regardless of any private views, is the perfection of virtue, as the accomplishing and consciousness of it is the perfection of happiness."18
Having obtained their charter, and set forth officially their designs, they now proceeded to carry them into execution. In July, 1732, they held their first meet- ing as a corporate body, and organized themselves according to the provisions of the charter. They appointed a commission of twenty-four noblemen and gentlemen19 to solicit and receive subscriptions, in various parts of England, towards their design. With great diligence they proceeded to frame a government -digest a code of laws-establish under their seal20
18 Geo. Hist. Col. i. 232.
19 Gent. Mag., 1732, p. 1032 ; also MS. Jour. of Trustees, vol. i.
20 It was formed with two faces : one for legislative acts, deeds, and commis- sions ; and the other, " the common seal," as it was called, to be affixed to grants, orders, certificates," &c. The device on the one was two figures resting upon urns, representing the rivers Savannah and Altamaha, the north-eastern and south-western bound-
aries of the province ; between which the genius of the colony was seated, with a cap of liberty on her head, a spear in one hand, and a cornucopia in the other, with the inscription, Colo- nia Georgia Aug. On the other face was a representation of silk-worms, some beginning and others completing their labours, which were characterized by the motto, Non sibi, sed aliis. This inscription announced the beneficent disposition and disinterested motives
1
74
QUALIFICATIONS OF THE COLONISTS.
appropriate judicatures-appoint officers for their new colony ; as well as receive petitions and select individ- uals as proper subjects of their bounty, and fit persons for their first embarkation.
The trustees met every week to receive benefac- tions, digest plans, and examine persons offering them- selves for their new colony ; which they resolved should be planted on the Savannah river, as near to Port Royal, the station of His Majesty's ships, as possible.
In selecting objects for their bounty, they exhibited peculiar care and discrimination. They permitted none to emigrate who were sailors, soldiers, husbandmen, or labourers from the country ; they required good moral characters, and examined into the causes and con- dition of the misfortunes of each. They confined the charity to such only as fell into misfortunes of trade ; and even admitted none of these who could get a sub- sistence in England. They suffered none to go who would leave wives or families without a support-none who had the character of lazy and immoral men, and none who were in debt and would go without the con- sent of their creditors : nay, further, the trustees, at the suggestion of Oglethorpe, appointed a committee to make out a list of such insolvent debtors as could compound with their creditors, discharge the sum, effect their release, and settle them in Georgia. Touchingly did this beneficence of the trustees to these, and to the Protestants from Germany, fulfil the words of Isaiah ; for their language to the prisoners was, "Go forth; and to them that were in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways .... for he that had mercy on them shall lead them; even by
of the trustees, while the device was they had in view-the production of an allusion to a special object which silk.
75
GENERAL JAMES OGLETHORPE.
the springs of water shall he guide them, with those that come from far."21
These preliminaries settled, we are brought to the period when the plan, the charity, the labours of the trustees, were to be put into efficient operation. For- tunate was it for the corporation that they had among their number one whose benevolence, whose fortune, and whose patriotism, as well as his military distinc- tion, conspired to make him the fittest leader and pioneer of so noble an undertaking. That one was James Oglethorpe, the originator, the chief promoter, the most zealous advocate of the colony ; an honour conceded by his associates, and acknowledged by all. Let us then pause awhile ere we embark with him in his first mission of mercy, and look upon the early por- traiture of one who was destined to be the founder, governor, and preserver of Georgia.
Each American colony delights to cherish the mem- ory of him who was pre-eminent in its origin and set- tlement. Virginia glories in the chivalric Smith ; Massachusetts, in the stern virtues of Bradford ; Pennsylvania magnifies the excellencies of Penn ; Maryland treasures up the memory of Calvert ; Rhode Island lauds the broad liberality of Roger Williams ; Connecticut honours the character of Winthrop ; New York will never forget the old Dutch Governor, Wou- ter Van Twiller; and Carolina will remember the Earl of Shaftesbury as long as the Ashley and Cooper rivers, which bear his name, shall roll their waters into the Atlantic. But no colony can point to a leader or founder in whose character meet more eminent qualities, or more enduring worth, than in that of James Oglethorpe, the father of Georgia.
21 Isaiah xlix. 9-11.
85
76
THE FAMILY OF OGLETHORPE.
It is remarkable that one whose character was so exalted should be so little known and appreciated. Though dead but little over half a century, we have but meagre memorials of his life, notwithstanding the declaration of Doctor Johnson, that he knew of no man whose biography would be more interesting.22 The outlines of his character have, however, been well delineated : it is the filling up, the minuter shades and lineaments, the spirited colouring of domestic life, the graphic touches of epistolary intercourse, the fin- ishing strokes of the social circle, which are wanting to make up the full picture of the man, that he may stand before us in life-like dignity and power.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.