A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Part 10

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 648

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To grasp with anything like an intelligent appreciation the reasons for establishing a new eolony in North America to be called the Colony of Georgia we must endeavor to realize conditions in England during the reign of George II. The beginning of the eighteenth century was marked by a great political and social revolution. It was a period of tremendous upheaval. In the first place, there had been a change of dynasties. The House of Brunswick had superseded the House of Stuart on the English throne; and from a line of Scotch sovereigns the kingdom had turned to a line of German prinees. Nor did this change bode much for the bet- ter. George I, who could hardly speak a syllable of English. spent most of his time aeross the channel; but his profligate habits of life made his absenee a benefit rather than a bane to his subjects. George II, with some difficulty, learned to speak the language of Alfred, but with a marked Teutonic aecent ; and while he improved npon his father's Eng- lish, he did not better the latter's example as an immoral spendthrift. Consequently it was a motley crowd of vulgar flatterers and of coarse sycophants who fawned upon these foreign monarchs until the royal conrt soon became a school of seandal and, adopting a dissolute code of manners, ceased to recall an age of Elizabeth.

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But this was only a beginning of trouble. Disastrous wars had in- volved the empire in heavy debt. The mania for speculation had become an epidemie, giving rise to numerous ventures which, in the last analysis, were only legalized forms of gambling. But such was the passion for accumulation, sueh the lure of sudden riches, especially for those who had felt the pinch of poverty, that thousands, persuaded into taking a short cut to fortune, were easily victimized by swindlers. These enter- prises came to be known as bubbles, for reasons only too obvious. But during the first quarter of a century more than a hundred were organ- ized. However, a climax was reached when the British Government chartered the South Sea Company, a syndicate which agreed to take over England's entire debt, then aggregating £53,000,000 sterling and to pay the bondholders in certificates of stock. Such was the prospect of rich revenues to be derived from an unlimited trade with Spanish America, a realm whose fabled wealth had become a familiar proverb, that the British imagination was fairly dazed by the stupendous under- taking. Even the most astute statesmen of the age felt its fascination. As a result the British Government accepted the syndicate's proposi- tion. Of course, since England herself endorsed the scheme and was to become a shareholder in its expected profits it was only natural that its stock should have found purchasers in an open market, among private individuals. To the average man it looked like a perfectly safe invest- ment. But it proved to be only a bubble; and in its wake came the heaviest financial crash in England's history, entailing upon thousands of people want, misery, and destitution. The treasury of England was embarrassed by the wars, but pauperized by the gamblers.

Robert Walpole becoming England's prime minister at this time brought to the helm of affairs a sagacious intellect but a dissolute life. His administration, in a commercial sense, evolved order out of chaos. It marked an era of maritime enterprise, of industrial activity, of trade expansion ; but it also marked an era of corrupt polities.

To add to the prevailing demoralization, religious zeal was at a low ebb. The church had become formalistic. It no longer embodied a vital principle, a regenerating power. It merely proclaimed a code of ethics. Though a spirit of reform, destined to eventuate in the great Wesleyan movement, was already beginning to quicken at Oxford, it came too late to be of help in this hour of England's crisis.

Misfortune always opens a door to intemperance. The gin habit had fastened itself upon the population to an alarming extent. Prior to 1689 drinking in England had been confined largely to the wealthy classes who could afford the luxury of French wines; but trade relations with France having been suspended in the above year, Englishmen began to manufacture a cheap drink called gin, whose use especially among the masses soon became a great evil, spreading throughout the kingdom like' a pestilence. To quote a student of economics: * "Statisties of the manufacture of intoxicants bear out this statement. In 1684 only 527 gallons of spirits were distilled in England; in 1714 the figures had risen to 2,000,000 gallons; in 1727 to 3,601,000; in 1733 to 5,394,00 and in 1742 to 7,000,000 gallons. Most of this was gin. It is said that retailers

* R. P. Brooks in "History of Georgia, " p. 36.

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of gin hung out signs to the effect that one could be made drunk for a pennyworth of gin, dead drunk for two pence, and should have straw to sleep on for nothing. Naturally crime and immorality increased with the consumption of gin."

It was at this crisis of affairs that the debtor prisons of England began to swell with inmates. Every grim fortress for the detention of insolvents began to open wide its devouring jaws. According to writers of the time, 4,000 persons were annually committed to these prisons for debt in the one city of London." To the shame of England be it said that upon her statute books there existed laws, giving to creditors such an arbitrary power; that no provision was made for the relief of honest debtors, "for a judicious distinction between fraud and misfortune." These laws only diminished a debtor's ability to pay by depriving him of his personal liberty and by making him odious from association with criminals in a common jail.

Hundreds of these hapless debtors were the innocent victims of specu- lative enterprises to which the government itself had given charters; hundreds had been reduced to penury by the collapse of the South Sea Company, to which England's good faith was itself pledged; hundreds were men of high birth, of gentle blood, of aristocratic family connec- tions; and not a few were even men of genius. To realize what these debtor prisons were and to know what choice spirits they sometimes con- tained one needs only to read the tale of "Little Dorrit," a novel in which Dickens has charmingly portrayed for us a child of the Marshalsea. Oftimes these debtor prisons witnessed the most cruel outrages. Men of the highest respectability were made to consort with prisoners of the lowest type, all thrown together in dungeons, not only devoid of ventila- tion but noisome with foul air and offensive with filth. Not unlike Georgia's convict lease system of a later day, the control of these prisons was farmed out to the highest bidder. Sometimes as much as 5,000 pounds sterling per annum was paid for this coveted franchise; and, as a rule, whenever a government, for ends of gain, transfers to private in- dividuals its authority over prisoners, we find a ruthless disregard of human life on the part of monstrous Calabans who call themselves over- seers or jailers. England's prison laws were bad enough even under normal conditions; but when, due to exploded bubbles in the financial world, there was a swelling of these dens of torture for unfortunate debtors, suffering reached its climax, endurance was strained to its utmost tension. It was time for the government itself to act. The re- sponsibility for these prison outrages, for these inhuman jailers, for these unhappy debtors, all lay at the door of Christian England.

But relief was in sight. One day there appeared at the debtor prison of the Fleet a gentleman whose tall figure, commandingly impres- sive, bespoke a military training. His face wore an anxious look. For weeks he had missed a friend whom he had finally traced to this prison -Robert Castell, a skilled architect, born to wealth. There was his name enrolled among the inmates. But on further inquiry touching the pris- oner's health he learned to his dismay that Castell, having been impris-

* J. R. MeCain, "The Executive in Proprietary Georgia, " p. S.

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oned in a ward infected with smallpox, had died of this loathsome dis- ease, a victim of cruel neglect.

This visitor was the illustrious Oglethorpe. With the convulsive power of an earthquake, the news of his friend's death awoke in him the slumbering spirit of a great reform. We are told that "in Dante's lonely voice, ten silent centuries spake.". So likewise, in Oglethorpe's resolve, the cry of a suffering age was answered. Returning to his home, he tossed upon his pillow but finally he slept and in his dreams he heard a voice calling to him across the Atlantic's wild waters: "bring your prisoners hither !" It was the child of his own fancy-there enthroned like a queen, radiant and beautiful, on the green bluffs at Savannah. It was a vision of Georgia.

Like a true humanitarian, Oglethorpe possessed the spirit of self- effacement. In prosecuting his work of reform, he did not seek his own

OGLETHORPE MONUMENT

preferment ; he did not force himself forward. To attest his zeal, he was ready when the time should come to take the leadership, in braving perils, in enduring hardships; but not for mere glory's sake. He was ready, if need be, to conduct his colony in person to the new world, there to share with his less fortunate countrymen a life of privation, of toil, and of danger. On the midnight sky of the eighteenth century, Oglethorpe's sublime unselfishness shines like a lone metcor, a solitary. planet, amid the prevailing darkness. Great as was his wealth, his social position, his prestige as a member of Parliament, his rank as a soldier of England, he was ready to imperil everything-to sacrifice all-in his noble crusade of reform. Fortunate for England that in an age of speculative greed, her better impulses found expression in an altruism so pure and so generous. She redeemed herself from a thousand follies in producing one man of such a pattern and with such a soul.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Until this time, Oglethorpe had been a somewhat inactive, if not an obscure member of the English House of Commons. But as the result of this visit to the Fleet, Oglethorpe became a conspicuous figure in the movement for the reform of English prisons, its recognized leader on the floor of Parliament. Humanitarian and soldier both, he became one of the foremost men of his day, extolled by Alexander Pope, admired by Samuel Johnson, limned on canvas by Joshua Reynolds, an intimate friend of Edmund Burke, of Oliver Goldsmith, and of Bishop Berkeley. His work in founding a colony for indigent debtors will be unfolded more in detail as this narrative proceeds. But to give him a better intro- duction a few preliminary facts are needed.

James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia, be- longed to an ancient family of high repute in England. His military genius was of paternal origin. Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, his father, to whom he was born the third son, attained a major-general's commis- sion in the British army. He also became first equerry to James II who assigned him to an important command of the forces assembled to oppose the Prince of Orange.# The gentler phases of his character were doubt- less derived from his mother. There has been some dispute as to the exact date of his birth but from an entry in the parish register of St. James, Westminster, he was born on June 1, 1689.t While still a mere youth, he matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford; but more soldier than student he became impatient for a military career, relin- quished his collegiate studies and in 1710 entered the English army as an ensign. This rank he retained until 1714 when he became captain- lieutenant in the first troop of the Queen's Life Guards. But an idle career at home proved irksome to the young officer. Consequently we soon find him on the continent, serving "as a gentleman volunteer." Under the renowned Prince Eugene of Savoy he perfected himself in the art of war. To this gallant commander he bore a strong letter of recom- mendation from the Duke of Argyle and was thereupon given appoint- ment on Prince Eugene's staff, first as secretary and later as aide de camp. An apt pupil he made rapid progress, winning from his renowned chief not only esteem and confidence, but also high encomiums. When peace was concluded, in 1718, he returned to England, "versed in the principles of military science, accustomed to command, inured to the shock of arms, instructed in the conduct of campaigns, the management of sieges and the orders of battle, and possessing a reputation for man- hood, executive ability, and warlike knowledge not often acquired by one of his years."

Boswell, in his "Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson," ha's preserved the fol- lowing spicy ancedote of Oglethorpe when a volunteer of the continent; but he is doubtless mistaken as to the young soldier's age at the time in question : ¿ "The general told us that when he was a very young man, I think only fifteen, serving under Prince Eugene of Savoy, he was sit- ting in a company at table with a prince of Wurtemberg. The prince took up a glass of wine, and, by a fillip, made some of it fly in Ogle-

* "Wright's Memoir of Oglethorpe," p. 3.

t Col. Chas. C. Jones, Jr., "History of Georgia," Vol. I, p. 82.

# Murray's Edition, Vol. III, pp. 217-218.

Vol. 1-4

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thorpe's face. Here was a nice dilemma. To have challenged him in- stantly might have fixed a quarrelsome character upon the young soldier ; to have taken no notice of it might have been considered as cowardice. Oglethorpe, therefore, keeping his eye upon the prince and smiling all the time as if he took what his highness had done in jest, said, 'Mon Prince' (I forget the French words he used; the purport, however, was), 'that's a good joke, but we do it much better in England,' and threw a whole glass of wine in the prince's face. An old general, who sat by, said, 'Il a bien fait, mon Prince, vous l'avez commence ;' and thus all ended in good humor."

But an unexpected turn of affairs soon launched Oglethorpe upon a political career. His brother, Theophilus, dying, he succeeded to the family estate at Westbrook. In 1722, as a member from Haslemere, in the County of Surry, he took his seat in the House of Commons. Though not a trained debater, he continued, despite numerous interrup- tions and through frequent changes of administration, to represent his ancient borough in Parliament for a period of thirty-two years. Throughout his long sojourn in Georgia, he was continuously a member of the House of Commons. Finally he met defeat in 1754. Like most of the country gentlemen of the period, Oglethorpe was a pronounced Tory ; and though he entered Parliament at a time when the Jacobites were meditating a restoration of the Stuarts, a line to which his family was attached, he maintained an independent course; spoke seldom, but always to the point; and was chiefly interested in legislation for extend- ing commerce, for propagating knowledge, and for ameliorating distress.

Oglethorpe may possibly have been interested in the reform of Eng- lish prisons before his visit to the Fleet; but his zeal for the cause re- ceived a fresh inspiration, a new baptism, from this honr. In 1729, we find him chairman of a committee to visit the Fleet, the Marshalsea, and the King's Beneh-three noted debtor prisons-to inquire rigidly into the conditions of each and to submit a report thereon to the House of Commons. It is needless to say that Oglethorpe's exposure of prison abuses was ruthlessly severe. He applied the scorpion's lash with vigor, not only to paid underlings but to high officials. However, when sifted to its last analysis, the responsibility attached to England for tolerating a system which permitted such enormities; and he proposed to dig to the roots, to perform a major operation in surgery, for the purpose of ex- tirpating a cancerous growth. As appears from the records, three separate reports were made by him from time to time, in consequence of which radical reforms were effected not only in the management of prisons but in the statute law itself, prescribing how these institutions should be governed.

We have already intimated that Oglethorpe's idea of founding a colony in the new world for insolvent debtors was inspirationally given ; but intimate contact with these unfortunate individuals only confirmed him in his project. It also gave him an opportunity for working out its details. There were scores of men to be found in these debtor prisons, who possessed good family connections, npon whom no stigma of guilt, no shadow of crime, rested, who only needed an opportunity, under uni- form and just laws, to show what was really in them; and why not or- ganize these men into a colony and give them a fresh start in the new

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world ? Sir Richard Montgomery's Utopian scheme having failed to materialize, he thought of the fertile domain in the western part of South Carolina's grant, where the sanguine Scotch nobleman, had expected to plant his ill-fated Margravate of Azilia. Here was a territory vast in extent, whose resources of soil and whose charms of climate had already been extolled. To establish between the Altamaha and the Savannah rivers a self-supporting colony, it was only necessary to avoid some of the fundamental errors in Sir Richard Montgomery's plan. Moreover, if a colony were located here, it would be a protection to South Carolina whose complaints were of long standing. Incidentally, England's trade and commerce might be angmented.

Mature reflection only intensified the burning desire of Oglethorpe to realize his cherished ambition. Though a man of wealth, his private means were not sufficient to compass the ends of so vast an undertaking. In planting a colony, there were heavy expenses involved. Moreover, the task of directing such an enterprise was too stupendous for one man to assume, however great his zeal or mature his wisdom. It was needful, therefore, as a condition precedent, to accomplish two things: to asso- ciate with him in the enterprise men of independent fortune and of seenre reputation and to obtain royal sanction for the project in the nature of a direct grant from the crown of England.

But how was he to enlist this co-operation ? How obtain this patent from King George II? More than a hundred years had elapsed since a corporation for colonizing purposes had been organized in England; it had been in fact more than fifty years since a colony had been established by English people in America .* Religions persecution as a driving wheel to induce colonization no longer existed, though an established church was disposed to show little favor to Catholics. Few of the colonies had been successful as money-making ventures; while the experience of the Lords Proprietors of South Carolina had been in this respect a sort of fiasco; and there was no longer any credence to be placed in the account of nntold wealth to be found in America. Such tales no longer fired the imagination ; but on the contrary had become "a weariness to the flesh."

There seemed to be no hope for a new colony at this time except by showing the practical ends to be gained. It was pre-eminently an age of greed. The underlying motive for Georgia's establishment was to fur- nish an asylum for insolvent debtors; but had its purely humanitarian aspects alone been stressed such an age would have laughed it to scorn. It was necessary to find some economic basis on which to ground the proj- ect. Consequently a striking array of facts was presented along this line. Figures were brought forward to show that it took £2,000 sterling to support a hundred families in London while families of the class who would be sent to Georgia could earn only £1,000 : so that to support them at home would entail a loss of £1,000 per year on the public. It was esti- mated that in Georgia a hundred families conld earn £6,000, saving to the crown, therefore, £4,000, to be used in buying English merchandise.t

With arguments like these, showing not only the humanitarian but

* J. R. MeCain, "The Executive in Proprietary Georgia, " p. 7.

t Ibid., 9.

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the economie basis for his proposed enterprise, Oglethorpe enlisted the co-operation of some of the best men in England, including members of the nobility like Lord Percival. These, on September 17, 1730, joined him in a memorial addressed to the Privy Council, asking for a grant of land in the new world on which to start this humane experiment; and, broadly speaking, the practical reasons set forth in favor of the proposed enterprise were as follows: # 1. To establish an asylum for indigent debtors in the new world would not only give these insolvents a fresh start but would prove a material saving to England's treasury already little short of bankrupt; that languishing in the prisons of London there were thousands of worthy debtors, from the number of whom a meritori- ous few could be selected with which to start the experiment; and that these would willingly and gladly seek a livelihood in any of his majesty's plantations in America, if they were only provided with transportation and furnished the means of settling. Moreover, it was believed that men of property could also be found to embrace an opportunity for acquiring lands in Georgia, and whose maintenance would not be an item of expense. 2. It was urged that a colony planted between the Savannah and the Altamaha, if organized upon a military basis, would provide an adequate protection to the exposed frontiers of South Carolina, whose large slave population was largely at the mercy of designing Spaniards in Florida ; also that a failure to establish in this region a permanent set- tlement might strengthen the claims of rival powers to South Carolina's disputed lands. 3. It was argued that a successful colony, in this part of North America, lying well within the temperate zone, where grapes and mulberry trees could be cultivated with great success, would prove a rich asset to the mother country and would mean much to the maritime supremacy of England.

Finally, the petitioners agreed to take charge of the enterprise, to transport the colonists to America, and to ereet the plantation into a proprietary government ; they praved that the lands above indicated be granted to them under a royal patent and that as a corporation they be allowed both to receive and to disburse all contributions and benefactions and to be clothed with full authority to enforce law and order within the limits of the province; they also requested the right to acquire lands of inheritance in Great Britain to the value of £1,000 sterling.

First, the petition was referred to a committee of the Privy Council for investigation, after which the law officers of the crown and the Board of Trade were consulted as to the legal questions involved and as to the expedieney of granting the proposed charter. Thus two years elapsed. There was inevitably some delay ; but in the end the proposed enterprise was favorably reported by the Privy Council : whereupon, under his Majesty's direction, a charter was prepared which on June 9, 1732, received the royal sanction, thus kindling a new star in the diadem of England.

* "Reasons for Establishing the Colony of Georgia with Regard to the Trade of Great Britain, ete." Benjamin Martyn, London, 1733.

CHAPTER VI

GEORGIA'S ROYAL CHARTER-THE TRUSTEES NAMED THEREIN-THE COR- PORATION TO EXIST FOR TWENTY-ONE YEARS-THE COMMON COUNCIL -ALL MEMBERS OF THE TRUST TO SERVE WITHOUT COMPENSATION --- DENIED THE RIGHT TO HOLD LANDS IN GEORGIA-RELIGIOUS FREEDOM GRANTED TO ALL EXCEPT CATHOLICS-REASONS FOR THIS EXCEPTION -GEORGIA'S TERRITORIAL BOUNDARIES-PERMISSION GRANTED FOR TRANSMITTING BRITISH SUBJECTS-FOREIGNERS REQUIRED TO TAKE THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE TO ENGLAND-ALL SETTLERS TO ENJOY THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN-NO GRANT TO EXCEED FIVE HUNDRED 'ACRES, EVEN TO MEN OF MEANS-LANDS TO BE RENT FREE FOR TEN YEARS-OFFICERS TO SERVE THE COLONY-COMMISSIONS TO BE ISSUED UNDER A COMMON SEAL-PROVISIONS FOR MAINTAINING THE SETTLERS -MILITARY REGULATIONS AND POWERS-CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF GEOR- GIA'S CHARTER-FIFTY YEARS SINCE A BRITISH COLONY WAS PLANTED IN AMERICA-THE CHARTER ACCEPTED BY THE TRUSTEES-SUBSCRIP- TIONS SOLICITED-THE BANK OF ENGLAND MADE CUSTODIAN OF FUNDS -- THE COLONIAL SEAL-MULBERRY TREES AND SILK WORMS-RULES ADOPTED BY THE TRUSTEES-ESTATES IN TAIL MALE- SLAVERY FOR- BIDDEN -- RUM EXCLUDED-LICENSE REQUIRED FOR TRADING WITH INDIANS-GREAT POPULAR INTEREST AROUSED.

Before proceeding further, let us glance briefly at Georgia's charter. The new colony was to be named for the reigning sovereign, King George 1I, whose royal sanction was affixed to the grant. As the grounds for its establishment, the various reasons set forth in the preceding chapter were enumerated. To serve the colony as trustees, all who signed the petition were designated, to-wit : John, Lord Viscount Percival, Edward Digby, George Carpenter, James Oglethorpe, George Heathcote, Thomas Tower, Robert Moor, Robert Hueks, Roger Holland, William Sloper, Francis Eyles, John Laroche, James Vernon, William Belitha, Esqs., A. M., John Burton, B. D., Richard Bundy, A. M., Arthur Bedford, A. M., Samuel Smith, A. M., Adam Anderson and Thomas Coram, gen- tlemen. These, together with others, afterwards to be elected, were to constitute a body politic and corporate, in deed and in name, to exist for a period of twenty-one years and to be styled : The Trustees for Es- tablishing the Colony of Georgia in America. The corporation was vested with perpetual succession. It was empowered to establish courts. to make laws, to nse a common seal, and to hold lands, hereditaments and franchises in fee simple, also personal property requisite for settling and maintaining the colony. It was given the right to dispose of such holdings by the usual modes of conveyance, inelnding gifts, grants, leases and demises. It was, moreover, clothed with all the powers necessary

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A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Part 10

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868- Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 648

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 648