USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 24
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* Mrs. J. J. Wilder, of Savannah, President of the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America.
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which the greedy waves had already overthrown when we determined to preserve it. On these very blocks of tabby the great and good Oglethorpe may have laid his hand. It is preserved in honor of him, the Founder of Georgia, whose energy was boundless, whose watchfulness was unceasing."
It is to the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America that the credit belongs for the rescue of this historie ruin on the Georgia coast. Occasional visits to the upper part of the island disclosed the sad plight in which the old fortifications were left and emphasized the importance of immediate action if anything were done to rescue the ancient land-mark from utter extinction. At one time there stood upon the ruins of the old fort an occupied building. Just how long ago it stood here is uncertain, but in removing the debris some of the workmen chanced to discover the walls. Thus after the lapse of long years was the existence of the old fort brought to the attention of the public. In 1902 a resolution was adopted by the Colonial Dames looking toward the restoration of the ancient stronghold. This was possible only in part; but without losing a moment's time these patriotic women took the initiative, raised the funds which were needed for making the proper repairs, and in due time completed the task. Embedded in one of the outer walls of the old fort is an elegant tablet of bronze, eighteen by twenty-four inches, on which may be read the following inscription :
OGLETHORPE
This remnant is all that time has spared of the Citadel of the Town of Frederica, built by General Oglethorpe, A. D., 1735, as an outpost against the Spaniards in Florida. Presented by the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America, 1904.
With impressive exercises, the above mentioned tablet was unveiled on April 22, 1904. There were a number of distinguished visitors present, including representa- tives from the various patriotic orders. The fort on this occasion was profusely decorated with flowers. The tablet was covered with the British flag, while the American colors floated from the parapet. Mrs. J. J. Wilder, President of the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America, unveiled the tablet. The prayer of invocation was offered by Rev. D. W. Winn, rector of Christ Church at F'rederica, after which the anthem " America" was sung by a choir of children. Then followed an address by Mrs. Wilder, at the conclusion of which Captain C. S. Wylly, of Brunswick, introduced the orator of the day, Hon. Pleasant A. Stovall, of Savannah, who, in eloquent language, told the brave story of the old fort. Some few paragraphs from this address are herewith reproduced.
Said Mr. Stovall, in substance: "Those who would have a glimpse of the real James Oglethorpe must come to Frederica, for he was above everything else a sol- dier. When he had finished his earlier task at Savannah, his face by some mysterious fascination was turned to the southward. He thereupon set out for St. Simon's where, true to his military instincts, he built his forts and assembled his regiment, and where, for the first time, yielding to the domestie spirit, he reared his roof-tree and established the beginning of his home. Until he left the Colony never again to return he resided at his cottage on St. Simon's Island, and of all the places planted and nurtured by him, none so warmly enlisted his energies or engaged his constant solicitude as this fortified town at the mouth of the river.
"The men who sailed with Francis Drake and who ravaged the Spanish main in the sixteenth century did not lead a more venturesome or heroic existence than did Oglethorpe at Frederica, yet according to Colonel Jones, 'the only hours of leisure he ever enjoyed were in sight and sound of his military works on the southern frontier.' Weary of the outeries and intrigues of the settlers at Savannah, stung by their evidences of ingratitude and discouraged by their protests against his benign supervision, he found rest at Frederica, where he stationed his regiment and revived a military regime. Here he mounted guard under the spreading oaks and watched the sentinels as they paced the lonely shades. Now and then he conversed genially with the cadets of the old families who had enlisted here, while ever and anon he heard the bugles ring out in the silver moonlight and saw his guard sloop patrol the estuaries of the Altamaha.
"Oglethorpe proved to be a sea-fighter as well as an infantry commander. He seemed to be at home in every branch of the service. Napoleon, when he heard that Vol. I-11
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the English had vanquished the French fleet in the battle of the Nile, held up his hands in helplessness and exclaimed: 'I cannot be everywhere.' But Oglethorpe seemed to have the faculty of being everywhere and of covering every foot of ground and every sheet of water, from the mouth of the St. John's to St. Simon's Island. He served the guns on shipboard and on the land batteries, and even acted as engi- neer. He had the power of initiative. He possessed the aggressive genius of attack."
"Walpole called him a 'bully.' He was not that; but he was a military man every inch of him, strict and severe in discipline, better suited to the scenes of war than to the patient civic administration of the council board. After the Spanish had been driven from the limits of Georgia and the peace of Europe had been accom- plished, leaving Frederica free from the fear of further invasion, Oglethorpe sailed away to the old country and left the work of rehabilitating the Colony to other hands. It is fortunate, perhaps, for his fame that he did so. The rules of the trustees were much modified. The charter was surrendered to the Crown and the drastic lines upon which the paternal government of Oglethorpe had been projected were partially changed. But conditions had shifted. A Colony environed by an implacable foe, subject to spoliation at any time, must be governed, perhaps, by the rules of the ramparts and of the quarterdeck. A people basking in peace and developing under the arts need vastly different regulations. But fortunate for all of us it was that the first period of Georgia's existence was shaped by a master hand and its destinies guided by one of the noblest men and one of the knightliest soldiers in Europe.
"After the departure of Oglethorpe and the conclusion of peace Frederica began to retrograde. The troops were finally removed and the fortifications fell into decay. Houses commenced to tumble down, and there were 'barracks without soldiers, guns without carriages, and streets overgrown with weeds.' Even in 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence, Frederica was a ruin; from the crumbling walls of the deserted houses, figs and pomegranates were growing; and the brave town soon dwindled into nothingness. During the Revolution the British troops well- nigh completed the spoliation of time. The mission of Frederica, according to Col. Joues, was accomplished when the Spaniards no longer threatened. Its doom was pronounced in the hour of its victory. Fannie Kemble, who visited the ruins in 1839 saw 'the wilderness of crumbling gray walls compassionately cloaked with a thousand graceful creepers.' "*
GENERAL OGLETHORPE'S EPITAPH .- In the chancel of the parish church at Cran- ham, in the County of Essex, Eng., on a mural tablet of white marble, is the follow- ing inscription to General Oglethorpe. The last resting place of the great humani- tarian and soldier is near the water's edge, sixteen miles to the east of London. His palatial residence, which stood in the immediate neighborhood, was burned to the ground some time during the last century and the moldering gateway to the garden alone remains to tell where the colony of Georgia was first outlined in the dreams of the illustrious founder.
Near this place lie the remains of JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE, Esq., who served under Prince Eugene, and in 1714 was Captain Lieutenant in the first troup of the Queen's Guards. In 1740 he was appointed Colonel of a Regiment to be raised for Georgia. In 1745 he was appointed Major-General; in 1747, Lieutenant General; and in 1760, General of His Majesty's forces. In his civil station he was very early conspicuous. He was chosen Member of Parliament for Haslemere, in Surry, in 1722, and continued to represent it till 1754.
In the committee of Parliament, for inquiring into the state of the jails, formed 25th of February, 1728, and of which he was Chairman, the active and persevering zeal of his benevolence found a truly suitable enjoyment, by visiting with his col- leagues of that generous body, the dark and pestilential dungeons of the Prisons, which at that time dishonored the metropolis; detecting the most enormous oppres- sions; obtaining exemplary punishment on those who had been guilty of such outrages against humanity and justice; and redressing multitudes from extreme misery to light and freedom. Of these, about seven hundred, rendered, by long confinement for debt, strangers and helpless in the country of their birth, and desirous of seeking an asylum in the wilds of America, were by him conducted thither in 1732.
* Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, by L. L. Knight. Vol. I.
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He willingly encountered in their behalf a variety of fatigue and danger, and thus became the founder of the Colony of Georgia; a Colony which afterwards set the noble example of prohibiting the importation of slaves.
This new establishment he strenuously and successfully defended against a power- ful attack of the Spaniards. In the year in which he quitted England to found this settlement, he nobly strove to secure our true national defence by sea and land- a free navy-without impressing a constitutional militia. But his social affections were more enlarged than even the term Patriotism can express: he was the friend of the oppressed negro, no part of the globe was too remote,-no interest too unconnected,-or too much opposed to his own, to prevent the immediate succor of suffering humanity.
For such qualities he received from the ever memorable John, Duke of Argyle, a full testimony, in the British Senate, to his military character, his natural gen- erosity, his contempt of danger, and regard for the Public. A similar encomium is perpetuated in a foreign language ;* and, by one of our most celebrated poets, t his remembrance is transmitted to posterity in lines justly expressive of the purity, the ardor, and the extent of his benevolence. He lived till the 1st of July, 1786; a venerable instance to what a duration a life of temperance and virtuous labor is capable of being protracted. His widow, Elisabeth, daughter of Sir Nathan Wright, of Cranham Hall, Bart., and only sister and heiress of Sir Samuel Wright, Bart., of the same place, surviving, with regret, but with due submission to Divine Provi- dence, an affectionate husband, after an union of more than forty years, hath inscribed to his memory these faint traces of his excellent character.
(Then follows several lines of inferior verse.)
* Reference is here made, to an eloquent eulogy of Oglethorpe by Abbë Raynal, in his "Historie Philosophique et Politique."
t Alexander Pope's famous lines are here recalled-
" Hail, Oglethorpe! with nobler triumphs crowned Than ever were in camps or sieges found. * * Thy great example shall through ages shine, A favorite theme with poet and divine; People unborn thy merits shall proclaim And add new honors to thy deathless name."
CHAPTER XVIII
GEORGIA DIVIDED INTO TWO GREAT COUNTIES: SAVANNAH AND FRED- ERICA-COLONEL WILLIAM STEPHENS IS MADE PRESIDENT OF THE FORMER-BUT ON THE RETURN OF OGLETHORPE TO ENGLAND HE BECOMES PRESIDENT OF THE COLONY OF GEORGIA-SKETCH OF PRESIDENT STEPHENS- HIS JOURNAL AN IMPORTANT SOURCE-BOOK OF INFORMATION IN REGARD TO COLONIAL AFFAIRS-IMPOVERISHED CONDITION OF THE PROVINCE FOLLOWING THE SPANISH WARS-THE SILK-WORM INDUSTRY DECLINES-GREAT DISTRESS PREVAILS- PRAYER FOR RELIEF IS MADE TO THE TRUSTEES-THOMAS STEPHENS EMBARKS FOR ENGLAND TO REPRESENT THE MALCONTENTS, MUCH TO . THE EMBARRASSMENT OF AN AGGRIEVED FATHER-SLANDERS THE TRUSTEES, FOR WHICH OFFENCE HE IS MADE TO KNEEL BEFORE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND TO RECEIVE A REPRIMAND FROM THE SPEAKER-NEVERTHELESS, IN RESPONSE TO REPEATED COMPLAINTS, RADICAL CHANGES ARE MADE-SLAVERY IS ALLOWED UNDER CER- TAIN RESTRICTIONS-EVEN THE SALZBURGERS WITHDRAW OBJEC- TIONS-RUM IS ALSO ADMITTED-ESTATES IN TAIL MALE ABOLISHED --- OGLETHORPE'S DIPLOMACY IN DEALING WITH THE INDIANS-CHRIS- TIAN PRIBER-SEEKS TO ORGANIZE AN INDIAN CONFEDERACY-PROVES TO BE A CATHOLIC-PAPERS FOUND ON HIS PERSON-THE BOSOM- WORTH CLAIM-MARY'S DRAMATIC ENTRANCE INTO SAVANNAH- PRESIDENT STEPHENS TAKES A BOLD STAND-THE INDIANS ARE QUIETED.
Some two years before the return of Oglethorpe to England the province of Georgia had been divided by the trustees into two great counties : Savannah and Frederica. It was contemplated that for each of these there should be a president, with four assistants. But since Oglethorpe had established his residence on St. Simon's Island, no president was appointed for Frederica. To fill this office for Savannah, Col. William Stephens was appointed. Oglethorpe, however, still retained his general oversight of the province until his return to Eng- land in 1743, when Col. William Stephens was designated to succeed him as president of Georgia, an office which he held as a sort of lien- tenant-governorship under Oglethorpe, who, even after his return to England, continued for more than a decade to be Georgia's official head. Maj. William Horton was designated to act as military commander at Frederica. Here, on March 22, 1743, the powder magazine was blown np, it is supposed, by a vagabond Irishman; but its great mission had been accomplished. Capt. Richard Kent was chosen at this time to keep the peace at Augusta.
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William Stephens was the son of an English baronet and was born on the Isle of Wight in 1671. After receiving his diploma from King's College, Oxford, he was admitted to the Middle Temple. In 1736 he came to South Carolina to survey a barony ; and while in that province he chanced to meet General Oglethorpe, who was frequently a visitor in Charleston. At the latter's invitation he removed to Georgia in 1737 to become resident secretary of the trustees. Sixty-seven years of age at this time, he was quite an old man when made secretary; and on assuming official responsibilities as president of Georgia he was in his seventieth year. The journal which he kept during his residence in the province is the chief source from which most of our information concerning Georgia's early colonial life has been derived. This work, entitled a "Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia," was published in London in 1742, in three volumes. It has recently been reproduced in the Colonial Records of Georgia .* The infirmities of age necessitated his relinquishment of the office of president in 1751; but he continued to live for two years longer, dying in 1753, at the age of eighty-two. Thomas Stephens, his son, published in 1742 a biographical work which he called "The Castle Builders, or the History of William Stephens," a second edition of which appeared in 1757.
Following the Spanish wars an impoverished condition of affairs was presented by the province. The Scotch settlement at Darien was almost completely extinguished. Most of the stalwart Highlanders had fallen in the protection of Georgia's exposed frontier, some of them under the walls of St. Augustine. Frederica had likewise received a blow from which it was destined never to recover. There was little recuperative energy in the province, due to some of the stringent laws under which Georgia was governed. Estates in tail had not proven a success. The ban against an importation of slaves had prevented Georgia from keep- ing apace with other colonies. The enlture of silk-worms had proven a failure, nor had the growing of grapes been a source of profit. There had been no immigration of new settlers into the province for some time, due to various causes, among them (1) a waning interest in the colony on the part of the British public, shared in some measure even by the trustees; (2) a demoralized condition of affairs caused by Caus- ton's irregularities; and (3) an ever-present dread of the Spaniards, who had sworn to extinguish Georgia; (4) malarial fevers; and (5) ill-advised rules of the trustees relative to land tenure, slavery, and rum. Consequently, the administration of President Stephens was couched upon troublous times. It was a period of great unrest, of widespread destitution, of deep-seated complaint, of demoralized social, industrial, and business conditions. Nor was it in any wise the fault of this high- minded and upright old man who, under circumstances of a most trying nature, was unflinchingly true to his trust. If he was to be criticized at all, it was for not acquainting the trustees, who relied upon him for information, as to the true facts concerning the province, especially with regard to the harmful effect of some of the laws passed by the corporation ; but he was anxious to appear well in the eyes of the trus- tees, and he doubtless little thought that by putting a fair face upon
* Vol. IV, Colonial Records, Candler.
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conditions he was doing the province any real harm. He ought to have told the trustees the exact truth, but instead of doing this, he preferred to urge a philosophie patience and a submissive spirit upon the colonists.
Georgia was the only one of the English provinces in which any restriction existed at this time as to the ownership of lands, as to the employment of slave labor, or as to the use of alcoholic liquors. As we have already seen, the trustees, while forbidding negro slaves, permitted white servants. These were brought into the colony under contracts called indentures, in which they bound themselves to hard labor for a term of years, usually from three to four; and at the expiration of this time they were to be given lands to occupy as settlers. Servants of this character were, as a rule, worthless. They were known as "indented" or "articled" servants; and if not an indolent lot, they were ill-adapted to agricultural employment in the Georgia swamps under a blistering sun. As a consequence, many of them fell victims to malarial fever. Besides, scores of these servants ran away, finding conditions of life much easier in the other colonies. We are not surprised to learn, there- fore, that for the first six years after Colonel Stephens became presi- dent of the colony, Georgia, instead of flourishing, slowly declined until conditions finally reached an acute climax.
Prayers for relief had been made to the trustees as early as 1735, but without success. In 1738 a petition signed by more than a thousand colonists residing in the neighborhood of Savannah had been forwarded to the home authorities asking for modifications in the law as to slaves and ownership of lands; but the Scotch settlers at Darien and the Salz- burgers at Ebenezer had opposed the introduction of slave labor in counter petitions. Consequently, the trustees had again refused to modify a set of rules to which they were committed by fixed principles. But there was no relinquishment of purpose on the part of the colonists. An incessant bombardment of the London office commenced to reach its dramatie culmination when Thomas Stephens, a son of Georgia's aged president, was sent to England as the mouthpiece of this discontented element to demand measures of relief, much to the embarrassment of an aggrieved father, who was not in sympathy with his errand .*
While these disappointments were being suffered by the trustees, further vexations were begun for them by Thomas Stephens, who had come to England claiming to represent the people of Georgia. As the agent of the inhabitants of the province, he had on March 30, 1742, pre- sented a petition to the Privy Council complaining against the oppres- sions of the trustees and asking for relief. This petition was referred to the committee of the council for plantation affairs and a copy of it was sent by the committee to the trust with the desire that an answer might be returned as speedily as possible by the trustees. This answer was filed on May 3, 1742, but before a hearing could be held by the council the matter had been taken up by the House of Commons. On April 30 a petition was presented in the House for Thomas Stephens, but in the name of the inhabitants of Georgia, and it was moved that the petition be referred to a private committee. The friends of the trustees objected to this disposition of the matter, because they feared
* Thomas Stephens made to kneel before the House of Commons.
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that a committee might be selected that would be hostile to the colony and so they pressed for a hearing before the whole House and this was finally secured by themu. The petition and answer that had been filed with the Privy Council were laid before the House and it was agreed that both sides should be allowed to introduce evidence and might be heard by counsel.
Three solemn hearings at the bar of the whole House of Commons were held on the allegations of the petition and the defense of the trustees was then presented. After hearing the counsel for both sides and debating the subject among themselves, the members of the House as a committee adopted six resolutions to embody their findings in the case. They approved entirely the usefulness of Georgia; they asserted that it ought to be supported and preserved, and they condemned the petition of Stephens as containing false, scandalous and malicious charges, but they reported in favor of changing one or two of the regu- lations of the trustees. When these resolutions were presented as the report of the committee, the House adopted them without change on June 29; and Thomas Stephens on the next day was made to kneel in the House of Commons and was reprimanded by the speaker for his part in trying to asperse the characters of the trustees.
But sentiment in favor of radical changes in the government of the colony was gradually crystallized into a universal demand. The Sulz- burgers, who bitterly opposed at first an introduction of slaves, finally relented. The Scotch Highlanders no longer interposed an objection. Even the revered Whitefield, a moral leader of the most exalted type, originally a pronounced foe to slavery, became convinced of the fact that Georgia's existence as a colony was imperiled by the law forbid- ding its introduction. James Habersham was likewise of this opinion. Consequently, after turning a deaf ear to all appeals of this character for a period of fifteen years, the trustees were finally made to realize that resistance was no longer a virtue. Perhaps the most weiglity argu- ment of all for rescinding the law as to slaves was a single detached sentence from a letter written by the devout old minister, Mr. Bolzius. "Things being now in such a melancholy state," wrote he, "I most humbly beseech your honors not to regard any more our petitions against negroes."
It was, thereupon, resolved by the trustees to petition the king for a repeal of the law touching slavery in the province, under certain conditions, to wit: that the colonists should employ one white servant to every four male slaves; that slaves should be taught no trade likely to interfere with white citizens; that inhuman treatment was not to be allowed; and that moral and religious instruction was not to be neglected. Before any final action was taken, however, a letter was first addressed to President Stephens setting forth these conditions, in regard to which a ratification was asked. At a convention of the colo- nists over which Major Horton, of Frederica, presided, these conditions were accepted without demurrer. Moreover, additional conditions were proposed by the colonists to the following effect: That a penalty of ten pounds should be paid by every master who forced or permitted a slave to work on the Lord's day; and that if any master failed to compel his slaves to attend church at some time on Sunday he should,
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for each offense, be fined five pounds. Upon these conditions, formal acceptance of which was given, a petition signed by twenty-seven per- sons of the highest standing in the province was forwarded to the trustees asking that slavery be allowed at once; and in response thereto, on October 26, 1749, under the conditions above indicated slaves were admitted by law into the colony of Georgia.
Without multiplying details, it was only a few months before the regulations against a sale of rum and other distilled liquors was also repealed; while on March 25, 1750, the law governing land tenure was changed so that an owner of property might mortgage or sell his land at will. Thus fee simple estates were substituted for estates in tail male. One after another, therefore, the rules which, in the beginning, had been deemed by the trustees so essential to the welfare of the colony, had been abrogated. Even the silk-worm industry, of which the trustees had expected so much, was soon to die a natural death, despite every effort made by the British government to encourage its development. Handsome appropriations, liberal premiums, generous gifts, all proved unavailing. Mulberry trees began to die of neglect, cocoons decreased in number, filatures fell into ruin, and an industry from vast revenues were expected to accrue to the Crown of England, perished by slow degrees until at last its existence became only a dim recollection. The industrious Salzburgers alone persevered for any length of time in the spinning of silk; but even these patient Germans became discouraged at last. Thus every reform principle upon which the colony of Georgia was established by the trustees was in the end abrogated or annulled; but nothing can be said derogatory to the motives of the high-minded English gentlemen who were Georgia's earliest sponsors, and who, if somewhat visionary, were nevertheless noble and generous men.
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