USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 32
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While in Augusta, awaiting an interview with these Indian chiefs, Governor Reynolds was hastily summoned to Savannah. On arriv- ing, he found that two vessels had anchored in the stream, with 400 French Catholies on board, from Nova Scotia, then ealled Acadie. These gentle immigrants brought a letter to Governor Reynolds which explained matters after a fashion : but it did not solve an exceedingly difficult problem. The letter was from Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence, of Nova Scotia, stating that under a resolution of his council he had for- warded these people to Georgia believing that in Oglethorpe's colony- an asylum for unfortunates-such an outcast people would not be denied a shelter. All provisions on board having been exhausted, starvation confronted these refugees. Governor Reynolds was perplexed. The
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prohibition of Catholics was still unrepealed. To send these immigrants adrift in the dead of winter would be an act of inhumanity ; but Georgia was in no condition at this time to assume the care of destitute sufferers. IIowever, Governor Reynolds determined to give them temporary quarters.
There is nothing sadder in the Colonial annals of America than the story of the unfortunate Acadians : the original French settlers of Nova. Scotia, some of whom sought refuge in Georgia when driven out of Canada by the cruel edict of the English. These Acadians called the country in which they settled Acadie. It was a bleak region, in the cold latitudes of the far North, but to them it was home, and by industrious cultivation they gave to it many of the charms of beauty. But, in 1713, under the treaty of Utrecht, the Acadians were forced, after various wars and changes, to relinquish these lands to the Crown of England; and, though speaking the French language and professing the Catholic faith, they were required at its cession to Great Britain to take the oath of allegiance to the English monarch. It was a harsh exaction. But the Acadians consented to take this oath, provided they were not required to sever relations with friendly Indian allies'or to take up arms against France. The governor acquieseing in this proviso, the oath was registered in due form; but the action of the local authorities was overruled by the court, a decision of which required an uncondi- tional oath or immediate expatriation. The Acadians refused to com- ply with these demands, but, as a body, maintained a neutral position ; and, thus matters remained unsettled until 1755, when radical measures were adopted.
Bishop Stevens * has given us a graphie picture of these Acadians. Says he: "They were an agricultural and pastoral people-tilled the lands with great art and industry-reared large flocks and herds-dwelt in neat and convenient houses-subsisted upon the varied stores gathered from sea and land, and, with few wants and no money, lived in peace and harmony under the mild jurisdiction of elders and pastors. The Abbe Raynal has described them in terms too eulogistic for human na- ture, representing a state of social happiness more consonant with the license of poetry than with the fidelity of truth. It cannot be denied, however, that they presented a picture, full of charming scenes and lovely portraits, simple manners, guileless lives, serupulous integrity and calm devotion. But the eye of English envy was upon them. The uprooting of this people was entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Winslow, commanding the Massachusetts forces, a gentleman of great moral and military worth, whose strict ideas of obedience alone induced him to consent to undertake the task.
"By a proclamation, so artfully framed that its design could not be discovered, yet requiring compliance by penalties so severe as pre- vented any absenee, the attendance of the male Acadians was required at a specified time and in a specified place. At Grand Pre, where Colonel Winslow commanded. over four hundred men met on the ap- pointed day, September 5, 1755, at 3 p. m., in the village church, when, going into their midst, he revealed to their astonished ears, the startling
* Wm. Bacon Stevens, M. D., D. D., in "History of Georgia, " Vol. I.
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resolutions of the Governor and Council. The late happy. but now wretched, inhabitants, eighteen thousand in number, were appalled by the magnitude of the calamity which thus suddenly burst upon them. No language can describe their woes: turned out of their dwellings, bereft of their stock, stripped of their entire possessions, the bright hopes of the future blasted in a single hour, the labor of years wrested from them by a single effort, and torn from each and every association which binds the heart to its native fields, they were declared prisoners, though guiltless of any crime, and were destined to expatriation only because English blood flowed not in their veins and English speech did not dwell upon their lips. To make it impossible for them to remain, their houses were burnt down, their fields laid waste, their improve- ments destroyed-everything in one general conflagration.
"Foreed to embark at the point of the bayonet, crowded into small vessels, provided with neither comfort nor necessaries, broken up as a community into many fragments-wives separated from husbands- children from parents-brothers from sisters-they were stored on board like a cargo of slaves, and guarded like the felons of a eonviet ship. Thus they were hurried away and seattered like leaves by the ruthless winds of autumn, from Massachusetts to Georgia, among those who hated their religion, detested their country, derided their manners, and mocked at their language. This was English policy, outraging English humanity. It was an aet, blending fraud, robbery, arson, slavery and death, such as history can seareely equal. English philan- thropy planted Georgia : English inhumanity uprooted the Acadians. How can we reconcile the two? The one was prompted by the mild spirit of peace; the other by the stern councils of war. It was a detael- ment of this persecuted people whose arrival in Savannah recalled Gov- ernor Reynolds from Augusta to the seat of government.
"But what could the Governor do with suelf a body of strangers? It was one of the express conditions upon which Georgia was settled, that no Papist should be permitted in it : yet here were four hundred in one body, set down in its midst. It was also of the greatest importance to break up French influence on the frontier, but now nearly half a thou- sand Freneli were consigned to the weakest and most exposed of all the thirteen colonies. On account of the lateness of the season and the desti- tute condition of the exiles, they were distributed in small parties through the province, and maintained at the public expense until spring, when, by leave of the Governor, they built themselves a number of rude boats, and in March most of them left for South Carolina, two hun- dred embarking at one time, in ten boats, indulging the hope that they might thus work their way back to their native and beloved Acadie."
But Governor Reynolds proved a disappointment. Though not a bad man, he possessed a positive genius for making trouble. His manner was abrupt, harsh, and dictatorial. It implied a condescension on his part in having taken the governorship. IIe complained of an inadequate salary, wholly out of keeping with his official position and disproportioned to his needs. This was the burden of more than one letter addressed to the board of trade.
But complaints received in England from aggrieved inhabitants told a different tale. IIe had not been in Georgia six months before frictional
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difficulties arose. The joyful acclamations of the populace which had waited upon his arrival had, during this interval, changed into an equally sincere desire for his departure. He had delegated the duties of his office, in large measure, to his secretary, Dr. William Little, a surgeon in the navy, who was even less competent than Governor Reynolds, who was, in fact, not above crooked dealings, but who exercised a powerful in- fluence over his chief. It was charged to the account of Governor Rey- nolds that for the purpose of frustrating an inquiry into the conduct of Doctor Little, he had dissolved the general assembly, with only half the taxes for the past year collected and with those for the current year unraised; that he paid little or no regard to the king's council, whose dignity he brought into contempt; that he inserted or omitted what he pleased in making up the journal of council; that he transcended his powers in filling offices which fell within the gift of the Crown; and that, to epitomize a multitude of complaints, his administration of the gov- ernment was incompetent, partial and tyrannical.
These charges are all set forth in a letter addressed to the board of trade, under date of July 7, 1756, by Alexander Killet, provost marshal of the province and a member of the king's council. His majesty, King George 11, having been memorialized by the board of trade, it was there- upon ordered that Governor Reynolds embark at once for England to answer these charges. At the same time, the "recommendation of Henry Ellis, Esq., to be appointed lieutenant-governor during the ab- sence of Mr. Reynolds" was approved. The royal signature was in a few day's thereafter affixed to the latter's commission.
Governor Reynolds left for England on a merchant vessel, the Charming Martha, soon after the lieutenant-governor's arrival. Eu route home he was captured by a French privateer and carried to Bayonne, where his personal belongings were appropriated by his eap- tors. Due to this somewhat unpleasant interruption he did not reach England until midsummer. Governor Reynolds made a straightforward defense before the board of trade, admitting his mistakes but denying that he had been guilty of any criminal miseonduct. He called attention to the difficulties of his task in undertaking to organize a new govern- ment, without precedents to guide him, with savage tribes to conciliate and with only limited means at his disposal. On the whole, he made a good impression upon the board of trade, though his defense did not completely exonerate him; and it was deemed best to permit him to resign his office as governor and to resume his rank as a naval officer. Bishop Stevens finds much to extenuate in the conduct of Governor Reynolds. Says he:
"Unused to legislative bodies, uneonversant with courts of law, un- versed in the functions of his office, he was transferred from the quarter- deek of a man-of-war to the helm of a royal province, and was required to begin, arrange, digest, and carry out the many necessary steps and changes in the first establishing of a new, and to the people untried, form of government. This required a patience, energy, knowledge, and firmness which Governor Reynolds did not possess. He was not adequate to the duties which his station required, and yielding to the machina- tions of his private secretary he made himself obnoxious by devolving
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upon a parasite powers which he himself should have used with knowl- edge and discretion."
Colonel Jones, while reviewing the affair with a pen less sympathetic, adds this paragraph in praise of the gallant English sailor: "Once again afloat, however, he took his place among the trusted officers of the greatest naval power of the world and died an admiral of the blue." But let us go back.
OLD INDEPENDENT: A BRANCH OF THE KIRK OF SCOTLAND .- In 1753, on the petition of forty-eight free-holders, a lot was granted on which to erect a building to be called the Independent Presbyterian Church, the land granted and the church built thereon to be for the use of such persons in the district of Savannah as sup- ported the doctrines of the Church of Scotland. From its foundation, the Inde- pendent Presbyterian Church has been independent in name and fact. It has no connection either with the Presbytery ot Savannah or with the Synod of Georgia and is governed solely by its own board of elders. The lot granted to the congregation was located on Market Square, between St. Julian and Bryan streets, and running east to Whitaker. It was specified in the grant that the meeting-house was to be erected within three years. Before the expiration of this period, a brick structure was completed and a call extended to the Rev. John J. Zubly, a native of Switzer- land, who accepted the charge and remained pastor until 1778. At the time of the siege over a thousand shells poured into the town from the batteries of the allies, producing havoc and destruction; four houses were burned, several were demolished, and quite a number injured almost beyond repair. Shots from the galleys in the river reached Zubly's meeting house in Decker Ward. The church was turned into a hospital, and a chimney built in the center; but when the siege was over it was little more than a ruin. On April 15, 1784, there appeared in the Gazette a call from the trustees for a meeting to be held in the office of Olive Lewis, Esq., the purpose of which was to devise plans for rebuilding the structure. The call was signed by Jonathan Bryan, Robert Bolton, and William Gibbons, trustees. Several years later, the new building was destroyed by fire, and the congregation worshipped with the Baptists until another edifice was completed, in 1800, on St. James Square, between York and President streets.
On January 13, 1817, with impressive ceremonies, the cornerstone of the present beautiful edifice of the Independent Presbyterian Church was laid, and in the month of May, 1819, the building was dedicated. President James Munroe, then on a visit to Savannah, attended the exercises, together with other dignitaries. Dr. Henry Kollock, the pastor, preached the dedicatory sermon from the text: "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former." Haggai, 2:9.
CHAPTER XXIII
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR ELLIS DELAYED IN EMBARKING FOR GEORGIA- IMPROVES HIS OPPORTUNITIES TO BECOME BETTER EQUIPPED SKETCH OF HIS LIFE-EXPLORATIONS MADE BY HIM IN THE ARCTIC REGION- SOMETHING OF A SCHOLAR, HE MAKES IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCHI-ARRIVAL IN THE PROVINCE-GREETED WITH JOYFUL ACCLAMATIONS-PAYS HIS DUTIFUL RESPECTS TO GOV- ERNOR REYNOLDS, WHO LEAVES IMMEDIATELY FOR ENGLAND-FINDS THE PROVINCE IN A DEMORALIZED CONDITION, BUT WINS THE FRIEND- SHIP OF THE COLONISTS-HOLDS A CONFERENCE WITH THE INDIANS- MAKES A TOUR OF INSPECTION-LIKE GOVERNOR REYNOLDS HE IS PARTIAL TO HARDWICKE-GEORGIA DIVIDED INTO PARISHES-EPIS- COPACY IS ESTABLISHED-LETTER TO THE BOARD OF TRADE-INVESTED WITH FULL POWERS AS GOVERNOR-PROSPERITY BEGINS TO RETURN -EDMUND GRAY'S SETTLEMENT OF BRIGANDS ON THE SATILLA RIVER IS BROKEN UP-SUNBURY, A SEAPORT TOWN, IS FOUNDED AT THE MOUTH OF THE MIDWAY RIVER-ONCE A RIVAL OF SAVANNAH-THE BOSOMWORTH CLAIM IS FINALLY SETTLED-SOUTH CAROLINA BE- COMES INVOLVED IN A WAR WITH THE CHEROKEES-GOVERNOR LITTLE- TON'S UNWISE POLICY IN DEALING WITH THE INDIANS CONTRASTED WITH THE FINE DIPLOMACY OF GOVERNOR ELLIS-BUT GEORGIA IS FATED TO LOSE HER POPULAR CHIEF MAGISTRATE-ILL HEALTH CAUSES GOVERNOR ELLIS TO ASK FOR HIS RECALL-LEAVES THE PROVINCE AMID UNIVERSAL REGRET-BECOMES GOVERNOR OF NOVA SCOTIA-HIS SUBSEQUENT CAREER-LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR WRIGHT Is COMMISSIONED.
NOTES: GALPHINTON-QUEENSBORO-GEORGE GALPHIN.
Delayed in leaving England, Lieutenant-Governor Ellis did not reach Georgia until February 16, 1757. Meanwhile he had made the most of opportunities for posting himself relative to the true condition of affairs. He had devoured every book, letter, document and paper pertaining to the province; he had familiarized himself with the location of every fort on the colony's exposed borders, the strength of its garrison, the nature of its construction ; he had versed himself in the duties encumbent upon him as an officer of the Crown, resolved to profit by the mistakes of his predecessors. This indicated a wise head upon shoulders which were still young. His ambition was to restore tranquility to the province, to revive its commercial activities, to rebuild its waste places, and to give prosperity to its inhabitants.
Henry Ellis was a student. With predilections for travel, he had already contributed to the sum of geographical knowledge. At the age
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of twenty-seven he had been entrusted by Parliament with the conduet of a most important expedition, in quest of a new passage to the Pacific Ocean. ITis eonrageous qualities were sternly tested in the prosecution of this bold enterprise and for more than a year he endured the rigors of an aretie winter. Nor did the results derived from this hazardous undertaking prove of an ephemeral character. In a publieation which attracted wide notice not only in England but on the continent he set forth these results, eliciting the admiration of savants and winning a fellowship for himself in the Royal Society. It was through the influence of the Earl of Halifax that he is said to have obtained his appointment as lieutenant-governor of the province of Georgia.
On arriving in Savannah, Governor Ellis was greeted with every manifestation of joy. Guns were fired both from the shore and from vessels in port. Great hopes were kindled by his eoming. Disappointed in Governor Reynolds the populace was prepared to embrace any change as a change for the better. But "pausing not to dally with the saluta- tions of the citizens," he went at onee to the home of Governor Rey- nolds, where he paid his formal respects to the chief executive. This obligation of courtesy having been discharged, he then responded to the publie welcome in a decorons manner. At a subsequent meeting of the king's eouneil, in the presence of Governor Reynolds, who had accom- panied him to the chamber, he prodneed his commission at lieutenant- governor. This having been read, the great seal was then placed in his hands, thus ending the ceremony of his installment. In the evening there was an illumination of homes. Doetor Little was burnt in effigy; and, amid a blazing of bon-fires, the night was passed. On the day following there was a continuous stream of eallers. Visiting out-of-town delegates brought him messages of congratulation; and he was also waited upon by a deputation of Masons. But an episode which touched him most of all was the part taken in his formal welcome by a band of school- boys, organized as a military company, not one of whom was more than half grown. Speaking through its eaptain, this company of youngsters saluted the newly arrived governor in a brief address which captivated him so completely that, throughout his whole after life, it is said to have been one of his most cherished recollections.
Lieutenant-Governor Ellis found the province in a greatly disturbed condition. There was a prevalent spirit of discontent growing out of the recent high-handed rule of Governor Reynolds and one of the first aets of the new administration was to reinstate two members of the eoun- eil who for no good cause had been removed; but in reinstating them such taet was employed that no offense was given. Governor Ellis made it evident from the start that he was to be the tool of no faction ; and, quick to pereeive his intentions, the people were drawn to him in a friendship which further acquaintance only served to angment. In one of his earliest letters to the board of trade, he urged the appointment of a chief-justice for the province, in order that all causes of action might be heard promptly and all complaints growing out of a lack of uniformity in the law might be quieted. Provision had been made for such an officer, as we have already seen, but no appointment had as yet been made by the crown.
Early in the spring, Governor Ellis made a tour of the province for
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the purpose of acquainting himself more fully with its needs. He, too, was impressed with the central location of Hardwicke, on the Great Ogeechee, with its importance as a strategie point, with its splendid com- mercial outlook; and he fully sympathized with the suggestion of Gov- ernor Reynolds that the seat of government be transferred to Hard- wicke ; but to accomplish this end he did not neglect the public buildings of Savannah, as his predecessor had done, to the detriment of the latter town. It was not until June 16, 1757, that Governor Ellis convened the general assembly: and at this time, in a most felicitous message, he deepened the good impression already made by him upon the colonists. Throughout the entire administration of Governor Ellis there was not the least legislative friction. At a conference with the Creek Indians held in Savannah, on October 25, 1757, Governor Ellis cemented the friendship of the nation in a treaty which was formally consummated some two weeks later, both lower and upper Creeks participating.
On March 17, 1758, an act was approved by Governor Ellis dividing the several districts of the province into parishes, providing for the establishment of religious worship according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England and empowering church wardens and vestry- men in the respective parishes to assess rates for the repair of churches and for the relief of the poor. These parishes-eight in number-were as follows :
The Parish of Christ Church, which included the town and district of Savannah, together with adjacent islands.
The Parish of St. Matthew, embracing the district of Ebenezer, together with Abereorn and Goshen.
The Parish of St. George, which was created from the district of Halifax, embracing an area of which the site of the present town of Waynesboro was the center.
The Parish of St. Paul, which included the district of Augusta.
The Parish of St. Philip, embracing the town of Hardwicke and the district of Ogeechee, together with Ossabaw Island.
The Parish of St. John, which included the Sunbury and Midway set- tlements, together with St. Catharine and Bermuda Islands.
The Parish of St. Andrew, which embraced the town and district of Darien, south of the Altamaha, including Sapelo and adjacent islands.
The Parish of St. James, which embraced the town and district of Frederica, including Great and Little St. Simon and adjacent islands.
In accordance with the provisions of an act dated March 25, 1765, the newly acquired territory between the Altamaha and the St. Mary was divided into four parishes, to wit:
The Parish of St. David, embracing a tract of land between the Alta- maha and the north branch of Turtle River.
The Parish of St. Patrick, embracing an area between the north branch of Turtle River and the south branch of the Little Satilla.
The Parish of St. Thomas, extending from the south branch of the Little Satilla to the south branch of the Great Satilla.
The Parish of St. Mary, which included an area between the south branch of the Great Satilla and the south branch of the St. Mary, together with the sea islands embraced within these limits.
In a letter addressed to the Board of Trade, bearing date of May 30,
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1758, Governor Ellis thus tells of conditions in the Province of Georgia. Said he :*
"Immediately after our Assembly rose I took a Journey to the South in order to examine into the state of things in that Quarter. On my way I touch'd at the River Ogeeche and saw the Fort that had lately been raised there in consequence of the Resolutions of the Assembly last year. It is of a Quadrangular Figue, each side measuring 100 yards, constructed with thick logs set upright, fourteen feet long, five whereof are sunk in the Earth, and has four little Bastions, pierced for small and great guns that would render it very defenceable. From thence I proceeded to Medway where I found the Inhabitants had inclosed their Church in the same manner, and erected a Battery of eight guns at Sunbury in a very proper situation for defending the River.
"I reached Frederica two days afterward, the ruinous condition of which I could not view without concern. A dreadful Fire, that lately happened there, has destroyed the greatest part of the town. Time has done almost as much for the Fortifications. Never was there a spot better calculated for a place of arms or more capable of being fortified to advantage. It lies on the west side of the Island St. Simon's, and the chief and most southern branch of the great river Alatamaha. The military works were never very large, but compact and extremely defenceable.
"The Sound will conveniently admit of 40 Gun Ships, and those of 500 tons burthen may come abreast of the Town; but for three miles below it the River winds in such a manner that an Enemy must in that space be exposed to our Fire without being able to return it. In short it is of the last importance that that place should be kept in constant Repair and properly Garrisoned, as it is apparently and really the Key of this and the rest of the King's Provinees to the South, but the wretched condition in which it now is makes it easy to conjecture what would be its fate should Spanish War suddenly break out.
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