USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 38
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However, this was not the powder which Governor Wright was expecting from the British depot of supplies, in consequence of a letter addressed by him to General Gage some weeks earlier. The helpless condition of the province had induced the governor to send dispatches to General Gage and also to Admiral Graves, asking for immediate re-enforcements. But the letters were intercepted by good whigs who suspected the character of the contents and who, using the same envelopes, substi- tuted fictitious enclosures, stating that the situation in Georgia was perfectly tranquil. Though the letters in due time reached the proper destination, there was naturally no response; and Governor Wright was puzzled for an explanation until years after- wards, when he ehaneed to meet General Gage in London .- Ibid. Vol. II.
TYBEE: FIRST CAPTURE OF REVOLUTION HERE MADE .- On Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah River, the first lighthouse on the Georgia eoast was built under the supervision of Oglethorpe, in 1733. The present handsome structure is the tallest lighthouse between Charleston and St. Augustine. This was the scene of the famous capture made by the first vessel commissioned for naval warfare during the American Revolution. The boat was a converted schooner, officered by Com- modore Oliver Bowen and Capt. Joseph Habersham. To meet the exigencies of the time, it was hastily put in commission, in 1775, and within a few days thereafter, off the coast of Tybee, 16,000 pounds of powder was captured, some of which was sent to Boston, where it was used in the battle of Bunker Hill. At Fort Sereven, on Tybee Island, the United States Government maintains a strong battery, the numerical strength of which at present is 14 officers and 460 men. One of the quaint sights of the island is Martelle Tower, a structure built by the Federal Government for defensive purposes, at the outbreak of the second war with England, in 1812. This fort is still the property of the United States, but is no longer used except as a residence for officials. Tybee is today a great resort for lovers of the surf. It is the only island on the Georgia coast reached by direct railway connection, or to quote a Savannah rhapsodist "the only spot in Georgia where the headlight of a locomotive engine easts its silvery beams on the rolling waves of the deep and dark blue ocean. "-Ibid. Vol. I.
TONDEE'S TAVERN : THE ('RADLE OF LIBERTY IN GEORGIA .- On the northwest corner of Whitaker and Broughton streets, memorialized by a tablet of bronze, is one of the most sacred spots in the City of Savannah. Rich in historie associations, it was here that the earliest protest of the colony was made against the oppressive measures of the English Parliament. Ilere the citizens of Savannah assembled in response to the first bngle eall of patriotism. Here the Council of Safety held weekly meet-
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ings on Monday mornings; and here, on July 4, 1775, assembled the Provincial Congress which formally severed the tie of allegiance between the colony and the Crown. In the spring of 1899 the Colonial Dames placed a tablet of bronze upon the building which occupies the site of Tondee's Tavern. The inscription thereon reads :
"Stood, on this site, in colonial times, Tondee's Tavern, where gathered the 'Sons of Liberty.' Erected by the Georgia Society of the Colonial Dames of America."
Peter Tondee, the owner of this famous hostelry, was a patriot of the most loyal pattern. According to tradition, he held the post of doorkeeper at the gatherings of the "Sons of Liberty,"' and, though his establishment was open to the public, on ordinary occasions, no one could enter the long room, when the patriots were to meet there, without first pronouncing the shibboleth of freedom. In front of the tavern, on June 5, 1775, was erected the famous liberty pole, which became the rallying center of the town; and from the porch Archibald Bulloch, then president of the Council of Safety, read the declaration of independence to the assembled populace, after which thirteen guns were fired from the old battery on Bay Street. Though little is known of the man who owned the tavern, beyond the fact that he was one of the patriotic band, his name is imperishably written among the immortals and his memory will be fragrant in Georgia to the latest generation .- Ibid. Vol. I.
CHAPTER II
WHY GEORGIA WAS REPRESENTED ON THE SCROLL OF INDEPENDENCE BY ONLY THREE SIGNERS-AN EPISODE OF SINGULAR INTEREST-REV. JOHN J. ZUBLY, A MEMBER OF THE PRECEDING CONGRESS, DEVELOPS STRONG TORY SENTIMENTS-FORMERLY A PRONOUNCED WHIG-QUITS PHILADELPHIA WHEN HIE LEARNS THAT THE COLONIES ARE BENT ON SEPARATION FROM ENGLAND-LETTER WRITTEN BY DOCTOR ZUBLY TO GOVERNOR WRIGHT IS DISCOVERED-RETURNING TO GEORGIA, THE CLERGYMAN SEEKS TO STEM THE TIDE TOWARD REPUBLICAN FREEDOM -GIFTED WITH RARE ELOQUENCE-PASTOR OF THE OLD INDEPENDENT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH-MR. HOUSTOUN, A DELEGATE TO THE CON- GRESS OF 1776, RETURNS HOME TO COMBAT DOCTOR ZUBLY'S TORY ARGUMENTS-MR. BULLOCH IS DETAINED IN GEORGIA BY ILIS DUTIES AS PRESIDENT OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL-GEORGIA'S THREE SIGNERS- GEORGE WALTON-LYMAN HALL-BUTTON GWINNETT-THE LAST- NAMED SIGNER KILLED IN A DUEL BY LACHLAN MCINTOSH-DOCTOR ZUBLY'S BANISHMENT AND DEATH-EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES.
Why was Georgia represented on the Declaration of Independence by only three signers, when she was represented by five delegates in the Continental Congress of 1776? Though the youngest of the original thirteen colonies, she was not the least populous nor the least patriotic; and the comparatively small space which she occupies on the time-hon- ored scroll of American liberty is wholly out of proportion to her recog- mized importance in the sisterhood of imperial provinces. Tell it not in Gath; but the answer to this historical conundrum involves an episode of singular interest in the carly history of the patriotic cause in Georgia, and shows how one of the very brightest of the lights of liberty suffered extinction.
The Georgia signers were Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall and George Walton. But Archibald Bulloch and John Houstoun were also mem- bers of the congressional delegation. Mr. Bulloch was detained in Georgia by official duties, being at the time president of the executive council and acting governor; and it was neither politie nor wise for the chief magistrate to leave the state when an outbreak of war was immi- nent. Mr. Houstoun repaired to Philadelphia, but he was soon back again in Georgia for the purpose of combating the hostile influence of an ex-patriot who, having returned to the standard of the king, was at work in the field with perverted missionary zeal, seeking to prevent the drift toward separation and to extinguish the revolutionary flames which he
* This chapter is reproduced from "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight, Vol. II.
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had helped to kindle. The political backslider in question was Rev. John J. Zubly.
Doctor Zubly was the first pastor of the old Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, an organization which was not more wedded to the Shorter Catechism than to the principles of civil liberty, and which in his- torie harmony with Presbyterian traditions, proceeded at the first drum- tap to entwine the continental flag with the old blue banner of the kirk. The distinguished divine came from St. Gall, in Switzerland, and is said to have boasted an ancestry whose strong Protestant bias reached back to forefathers who started the Swiss reformation under Zwingli. Not only a theologian and a scholar, but also an orator of marked attainments, he preached to large congregations in Savannah, and sometimes the Es- tablished Church was quite deserted on Sundays by parishioners who were eager to hear the eloquent dissenter.
Against the oppressive measures of Parliament he inveighed with an emphasis which admitted of no doubtful interpretation. But he was not satisfied to hurl thunderbolts from the pulpit. He resorted to the pamphlet. Article after article dealing with the obnoxious acts of the British government came from the caustic pen of the bold preacher. He was prominent in the meetings which protested against the Boston Port Bill; and, when the Provincial Congress met in Savannah soon after the Battle of Lexington, he was one of the delegates. Moreover, the Provin- cial Congress immediately upon convening adjourned to the old Inde- pendent Church to hear an eloquent sermon from Doctor Zubly; and he rose to the occasion, taking some text from the Pauline Epistles which dealt with the law of liberty. To show what striking figures of speech the learned doctor could use, he wrote to some English correspondent, about this time, stating that if the colonies were bound together by ropes of sand, it should be remembered that sand and blood made an excellent cement.
Naturally such an eloquent voice was coveted for the continental coun- cils in Philadelphia, and Doctor Zubly was elected together with Noble W. Jones, Archibald Bulloch, Lyman Hall and John Houstoun to represent Georgia in the Continental Congress of 1775. At first he hesitated to accept the unsolicited honor because of the prolonged absence from Savan- nah and the consequent relinquishment of pastoral work, which the duty of representing the colony in Philadelphia involved. However. Mr. Houstoun went before the congregation and explained the situation fully, and, being largely dominated by the Sons of Liberty, the old Independent Church, independent in name and independent in zeal for American freedom, consented to make the sacrifice for the sake of the patriotic cause.
But, arrived in Philadelphia, Doctor Zubly began perceptibly to weaken. Seeing the Continental Congress bent upon immediate separa- tion, he found that he was more Tory than Whig; and, to cap the climax, he declared from his seat that a republic was little better than a government of devils. This was strange language for one whose blood was derived from the free cantons of Switzerland; and Americans who live today peaceably and happily under the folds of the national flag, and who suggest no thought of pandemonium, can hardly be expected to applaud such an undemocratic sentiment. However, it must be said
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in justice to Doctor Zubly that, while he had strongly advocated re- sistance to the oppressive acts of Parliament, and had boldly stigmatized taxation without representation, he had not gone so far as to preach ab- solute separation from the Crown of England. It was the plan of Doctor Zubly to seek redress of grievances within the limits of urgent protest, but not to the extent of open revolt. He considered himself an English subject. But on the other hand it must be said, in justice to those who were ready to dissolve the bonds of union, that, in upholding the prin- ciples of the great charter, they, too, acquitted themselves like loyal Englishmen who bent the knee in the true allegiance.
Perhaps Doctor Zubly, like more than one reluctant patriot, might eventually have acquiesced in the majority sentiment; but an unfortu- nate incident occurred in the progress of the session which served to bar him from future affiliation with the colonial patriots, even though, underneath the horns of his own altar he crouched among the penitents. Seeing that radical steps were to be taken, he undertook privately to communicate with Governor Wright. He was divulging no star-chamber secret and betraying no public trust; but the watchword of the hour was liberty. In some way the designs of Doctor Zubly were discovered, and he was confronted with exposure on the floor of the Continental Congress. Realizing that his influence was destroyed and his useful- ness ended in Philadelphia, he withdrew from the patriotie councils, and returned to Georgia.
But Doctor Zubly was not to remain idle. Though he was powerless among the assembled lawmakers in Philadelphia, he was not debarred from appealing to the inhabitants of the colony ; and he went before the people, resolved to check, if possible, the movement toward separation. Many communicants withdrew from the Independent Church. Some were converted by the eloquent logie of the wily doctor, and some re- tained membership only because of an inherent conservatism. He began to thunder again from the pulpit. He resorted once more to the pamphlets. But it was now to stem the republican tide.
Another Provincial Congress was held early in the year following, but there was. no ad journment to hear Doctor Zubly preach. Archibald Bulloch, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton and John Houstoun were elected to the Continental Congress. It has already been stated that Mr. Bulloch was detained at home by reason of admin- istrative duties. The others repaired to Philadelphia. But news at length reached the Quaker City to the effect that Doctor Zubly, instead of converting bad sinners, was eonverting good Whigs and that Georgia was apt to turn Tory unless the designs of the preacher were check- mated.
Times of excitement are always favorable to the reckless use of hyperbole; but, while the accounts were felt to be exaggerated, it was thought best to dispatch one of the members of the congressional dele- gation to Georgia to combat the heretical doctrines of Doctor Zubly and to hold the colony to the formulas of the true faith. Upon Mr. TIoustoun devolved the task; and, since he had gone before the congregation of the old Independent Church the year previous to ask that Doctor Zubly be allowed to represent the colony, he felt the responsibility of the commission. Like the epigrammatie Cæsar, he was soon able to say,
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"Veni, vidi, vici." But he reached the Continental Congress too late to participate in the momentous drama of signing the immortal protest against oppression. The bonfires had been kindled in the streets of Phil- adelphia, and from the belfry of old Independence Hall the sweet siren of liberty had commenced to sing.
It is sorely to be regretted that the name of this patriotic Georgian was not appended to the great charter of liberty, for he was no less wedded to the sacred cause than were the men whose names were in- scribed upon the deathless roll of honor. He was in just desert if not in actual fact one of the Georgia signers. Mr. HIoustoun was the son of old Sir Patrick Houstoun, a baronet whose conservative inclinations were so partial to the fence that he was denounced first by the Tory and then by the Whig government, perhaps unjustly by the latter; but he gave the patriotie cause two sons, John and William, whose knee-joints were too stiff with the starch of liberty to erook in obsequious homage to the king. Mr. IIoustoun was twice governor, and died in 1796 well advanced in years.
As for Doctor Zubly, he was banished from Savannah in 1777 and took refuge in South Carolina; but when the town fell into the hands of the British in 1778, he returned to Savannah and resumed pastoral work among the uncontaminated members of the flock who drank the king's tea. But he was not the same man. Broken in health, and in fortune, he failed rapidly and died in 1781 on the eve of the evacuation of the eity by the British. Thus sank into ignominious eclipse one of the brightest luminaries that lit the gray horizon of the revolutionary dawn in Georgia.
George Walton, who sprang from an old Virginia family, became the most distinguished member of the group of signers. Ile was twice governor, six times congressman, an officer in the Revolution, chief jus- tice of the state, judge of the Superior Court and United States senator. Doctor Hall afterwards occupied the gubernatorial chair. Ile was an eminent physician from Connecticut, who early became the foremost champion of liberty in the parish of St. John, and who was sent by the parish as an independent delegate to the Continental .Congress, be- fore the colony at large was sufficiently aroused to demand representa- tion. He lived at Sunbury, where Governor Wright located the head of the republican disaffection in Georgia, stating that it came from the Puritan settlers who had imbibed too freely the vicious principles of Oliver Cromwell.
Button Gwinnett was an Englishman who became identified with the colony only four years before the Declaration was signed; but the short period of his residence in the colony only serves to lay emphasis upon his zeal in the eause. He, too, lived at Sunbury, but the thrifty little town which in the old eolonial days was an enterprising eommer- cial center, sufficiently infused with the patriotie ardor to give two signers to the Declaration of Independence, is today numbered among the buried towns of Georgia, and as if the very memories of the Revolu- tion had germinated upon the saeret spot, it sleeps enfolded in an evergreen mantle of bermuda. Soon after the war began, Mr. Gwinnett became involved in personal difficulties with General Lachlan McIntosh, growing out of the latter's appointment to the brigadier-generalship in
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preference to the former; and, chagrined at his subsequent defeat for governor, Gwinnett challenged McIntosh, who was quoted to him as having expressed very great satisfaction with the result of the election.
The combatants met at sunrise within the limits of the present City of Savannah, measured off twelve paees and fired. Both were wounded in the thigh. Gwinnett lingered nearly two weeks before death came to
end the struggles of the unfortunate signer. McIntosh recovered, but popular feeling in the state was such that, acting upon the advice of friends, he sought an assignment for the time being in another part of the field. He returned soon after the fall of Savannah to aid in the re- capture of the city. However, it was only to find that the smoldering fires of hostility were ready to break out afresh. Yet he lived to see the feudal spark extinguished and to represent Georgia in the Conti- nental Congress.
Though popular sentiment was against General McIntosh, it was largely because of Mr. Gwinnett's prestige as one of the signers. The evidence shows that the latter was elearly the aggressor, and that when president of the executive council, he asserted his authority as com- mander-in-chief of the army to the extent of ignoring General McIntosh, especially in the ill-advised campaign which he himself organized for the reduction of East Florida. General McIntosh was an able tactician. He distinguished himself under Washington, whose esteem and eonfi- denee he possessed ; and when the latter visited Georgia in 1791, General McIntosh acted as special escort. He was president of the Georgia division of the Society of the Cincinnati, and was an unusually handsome man, tall and erect, with an impressive military carriage. It is said that in youth no Indian could compete with him in fleetness of foot. He belonged to the famous elan which John Moore MeIntosh planted at Darien, and which was characterized by all the robust traits which belonged to the parent stoek in the distant highlands of Scotland.
On the floor of the Continental Congress Georgia was represented from time to time by some of her ablest talent, and Dr. Lyman Hall was not required to sit alone for any great while in the austere councils at Philadelphia. Ineluded among the delegates who, from first to last, represented Georgia in the Continental Congress, were Abraham Bald- win, Nathan Bronson, Arehibald Bulloch, Joseph Clay, William Few, William Gibbons, Button Gwinnett, John Habersham, Lyman Hall, John Houstonn, William Houstoun, Richard Howley, Noble W. Jones, Edward Langworthy, Lachlan MeIntosh, William Pierce, Edward Tel- fair, George Walton, John Walton, Joseph Wood and John J. Zubly. If one member of the group proved himself reereant to the high trust it must be remembered that even the apostolic band, at the communion table of the Last Supper, was darkened by the envions brow of an Iseariot, who marred the gentle brotherhood. But Doctor Zubly was neither an Iseariot nor an Arnold, and, withont brooding upon the fallen meteor that forsook the trouble heavens, Georgia is content to , rejoice in the fixed stars which, pure and bright and steadfast, illumi- nated the stellar fields.
CHAPTER III
UNDER A TEMPORARY CONSTITUTION, ARCHIBALD BULLOCHI IS ELECTED PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF GEORGIA-FIRST REVOLU- TIONARY PASSAGE AT ARMS-THE CONSTITUTION OF 1777-THE FIRST COUNTIES-A DICTATOR AUTHORIZED-BUTTON GWINNETT-FORT MORRIS-COLONEL MCINTOSH'S BRAVE LETTER-THE CAPTURE OF SAVANNAH-THE CAPTURE OF AUGUSTA-THE VICTORY AT KETTLE CREEK-THE DEFEAT OF GENERAL ASH-THE SIEGE OF SAVANNAH.
NOTES: WAR HILL-ELIJAH CLARKE-THE TORIES-NANCY HART- FORT MORRIS-MEADOW GARDEN-THE CONSTITUTION OF 1777- LEGISLATIVE HISTORY DURING THE REVOLUTION.
(This chapter prepared by Charles Edgeworth Jones, Esq.)
In the spring of 1776 a temporary constitution was devised for the province as the "ground-work of a more stable and formal government;" and by the terms of its provisions, Archibald Bulloch was unanimously elected president and commander-in-chief of Georgia. Some weeks prior to this event occurred the first revolutionary passage at arms within the borders of the nascent commonwealth. Quite a number of disabled rice- laden merchant vessels were lying at the Savannah wharves. When, upon the eve of leaving port, their departure had been effectually pre- vented, through the unshipping of their rudders and the removal of their sails ; and while in this incapacitated condition, the capture of these vessels was boldly planned by the British land and naval contingent, riding off Tybee inlet. The ascent of the Savannah River was, accord- ingly, commenced, with the result that one of the enemy's ships (the Hinchinbrooke, of eight guns) speedily grounded. Through the vigor of the concentrated fire of Major Habersham's riflemen, the crew of this armed schooner was quickly driven from the deck; and, but for the absence of boats, it would, undoubtedly, have fallen a prize to the patriots.
Meanwhile, the British land forces had not been idle. On the night of March 2d. disembarking a contingent comprising some 200 or 300 men, under the command of Majors Maitland and Grant, from a ship in Back River, and silently marching across Hutchinson's Island, early on the next morning, they took possession of the rice-laden vessels at anchor opposite the town.
With such quietness had this movement been executed, however, that it was some hours before the municipal authorities became aware of what had transpired. So soon as the true state of affairs was known, Col. Lachlan McIntosh, with 300 troops, hastily throwing up a breastwork
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on Yamacraw Bluff, there posted three four-pounder guns, which bore directly upon the shipping. But prior to opening fire, two officers (Lieut. Daniel Roberts and Capt. Raymond Demere) were dispatched. to demand the immediate release of Captain Rice, and his boat's crew, who were by them detained as prisoners. The officers not returning, upon a renewal of the peremptory requirement for the liberation of the Americans, such an insulting retort was evoked, that fire was at once drawn from the Yamacraw breastwork. The reply was received, that if the most reputable envoys should be sent, the enemy would treat with them. Whereupon two officers (Captains Sereven and Baker), with a small detail, repairing to the ship's side, made requisition for the prompt restoration of their brethren.
Such scant courtesy, however, was accorded the officers that one of them, infuriated, fired into the crew. This was evidently exactly what the foe wished, for, strange to say, a discharge of swivels came from the vessel, almost sinking the boat, and wounding one of the escort. At this, the envoys, surprised at this murderous breach of military etiquette, retired toward Savannah, balls speeding after them, until they were beyond gun-reach. The Yamacraw battery now took a hand in the affair and for several hours maintained a brisk cannonade, which was returned by the British troops on the merchant vessels.
It being now decided that the shipping must be destroyed, the Coun- cil of Safety called for volunteers for the accomplishment of that im- portant object. The desired end was attained when the Inverness, loaded with rice and deer skins, was ignited and turned adrift in the stream. "Upon this." writes President Ewen, "the soldiers, in the most laughable confusion, got ashore in the marsh, while our riflemen and field-pieces, with grape-shot, were incessantly galling them. The shipping was now also in confusion. Some got up the river, under cover of the armed schooner, while others caught the flame, and, as night approached, exhibited a scene, as they passed and repassed with the tide, which at any but the present time, would be truly horrible, but now a subject only of gratitude and applause." With the co-operative aid of the South Carolinians, the dislodgment of the enemy was at length consum- mated; three of the merchant vessels being burnt, six being dismantled. and two escaping to sea. Thus ended a martial episode which, while of comparative insignificance, was instinet with the spirit of the Georgia revolutionists.
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