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NOBLE WYMBERLEY JONES. ARCHIBALD BULLOCH. JOHN HOUSTOUN."
Of the determination of these gentlemen not to attend the Continental Congress the Crown was notified by Governor Wright's dispatch of the 24th of April. He therein claims the credit of having frustrated the plans of the Savannah congress, and expresses the hope that nothing further would be attempted by those in sympathy with its avowed objects. At the same time he confesses to no little uneasiness in regard to the hostile attitude maintained by South Carolina toward the province. Incensed at the refusal of Georgia to become a member of the American Association and to participate in the deliberations of the Continental Congress, the Carolinians resolved to hold no intercourse with the province. It was also contemplated, in case any blood was shed in Massachusetts, to make sanguinary reprisal in Georgia as a colony loyal to the king. Thus more and more unquiet grew the public mind. Thus did the isolated situation of the province become more apparent and onerous. The more thoroughly the political questions agitating the coun- try were discussed, smaller became the number of such as ac- knowledged themselves adherents to the Crown, and the more
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numerous they who favored a confederation of the American colonies.
Forwarded by day and by night came the news of the affairs at Lexington and Concord. It reached Savannah on the even- ing of the 10th of May and created the profoundest excitement. Gage's order, promulgated by the haughty lips of Major Pitcairn on that epochal day, -" Disperse, ye Villains: ye Rebels, dis- perse : " - was answered with defiant shouts from the granite hills of New England to the echoing savannahs of the south. The blood of yeomen shed on Lexington green cemented the union of the colonies. The thunders of the 19th of April awoke the Georgia parishes from their lethargy and turned the popular tide in favor of resistance to parliamentary rule.
The magazine at the eastern extremity of Savannah, built of brick and sunk some twelve feet under ground, contained a con- siderable supply of ammunition. So substantial was this struc- ture that Governor Wright deemed it useless to post a guard for its protection. The excited Revolutionists all over the land cried aloud for powder. Impressed with the necessity of securing the contents of this magazine for future operations, quietly assem- bling and hastily arranging a plan of operations,1 Dr. Noble W. Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, William Gibbons, Joseph Clay, John Milledge, and some other gentlemen, most of them members of the council of safety and all zealous in the cause of American liberty, at a late hour on the night of the 11th of May, 1775, broke open the magazine and removed therefrom about six hundred pounds of gunpowder.2 A portion was sent to Beaufort, South Carolina, for safe keeping, and the rest was concealed in the garrets and cellars of the houses of the captors. Upon ascertaining the robbery, Governor Wright immediately issued a proclamation offering a reward of £150 sterling for the apprehension of the offenders.3 It elicited no information on the subject, although the actors in the matter are said to have been well known in the community. The popular heart was too deeply stirred, and the "Sons of Liberty " were too potent to
1 This meeting was held at the residence of Dr. Jones. McCall's History of Geor- gia, vol. ii. p. 43. Savannah. 1816.
2 In his communication to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated Savannah, May 12, 1775, Sir James Wright estimates the amount stolen at the figure wo have unmed, and says ho was informed by the
powder receiver that there remained in the magazine "not above 300 lbs. of the King's Powder, and about as much more belonging to the merchants." David Montaigut, Esq., was then the powder receiver of the province.
8 See the proclamation printed in the Georgia Gazette of May 17, 1775.
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tolerate any hindrance or annoyance at the hands of Royalist informers. The tradition lives, and is generally credited, that some of the powder thus obtained was forwarded to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was actually expended by the patriots in the memorable battle of Bunker Hill. We know that the liberty- loving citizens of Savannah, on the 1st of June, 1775, deeply moved by the distresses which the Bostonians were experiencing from the enforcement of the " late acts of a cruel and vindictive Ministry," and ardently desiring that the noble stand they had taken in the defense of those rights to which as men and Brit- ish subjects they were entitled might be crowned with success, transmitted by the Juliana, Captain Stringham, and under the special conduct of John Eaton LeConte, Esq., sixty-three barrels of rice and one hundred and twenty-two pounds sterling in specie for the relief of such as had recently left the town of Boston. It is not improbable that the powder in question may have been forwarded in some such way at an earlier day.
It had been the custom in the province to celebrate with fes- tivities and military salutes the king's birthday, which occurred on the 4th of June. Notwithstanding the unsettled condition of affairs, Governor Wright was loath to omit the usual formalities. He accordingly, on the 1st of June, issued orders for suitable preparations in anticipation of the event. On the night of the 2d a number of the inhabitants of Savannah came together and, having spiked all the cannon on the bay, dismounted and rolled them to the bottom of the bluff. Such was the pointed insult offered to the memory of his majesty. It was with great diffi- culty that some of these disabled guns could be drilled and re- stored to their positions in battery in time to participate in the loyal ceremonies of the 4th,1 which, as that day chanced to fall on Sunday, were observed on the Monday following.
The first liberty pole erected in Georgia was elevated in Sa- vannah on the 5th of June, 1775. The Royalists were then celebrating the king's birthday. The "Liberty Boys," in testi- mony of their desire for a reconciliation with the mother coun- try on the basis of a recognition of constitutional principles and colonial privileges, at the feast which they prepared drank as the first regular toast The King. The second was American Liberty.
Within a week afterwards thirty-four leading friends to the union of the colonies convened in Savannah and adopted a series
1 Seo MeCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 44. Savannah. 1816.
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A COUNCIL OF SAFETY CHIOSEN.
of spirited resolutions recommending an early association of Geor- gia with her sister colonies and suggesting an equitable adjust- ment of the unhappy differences existing between Great Britain and America.
On the 21st of June was published a call signed by Noble W. Jones, Archibald Bulloch, John Houstoun, and George Walton, requesting the inhabitants of the town and district of Savannalı to meet at the liberty pole on the following day at ten o'clock in the forenoon for the purpose of selecting a committee to bring about a union of Georgia with the other colonies in the cause of freedom. The alarming situation of affairs in America, and par- ticularly in this province, was urged as a reason for punctual and general attendance.
At the appointed place and designated hour many were pres- ent. A council of safety, consisting of William Ewen, president, William LeConte, Joseph Clay, Basil Cooper, Samuel Elbert, William Young, Elisha Butler, Edward Telfair, John Glenn, George Houstoun, George Walton, Joseph Habersham, Francis H. Harris, John Smith, and John Morel, members, and Seth John Cuthbert, secretary, was nominated, with instructions to main- tain an active correspondence with the Continental Congress, with the councils of safety in other provinces, and with the committees appointed in the other parishes in Georgia. This business con- cluded; a number of gentlemen dined at Tondee's tavern. The union flag was hoisted upon the liberty pole, and two field-pieces were posted at its foot. Thirteen patriotic toasts were drunk, each being responded to by a salute from the cannon and by mar- tial music.
One of the resolutions adopted at this meeting of the 22d of June provided that Georgia should not afford protection to, or become an asylum for, any person who, from his conduct, might be properly considered inimical to the common cause of America or who should have drawn upon himself the disapprobation or censure of any of the other colonies. In defiance of this resolu- tion a young man named Hopkins spoke contemptuously of the objects and conclusions of the meeting, and heaped epithets of ridicule upon the heads of the gentlemen composing the commit- tee of public safety. IIe was arrested by a mob, tarred and feathered, hoisted into a cart illuminated for the occasion, and was paraded for four or five hours through the principal streets of Savannah. Similar punishment was meted out by the parish committee of Augusta in the case of Thomas Brown, who had
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openly declared his enmity to the American cause and scoffed at the proceedings of the Continental Congress.1
At another meeting of the citizens of Savannah, convened at the residence of Mrs. Cuyler on the 13th of June, the follow- ing temperate preamble and resolutions had been unanimously adopted : -
" Whereas public confessions and grievances are much in- creased by private dissensions and animosities :
" Resolved therefore, nem : con : that we will use our utmost endeavours to preserve the peace and good order of this Province, and that no person behaving himself peaceably and inoffensively shall be molested in his personal property or even in his private sentiments while he expresses them with decency and without any illiberal reflections upon others.
" Whereas the acts for raising a perpetual revenue in America, and all the measures used to enforce these acts are not partial but general grievances, and it is most likely that redress will be obtained by the joint endeavours of all who may think these acts unconstitutional or oppressive, rather than by any measure that might be taken singly by individuals :
" Therefore Resolved That it is the opinion of this meeting (as a proper measure to be pursued because the General Assembly is not now sitting from whom an application to the Throne must be very proper, and as no time should be lost) that a humble, dutiful, and decent petition be addressed to his Majesty expres- sive of the sense, apprehensions, and feelings of all such as may choose to subscribe such petition, which, it is hoped, will be done by every man in the Province: and it is therefore the wish of this meeting that such a measure be adopted by the Provincial Congress intended to be held on Tuesday the 4th of July next :
" Resolved That the interest of this Province is inseparable from the Mother Country and all the Sister Colonies, and that to separate ourselves from the latter would only be throwing difficulties in the way of its own relief and that of the other Colonies, and justly increasing the resentment of all those to whose distress our disunion might be an addition :
" Resolved That this Province ought to, and it is hoped it will forthwith join the other Provinces in every just and legal meas- ure to secure and restore the liberties of all America, and for
1 Sce McCall's History of Georgia, vol. closed in Governor Wright's Dispatch to ii. pp. 45, 46. Savannah. 1816. Sec dep. the Earl of Dartmouth, dated July 25, osition of John Hopkins, mariner, in- 1775.
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GOVERNOR WRIGIIT ALARMED.
healing the unhappy divisions now subsisting between Great Britain and her Colonies :
" Resolved That the proceedings of this meeting be laid before the Provincial Congress on Tuesday the 4th of July next, and that Mr. Jamieson and Mr. Simpson do wait upon them with the same as recommended to them by this meeting."
These resolutions were in due course laid before the Provincial Congress on the 5th of July.
This exhibition of the temper of the colony, this increasing avowal of independent sentiments, and the growing tendency to place under a ban all who failed to avow an active sympathy with the complaints and the claims of the united colonies, in- spired Governor Wright with alarm. Alluding to the situation of those who still adhered to the Crown, he says : 1 " If these things are done, no man's life or property can be safe, and I look upon mine to be now in danger. There are still many friends to Government here, but they begin to think they are left to fall a sacrifice to the resentment of the people for want of proper support and protection; and, for their own safety, and other prudential reasons, they are falling off and lessening. every day. Pardon me, my Lord, but a few troops 12 months ago would have kept all the Southern Provinces out of Rebellion, and I much fear many will now be necessary. My Lord, the King has not a servant better disposed to serve his honor and just rights than I am, and I can lay my hand upon my heart and say with an honest and good conscience that I have done everything in iny power to support the just sovereignty of Great Britain, law, government, and good order; but I cannot continue in this very uncomfortable situation without the means of protection and sup- port, and therefore I must humbly request that his Majesty will be graciously pleased to give me leave to return home, which I would propose to do next Spring, or sooner as things may be circumstanced, and would therefore hope to have it as soon as may be." This communication in a despondent vein confesses the utter inability of the colonial authorities either to protect themselves or to repress the almost dominant spirit of rebellion.
To General Gage he expresses his astonishment "that these Southern Provinces should be left in the situation in which they now are : the Governors and King's officers and friends of Gov- ernment naked and exposed to the resentment of an enraged people." " The Governors," he adds, "had much better be in
1 Letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated June 9, 1775.
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England than remain in America and have the mortification to see their powers executed by committees and mobs."
Contemporaneously with this communication he addressed a letter to Admiral Graves, commanding his majesty's naval forces on the North American station, informing him that the port of Savannah was blockaded by four or five boats from South Caro- lina, and praying for immediate assistance. "Nothing less than a sloop of war of some force," he concludes, " would suffice for the protection of the harbor."
In his dispatch, dated Whitehall, July 5, 1775, the Earl of Dartmouth apprises Governor Wright that the " advices received from every quarter contain evidences of an intention in almost all the Colonies to the northward to take up arms against the government of this Kingdom. In this situation it is the King's firm resolution that the most vigorous efforts should be made both by sea and land to reduce his rebellious subjects to obedience : and the proper measures are now pursuing not only for augment- ing the army under General Gage, but also for making such ad- dition to our Naval strength in North America as may enable Admiral Graves to make such a disposition of his fleet as that besides the Squadron necessary for the New England station there may be separate squadrons at New York, within the Bay of Delaware, in Chesapeake Bay, and upon the coast of Car- olina."
The applications forwarded by Governor Wright to General Gage and to Admiral Graves failed of securing the desired assist- ance because they never reached their destination. As they were passing through Charlestown, the committee of safety with- drew them from their envelopes and substituted in their stead other dispatches representing the Province of Georgia as quiet, and in need neither of troops nor of war vessels. These being transmitted in the original envelopes completely deceived the respective commanders to whom they were addressed. The orig- inal dispatches were, by the committee of safety, forwarded to the Continental Congress. It was not until some time after, when Sir James Wright met General Gage in London and in- quired why the requisition for troops had not been filled, that he became aware of the deception practiced.1
The suggestion contained in the communication of Governor Wright to Admiral Graves that the port of Savannah was block-
1 Sce McCall's History of Georgia, vol. History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 102. Phila- ii. p. 46. Savannah. 1816. Stevens' delphia. 1859.
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SEIZURE OF CAPTAIN MAITLAND'S SHIP.
aded, may be thus explained. The Carolina committee, notified of the fact that a ship had sailed for Georgia having on board a large supply of powder intended for the use of the Indians and the service of the Royalists, resolved to capture it. Captains . Barnwell and Joyner of Beaufort were directed to employ every means at command to seize the expected ship and secure the military stores on board. Embarking forty men, well armed, in two barges, they proceeded to the mouth of the Savannah and encamped on Bloody Point in' full view of Tybee Island light- house. The Provincial Congress of Georgia offered every assist- ance to these officers, and told them, if they so desired, they should be aided in the capture of the British armed schooner stationed in the river. To that end arrangements were made for a junction of the Carolina and Georgia forces. A schooner was commissioned by the congress and placed under the command of Captain Bowen and Joseph Habersham. On the approach of the Georgia schooner the British armed vessel weighed anchor, put to sea, and departed. The Georgia schooner, taking a position beyond the bar, had been on the lookout only a few days when, on the 10th of July, Captain Maitland's ship, direct from Lon- don and having the powder on board, was descried in the offing. Perceiving the schooner, and perhaps suspecting some evil de- sign, the ship paused before entering Tybee inlet, and, in a little while, tacked and stood out to sea. Quickly pursued, she was overhauled by Captain Bowen and the Georgians who, assisted by the Carolina party, boarded and took possession of her.
This Georgia schooner 1 is said to have been the first provincial vessel commissioned for naval warfare in the Revolution, and this the first capture made by order of any congress in America. Of the powder taken from this ship nine thousand pounds fell to Georgia as her share of the prize. At the earnest solicitation of the Continental Congress five thousand pounds were sent to Philadelphia and were there issued in supplying the necessities of the embryo armies of the united colonies.2 One authority states that six tons of gunpowder were taken from this vessel, and Captain McCall estimates the amount at thirteen thousand pounds. It formed a most valuable contribution to the military stores of the nascent republic, and its exploding thunders shook
1 This schooner was armed with "ten ii. p. 103. Philadelphia. 1859. Moul- carriage guns and many swivels," and trie's Memoirs, etc., vol. i. p. 81. New had a complement of fifty men. York. 1802.
2 Soo Stevens' History of Georgia, vol.
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the earth upon more than one battlefield during the war of the Revolution.
Among the Georgians 1 engaged in this capture was Ebenezer Smith Platt. Apprehended at a later period by the British, and identified by two of the crew of Maitland's ship as having been concerned in the seizure of this powder, he was sent to England under a charge of treason. He was there closely confined for a long time. Eventually, however, he was recognized as a prisoner of war and exchanged.
From the public and private acts and utterances of the inhab- . itants it was evident that the period of doubt and hesitation was at an end, and that Georgia was now prepared to link her for- tunes with those of her twelve sisters and to loyally participate in the deliberations and the conclusions of the Continental Con- gress. Meetings were called in every parish in the province to commission delegates to a Provincial Congress which was to as- semble at Savannah on the 4th of July, 1775. The entire colony was aroused and resolved upon decisive action. Even Governor Wright, usually so hopeful of the future and entertaining such high impressions of the power of the royal party in Georgia, felt constrained to acknowledge that upon the assembling of that Provincial Congress the probability was its members would not fail to " entirely approve of whatever might be determined upon by the Continental Congress." 2
Hle frankly admitted to the Earl of Dartmouth that even those who reprobated the action of the majority and in no wise sympa- thized with the plans and sentiments of the American Association were not inclined " to expose their lives and property to the re- sentment of the people when no support or protection was given them by Government." Writing on the 17th of June he informs the ministry that within the past six weeks the situation of affairs had so changed that less than five hundred troops would prove insufficient for the protection of the royal government in the province. Sadly did he lament the absence of a fort, and sug- gested the propriety of immediately erecting one upon the town common at Savannah, with buildings and barracks suitable for the accommodation of such forces as the king might be pleased to send. " And then," he adds, "the Governor and Officers
1 McCall says ( History of Georgia, vol. Sir James Wright's Dispatch to the Earl ii. p. 49, Savannah, 1816) that Bowen of Dartmouth, dated Savannah, July 10, and Habersham had thirty men with 1775. them, and that they embarked upon the 2 Sce his Letter to Lord Dartmouth, dated Savannah, June 17, 1775. expedition in two open boats. See also
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would be in a state of security, whereas now they are and must be exposed to every kind of insult and violence the people may choose to offer them."
Persuaded that the royal power was crumbling in the face of the opposition offered by the American colonies, and convinced that he could no longer restrain the province of Georgia from forming a coalition with the American league, he still hoped for some formidable intervention by the Crown which would reduce England's possessions in America to obedience and submission. Without a fort, even the common jail being small and insecure, and with no army or navy at command, he fully realized the insecurity of his official situation, and apprehended, at any mo- ment, loss of property and deprivation of personal liberty.
Memorable in the political annals of the colony were the pro- ceedings of the Provincial Congress which assembled at Savan- nah on the 4th of July, 1775. Every parish was represented, and the delegates were fitting exponents of the intelligence, the domi- nant hopes, and the material interest of the communities from which they respectively came. This was Georgia's first seces- sion convention. It placed the province in active sympathy and confederated alliance with the other twelve American colonies, practically annulled within her limits the operation of the ob- jectionable acts of Parliament, questioned the supremacy of the realm, and inaugurated measures calculated to accomplish the independence of the plantation and its erection into the dignity of a State.
The following members, submitting proper credentials, then came together at Tondee's Long Room : -
Town and District of Savannah. - Archibald Bulloch, Noble Wymberley Jones, Joseph Habersham, Jonathan Bryan, Ambrose Wright, William Young, John Glen, Samuel Elbert, John Hou- stoun, Oliver Bowen, John McCluer, Edward Telfair, Thomas Lee, George Houstoun, Joseph Reynolds, John Smith, William Ewen, John Martin, Dr. Zubly, William Bryan, Philip Box, Philip Allman, William O'Bryan, Joseph Clay, Seth John Cuth- bert.
District of Vernonburgh. - Joseph Butler,1 Andrew Elton Wells, Matthew Roche, Jr.
District of Acton. - David Zubly, Basil Cowper, William Gibbons.
Sea Island District. - Col. Deveaux, Col. De Le Gall, James 1 Doclined taking his sont.
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Bulloch, John Morel, John Bohun Girardeau, John Barnard, Robert Gibson.
District of Little Ogeechee. - Francis Henry Harris, Joseph Gibbons, James Robertson.1
Parish of St. Matthew. - John Stirk, John Adam Treutlen, George Walton, Edward Jones, Jacob Wauldhauer, Philip How- ell, Isaac Young, Jenkin Davis, John Morel, John Flerl, Charles McCay, Christopher Cramer.
Parish of St. Philip. - Col. Butler, William LeConte, Wm. Maxwell, James Maxwell, Stephen Drayton, Adam Fowler Bris- bane, Luke Mann, Hugh Bryan.
Parish of St. George. - Henry Jones, John Green, Thomas Burton, William Lord, David Lewis, Benjamin Lewis, James Pugh, John Fulton.
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