USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume II > Part 4
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That like protection might be afforded to other localities, stock- ades and forts were constructed and strengthened at Augusta, Ebenezer, Sunbury, Midway, Darien, Barrington, and elsewhere. For the defense of the mouth of the Savannah River Fort George was erected on Coxpur Island. DeBrahm describes it as " only a small Redoubt 100 feet square, with a Block House or wooden Tour Bastionee 40 feet square in it, to serve for a Defence, Mag- azine, Storehouse, and Barrack. This Redoubt answers more to stop Vessels from going up and down in time of Peace, than Ves- sels which had a Mind to act in a hostile View; the reason for so diminutive a Construction was the then prevailing Incapacity to raise for this purpose more than £2,000 sterling, as many other equally necessary Constructions for the public Benefit stood then in Competition before the Eyes of the Legislator." 2
Governor Wright discountenanced the project, which had been favorably entertained by his predecessors, of transferring the seat of government from Savannah to Hardwicke. In this he acted most wisely. Pending the question of removal, Savannah had suffered much. Her public buildings had been neglected and her citizens, ignorant of the future, grew careless of their homes. As soon, however, as it was definitely ascertained that the little city of Oglethorpe was to remain the capital and commercial metrop-
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1 MS. Journal of the Council met in 2 Ilistory of the Province of Georgia, etc., p. 47. Wormsloe. MDCCCXLIX.
General Assembly, etc., pp. 446, 447.
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WIIARVES AT SAVANNAH.
olis of the province, a new impulse was imparted which conduced most materially to the general prosperity and encouragement of the town.
The light-house on Tybee Island was repaired, a lazaretto was established, and the wharves along the Savannah River were rendered convenient and permanent. These wharves were con- structed upon a plan furnished by DeBrahm to Thomas Eaton in 1759. His suggestion was " to drive two Rows of Piles as far asunder as he desired his Wharf to be wide, and as far towards the River as low Water Mark; secure their tops with plates, and to trunnel Planks within on the Piles; this done, then to brace the insides with dry Walls of Stones intermixed with willow Twigs, and in the same manner to shut up the Ends of the two Rows with a like Front along the Stream ; to build inside what Cellars he had occasion for ; then to fill up the Remainder with the Sand nearest at hand out of the Bluff or high shore of the Stream under the Bay."1
This method was adopted and observed for many years. It was abandoned only when heavy freights and larger vessels ren- dered the construction of more substantial landing-places a mat- ter of commercial necessity.
For nearly thirty years after its settlement, Savannah was re- garded as a healthy town. Thither did the rice planters from the adjacent lowlands in South Carolina resort during the sum- mer and autumn of the year that they might escape the fevers incident to the swamps. The dense forests growing upon Hutch- inson's Island and in the low grounds to the east and west of the town shielded it from the noxious vapors and malarial influences of the fields beyond, which were cultivated in rice. So soon, however, as these trees were felled, and the regions they formerly covered were converted into rice plantations, the miasmatic ex- balations thence arising were, by north and east winds, rolled in upon the town to the prejudice of the health of its inhabitants.2 At a later period it was found necessary to guard Savannah against the unwholesome effects to which we have alluded, by the rigid enforcement of a dry-culture system within specified limits.
Upon the inauguration of Governor Wright the white popula- tion of Georgia amounted to barely six thousand souls. The re-
1 History of the Province of Georgia, ince of Georgia, etc., pp. 47, 48. Worms- etc., p. 45. Wormaloo. MDCCCXLIX. loo. MDCCCXLIX.
Soo DoBrahm's History of the Prov.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
turns showed that there were then three thousand five hundred and seventy-eight negro slaves owned and employed within the province. The military force of the colony consisted of sixty men belonging to his majesty's independent companies, two troops of rangers numbering each five officers and seventy pri- vates, and the militia, organized as infantry, and aggregating one thousand and twenty-five. But thirty-four hundred pounds of rice were exported in 1760, and the entire commerce of the col- ony was conducted by forty-two vessels, most of them of light burthen.
Of the manufactures and general industries of the province we are definitely advised by the following letter of the governor, which, although penned a few years later, refers directly to the period which we are now considering.
" MY LORDS, - Your Lordships' letter of the 1st of August I had the honor to receive on the 12th inst., by which I am re- quired to transmit to your Lordships an exact Account of the several Manufactures which have been set up and carried on within this Province from the year 1734, and of the public en- couragement which has been given thereto.
" In obedience to which I am to acquaint your Lordships that there have not been any Manufactures of any kind set up or car- ried on within this Province, but we are supplied with everything from and through Great Britain. Some few of the poorer and more industrious people make a trifling quantity of coarse home- spun cloth for their own families, and knit a few cotton and yarn stockings for their own use, and this dono but by very few, and I don't know that there is or has been a yard of linen cloth of any kind manufactured in this Province.
"Hitherto, my Lords, and until the Province becomes much more populous than it just now is, the People can employ their time to much better advantage than manufacturing, as they can be a great deal cheaper and better supplied from Great Britain, and from whence my Lords, all our supplies of Silks, linens, and woollens of every kind are brought, and all our tools, nails, locks, hinges, and utensils of every sort, and great quantities of shoes are likewise imported, although we have some Tanners and Shoe- makers hore, but chiefly employed in making shoes for the Ne- groes: also Blacksmiths who work up bar iron imported from the Northern Colonies for building and repairs of Vessels and such other work as is not usually or indeed cannot be imported from Great Britain, as no particular orders or directions can well be
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ACCESSION OF GEORGE III.
given to suit occasional necessary demands and uses. We have built one Ship, one Snow, one Brigantine, and five or six Schoon- ers, and a number of coasting Vessels since I have presided here.
" Our whole time and strength, my Lords, is applied in plant- ing rice, corn, peas, and a small quantity of wheat and rye, and in making pitch, tar, and turpentine, and in making shingles and staves, and sawing lumber and scantling, and boards of every kind, and in raising stocks of cattle, mules, horses, and hogs, and next year I hope some essays will be made towards planting and making hemp, and that it will, in due time, become a consider- able article with us.
" At present, my Lords, the people here have no idea of man- ufacturing these commodities, but possibly may hereafter, when they become more numerous, and labour cheaper, especially as they have been within the course of the last year so strongly called upon and exhorted to it by the Northern Colonies.
" I am, &c., JAMES WRIGHT.1 " SAVANNAH IN GEORGIA, 18th Nov', 1766."
So tardy was the communication between the colony and the mother country that intelligence of the demise of his majesty George II. was not received in Savannah until February, 1761. The assembly was thereupon immediately dissolved and writs of election were issued for a new assembly to convene on the 24th of the following March.
Funeral honors were rendered to his late majesty, and George III. was saluted as king with all the pomp and ceremony of which the province was capable. Then for the first and only time was a king proclaimed upon Georgia soil.
In addressing the General Assembly on the 25th of March, Governor Wright spake thus loyally : " The great and important Event of the Death of his late Majesty, of ever blessed Memory, having made it necessary to call a new Assembly, gives me this Opportunity of congratulating you on the happy Accession of our present most gracious Sovereign to the Throne of his royal Grandfather.
" 'This Accession, Gentlemen, is a most inestimable Mark of Divine Providence : for, under the auspicious Government of a Prince who has given such early Proofs of his Royal Abilities, Regard for the British Constitution, and Love and Affection for
1 From the Marquis of Lansdowne's Collection. Answers to American Circulars. Vol. Iv.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
his Subjects, we may rest assured that we shall not only continue in the perfect Enjoyment of the many Blessings we have already possessed, but that we shall meet with every further Encourage- ment and Support that this Infant Province may require.
" Animated therefore with a true Sense of our Happiness, let us with the utmost Gratitude and Veneration study to promote his Majesty's Service ; let us chearfully obey his royal Com- mands, and offer up our sincere Prayers for his long and happy Reign over us."
Unaffected as yet by those rebellious sentiments which, a few years afterwards, induced the colonists to seek, even at the peril of life and property, liberation from kingly rule, the assembly responded : " We his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal Subjects, the Council of Georgia in General Assembly met, beg Leave to return your Honour our unfeigned and hearty Thanks for your affectionate Speech to both Houses of Assembly.
" The great and important Event of the Death of his late Majesty of blessed Memory having made it necessary for your Honour to convene a new Assembly, we therefore avail ourselves of this Opportunity of congratulating you on the happy Acces- sion of our present most gracious Sovereign to the Throne of his Royal Ancestors, being truly sensible of this inestimable Mark of Divine Favour in placing us under the auspicious Government of a Prince who has given such early and repeated Proofs of his Royal Abilities, Regard for the British Constitution, and Pater- mal Affection for his Subjects. From the Consideration of these Princely Virtues we assure ourselves a Continuance of those invaluable Privileges and Blessings we have hitherto enjoyed ; And that we shall also meet with every further Encouragement that may conduce to the Protection and Prosperity of this Infant Province. We therefore shall, with the utmost Gratitude, dis- interested Regard, and a Sense of our own Happiness, make it our Study to promote his Majesty's Service and pay all due Obedience to his Royal Commands." 1
At the moment it appeared scarcely possible that these pledges of loyalty, so freely given, would speedily be broken.
On the 20th of March, 1761, the king conferred upon James Wright full executive powers, with the title of " Captain Gen- eral, Governor, and Commander in Chief in and over the Prov- ince of Georgia." His commission, however, did not reach him
1 Seo MS. Journal of the Council in Assembly for the Colony of Georgia, pp. 454, 457.
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WRIGIIT SALUTED AS GOVERNOR.
at Savannah until the 28th of January, 1762. It was then read at the head of the regiment of militia, commanded by Colonel Noble Jones, and drawn up in Johnson Square. Three volleys were fired, and these were answered by the guns of Fort Halifax and by cannon from ships in the river. In the evening the ladies were entertained at a ball given by the governor. It was the most numerous and brilliant assemblage, up to that time, ever known in Savannah. Nearly every house in the town was illu- minated ; and, if we may credit the testimony of the day, " there never was an occasion on which the joy and satisfaction of the people were more apparent." 1
Although the orders framed by Governors Ellis and Lyttleton for the removal of Edmund Grey and his followers from the set- tlements which they had formed south of the Alatamaha had, in 1759, been personally communicated by Powell and Hern, com- missioners appointed for that purpose, and although those mal- contents at first promised obedience and made a show of depart- ing from the disputed territory, so soon as the commissioners returned home Grey and his companions quietly violated their engagements and reestablished themselves in the situations which they had selected beyond the immediate limits of the colony. It would appear from a letter addressed by Governor Wright to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations on the 17th of October, 1761, that although the southern boundary of the colony, according to the king's charter to the trustees, extended only to the southernmost stream of the Alatamaha, the Georgia authorities at no time ceased to exercise at least a qualified con- trol over this region. Without regard to that boundary General Oglethorpe extended his settlements and forts in the direction of Florida. Plantations were established far beyond the Ala- tamaha, and lands were claimed upon the banks of the St. John's. At the south end of Cumberland Island a guard was maintained at Fort William. When in 1758 Governor Ellis winked at the settlement of Grey and his adherents in this region, he did so under the impression that a quasi affiliation with these intruders would prevent them from associating themselves with the Span- iards and the Creek Indians. This action was disapproved by the home government, who feared that the license from the Georgia governor might be construed by the authorities at St. Augustine as an open declaration, on the part of the British Crown, of an exclusive right to those lands. The Lords Com-
1 Seo South Carolina Gazette of February 20, 1762.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
missioners of Trade and Plantations were also apprehensive that the influence exerted by Grey and his followers would prove prejudicial to the peaceful relations existing between the colo- nists and the Creek Indians. Hence the anxiety of England for the immediate removal of these malcontents. In 1761, however, when Governor Wright called the attention of the British Min- isters to the fact that seventy or eighty of these " runagates from the two Carolinas, Virginia, &c.," were still scattered through the disputed territory, Spain having allied herself with France in hostility to England, the government was less zealous for the en- forcement of the orders originally issued for the removal of Grey and his colony. The extension of the limits of Georgia, two years afterwards, to the St. Mary's River, rendered any further action in this matter unnecessary.1
The preliminary articles of peace with Spain were announced in December, 1762. The knowledge that Spain was about to cede Florida to Great Britain was received in Georgia and Caro- lina early in the following year. While the English government was considering the best method of apportioning and disposing of this territorial acquisition, a scheme was devised in Charlestown, South Carolina, for monopolizing the lands lying south of the Alatamaha River. In support of his authority for issuing the ex- tensive grants of land which he then made in the region indicated, Governor Boone contended that by the second charter granted to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina by Charles the Second the limits of that province were extended southward as far as latitude 29°; that the cession of lands to the Georgia trustees embraced only the territory lying between the rivers Savannah and Alatamaha ; and that the Crown had never seen fit to restrain the Carolina authorities from exercising jurisdiction beyond the southern boundary of Georgia. He further alluded to the fact that for many years a military post had been maintained south of the Alatamaha River, the garrison of which consisted of troops drawn from South Carolina.2
Hearing that Governor Boone was about to issue these grants, and believing such acts to be at once inconsistent with the inten- tions of the king and injurious to Georgia, Governor Wright dis-
1 Sce Letter from the Board of Trade Letter of Governor Wright to the Board of to Governor Ellis, dated April 21, 1758. Trade, dated October 17, 1761. Letter from Dunk Halifax and others to the Right Honorable William Pitt, dated
2 Sco Letter of Governor Boone to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, dated Whitehall, March 1, 1758. Letter of Charlestown, South Carolina, August 17, Governor Lyttleton, dated April 21, 1758. 1763.
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PROTEST OF GOVERNOR WRIGHT.
patched Grey Elliott, a member of council, to proceed to Charles- town and enter the following caveat and protest : -
" To Thomas Boone Esgr. his Majesty's Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of South Carolina, and to all others to whom these presents shall come or may con- cern.
" The protestation and caveat of James Wright Esqr. his Maj- esty's Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of Georgia, against any warrants being issued or at- tempts made to survey any lands to the southward of the river Alatamaha by pretence or colour of any right or authority from or under the said Thomas Boone as Governor of South Carolina, or from or under the said Thomas Boone and his Majesty's Coun- cil in that Province, and against any grant or grants being passed or signed by the said Thomas Boone for any of the lands afore- said to any person or persons whatsoever until his Majesty's royal will and pleasure shall be known concerning the same.
" Whereas his late most gracious Majesty, by letter from one of his principal Secretaries of State dated the 10th day of June 1758, was pleased to signify his commands to the Governor of the Province of Georgia that he should immediately give orders in his Majesty's name to the inhabitants of a certain settlement to the southward of the river Alatamaha, made without his Maj- esty's license or authority, and called by themselves New Han- over, to remove immediately from thence, and that the Governor should take all due care that no settlements whatever be made without leave of his Majesty or by his authority : in the execution of which orders the Governor of Georgia was directed to act in concert with the Governor of Carolina who had received his Maj- esty's commands to the same purpose :
" And although the reasons which possibly induced his Maj- esty not to suffer his subjects to settle the aforesaid lands may now be thought not to subsist because his Catholic Majesty, by the 19th preliminary article of peace cedes to our most gracious Sovereign all that Spain possesses on the continent of North America to the east or to the southeast of the river Mississippi ; yet, as the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and Spain, if it has taken effect, is not notified, it would be premature in any of his Majesty's Governors to pro- ceed as tho' it actually was notified: And from the state and light in which those lands have been for some years past consid- ered by his Majesty, to attempt to intermeddle therein until his
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Majesty's royal will and pleasure be known and his commands signified thereon, it is conceived would be highly improper and contrary to his Majesty's intention :
" Therefore, for preservation of the rights and claims of the Province of Georgia in and to the premises aforementioned against any extraordinary or injurious attempts of the said Gov- ernor and Council of South Carolina for the reasons herein before given and many others transmitted to Great Britain to be laid be- fore his Majesty, I, the said James Wright, as Governor of the Province of Georgia aforesaid, do protest against all and any at- tempts whatsoever to survey any lands to the southward of the aforesaid river Alatamaha by pretence or colour of any author- ity from or under the Governor, or the Governor and Council of South Carolina. And do by these presents enter a caveat against any grant or grants being passed or signed by the Gov- ernor of South Carolina for any of the lands aforesaid to any person or persons whatsoever, until his Majesty's royal will and pleasure shall be known concerning the same; And in most full and solemn manner protest and declare against all proceedings whatsoever that have already or may hereafter be had or done by the said Governor and Council in or about the disposal of the lands aforesaid as expressly contrary to his Majesty's royal in- tention, and null and void.
" And that no person or persons may plead ignorance of this protestation and caveat, I so request and demand that it be en- tered in the book of caveats against grants, usually kept in the Secretary's Office in the Province of South Carolina.
" In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal at Savannah in Georgia this thirtieth day of March in the Year of Our Lord 1763.
JA : WRIGHT."
Acting under his instructions, Mr. Elliott proceeded to Charles- town, and on the 5th of April, 1763, exhibited to Governor Boone the foregoing protest and caveat. He refused either to receive or to peruse the document. Mr. Elliott then delivered it to the secretary of the province, with the request that it be re- corded. That official promised to record it; but, in the after- noon, returned it to Mr. Elliott with the statement that he had been ordered by the governor and council neither to receive nor to enter it upon the records.
On the 20th of April Sir James Wright advised the Earl of Egremont of these transactions, and protested most earnestly
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LETTER TO THE EARL OF EGREMONT.
against the immense grants of land which were being made to parties in Carolina who proposed simply to speculate in and not to occupy them. "Possibly," continues the governor, "by the time this reaches your Lordship, a million of acres may be granted to persons now settled in Carolina, and the greatest part of whom it is expected will continue to live there. Your Lord- ship will also be pleased to consider how greatly this will affect his Majesty's service in the settlement of this frontier Province, and how much it must be impeded by those vast tracts being held by such an handful of people who live in another Province ; and this further ill effect it will have, for nobody will think of coming this way when they hear that the Carolinians have en- grossed all the lands. And how contrary does this step seem to be to his Majesty's royal intention ! And your Lordship will be pleased to observe that those who have these very great tracts, or any of the persons who are to have these lands, have not one negro or one shilling's property on this side of Savannah river. I have had accounts my Lord of many hundred families, I may say some thousand people, who were ready to come into this Province (chiefly from North Carolina) as soon as it was ex- tended and I should be authorized to grant these very lands, all which will be prevented if these proceedings are suffered to take effect. I must beg leave my Lord, to mention another objection against these grants which seems an equitable one on the side of this Province. Mr. Elliott informs me that one, Mr. Young, who has some negroes in Carolina' and also some in Georgia, peti- tioned for a tract of land for all his negroes, and on his saying that part of those negroes was in Georgia, he was refused lands for them and told he should only have lands for such negroes as he had in Carolina, so that your Lordship sees the inhabitants of this Province are totally excluded. This, my Lord, seems to us here to be very unequitable that the people of this Province, who have borne the brunt and fatigue of settling a new Colony, and who have struggled with innumerable difficulties and hardships besides dangers from the Savages, and, during the war, from the neighbouring French and Spaniards, and who by their great in- dustry and labour have acquired a few negroes and are in a capacity of settling their children or making other settlements for themselves, I say my Lord, it seems to them hard and un- equitable that they are not to have an inch of these lands, but that the whole or most of the best is to be swallowed up by strangers who never contributed one farthing or one hour's fa-
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
tigue or hardship towards the support of the Province; and for these reasons, and many others that must occur, your Lordship will see why I call this the death wound or destruction of Georgia.
"I have never yet, my Lord, granted any lands but to people who actually undertook to settle and improve them forthwith, and only in moderate quantities, for, my Lord, it's the number of inhabitants we want here, and although these lands may be annexed to Georgia yet if they are engrossed and held by the Carolinians in the manner I have mentioned, it will nevertheless ruin the Province ; for, my Lord, as I have already said, altho' if some who have small tracts may probably remove and settle them, yet those who have large tracts it is pretty certain have no such intention and never will, and your Lordship will observe that no less than 343,000 acres were ordered to less than 200 persons, and which quantity alone would accommodate a thousand very good families and settlers, and such as are the sinews and strength of an infant colony.
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