USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume II > Part 8
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" On the 3rd of January Mr. Angus, the distributor for this Province, arrived, of which I had the earliest notice in conse- quence of measures concerted for that purpose, and immediately sent the scout boat with an officer and a party of men to protect him and suffer no body to speak to him, but conduct him safely to my house, which was done the next day at noon when he took the State oaths and oath of office, and I had the papers distrib- uted and lodged in all the different offices relative to the ship- ping and opening our ports, which had been shut for some time.
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RESISTANCE TO THE STAMP ACT.
But here the people in general have agreed not to apply for any other papers till his Majesty's pleasure be known on the peti- tions sent from the Colonies. I kept the Officer in my house for a fortnight, after which he went into the Country, to avoid the resentment of the people, for awhile. No pains have been spared in the Northern Colonies to spirit up and inflame the people, and a spirit of faction and sedition was stirred up throughout the Province, and parties of armed men actually assembled them- selves together and were preparing to do so in different parts, but by sending expresses with letters to many of the most pru- dent I had the satisfaction to find that my weight and credit was sufficient to check all commotions and disturbances in the Coun- try at that time, and every thing was quiet again and remained so till a few days ago when some incendiaries from Charlestown camo full fraught with sedition and rebellion, and have been about the Country and inflamed the people to such a degree that they were again assembling together in all parts of the Province and, to the number of about 600, were to have come here on yesterday, all armed, and these people as I have been informed, were to have surrounded my house and endeavoured to extort a promise from me that no papers should be issued till his Majes- ty's pleasure be known on the petitions sent home, and if I did not immediately comply, they were to seize upon and destroy the papers and commit many acts of violence against the persons and property of those gentlemen that have declared themselves friends of Government. On this last alarm I thought it advisable to remove the papers to a place of greater security, and accord- ingly ordered them to be carried to Fort George on Cockspur Island where they are protected by a Captain, two Subalterns, and fifty private men of the Rangers.
" But I have the satisfaction to inform your Excellency that I have, with the assistance of some well disposed Gentlemen, taken off and got a great many dispersed who were actually on their way down here, but many are still under arms and I can't yet say how the affair will end.
" This Sir, is a wretched situation to be in, and it's clear that further force is necessary to support his Majesty's authority from insults and reduce the people to obedience to the civil power. My task is rendered much more difficult by the people in the next Province going the lengths they have done, and to this day do, and it's said, and I believe it may be true, (although Sir, I will not aver it for a fact), that the Carolinians have offered to
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TIIE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
assist the people here with 500 men to prosecute their vile at- tempts.
" Upon the whole Sir, there is still a possibility of bringing the people to reason and restoring the peace and tranquillity of the Province, on which, your Excellency so justly observes, their welfare and happiness depend. A few days will determine this point, and if not, then, agreeable to your Excellency's letter, I shall write to General Gage and Lord Colvile for assistance. I have only to add that notwithstanding every threat and attempt, your Excellency may be assured I will firmly persevere to the utmost of my power in the faithful discharge of my duty to his Majesty ; but really Sir, such of the King's Servants in America as are firm in their opposition to the present seditious spirit have a very uncomfortable time of it.
" The whole military force in this Province, Sir, is two troops of Ranger's, consisting in the whole of 120 effective men, which occupy 5 forts or posts in different parts of the Province, and 30 of the Royal Americans, - 20 of them at fort Augusta 150 miles from hence, and 10 at Frederica about the same distance. And on the first appearance of faction and sedition I ordered in some of the Rangers from each post and made up the number here at Savannah 56 privates and 8 officers, with which, and the assist- ance of such gentlemen as were of a right way of thinking, I have been able in some measure to support his Majesty's au- thority, but I have been obliged to send two officers and 35 of those men with the papers to Fort George."
On the 7th of February Governor Wright acquaints Secretary Conway with what had further transpired in the colony in rela- tion to the contemplated enforcement of the Stamp Act : -
" On the 2nd inst I had the pleasure to hear of the arrival of his Majesty's ship Speedwell, Capt .. Fanshawe, who had promised me when he went from hence, after bringing the pa- pers, that he would return again soon. I assure your Excellency he came at a very reasonable time, as by his taking the papers on board the King's ship I was enabled to order up the Officers and Rangers to town, and then mustered 70 Officers and men. Capt. Fanshawe brought his ship up, and several gentlemen and others also promised to join me if the Villains should come into town. For notwithstanding I had been able to dispose of a great num- ber, yet two hundred and forty of them were within 3 miles, and, being much exasperated against me for sending the papers away, agreed to come to me and demand that I would order the papers
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DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
to be delivered up to them, and if I did not, they were to shoot mo. This Sir, was avowedly declared by some of them ; and on Thursday, the 4th instant, they actually had the insolence to ap- pear at the Town Common with their arms and colours, but find- ing I had near 100 men I could command and depend upon, and being told that many would join me as volunteers, after staying about 3 hours I was informed they differed among themselves and began to disperse, and I have now the great satisfaction to acquaint your Excellency that they are all dispersed ; but Sir, some of them declared they were offered the assistance of from 4 to 500 men from Carolina, and if they came, would be ready to return again. If none come from thence I hope to remain quiet. I shall see some of the most dispassionate people and of the most considerable property amongst them, and endeavour to restore the peace of the Province, but even if I succeed in this so far as to obtain promises of submission, yet Sir, some troops will neverthe- less bas absolutely necessary, for I fear I cannot have entire con- Silence in the people for some time, and your Excellency sees the Insulta his Majesty's authority has received, and which I am still liable to l'ossibly your Excellency may be surprized that I have not mentioned calling out the militia, but I have too much reason to think I should have armed more against me than for me, and that volunteers were the only people I could have any confidence in or dependence upon."
Led by the fearless Gadsden, the eloquent Rutledge, and the patriotic Lynch, the delegates from South Carolina were the first to respond to the call for an American congress. During its session in New York they gave shape to its deliberations and moulded its conclusions. So potent was their influence at home that upon their return to Charlestown the General Assembly of South Carolina, on the 29th of November, 1765, was moved to the adoption of a series of resolutions entirely in unison with those promulgated by the congress. In them it was declared that his majesty's subjects in the province of Carolina owed the same allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain that was due from his subjects there born ; that they were entitled to all the inher- ent rights and liberties of natural born subjects ; that it was in- separably essential to the freedom of a people and the undoubted right of Englishmen that no taxes should be imposed on them but with their own consent given personally or by their repre- sentatives ; that the people of Carolina from their local cireum- stances could not be represented in the House of Commons of VOL. II. 5
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Great Britain, and that the several powers of legislation in America were constituted in some measure upon the apprehen- sion of this impracticability ; that the only representatives of the people of the province were persons chosen therein by them- selves, and that no taxes ever had been or ever could be consti- tutionally imposed on them but by the legislature of the prov- ince ; that all supplies to the Crown being the free gifts of the people, it was unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of the British constitution for the people of Great Britain to grant to his majesty the property of the people of Carolina ; that the trial by jury was the inherent and valuable right of every British subject in the province ; that the late act of Parliament entitled " An Act for granting and applying cer- tain stamp duties and other duties of the British Colonies and Plantations in America," etc., by imposing taxes on the inhabit- ants of Carolina, and other acts by extending the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty beyond their ancient limits, had a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the people of the province ; that the duties imposed by several late acts of Parlia- ment on the people of Carolina would prove extremely burthen- some and grievous, and, from a scarcity of gold and silver, the payment of them would be absolutely impracticable; that as the profits of the trade of the people of the province ultimately cen- tred in Great Britain to pay for the manufactured articles they were obliged to take from thence, they eventually contributed very largely to all the supplies there granted to the Crown, and that as every individual in South Carolina was as advantageous to Great Britain as if he were a resident there and paid his full proportion of taxes for the support of his majesty's government, it was unreasonable for him to be called upon to pay any addi- tional part of the charges of the general government.
This declaration of rights, disseminated through the public prints, was read everywhere both in Carolina and Georgia, and evoked earnest sympathy from most of the inhabitants on both sides of the Savannah. Because Georgia had not been fully rep- resented in the New York Congress, Carolina was inclined to question her determination to resist, by every means, the en- forcement of the Stamp Act. Because Governor Wright was 'bolder than Governor Bull in his efforts to carry into effect the expressed will of Parliament, Georgia was taunted with being a pensioned government. In the South Carolina "Gazette " of February 11, 1756, it was scurrilously hinted that " her inhab-
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ACTIVE RESISTANCE IN GEORGIA.
itants were looked upon as a fair purchase and therefore to be treated as slaves without ceremony ; " that they had been " de- luded and bullied out of their rights and privileges ; " and that " liko Esau of old they had sold their birthright for a mess of pottage." The truth was, the resistance offered by Georgia to the enforcement of the Stamp Act within her borders was much more determined and pronounced than that exhibited by South Carolina, and for the reason that Sir James Wright resolutely upheld the act by every means at command, while Lieutenant- Governor Bull, yielding to pressure, lodged the stamp papers in Fort Johnson and suffered Charlestown to be used as a free port.1 Certain it is that although Governor Wright, at all times a brave man and loyal to his king, summoned all his energies and ex- erted his every influence to support the act, so thoroughly was the province of Georgia aroused, and so closely did her inhabit- ants watch the stamp papers and the officer designated for their have, that none of them found their way into use. Georgians did not remain passive under those exactions. They resisted with arms in their hands, and triumphed in the contest. Even the gentle, self-poised, and influential James Habersham, presi- dent of his majesty's council, confessed openly, " The annual tax raised here for the support of our internal policy is full as much as the inhabitants can bear : and suppose the stamps pro- duce only one eighth of what they would in South Carolina, it would amount to as much in one year as our tax laws will raise in three ; and perhaps we have not five thousand pounds in gold and silver come into the Province in five years, though the act requires it in one. If this is really the case, as I believe it is, how must every inhabitant shudder at the thought of the act taking place, which, according to my present apprehension, must inevitably ruin them."
The only stamps issued in Georgia were those employed in clearing between sixty and seventy vessels which were congre- gated in the port of Savannah fearing to depart without them. The emergency was pressing. Yielding to the urgency of the situation, the citizens consented in this instance, and in this alone, to relax the prohibition they had forcibly placed upon the use of stamp papers and the payment of stamp duties. Violent was the umbrage which South Carolina took at this act. It was resolved in Charlestown that no provisions should be shipped to
1 See Governor Wright's letter to the Board of Trade, under date Savannah in Georgia, 10th February, 1766.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Georgia, which was denounced as an "infamous Colony ;" that " every vessel trading there should be burnt," and that all per- sons who should traffic with Georgians " should be put to death." These were not idle threats, for two vessels, clearing for Savan- nah, were captured before they crossed Charlestown bar, were brought back to the city, condemned, and, with their cargoes, were destroyed.1 Sincerely, however, did the Carolinians repent of this behavior which was unneighborly, lawless, and wholly un- justified by the circumstances of the case. True to the common cause of the colonies, Georgia, in this emergency, was not un- mindful of the equities of the moment, and did not, in a whirl- wind of passion, lose sight of her better judgment. Overawed by the popular uprising, Governor Bull did not pretend to stem the current, and Carolina achieved a comparatively easy victory. Georgia, on the contrary, prevailed in defiance of an executive who pertinaciously brought every influence and power to bear in behalf of the enactments of Parliament and in direct opposition to the will of the province.
It was at one time reported that the failure of Governor Wright to sustain the provisions of the Stamp Act within the limits of the colony had incurred royal displeasure, and that he was to be removed from office. Eventually, however, he was comforted with the assurance that his conduct was approved of by the king, and that there was "no thought of recalling or su-" perseding him." Perilous and perplexing was his situation. He acquitted himself like a brave man and a faithful servant of his royal master.
Then came the voice of the Great Commoner, speaking like one inspired : "I rejoice that America has resisted. . .. The gentleman asks when were the Colonies emancipated? I desire to know when they were made slaves? . . . In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush America to atoms. If any idea of renouncing allegiance has existed, it was but a momentary frenzy ; and if the case was either probable or possible, I should think of the Atlantic sea as less than a line dividing one country from another. The will of Parliament, properly signified, must forever keep the colonies dependent upon the sovereign kingdom of Great Britain. But on this ground of the Stamp Act, when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it. In such a cause your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would
1 Sco Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 48. Philadelphia. 1859.
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THE VOICE OF THE GREAT COMMONER.
fall like the strong man ; she would embrace the pillars of the state and pull down the constitution along with her.
" Is this your boasted peace ? Not to sheathe the sword in its scabbard but to sheathe it in the bowels of your brothers, the Americans ? Will you quarrel with yourselves now the whole house of Bourbon is united against you ? The Americans have not acted in ull things with prudence and temper. They have been driven to madness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you have occasioned ? Rather let prudence and temper come first from this side. I will undertake for America that she will follow the example.
"'Be to her faults a little blind ; Be to her virtues very kind.'
" Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the house what is really my opinion. It is that the Stamp Act be repealed, abso- lately, totally, and immediately ; that the reason for the repeal be assigned, because it was founded on an erroneous principle. At the same time let the sovereign authority of this country over the Colonies be asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every point of legislation that we may bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power whatsoever except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent."
The forensic battle waged fiercely in Parliament, and termi- nated at first unfavorably to the American colonies. Again was it renewed. Grenville moved the enforcement of the Stamp Act. " I shudder at the motion," cried the aged General Howard. "I hope it will not succeed, lest I should be ordered to execute it. Before I would imbrue my hands in the blood of my countrymen who are contending for English liberty, I would, if ordered, draw my sword, but sooner sheathe it in my own body." Benjamin Franklin, summoned to the bar of the House of Commons, de- clared that America could not pay the stamp tax for want of gold and silver, and for lack of post roads and the means of send- ing stamps back into the country. " Do you think the people of America would submit to pay the Stamp Duty if it was mod- erated ?" inquired Grenville. "No, never," responded Franklin. " They will never submit to it."
Hobbling into the house on crutches and swathed in flannels, Pitt again pronounced for repeal as due to the liberty of unrep- resented subjects who had supported England through three wars. The division came in the gray light of early dawn, and
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the roof of St. Stephen's rang with the shouts of the friends of American liberty. Two hundred and seventy-five voted for the repeal of the act, and one hundred and sixty-seven for softening and enforcing it. The joy of the American colonies was uni- versal and unbounded. . To Pitt, foremost statesman of England and the apostle of freedom, came a message from across the ocean : "To you grateful America attributes that she is reinstated in her former liberties. . . . America calls you over and over again her father. Live long in health, happiness, and honor. Be it late when you must cease to plead the cause of liberty on earthı."
Upon the official announcement in Savannah of the repeal of the Stamp Act, Governor Wright convened the General Assem- bly, and, when that body was organized on the 16th of July, 1766, addressed both houses thus: "I think myself happy that I have it in my power to congratulate you on this Province hav- ing no injuries or damages, either of a public or private nature, with respect to property to compensate, and that you, Gentlemen of the Assembly, have no votes or resolutions injurious to the honor of his Majesty's government, or tending to destroy the legal or constitutional dependency of the Colonies on the Im- perial Crown and Parliament of Great Britain to reconsider."
Upon submitting for the information of the assembly a tran- script of the statute repealing the Stamp Act, and a copy of the" act for securing the just dependency of the colonies on the mother country, he continued : " When you consider the papers I shall now lay before you, I am persuaded your hearts must be filled with the highest veneration and filial gratitude, with a most ar- dent zeal to declare and express your grateful feelings and ac- knowledgments, and to make a dutiful and proper return, and show a cheerful obedience to the laws and legislative authority of Great Britain."
To this address the representatives of a province, lately in prac- tical rebellion against the will of Parliament, mildly responded : " We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, beg leave to return your Excellency our sincere thanks for your affectionate speech. Hopeful as we were that no occasion would have of- fered of calling us together till the usual season of our meeting, yet it is with the highest pleasure and satisfaction, and with hearts overflowing with filial affection and gratitude to our most gracious Sovereign, that we embrace the opportunity now pre- sented to us of expressing our most dutiful acknowledgments to
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ADDRESS TO THE KING.
the best of Kings for his paternal and princely attention and re- gard manifested to his faithful subjects in these remote parts of his domimons in graciously condescending to lend his royal ear to their supplications and removing from them those evils they lamented. Nor can we sufficiently venerate and admire the magnanimity and justice of the British Parliament in so speedily redressing the grievances by them complained of.
" We cannot indeed but felicitato ourselves in that we have no injuries or damages either of a public or a private nature, nor any votes or resolutions derogatory to the honor of his Majesty's government or tending to destroy the true constitutional depen- dency of the Colonies on the Imperial Crown and Parliament of Great Britain to reconsider.
" We will immediately proceed to take into our most serious consideration the papers laid before us by your Excellency, and we shall upon all occasions be ready to testify our loyalty to our King and firm attachment to our Mother Country."
Rejoicing in their deliverance from the turmoils which had of late robbed the colony of its wonted repose, and happy in the thought that the province was no longer annoyed by the presence either of stamp papers or of distributing officers, both Houses, on the 221 of July, united in the following address to the king : - " Most gracious Sovereign.
" We your Majesty's loyal subjects, the Council and Commons of your Majesty's Province of Georgia in General Assembly met, beg leave to approach your Royal person with hearts full of the most dutiful affection and gratitude. Influenced by principle, and animated by your Majesty's exemplary justice and paternal caro in redressing the grievances of your faithful subjects in these remote parts of your wide extended Empire, with the deepest sense of your Majesty's royal clemency and goodness, we hum- bly offer to your most sacred Majesty our sincere thanks for the repeal of the late Act of the British Parliament commonly called the American Stamp Act. Nor can we sufficiently admire the magnanimity and justice displayed by the British Parliament on this occasion. Permit us, dread Sire, while we endeavor to ex- press our gratitude to the best of Kings for affording us so speedy and necessary relief, to assure your Majesty that we shall, upon all occasions, strive to evince our loyalty and firm attachment to your Majesty's sacred person and government, being truly sensi- ble of the advantages derived to us from the protection of our Mother Country ; and that it is and ever will be our honor, hap-
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
piness, and true interest to remain connected with and depen- dent on the Imperial Crown and Parliament of Great Britain upon the solid basis of the British Constitution. That your Majesty's illustrious House may continue to reign over a free, loyal, and grateful people to the latest posterity is, most gracious Sovereign, our constant prayer, unfeigned wish, and our most sanguine hope. " By order of the Upper House,
JAMES HABERSHAM, President.
By order of the Commons House of Assembly, A. WYLLY, Speaker."
Notwithstanding these protestations of loyalty and this proc- lamation of abiding devotion to the Crown and its fortunes, a new spirit of liberty was abroad in the land, and thoughts of .. political freedom already possessed the minds of the people. The sentiment that colonies, separated by a wide ocean from the mother country and united by kindred interests, possessed an inalienable right to fashion and sustain their own institutions without paying tribute to the home government, was fast devel- oping into a cherished principle. Less than ten years after- wards it was asserted with the "consenting thunders of so many cannon that even the lands across the Atlantic were shaken and filled with the long reverberation." The calm consequent upon the repeal of the obnoxious Stamp Act was only temporary. Sir James Wright did not fail to interpret the signs of the times :' for, in transmitting to Secretary Conway a copy of the foregoing address, so loyal and even subservient, he intimates that while many Georgians seemed just then to entertain a grateful sense of the " special grace and favours received," and appeared dis- posed to exhibit a dutiful acquiescence in and obedience to the legislative authority of Great Britain, there were nevertheless not a few who still retained "the late avowed sentiments and strange ideas of liberty," and insisted that no power save rep- resentatives of their own choosing could subject them to the payment of internal taxes.
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