USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia: containing brief sketches of the most remarkable events, up to the present day, Vol. I > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
1
151
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1746.
turned to Frederica the 10th of July. Thus ended the unsuccessful expedition against Augustinc, to the great disappointment of Carolina and Geor- gia, and the extreme mortification of the general. Many illiberal reflections were thrown out against Oglethorpe for his conduct during the whole en- terprise ; scarcely one of his measures escaped the animadversions of those who felt an interest in the success of the undertaking: every silly babbler pointed out a plan, which if pursued, must have been successful ; when perhaps the truth was, that under all circumstances, there were but few generals, who could have conducted the enter- prise with more skill, than Oglethorpe. Ta- king into view that he had only four hundred regular troops ; that the remainder were undisci- plined militia and Indians ; that his enemy was secured by an impenetrable castle, finished in the highest order, well manned and provided ; it on- ly appears astonishing that he returned without a defeat, and the destruction of his army.
:
152
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
CHAPTER IV.
WHEN the general returned from Augus, tine, he was bitterly and cruelly attacked by newsmongers and pamphleteers, as will be seen by the dedication of a pamphlet printed in South- Carolina, of which the following is a copy : this pamphlet is probably from the pen of the " Plair: Dealer."
" To his excellency James Oglethorpe, Esq. gen- eral and commander in chief of his majesty's forces in South-Carolina and Georgia, and one of the honorable trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia in America, &c.
" May it please your Excellency,
" As the few surviving remains of the colony of Georgia, find it necessary to present the world, particularly Great-Britain, with a-true state of the province, from its first rise to its pre- sent period ; your excellency of all mankind, is best entitled to the dedication, as the principal author of its present strength and affluence, frec- dom and prosperity ; and though incontestible truths will recommend the following narrative to the patient and attentive reader; yet your name sir, will be no little ornament to the frontispiece, and may possibly engage some courteous perusers a little beyond it. That dedication and flattery are synonimous, is the complaint of every dedica- tor, who concludes himself ingenious and fortu .- nate, if he can discover a less trite and direct
1
-
HISTORY OF GEÓRGIA, 1740. 159
incthod of flattering than is usually practiced; but we are happily prevented from the least inten- tion of this kind, by the repeated offerings of the ' muses and news-writers to your excellency in the public papers ; it were presumptuous even to dream of equaling or increasing them : we there- fore flatter ourselves, that nothing we can advance will in the least shock your excellency's modes- ·ty ; nor nothing but your goodness will pardon any deficiency of elegance and politeness, on ac- count of your sincerity and the serious truths with which we have the honor to approach you.
" We have seen the ancient custom of send- ing forth colonies, for the improvement of any distant territory, or new acquisition, continued down to ourselves ; but to your excellency alone it is owing, that the world is made acquainted with a plan, highly refined from those of former projectors. They fondly imagined it necessary to communicate to such young settlements, the fullest right and properties, all the immunities of their mother countries, and privileges rather more extensive : by such means indeed, these colonies flourished with early trade and affluence : but your excellency's concern for our perpetual wel- fare, could never permit you to propose such tran- sitory advantages for us : you considered riches like a divine and a philosopher, as the irritamenta malorum, and knew that they were disposed to inflate weak minds with pride, to pamper the bo- dy with luxury, and introduce a long variety of
-
154
IHSTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740 .-
1
evils. Thus have you protected us from our selves, as Mr. Waller says, by keeping all earth- ly comforts from us : you have afforded us the opportunity of arriving at the integrity of the . primitive times, by entailing a more than primi- tive poverty upon us The toil that is necessary to our bare subsistence, must effectually defend us from the anxieties of any further ambition : as we have no properties to feed vain glory ard beget contention ; so we are not puzzled with any system of laws, to ascertain and establish them : the valuable virtue of humanity is secur- ed to us by your care to prevent our procuring, * or so much as seeing any negroes, (the only hu- man creature proper to improve our soil) lest our. simplicity might mistake the poor Africans for greater slaves than ourselves : and that we might fully receive the spiritual benefit of those whole- some austerities, you have wisely denied us the use of those spirituous liquors, which might in the least divert our minds from the contemplation of our happy circumstances.
- " Our subject swells upon us ; and did we al- low ourselves to indulge the inclination, without considering our weak abilities, we should be tempted to launch out into many of your excel- lency's extraordinary endowments, which do not so much regard the affair on hand : but as this would lead us beyond the bounds of the dedica- tion, so would it engross a subject too extensive for us, to the prejudice of other authors and pan,
,
155
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
egyrists ; we shall therefore confine ourselves to that remarkable scene of your conduct, whereby Great-Britain in general, and the settlers of Geor- gia in particular, are laid under such inexpress- " ible obligations.
" Be pleased then, great sir, to accompany our heated imaginations, in taking a view of this colo- ny of Georgia ! this child of your auspicious politics ! arrived at the utmost vigour of its con- stitution, at a term when most former states have been struggling through the convulsions of their infancy. . This early maturity however, les- sens our admiration, that your excellency lives to see (what few founders ever aspired after) the , great decline and almost final termination of it. So many have finished their course during the progress of the experiment, and such numbers have retreated from the phantoms of poverty and slavery, which their cowardly imaginations pic- tured to them, that you may justly vaunt with the boldest hero of them all ----
.
Like Death you reign,
* O'er silent subjects and a desert plain.
BUSIRIS.
" Yet must your enemies (if you have any) be reduced to confess, that no ordinary statesman could have digested in the like manner, so capa- cious a scheme, such a copious jumble of power and politics. We shall content ourselves with
· 156
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
observing, that all those beauteous models of go. vernment, which the little states of Germany ex- ercise, and those extensive liberties which the boors of Poland enjoy, were designed to concentre in your system, and were we to regard the modes of government, we must have been strangely un- lucky to have missed of the best, where there was the appearance of so great a variety ; for under the influence of our perpetual dictator, we have seen something like aristocracy, oligarchy, as well as the triumvirate, decemvirate, and consu- lar authority of famous republics, which have expired many ages before us : what wonder then that we share the same fate ! do their towns and villages exist but in story and rubbish ? we are all over ruins; our public works, forts, wells, high-ways, light-houses, store, water-mills, &c. are dignified like theirs with the same venerable desolation. The log-houses indeed, are like to be the last forsaken spots of your empire ; yet even these, though the death or desertion of those would continue to inhabit them, must suddenly decay ; the bankrupt jailor himself shall be soon denied the privilege of human conversation ; and when this last monument of the spell expires, the whole shall vanish like an illusion of some eastern ma- gician. .
"But let not this solitary prospect impress your excellency with any fears of having your servi- ces to mankind, and to the settlers of Georgia in particular, buried in oblivion ; for if we diminu-
157
. HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
tive authors, are allowed to prophesy, (as you know poets in those cases formerly did) we may confidently presage, that while the memoirs of America continue to be read in English, Spanish, or `the language of the Scots highlanders, your excellency's exploits and epocha, will be transmit- ted to posterity.
" Should your excellency apprehend the least tincture of flattery in any thing already hinted, we may sincerely assure you, we intend nothing that our sentiments did not very strictly attribute to your merit ; and in such sentiments we have the satisfaction of being fortified by all persons of im- partiality and descernment.
" But to trespass no longer on those minutes which your excellency may suppose more signi- ficantly employed on the sequel ; let it suffice at present to assure you, that we are deeply affect- ed with your favors; and though unable of our- selves, properly to acknowledge them, we shall embrace every opportunity of recommending you to higher powers, who (we are hopeful) will re- ward your excellency according to your merits.
May it please your excellency, &c." " The land-holders in Georgia."
This dedication, compared with the pamphlet, was almost gentle in its censures, and but lim- ped at the heels of the authors observations. "The general was alternately charged with cowardice, despotism, cruelty and bribery. The pamphlet
.
-
-
158
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
is filled with ill-natured invective, without any r -. gard to good manners or common civility. Ti .: author was said to be a man of but little proper :: and bad reputation, soured in his temper bo. cause he was not humored in an alteration (} the constitution, or granted exclusive privilege, to the subversion of the objects of the trustees in their plan of settling the new colony, before their experiment could be fully tried. It was sta- ted that he departed from the colony to escape a trial, which was pending against him for sedi- tious and rebellious practices, and that he had been turbulent and restless at an early period ; that he was a man whose daily employment had been for some time, to misrepresent the public measures, to disperse scandal, and excite rebel. lion ; that he had industriously propagated every murmur of discontent, and preserved every whis- per of malevolence from perishing in the birth. His designs seem to have been chiefly directed to the obstruction of population in the colony, un- til the trustees should be forced by its dwindling into weakness and insignificance, to gratify the peoples eagerness for spirituous liquors and slaves. and by these means to indulge to the extent of their wishes in idleness and dissipation. Ogle- thorpe may without flattery or falshood, be justly termed the Romulus, father and founder of Geor- - gia : without any views to his own interest, his efforts seem to have been directed to the enlarge- ment of the dominions of his country, the props.
Řeý
159
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
mation of the protestant religion and providing for the wants and necessities of the indigent : he bad voluntarily banished himself from the plea- sures of a court, and exposed himself to the dan- gers of a vast atlantic ocean, in several perilous and tedious voyages. Instead of allowing him- self the satisfaction which a plentiful fortune, powerful friends, and great merit entitled him to in England, he had inured himself to hardships and exposures in common with the poor settlers ; bis food, boiled rice, mouldy bread, salt beef and pork ; his bed the damp ground, and his covering the canopy of heaven. When his conduct in war was fairly tested, it corresponded with his in- tegrity in other stations, public and private.
The reverend George Whitefield, who mer- its particular notice in the history of Georgia, arrived at Savannah in May, 1738. This cele- brated field preacher, and founder of the sect of Calvanistic Methodists, was born in 1714, in Gloucester, England., At twelve years of age he was put to a grammar school, and at sixteen he was admitted servitor in Pembroke college, Oxford, where he distinguished himself by the austerities of his devotion. At the age of twen- ty-one, the fame of his piety recommended him so effectually to Dr. Benson, bishop of Glouces- ter, that he ordained him. Immediately after Mr. Whitefield's admission into the ministry, ho applied himself with the most extraordinary and indefatigable zeal and industry to the duties of
-
.
.
160
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740:
his character, preaching daily in the prisons, fields and open streets, wherever he thought there would be a likelihood of making religious im- pressions. Having at length made himself uni- versally known in England, he applied to the trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia, for a grant of a tract of land near Savannah, with the benevolent intention of building an orphan house, which was designed as an asylum for poor children, who were to be clothed and fed by cha- ritable contributions, and educated in the knowl. edge and practice of christianity. Actuated by the strongest motives for the propagation of reli- gion, this itinerant several times crossed the at- lantic ocean to convert the Americans, whom he addressed in such manner as if they had been all equally strangers to the privileges and bene- fits of religion, with the aborigines of the forest : however, his zeal never led him beyond the mar- itime parts of America, through which he travel- led, spreading the evangelical tenets of his faith amongst the most populous towns and villages. One would have imagined that the heathens would have been the primary objects of his reli- gious compassion ; but this was not the case : wherever he went in America, as in Britain, hc had multitudes of followers. When he first vis- ited Charleston, Alexander Garden, a man of great erudition, who was an episcopal clergy- man in that place, took occasion to point out to them the pernicious tendency of Whitefield's
-
-
1
161
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
wild doctrines and irregular manner of life. He represented him as a religious imposter or quack, who had an excellent knack of setting off, dis- guising and rendering palatable his poisonous tenets : on the other hand, Mr. Whitefield, who had been accustomed to stand reproach and facc opposition, recriminated with double acrimony and greater success : while Alexander Garden, to keep his flock from straying after this strange pastor, expatiated on these words of scripture ; " those that have turned the world upside down " are come hither also." Mr. Whitefield with all the force of comic humor and wit, for which he was so much distinguished : by way of reply enlarged upon these words ; " Alexander the " copper-smith hath done me much evil, the " Lord reward him according to his works." The pulpit was perverted into the purposes of spite and malevolence, and their followers catch- ing the infection, spoke of the clergymen as they were differently affected.
Mr. Whitefield commenced the building of his orphan house in Georgia, in 1740, on a sandy bluff, near the sea shore, on a tract of land granted to him for the purpose by the trustees ; the house was built of wood seventy feet by for- ty. To this house poor children were sent, to be supported partly by charity, and partly by the products of the land cultivated by negroes.
Mr. Whitefield calculated on the healthiness of the place, from its similarity of situation to that
T
1
162
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
of Frederica : having formed the project, he de- termined to persevere, and prided himself in sur- mounting every obstacle and difficulty : he trav- elled through the British empire, making im- pressions of the excellence of his design, and obtained from charitable people, money, clothes, and books, to forward his undertaking and sup- ply his poor orphans in Georgia. The house was finished and furnished with an excellent li- brary, but the institution never flourished to the extent of his expectations and wishes, though a great sum of money was expended in bringing it to maturity, owing most probably to the un- healthiness of the situation. The number of children educated at it are not known, but the gen- eral opinion is, that it did not produce many or- naments for the pulpit. About thirty years af- ter the house was finished, it was burned; some say it was occasioned by a foul chimney, and others by a flash of lightning ; but whatever was the cause, it burned with such violence that little of either furniture or library, escaped the devour- ing flames. Happy was it for the zealous foun- der of this institution, that he did not survive the ruins of a fabric on which his heart was fixed, · and to the completion of which, he had devoted so much time and labor.
The talents of Mr. Whitefield were extraordi- nary, and beyond any opinion which can be en- tertained of an itinerant preacher. His influence and weight at that day, certainly made him ons
1
163
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
of the most useful men in America. He had many friends and admirers amongst the men of the first influence and respectability, and follow- ers from all classes; he was so popular in preach- ing, that his churches or places of religious resort, were crowded some time before he ap- peared, and that to a degree unknown since the apostolic times, or the days of the anabaptists in Germany. It was observed by some of those who attended his service, that when he preached in a church, a line was extended outwards, there being no room to go in ; and at the door, pious persons were soliciting for leave " only to see his blessed face," though they could hear him .- Such was the respect, enthusiasm and regard he had inspired, to those devoted to religion, owing to his sincerity, faith, zeal, truly great and extra- ordinary talents. It is related of the accomplish- ed and celebrated lord Chesterfield, that he ob-
· served, " Mr. Whitefield is the greatest orator " I have ever heard, and I cannot conceive of a " greater." His writings are said to give no idea of his oratorical powers: his person, his delivery, his boldness, his zeal and sincere pur- suit in the propagation of the gospel of his Lord and Master, made him a truly wonderful man in the pulpit, whilst his printed sermons give but a skeleton of the equal of many men who have served religion, since the days of the primitive christians. It is not an easy task to delineate his character, without an uncommon mixture, and a vast varie-
-
164
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
ty of colours. He was in the British empire, not unlike one of those strange and erratic me. teors which appear now and then in the system of nature. He often lamented that in his youth he was gay and giddy ; so fondly attached to the stage, that he frequently recited difficult pieces while he was at school, with such great applause, that Garrick observed, the stage had lost an or- nament. Then he probably acquired those ges- tures, added to his powers of eloquence, which he practiced under his clerical robes with great success and advantage upon the feelings of his hearers.
After receiving his ordination in the church of England, he refused submission to the regu- lations either of that or any other particular church, but became a preacher in churches, meeting-houses, halls, fields, in all places and to all denominations, without exception. Though he was not distinguished for his learning, he pos- sessed a lively imagination, much humor, and
had acquired a great knowledge of human na- ture, and the manners of the world. He possess- cd a great share of humanity and benevolence, but frequently displayed an excessive warmth of temper when roused by opposition and contra- diction. His reading was inconsiderable, but he had an extraordinary memory, and mankind be- ing one of the great objects of his study, he could, when he pleased, raise the passions and call forth the tones of the human heart with ad-
4
---
165
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
mirable skill and fervor. By his affecting elo- quence and address, he impressed on the minds of many, especially of the more soft and delicate sex, such a strong sense of sin and guilt, as of- ten plunged them into dejection and despair. As his custom was to frequent those large cities and towns which are commonly best supplied with the means of instruction, it would to some ap- pear, that the love of fame and popular applause was one of his leading passions ; but he always discovered a warm zeal for the honor of God and the happiness of mankind. Whilst he was al- most worshipped by the lower order, men of su- perior rank and erudition, found him the polite gentleman, and the facetious and jocular compan- ion. Though he loved good cheer, and frequent- ed the houses of the rich and hospitable, yet he was an enemy to all manner of excess and intem- perance. While his disposition to travel led him from place to place; his natural discernment enabled him to form correct opinions of the char- acters and manners of men, where ever he went. Though he gave a preference to no particular esta- blished church, yet good policy winked at all his ec. centricities, as he every where supported the char- acter of a steady friend to civil government. He had a great talent for exciting the curiosity of the multitude, and his roving manner stamped a kind of novelty on his instructions. When exposed to the taunts of the irreligious scoffer, and the ·ridicule of the flagitious, he remained firm to his
-----
---
455418
166
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
purpose, and could retort those weapons with as- tonishing ease and dexterity, and render vice abashed under the lash of his satire and wit. To habitual sinners his address was generally appli- cable and powerful, and with equal ease could alarm the secure and confirm the unsteady .- Though in prayer he commonly. addressed the second person of the trinity in a familiar style, and in his sermons was eccentric in his composi- tion, and expatiated on the occurrences of his own life .; yet these seemed only shades to set off to greater advantage the lustre of his good quali- ties. In short, though he was said to have had many oddities, yet few will undertake to deny that religion in America, was greatly indebted to the zeal, diligence, and oratory of this extraor- dinary man. After a long course of peregrina- tion, his fortune increased as his fame extended among his followers, and he erected two very extensive buildings for public worship in Eng- land, under the name of tabernacles ; one in Tot- tenham court road, and the other at Moorfields ; where by the help of some assistants, he contin- ued several years, attended by very crowded con- gregations. By being chaplain to the countess Dowager of Huntingdon, he was also connected with two other religious meetings, one at Bath and the other at Tunbridge, chiefly erected under that virtuous lady's patronage. ' By a lively, fer- tile and penetrating genius, by the most unwea- ried zeal, and by a forcible and persuasive deliv.
دى تحلى
167
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740.
ery, he never failed of the desired effect upon his crowded and admiring audiences. In Ameri- ca, which had engaged much of his attention, he- was destined to close his eyes. He died at New- bury-Port, thirty miles from Boston, in 1770. When the report of his decease reached the le- gislature of Georgia, honorable mention was made of him, and a sum of money appropriated with a unanimous voice for bringing his remains to Georgia, to be interred at his orphan house ; but the inhabitants at Newbury-Port being much attached to him when living, objected to the re- moval of his body, and the design was relinquish- ed.
In a letter from Dr. Franklin to Dr. Jones, . mentioning Mr. Whitefield, he says " I cannot forbear expressing the pleasure it gives me, to see an account of the respect paid to his memo- ry by your assembly : I knew him intimately upwards of thirty years ; his integrity, disinter- estedness and indefatigable zeal, in prosecuting every good work, I have never seen equalled, I shall never see excelled." In delineating the character of this amiable man, I have dwelt with enthusiastic delight, because the tenor of his whole life corresponded with the principles he professed.
The orphan house was built under the direc- tion of Mr. James Habersham, who had the in- tire management of the funds, and appears to have taken a warm interest in the success of Mr ..
-
1
1
P
168
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1740."
Whitefield's laudable institution. When the house was put in a condition for the reception of orphan children, Mr. Habersham was appoint- ed president, and was furnished with the neces- sary teachers, servants, books, and other necessa- ries for the use of the school and the cultivation of the land. In a letter from this gentleman to Governor Belcher of Massachusetts, he says, " surely the Lord intends to bring forth much good out of this establishment : the lands produced a better crop this year, than we had a right to ex- , pect, and indeed God seems pleased to smile up- on all our efforts by the appearance of their pros- perity : our family now consists of eighty-four persons, men, women and children, besides nine- teen servants, and five in the infirmary : the lat- ter have a doctor and a nurse to attend them. I have now fifty-eight children under my care, who are orphans and objects of charity ; nine- teen of them are from Carolina, and the remain- der of this province : surely God has many bles- sings in store for our reverend friend Mr. White- field."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.