Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-01-02
rARIv HISTORY OF GEORGIA.

centennial COl0nllIee, lu6 lOllONAH5 M
teresting extracts from the contributions
to the early history of the State by the late
Charles Wallace Howard have been fur
nished for publication by his daughter,
Mrs. Horny Bryan, of Walker county,
and will be read with interest:
EARLY HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
1T is possible that the recentness of
events connected with the establishment
of Georgia NAV have exerted an influence
in creating this surprising apathy in re-
gard to them. AS after startling explo-
sion, there is an interval before the echo
is heard. so striking occurrences, as 1t
were. sink into temporary Oblivion and are
recalled and rightly estimated only after
a lapse of years. History seems to invert
our accustomed rules, rendering the eye
more clear as it recedes from the object OF
vision. determining the nature, Importance
and moral character of acts by the devel-
ment of their consequences. and by the
removal by time of those impediments to
just judgment which grew out OF the
then existing influences.
'sIt is not vet a century and half since
the first feeble settlement was made in
Georgia. Sufficient time has scarcely
elapsed to enable us fully to appreciate
its Importance. Yet, even during this
short historic interval, events have been
sufficiently shaped and consequences suf-
ficiently developed to give the establish
ment of Georgia precedence in dignity to
other events to which we have been ac-
customed to attach a grave Importance.
II am not insensible to the herOism Of
the Puritans. | give full credit to the
early virtues of New England character,
however I may deplOre its recent declen-
sion. Yet, viewed as development of
Christian benevOlence, as an enterprise in
which no selfish or personal motives
mingled. and in reference to the extent
and magnitude of its ultimate cOnse-
quences to mankind; ] consider the land
ing OF the first emigFdHtS at Savannah as
an event of higher importance than the
landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Ply
mouth. BY some, from an immemorlal
custom of thought, these remarks Will be
considered as almost irreverent; by others,
it may be regarded as an eXaggeratiOn.
1t is neither irreverence nor eXaggeratiOn,
but truth. New England has been set
tied more than two hundred years, and
now if every ship which sails from New
England ports should be sunk in tenn
pest to the bottom of the sea--if the wheels
of their factories should stand still-if
their harvests should suddenly fail, the
jewellers in other and remote portions Of
Christendom would read the sad and start
ling account as we read of a city and its
environs submerged by flood, engulfed
by an earthquake or overwhelmed by vol
tanic fires, and, when the mOmentary eX-
clamatiOn was uttered, they would pass
on in comparative uncOnceIn to their ac-
custOmed avOcatiOn.
- But let the cotton crop utterly fail for
two consecutive years (and this crop is
chiefly produced upon the soil granted TO
Oglethorpe, Alabama and Mississippi
having both been parts of GeOrgla) and
Europe would be cOnyulsed, the British
throne would be shaken to its foundation,
aid the wretched poor, destitute OF EN-
ployment and clamOrous for bread, would
be ripe for rapine and revolution. Com
merce-the commerce of the wOrld-would
feel the disaster in the most distant drop
which circulates in its arteries.
GAS the plan for the colony of Georgia
matured it became necessary that it should
be placed in the hands of corporate body,
and accordingly board of trustees was
appointed by the Crown. All of these
trustees were men Of high social position
and great worth, some Of them among the
most distinguished persons of the realm.
Among them, besides OglethOrpe, were
Viscount Percival, Baron Digby, Lord
Carpenter, James Vernon, the philanthro.
pist Coram, the Earl of Derby, the Earl Of
Shaftesbury, Lords TyrcOnnel, Limmer-
ick, DARCY and Talbot, Earl Bathurst
and Earl of EgmOnt. the Archbishop of
Dublin, the naturalist HAYES, the learned
DR.. Barton and Sir Jacob de BOuverie-
the last mentioned of whom gave to the
colony 81, 900 or $4,000.
''The position assumed by these eminent
persons and their cOadjutors was not one
of mere form, or honorary distinction. 1t
involved grave, onerOus and responsible
duties. In addition to the ordinary off,
ces of their trust, they voluntarily offered
to take charge of the solicitation of funds
for the successful accomplishment of their
design. At their own request these trus-
tees were prevented by legal enactment
from deriving any pecunlary emolument
from their connection with the colony.
The charter provides (and especial atten-
ton is requested to this remarkable pro-
vision of remarkable charter) that no
President Ofthe said corporation, or Chair
man of the Council of the said corporation,
or member of the said council or corpora
ton shall have, take or receive, directly
or indirectly, any salary, fee, perquisite,
benefit orp oft whatever, for or by reason
of his or their serving the said corpora
ton.
1.-The labors of these gentlemen were,
therefore, wholly disinterested. Well has
the historian Hewatt said of them: The
benevolent founders of the colony of
Georgia perhaps may challenge the an
nails of any nation to produce design
more generous and praisewOrthy than that
they had undertaken. They voluntarily
offered their money, their labor and time
for promoting what appeared to them the
good of others, having themselves nothing
for reward but the ineXpressible satlsfac-
ton arising from virtuOus actions
can enterprise so purely benevolent
could not be overlooked by the Christian
church. The venerable Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts gave to it valuable pecuniary aid.
More than one hundred clergymen and
churches received at their own request
commissions to take up collections tor
carving out so philanthrOpic design,
and the Archbishop of Canterbury, bish-
ops, archdeacons, deans, chapters, besides
collegiate and parOchial clergy, gave lib
erallV. and some munificently, to the funds
of the trustees.
.'NOr were funds alone contributed by
these men of God. Some of them gave
their time and labor and personal service
in the colony itself Seldom, if ever, has
it occurred that, in a population
so small, in a period OF time so
limited, in a province so remote and dill
cult of access, there should be c0ncen-
tratiOn of ministers of such marked ability,
renOwn as those who per-
aided in the settlement of Georgia.
Among them were the Episcopal divine,
DIR. Herbert, the Presbyterian Mcleod,
the German pastors ROlzuis and Gronan,
the pious Moravian Bishops Spangen-
burg, Nitchsman and Behler, and
the founders of Methodism, the
Wesleys and George Withheld
Wesley considers this widespread de-
IF hric fO
menced its first period of existence when
four Young men met in his room at Ok
ford. in England. Its second period,
when three of these four afterwards met
and labored together in Georgia. John
Wesley attributes his conversion to the
Moravian pastor, BoehleT, with whom he
was brought into association through
their mutual connection with the Georgia
colony The early history of the State
must therefore be viewed with profound
interest bv that vast body of Christians
as having 'incidently given direction, not
only to their theology, but an emlnently
favorable coloring to the spiritual cast of
their piety.
'sWith the facts before us, easy of access
to all, concerning the prominent person
ages in the early history of Georgia. is 1t
not surprising that so much indifference
should prevail among Georglans in ref
erence to them. There are educated men
among us who have scarcely heard the
name of Viscount Percival, that noble
gentleman who for so many years gave
his time, and used his pen, and lavished
his money for the benefit of Georgia.
There are educated women among us who
scarcely know the name of the Countess
of Huntington. Yet the Orphan House
near Savannah was nurtured chiefly by
her bounty"
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