The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-09
"THE MAKING OF GEORGIA.
HON. w. C. CHARLToN's ADDRESS
BEFORE THE COLONIAL DANES


Colony and the story of the colon
ization of the New COuntrS-Ihe
Naming of Savannah-A Picture OF
OglethOrpe's Settlement - The
Trials of the CoIOniSts-The span
ish and Indian Wars-The Georgia
of To-day.
Hon. Walter G. Charlton's lecture last
Tuesday night on THE Making of Gco'-
gia," under the auspices of the Georgia So
ciety of the Colonial Danes Of America
has been remarked upon by all who heard
1t as the literary treat of the season.
Not only In point of historical data upon
= subject interesting to every Georgian
and doubly so to every Savaunahan, dd
1t attract, but rhetorlcally it was an inter
esting sketch that will be read with pleas
ure. There have been many requests for Its
publication, those who heard IL desiring TO
read it, and those who did not, anxious to
peruse it for the first time The Morning
News herewith presents MI Charlton
lecture in full:
Ladies of the Georgia Society of the Co
lonial Danes of America: Ladies and
Gentlemen-''There is hardly any century
in history" wrote Bolingbroke. (which be
gan by opening so great a scene as the
century in which we live" Had he lived
20 its close he might have added. nor any
ended with such tremendous consequences
TO mankind. The vast empire which LOUIS
XIV had toiled so long to construct was
shattered by Marlborough al Blonheim IN
1704, and the revolution of the French
consummated In 1799 when Napoleon be
came the first consul, fixed forever IN the
popular mind the power and individuality
of the people 1t was the age of Freder-
tck the Great, of Charles of Sweden, of
Peter of Russia. 1t heard the death knoll
of the republic of Venice, and it presided
over the partition of Poland; and on every
bill top in America 1t saw the beacon fires
of freedom and democracy blaze in TIL
umph through the throbbing night 1t
was the age of Dryden and Of Pope OF
johnson and Goldsmith; of Addison and
Steele; of Fielding and Defoe; of Burke
and Pitt and Sheridan, and Fox and
Wilkes. Until it neared its end, it was
the Englishmans century, and wherever
civilization had set its mark his speech
was heard and his arms respected. 1t was
pre-eminently a century of action. There
was never a time when politics were more
bitter and scurrilous, and there was never
q time when literature was more polished
and urbane. Gay found Ii acceptable to his
audiences to caricature, in the "Beggar
Opera" the leaders of his day as high-
waymen, whilst Pope tickled the delicate
sensibilities of his readers with a rhapsody
on a lock of Belindas raven tresses This
was the century in which Georgia was
born. In that day colonization was ia
miliar expedient to the great powers of
Europe. There had been colonies military
and colonies mercantile; colonies predatory
and colonies penal; colonies for gain,
for power, for fame-but it
was reserved for the reign
of George the Second to formulate the
grandest theory of a colony which had
ever stirred the human heart or enthused
the human soul-a colony for charity.
Whence did the idea come? 1t may be
from the tortured conscience of some
Grub street phampleteer, who himself had
known the grinding agony of English pow
erty 1t may be that ii sprang from the
active brain of some polished wit sitting
at the cozy Preside of London club and
specializing on the ways and foibles and
distresses of man. Or still again, il may
be that across the sunny life which had
come to the English people with the glory
of their arms, fell the dark shadow of
that German emigration, toiling its slow
way through Europe, its ranks full of the
homeless and the poor, sanctfed by piety
and character and courage. 1t may be
this that caused the people of England,
moved to profound pity for those wan
dering Salzburgers, to turn toward the
sufferers in their own midst whose mis-
fortunes the law had made crimes and
who in noisome prisons and still
fouler companionship were wasting
their manhood and womanhood and
childhood in the agony of a perpetual
horror. We know ii was James Edward
Oglethorpe who, in 1923, moved in the par
lament a resolution of inquiry into the
condition of prisons with a view to the
relief of those who were imprisoned for
debt. BY whomsoever the note was struck
Il sent thrill throughout the length and
breadth of England. Politician and poet;
merchant and peer; king and peasant-it
sounded in all ears and quickened all
hearts. Whilst the political reason as
signed was the protection of the province
of Carolina, the fact remains that the i'm
mediate and noble object of the colonial
ton of Georgia is to be found in the
words of the charter, where it recites that
'T1is majesty baving taken into consid-
Grafton the miserable circumstances of
many of his own poor subjects, ready TO
perish for want, as likewise the distress
of many poor foreigners who would take
refuge here from persecution
. hath, out of his fatherly COM
passion towards his subjects, been
eraciously pleased to grant charter for
incorporating a number of gentlemen by
the name of The Trustees for establish
ing a colony of Georgia in America
Surely, much will be forgiven the Georges
because of the noble language of that
charter. Nor was the nobility of the SEN
timent which moved the trustees to ac-
cept the trust less apparent. AT their in
-tance 1t was declared that no trustee
should ever receive fee or perquisite or
reward, however arduous his labors might
be- They were to hold the lands "in trust
for the poor" and it was commanded
that throughout the extent of Georgia
there should always be liberty of con-
science to all who shall settle there"
On what would now be aug. 2 1872 the
Lord Viscount Percival (afterward Earl
Egmont qualified as president of the board
of trustees-each trustee as he quail
fed making a handsome donation to the
cause-and on Nov. Is of that year. the
good ship Anne 200 tons burthen, whereof
John Thomas was master. being 1870 per-
sons. sailed from the port of GraVesend a
modern Arso bearing in her fragile sides.
across the tempestuous seas, the Golden
Fleece of Georgias hopes and Georgia's
future. Arriving off the bar of Charles
ton. on the oath of January 1893. the
commissioner and his followers were re-
ceived with the Characteristic hospitality
of that historic town, and the Kings nj
lot having subsequently carried the Anne
into Port Royal, Oglethorpe departed for
what is now Georgia 10 select a site for
his first settlement and to treat with tbe