July 26, 2025 • 21 mins
Dive into the remarkable life of George Washington, as depicted by his equally impressive biographer, Marshall. Influenced by the greatness of Washington himself, Marshall evolved into a figure of similar stature. Over a period of nearly 25 years, Marshall dedicated his deepest thoughts to capturing Washingtons life and accomplishments. Thanks to his intimate understanding of his subject, first-hand knowledge of events, and exceptional writing skills, Marshall has given us a true masterpiece.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter nine of the Life of Washington, Volume one by
John Marshall. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Chapter nine War with the Seven Indians, Dissatisfaction of Carolina
with the proprietors, Rupture with Spain, combination to subvert the
(00:22):
proprietary government. Revolution completed, expedition from the Havannah against Charleston.
Peace with Spain. The proprietors surrendered their interest to the Crown.
The province divided. Georgia settled impoliticy of the first regulations,
Intrigues of the Spaniards with the Slaves of South Carolina,
(00:45):
Insurrection of the Slaves seventeen fifteen. In Carolina, the contest
between the inhabitants and the proprietors added to the favor
with which the Queen heard. The complaints of the dissenters
had turned the tension of the people towards the crown
and produced a strong desire to substitute the regal for
(01:06):
the proprietary government. This desire was increased by an event
which demonstrated the incompetency of their government. War with the Indians.
The Yamassees, a powerful tribe of Indians on the northeast
of the Savannah, instigated by the Spaniards at Saint Augustine
secretly prepared a general combination of all the southern Indians
(01:28):
against the province. Having massacred the traders settled among them,
they advanced in great force against the southern frontier, spreading
desolation and slaughter on their route. The inhabitants were driven
into Charleston, and Governor Craven proclaimed martial law. He also
obtained an active assembly, empowering him to impress men to
(01:49):
seize arms, ammunition, and stores, to arm such negroes as
could be trusted, and generally to prosecute the war with
the utmost vigor. Agents were sent to Virginia and to
England to solicit assistance, and bills were issued for the
payment and subsistence of the army. At the same time,
the Indians entered the northern part of the province and
were within fifty miles of the capital. Thus surrounded by enemies,
(02:13):
the governor took the course which was suggested equally by
courage and by prudence, leaving the less active part of
the population to find security in the forts at Charleston.
He marched with the militia towards the southern frontier, which
was invaded by the strongest body of Indians, and at
a place called Salt Catchers attacked and totally defeated them.
(02:34):
The victors pursued them into their own country, expelled them
from it, and drove them over the Savannah River. The
fugitives found protection in Florida, where they made a new settlement,
from which they continued long afterwards to make distressing incursions
into Carolina. The agent who had been sent by the
legislature to England to implore the protection of the proprietors,
(02:55):
had received ulterior instructions should he not succeed with them,
to apply directly to the King. Being dissatisfied with his
reception by the proprietors, he petitioned the House of Commons,
who addressed the King praying his interposition and immediate assistance
to the colony. The King referred the matter to the
Lord's Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, whose report was unfavorable
(03:19):
to the application. Because the province of Carolina was a
proprietary government, they were of opinion that if the colony
was to be protected at the expense of the nation,
his government ought to be vested in the Crown. On
receiving this opinion, proprietors and at general meeting about their
inability to protect the province, and declared that unless His
Majesty would graciously please to interpose, they could foresee nothing
(03:43):
but the utter destruction of his faithful subjects in those parts.
A government unable to afford protection to the people was
ill adapted to the situation of Carolina. The dissatisfaction growing
out of this cause was still further augmented by the
unpopular and in some minsas instance, his unwise acts of
the proprietors. To relieve the distress produced by war, considerable
(04:05):
sums of paper money had been issued, and the proprietors,
on that complaint of the merchants of London engaged in
the trade of the province, had given instructions to reduce
the quantity. In circulation. Seventeen fifteen to seventeen seventeen, the
Assembly had appropriated the country of the Amesses to the
use of such of His Majesty's European subjects as would
(04:28):
settle it. Extracts from the Law on the subject being
published in England and in Ireland, five hundred men from
the latter Kingdom emigrated to Carolina. The proprietors repealed this law, and,
to the utter ruin of the emigrants, as well as
to the destruction of this barrier against the savages, ordered
the lands to be surveyed and erected into baronies for themselves.
(04:51):
While the population was confined to the neighborhood of Charleston.
All the members of the assembly had been elected at
that place. As the settlements extended, this practice became inconvenient,
and an act was passed declaring that every parish should
choose a certain number of representatives, and that the elections
should be held in each at the parish church. As
(05:12):
if to destroy themselves in the province, the proprietors repealed
this popular law. Also, heavy expenses being still incurred for
defense against the inroads of the Southern Indians. The people
complained loudly of the insufficiency of that government, which enable
itself to protect them, prevented the interposition of the crown
in their favor. In this temper, Governor Johnson, son of
(05:35):
the former governor of that name, found the province. He
met the assembly with a conciliatory speech, and received an
answer expressing great satisfaction at his appointment. His original popularity
was increased by the courage he displayed in two expeditions
against a formidable band of pirates we had long infested
the coast, which he entirely extirpated seventeen seventeen. These expeditions
(06:01):
occasions still farther emissions of paper money. The Governor, being
instructed to diminish its quantity, had influenced enough with the
Assembly to obtain an Act for redeeming the bills of
credit in three years by attacks on lands and negroes,
this tax falling heavily on the planters, they sought to
elude it by obtaining an Act for a further emission
(06:23):
of bills. The proprietors, being informed of this design, and
also of an intention to make the produce of the
country a tender in payment of all debts at a
fixed value, in joined the Governor not to give his
assent to any bill until it should be laid before them.
About the same time, the King, by an order in Council,
signified his desire to the proprietors that they would repeal
(06:46):
an act passed in Carolina for imposing a duty of
ten per sentence on all goods of British manufacture imported
into the province. The repeal of this act and of
one declaring the right of the Assembly to name a
resus fever of the public money and of the election
law were transmitted to the Governor in a letter directing
(07:06):
him to dissolve the Assembly and to hold a new
election at Charleston. According to ancient usage seventeen eighteen. The
Assembly being employed in devising means of raising revenue, their
dissolution was deferred, but the repeal of the law imposing
duties and the royal displeasure at the clause laying a
duty on British manufactures were immediately communicated with a recommendation
(07:30):
to pass another act omitting that clause. Meanwhile, the Governor's
instructions were divulged. They excited great irritation and produced a
warm debate on the right of the proprietors to repeal
a law enacted with the consent of their deputy in
the province. About this time, Chief Justice Trott, who had
become extremely unpopular in the colony, was charged with many
(07:53):
iniquitous proceedings, and the Governor, the major part of the
Council and the Assembly united in a memorial representing his
malpractices to the proprietors seventeen nineteen. Mister Young was deputed
their agent to enforce these complaints. Soon after his arrival
in London, he presented a memorial to the proprietors detailing
(08:15):
the proceedings of Carolina and stating the objections of the
Assembly to the right of their lordships to repeal laws
which have been approved by their deputies. This memorial was
very unfavorably received, and the members of the Council who
had subscribed it were displaced. The proprietors asserted their right
to repeal all laws passed in the province, approved the
(08:36):
conduct of the Chief Justice, censured that of the Governor
in disobeying their instructions respecting the dissolution of the Assembly,
and repeated their orders on this subject. However the governor
might disapprove the instructions given him, he did not hesitate
to obey them. The new council was summoned, the Assembly
was dissolved, and writs were issued for electing another at Charleston.
(09:00):
The public mind had been gradually prepared for a revolution,
and these irritating measures completed the disgust with which the
people viewed the government of the proprietors. An opportunity to
make the change so generally desired was soon afforded or
with Spain, a rupture having taken place between Great Britain
and Spain, advice was received from England of a plan
(09:22):
formed in the Havana for the invasion of Carolina. The
governor convened the Council and such members of the Assembly
as were in town, and laid his intelligence before them.
He at the same time stated the ruinous condition of
the fortifications, and proposed that some for repairing them should
be raised by voluntary subscription, of which he set the
(09:43):
example by a liberal donation. The Assembly declared a subscription
to be unnecessary, as the duties would afford an ample
fund for the object. The repeal of the law imposing
them was said to be utterly void and would be disregarded.
Combination to subvert the government, The members of the new Assembly,
(10:04):
though they had not been regularly convened at Charleston, had
held several private meetings in the country to concert measures
of future resistance. They had drawn up an association for
uniting the whole province in opposition to the proprietary government.
Which was proposed to the militia at their public meetings,
and subscribed almost unanimously. This confederacy was formed with such
(10:29):
secrecy and dispatch that before the government was informed of it,
almost every inhabitant of the province was engaged in it.
The members of the Assembly, thus, supported by the people,
resolved to subvert the power of the proprietors. The governor,
who resided in the country, had no intimation of these
secret meetings and transactions until he received a letter from
(10:50):
a committee of the representatives of the people offering him
the government of the province under the King. It having
been determined to submit no longer to that of the proprietors,
mister Johnson resolved to suppress the spirit of revolte, and
hastened to town in order to lay the letter before his council.
They advised him to take no notice of it until
(11:10):
the legislature should be regularly convened. A meeting. The Assembly
declared that the laws pretended to be repealed continued to
be in force, and that no power other than that
General Assembly could repeal them. That the writs under which
they were elected were void inasmuch as they had been
issued by advice of an unconstitutional council, that the representatives
(11:33):
cannot therefore act as an assembly, but as a convention
delegated by the people to prevent the utter ruin of
the government. And lastly, that the lords proprietors had unhinged
the frame of the government and forfeited their right there too,
and that an address be prepared to desire the Honorable
Robert Johnson, the present Governor, to take on himself the
(11:54):
government of the province and the name of the King.
The address was signed by Arthur Middleton as President of
the Convention and by twenty two members. After several unabeiling
efforts on the part of the Assembly to induce mister
Johnson to accept the government under the King, and on
his part to reinstate the government of the proprietors, he
issued a proclamation dissolving the assembly and retired into the country.
(12:17):
The proclamation was torn from the hands of the officer,
and the assembly elected Colonel James Moore, chief Magistrate of
the colony. Revolution completed. After proclaiming him in the name
of the King and electing a council. The legislature published
a declaration stating the revolution that had taken place with
the causes which produced it, and then proceeded deliberately to
(12:39):
manage the affairs of the province. While Carolina was effecting
this revolution, the agent of the colony obtained a hearing
before the lords of the Regency and Council in England,
the King being then in Hanover, who were of opinion
that the proprietors had forfeited their charter. They ordered the
Attorney General to take out us Stira Bastius against it,
(13:02):
and appointed Francis Nicholson provisional governor of the province under
the King. He was received with universal joy, and the
people of Carolina passed with great satisfaction from the proprietary
government to the immediate dominion of the Crown. The proprietors
surrendered to the Crown. This revolution was completed by an
agreement between the Crown and seven of the proprietors, whereby
(13:25):
for the sum of seventeen thousy five hundred pounds sterling,
they surrendered their right and interest both in the government
and soil. This agreement was confirmed by an Act of Parliament,
soon after which John Lord Caterat, the remaining proprietor, also
surrendered all his interests in the government, but retained his
rights of property. Seventeen twenty one, Carolina received with joy
(13:48):
the same form of government which had been bestowed on
assister colonies. The people, pleased with their situation and secure
of protection, turned their attention to domestic and agriculture or pursuits,
and the face of the country soon evidenced the happy
effects which result from contented industry directed by those who
are to receive its fruits. Seventeen thirty two, the province
(14:12):
divided for the convenience of the inhabitants. The province was divided,
and was thenceforward distinguished by the names of North and
South Carolina. About this period, the settlement of a new
colony was planned in England, the tractive country lying between
the rivers Savannah and a Lata Maha, being unoccupied by Europeans.
(14:33):
A company was formed for the humane purpose of transplanting
into this wilderness the suffering poor of the mother country.
This territory, now denominated Georgia, was granted to the company,
and a corporation consisting of twenty one persons was created
under the name of Trustees for settling and establishing the
colony of Georgia. Large sums of money were subscribed for
(14:56):
transporting and furnishing with necessaries such poor people as should
be willing to pass the Atlantic and to seek the
means of subsistence in a new world. One hundred and
sixteen persons embarked at Gravesend under the conduct of mister
James Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, who, after landing at Charleston,
proceeded to the tract of country lotted for the new colony,
(15:17):
and laid the foundation of the town of Savannah on
the river which bears that name. Georgia settled. A small
fort was erected on its bank, in which some guns
were mounted, and a treaty was held with the Greek Indians,
from whom the session of a considerable tract was obtained.
The Trustees continued to make great efforts for the accomplishment
(15:38):
of their object, and settled several companies of emigrants in Georgia. Unfortunately,
the wisdom of their regulations did not equal the humanity
of their motives. Totally unacquainted with the country they were
to govern, they devised a system for it rather calculated
to impede than to promote its population. Seventeen thirty three
(16:00):
considering each male inhabitant both as a soldier and a planter,
to be provided with arms and ammunition for defense, as
well as with utensils for cultivation. They adopted the pernicious
resolution of introducing such tenures for holding lands as were
most favorable to a military establishment. In policy of the
(16:20):
first regulation, each tract granted was considered as a military
feet for which the possessive was to appear in arms
and take the field when required for the public defense.
The grants were in tail malay, and on the termination
of the estate, the lands were to revert to the trust,
to be re granted to such persons as would most
(16:42):
benefit the colony in a lance which should not be enclosed, cleared,
and cultivated within eighteen years reverted to the trust. The
importation of negroes and of rome was prohibited, and those
only were allowed to trade with the Indians, to whom
a license should be given. However specious the argument senseup
part of these regulations might appear to the trustees, human
(17:03):
ingenuity could scarcely have devised a system better calculated to
defeat their hopes. The tenure of lands drove the settlers
into Carolina, where that property might be acquired in fees simple.
The prohibition of slavery rendered the task of opening the
country too heavy to be successfully undertaken in that burning climate,
and the restriction on their trade to the West Indies
(17:25):
deprived them of the only market for lumber, an article
in which they abounded seventeen thirty four. Mister Oglethorpe's first
employment was the construction of fortifications for defense. He erected
one fort on the Savannah at Augusta and another on
an island of the Alatta Maha called Frederica, for defense
(17:47):
against the Indians and the inhabitants of Florida. The Spaniards
remonstrated against them, and a commissioner from the Havanna insisted
on the evacuation of the country to the thirty third
degree of north latitude, which he claimed to the name
of the King of Spain. But this remonstrance and claim
were equally disregarded. The restrictions imposed by the trustees on
(18:07):
the inhabitants of Georgia were too oppress it to be
endured in silence. They remonstrated, particularly against the tenure by
which their lands were held, and against the prohibition of
the introduction of slaves. These complaints, the result of experience,
were addressed to persons ignorant of the condition of the
petitioners and were neglected. The colony languished, while South Carolina,
(18:29):
not unlike Georgia, both in soil and climate, advanced with
considerable rapidity. Although immigration was encouraged by paying the passage
money of the emigrants, by furnishing them with close arms,
ammunition and implements of husbandry, by maintaining their families for
the first year, and in some instances by furnishing them
with stock. Yet the unwise policy which has been mentioned,
(18:52):
more than counterbalance these advantages, and for ten years, during
which time the exports from Carolina more than double, the
settlers in Georgia could, with difficulty obtained a scanty subsistence.
Seventeen thirty seven, the differences between Great Britain and Spain
not admitting of adjustment. Both nations prepared for war. The
(19:12):
Spaniards strengthened East Florida, and the British government ordered a
regiment consisting of six hundred effective men into Georgia. The
command of the troops both of Georgia and Carolina was
given to Major General Oglethorpe, who fixed his headquarters at Frederica.
Before hostilities had commenced, the Spaniards that Saint Augustine engaged
in criminal intrigues among the blocks of Carolina. Agents had
(19:35):
been secretly employed in seducing the slaves of that province
to escape to Saint Augustine, where liberty was promised them,
and where they were formed into a regiment officered by themselves.
Hitherto these practices have been attended only with the loss
of property. But about this time the evil assumed a
much more alarming form insurrection of the slaves. A large
(19:56):
number of slaves assembled at Stona, where they forced a
warehouse any arms and ammunition, murdered the whites in possession
of it, and, after choosing a captain, directed their march
south westward. With drums beating and colors flying. On their march,
they massacred the whites, seized all the arms they could find,
and forced such blacks as did not voluntarily join them
to follow their party. Intoxicated with arten spirits and with
(20:20):
their short lived success, they considered their work as already achieved,
and halted in an open field, where the time which
might have been employed in promoting their design was devoted
to dancing and exaltation. Fortunately, the people of the neighborhood
had assembled on the same day to attend divine service,
and as was then directed by law, all the men
came armed. They marched immediately against the Blacks, whom they
(20:43):
completely surprised. Many were killed, and the residue dispersed or taken.
Thus the insurrection was suppressed on the day of its commencement,
and such of its leaders as survived the battle were
immediately executed. During the long repose which the pacific temper
of the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France during the
Minority of Louis the fifteenth and the equally pacific temper
(21:05):
of Sir Robert Walpole, Minister of England, gave to their
respective countries. The British colonies in America had increased rapidly
in population and in wealth. Lands were cheap and subsistence
easily acquired, from New York to Virginia inclusive. No enemy
existed to restrain new settlements, and no fears of inability
to maintain a family checked the natural propensity to early marriages.
(21:28):
The people were employed in cultivating the earth and in
spreading themselves over the vast regions which were open to them.
And during this period their history furnishes none of those
remarkable events which interested posterity. End of Chapter nine,
Chapter nine of the Life of Washington, Volume one by
John Marshall. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Chapter nine War with the Seven Indians, Dissatisfaction of Carolina
with the proprietors, Rupture with Spain, combination to subvert the
(00:22):
proprietary government. Revolution completed, expedition from the Havannah against Charleston.
Peace with Spain. The proprietors surrendered their interest to the Crown.
The province divided. Georgia settled impoliticy of the first regulations,
Intrigues of the Spaniards with the Slaves of South Carolina,
(00:45):
Insurrection of the Slaves seventeen fifteen. In Carolina, the contest
between the inhabitants and the proprietors added to the favor
with which the Queen heard. The complaints of the dissenters
had turned the tension of the people towards the crown
and produced a strong desire to substitute the regal for
(01:06):
the proprietary government. This desire was increased by an event
which demonstrated the incompetency of their government. War with the Indians.
The Yamassees, a powerful tribe of Indians on the northeast
of the Savannah, instigated by the Spaniards at Saint Augustine
secretly prepared a general combination of all the southern Indians
(01:28):
against the province. Having massacred the traders settled among them,
they advanced in great force against the southern frontier, spreading
desolation and slaughter on their route. The inhabitants were driven
into Charleston, and Governor Craven proclaimed martial law. He also
obtained an active assembly, empowering him to impress men to
(01:49):
seize arms, ammunition, and stores, to arm such negroes as
could be trusted, and generally to prosecute the war with
the utmost vigor. Agents were sent to Virginia and to
England to solicit assistance, and bills were issued for the
payment and subsistence of the army. At the same time,
the Indians entered the northern part of the province and
were within fifty miles of the capital. Thus surrounded by enemies,
(02:13):
the governor took the course which was suggested equally by
courage and by prudence, leaving the less active part of
the population to find security in the forts at Charleston.
He marched with the militia towards the southern frontier, which
was invaded by the strongest body of Indians, and at
a place called Salt Catchers attacked and totally defeated them.
(02:34):
The victors pursued them into their own country, expelled them
from it, and drove them over the Savannah River. The
fugitives found protection in Florida, where they made a new settlement,
from which they continued long afterwards to make distressing incursions
into Carolina. The agent who had been sent by the
legislature to England to implore the protection of the proprietors,
(02:55):
had received ulterior instructions should he not succeed with them,
to apply directly to the King. Being dissatisfied with his
reception by the proprietors, he petitioned the House of Commons,
who addressed the King praying his interposition and immediate assistance
to the colony. The King referred the matter to the
Lord's Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, whose report was unfavorable
(03:19):
to the application. Because the province of Carolina was a
proprietary government, they were of opinion that if the colony
was to be protected at the expense of the nation,
his government ought to be vested in the Crown. On
receiving this opinion, proprietors and at general meeting about their
inability to protect the province, and declared that unless His
Majesty would graciously please to interpose, they could foresee nothing
(03:43):
but the utter destruction of his faithful subjects in those parts.
A government unable to afford protection to the people was
ill adapted to the situation of Carolina. The dissatisfaction growing
out of this cause was still further augmented by the
unpopular and in some minsas instance, his unwise acts of
the proprietors. To relieve the distress produced by war, considerable
(04:05):
sums of paper money had been issued, and the proprietors,
on that complaint of the merchants of London engaged in
the trade of the province, had given instructions to reduce
the quantity. In circulation. Seventeen fifteen to seventeen seventeen, the
Assembly had appropriated the country of the Amesses to the
use of such of His Majesty's European subjects as would
(04:28):
settle it. Extracts from the Law on the subject being
published in England and in Ireland, five hundred men from
the latter Kingdom emigrated to Carolina. The proprietors repealed this law, and,
to the utter ruin of the emigrants, as well as
to the destruction of this barrier against the savages, ordered
the lands to be surveyed and erected into baronies for themselves.
(04:51):
While the population was confined to the neighborhood of Charleston.
All the members of the assembly had been elected at
that place. As the settlements extended, this practice became inconvenient,
and an act was passed declaring that every parish should
choose a certain number of representatives, and that the elections
should be held in each at the parish church. As
(05:12):
if to destroy themselves in the province, the proprietors repealed
this popular law. Also, heavy expenses being still incurred for
defense against the inroads of the Southern Indians. The people
complained loudly of the insufficiency of that government, which enable
itself to protect them, prevented the interposition of the crown
in their favor. In this temper, Governor Johnson, son of
(05:35):
the former governor of that name, found the province. He
met the assembly with a conciliatory speech, and received an
answer expressing great satisfaction at his appointment. His original popularity
was increased by the courage he displayed in two expeditions
against a formidable band of pirates we had long infested
the coast, which he entirely extirpated seventeen seventeen. These expeditions
(06:01):
occasions still farther emissions of paper money. The Governor, being
instructed to diminish its quantity, had influenced enough with the
Assembly to obtain an Act for redeeming the bills of
credit in three years by attacks on lands and negroes,
this tax falling heavily on the planters, they sought to
elude it by obtaining an Act for a further emission
(06:23):
of bills. The proprietors, being informed of this design, and
also of an intention to make the produce of the
country a tender in payment of all debts at a
fixed value, in joined the Governor not to give his
assent to any bill until it should be laid before them.
About the same time, the King, by an order in Council,
signified his desire to the proprietors that they would repeal
(06:46):
an act passed in Carolina for imposing a duty of
ten per sentence on all goods of British manufacture imported
into the province. The repeal of this act and of
one declaring the right of the Assembly to name a
resus fever of the public money and of the election
law were transmitted to the Governor in a letter directing
(07:06):
him to dissolve the Assembly and to hold a new
election at Charleston. According to ancient usage seventeen eighteen. The
Assembly being employed in devising means of raising revenue, their
dissolution was deferred, but the repeal of the law imposing
duties and the royal displeasure at the clause laying a
duty on British manufactures were immediately communicated with a recommendation
(07:30):
to pass another act omitting that clause. Meanwhile, the Governor's
instructions were divulged. They excited great irritation and produced a
warm debate on the right of the proprietors to repeal
a law enacted with the consent of their deputy in
the province. About this time, Chief Justice Trott, who had
become extremely unpopular in the colony, was charged with many
(07:53):
iniquitous proceedings, and the Governor, the major part of the
Council and the Assembly united in a memorial representing his
malpractices to the proprietors seventeen nineteen. Mister Young was deputed
their agent to enforce these complaints. Soon after his arrival
in London, he presented a memorial to the proprietors detailing
(08:15):
the proceedings of Carolina and stating the objections of the
Assembly to the right of their lordships to repeal laws
which have been approved by their deputies. This memorial was
very unfavorably received, and the members of the Council who
had subscribed it were displaced. The proprietors asserted their right
to repeal all laws passed in the province, approved the
(08:36):
conduct of the Chief Justice, censured that of the Governor
in disobeying their instructions respecting the dissolution of the Assembly,
and repeated their orders on this subject. However the governor
might disapprove the instructions given him, he did not hesitate
to obey them. The new council was summoned, the Assembly
was dissolved, and writs were issued for electing another at Charleston.
(09:00):
The public mind had been gradually prepared for a revolution,
and these irritating measures completed the disgust with which the
people viewed the government of the proprietors. An opportunity to
make the change so generally desired was soon afforded or
with Spain, a rupture having taken place between Great Britain
and Spain, advice was received from England of a plan
(09:22):
formed in the Havana for the invasion of Carolina. The
governor convened the Council and such members of the Assembly
as were in town, and laid his intelligence before them.
He at the same time stated the ruinous condition of
the fortifications, and proposed that some for repairing them should
be raised by voluntary subscription, of which he set the
(09:43):
example by a liberal donation. The Assembly declared a subscription
to be unnecessary, as the duties would afford an ample
fund for the object. The repeal of the law imposing
them was said to be utterly void and would be disregarded.
Combination to subvert the government, The members of the new Assembly,
(10:04):
though they had not been regularly convened at Charleston, had
held several private meetings in the country to concert measures
of future resistance. They had drawn up an association for
uniting the whole province in opposition to the proprietary government.
Which was proposed to the militia at their public meetings,
and subscribed almost unanimously. This confederacy was formed with such
(10:29):
secrecy and dispatch that before the government was informed of it,
almost every inhabitant of the province was engaged in it.
The members of the Assembly, thus, supported by the people,
resolved to subvert the power of the proprietors. The governor,
who resided in the country, had no intimation of these
secret meetings and transactions until he received a letter from
(10:50):
a committee of the representatives of the people offering him
the government of the province under the King. It having
been determined to submit no longer to that of the proprietors,
mister Johnson resolved to suppress the spirit of revolte, and
hastened to town in order to lay the letter before his council.
They advised him to take no notice of it until
(11:10):
the legislature should be regularly convened. A meeting. The Assembly
declared that the laws pretended to be repealed continued to
be in force, and that no power other than that
General Assembly could repeal them. That the writs under which
they were elected were void inasmuch as they had been
issued by advice of an unconstitutional council, that the representatives
(11:33):
cannot therefore act as an assembly, but as a convention
delegated by the people to prevent the utter ruin of
the government. And lastly, that the lords proprietors had unhinged
the frame of the government and forfeited their right there too,
and that an address be prepared to desire the Honorable
Robert Johnson, the present Governor, to take on himself the
(11:54):
government of the province and the name of the King.
The address was signed by Arthur Middleton as President of
the Convention and by twenty two members. After several unabeiling
efforts on the part of the Assembly to induce mister
Johnson to accept the government under the King, and on
his part to reinstate the government of the proprietors, he
issued a proclamation dissolving the assembly and retired into the country.
(12:17):
The proclamation was torn from the hands of the officer,
and the assembly elected Colonel James Moore, chief Magistrate of
the colony. Revolution completed. After proclaiming him in the name
of the King and electing a council. The legislature published
a declaration stating the revolution that had taken place with
the causes which produced it, and then proceeded deliberately to
(12:39):
manage the affairs of the province. While Carolina was effecting
this revolution, the agent of the colony obtained a hearing
before the lords of the Regency and Council in England,
the King being then in Hanover, who were of opinion
that the proprietors had forfeited their charter. They ordered the
Attorney General to take out us Stira Bastius against it,
(13:02):
and appointed Francis Nicholson provisional governor of the province under
the King. He was received with universal joy, and the
people of Carolina passed with great satisfaction from the proprietary
government to the immediate dominion of the Crown. The proprietors
surrendered to the Crown. This revolution was completed by an
agreement between the Crown and seven of the proprietors, whereby
(13:25):
for the sum of seventeen thousy five hundred pounds sterling,
they surrendered their right and interest both in the government
and soil. This agreement was confirmed by an Act of Parliament,
soon after which John Lord Caterat, the remaining proprietor, also
surrendered all his interests in the government, but retained his
rights of property. Seventeen twenty one, Carolina received with joy
(13:48):
the same form of government which had been bestowed on
assister colonies. The people, pleased with their situation and secure
of protection, turned their attention to domestic and agriculture or pursuits,
and the face of the country soon evidenced the happy
effects which result from contented industry directed by those who
are to receive its fruits. Seventeen thirty two, the province
(14:12):
divided for the convenience of the inhabitants. The province was divided,
and was thenceforward distinguished by the names of North and
South Carolina. About this period, the settlement of a new
colony was planned in England, the tractive country lying between
the rivers Savannah and a Lata Maha, being unoccupied by Europeans.
(14:33):
A company was formed for the humane purpose of transplanting
into this wilderness the suffering poor of the mother country.
This territory, now denominated Georgia, was granted to the company,
and a corporation consisting of twenty one persons was created
under the name of Trustees for settling and establishing the
colony of Georgia. Large sums of money were subscribed for
(14:56):
transporting and furnishing with necessaries such poor people as should
be willing to pass the Atlantic and to seek the
means of subsistence in a new world. One hundred and
sixteen persons embarked at Gravesend under the conduct of mister
James Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, who, after landing at Charleston,
proceeded to the tract of country lotted for the new colony,
(15:17):
and laid the foundation of the town of Savannah on
the river which bears that name. Georgia settled. A small
fort was erected on its bank, in which some guns
were mounted, and a treaty was held with the Greek Indians,
from whom the session of a considerable tract was obtained.
The Trustees continued to make great efforts for the accomplishment
(15:38):
of their object, and settled several companies of emigrants in Georgia. Unfortunately,
the wisdom of their regulations did not equal the humanity
of their motives. Totally unacquainted with the country they were
to govern, they devised a system for it rather calculated
to impede than to promote its population. Seventeen thirty three
(16:00):
considering each male inhabitant both as a soldier and a planter,
to be provided with arms and ammunition for defense, as
well as with utensils for cultivation. They adopted the pernicious
resolution of introducing such tenures for holding lands as were
most favorable to a military establishment. In policy of the
(16:20):
first regulation, each tract granted was considered as a military
feet for which the possessive was to appear in arms
and take the field when required for the public defense.
The grants were in tail malay, and on the termination
of the estate, the lands were to revert to the trust,
to be re granted to such persons as would most
(16:42):
benefit the colony in a lance which should not be enclosed, cleared,
and cultivated within eighteen years reverted to the trust. The
importation of negroes and of rome was prohibited, and those
only were allowed to trade with the Indians, to whom
a license should be given. However specious the argument senseup
part of these regulations might appear to the trustees, human
(17:03):
ingenuity could scarcely have devised a system better calculated to
defeat their hopes. The tenure of lands drove the settlers
into Carolina, where that property might be acquired in fees simple.
The prohibition of slavery rendered the task of opening the
country too heavy to be successfully undertaken in that burning climate,
and the restriction on their trade to the West Indies
(17:25):
deprived them of the only market for lumber, an article
in which they abounded seventeen thirty four. Mister Oglethorpe's first
employment was the construction of fortifications for defense. He erected
one fort on the Savannah at Augusta and another on
an island of the Alatta Maha called Frederica, for defense
(17:47):
against the Indians and the inhabitants of Florida. The Spaniards
remonstrated against them, and a commissioner from the Havanna insisted
on the evacuation of the country to the thirty third
degree of north latitude, which he claimed to the name
of the King of Spain. But this remonstrance and claim
were equally disregarded. The restrictions imposed by the trustees on
(18:07):
the inhabitants of Georgia were too oppress it to be
endured in silence. They remonstrated, particularly against the tenure by
which their lands were held, and against the prohibition of
the introduction of slaves. These complaints, the result of experience,
were addressed to persons ignorant of the condition of the
petitioners and were neglected. The colony languished, while South Carolina,
(18:29):
not unlike Georgia, both in soil and climate, advanced with
considerable rapidity. Although immigration was encouraged by paying the passage
money of the emigrants, by furnishing them with close arms,
ammunition and implements of husbandry, by maintaining their families for
the first year, and in some instances by furnishing them
with stock. Yet the unwise policy which has been mentioned,
(18:52):
more than counterbalance these advantages, and for ten years, during
which time the exports from Carolina more than double, the
settlers in Georgia could, with difficulty obtained a scanty subsistence.
Seventeen thirty seven, the differences between Great Britain and Spain
not admitting of adjustment. Both nations prepared for war. The
(19:12):
Spaniards strengthened East Florida, and the British government ordered a
regiment consisting of six hundred effective men into Georgia. The
command of the troops both of Georgia and Carolina was
given to Major General Oglethorpe, who fixed his headquarters at Frederica.
Before hostilities had commenced, the Spaniards that Saint Augustine engaged
in criminal intrigues among the blocks of Carolina. Agents had
(19:35):
been secretly employed in seducing the slaves of that province
to escape to Saint Augustine, where liberty was promised them,
and where they were formed into a regiment officered by themselves.
Hitherto these practices have been attended only with the loss
of property. But about this time the evil assumed a
much more alarming form insurrection of the slaves. A large
(19:56):
number of slaves assembled at Stona, where they forced a
warehouse any arms and ammunition, murdered the whites in possession
of it, and, after choosing a captain, directed their march
south westward. With drums beating and colors flying. On their march,
they massacred the whites, seized all the arms they could find,
and forced such blacks as did not voluntarily join them
to follow their party. Intoxicated with arten spirits and with
(20:20):
their short lived success, they considered their work as already achieved,
and halted in an open field, where the time which
might have been employed in promoting their design was devoted
to dancing and exaltation. Fortunately, the people of the neighborhood
had assembled on the same day to attend divine service,
and as was then directed by law, all the men
came armed. They marched immediately against the Blacks, whom they
(20:43):
completely surprised. Many were killed, and the residue dispersed or taken.
Thus the insurrection was suppressed on the day of its commencement,
and such of its leaders as survived the battle were
immediately executed. During the long repose which the pacific temper
of the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France during the
Minority of Louis the fifteenth and the equally pacific temper
(21:05):
of Sir Robert Walpole, Minister of England, gave to their
respective countries. The British colonies in America had increased rapidly
in population and in wealth. Lands were cheap and subsistence
easily acquired, from New York to Virginia inclusive. No enemy
existed to restrain new settlements, and no fears of inability
to maintain a family checked the natural propensity to early marriages.
(21:28):
The people were employed in cultivating the earth and in
spreading themselves over the vast regions which were open to them.
And during this period their history furnishes none of those
remarkable events which interested posterity. End of Chapter nine,
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