Читать книгу The Life & Legacy of George Washington - John Marshall - Страница 15

Table of Contents

War with the southern Indians. … Dissatisfaction of Carolina with the proprietors. … Rupture with Spain. … Combination to subvert the proprietary government. … Revolution completed. … Expedition from the Havanna against Charleston. … Peace with Spain. … The proprietors surrender their interest to the crown. … The province divided. … Georgia settled. … Impolicy of the first regulations. … Intrigues of the Spaniards with the slaves of South Carolina. … Insurrection of the slaves.

1715

In Carolina, the contests between the inhabitants and the proprietors, added to the favour with which the Queen heard the complaints of the dissenters, had turned the attention of the people towards the crown, and produced a strong desire to substitute the regal, for 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 north east of the Savanna, instigated by the Spaniards at St. Augustine, secretly prepared a general combination of all the southern Indians, 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 act of assembly empowering him to impress men; to seize arms, ammunition, and stores; to arm such negroes as could be trusted; and, generally, to prosecute the war with the utmost vigour. 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, 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. The victors pursued them into their own country, expelled them from it, and drove them over the Savanna 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, 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 lords commissioners of trade and plantations, whose report was unfavourable 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, its government ought to be vested in the crown. On receiving this opinion, the proprietors, in a general meeting, avowed their inability to protect the province, and declared that, unless his majesty would graciously please to interpose, they could foresee nothing 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 farther augmented by the unpopular, and, in some instances, unwise acts of the proprietors.

To relieve the distress produced by war, considerable sums of paper money had been issued; and the proprietors, on the complaint of the merchants, of London engaged in the trade of the province, had given instructions to reduce the quantity in circulation.

1715 to 1717

The assembly had appropriated the country of the Yamassees, to the use of such of his majesty's European subjects, as would settle it. Extracts from the law on this 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.

While the population was confined to the neighbourhood 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 if to destroy themselves in the province, the proprietors repealed this popular law also.

Heavy expenses being still incurred for defence against the inroads of the southern Indians, the people complained loudly of the insufficiency of that government which, unable itself to protect them, prevented the interposition of the crown in their favour.

In this temper, governor Johnson, son of 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 who had long infested the coast, which he entirely extirpated.

1717

These expeditions occasioned still farther emissions of paper money. The governor, being instructed to diminish its quantity, had influence enough with the assembly to obtain an act for redeeming the bills of credit, in three years, by a tax on lands and negroes. This tax falling heavily on the planters, they sought to elude it by obtaining an act for a farther emission 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, enjoined 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 an act passed in Carolina, for imposing a duty of ten per centum 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 receiver of the public money, and of the election law, were transmitted to the governor, in a letter directing him to dissolve the assembly, and to hold a new election at Charleston, according to ancient usage.

1718

The assembly being employed in devising means for 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 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 iniquitous proceedings; and the governor, the major part of the council, and the assembly, united in a memorial representing his malpractices to the proprietors. 1719Mr. Young was deputed their agent to enforce these complaints.

Soon after his arrival in London, he presented a memorial to the proprietors, detailing the proceedings of Carolina, and stating the objections of the assembly to the right of their lordships to repeal laws, which had been approved by their deputies.

This memorial was very unfavourably 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 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.

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. War with Spain.A rupture having taken place between Great Britain and Spain, advice was received from England of a plan formed in the Havanna 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 a sum for repairing them should be raised, by voluntary subscription, of which he set the 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, 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 secrecy and dispatch, that, before the governor 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 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.

Mr. Johnson resolved to suppress this spirit of revolt, and hastened to town in order to lay the letter before his council. They advised him to take no notice of it, until the legislature should be regularly convened. On meeting, the assembly declared, "that the laws, pretended to be repealed, continued to be in force; and that no power, other than the 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 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 thereto; and that an address be prepared to desire the honourable Robert Johnson, the present governor, to take on himself the government of the province in the name of the King." The address was signed by Arthur Middleton, as president of the convention, and by twenty-two members.

After several unavailing efforts, on the part of the assembly, to induce Mr. 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.

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 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 a scire facias against it, 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 surrender to the crown.This revolution was completed by an agreement between the crown and seven of the proprietors, whereby, for the sum of seventeen thousand 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 Carteret, the remaining proprietor, also surrendered all his interest in the government, but retained his rights of property.[132]

1721

Carolina received with joy the same form of government which had been bestowed on her sister colonies. The people pleased with their situation, and secure of protection, turned their attention to domestic and agricultural 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. 1732The province divided.For the convenience of the inhabitants, the province was divided; and was, thenceforward, distinguished by the names of North and South Carolina.[133]

About this period, the settlement of a new colony was planned in England. The tract of country lying between the rivers Savanna and Alatamaha being unoccupied by Europeans, 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 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 Mr. James Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, who, after landing at Charleston, proceeded to the tract of country allotted for the new colony, and laid the foundation of the town of Savanna, 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 Creek Indians, from whom the cession of a considerable tract was obtained.

The trustees continued to make great efforts for the accomplishment 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.

1733

Considering each male inhabitant both as a soldier and a planter, to be provided with arms and ammunition for defence as well as with utensils for cultivation, they adopted the pernicious resolution of introducing such tenures for holding lands as were most favourable to a military establishment. Impolicy of the first regulation.Each tract granted, was considered as a military fief, for which the possessor was to appear in arms, and take the field, when required for the public defence. The grants were in tail male; 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 benefit the colony. Any lands which should not be enclosed, cleared, and cultivated, within eighteen years, reverted to the trust. The importation of negroes, and of rum, was prohibited; and those only were allowed to trade with the Indians, to whom a license should be given.

However specious the arguments in support of these regulations might appear to the trustees, human 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 fee 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, deprived them of the only market for lumber, an article in which they abounded.

1734

Mr. Oglethorpe's first employment was the construction of fortifications for defence. He erected one fort on the Savanna, at Augusta, and another on an island of the Alatamaha, called Frederica, for defence 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 in the name of the King of Spain; but this remonstrance and claim were equally disregarded.

The restrictions imposed by the trustees, on the inhabitants of Georgia, were too oppressive 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, not unlike Georgia both in soil and climate, advanced with considerable rapidity. Although emigration was encouraged by paying the passage money of the emigrants, by furnishing them with clothes, 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, more than counterbalanced these advantages; and for ten years, during which time the exports from Carolina more than doubled, the settlers in Georgia could, with difficulty, obtain a scanty subsistence.

1737

The differences between Great Britain and Spain not admitting of adjustment, both nations prepared for war. The 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 at St. Augustine engaged in criminal intrigues among the blacks of Carolina. Agents had been secretly employed in seducing the slaves of that province to escape to St. Augustine, where liberty was promised them, and where they were formed into a regiment officered by themselves. Hitherto these practices had 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 number of slaves assembled at Stono, where they forced a warehouse containing arms and ammunition, murdered the whites in possession of it, and, after choosing a captain, directed their march south westward, with drums beating and colours 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 ardent spirits, and with 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 exultation. Fortunately, the people of the neighbourhood 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 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 XV. and the equally pacific temper 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. 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 interest posterity.