An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America Part 11

[Footnote 40: _Ibid_, Vol. XI. p. 403.]

[Footnote 41: _Ibid_, p. 324.]

[Footnote 42: American Archives, 4th Series, Vol. IV, p. 84.]

[Footnote 43: See Appendix, Note E.]

[Footnote 44: North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. X, p. 65.]

[Footnote 45: _Ibid_, p, 117.]

[Footnote 46: American Archives, 4th Series, Vol. IV. p, 981]

[Footnote 47: _Ibid_, p, 982.]

[Footnote 48: _Ibid_, p. 983.]

[Footnote 49: _Ibid_, p. 1129.]

[Footnote 50: N.C. Colonial Records, Vol. XI, pp. 276-279.]

[Footnote 51: _Ibid_, Vol. X, p. 485.]

[Footnote 52: _Ibid_, pp. 594-603.]

[Footnote 53: See Appendix, Note H.]

[Footnote 54: _Ibid_, Vol. XI. p. 294.]

[Footnote 55: _Ibid_, Vol. X. p. 743.]

[Footnote 56: American Archives, Fourth Series, Vol. V, p. 69.]

[Footnote 57: _Ibid_, Vol. V, p. 1317.]

[Footnote 58: _Ibid_, p. 1320.]

[Footnote 59: _Ibid_, Vol. VI, p. 663.]

[Footnote 60: _Ibid_, p. 613.]

[Footnote 61: _Ibid_, Fifth Series, Vol. II. p. 1330.]

[Footnote 62: _Ibid_, p. 191.]

[Footnote 63: _Ibid_, p. 1333.]

[Footnote 64: _Ibid_, p. 437.]

[Footnote 65: _Ibid_, p. 464.]

[Footnote 66: _Ibid_, p. 1383]

[Footnote 67: North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. XI. p. 295.]

[Footnote 68: Am. Archives, 5th Series, Vol. I. p. 1291.]

[Footnote 69: _Ibid_, p. 1570.]

[Footnote 70: "Letter Book of Captain A. MacDonald," p. 387.]

[Footnote 71: N.C. Colonial Records, Vol. X. p. 888.]

[Footnote 72: See Appendix Note F.]

[Footnote 73: "Earl Cornwallis' Answer to Sir Henry Clinton," p. 10.]

[Footnote 74: N.C. Colonial Records, Vol. XI. p. 927.]

[Footnote 75: Am. Archives, Fourth Series, Vol. VI, p. 721.]

[Footnote 76: N.C. Colonial Records, Vol. XI. pp 546, 555.]

[Footnote 77: _Ibid_, p. 829.]

CHAPTER VI.

HIGHLANDERS IN GEORGIA.

The second distinctive and permanent settlement of Highland Scotch in the territory now const.i.tuting the United States of America was that in what was first called New Inverness on the Alatamaha river in Georgia, but now known as Darien, in McIntosh County. It was established under the genius of James Oglethorpe, an English general and philanthropist, who, in the year 1728, began to take active legislative support in behalf of the debtor cla.s.ses, which culminated in the erection of the colony of Georgia, and incidentally to the formation of a settlement of Highlanders.

There was a yearly average in Great Britain of four thousand unhappy men immured in prison for the misfortune of being poor. A small debt exposed a person to a perpetuity of imprisonment; and one indiscreet contract often resulted in imprisonment for life. The sorrows hidden within the prison walls of Fleet and Marshalsea touched the heart of Oglethorpe--a man of merciful disposition and heroic mind--who was then in the full activity of middle life. His benevolent zeal persevered until he restored mult.i.tudes, who had long been in confinement for debt, and were now helpless and strangers in the land of their birth. Nor was this all: for them and the persecuted Protestants he planned an asylum in America, where former poverty would be no reproach, and where the simplicity of piety could indulge in the spirit of devotion without fear of persecution or rebuke.

The first active step taken by Oglethorpe, in his benevolent designs was to move, in the British House of Commons, that a committee be appointed "to inquire into the state of the gaols of the kingdom, and to report the same and their opinion thereupon to the House." Of this committee consisting of ninety-six persons, embracing some of the first men in England, Oglethorpe was made chairman. They were eulogized by Thompson, in his poem on Winter, as

"The generous band, Who, touched with human woe, redressive searched Into the horrors of the gloomy gaol."

In the abodes of crime, and of misfortune, the committee beheld all that the poet depicted: "The freeborn Briton to the dungeon chained," and "Lives crushed out by secret, barbarous ways, that for their country would have toiled and bled." One of Britain's authors was moved to indite: "No modern nation has ever enacted or inflicted greater legal severities upon insolvent debtors than England."[78]

While the report of the committee did honor to their humanity, yet it was the moving spirit of Oglethorpe that prompted efforts to combine present relief with permanent benefits, by which honest but unfortunate industry could be protected, and the poor enabled to reap the fruit of their toils, which now wrung out their lives with bitter and unrequited labor. On June 9, 1732, a charter was procured from the king, incorporating a body by name and style of the Trustees for Establis.h.i.+ng the Colony of Georgia in America. Among its many provisions was the declaration that "all and every person born within the said province shall have and enjoy all liberties, franchises and immunities of free denizens, as if abiding and born within Great Britain." It further ordained that there should be liberty of conscience, and free exercise of religion to all, except Papists. The patrons, by their own request, were restrained from receiving any grant of lands, or any emoluments whatever.

The charter had in view the settling of poor but unfortunate people on lands now waste and desolate, and also the interposing of the colony as a barrier between the French, Spanish and Indians on the south and west and the other English colonies on the north. Oglethorpe expressed the purpose of the colonizing scheme, in the following language:

"These trustees not only give land to the unhappy who go thither; but are also empowered to receive the voluntary contributions of charitable persons to enable them to furnish the poor adventurers with all necessaries for the expense of the voyage, occupying the land, and supporting them till they find themselves comfortably settled. So that now the unfortunate will not be obliged to bind themselves to a long servitude to pay for their pa.s.sage; for they may be carried gratis into a land of liberty and plenty, where they immediately find themselves in possession of a competent estate, in a happier climate than they knew before; and they are unfortunate, indeed, if here they cannot forget their sorrow."[79]