1: Antecedent Events
Preface || 2: Negotiations with the Trustees of Georgia >>
The Province of Georgia.
It was in the year 1728 that the English Parliament was persuaded
by James Oglethorpe, Esq.—soldier, statesman and philanthropist, —
to appoint a committee to investigate the condition of the debtors
confined in the Fleet and Marchalsea prisons. The lot of these debtors
was a most pitiable one, for a creditor had power to imprison a man
for an indefinite term of years, and the unfortunate debtor,
held within the four walls of his prison, could earn no money
to pay the debt that was owing, and unless friends came to his rescue,
was utterly at the mercy of the oft-times barbarous jailor. The Committee,
consisting of ninety-six prominent men, with Oglethorpe as Chairman,
recommended and secured the redress of many grievances, and the passing
of better laws for the future, but Oglethorpe and a few associates
conceived a plan which they thought would eradicate the evil
by striking at its very root, the difficulty which many found
in earning a living in the overcrowded cities.
In 1663 King Charles II. had granted to eight "Lords Proprietors"
the portion of North America lying between the 31st and 36th degrees
of latitude, enlarging the boundaries in 1665 to 29 deg. and 36 deg. 30 min.
By 1728 most of these Lords Proprietors had tired of their attempt
to govern the colonies they had established in "Carolina", and in 1729
seven of the eight sold their interest to the English crown,
the district being divided into "North Carolina", "South Carolina",
and a more southerly portion, nominally included in the latter,
which was held in reserve.
To this unused land the thoughts of Oglethorpe turned,
and he and his friends addressed a memorial to the Privy Council,
stating "that the cities of London, Westminster, and parts adjacent,
do abound with great numbers of indigent persons, who are reduced
to such necessity as to become burthensome to the public, and who would be
willing to seek a livelihood in any of his majesty's plantations in America,
if they were provided with a passage, and means of settling there."
They therefore asked for a grant of land lying south of the Savannah River,
where they wished to establish a colony in which these unfortunate men
might begin life anew, and where Protestants, persecuted in some parts
of Europe, might find a refuge. They also offered to take entire charge
of the affair, and their petition, after passing through the usual channels,
was approved by the King, George II, a charter was prepared,
and the great seal was affixed June 9th, 1732.
This instrument constituted twenty-one noblemen and gentlemen
a body corporate, by the name and style of "The Trustees for establishing
the Colony of Georgia in America", and in them was vested full authority
for the collecting of subscriptions and the expending of moneys gathered,
the selection of colonists, and the making and administering of laws
in Georgia; but no member of the corporation was allowed to receive a salary,
or any fees, or to hold land in the new province. The undertaking was to be
strictly for the good of others, not for their own pecuniary benefit.
The charter granted to them "all those lands, countries,
and territories situate, lying and being in that part of South Carolina,
in America" between the Savannah and Altamaha, gave them permission
to take over any British subjects, or foreigners willing to become such,
and guaranteed to each settler the rights of an English subject,
and full liberty of conscience,—Papists alone excepted.
This apparently pointed exception was natural enough,
since from a political standpoint the new colony was regarded
as a valuable guard for the Protestant English Colonies on the north,
against the Indians and Roman Catholic colonists to the south,
who had been keeping the border settlers in a continual state of uneasiness,
even in times of nominal peace. Moreover England had not forgotten
the terrible experience of the latter half of the preceding century,
when it was war to the death between Catholic and Protestant,
and the latter party being the stronger the former was subjected
to great and unpardonable persecution, many were executed,
and all holding that faith were laid under political disabilities
which lasted for a hundred and fifty years.
The plans of the Trustees were very broad. They intended "to relieve
such unfortunate persons as cannot subsist here, and establish them
in an orderly manner, so as to form a well regulated town. As far as
their fund goes they will defray the charge of their passage to Georgia —
give them necessaries, cattle, land, and subsistence, till such time
as they can build their houses and clear some of their land."
In this manner "many families who would otherwise starve will be provided for,
and made masters of houses and lands; * * * and by giving refuge
to the distressed Salzburgers and other Protestants, the power of Britain,
as a reward for its hospitality, will be increased by the addition
of so many religious and industrious subjects."
Each of the emigrants was to receive about fifty acres of land,
including a town lot, a garden of five acres, and a forty-five acre farm,
and the Trustees offered to give a tract of five hundred acres
to any well-to-do man who would go over at his own expense,
taking with him at least ten servants, and promising his military service
in case of need.
But there was a commercial as well as a benevolent side to the designs
of the Trustees, for they thought Georgia could be made to furnish silk,
wine, oil and drugs in large quantities, the importing of which
would keep thousands of pounds sterling in English hands which had hitherto
gone to China, Persia and the Madeiras. Special provision was therefore made
to secure the planting of mulberry trees as the first step
towards silk culture, the other branches to be introduced as speedily
as might be.
Filled with enthusiasm for their plan, the Trustees proceeded
to spread abroad the most glowing descriptions of the country
where the new colony was to be settled.
"The kind spring, which but salutes us here,
Inhabits there, and courts them all the year.
Ripe fruits and blossoms on the same trees live—
At once they promise, when at once they give.
So sweet the air, so moderate the clime,
None sickly lives, or dies before his time.
Heaven, sure, has kept this spot of earth uncurst,
To shew how all things were created first."
So wrote Oglethorpe, quoting the lines as the best pen picture he could give
of the new land, and truly, if the colonists found the reality less roseate
than they anticipated, it was not the fault of their generous,
energetic leader, who spared neither pains nor means in his effort
to make all things work out as his imagination had painted them.
The Trustees having, with great care, selected thirty-five families
from the number who wished to go, the first emigrant ship sailed for Georgia
in November, 1732, bearing about one hundred and twenty-five
"sober, industrious and moral persons", and all needful stores
for the establishment of the colony. Early in the following year
they reached America, and Oglethorpe, having chosen a high bluff
on the southern bank of the Savannah River, concluded a satisfactory treaty
with Tomochichi, the chief of the nearest Indian tribe, which was later
ratified in a full Council of the chiefs of all the Lower Creeks.
His fairness and courteous treatment won the hearts of all,
especially of Tomochichi and his people, who for many years
remained on the best of terms with the town which was now laid out
upon the bluff.
The Salzburgers.
The Salzburgers, referred to by name in the proposals of the Georgia Trustees,
were, at this time, very much upon the mind and heart of Protestant Europe.
They were Germans, belonging to the Archbishopric of Salzburg,
then the most eastern district of Bavaria, but now a province of Austria.
"Their ancestors, the Vallenges of Piedmont, had been compelled
by the barbarities of the Dukes of Savoy to find a shelter from the storms
of persecution in the Alpine passes and vales of Salzburg and the Tyrol,
before the Reformation; and frequently since, they had been hunted out
by the hirelings and soldiery of the Church of Rome, and condemned
for their faith to tortures of the most cruel and revolting kind.
In 1684-6, they were again threatened with an exterminating persecution;
but were saved in part by the intervention of the Protestant States
of Saxony and Brandenburg, though more than a thousand emigrated
on account of the dangers to which they were exposed.
"But the quietness which they then enjoyed for nearly half a century
was rudely broken in upon by Leopold, Count of Firmian and Archbishop
of Salzburg, who determined to reduce them to the Papal faith and power.
He began in the year 1729, and ere he ended in 1732
not far from thirty thousand had been driven from their homes,
to seek among the Protestant States of Europe that charity and peace
which were denied them in the glens and fastnesses of their native Alps.
"The march of these Salzburgers constitutes an epoch
in the history of Germany. * * * Arriving at Augsburg,
the magistrates closed the gates against them, refusing them entrance
to that city which, two hundred years before, through Luther and Melancthon
and in the presence of Charles V and the assembled Princes of Germany,
had given birth to the celebrated Augsburg Confession, for clinging to which
the Salzburgers were now driven from their homes; but overawed
by the Protestants, the officers reluctantly admitted the emigrants,
who were kindly entertained by the Lutherans.
"The sympathies of Reformed Christendom were awakened on their behalf, and the
most hospitable entertainment and assistance were everywhere given them."
Only a few months after the signing of the Georgia Colony Charter,
the "Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge"
requested the Trustees to include the Salzburgers in their plans.
The Trustees expressed their willingness to grant lands,
and to manage any money given toward their expenses, but stated
that they then held no funds which were available for that purpose.
In May, 1733, the House of Commons appropriated 10,000 Pounds
to the Trustees of Georgia, "to be applied towards defraying the charges
of carrying over and settling foreign and other Protestants in said colony,"
and over 3,000 Pounds additional having been given privately, the Trustees,
at the suggestion of Herr von Pfeil, consul of Wittenberg at Regensberg,
wrote to Senior Samuel Urlsperger, pastor of the Lutheran Church of St. Ann
in the city of Augsburg, who had been very kind to the Salzburgers
on their arrival there, "and ever afterward watched over their welfare
with the solicitude of an affectionate father." On receipt of the invitation
from the Trustees, seventy-eight persons decided to go to Georgia,
and left Augsburg on the 21st of October, reaching Rotterdam
the 27th of November, where they were joined by two ministers,
Rev. Mr. Bolzius, deputy superintendent of the Latin Orphan School at Halle,
and Rev. Mr. Gronau, a tutor in the same, who were to accompany them
to their new home. In England they were treated with marked kindness,
and when they sailed, January 19, 1734, it was with the promise
of free transportation to Georgia, and support there until they could reap
their first harvest from the fifty acres which were to be given
to each man among them.
They reached Charlestown, South Carolina, the following March,
and met General Oglethorpe, the Governor of Georgia, who was intending
an immediate return to Europe, but went back to help them select
a suitable place for their settlement, they preferring not to live
in Savannah itself. The site chosen was about twenty-five miles
from Savannah, on a large stream flowing into the Savannah River,
and there they laid out their town, calling it "Ebenezer",
in grateful remembrance of the Divine help that had brought them thither.
Baron von Reck, who had accompanied them as Commissary of the Trustees,
stayed with them until they had made a good beginning, and then returned
to Europe, leaving Ebenezer about the middle of May.
Unitas Fratrum.
But while the Salzburgers received so much sympathy and kindness in Germany
on account of their distress, other exiled Protestants, whose story was
no less touching, were being treated with scant courtesy and consideration.
On the 6th of July, 1415, the Bohemian Reformer, John Hus, was burned
at the stake. But those who had silenced him could not unsay his message,
and at last there drew together a little body of earnest men,
who agreed to accept the Bible as their only standard of faith and practice,
and established a strict discipline which should keep their lives
in the simplicity, purity, and brotherly love of the early Apostolic Church.
This was in 1457, and the movement quickly interested the thoughtful people
in all classes of society, many of whom joined their ranks. The formal
organization of the Unitas Fratrum (the Unity of Brethren) followed,
and its preaching, theological publications, and educational work
soon raised it to great influence in Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland,
friendly intercourse being established with Luther, Calvin,
and other Reformers as they became prominent.
Then came destruction, when the religious liberty of Bohemia and Moravia
was extinguished in blood, by the Church of Rome. The great Comenius
went forth, a wanderer on the face of the earth, welcomed and honored
in courts and universities, introducing new educational principles
that revolutionized methods of teaching, but ever longing and praying
for the restoration of his Church; and by his publication of its Doctrine
and Rules of Discipline, and by his careful transmission of the Episcopate
which had been bestowed upon him and his associate Bishops,
he did contribute largely to that renewal which he was not destined to see.
In the home lands there were many who held secretly, tenaciously, desperately,
to the doctrines they loved, "in hope against hope" that the great oppression
would be lifted. But the passing of a hundred years brought no relief,
concessions granted to others were still denied to the children of those
who had been the first "protestants" against religious slavery and corruption,
and in 1722 a small company of descendants of the ancient Unitas Fratrum
slipped over the borders of Moravia, and went to Saxony,
Nicholas Lewis, Count Zinzendorf, having given them permission
to sojourn on his estates until they could find suitable homes elsewhere.
Hearing that they had reached a place of safety, other Moravians
took their lives in their hands and followed, risking the imprisonment
and torture which were sure to follow an unsuccessful attempt
to leave a province, the Government of which would neither allow them
to be happy at home nor to sacrifice everything and go away.
Among these emigrants were five young men, who went in May, 1724,
with the avowed intention of trying to resuscitate the Unitas Fratrum.
They intended to go into Poland, where the organization of the Unitas Fratrum
had lasted for a considerable time after its ruin in Bohemia,
but, almost by accident, they decided to first visit Christian David,
who had led the first company to Herrnhut, Saxony, and while there
they became convinced that God meant them to throw in their lot
with these refugees, and so remained, coming to be strong leaders
in the renewed Unity.
Several years, however, elapsed before the church was re-established.
One hundred years of persecution had left the Moravians only traditions
of the usages of the fathers, members of other sects who were in trouble
came and settled among them, bringing diverse views, and things
were threatening to become very much involved, when Count Zinzendorf,
who had hitherto paid little attention to them, awoke to the realization
of their danger, and at once set to work to help them.
It was no easy task which he undertook, for the Moravians insisted
on retaining their ancient discipline, and he must needs try to please them
and at the same time preserve the bond of union with the State Church, —
the Lutheran,—of which, as his tenants, they were officially
considered members. His tact and great personal magnetism
at last healed the differences which had sprung up between the settlers,
the opportune finding of Comenius' `Ratio Disciplinae' enabled them
with certainty to formulate rules that agreed with those
of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, and a marked outpouring of the Holy Spirit
at a Communion, August 13th, 1727, sealed the renewal of the Church.
"They walked with God in peace and love,
But failed with one another;
While sternly for the faith they strove,
Brother fell out with brother;
But He in Whom they put their trust,
Who knew their frames, that they were dust,
Pitied and healed their weakness.
"He found them in His House of prayer,
With one accord assembled,
And so revealed His presence there,
They wept for joy and trembled;
One cup they drank, one bread they brake,
One baptism shared, one language spake,
Forgiving and forgiven.
"Then forth they went with tongues of flame
In one blest theme delighting,
The love of Jesus and His Name
God's children all uniting!
That love our theme and watchword still;
That law of love may we fulfill,
And love as we are loved."
(Montgomery.)
At this time there was no thought of separating from the State Church
and establishing a distinct denomination, and Zinzendorf believed
that the Unitas Fratrum could exist as a `society' working in,
and in harmony with, the State Church of whatever nation it might enter.
This idea, borrowed probably from Spener's "ecclesiolae in ecclesia",
clung to him, even after circumstances had forced the Unity to declare
its independence and the validity of the ordination of its ministry,
and many otherwise inexplicable things in the later policy of the Church
may be traced to its influence.
Halle Opposition.
In 1734 Zinzendorf took orders in the Lutheran Church, but this,
and all that preceded it, seemed to augment rather than quiet the antagonism
which the development of Herrnhut aroused in certain quarters.
This opposition was not universal. The Moravians had many warm friends
and advocates at the Saxon Court, at the Universities of Jena and Tübingen,
and elsewhere, but they also had active enemies who drew their inspiration
principally from the University of Halle.
The opposition of Halle seems to have been largely prompted by jealousy.
In 1666 a revolt against the prevailing cold formalism of the Lutheran Church
was begun by Philip Jacob Spener, a minister of that Church,
who strongly urged the need for real personal piety on the part
of each individual. His ideas were warmly received by some,
and disliked by others, who stigmatized Spener and his disciples
as "Pietists", but the doctrine spread, and in the course of time
the University of Halle became its centre. Among those who were greatly
attracted by the movement were Count Zinzendorf's parents and grandparents,
and when he was born, May 26th, 1700, Spener was selected as his sponsor.
Being of a warm-hearted, devout nature, young Zinzendorf yielded readily
to the influence of his pious grandmother, to whose care he was left
after his father's death and his mother's second marriage,
and by her wish he entered the Paedagogium at Halle in 1710,
remaining there six years. Then his uncle, fearing that he would become
a religious enthusiast, sent him to the University of Wittenberg,
with strict orders to apply himself to the study of law. Here he learned
to recognize the good side of the Wittenberg divines, who were decried
by Halle, and tried to bring the two Universities to a better understanding,
but without result.
In 1719 he was sent on an extensive foreign tour, according to custom,
and in the picture gallery of Düsseldorf saw an Ecce Homo
with its inscription "This have I done for thee, what hast thou done for me?"
which settled him forever in his determination to devote his whole life
to the service of Christ.
Rather against his wishes, Count Zinzendorf then took office under
the Saxon Government, but about the same time he bought from his grandmother
the estate of Berthelsdorf, desiring to establish a centre of piety,
resembling Halle. The coming of the Moravian and other refugees
and their settlement at Herrnhut, near Berthelsdorf, was to him at first
only an incident; but as their industry and the preaching of Pastor Rothe,
whom he had put in charge of the Berthelsdorf Lutheran Church,
began to attract attention, he went to Halle, expecting sympathy
from his friends there. Instead he met with rebuke and disapproval,
the leaders resenting the fact that he had not placed the work
directly under their control, and apparently realizing, as he did not,
that the movement would probably lead to the establishment
of a separate church.
In spite of their disapprobation, the work at Herrnhut prospered,
and the more it increased the fiercer their resentment grew. That they,
who had gained their name from their advocacy of the need for personal piety,
should have been foremost in opposing a man whose piety
was his strongest characteristic, and a people who for three hundred years,
in prosperity and adversity, in danger, torture and exile,
had held "Christ and Him Crucified" as their Confession of Faith,
and pure and simple living for His sake as their object in life,
is one of the ironies of history.
Nor did the Halle party confine itself to criticism. Some years later
Zinzendorf was for a time driven into exile, and narrowly escaped
the confiscation of all his property, while its methods of obstructing
the missionary and colonizing efforts of the Moravians will appear
in the further history of the Georgia colony.
Preface || 2: Negotiations with the Trustees of Georgia >>
