Georgia

“ But Georgia lies beneath the mountains, and is sheltered from the chill blasts. Georgia is, therefore, far more fruitful than Circassia, the people, too, are less fair, and less industrious. The sides of the hills are clothed with vines, and houses with deep verandahs are scattered among the vineyards, and women wrapped in long white sheets may be seen reposing in the porticoes, enjoying the soft air, and lovely prospect. While Circassian ladies are busy weaving and milking, the Georgian ladies loll upon their couches, and do nothing. ”

“ Nothing else stands between us and such love as bound Georgia and Massachusetts at Valley Forge and Yorktown, chastened by the sacrifices at Manassas and Gettysburg, and illumined with the coming of better work and a nobler destiny than was ever wrought with the sword or sought at the cannon’s mouth. ”

“ The apparent tardiness and hesitancy on the part of the Colony of Georgia in casting her lot with her Sister Colonies at the inception of those movements which culminated in a declaration of independence, may be excused or accounted for when we remember that she was the youngest and the least prepared of all the Colonies, and recall the fact that Schovilites, leagued with Indians, were scourging her borders and awakening in the breasts even of the most patriotic and daring, gravest apprehensions for the safety of their wives and children. ”

“ In this last respect, the War Woman of Georgia stands alone in history, just as she stood alone when the Tories were waging a war of extermination, sparing neither women nor children, in the region in which she lived. Invention and fable have kindly come to the aid of the most famous of the world's heroines, but neither fable nor invention has touched the character or the deeds of this heroine of the Revolution. ”

“ Gray-bearded men vied with the hot blood of youth, and a venerable citizen of Augusta, illuminating his residence from dome to cellar, blazoned with candles this device upon his gateway—"Georgia, right or wrong—Georgia!" ”

“ Georgia's high spirit only rose the higher; the keener the cold, the more piercing the blast, it only flashed a deeper crimson to her glowing cheeks and lips, and kindled a clearer light in her bright black eyes, and she bounded like a young antelope over the frozen ground, shouting with irrepressible life. Out amid the wildest winter storms you might see that small dark figure flying along with streaming hair, bending and dipping to the shrieking blast that could have whirled her light form away like a feather, flying over the icy ground that her feet hardly seemed to touch. ”

“ When Georgia had begun to recover its breath, after the difficulties with the Creeks, the people had time to discover that they had a much more serious problem to deal with in the Cherokee nation, which occupied all the northwestern portion of the State. Those who mingled thrift with their benevolence, and had the courage to think about the future of the whites as well as the future of the savages, thought that both ends would be attained by making a permanent settlement for the Indians beyond the Mississippi River. ”

“ With economy, a moderate talent, and habits of industry, he was well aware that, in those regions, the means of life are with little difficulty attainable by those who are worthy and will adventure. Let us now return to the wayfarer, whom we have left in that wildest region of the then little-settled state of Georgia—doubly wild as forming the debatable land between the savage and the civilized—partaking of the ferocity of the one and the skill, cunning, and cupidity of the other. ”

“ During the war Georgia furnished about 80,000 soldiers for the Confederate armies. She emerged from it with her industries prostrated, her treasury empty, her social and political system revolutionized, her most flourishing cities in ruins. Her great natural resources are fast advancing her to a commanding position among her sister States; and these resources are developing in the hands of a free people with greater rapidity and advantage than when half the population was enslaved. Texas possibly excepted, no southern State has a greater future than Georgia. ”

“ On the other hand, should our present embarrassments eventuate in war, I am satisfied that the State of Georgia will zealously emulate her sister States in supporting the government of their choice, and in maintaining the rights and interests of the nation. Our soil, our industry, and our numbers, with the bravery which will be engaged in the cause, can never leave us without resources to maintain such a contest. ”

“ A feeling creeps over father. He is, you see, a southern man himself, a man of the Georgia hills and plains. There is no law that shall prevent his having been born in Georgia, although to-morrow night it may be North Carolina or Kentucky. But to-night his birthplace shall be Georgia. He is a man who lives by his fancy and to-night it shall suit his fancy and the drift of his tale to be a Georgian. ”

“ Scarce a man in Georgia but pays in some sort to its support—and judge and jury alike contribute to its treasuries. Few dispute its authority, as you will have reason to discover, without suffering condign and certain punishment; and, unlike the tributaries and agents of other powers, its servitors, like myself, invested with jurisdiction over certain parts and interests, sleep not in the performance of our duties; but, day and night, obey its dictates, and perform the various, always laborious, and sometimes dangerous functions which it imposes upon us. ”

“ You are thankful for what He has wrought and chiefly for emancipation. It has opened up to diversified industries these States that were otherwise exclusively agricultural, and made it possible for you not only to raise cotton, but to spin and weave it, and has made Georgia such a State as it could not have been under the old conditions. I am sure we have many common purposes, and as God shall give us power to see truth and right, let us do our duty, and, while exacting all our own rights, let us bravely and generously give every other man his equal rights before the law. [Cheers.] ”

“ Northern senators voted in a body to do this great act of justice to Georgia, restrained by no unworthy feeling against the growth and prosperity of a slave State. And thus was carried into effect, after a delay of a quarter of a century, and after great and just complaint on the part of Georgia, the compact between that State and the United States of 1802. Georgia was paid at last for her great cession of territory, and obtained the removal of an Indian community out of her limits, and the use and dominion of all her soil for settlement and jurisdiction. ”

“ In 1803 Georgia ceded to the general government all her territory west of the Chattahoochee, amounting to nearly 100,000 square miles, out of which the States of Alabama and Mississippi were subsequently formed. The cession of Louisiana to the United States was of great benefit to Georgia in ending hostilities which the Spaniards were continually inciting the Indians to commit upon the scattered settlements. By a treaty with the Creeks, Georgia became possessed of a large tract in the south-west of the State. ”

“ After the Revolution, this tide of immigration increased very rapidly, and it was still further swelled by the profits that the Whitney gin enabled the planters of Georgia to make out of their cotton crops.
The settling of Georgia began with the charitable scheme of Oglethorpe. The making of Georgia began when the North Carolinians and Virginians began to open up the Broad River region to the north of Augusta. It was due to the desperate stand taken by these hardy pioneers that Georgia continued the struggle for American independence. ”

“ It is a kindred wish that every one of you may remain a citizen of Georgia. I also wish that the friends who have come from afar to be your instructors shall not take to themselves wings and fly away, but shall settle in this grand old State, and their children after them. There is no enmity between the white and colored people in this State. ”

“ The settlement of Georgia, in 1732, completed the southern line of colonization toward the Piedmont. Among the objects of the colony, as specified in the charters, were the relief of the poor and the protection of the frontiers. To guard against the tendency to engross the lands in great estates, already so clearly revealed in the older colonies, the Georgia trustees provided that the grants of fifty acres should not be alienated or divided, but should pass to the male heirs and revert to the trustees in case heirs were lacking. ”

“ When the American Colonies of Great Britain determined to rebel at the stubborn demands of the mother country, Georgia had least cause to join the revolutionary movement.
This colony was by fifty years the youngest of the "original thirteen," and had been specially favored by England. She was the largest, but the weakest, of all the provinces. The landless of other countries and of other colonies had come in large numbers to obtain a home where they might own the soil they tilled. At the beginning of the Revolution the total population of Georgia was about 20,000 whites and 17,000 blacks. ”

“ Georgia, which, next to Texas, is the largest State in the South, and has nearly twenty-five per cent. more area than the great State of New York, is divided into two distinct and widely differing sections, by a geological line extending directly across the State from Augusta, on the Savannah River, through Macon, on the Ocmulgee, to Columbus, on the Chattahoochie. That part lying to the north and west of this line is usually spoken of as “Upper Georgia;” while that lying to the south and east, extending to the Atlantic Ocean and the Florida line, is called “Lower Georgia.” ”

“ Governor Mathews—Indians—Topography of Middle Georgia—A New Country and Its Settlers—Beaux and Belles—Early Training—Jesuit Teachers—A Mother's Influence—The Jews—Homely Sports—The Cotton Gin— Camp-Meetings.
Immediately subsequent to the Revolution, all the country northwest of the Ogeechee River, in the middle portion of the State of Georgia, was divided into two counties, Franklin and Wilkes. It was a wilderness, and contiguous to both the Creek and Cherokee Indian nations. No country in the world was more beautiful in its topography, and few more fertile in soil. ”

“ And the Georgia project, which I dared not speak of for fear it should be mere talk and nothing more, is a reality.—Yes! we are actually going! I can hardly believe that such good fortune as getting out of that wretched Clinton really awaits us. Perhaps I shall not like Augusta either; a stranger in a strange city is not usually enchanted with everything one beholds; but still—a change of scene—a new country—new people—it is worth while! Shall we really go? Will some page in this book actually record "Augusta, Georgia"? ”

“ Such however is not the character of the Georgians of the country; and indeed a nation which that preserved its religion notwithstanding ages of persecution, and which has seized every opportunity of regaining its independence, has a just claim to some respect. ”

“ I have good news from Georgia, and from my new plantation in South-Carolina. Many negroes are brought under conviction. We saw great things in New-England. The flocking and power that attended the word, was like unto that seven years ago. Weak as I was, and have been, I was enabled to travel eleven hundred miles and preach daily. I am now once more going to Georgia to settle all my affairs, and shall get ready to embark as soon as I receive letters from you. My dear yoke-fellow is gone forwards. She exceedingly longs to see her old friends. But death may intervene. ”

“ In publishing these notes I have had but one object—to excite the curiosity of my fellow-countrymen; the means of gratifying this curiosity are indicated in the bibliographical section. Georgia is practically unknown to the British public; well-educated people know that the country is famous for its beautiful women, but [vii] they are not very sure whether those charming creatures live under Persian, Turkish, or Russian rule, while not one person in a thousand knows that the Georgians and Circassians are distinct peoples. ”

“ He handled these great themes with a master hand and invested his exposition of them with a most fascinating eloquence. Few men in Georgia ever accomplished so much in so few years. Few men in Georgia were even the object of such affection at home and such admiration beyond the bounds of the State. The career which has been so suddenly cut off was shining with golden promise. ”

“ And here closes the history of the settlement of Georgia; in a great degree the project and the furtherance of one man, who must be allowed to possess the foremost rank among those, who, by well-concerted plans, and judicious and persevering measures for their accomplishment, have high claims on public gratitude, as warm and devoted patriots, and enlightened philanthropists. ”

“ The Tallapoosa and Coosa, head-waters of the Alabama, and the Hiawassee, one of the sources of the Tennessee, rise in the mountains of Georgia—the last, however, finding its way to the Gulf of Mexico by the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.
Georgia has about 128 miles of sea-coast, but has few good harbours, except within the rivers emptying upon it. St, Brunswick, Darien, and Savannah are the principal. The chain of islands lying off the mainland produces the celebrated Sea-island cotton, but owing to the changes brought about by the secession war it is now little cultivated. ”