human race to freedom. The colonists in re turn claimed a right to the labour of slaves, for whom they had paid a price equal to the value of their services, and urged that their condi tion in that capacity was greatly ameliorated, by bringing them from a country where wretchedness, misery and want, were the common lot of the whole race. In this diversity of opinion held out by two nations, separated but a short distance from each other, it is easily perceived that discord would soon kindle into hostility. Anxious for the adoption of some plan by which Carolinians would be relieved from an evil from which they foresaw the destruction of their colo ny, they readily encouraged the planting of anoth er between them and their troublesome neigh bours in Florida. With these views they held out the advantages of forming a new colony between Savannah and the Alatamaha rivers, and encouraged the formation of a company in England, consisting of men of wealth, influence, and respectability, who were willing to embark in the humane design of sending over a number of poor people who had neither lands, or other means of supporting themselves and families: accordingly twenty-one persons petitioned the throne, and on the 9th of June 1732, obtained a charter* for a separate and distinct province from Carolina, between the Savannah and Alata * See appendix No. 1. maha rivers, by the name of Georgia, in honor of the king by whom this charter was granted. His majesty George the second by his letters patent, recited amongst other things, that ma ny of his poor subjects were through misfor tunes and want of employment, reduced to great necessities, and would be glad to be settled in any of his majesty's provinces in America, where by cultivating the waste and desolate lands, they might not only gain a comfortable subsistence, but also strengthen his majesty's colonies and increase the trade, navigation and wealth of his majesty's realms; and that the province of North America had been frequently ravaged by Indian enemies, more especially that of South-Carolina, whose southern frontier continued unsettled and lay open to the neighboring savages; and that to relieve the wants of the said poor people and to protect his majesty's subjects in South-Carolina, a regular colony of the said poor people should be settled and established on the southern fron. tiers of Carolina; did for the considerations aforesaid, constitute a corporation by the name of the Trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia, in America. The king's trusty and well beloved John Lord Viscount Purcival, Edward Digby, George Carpenter, James Oglethorpe, George Heathcote, John Laroche, James Vernon, Wil. liam Beletha, Stephen Hales, Thomas Tower, Robert Moore, Robert Hucks, Roger Holland, William Sloper, Francis Eyles, John Burton, Richard Bandy, Arthur Bradford, Samuel Smith, Adam Anderson and Thomas Coram, Esq'rs. and such other members as might thereafter be appointed; were vested with powers to purchase and take lands, to sue, and be sued, to have a common seal, and to choose members of the said corporation on the third Thursday in March yearly, with restraining clauses. That no member of the said corporation should have any salary, perquisites, fee, benefit or profit whatsoever for acting therein, or have any office, place or employment of profit under said corporation; with a direction for the said corporation every year to lay an ac count in writing before the lord chancellor, chief justice of the king's bench, master of the rolls, chief justice of the common pleas, and chief baron of the exchequer, or any two of them, of all monies or effects by them received or expended for carrying on the good purposes aforesaid, with a power to make by-laws, constitutions, orders and ordinances; and granted amongst other things to the siad corporation and their successors, under the reservations therein mentioned, seven undivided parts (the whole into eight equal parts to be divided) of all those lands, countries and territories, situate, lying and being in that part of South-Carolina in America, which lies from the most northern stream of a river then commonly called Savannah, all along the sea coast to the southward, unto the most southern stream of a certain other great water or river called the Alatamaha, and westward from the heads of said rivers respectively in direct lines to the south seas; to have and to hold the same, to them the said corporation and their successors forever, for the better support of the said colony under the yearly rent of four shillings proclamation money of South-Carolina, for every hundred acres of the said lands forever; which the said corporation should grant, demise, plant or settle, but not to commence until ten years after such grant, demise, planting or settling and erected and created the said lands, countries, and territories into one independent and seperate province by the name of Georgia, and made the inhabitants who should reside therein, free and not subject to any laws, orders, statutes, or constitutions of South-Carolina, except the commander in chief of the militia: and authorised the said corporation for the term of twenty-one years from the date of the said letters patent, to form and pre. pare laws, statutes and ordinances for the government of the said colony, not repugnant to the laws and statutes of England, to be presented under their common seal to his majesty in council, for his approbation or disallowance and that the said laws so approved of, should be in full force and virtue within the said province and empowered the common council for the time being of the said corporation, or the major part of them, to dispose of, expend and apply, all the monies and effects belonging to the said corpo ration, and to make contracts for carrying and effecting the good purposes therein intended: and that they should from time to time appoint a treasurer, and such other officers, ministers and servants of the said corporation, as they should see proper, for the good management of their affairs, and at their pleasure, to remove them and appoint others in their stead; and that they should appoint reasonable salaries, perquisites and other rewards, for their labor or services; and that such officers should be sworn, before they act, for the faithful and due execution of their respective offices and places; and declared, that the treasurer and secretary for the time being, should be incapable of being members of the said corporation: and granted to the said corporation that it should be lawful for them, their of ficers and agents, to transport and convey into the said province, such of his majesty's subjects and foreigners, as were willing to go and inhabit and reside there; and declared all persons born within the said province, and their children and posterity, to be free denizens, as if they had been born within any of his majesty's dominions. And empowered the said common council, in the name of the corporation, and under their com mon seal, to distribute, convey and assign, and set over such particular portions of the said lands, tenements and hereditaments, unto such of his majesty's subjects, and others, willing to live in the said colony, upon such terms, and for such |