CHAPTER VI — GEORGIA
39. "Designs of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia" (1733)
General Oglethorpe was the prime mover in the establishment of the colony as a philanthropic enterprise; a man of the highest character and trustworthiness. — Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 392-406; C. C. Jones, Georgia, I, chs. iv, v; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 103.
IN America there are fertile lands sufficient to subsist all the useless Poor in England, and distressed Protestants in Europe ; yet Thousands starve for want of mere sustenance. The distance makes it difficult to get thither. The same want that renders men useless here, prevents their paying their passage ; and if others pay it for 'em, they become servants, or rather slaves for years to those who have defrayed the expense. Therefore, money for passage is necessary, but is not the only want ; for if people were set down in America, and the land before them, they must cut down trees, build houses, fortify towns, dig and sow the land before they can get in a harvest ; and till then, they must be provided with food, and kept together, that they may be assistant to each other for their natural support and protection.
The Romans esteemed the sending forth of Colonies, among their noblest works ; they observed that Rome, as she increased in power and empire, drew together such a conflux of people from all parts that she found herself over-burdened with their number, and the government brought under an incapacity to provide for them, or keep them in order. Necessity, the mother of invention, suggested to them an expedient, which at once gave ease to the capital, and increased the wealth and number of industrious citizens, by lessening the useless and unruly mul titude ; and by planting them in colonies on the frontiers of their empire, gave a new strength to the whole ; and This they looked upon to be so considerable a service to the commonwealth, that they created peculiar officers for the establishment of such colonies, and the expence was defrayed out of the public treasury.
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