During his absence the strict law of the Trustees, respecting the rum trade, had like to have created a quarrel between the Carolineans and Georgians. The fortification at Augusta had induced some traders of Carolina to open stores at that place, so conveniently situated for commerce with Indian nations. For this purpose, land carriage being expensive, they intended to force their way by water with loaded boats up Savanna river to their stores at Augusta. But as they passed the town of Savanna, the magistrates rashly ordered the boats to be stopt, the packages to be opened, the casks of rum to be staved, and the people to be confined. Such injurious treatment was not to be suffered; the Carolineans determined to give a check to their insolence, and for that purpose deputed two persons, one from the Council and another from the Assembly, to demand of the Georgians by what authority they presumed to seize and destroy the effects of their traders, or to compel them to submit to their code of laws. The magistrates of Georgia, sensible of their error, made great concessions to the deputies, and treated them with the utmost civility and respect. The goods were instantly ordered to be returned, the people to be set at liberty, and all manner of satisfaction was given to the deputies they could have expected. Strict orders were sent to the agents of Georgia among Indians not to molest the traders from Carolina, but to give them all the assistance and protection in their power. The Carolineans, on the other hand, engaged not to smuggle any strong liquors among the settlers of Georgia, and the navigation on the river Savanna was declared equally open and free to both provinces.
[Sidenote] The brave Chickesaws defeat the French.
About the same time the French took the field against the Emperor; and the flames of war kindling between such powerful potentates, would, it was thought, inevitably spread, and involve all Europe in the quarrel. In case Great Britain should interfere in this matter; and declare in favour of the Emperor, orders were sent out to the Governors of Quebec and New Orleans to invade the weakest frontiers of the British settlements of America. For this purpose an army was formed in New France, and preparations were made for uniting the force of Canada and Louisiana to attack Carolina. But before this design was put in execution, advice came, that the clouds of war which threatened Europe were dispersed, and a general peace was restored, by the mediation of Britain and Holland. This put a stop to the motions of the main body in Canada; however, a detachment of two hundred French and four hundred Indians were sent down the Mississippi, to meet a party from New Orleans to cut off the Chickesaw Indians. This tribe were the firm allies of Britain, and the bravest nation of savages on the continent, but consisted only of between six and eight hundred gun-men. The French having encroached in their lands, and built some forts nigh them, had on that account drawn upon themselves their invincible enmity and resentment. The Chickesaws had long obstinately opposed their progress up the river Mississippi, and were now the chief obstacle that prevented a regular communication between Louisiana and Canada. The French determined to remove it, by extirpating this troublesome nation, and for this purpose fell down the river in boats to the place where they expected to meet their friends from New Orleans. But the party from the southward not coming up at the time appointed, and the Canadians thinking themselves strong enough for the enterprize, began the war by attacking the Chickesaw towns. Upon which the savages gathered together above three hundred warriors, gave the French battle in an open field, and, though with considerable loss, compleatly defeated them. Above forty Frenchmen and eight Indians were killed on the spot, and the rest were taken prisoners, among whom was their commander, and chief, brother to Mons. Bienville, Governor of New Orleans. Hard was the fate of the unfortunate prisoners, who for several days were kept almost perishing with hunger in the wilderness, and at last were tied to a stake, tortured, and burned to death. Another party of French from Mobile, in the same year, advanced against the Creeks, who were also unsuccessful, and obliged to retreat with considerable loss. Carolina rejoiced at those disasters, and began now more than ever to court the friendship and interest of these rude nations in their neighbourhood, considering them as the best barrier against their natural enemies.
[Sidenote] Religious state of the colony.
By this time the Episcopalian form of divine worship had gained ground in Carolina, and was more countenanced by the people than any other. That zeal for the right of private judgment had much abated, and those prejudices against the hierarchy, which the first emigrants carried from England with them, were now almost entirely worn off from the succeeding generation. To bring about this change, no doubt the well-timed zeal and extensive bounty of the society, incorporated for the propagation of the Gospel, had greatly contributed. At this time the corporation had no less than twelve missionaries in Carolina, each of whom shared of their bounty. Indeed, a mild church-government, together with able, virtuous, and prudent teachers, in time commonly give the establishment in every country a superiority over all sectaries. Spacious churches had been erected in the province, which were pretty well supplied with clergymen, who were paid from the public treasury, and countenanced by the civil authority, all which favoured the established church. The dissenters of Carolina were not only obliged to erect and uphold their churches, and maintain their clergy by private contributions, but also to contribute their share in the way of taxes, in proportion to their ability, equally with their neighbours; towards the maintenance of the poor, and the support of the establishment. This indeed many of them considered as a grievance, but having but few friends in the provincial assembly, no redress could be obtained for them. Besides, the establishment gave its adherents many advantageous privileges in point of power and authority over persons of other denominations. It gave them the best chance for being elected members of the legislature, and of course of being appointed to offices, both civil and military in their respective districts. Over youthful minds, fond of power, pomp and military parade, such advantages have great weight. Dissenters indeed had the free choice of their ministers, but even this is often the cause of division. When differences happen in a parish, the minority must yield, and therefore through private pique, discontent or resentment, they often conform to the establishment. It is always difficult, and often impossible for a minister to please all parties, especially where all claim an equal right to judge and chuse for themselves, and divisions and subdivisions seldom fail to ruin the power and influence of all sectaries. This was evidently the case in Carolina for many of the posterity of rigid Dissenters were now found firm adherents to the church of England, which had grown numerous on the ruins of the dissenting interest.
[Sidenote] The association of Presbyterians.
However, the emigrants from Scotland and Ireland, most of whom were Presbyterians, still composed a considerable party of the province, and kept up the Presbyterian form of worship in it. Archibald Stobo, of whom I have formerly taken notice, by great diligence and ability still preserved a number of followers. An association had been formed in favour of this mode of religious worship, by Messrs. Stobo, Fisher, and Witherspoon, three ministers of the church of Scotland, together with Joseph Stanyarn, and Joseph Blake, men of respectable characters and considerable fortunes. The Presbyterians had already erected churches at Charlestown, Wiltown, and in three of the maritime islands, for the use of the people adhering to that form of religious worship. As the inhabitants multiplied, several more in different parts of the province afterwards joined them, and built churches, particularly at Jacksonburgh, Indian Town, Port-Royal, and Williamsburgh. The first clergymen having received their ordination in the church of Scotland, the fundamental rules of the association were framed according to the forms, doctrines, and discipline of that establishment, to which they agreed to conform as closely as their local circumstances would admit. These ministers adopted this mode of religious worship, not only from a persuasion of its conformity to the primitive Apostolic form, but also from a conviction of its being, of all others, the most favourable to civil liberty, equality, and independence. Sensible that not only natural endowments, but also a competent measure of learning and acquired knowledge were necessary to qualify men for the sacred function, and enable them to discharge the duties of it with honour and success, they associated on purpose to prevent deluded mechanics, and illiterate novices from creeping into the pulpit, to the disgrace of the character, and the injury of religion. In different parts of the province, persons of this stamp had appeared, who cried down all establishments, both civil and religions, and seduced weak minds from the duties of allegiance, and all that the Presbytery could do was to prevent them from teaching under the sanction of their authority. But this association of Presbyterians having little countenance from government, and no name or authority in law, their success depended wholly on the superior knowledge, popular talents and exemplary life of their ministers. From time to time clergymen were afterwards sent out at the request of the people from Scotland and Ireland; and the colonists contributed to maintain them, till at length funds were established in trust by private legacies and donations, to be appropriated for the support of Presbyterian ministers, and the encouragement of that mode of religious worship and government.
[Sidenote] Remarks on paper-currency.
I have several times made remarks on the paper-currency of the province, which the planters were always for increasing, and the merchants and money lenders for sinking. The exchange of London, like a commercial thermometer, served to measure the rise or fall of paper-credit in Carolina; and the price of bills of exchange commonly ascertained the value of their current money. The permanent riches of the country consisted in lands, houses, and negroes; and the produce of the lands, improved by negroes, raw materials, provisions, and naval stores, were exchanged for what the province wanted from other countries. The attention of the mercantile part was chiefly employed about staple commodities; and as their great object was present profit it was natural for them to be governed by that great axiom in trade, whoever brings commodities cheapest and in the best order to market, must always meet with the greatest encouragement and success. The planters, on the other hand, attended to the balance of trade, which was turned in their favour, and concluded, that when the exports of any province exceeded its imports, whatever losses private persons might now and then sustain, yet that province upon the whole was growing rich. Let us suppose, what was indeed far from being the case, that Georgia so far advanced in improvement as to rival Carolina in raw materials, and exchangeable commodities, and to undersell her at the markets in Europe: This advantage could only arise from the superior quality of her lands, the cheapness of her labour, or her landed men being contented with smaller profits. In such a case it was the business of the Carolina merchants to lower the price of her commodities, in order to reap the same advantages with her neighbours; and this could only be done by reducing the quantity of paper-money in circulation. If gold and silver only past current in Georgia, which by general consent was the medium of commerce throughout the world, if she had a sufficient quantity of them to answer the purposes of trade, and no paper-currency had been permitted to pass current; in such case her commodities would bring their full value at the provincial market, and no more, according to the general standard of money in Europe. Supposing also that Carolina had a quantity of gold and silver in circulation, sufficient for the purposes of commerce, and that the planters, in order to raise the value of their produce, should issue paper-money equal to the quantity of gold and silver in circulation, the consequence would be, the price of labour, and of all articles of exportation would be doubled. But as the markets of Europe remained the same, and her commodities being of the same kind and quality with those of Georgia, they would not bring an higher price. Some persons must be losers, and in the fist instance this loss must fall on the mercantile interest, and moneyed men. Therefore this superabundance of paper-credit, on whose foundation the deluded province built its visionary fabric of great wealth, was not only useless, but prejudicial with respect to the community. Paper-money in such large quantities is the bane of commerce, a kind of fictitious wealth, making men by high founding language imagine they are worth thousands and millions, while a ship's load of it would not procure for the country a regiment of auxiliary troops in time of war, nor a suit of clothes at an European market in time of peace. Had America, from its first settlement, prohibited paper-money altogether, her staple commodities must have brought her, in the course of commerce, vast sums of gold and silver, which would have circulated through the continent, and answered all the purposes of trade both foreign and domestic. It is true the value of gold and silver is equally nominal, and rises and falls like the value of other articles of commerce, in proportion to the quantity in circulation. But as nations in general have fixed on these metals as the medium of trade, this has served to stamp a value on them, and render them the means not only of procuring every where the necessaries of life, but by supporting public credit, the chief means also of national protection.
However, some distinction in point of policy should perhaps be made between a colony in its infancy, and a nation already possessed of wealth, and in an advanced state of agriculture and commerce, especially while the former is united to, and under the protection of the latter. To a growing colony, such as Carolina, paper-credit, under certain limitations, was useful in several respects; especially as the gold and silver always left the country, when it answered the purpose of the merchant for remittance better than produce. This credit served to procure the planter strength of hands to clear and cultivate his fields, from which the real wealth of the province arose. But in an improved country such as England, supported by labourers, manufacturers and trade, large emissions of paper-money lessen the value of gold and silver, and both cause them to leave the country, and its produce and manufactures to come dearer to market. Adventurous planters in Carolina, eager to obtain a number of negroes, always stretched their credit with the traders to its utmost pitch; for as negroes on good lands cleared themselves in a few years, they by this means made an annual addition to their capital stock. After obtaining this credit, it then became their interest to maintain their superiority in assembly, and discharge their debt to the merchants in the easiest manner they could. The increase of paper-money always proved to them a considerable assistance, as it advanced the price of those commodities they brought to the market, by which they cancelled their debts with the merchants; so that however much this currency might depreciate, the loss occasioned by it from time to time fell not on the adventurous planters, but on the merchants and money-lenders, who were obliged to take it in payment of debts, or produce, which always arose in price in proportion to its depreciation.