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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 127
which may excite some surprise in view of the fact that Georgia was
the youngest of the original thirteen colonies, founded more than a hun
dred years after Jamestown. But the humane enterprise of Oglethorpe
originated in an impulse of philanthropy; it was an experiment in which
some of the noblest minds of England were interested; and there is
nothing illogical or strange in the fact that such an institution should
have found birth in a colony, the motto upon whose seal was "non sibi
sed aliis." To the people of Georgia, it will ever be a source of the
keenest satisfaction not only that this pioneer institution possesses an
age record of this character but that it originated in the heart of George
Whitefield, the foremost pulpit orator known to the English-speaking
world of his day and time. On a special visit to England, he secured
from the trustees of the colony a grant of land comprising 500 acres, on
which to establish his plant; and with the help of James Habersham, a
fellow-traveler on his first voyage to America, he began to launch the
humane project.
The site 1 having been selected, a road was cut from Savannah to
Bethesda—the first highway ever constructed in Georgia.
Perhaps the circumstances connected with the establishment of
Bethesda are best narrated in the language of the great founder himself.
"Writing of the project, Whitefield, in a letter, dated March 21, 1745,
and postmarked Bethesda, says: * " * * * it was first proposed to
me by my dear friend, the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, who, with his excel
lency, Gen. Oglethorpe, had concerted a scheme for carrying on such a
design before I had any though „ of going abroad myself. It was natural
to think that as the Government intended this Province for the refuge
and support of many of our poor countrymen, numbers of such adven
turers must necessarily be' taken off, by being exposed to the hardships
which unavoidably attend a new settlement. I therefore thought it a
noble design in the general to erect a house for fatherless children; and,
believing such a provision for orphans would be some inducement with
many to come over, I fell in with the design, when mentioned to me by
my friend, and was resolved, in the strength of God, to prosecute it with
all my might. But, knowing my first stay in Georgia would necessarily
be short, on account of my returning again to take priest's orders, I
thought it most prudent to go and see for myself and defer prosecuting
the scheme till I came home. When I came to Georgia I found many
poor orphans who, though taken notice of by the Honorable Trustees,
yet through the neglect of persons acting under them, were in wretched
circumstances. For want of a house to breed them up in, the poor little
ones were tabled out here and there; the others were at hard services
and likely to have no education at all. Upon seeing this, and finding
that his Majesty and Parliament had the interest of the Colony at heart,
I thought I could not better show my regard to God and my country
than by getting a house and land for these children, where they might
learn to labor, read, and write, and, at the same time, be brought up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Accordingly on my return to
England, in the year 1738, to take priest's orders, I appealed to the
Honorable Society for a grant of five hundred acres of land and laid
* White's "Historical Collections of Georgia," Chatham County, Savannah, 1854.