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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 167
that a committee might be selected that would be hostile to the colony
and so they pressed for a hearing before the whole House and this was
finally secured by them. The petition and answer that had been filed
with the Privy Council were laid before the House and it was agreed
that both sides should be allowed to introduce evidence and might be
heard by counsel.
Three solemn hearings at the bar of the whole House of Commons
were held on the allegations of the petition and the defense of the
trustees was then presented. After hearing the counsel for both sides
and debating the subject among themselves, the members of the House
as a committee adopted six resolutions to embody their findings in the
case. They approved entirely the usefulness of Georgia; they asserted
that it ought to be supported and preserved, and they condemned the
petition of Stephens as containing false, scandalous and malicious
charges, but they reported in favor of changing one or two of the regu
lations of the trustees. When these resolutions were presented as the
report of the committee, the House adopted them without change on
June 29; and Thomas Stephens on the next day was made to kneel
in the House of Commons and was reprimanded lay the speaker for his
part in trying to asperse the characters of the trustees.
But sentiment in favor of radical changes in the government of the
colony was gradually crystallized into a universal demand. The Sulz-
burgers, who bitterly opposed at first an introduction of slaves, finally
relented. The Scotch Highlanders no longer interposed an objection.
Even the revered Whitefield, a moral leader of the most exalted type,
originally a pronounced foe to slavery, became convinced of the fact
that Georgia's .existence as a colony was imperiled by the law forbid
ding its introduction. James Habersham was likewise of this opinion.
Consequently, after turning a deaf ear to all appeals of this character
for a period of fifteen years, the trustees were finally made to realize
that resistance was no longer a virtue. Perhaps the most weighty argu
ment of all for rescinding the law as to slaves was a single detached
sentence from a letter written by the devout old minister, Mr. Bolzius.
"Things being now in such a melancholy state," wrote he, "I most
humbly beseech your honors not to regard any more our petitions
against negroes." .
It was, thereupon, resolved by the trustees to petition the king for
a repeal of the law touching slavery in the province, under certain
conditions, to wit: that the colonists should employ one white servant
to every four male slaves; that slaves should be taught no trade likely
to interfere with white citizens; that inhuman treatment was not to be
allowed; and that moral and religious instruction was not to be
neglected. Before any final action was taken, however, a letter was
first addressed to President Stephens setting forth these conditions, in
regard to which a ratification was asked. At a convention of the colo
nists over which Major Horton, of Frederica, presided, these conditions
were accepted without demurrer. Moreover, additional conditions were
proposed by the colonists to the following effect: That a penalty of
ten pounds should be paid by every master who forced or permitted
a slave to work on the Lord's day; and that if any master failed to
compel his slaves to attend church at some time on Sunday he should,