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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 201
own expenses. He has been highly eulogized because he did not accept
pay from the trustees and did not acquire any lands in Georgia, but we
have already noted that the charter forbade him to do either.*
As to his official career in Georgia, in spite of his high aims, his pure
motives, and his clean character, he did not meet with very great suc
cess. He started out on the friendliest terms with South Carolina, but
it was not long until that province was completely alienated from him.
Of course this was not entirely the fault of Oglethorpe, but in the mat
ter of the Indian trade and in regard to the expedition to Florida, he
did not seem to use the tact that was needful to get the best results.
Whether another could have succeeded better is of course an open ques
tion, but there was no difficulty with the colony after President Stephens
took charge of the Indian affairs for Georgia. On the whole, his rela
tions to the civil affairs of the province were not entirely advantageous.
Retaining all authority at first, he made the impression, whether inten
tionally or not, that the magistrates were to be subservient to his will,
and that no important action was to be taken without his consent. This
caused vexatious delays when he was out of the province or too far away
to be readily reached; it was also a source of misunderstanding and
hard feeling between him and the trustees later on. There was no set
tled way of doing things in Georgia until the trustees made it plain that
their directions were to be fully carried out without consulting him un
less so ordered.
As long as his advice Avas followed regarding the land tenures, the
introduction of rum, and the prohibition of negro slaves, the colony was
kept backward. In theory he seemed to be right on all those matters,
but, as Burke observed, the regulations were not adapted to the country
and to the people concerned, and they could not succeed. The trustees
in England had to depend on the advice given by Oglethorpe on the'
field, and he erred, though in all honesty, as to what was the best course
to pursue. The loose government and the unsatisfactory economic con
ditions were the principal hindrances in the development of the colony.
In the matter of defense he' was most successful, maintaining peace
with the Indians and keeping the Spanish out of Georgia; yet even in
this matter it is not certain but that another policy might have been
better. The plan of pushing fortifications and forts far to the south
helped to arouse the 'hostility of the Spanish, and after they were' estab
lished in 1735 and the following years, there was much disturbance from
Spanish alarms. The people could not raise their crops and go quietly
about their business. They might have been spared this anxiety if the
Georgia settlements had been kept within the limits of the province,
and especially if they had been kept in the northern part of it. How
ever, in the actual fighting necessary to drive off the Spanish in 1742,
General Oglethorpe was abundantly successful. His zeal for defense
led him to make quite extensive expenditures of money which neither
the trustees nor the British government were willing to sustain. He
was of that generous and somewhat reckless disposition that does on the
impulse what seems necessary at the moment without waiting to weigh
the expense and determine whether it is absolutely required. With his
'0. R. I: 16, 21-22.