Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

280 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
had helped to kindle. The political backslider in question was Rev.
John J. Zubly.
Doctor Zubly was the first pastor of the old Independent Presbyterian
Church of Savannah, an organization which was not more wedded to the
Shorter Catechism than to the principles of civil liberty, and which, in his
toric harmony with Presbyterian traditions, proceeded at the first drum-
tap to entwine the continental flag with the old blue banner of the kirk.
The distinguished divine came from St. Gall, in Switzerland, and is said
to have boasted an ancestry .whose strong Protestant bias readied back
to forefathers who started the Swiss reformation under Zwingli. Not
only a theologian and a scholar, but also an orator of marked attainments,
he preached to large congregations in Savannah, and sometimes the. Es
tablished Church was quite deserted on Sundays by parishioners who
were eager to hear the eloquent dissenter.
Against the oppressive measures of Parliament he inveighed with an
emphasis which admitted of no doubtful interpretation. But he was not
satisfied to hurl thunderbolts from the pulpit. He resorted to the
pamphlet. Article after article dealing with the obnoxious acts of the
British government came from the caustic pen of the bold preacher. He
was prominent in.the meetings which protested against the Boston Port
Bill; and, when the Provincial Congress met in Savannah soon after the
Battle of Lexington, he was one of the delegates. Moreover, the Provin
cial Congress immediately upon convening adjourned to the old Inde
pendent Church to hear an eloquent sermon from Doctor Zubly; and he
rose to the occasion, taking some text from the Pauline Epistles which
dealt with the law of liberty. To show what striking figures of speech
the learned doctor could use, he wrote to some English correspondent,
about, this time, stating that if the colonies were bound together by ropes
of sand, it should be remembered that sand and blood made an excellent
cement.
Naturally such an .eloquent voice was coveted for the continental coun
cils in Philadelphia, and Doctor Zubly was elected together with Noble "W.
Jones, Archibald Bulloch, Lyman Hall and John Houstoun to represent
Georgia in the Continental Congress of 1775. At first he hesitated to
accept the unsolicited honor because of the prolonged absence from Savan
nah and the consequent relinquishment of pastoral work, which the duty
of representing the colony in Philadelphia involved. However, Mr.
Houstoun went before the congregation and explained the situation fully,
and, being largely dominated by the Sons of Liberty, the old Independent
Church, independent in name and independent in zeal for American
freedom, consented to make the sacrifice for the sake of the patriotic
cause.
But, arrived in Philadelphia, Doctor Zubly began perceptibly to
weaken. Seeing the Continental Congress bent upon immediate separa
tion, he found that he was more Tory than Whig; and, to cap the
climax, he declared from his seat that a republic was little better than
a government of devils. This was strange language for one whose blood
was derived from the free cantons of Switzerland; and Americans who
live today peaceably and happily under the folds of the national flag,
and who suggest no thought of pandemonium, can hardly be expected
to applaud such an undemocratic sentiment. However, it must be said