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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 51
world? Sir Richard Montgomery's Utopian scheme having failed to
materialize, he thought of the fertile domain in the western part of South
Carolina's grant, where the sanguine Scotch nobleman, had expected to
plant his ill-fated Margravate tff Azilia. Here was a territory vast in
extent, whose resources of soil and whose charms of climate had already
been extolled. To establish between the Altamaha and the Savannah
rivers a self-supporting colony, it was only necessary to avoid some of
the fundamental errors in Sir Richard Montgomery's plan. Moreover,
if a colony were located here, it would be a protection to South Carolina
whose complaints were of long standing. Incidentally, England's trade
and commerce might be augmented.
Mature reflection only intensified the burning desire of Oglethorpe
to realize his cherished ambition. Though a man of wealth, his private
means were not sufficient to compass the ends of so vast an undertaking.
In planting a colony, there were heavy expenses involved. Moreover,
the task of directing such an enterprise was too stupendous for one man
to assume, however great his zeal or mature his wisdom. It was needful,
therefore, as a condition precedent, to accomplish two things: to asso
ciate with him in the enterprise men of independent fortune and of
secure reputation and to obtain royal sanction for the project in the
nature of a direct grant from the crown of England.
But how was he to enlist this co-operation ? How obtain this patent
from King George III More than a hundred years had elapsed since a
corporation for colonizing purposes had been organized in England; it
had been in fact more than fifty years since a colony had been established
by English people in America.* Religious persecution as a driving
wheel to induce colonization no longer existed, though an established
church was disposed to show little favor to Catholics. Pew of the colonies
had been successful as money-making ventures; while the experience of
the Lords Proprietors of South Carolina had been in this respect a sort
of fiasco; and there was no longer any credence to be placed in the
account of untold wealth to be found in America. Such tales no longer
fired the imagination; but on the contrary had become "a weariness to
the flesh."
There seemed to be no hope for a new colony at this time except by
showing the practical ends to be gained. It was pre-eminently an age
of greed. The underlying motive for Georgia's establishment was to fur
nish an asylum for insolvent debtors; but had its purely humanitarian
aspects alone been stressed such an age would have laughed it to scorn.
It was necessary to find some economic basis on which to ground the proj
ect. Consequently a striking array of facts was presented along this
line. Figures were brought forward to show that it took £2,000 sterling
to support a hundred families in London while families of the class who
would be sent to Georgia could earn only £1,000: so that to support them
at home would entail a loss of £1,000 per year on the public. It was esti
mated that in Georgia a hundred families could earn £6,000, saving to
the crown, therefore, £4,000, to be used in buying English merchandise.!
With arguments like these, showing not only the humanitarian but
* J. B. McCain, "The Executive in Proprietary Georgia," p. 7.
t Ibid., 9.