§ 143. In the same year, in which Carolina was divided [1732], a project
was formed for the settlement of a colony upon the unoccupied territory between
the rivers Savannah and Altamaha.1 The object of the projectors was to
strengthen the province of Carolina, to provide a maintenance for the suffering
poor of the mother country, and to open an asylum for the persecuted protestants
in Europe; and in common with all the other colonies to attempt the conversion
and civilization of the natives.2 Upon application, George the Second granted a
charter to the company, (consisting of Lord Percival and twenty others, among
whom was the celebrated Oglethorpe,) and incorporated them by the name of the
Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America.3 The charter
conferred the usual powers of corporations in England, and authorized the
trustees to hold any territories, jurisdictions, &c. in America for the
better settling of a colony there. The affairs of the corporation were to be
managed by the corporation, and by a common council of fifteen persons in the
first place, nominated by the crown, and afterwards, as vacancies occurred,
filled by the corporation. The number of common-council-men might, with the
increase of the corporation, be increased to twenty-four. The charter further
granted to the cor-

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poration seven undivided parts of all the territories lying in that part of
South Carolina, which lies from the northern stream of a river, there called the
Savannah, all along the sea-coast to the southward unto the southernmost stream
of a certain other great river, called the Alatamaha, and westward from the
heads of the said rivers respectively in direct lines to the South seas, to be
held as of the manor of Hampton Court in Middlesex in free and common soccage
and not in capite. It then erected all the territory into an independent
province by the name of Georgia. It authorized the trustees for the term of
twenty-one years to make laws for the province " not repugnant to the laws and
statutes of England, subject to the approbation or disallowance of the crown,
and after such approbation to be valid. The affairs of the corporation were
ordinarily to be managed by the Common Council. It was farther declared, that
all persons born in the province should enjoy all the privileges and immunities
of natural born subjects in Great Britain. Liberty of conscience was allowed to
all inhabitants in the worship of God, and a free exercise of religion to all
persons, except Papists. The corporation were also authorized, for the term. of
twenty-one years, to erect courts of judicature for all civil and criminal
causes, and to appoint a governor, judges, and other magistrates. The
registration of all conveyances of the corporation was also provided for. . The
governor was to take an oath to observe all the acts of parliament relating to
trade and navigation, and to obey all royal instructions pursuant thereto. The
governor of South Carolina was to have the chief command of the militia of the
province; and goods were

130 HISTORY OF THE COLONIES. [BOOK I.

to be imported and exported without touching at any port in South Carolina.
At the end of the twenty-one years the crown was to establish such form of
government in the province, and such method of making laws therefor, as in its
pleasure should be deemed meet; and all officers should be then appointed by the
crown.

§ 144. Such is the substance of the charter, which was obviously intended for a temporary duration only; and the first measures adopted b  the
trustees, granting lands i  tail male, t  be held b                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

§ 145. In respect to its ante-revolutionary jurisprudence, a few remarks may suffice. The British common and statute law lay at the foundation.4 The same general system prevailed as in the Carolinas, from which it sprung. Intestate estates descended according to the course of the English law. The registration

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of conveyances was provided for, at once to secure titles, and to suppress
frauds; and the general interests of religion, the rights of representation, of
personal liberty, and of public justice, were protected by ample colonial
regulations.

Christians, deemed, as if it were inhabited only by brute animals. There is
not a single grant from the British crown from the earliest grant of Elizabeth
down to the latest of George the Second, that affects to look to any title,
except that founded on discovery. Conquest or cession is not once alluded to.
And it is impossible, that it should have been; for at the time when all the
leading grants were respectively made, there had not been any conquest or
cession from the natives of the territory comprehended in those grants. Even in
respect to the territory of New-York and New-Jersey, which alone afford any
pretence for a claim by conquest, they were. conquered from the Dutch, and not
from the natives; and were ceded to England by the treaty of Breda in 1667. But
England claimed this very territory, not by right of this conquest, but by the
prior right of discovery.1 The original grant was made to the Duke of York in
1664, founded upon this right, and the subsequent confirmation of his title did
not depart from the original foundation.

§ 153. The Indians could in no just sense be deemed a conquered people, who had been stripped of their territorial possessions by superior force. They were considered as a people, not having any regular laws, or any organized government; but as mere wandering tribes.2 They were never reduced into actual obedience, as dependent communities; and no scheme of general legislation over them was ever attempted. For many purposes they were treated as independent communities, at liberty to govern themselves; so always

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