Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/383

 was heroic, romantic, and full of chivalric politeness—the most beautiful impersonation of all the virtues and endowments which distinguish our ideal of a true cavalier. And so warm was his heart, so active his zeal for the well-being of humanity, it mattered not of what race or nation, that long after his death his name became a watchword for vast benevolence of heart.

After his death, many of his high-minded laws were annulled; intoxicating liquors were introduced into Georgia, and, by degrees, even negro slavery. But the spirit of freedom and hospitality which was the life of Oglethorpe's life, which was the animating influence of the earliest settlers of Georgia, lives still in Georgia. I see it, I hear it, I feel it. And the emigration hither from the Northern States, and in particular from the states of New England, and which increases more and more, and which has exercised an influence upon the people and the institutions, are to me a proof of this, and a pledge for the still further development of the life of freedom. I observe this also in the more free and happier life of the negroes in Savannah; in the permission which is given them there to have their own churches, and where they themselves preach. Besides this, much is done in Georgia for the instruction of the negro-slaves in Christianity, for their emancipation, and their colonisation at Liberia, on the coast of Africa. And every year a vessel goes thence from Savannah, with coloured emigrants from among the emancipated slaves of the slave-states, provided with the necessaries of life, money, and furniture for their dwellings. I have seen various letters from this colony written by the emigrants themselves, which showed the good understanding which existed between them and the mother-states, and various individuals there, in particular, through their religious associations. For each religious denomination maintains its connection with its members in the African colony,