JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE,
The Founder of Savannah, Ga.,
Was born in London on the 21st of December, 1688. At the age of sixteen he was admitted a student of the Corpus Christi college, but did not finish his studies --- the military profession having more charms for him than literary pursuits. His first commission was that of ensign. After the death of Queen Anne he entered into the service of Prince Eugene. He entered Parliament at the age of twenty-four, and continued a member thirty-two years. He established the colony at Savannah in 1733. In 1743 he left for England to answer some charges preferred against him by Lieutenant-Colonel Cook for alleged mismanagement during the war with the Spaniards. A court-martial declared the charges groundless and malicious, and Cook was dismissed from service. In 1744 Oglethorpe was appointed one of the field officers under Field Marshal the Earl of Stair, to oppose the expected invasion of the French. Well might a cotemporaneous (sic) writer of him say that he "doubts whether the histories of Greece or Rome can produce a greater instance of public spirit than this. To see a gentleman of his rank and fortune visiting a distant and uncultivated land, with no other society but the unfortunate whom he goes to assist, exposing himself freely to the same hardships to which they are subjected, in the prime of life, instead of pursuing his pleasures or ambition, on an improved and well-concerted plan from which his country must reap the profits; at his own expense, and without a view or even a possibility of receiving any private advantage from it; this, too, after having done and expended for what many generous men would think sufficient to have done --- to see this, I say, must give every one who has approved and contributed to the undertaking the highest satisfaction; must convince the world of the disinterested zeal with which the settlement is to be made and entitle him to the highest honor he can gain --- the perpetual love and applause of mankind." He died in England on the 1st of July, 1785.
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1868 History
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