UNITED STATES
653
UNITED STATES
until 1705. But the largest liberty of conscience was allowed, and a field opened for the sowing of precious seed.
South Carolina was colonized in 1670, and Old Charles- ton founded. The present city of Charleston was laid out and a beginning made in building ten years later. In 1G86 South Carolina began to receive the Huguenots (q. V.) from France, and in a short time had more of these French refugees than any other American colony. The proprietors pledged them protection and citizen- ship, but, owing to the unsettled condition of their po- litical plan, the Huguenots were kept in suspense for many years. The first general act of enfranchisement was passed in their favor in May, 109 1, and their full political rights were established in 1G97. In 1695 began the administration of John Archdale as governor. He was a Quaker of distinction, and ruled with such wisdom and moderation that the colony greatly prospered. He was instrumental in procuring the passage of a law by which all Christians, except the Catholics, were fully enfranchised; and the exception was made against his earnest protest. The policy of South Carolina, as well as that of her northern sister, had been one of religious toleration and civil liberty; consequently no church was establislied by law, but Christians of all denomina- tions were welcomed to her shores. The Dutch came from the banks of the Hudson, the French vine-dressers were sent by king Charles; Churchmen and Dissenters from England, Irish peasants, Scotch Presbyterians, and Huguenots, all found a home and welcome under the genial sun of South Carolina.
The colony of Georgia was founded as an asj'lum for the oppressed poor of England and the distressed Prot- estants of other lands. James Oglethorpe, an English cavalier and member of Parliament, obtained a charter from George H, by which the territory between the Sa- vannah and Altamaha rivers was organized and granted to a corporation for twenty-one years in trust for the poor. This charter was dated June 9, 1732, and the new province was named Georgia, in honor of the king. The organization of the colony was on a liberal basis. Oglethorpe, who was the first governor, was a High- Churchman, but made no distinction among the immi- grants who came. Swiss peasants, Scotch Highlanders, and German Protestants from Salzburg came and made their home with the English. Then came tlie Mora- vians with their vital religion, and the Methodists, in the persons of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. The labors of tlie Wesleys were not pro- ductive of any permanent results, but those of White- field were more successful.
The colonization of Florida was first effected in 1565. Pedro Melendez, a Spanish soldier of a wicked disposi- tion and evil habits, was commissioned by Philip II to explore the coast of Florida, conquer the country, and plant a colony in some favorable site. IMelendez ar- rived in sight of land on St. Augustine's day, but did not land until Sept. 2. The harbor and the river which enters it were named in honor of that saint. On the 8th of the same month, after the proclamation of the Spanish sovereignty and the celebration of mass, the foundations of St. Augustine were laid. This is the old- est town in the United States, having been founded seventeen years before Santa Fe, and forty-two years before Jamestown. The founders were Catholics, and their dastardly leader was a cruel monster wlio hoped to regain the favor of his countrymen by murdering the members of a Huguenot settlement about thirt3'-five miles above the mouth of the St. John's River. The work was done in a most heartless manner, and the French settlement entirely broken up. The outrage was subsequently avenged by Dominic de Gourges, a soldier of Gascony, who attacked successively three Spanish forts on the St. John's, captured the inmates, and afterwards hanged the principal of them.
When La Salle visited the lower Mississippi valley in 1682 he took possession of the countrv in the name of
Louis XIV of France, giving it the name of Louisiana. A settlement was attempted by Iberville and his follow- ers at Biloxi, in 1099. He died before the project was fairly successful, and was succeeded in command by Bienville, who was driven from his post by the Indians and compelled to take up his abode at the present site of New Orleans. Others succeeded Bienville in the gov- ernorship of the new territor}', but he was reappointed in 1718, and began to build a town on the site he had for- merly selected as headquarters, and named the city New Orleans, in honor of the Duke of Orleans. In 1723 it was made the capital of the province. A large tract of country was ceded by France to Spain in 1702, and re- mained under control of that power for thirty-eight years, but was restored in 1800, and in 1803 sold by Na- poleon Bonaparte to the United States for $11,250,000 and the assumption of certain- claims due from the French government to citizens of the United States, amounting to $3,750,000. Thus was purchased, at a cost of $15,000,000, nearly all the territory included in the present states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota Territory, Nebraska, most of Kansas, Indian and Wyoming territories, part of Colorado, and the whole of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington Territor}^ This was afterwards divided up from time to time as the wants of the population required. The Jlississippi valley, while under the control of the French, had many settlements of French Catholics, which have left their impress upon the country to a greater or less extent.