54 POLITICAL GOVERNMENT. 



wether, John Rutherford, Benjamin Taliafero, William Few, 

 John Twiggs, John Morrison, Charles Abercrombie, and Wil- 

 liam Barnett ; and from the sea-coast, Josiah Tattnall, John 

 Milledge, James Jones, David B. Mitchell, George Jones, 

 and James B. Maxwell. All of these are men of note in 

 Georgia's history. Some of them had been members of the 

 corrupted Assembly, They had resisted with scorn alike per- 

 suasion and threats. They had been no more affected by bri- 

 bery or menace than had been the " Conscript Fathers " in- 

 timidated, when the ruffian Gaul entered the Roman Senate — 

 no more moved by allurement or hostility than the everlasting 

 rocks by surges of the stormy ocean. 



POLITICAL GOVERNMENT. 



For about ten years after the establishment of the colony 

 of Georgia, the government was administered by Gen. Ogle- 

 thorpe ; but in 1741, by order of the trustees, it was divided 

 into two counties, one called Savannah county, embracing the 

 territory north of Darien ; the other Frederica, including the 

 island of St. Simon's, and the Alatamaha settlements, each 

 having a president and four assistants. Over Savannah county 

 William Stephens was appointed President, and Henry Parker, 

 Thomas Jones, John Fallowfield, and Samuel Mercer, coun- 

 sellors or assistants. For the county of Frederica no appoint- 

 ments appear to have been made. This state of affairs con- 

 tinued only until May, 1743, when the trustees ordered, that 

 both counties should be united under one executive, and that 

 the president and assistants of the county of Savannah should 

 have the government of the whole province of Georgia. This 

 plan of government existed until 1750, when the trustees or- 

 dered a colonial assembly to be called, consisting of sixteen 

 members proportioned to the number of inhabitants of the dif- 

 ferent districts ; and accordingly the following gentlemen, 

 constituting the first General Assembly of Georgia, met in 

 Savannah, on the 15th of January, 1751. 



