EDUCATION. 67 



oured, and their names will be chronicled among the benefac- 

 tors of the State. While Franklin College shall remain, or its 

 records be preserved, the name of Gov. Milledge will be hon- 

 oured for the noble gift of a large tract of land, intended not only 

 for the site of the College, but also for that of a town, a gift 

 which has, to a large extent, aided the trustees of the institu- 

 tion in sustaining it when other resources failed. While the 

 records of the Baptist denomination of Christians in Georgia 

 shall be preserved, the name of Dr. Mercer will be honoured 

 by the friends of Christian education, for his munificent gifts 

 and bequests to the University which bears his honoured 

 name. And high as the reputation of Gov. Jackson and 

 Abram Baldwin stand, for their political services to the State, 

 I doubt not that their services in the cause of education will 

 add as bright a chaplet to their fame. Such men as the de- 

 ceased Dr. Waddel, and the venerable patriarch of the school- 

 room and the pulpit. Dr. McQuir, can never be forgotten while 

 any history of our State remains. 



As proof that the early inhabitants of our State were not 

 unmindful of the subject of general education, we may appeal 

 to the records of the first settlements of different sections of 

 the country. In Savannah, early provision was made for 

 public education, and especially for the education of the 

 orphan and the poor. The efforts which were made to sustain 

 the Orphan House, and to establish and support Bethesda Col- 

 lege, as well as the minor schools which were open to all the 

 children of the city, are evidence of the feelings and senti- 

 ments of its early inhabitants. 



We may refer also, with pleasure, to the pious, B^secuted 

 men, who first raised their Ebenezer in a sister and adjoining 

 county, and who there at the same time reared the standard of 

 religion and education. 



The early history of the city of Augusta is proof of the 

 same feeling, on the part of her first inhabitants. The provi- 

 sion which was there made for the establishment and ample 

 endowment of her Academy, one of the most useful institu- 

 tions of the kind in our Southern country, is proof that the 

 subject of education was considered by her citizens as one of 

 vital importance. 



The hardy Highlanders who planted themselves upon the 



