is the Huguenot Church of Charleston. The early records of the
congregation were destroyed in the fire of 1740, though the building
was saved. This first building was blown up during the fire of 1796,
in a vain effort to stay the progress of the conflagration. A second
building followed in 1800, and the present building was erected in
1828, when English displaced the French language in the services.
Many of the early members became famous in history. The tablets
erected to their memory are so numerous that the Huguenot Church might
well dispute with St. Philip's Church the title, "The Westminster of
South Carolina."
[Illustration: PRINGLE HOUSE, CHARLESTON, S. C.
_Photo by H. P. Cook_
See page 336]
LXXVI
THE HOUSE OF REBECCA MOTTE, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
THE SPARTAN MATRON WHO HELPED BURN HER OWN PROPERTY
Charleston, South Carolina, was only about thirty years old when the
Englishman, Robert Brewton, and the Huguenot exile, John de la Motte,
took up their residence there. In 1758 Robert Brewton's daughter
Rebecca married Jacob Motte, grandson of the Huguenot.
Three daughters came to the Motte home, and the family lived quietly
until the outbreak of the Revolution. In 1775 Mrs. Motte's brother,
Miles Brewton, sailed for England with his family, intending to leave
them with relatives there while he returned to Charleston for the
service of his country. But the vessel was lost, and was never
heard from again. His Charleston house on King Street, which was built
about 1765, became the property of his sister.
When the war broke out, Mrs. Motte, knowing that it was impossible for
her husband to become a soldier because of his failing health, decided
to do her part for her country. Fortifications were to be built, and
many laborers were needed, so she sent to her plantation for all the
able-bodied men; these she placed at the disposal of those in charge
of the work of defence.
She had her reward when, first in 1776, and again in 1779, the British
forces were unable to secure possession of the town. The third
attempt, made by Sir Henry Clinton in 1780, was successful. For nearly
three years the town was in the enemy's control. The Motte house was
made headquarters by Clinton and his staff. The Mottes were crowded
into a small room, while the British lived in comfort in the large
apartments. Mrs. Motte divided her time between her invalid husband,
her timid daughters, and the invaders. It was her custom to preside at
the long dinner table, but the young ladies were never allowed to
appear in the presence of the officers.
A reminder of the presence of the unwelcome guests is still to be seen on
the marble mantel in one of the rooms--a caricature of Clinton scratched
on the polished surface, evidently with a diamond point. In the same
room the women of Charleston--who were accustomed to go about the
streets in mourning, during the period of the occupation--presented a
petition to Lord Rawdon, asking for the pardon of Isaac Hayne, a
patriot who had been condemned for some infraction of the regulations
of the invaders. Their petition for clemency was in vain, though it
was emphasized by the presence of Hayne's two little children.
After the death of Mr. Motte, in January, 1781, Mrs. Motte and her
daughters secured permission to leave Charleston that they might
return to the family plantation on the Congaree, thirty or forty miles
from Columbia. They were disappointed in their desire to be alone, for
it was not long till the English decided to build on the estate one of
their long line of military stations. Earthworks were thrown up around
the house, which became known as Fort Motte. Again the family were
crowded into a few rooms, while officers occupied the remainder.
After a time Mrs. Motte was asked to retire to a small house on the
plantation, a rough structure, covered with weather-boards,
unplastered and only partially lined. At first it seemed that there
was no place here to conceal the silverware brought from Fort Motte.
How the difficulty was solved has been told in "Worthy Women of Our
First Century":
"Some one suggested that the unfinished state of the walls of
their sitting-room afforded a convenient hiding place; and
they set to work to avail themselves of it. Nailing tacks in
the vacancy between the outer and inner boarding, and tying
strings around the various pieces of silver, they hung them
along the inner wall. Shortly afterwards a band of marauders
did actually invade the premises; and one more audacious than
the others jumped on a chair and thrust his bayonet into the
hollow wall, saying he would soon find what they had come in
search of; but, rapping all along on the floor within the
wall, he did not once strike against anything to reward bad
perseverance."
After a time General Marion and Colonel Lee led up troops for the
siege of Fort Motte. Fearing that British reinforcements were on the
way, they decided they must make an attack at once. The best way
seemed to be to set fire to the main building. The American leaders,
knowing that this was the home of Mrs. Motte, took counsel with her.
"Do not hesitate a moment," was the prompt reply of the patriotic
woman. Then she added, "I will give you something to facilitate the
destruction." So saying, she handed to General Lee a quiver of arrows
from the East Indies which, so she had been told by the ship captain
who brought them to Charleston, would set on fire any wood against
which they were thrown.
Two of the arrows were fired from a gun without result, but the third
set fire to the shingles of the house. The efforts of the garrison to
extinguish the flames were in vain, and before long the fortress was
surrendered to the patriots. In later years, when Mrs. Motte was
praised for her part in the siege, she was accustomed to say, "Too
much has been made of a thing that any American woman would have
done."
After the war Mrs. Motte returned to the house in Charleston. The
daughters married, and numerous grandchildren played in the rooms
where the British officers lived during the occupation of Charleston.
The youngest of these granddaughters lived in the house in 1876, when
the story of Rebecca Motte was written for the Women's Centennial
Executive Committee.
During her last years in the old mansion, Mrs. Motte was proudly
pointed out to visitors to the city. One of her great-grandchildren
said that at the time "she was rather under-sized and slender, with a
pale face, blue eyes, and grey hair that curled slightly under a
high-crowned ruffled mob-cap. She always wore a square white
neckerchief pinned down in front, tight sleeves reaching only to the
elbow, with black silk mittens on her hands and arms; a full skirt
with huge pockets, and at her waist a silver chain, from which hung
her pin-cushion and scissors and a peculiarly bright bunch of keys."
The body of this gracious patriot was buried in old St. Philip's
Church, another of the Revolutionary landmarks of the Palmetto City.
The mansion which she made famous should be called the Brewton House,
or the Motte House. But a Motte married an Alston, and an Alston
married a Pringle, and so many families of the latter name have been
associated with the place that their name is popularly given to it.
[Illustration: INDEPENDENT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, SAVANNAH, GA.
_Photo furnished by Rev. Rockwell S. Brank, Savannah_
See page 340]
LXXVII
THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
FOR WHICH KING GEORGE II MADE A LAND GRANT
When George II, of his "special Grace, certain knowledge and meer
motion," gave a deed for a lot in Savannah, "in our province of
Georgia," he declared that it was "for the use and benefit of such of
our loving subjects ... as are or shall be professors of the Doctrines
of the Church of Scotland, agreeable to the Westminster Confession of
Faith." The further stipulation was made that the annual rent, if
demanded, should be "one pepper corn."
The date of the grant was January 16, 1756, and within the three years
allowed for the erection of the building a brick structure was ready
for the use of the Independent Presbyterian Church. The church was
independent in fact as well as in name. There was at first no
presbytery in Georgia with which it could unite, and when a presbytery
was organized, this independent relation continued.
The first pastor was Rev. John Joachim Zubly, who came to the Colonies
from Switzerland. He remained with the church until 1778, and became a
prominent figure among the patriots of the early years of the
Revolution. When the first Provincial Congress of Georgia met in
Savannah, July 4, 1775, it adjourned, immediately after organization,
to the Independent Church, where Dr. Zubly preached a sermon for which
he received the public thanks of Congress.
_The London Magazine_ for January, 1776, contained an impassioned
appeal for the Colonies, which was signed by Dr. Zubly. The editor
stated that the communication was printed at the request of "an old
correspondent," who signed himself "O." It is supposed that this
correspondent was General James E. Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia.
A few months later Dr. Zubly went to Philadelphia, as a member of the
second Continental Congress. He had also been a member of the first
Congress in 1774.
During the siege of Savannah by the British the church building was
badly injured by British cannon, in spite of the fact that it was used
as a hospital. Later the British used the church as barracks. A
visitor who entered the city in 1784 said that he found the church in
a ruinous condition. It was promptly repaired, however, and services
were resumed.
But there was another pastor in the pulpit. In 1778 Dr. Zubly
resigned, probably because, for some strange reason, he deserted the
Colonies and made known his allegiance to Great Britain.
Fire destroyed the original building in 1796, and a fine new church
was built. Twenty-one years later the rapidly increasing congregation
made necessary a much larger structure. The new church was modelled
after St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London, and more than two years were
required for its construction. The cost was $96,108.67-1/2, a large sum
for that day in a town of ten thousand people. Although the middle
aisle was eleven feet wide and each of the side aisles four and a half
feet wide, there were seatings for 1,350 people. The beautifully
proportioned steeple was 223 feet high. The day after the dedication a
local paper said that "for grandeur of design and nature of execution,
we presume this church is not surpassed by any in the United States."
Many architectural writers have told rapturously of the wonders of
this building.
President James Monroe and his suite, as well as many other
distinguished visitors, were reverent worshippers in the church on the
day of dedication.
Lowell Mason, who was organist of the church from 1815 to 1827,
composed the popular melody to which Bishop Heber's missionary hymn,
"From Greenland's Icy Mountains," is usually sung. This melody was
first played by him for the Sunday school of the church, whose
organization dates from 1804.
Dr. S. K. Axson, the grandfather of Ellen Axson, the first wife of
President Woodrow Wilson, was pastor of the church from 1857 to 1889.
The Wilson marriage ceremony was performed by Dr. Axson in the manse
of the church.
All Savannah mourned when, on April 6, 1889, firebrands tossed by the
wind lodged on a cornice of the graceful steeple, too high to be
reached. Soon the old church was in ruins. But the city resolved that
the historic church must be restored. A new building was erected which
is an exact reproduction of the former church. To it, as to its
predecessors, ecclesiastical architects go on pilgrimage as a part of
their education.
One of the old customs still continued in the church is the assembling
of the communicants at a table which is laid the entire length of the
broad aisle, as well as in the transept aisle.
[Illustration: THE CABILDO, NEW ORLEANS, LA.
_Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_
See page 343]
LXXVIII
THE CABILDO OF NEW ORLEANS
WHICH SAW THE TRANSFER OF LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES
When Count Alejandro O'Reilly, Irish Lieutenant-General of Spain,
entered New Orleans on July 24, 1769, he came as the avenger of the
disorders that followed the transfer of Louisiana to Spain by the
Treaty of Paris. After putting to death some of the leaders in the
revolt, he reorganized the civil government. Among other innovations
he instituted the Cabildo as the law-making body for the province, to
take the place of the French superior council. The meeting place was
a building on the Place d'Armes. In this square, on the coming of
O'Reilly, the flag of France had been displaced by that of Spain as
Aubrey said, "Gentlemen, by order of the King, my master, I absolve
you from your oath of fidelity and obedience to his most Christian
majesty." The Spanish and French officers then had gone together to
the cathedral, next door to the meeting place of the Cabildo.
The original building occupied by the Cabildo was destroyed in the
fire of 1788, when, in less than five hours, eight hundred and sixteen
buildings were burned. The loss, amounting to three million dollars,
was a blessing in disguise, for it cleared the ground for the
reconstruction of the city under the leadership of Don Andres
Almonaster y Roxas, who was a member of the Cabildo. He had become
rich since his arrival with the Spaniards, and he had a vision of a
city glorified through his wealth.
First he built a schoolhouse, a church, and a hospital. On one side of
the church he built a convent; on the other side he erected a new town
hall, the Cabildo. The walls--which are as sturdy to-day as in
1795--are of brick, half the thickness of the ordinary brick. Shell
lime was used for the mortar. Originally the Cabildo was two stories
in height, with a flat roof; the mansard roof was added in 1851. At
the same time the open arches of the second story loggia that
corresponded to the arcade on the ground floor were closed, that there
might be more room for offices.
For eight years more the Cabildo continued its sessions under Spanish
rule. Then came the news that Louisiana had been transferred by Spain
to France. Great preparations were made for the ceremonies that were
to accompany the lowering of the Spanish flag and the raising of the
French colors in the square before the Cabildo. Then the prefect
Laussat was thunderstruck by the coming of word that Napoleon had
appointed a Commission not only to receive the colony from Spain but
also to give it into the hands of the United States, to whom the vast
territory had been sold.
The first transfer took place on November 30, 1803. The official
document was signed in the Sala Capitular, the hall where the Cabildo
met, and was read from the centre gallery. Then the tricolor of France
replaced the flag of Spain.
December 20, 1803, was the date of the transfer to the United States.
The American Commission met the French Commission in the Sala
Capitular of the Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, as the French called
the Cabildo. Governor Claiborne received the keys of the city, and the
tricolor on the flagstaff gave way to the Stars and Stripes. A vast
company of citizens watched the ceremonies, listened to the addresses,
and looked at the American troops in the square, as well as at the
French soldiers who were to have no further power in the province.
Grace King, in "New Orleans, the Place and the People," tells what
followed:
"When, twenty-one days before, the French flag was flung to
the breeze, for its last brief reign in Louisiana, a band of
fifty old soldiers formed themselves into a guard of honor,
which was to act as a kind of death watch to their national
colors. They stood now at the foot of the staff and received
in their arms the Tricolor as it descended, and while the
Americans were rending the air with their shouts, they
marched silently away, their sergeant bearing it at their
head. All uncovered before it; the American troops, as they
passed, presented arms to it. It was carried to the
government house, and left in the hands of Laussat."
During the years since that momentous transfer the Cabildo has
continued to be the centre of historical interest in New Orleans. In
1825 Lafayette was quartered here. In 1901 President McKinley was
received in the building. In 1903 the Centennial of the Louisiana
Purchase was observed in the Sala Capitular, which had been for many
years the meeting place of the State Supreme Court. The great hall is
almost as it was when the Cabildo of Don Almonaster met there.
Since 1910 the Cabildo, in common with the Presbytere, the old Civil
District Court, a building of nearly the same age and appearance,
located on the other side of the Cathedral, has been the Louisiana
State Museum. The curios are shown in a large hall on the ground
floor. Among these is the flag used by General Jackson at the battle
of New Orleans.
From this hall of relics a door leads to a courtyard, which is lined
by tiers of gloomy cells. Stocks and other reminders of the old
Spanish days are in evidence.
The old Place d'Armes is now called Jackson Square. On either side are
the Pontalba buildings, which were erected by the daughter of Don
Andres Almonaster y Roxas, who inherited millions from her generous
father. On the spot where the Stars and Stripes were raised in 1803 is
the statue to General Jackson, the victor of the battle of New
Orleans, to which the same public-spirited woman was a large
contributor.
The tomb of Don Andres is shown in the Cathedral he gave to the
people, by the side of the Cabildo which he built for the city he
loved.
LXXIX
THE ALAMO, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
"THERMOPYLAE HAD HER MESSENGER OF DEFEAT: THE ALAMO HAD NONE"
Early in the eighteenth century the Spaniards built in Texas, then a
part of Mexico, a number of staunch structures that were designed to
serve not only as chapels but also as fortresses. The mission that at
length became known as the Alamo was first built on the Rio Grande in
1710, and during the next forty-seven years was rebuilt four times in
a new location, before it was given a final resting-place at San
Antonio, on the banks of the Alazan River. There it was called Alamo,
or Poplar Church. Though the Alamo was begun in 1744, it was not
completed until 1757.
For nearly eighty years there was nothing specially notable about the
building. Then came the events that made the name famous.
In 1832 Sam Houston was sent to Texas by President Jackson to arrange
treaties with the Indians for the protection of settlers on the
border. Just at this time settlers in Texas, which was then a part of
the state of Coahuila, were seeking equal privileges with the other
Mexican states. Most of the settlers had come from the United States,
and they hoped that in time Texas might become a part of that
country.
On February 13, 1833, Houston wrote to President Jackson that the time
was ripe for getting hold of the country. Less than three months later
he was asked to serve as a delegate to a constitutional convention,
which demanded from Mexico the organization of the territory into
states, and was made the chairman of the committee which drew up for
the proposed states a constitution based on that of the United States.
Stephen F. Austin, who has been called "The Father of Texas," went to
Mexico City with the petition. But he was imprisoned, and the request
of Texas was denied by Santa Anna, president of Mexico.
Later, when the colonists attempted to defend themselves against the
Indians and other lawbreakers, the demand was made that they give up
their arms.
The organization of a provincial government followed in 1834, and
Houston was chosen commander-in-chief of the army. The brief war with
Mexico was marked by a number of heroic events, chief of which was the
defence of the Alamo, where a small force of Texans resisted more than
ten times the number of Mexicans.
When the army of Santa Anna approached San Antonio, on February 22,
1836, one hundred and forty-five men, under the leadership of Colonel
James Bowie and Lieutenant-Colonel William B. Travis, retired within
the church fortress. For nearly two weeks these heroic men defended
themselves, and the enemy did not gain entrance until every one of
them was killed.
The details of the heroic struggle were not known until 1860, when
Captain R. M. Potter printed an account in the San Antonio _Herald_,
in which he had patiently pieced together the reports that came to him
through those whom he regarded most dependable among the besiegers,
and from one who was an officer in the garrison until within a few
days of the assault.
Within the walls a well had been dug on the very day the Mexican Army
entered the town. Thus a plentiful supply of water supplemented the
store of meat and corn for the defenders.
A message sent out by Colonel Travis on the night of March 3 told of
the events of the first days of the siege:
"With a hundred and forty-five men I have held this place ten
days against a force variously estimated from 1,500 to 6,000,
and I shall continue to hold it till I get relief from my
countrymen, or I will perish in the attempt. We have had a
shower of bombs and cannon-balls continually falling among us
the whole time, yet none of us have fallen."
Santa Anna led a final assault on March 6. Scaling ladders, axes, and
fascines were to be in the hands of designated men. Five columns were
to approach the wall just at daybreak.
At the first onset Colonel Travis was killed and breaches were made in
the walls. The outer walls and batteries were abandoned, and the
defenders retired to the different rooms within.
"From the doors, windows, and loopholes of the several rooms
around the area the crack of the rifle and the hiss of the
bullet came fierce and fast; as fast the enemy fell and
recoiled in his first efforts to charge. The gun beside which
Travis fell was now turned against the buildings, as were
also some others, and shot after shot was sent crashing
through the doors and barricades of the several rooms. Each
ball was followed by a storm of musketry and a charge; and
thus room after room was carried at the point of the bayonet,
when all within them had died fighting to the last. The
struggle was made up of a number of separate and desperate
combats, often hand to hand, between squads of the garrison
and bodies of the enemy. The bloodiest spot about the fort
was the long barrack and the ground in front of it, where the
enemy fell in heaps."
David Crockett was among those who were killed in one of the rooms. He
had joined the defenders a few days before the beginning of the siege.
The chapel was the last point taken. "Once the enemy in possession of
the large area, the guns could be turned to fire into the door of the
church, only from fifty to a hundred yards off. The inmates of the
last stronghold fought to the last, and continued to fire down from
the upper works after the enemy occupied the floor. Towards the close
of the struggle Lieutenant Dickenson, with his child in his arms, or,
as some accounts say, tied to his back, leaped from the east embrasure
of the chapel, and both were shot in the act. Of those he left behind
him the bayonet soon gleaned what the bullet had left; and in the
upper part of that edifice the last defender must have fallen."
This final assault lasted only thirty minutes. In that time the
defenders of Texas won immortal fame. Four days before, the Republic
of Texas had been proclaimed. Those who fell in the Alamo were hailed
the heroes of the struggle. "Remember the Alamo!" was the battle cry
of the war for independence that was waged until the Mexican Army was
routed at San Jacinto, April 21, 1836.
On the capitol grounds at Austin, Texas, stands a monument to the
heroes of the Alamo, with the inscription: "Thermopylae had her
messenger of defeat; the Alamo had none."
[Illustration: THE HERMITAGE, NASHVILLE, TENN.
_Photo by Wiles, Nashville_
See page 351]
LXXX
THE HERMITAGE, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
ANDREW JACKSON'S RETREAT IN THE INTERVALS OF HIS PUBLIC SERVICE
Andrew Jackson was a pioneer. From North Carolina he crossed the
mountains to what was then the Western District. He was a lawyer, but
he wanted to be a farmer also. His first land purchase was made in
1791. This land was lost in the effort to pay the debts of another.