The late President, John Adams, saw Oglethorpe in 1785, a short time before his decease.  Within a day or two after his arrival in London, as Ambassador from the United States, had been announced in the public prints, the General called upon him; as was very polite and complimentary.  “He had come to pay his respects to the first American Ambassador and his Family, whom he was glad to see in England; expressed a great esteem and regard for America; much regret at the misunderstanding between the two countries; and felt very happy to have lived to see the termination of it."[1] There was something peculiarly interesting in this interview.  He who had planted Georgia, and provided for it during the earliest stages of its dependent condition as a Colony, held converse with him who had come to a Royal Court, the Representative of its NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE!

[Footnote 1:  See a letter from President Adams to Dr. Holmes. Annals, Vol.  II. p. 530.]

A writer in the year 1732, and within the month on which the charter for Georgia was issued, made the following remarks:  “If the Trustees give liberty of Religion, establish the people free, fix an agrarian law, and go upon the glorious maxims of liberty and virtue, their Province, in the age of a man, by being the asylum of the unfortunate, will become more and more advantageous to Britain than the conquest of a kingdom."[1] The suggestion here made was seasonable and judicious; and the prospective intimation was a prophecy, accomplished in a sense not imagined, and surely not anticipated by the writer.  The Province did become, whilst its founder was yet living, and therefore “in the age of a man,” a highly advantageous acquisition to Great Britain in a commercial relation; and, though dismembered from the Empire, an important independent State.

[Footnote 1:  London Magazine for 1732, p. 198.]

This remarkable man, abstemious in his mode of living, regular in his habits, and using much exercise, enjoyed good health to extreme old age; and such was his activity, that he could outwalk persons more than half a century younger.  At that period of advanced life, when the weight of years usually bears down the elasticity of the mind, he retained all that spring of intellect which had characterized the promptitude of earlier days; his bodily senses seemed but little impaired; and his eye-sight served him to the last.

He died at his seat at Cranham, of a violent fever, 30th of June, 1785.

  “And dropt like Autumn fruit, which, ripening long,
  Was wondered at because it fell no sooner."[1]

[Footnote 1:  The library of General Oglethorpe was sold by Calderwood in 1788.  It comprised standard works of Ancient and Modern History, of the Drama, Poetry, and Polite Literature.]

CONCLUDING REMARKS.