“II Promoter of the Port of Brunswick” in “T. Butler King of Georgia”
Promoter of the Port of Brunswick
ON THE MAINLAND across from Retreat stood the village of Brunswick, which became the focus of Thomas Butler King’s activities for half a decade. Exactly when he first became interested in the town it is difficult to determine. By 1826 he had enough faith in its economic possibilities to become one of ten local residents who secured a charter for building a canal there. However, nearly ten years passed before he became a driving force behind the development of the area. There was a direct connection, too, between his political career and the promotion of the port of Brunswick. Since some of these connections are quite clear and others can only be inferred, it may be helpful to look first at the economic affairs and then to examine the political events in King’s life, dealing with them separately even though they were contemporaneous.
King’s planting interests on Saint Simons and the mainland gave him a logical reason for seeking to improve the village and port of Brunswick. In the 1820’s it was a small place, with two stores, a post office, and about ten or a dozen buildings.1 Officially established as a town during the colonial era, Brunswick was resurveyed after the Revolution, but it did not quickly realize the expectations of its planners, who laid out a town that might rival Savannah with its parks and squares.2 It was situated on a deep tidal creek called Turtle River that extended some twenty miles inland and afforded deepwater anchorage for vessels. To the east and north Turtle River opened into Saint Simons Sound, a protected body of water with inland links north to Charleston, South Carolina, and south to the Saint Mary’s River in Florida. Direct access to the Atlantic from the sound was provided by the mile-wide channel between Saint Simons Island on the north and Jekyl Island on the south. On the bar some five miles out toward sea the depth of the channel mouth at low tide was 18 feet, ample for seagoing vessels. In 1836 a naval commission had “no hesitation in preferring Brunswick’’ to all other possible sites for a naval base south of Chesapeake Bay.3 It was true that the nearest navigable river was the Altamaha, twelve miles to the north across swampy lowlands, but enterprising promoters noted the ease with which a canal might be built which would divert the river traffic to the superior harbor at Brunswick.4
Thomas Butler King was one of a group of local residents who in 1826 obtained from the legislature a charter for the Brunswick Canal Company.5 Once in possession of their charter, however, the incorporators did little. They seemed content to leave the management of the project in the hands of William B. Davis, an enthusiastic but inept promoter. Even when the state supplied aid in the form of a gang of slaves and equipment to open a road through the swamps, Davis made very little progress. Eventually, the legislature ordered the sale of the state-owned slaves, and Davis’s mismanagement of the gang on Railroad Creek came to light. He had been plagued by misbehavior, illness, death, and runaways among his charges. Contrary to agreement he had charged the state $500 for his services as superintendent, and he had sold one of the slaves committed to his care, instead of turning him over to the agent appointed to handle the disposal of state property. The legislature passed a resolution of censure and recommended the prosecution of Davis, but he had sold his holdings and had left Brunswick.6 Yet at the very time that Davis was falling into disgrace, the Brunswick development received an endorsement from a governmental commission.
Three residents of the interior part of Georgia, appointed by the governor to survey transportation opportunities, made an enthusiastic report on Brunswick in 1833. Reviewing the commerce of the state, they regarded the Altamaha, not the Savannah, as the principal river for carrying the traffic of upper Georgia. “Savannah, we fear, [so ran their report] is prostrated by the completion of the Charleston rail-road to Augusta.”7 They examined the harbor at Brunswick and investigated the healthfulness of the area. After recounting the plans for a railroad or a canal between the Altamaha and Turtle River, they concluded that it was “highly advisable for the State to render aid in opening Brunswick to the interior.”8 Brunswick was thus brought forward as a rival to Savannah for the expanding market of central Georgia. At stake was not only the fixing of the terminus of projected works of internal improvements, but also the form and amount of state participation in those works.9
It was at this juncture that Thomas Butler King began to gather into his hands the control of Davis’s old Brunswick enterprise. Until now the project had been primarily a local one. Some elements of state aid had been added by the use of the government slaves to open a road to Railroad Creek and by the appointment of the governor’s commission. King made a strong bid for increased aid by the state. Equally important, he enlisted the support of out-of-state capital. Under his direction the original canal proposal became only the starting point for a more ambitious development. A railroad, a bank, and a real estate company were added to the canal to attract distant capitalists to Brunswick.
Since he had been elected to a term in the legislature as a senator from Glynn County, King was in a position not only to influence his fellow legislators on the potentialities of Brunswick, but also to guide favorable laws through the Assembly. In 1834 he secured the passage of a charter for the Brunswick Canal and Railroad Company, in which he, his brother Stephen, and William Wigg Hazzard replaced Davis and Dart as incorporators. The new charter included all the rights and privileges of the one it replaced, and the power of the company was expanded and clarified. A peculiar feature of the new charter was the provision that the operations of the company in canal digging and railroad building should be separated, that different books should be kept on the operations, and that investors should have the option of subscribing to either or both of the projects. In effect, therefore, the new charter set up two separate but related corporations. By another act of the legislature the state proposed to subscribe $50,000 to the company when the organization was completed and other stockholders had paid the assessments on their subscriptions.10
King also took a step to convert some of the hitherto fruitless publicity into concrete plans for a canal. He engaged Loammi Baldwin, an engineer famous for his work on the Union Canal of Pennsylvania, to survey the route of the canal and submit specifications and cost estimates of the contemplated work.11 The lack of such a survey previously is a measure of the vague and impractical leadership from which the company had suffered before King stepped to the fore. Finished plans and reliable estimates would be indispensable if King was to secure financial backing for the project. Consequently, his assumption of the expense of the survey may be regarded as a contribution of prime importance toward the beginning of the Brunswick canal.12
In 1835 the legislature granted Thomas Butler King, Stephen Clay King, and Isaac Abrahams a charter for the Brunswick and Florida Railroad Company. This company, capitalized at $2,000,000, was given the right to build a railroad between Brunswick and any point on the Florida-Georgia boundary. Work was to commence within two years and to be completed within ten years, and the company was given a twenty-five-year monopoly on its route. By further action of the legislature the Brunswick and Florida Railroad acquired the right to perfect title to all ungranted lands within one hundred yards of its route.13
Still a third corporate organization was added to the already ambitious program of the promoters with the chartering of the Bank of Brunswick. The two King brothers, with nine associates, were authorized to form this corporation, capitalized at $200,000. Note issue was limited to three times the amount of paid stock. Although the Bank of Brunswick was separate from both the canal company and the railroad company, the close relationship of the three corporations was revealed by a curious clause regarding increased capitalization. On the completion of the canal, the bank was to be permitted to increase its capital to $1,000,000, and on the completion of the Brunswick and Florida Railroad a further increase to $3,000,000 was to be permitted. By the terms of the charter the United States Bank of Pennsylvania was forbidden to hold stock in the Bank of Brunswick.14
Although the charters which King controlled had potential values, they differed only in detail from countless similar projects that were seeking capital for fulfillment. Owners of risk capital customarily require the promise of extraordinary profits before they undertake a venture. In his bid for outside capital King was able to supply this needed element by resorting to an old American institution, land speculation. Fortunately, his brother Stephen Clay King was the joint owner of a large tract adjoining the townsite of Brunswick.15 By action of the legislature in 1835, one third of the Brunswick town common lying along the Turtle River was surveyed into lots and sold for the benefit of the school and academy funds.16 King himself acquired title to numerous lots and to 700 acres previously regarded as town commons.17 If any of the plans for developing Brunswick were fulfilled, the value of lands within the town and nearby would be greatly enhanced. Armed with his charters, his survey, and control of lands in Brunswick, King was well equipped to appeal to the pocketbooks of investors when in 1836 he journeyed to Boston in search of capital.
The opportunities King presented were quickly seized by Boston financiers. The capital for the completion of the canal was promised, and arrangements were made for the railroad reconnaissance and survey. In addition, the Boston investors organized the Brunswick Land Company, which bought Stephen King’s land adjoining Brunswick and set about acquiring other real estate in and near the town. Steps were taken to buy Blythe Island, lying in Turtle River just across from the town, in the hope that the federal government would purchase it for a naval establishment.18
Unlike the Bostonians, who wished to push the canal to completion and reap quick profits from their land company, King placed his faith in the railroad as the most important of the schemes. While he used his place in the state Senate to secure further privileges for all of the Brunswick companies, he devoted his most intense efforts to the Brunswick and Florida Railroad. He completed the initial organization of the corporation and supplied encouragement to the surveying crews which were reconnoitering the route. When the surveyors had difficulty securing funds from the treasurer of the joint companies, he advanced his own money to enable them to proceed rapidly. After five months of field work the engineers returned to Boston, paid off their crews with promissory notes, and began to prepare profiles and topographic reports.19
The Panic of 1837, which struck the country just as the engineers returned to Boston, caught them and their sponsors by surprise. The reversal of financial affairs that followed hit particularly hard at the Brunswick companies, for neither had advanced to the point where any returns could be realized. The close relationship of the different projects now threatened to disrupt all plans. In an attempt to minimize their liabilities, the Boston investors abandoned the railroad scheme. Unable to raise funds for the engineers, they insisted that King was personally responsible for the expenses. Since the land company had only a potential value, stockholders were urged to pay delinquent subscriptions so that all efforts might be concentrated upon the canal project which would enhance the land value. King was called on not only to assume the debt for the railroad survey, but also to pay his share of the assessments to meet outstanding obligations and to maintain the credit of the canal company.20
An acrimonious dispute now arose between King and his Boston associates. They charged him with responsibility for 5,500 shares of stock, four times the amount he would acknowledge. He agreed to take over the subscriptions of his brother Stephen and those of Joseph M. White, Delegate in Congress from Florida Territory, but denied any further charges. “I subscribed for no other friends nor persons, nor do I know who you thus call my friends and presume to charge me with their stock,” he wrote.21 Moreover, he pointed out, he had spent his time on the business of the companies, to the neglect of his planting interests. He had even advanced money from his private account to meet sudden demands for capital. He promised to pay his assessments as soon as his crop was sold and called on other subscribers to meet their obligations as well.
More serious differences disturbed King’s relations with his Boston associates. He disagreed emphatically with their decision to abandon the railroad in favor of the completion of the canal. Instead of contracting operations, he favored pushing the railroad vigorously and using his recently acquired charter for the Bank of Brunswick to finance all operations. He suggested the consolidation of the land company with the railroad company and the pursuance of a bold policy.
… my object being to create a great Boston interest at Brunswick, and in this Rail Road. The interest of the land or city company is inseparably connected with the construction of the Rail Road, that being the great enterprise which must and will give a value to the city property, greater than can be readily estimated. The canal it is true will unquestionably produce a rich harvest, but the Rail Road vastly greater.22
In the same letter King announced his intention to promote the railroad vigorously and to secure further aid from the state.
The Boston investors rejected King’s proposals. While they admitted his services to the company and realized the potential value of the bank charter, they insisted that the surveying parties be paid by the delinquent stockholders. The Boston directors recommended that the treasurer collect the debts owed to the railroad company, pay the engineers, and distribute the residue on a pro rata basis among stockholders. King was requested to keep the charter alive until a more propitious time.23
Since King and the Bostonians could not agree on the policy that should be followed, the operations of the railroad and the canal companies entered a new phase. The work on the canal went forward, with the number of workers being reduced from month to month in an attempt to minimize the effect of layoffs on public opinion. Despite the dearth of capital and troublesome right-of-way problems, the contractors continued their work through 1838 and into the summer of 1839. Hopefully, the Boston agent reported to King that “we are not now in want of means … we shall go on with the canal.”24
The Brunswick and Florida Railroad followed a different course. King determined to continue the project in spite of the withdrawal of his Boston colleagues. In February 1838 he once more journeyed north in search of capital, this time to Philadelphia. In most respects his proposition to Philadelphia capitalists resembled the one that he had made in Boston. Since the railroad company had never been formally organized, he still retained control of the charter. In addition, he offered to investors the lands in Brunswick that he controlled. He also offered the control of the Bank of Brunswick, whose charter he had procured in 1836. However, no financial backing resulted from this journey, and King returned to his plantation.25
Rebuffed in both Boston and Philadelphia, King turned to the planters of his own area for support. During May, June, and July of 1838 he conducted a series of public meetings in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, attempting to induce inhabitants in the vicinity of the proposed road to subscribe for stock. The subscription method of financing among planters was an inflationary credit arrangement, involving little actual cash. As outlined by King, it would require the planter to pay his subscription by depositing his notes, and the amount of the notes was to be limited to one half an appraised valuation of the subscriber’s real estate, by which the notes were to be secured.26 The investor who lived near the route and owned slaves would be able to retire his notes by working his slaves on the line in the off season. If all went well he would thereby acquire transportation for his crop, increased value for his land, and stock in the railroad. The response to King’s efforts was gratifying. He secured subscriptions for $1,500,000, and he and his agents had no doubt that in many cases the amounts could be increased. King wrote a triumphant letter to one of his Boston friends, recounting his successes and future plans for the railroad.27
Under the impetus of King’s energetic promotion, plans for the railroad went forward promptly. In a move to inspire public confidence, King induced Moncure Robinson, one of the country’s best-known railway engineers, to become chief engineer of the railroad.28 King also paid off a debt to Henry Curtis, one of the field engineers of the previous survey, by employing him as assistant engineer.29 Plans were mapped for sale of stock in the north, and for the floating of a bond issue on the London market, part of the payment to be made in iron rails. As senator from Glynn County, King also endeavored to procure state aid for the railroad from the legislature.30
Stimulated by the revived railroad plan, the whole Brunswick development regained some of its vigor. The treasurer of the new company wrote from Boston:
I observe here, a very considerable elevation in the spirits of the Brunswick stockholders.… This arises, in the main, from the flourishing prospect of our railroad; but partly also from the very decided revival of business.…31
Stockholders began to pay assessments that were in arrears and to show interest in the new company. Moncure Robinson’s acceptance of the position of chief engineer aided the promoters in their efforts to sell stock. So, too, did the connection of General James Hamilton, former governor of South Carolina, who was preparing to go to England to market the company’s bonds. Hamilton looked to Boston subscribers to use their influence with the House of Baring in London to effect bond sales.32 Even more encouraging were the stock purchases that New York financiers began to make. A firm of that city declared its intention to open a commercial house in Brunswick and to run two vessels to the port monthly.33 The Bank of Brunswick, which had opened its doors the preceding November, continued to maintain specie payment.34 Ship clearances from Brunswick reached a peak never before attained.35
In the spring of 1839 Thomas Butler King had good cause to be pleased with the events of the past five years. He had taken up the old Brunswick project of Davis, had initiated new schemes, and had used his place in the legislature to advance them. Largely through his efforts, money and labor had been poured into Brunswick, which could now boast of an increased population, a hotel, a newspaper, and a bank. The canal, now nearing completion, had employed the labor of several hundred men for three years. The railroad survey was completed, and construction could get under way in the fall. Formidable difficulties had been surmounted through energetic promotion that had required long travels. The cost in time and money had been great and he had neglected his planting interests, but the financial harvest could not now be far away. Another harvest had already been reaped in the fall of 1838, when the voters of Georgia elected him to represent them in Congress. A wider arena now opened before him, as he looked toward service in the House of Representatives in Washington. The management of the Brunswick development would have to be left in other hands, while he moved on to the national scene.
Despite his involvement in politics and business, King remained essentially a planter, dependent on the vagaries of the weather and the cotton market. His railroad, because of the method of financing, was also directly geared to the economy of the agricultural community. In the late 1830’s cotton-growing was a feeble staff for anyone to lean on. In the middle of the decade cotton prices on the world market began a downward trend that was to last for ten years.36 The Panic of 1837 had struck hard at the cotton grower, although the total effect was not immediately apparent. Through the inflationary policies of the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania, the satellite banks to the south and southwest were able to maintain a semblance of normal operation. When banks generally began to resume specie payment in 1838, cotton prices rose again slightly, seeming to presage the return of prosperity. This apparent recovery was merely the prelude to a more complete collapse. When the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania suspended specie payment for the second time, on October 9, 1839, the inflated credit system of the cotton South collapsed.37 Few escaped the general ruin, least of all the large planters on whose subscription the Brunswick and Florida railroad was based. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the company did not outlast the year 1839. Even the money to pay for Robinson’s survey failed to be supplied, and the engineer withheld his report on the grounds that his contract had not been fulfilled.38 With the suspension of specie payment in October, any thought of beginning the railroad would have been absurd.
The collapse of all the Brunswick development schemes was even more rapid than their rise. The canal and the railroad came to a halt in 1839. The Bank of Brunswick and the Brunswick Advocate both suspended operations. Mayor Andrew King laid aside his official duties and made plans to move to Cuba to manage a sugar plantation.39 The harbor fell into disuse, only one ship clearing the port in 1842. The hoped-for purchase of Blythe Island for a naval base did not materialize, although recommended by a naval commission. A statistical survey published in 1849 dismissed the bright hopes of the previous decade with the comment that “Brunswick no longer attracts public attention.”40
For King, the full meaning of this financial debacle would not be ascertained until after a general accounting; the disappointment of his hopes was more immediate. Throughout his connection with the Brunswick development schemes he had displayed energy, optimism, and determination. His optimism had led him to pile one under-capitalized company upon another and in their management he had misinterpreted the trends of the economy. His persistence had overcome many difficulties, but lacked the final justification of success. Faulty as his judgment proved in some regards, he nevertheless showed his appreciation of a force that was to revolutionize transportation in the next half-century. The building of the Brunswick and Florida and the Atlantic and Gulf railroads two decades later justified his faith in the route of his railroad, if not in his method of financing. Of his ability to inspire followers there could be no doubt. He was successful alike with urban capitalists in the North, with fellow planters of southeastern Georgia, and with political colleagues in the state Senate. His later successes in politics showed that he retained the confidence of those who were closest to the scene. The political career that developed while he was displaying his talents as a promoter requires further elaboration.
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