USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee, from its earliest discoveries and settlements to the end of the year 1894 > Part 6
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4. The Chickasaw Indians yet owned the territory west of the Tennessee River, in both Kentucky and Tennessee, a body of seven million acres. In October. ISIN the general government purchased this of the Indians for twenty thousand dollars, to be paid in fifteen annual instalments. In [817, a petition was signed by many of the leading men of the State to locate a branch of the United State Bank at Nashville, but before it was con- sidered the Legislature possel a law forbidding the opening of such a bank in Tennessee. Ten years later the law was repeated and the bank, with a nominal capital of one million dollars. was established and did business natil, in 1832. President Jackson vetoed the bill re-chartering the United States Bank, and it ceased to exist.
5. The Tennesseears in common with the people of the Western States experienceda de astrode financial panic in 1820. Governor MeMian convenel the Legislature in extra session, to provide means of relief. On July 25, an act was passed to establish a bank of the Stat . of Tennessee, for the purpose of relieving the Mistress of the community on I improving the revenues of the State. The capital -tack was fixed at one million dollar- in bills payable to order or have to be ithal on the credit and security of the borrower, and the whole to be warranted by the State on the proceeds of the sales of public lands. The Treas
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THE HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
urers of East and West Tennessee were ordered to deposit all tis public moneys in the bank, and the Governor was authorized to issue stock bearing six per cent. interest, to an amount no exceeding two hundred and fitty thousand dollars. By injudy cious management. the bank was, in 1833, abolished, by sag gestion of Governor Carroll. It had done very little good.
6. In ISI". Monroe assumed the helm of the nation. He was one of the most equitable of men and filled the Presidential office satisfactorily. He was born in Virginia. April 28, 1758, and. schooled in Jefferson's and Madison's principles, he was popular and safe. Utterly without ostentation, he possessed al! the solid virtues, and in the consideration of men and measure- he used the coolest judgment. Under his administration the Seminole war raged with savage fury, but its conduct was con- fided to Andrew Jackson. Florida was ceded to the United States for five million dollars. The acquisition was a grand one and was almost universally popular. Alabama, Maine and Ilfi- nois were now admitted to the Union. Louisiana was admitted under Madison.
7. Anti-slavery agitation was already rife, the application of Missouri for admission to the sisterhood giving rise to a heated debate and the adoption of the Missouri Compromise Measures. by which slavery was prohibited North of 361. degrees. 1820. Monroe encountered no opposition, being elected by the unanimous suffrage, excepting one electoral vote. The most eventful occurrences under him were the admission of Missis sippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine and Missouri, the purchase of Florida. the capture of Pen-acola, the Seminole war, the pas- sage of the Missouri Compromise Measures, and the visit of Lafayette.
8. In 1821, William Carroll was a candidate for Governor. opposed by Edward Ward. Carroll was overwhelmingly elected and held this high position till 1827. In the last two campaign- he had no opposition. William Carroll was born in Pennsylvania
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AV ERA OF PEACE.
1789, but removed to Nashville p isto and opened a nail store. MI- delighted in military tactics. I was in all things conscientious ad careful. In many things he as wrong. but he had great influ- Face with the Legislature. The nous in 1820 Showed three han- fred and thirty-nine thousand nine Hundred and twenty-seven whites, two thousand seven hundred and :hirty-nine free negroes, and eighty- GOV. WILLIAM CARROLL. "yo thousand eight hundred and eighty-four slaves in Ten- : ** see.
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9. The history of tobacco cultivation in Tennessee dates back to its earliest settlement. The pioneers who settled in the fertile valleys of the Watauga, Nohchucky and Holston Rivers raised it for their own consumption. The Cumberland settlers also cultivated it. By IN20, seven thousand hog head- were annually sent to New Orleans and exchanged for coffee, sugar, salt and other commodities. In Ists, the extinguishment of Indian titles in West Tennessee added immensely to the available area for cultivation. Prices were low, but it is said the cost of production Was less than one dollar per hundred pounds. From 1são to toto its culture was widely extended. Henry county, in 1940. made nine million four hundred and seventy-nine thousand and -exty-five pounds. In I842, the first effort was made to establish a tobacco market at Clarksville, and in 1945. warehouses were erected for the care and inspection of tobacco. This is now the great staple of Middle Tennessee. Clarksville is now the second largest tobacco market in the world. It has sold over thirty -ix million pounds in a single year. A few other cities sell it.
to. In 1825. the State was graced by the visit of General Lafayette. A halt century before he had left his wife and all
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AN ERA OF PEACE.
the charms of life in Paris to do battle in behalf of the struggling American colonies. After acting a distinguished part in the French Revolution, he had returned as the Nation's guest to .eceive the thanks of another generation for the great services he had rendered in the past. He went from State to State. every- where greeted with the utmost love and veneration. He soon returned to France in the United States Ship Brandywine, Sher receiving princely recognition and rewards from Congress.
rt. In this year also, considerable excitement was created .on account of an extraordinary advance in the price of cotton. In a few weeks it rose from twelve to thirty-two cents a pound. This great advance was only temporary, and many people were ruined by the sudden and unexpected decline.
12. In INIO, James Brown and General James Winchester ran the south boundary line between Tennessee and Mississippi, be- ginning at the northwest corner of the State of Alabama and running due west on thirty-Afth degree latitude; the line ran to the lower end of President's Island, about four miles below Fort Pickering, and ten miles below the mouth of Wolf River. Thi- vear West Tennessee was purchased from the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Nashville was honored, June 6, by a visit from President Monroe.
13. In 1824. there were four Presidential candidates, viz: Jackson and Crawford, Democrats: John Quincy Adams, Fever- alist: and Henry Clay, Whig. Of the popular and electoral votes, Jackson had a majority, but the will of the people wa- defeated and the election given to Adams, whose election was by dishonest means, through the coalition of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to defeat Jackson. This cost Clay his popa- larity, and he never regained his grand station in public estima- tion.
14. In 1825. the election of John Quincy Adams to the Pres :- deney, by the House of Representatives, gave a new aspect to political matters. General Andrew Jackson, who had received
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THE HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
the largest popular vote, and was then a Senator from Tennesse became the leader of those who were called " Democrats." Those who opposed him were called "Whigs. "
15. Adams was elected as a Democrat-Republican, but soup found that party arrayed against him. Henry Clay and his el. ment, and the Federalists, supported Adams. In Tennessee. many prominent men arrayed themselves with the new port. These Whigs advocated a continuance of the United States Bank. a tariff for protection on importations, and a distribution to the several States of the money realized from the sale of public lands.
16. General Jackson and the Democrats favored a tariff fox revenue. They contended that the National Bank was not only unauthorized by the Constitution, but dangerous to the liberties of the people. They were likewise unfriendly to the plan of making the States pensioners of the General Government, as proposed in the policy of distribution.
17. Soon great rancor developed between the two parties, both of which had lately been included in the Republican party. Henry Chay and John Randolph inaugurated animosities by a duel, and soon in Tennessee, as elsewhere, amenities were bu! little regarded between the Democrats and Whigs.
IN. This was very absurd. All were citizens of a free coun- try, and were entitled to hold and express opinions as to what was the best policy for the government to pursue. God has constituted men that, if necessary. they must differ in opinion on all subjects. How weak and wicked then, is the man who hates his brother because of the failure to agree on matters that are. atter all, involved in doubt.
ly. It has been always so, however, for when the Constitution was framed in l'iniladelphia, in 1757. all the States but Massi- chusetts recognized the legality of slave property. Very soon afterwards, the "Society of African Emancipation," with Dr. Benjamin Franklin as its President, was organized. It petitioned
INSTITUTIONS ORGANIZED.
Congress to abolish slavery in the States and Territories, but was auswered that the Constitution left this matter to the States, and that the Federal authorities had no power to do it.
QUESTIONS .- 1. How did the people feel at the return of beace? What had British cruisers done? 2. What had Ten- nessee done? To what are we now introduced? What has our State produced? 3. Who were the candidates for Governor in 1815? Who was elected? For how long? What did the people think of free schools? 4. Who owned the West Tennessee terri- tory? How many acres in it? What of the bank of Nashville? Capital? 5. What was experienced in 1820? What did the Governor do? Why? 6. What occurred in INI ;? What can you say of him? For what sum was Florida ceded to the United States? 7. What caused the anti-slavery agitation? Name the principal events in Monroe's administration. S. In 1821. who were the candidates for Governor? What was the census in 1820? 9. What can you say of tobacco culture? Name a mar- Ket. 10. What occurred in 1825? What did he get? rr. What created excitement? Result of panic? 12. Who ran the south boundary line? When? 13. Name the Presidential candidates in 1821. Who was elected? How? 14. Give the substance of this section. 15. What was his politics? Whigs? 16. What did Jackson favor? What of the bank? 17. What developed from the two parties? 18. Why was this absurd? 19. How many States recognized the legality of slavery? What was the object of the "Society of African Emancipation?"
CHAPTER XIV.
INSTITUTIONS ORGANIZED.
1. The Legislature met at Murfreesboro from isto to 1826. but Governor Carroll. April 8. 1826, in a proclamation, decla :- d Nashville the .. Capitol of the State from May I, ensuing. The cotton crop of the State for 1826 was estimated at fifty thousand bales. During this year the first newspaper at Memphis, "The
THE HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
Memphis Advocate." was established. The Nashville Bark failed. Governor William White and Samuel Houston fought . duel.
2. In IN27. Samuel Houston was elected Governor, serving till April 16, 1829 when he resigned, and William Hall. Speaker of the Senate, became Governor, serving till October 1. 1820. Samuel Houston was born near Les ington, Rockbridge county, Virginia, March 2, 1793. He enlisted as a common soldier in the war of 1N12 was chosen ensign, and fought under Jackson with a courage that won his lasting friendship. In 1823, he was chosen Member of Congress. In Jau- uary, 1829, he married the daughter of an ex-Governor; and in the follow- ing April, for reasons never made GOV. SAMUEL HOUSTON. publie, abandoned wife. country, and civilization, was adopted as a son by the chief of the Cherokee nation, and was formally admitted as a chief. The Texas war offered a new field to his ambition. He was made Commander- in-Chief. The Americans at first sustained some severe defeats. and Houston was obliged to retreat before the Mexicans under Santa Anna for nearly three hundred miles, but suddenly turn- ing on his pursuers, he fought the remarkable and decisive battle of San Jacinto. April 21. 1836, at one blow annihilated the Mexican army. and achieved the independence of Texas. The hero of San Jacinto was elected first President of Texas, and re- elected in 1841. and on the annexation of Texas to the United States, in 1815 was sent to Congress. In raso, he was elected Governor of Texas. He opposed secession, but retired to private life when opposition was fruitless, and died in 1962.
3. William Hall was born in Virginia, and came to Tennessee when young, had been Sheriff of Summer county, Brigadier
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INSTITUTIONS ORGANIZED.
General of the Fourth Regiment of Stata Militia during the Creek war, at various times a member { the State Legislature, and, in 1823. speaker pro tem. of the Senate. He possessed the important qualification of being an intimate friend of Jackson. October 28, 1829. the act providing for the building of a penitentiary became a law. Ten acres of ground. about one mile southwest of the Court House in Nashville, was selected as a site, and work began immediately under the supervision of the architect, David Morrison, who quarried the GOV. WILLIAM HALL. rock, upon the grounds, used in its construction, and so vigor- ous was the work prosecuted that a proclamation was issued by the Governor. January 1, 1831, announcing the penitentiary open to receive prisoners. The cost of the building was about Sity thousand dollars. In 1857, the west wing was added at a cost of thirty-six thousand dollars, and in 1867, two large shops. known as the east and west shops, were built. Its first prisoner was W. G. Cook, from Madison county, convicted of malicious vabbing and assault and battery. Being a tailor, he made his own clothes.
4. The cholera, in 1833. invaded the penitentiary, and its ravages were so rapid that in a few days business was suspended unid an extra force of nurses and physicians employed. Not one of the eighty-three convicts escaped the disease, and nineteen died. The State utilized this convict labor in manufacturing various articles of trade. The departments soon added were. shoe-making, coopering, stone-cutting, tailoring, chair-making. blacksmithing, hatting, wagon-making, carpentering, and brick- living. The State aimed to employ the convicts, as far as possible. spon such work as would least compete with private manufacture.
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5. This system was continued till 1966, when the inspect. reported that for the previous thirty years this institution ho cost the State an average of fifteen thousand dollars a year. its session in that year. the Legislature passed an act to establi- a board of three Directors, who were authorized to lease the con victs, prison and machinery to the highest bidder for a term . four years. The lease was made to Hyatt. Briggs and Moo- afterward Ward and Briggs, at forty cents a day for each convic. and the State was to provide guards to preserve discipline. May, 1867 three hundred mutinous convicts attempted to escap. and not succeeding, in the following month they burnt the en shops. The lessees refused to pay for the labor and claime damages, because the State did not preserve order. Finali: the State paid them one hundred and thirty-two thousand ty hundred dollars and sixty-four cents for damages and mater: lost.
6. In 1871. it was leased to Cherry. O'Connor & Co .. a. again in 1876. It then paid the State over one hundred thousand. dollars a year. After this the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad: Company, with headquarters at Tracy City. leased it. The Legislature of 1893 abolished the old prison at Nashville. Am authorized a committee to purchase another site and connect ti: prison with a farm, believing this would secure better result- and ameliorate many of the hard features ot prison life.
7. The Legislature. October 19, 1832, passed an act to bull. a lunatic hospital to be located at Nashville. A site one mit from the city was secured and ten thousand dollars appropriat ... to pay for the same and erect suitable buildings. The asyli was not ready for occupancy till 1840. In 1843, there were off thirteen patients in this institution, which had cont over fifty- thousand dollars. In INA -. Miss D. L. Dix visited Tennessee and found the accommodations for the insane inadequate. Sir memorialized the Legislature for its betterment. Dispositiv was made of the hospital and site, and a healthy location secure !
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INSTITUTIONS ORGANIZED.
pon which a commodious and magnificent structure was erected : hich for a long time was amply sufficient to accommodate the usanle of the State.
>. The Superintendent of this asylum, in this3. urged the Legislature, as he had done previously, to provide more ample accommodations for the insane. At its session in this year, the Legislature appropriated eighty thousand dollars for the erection of the East Tennessee Insane Asylum, near Knoxville. The original appropriation being exhausted, in 1885. the Legislature granted ninety-five thousand dollars more for its completion. March 1. 1886, this asylum was ready for occupancy. Its site. Lyon's View, is one of the most beautiful and desirable that could have been obtained.
9. With these two large asylums, it was found necessary to provide another for the rapidly increasing number of insane, and an appropriation of eighty-five thousand dollars was made for the erection of a similar institution near Bolivar, in Hardeman county. This building, constructed of brick with white stone trimmings, cost over two hundred thousand dollars, and accou- modates hundreds of the unfortunate wards of the State.
to. As early as 1834 or 1835. the Tennessee Agricultural and Horticultural Society was organized, and annual fairs were held for a few years, which did much to develop these industries in the State. This society was represented by some of the best men in the State. In 1840, it established the "Tennessee State Agri- culturist, with Tolbert Fanning, editor. For the promotion o. farming, the Tennessee State Agricultural Society was organized !!! [842, with authorized capital stock of one hundred thousand lollars. .
II. The Medical Society of Tennessee was incorporated by an ict of the Legislature, passed January 9, 1830. One hundred and fifty-four physicians, residing in the various counties of the State, were named in the charter. They were allowed to appoint boards of censors, to grant licences to applicants to practice
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INSTITUTIONS ORGANIZED.
medicine. The first meeting was held in Nashville, May 3. 3%, and its organization completed by adopting a constitution 'd by-laws and a code of medical ethics, and electing officers r two years.
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In. The first Constitution of Tennessee had been so wisely constructed as to subserve its purpose for forty years without sent necessity being telt for its revision. In 1833. in response "a demand in various directions for its amendment, the Legis Mature passed an act, November 27, providing for the calling of a vention, which should consist of sixty members, who should elected on the first Thursday and Friday of March following. tal that it should meet at Nashville on the third Monday in Muy. On May 19, 1834. it assembled and elected Willie Blount. Montgomery county, temporary Chairman, and W. B. Carter was elected President. Many changes were made in the old Constitution.
13. Before this revision, a supreme and despotic power was given the Legislature, whose members usually had the leisure to candidates and the means to be successful. Those primitive lays had election expenses. The Legislature elected all judges. Hate attorneys and justices of the peace. Justices of the peace omposed the County Courts, who elected the sheriff, coroner. trustee and constable. These officers were almost unimpeacha- Me. The convention adjourned August 30, 1834. In 1830, the ensus showed five hundred and thirty-five thousand seven hun- ired and forty-six whites, and one hundred and forty-six thousand ne hundred and fifty-eight slaves in Tennessee.
QUESTIONS .- 1. Where had the Legislature been meeting ? "What did the Governor announce? 2. What occurred in [82-> Five a short sketch of the life of Houston. 3. What of the peni- entiary? Where located? 4. What occurred in it in 1833' Name its business departments. 5. What did the Inspectors sport? Why was it leased? With what result? 6. Who were He lessees? What was done in 1303? -. What of insane a-s-
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THE HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
lums? How many are there and what have they cost? S. Give the substance of this section. 9. Name and locate the third asylum. ro. When and for what purpose was the Tennessee Agricultural and Horticultural Society organized? 1. When was the Medical Society organized? 12. What of the first Con- stitution of Tennessee? How many members revised it? IS. Give the substance of this section.
CHAPTER XV.
GREAT HEROES ELEVATED.
1. General Jackson was pre-eminently a military man, born with the martial instinct. and a Revolutionary soldier at the childish age of thirteen. He was born in North Carolina, but his parents moved to Tennessee while he was but an infant. His career in camps and upon his country's battle-fields had left to the rugged soldier but little time for courtly graces or a finished education, but the native vigor of his mind was wonderful, and his honesty absolutely incorruptible. When approached by Clay's friends for a bargain, in 1924, he bluntly told them that he would see them. and Mr. Clay himself, sunk into the earth before he would soil his honor by such foul huckstering and defiance of the people's will.
2. Adams' unscrupulous conduct in his midnight appoint- ments really forced upon Jackson the sweeping displacements by which numbers were thrown out of office and their places sup- plied by Democrats. Then, too, he might have thought he was bound in honor to reward the Democracy for its services, and console it for its former disappointment. He could, in al! seriousness, have claimed that every man appointed by Adams was fraudulently appointed and was therefore unworthy of the place.
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GREAT HEROES ELEVATED.
3. Jackson's services to his country were vast and varied. For over half a century he had been her brave and faithful sol- dier against foreign and domestic foes, and he was in every way worthy of the honor conferred by the gift of the Presidency. His two terms of office were from 1829 to 1837. He was a true friend, and an open, honorable enemy, and possessed of indomi- table courage. His diplomacy savored rather of the camp than the court, but it was most effectual. By the treaty of 1831, France agreed to pay to the United States five million dollars indemnity for injuries to American commerce.
4. In 1834, that nation had not paid the money, and Jack- son ordered home the American minister then at Paris, and advised that French vessels should be seized in lieu of the money. His method proved effectual, and France at once paid the amount promised.
5. In personal character Jackson was rather dictatorial-the result, no doubt, of a life spent in military commands. where he was supreme, and where such seeming lordliness might easily have been acquired. He was what Dr. Johnson called a "good hater," but he was also the stanchest of friends to those in whom he placed confidence, or to whom he owed gratitude.
6. He was the uncompromising enemy of that first of American money monopolies, the National Bank, and vetoed and re-vetoed it with a will. Doing nothing until he was assured that he was in the right, he seldom faltered or turned back.
7. President Jackson's first Cabinet was: Martin Van Buren, New York. Secretary of State: S. D. Ingram. Pennsylvania. Secretary of the Treasury: John H. Eaton, Tennessee, Secretary of War: John Branch. North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; W. T. Barry, Kentucky, Postmaster-General; John McPherson Berrien, Georgia, Attorney-General. Jackson's first Cabinet did not heartily co-operate with him, and in the formation of his second Cabinet the following were selected: Edward Livingston,
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THE HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
Louisiana, Secretary of State: Louis McLane, Delaware, Secre- tary of the Treasury; Lewis Cass, Ohio, Secretary of War: Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire. Secretary of the Navy; Roger B. Taney, Maryland, Attorney-General; W. T. Barry, Kentucky. Postmaster-General.
8. The principal occurrences during Jackson's administration were the Black Hawk and Seminole wars. the tariff legislation. South Carolina nullification, vetoing the National Bank charter renewal, removal of government funds from the National Bank. admission of Arkansas, anti-slavery agitation, the great panic. twenty million dollar fire in New York, and the massacre of Major Dade and his command of one hundred and seventeen men, but a single one escaping. Jackson was born March 15. 1767, and died June 8, 1545.
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