USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee from the earliest time to the present : together with an historical and a biographical sketch of from twenty-five to thirty counties of east Tennessee, V.2 > Part 36
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with the treasury notes or bills according to his necessities, limited only by his ability to give good real estate or other security. The prospect of the enactment of this bill brought forth vigorous remonstrances, one by the citizens of Davidson County to the Senate, signed by Gen. An- drew Jackson, Col. Edward Ward and others, and one to the House of Representatives, signed by numerous other citizens. The remonstrance sent to the Senate was ascribed by some to the pen of Gen. Jackson, though that he wrote it was denied by those who assumed to know. It objected to the bill as being in violation of the Constitution of the United States, that instrument forbidding any State to make any thing but gold and silver a legal tender. While the remonstrance was denounced by some of the supporters of the loan-office bill as dictatorial in its terms, it, in conjunction with that sent to the House, caused this bill to be de- feated.
Gen. William Carroll, who was inaugurated governor, as the succes- sor of Joseph McMinn, October 1, 1821, expressed it as his opinion that "a determination on the part of the people to promote agriculture and domestic (household) manafactures and to lessen the consumption of foreign goods would soon relieve the most of the community from pres- ent pressure."
During the first twenty years of the present century there was com- paratively little trouble over the slavery question. However, trouble was always anticipated. On November 3, 1803, an act was passed by the Legislature to prevent the use by any person of words having a tendency to inflame the minds of slaves or persons of color, such inflammatory words to be directed toward and be in favor of general or special eman- sipation, etc. The sentiment of the people of the State generally against slave-trading, up even to the time of the civil war, was very strong. In 1812 this sentiment found expression in an act by the Legis- lature prohibiting the importation of slaves into Tennessee for the pur- pose of selling them, though slave-holders were not prohibited from im- migrating to Tennessee with their slaves. And in 1815 the question, which a few years later became one of National concern and importance (in this instance the admission of free colored persons into Missouri), began to agitate the people of this State. The Governor sent a message .to the Legislature, informing them that about fifty free negroes had been brought into Tennessee from Virginia. "for the purpose of obtaining a residence in this State," and that nearly the same number would be forwarded in the early part of the ensuing winter for the same purpose. The Governor said that such a practice was inconsistent with the dignity of the State, and it would be a reproach on their character as citizens of
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Tennessee if it should not receive propor consideration. A bill to pro- hibit the introduction of free persons of color into this State was pro. sented in, discussed and rejected by the Legislature, whereupon the Gor- ernor expressed himself as of the opinion that it was "impolitie to place citizens of another State on a better footing than those of our own State."
Besides these two questions, that of the emancipation of the slaves carly attracted attention, and found numerous advocates in Tennessee. Gen. William Carroll was inaugurated governor October 1, 1821, and on the next day a report was made by a committee, to which had been submit- tod a petition of a number of citizens praying that the Legislature would take into consideration the situation of the slaves, and to devise some plan for their relief, on allowing masters to emancipato such as were able to maintain themselves, and to declare all descendants of slaves born after the passage of a law to that effect, to be free upon arriving at a certain age, and to prevent the separation of husband and wife.
Free negroes were among the earliest persons to acquire a residence within the present limits of Tennessee. Their settlement was permitted without serions interruption until 1831, although during the decade of the twenties, owing to the agitation of anti-slavery sentiments in the North. and the steady growth of pro-slavery sentiments in the South, opposition to free negro citizenship, if such a condition could exist under the Con- stitution, was strongly manifested throughout the State. Slavery, highly profitable to slave-holders, had become a fixed institution. It was not only profitable but in the highest degree convenient. It shifted all the drudgery and many of the lower varieties of physical labor from the whites to the blacks, bestowing upon the former abundant time and opportunit; for the cultivation of the social, moral and intellectual virtues. It out- lined and established aristocratic circles and caste ; and the upper classes of whites, owing to the immunity from hard labor, the ease with which they acquired comparative wealth, and the leisure they had to devote to amusement, cultivation and study, became distinguished far and near for their culture and refinement. Their renown for hospitality extended beyond the limits of their own country. The polite schools of the aristocratic courts of Europe furnished no bluer bloods or truer ladies and gentlemen. Poets, statesmen, philosophers and artists arose, plen- didly proportioned, amid the sunshine shed upon the lives of the upper classes. Is it any wonder that slavery was welded to the car of progress. and that it was forced to march forward with a civilization that regarded it with abhorrence ? The splendid social and scholastic opportuni- ties, extending as they did through several generations, gave permanence to grace, culture and refinement. Pleasing evidences of these accom-
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plishments are yet to bo soon throughout the length and breadth of the State.
But how fared it with the colored race? Their bonds had been riveted tighter by legislative enactments and social usages, and every vostige of obstruction in the way of absolute serfdom had crumbled, or was crumbling in pieces. Education was denied them, as it made them independent and rostless under restraint. Religion was awarded them, as it made them truthful, moral and subdued. The effect upon the slaves of the presence of free negroes was prejudicial; and various ex- pedients were proposed, either to counteract such influence or to remove free colored people from the State. At length the Legislature passed the following enactment:
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That it shall not be lawful for any free person or persons of color, whether he, she or they be horn free or emancipated agreeably to the laws in force and use, either now or at any other time in any State within the United States, or elsewhere, to remove him, her or themselves to this State to reside therein, and remain therein twenty days; and if any such free person or persons of color shall presume or attempt to reside therein, contrary to the provisions of this act, every such person or persons of color shall be liable to be indicto before the grand jury of the county, or circuit court of the county, where he, she or they may attempt to reside, and if convicted, shall be fined in a sum not less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars, to the use of the county, and shall, moreover, be sentenced to hard labor in the penitentiary for a term not less than one year nor more than two years, the term of service. to be fixed by the judge; and if any such free person or persons of color as aforesaid. shall fail or refuse to remove him, her or themselves from this State, within thirty days after his. her or their discharge from the penitentiary, unless detained by sickuess or some unavoidable accident. such person or persons shall again be liable to indictment as before, and upon con- viction shall be sentenced to labor in the penitentiary for a term double the longest term before mentioned, but shall not be liable to any pecuniary fine, as in the first instance is provided.
SEC. 2. Be it enacted, That it shall not be lawful, from and after the passage of this act, for any court or any owner or owners of any slave or slaves to emancipate any slave or slaves, except on the express condition that such slave or slaves shall be immediately removed from this State, and every person or persons so desiring to emancipate any slave or slaves shall, before such emancipation be allowed, enter into bond with good and suf- ficient security in a sum equal to the value of such slave or slaves so to be emancipated, conditioned that said slave or slaves shall forthwith remove from this State, which esid condition shall be a part of the judgment of such court.
SEC. 3. Be it enacted, That it shall be the duty of each of the judges of the circuit courts in this State, to give this act in charge to the grand juries at each and every term of the courts respectively; and it shall be the duty of the several attorneys-general to re- quire information upon oath, from all sheriffs, coroners, constables and any other person or persons they may think proper to call on, so as to enable him or them to prosecute all offenses under this act, whose fees on conviction shall be the same as in cases of felony now allowed by law.
December 16, 1831.
The first serious anti-slavery demonstrations were made within the State during the decade of the thirties. Organized societies in the North bad for several years distributed anti-slavery books and pamphlets in Ten-
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nessee and other slave-holding States, for the purpose of fanning the fires of abolition. Able representatives of the abolition societies had been sent to the Southern States to teach and preach universal emancipation and to distribute where they would have the greatest effect illustrated publico- tions showing the more deplorable results of the institution of slavery. They were everywhere met with the bitterest opposition. On the 5th of August, 1385, Rev. Amos Dresser was arrested at Nashville for having in his possession publications calculated to incite an insurrection of the slaves. When the facts became known great excitement prevailed. A "Committee of Vigilance and Safety," consisting of sixty-two residents of Nashville, appointed to try him, found him guilty of the following specifications : 1. Of being an active and efficient member of the Aboli- tion Society of Ohio. 2. That he bad in his possession, in Nashville, sun- dry pamphlets of a most violent and pernicious tendency, and which, if generally disseminated, would in all human probability cause an insurrec- tion or rebellion among the slaves. 3. That he published and expose.l to public view the said pamphlets in Nashville and Sumner County. After what was considered an impartial trial, he was adjudged guilty by the committee, sentenced to the punishment of twenty stripes upon his bare hick, and ordere.l to leave Nashville within twenty-four hours, This sentence was promptly carried into execution. Just before this event serious disturbances had occurred in Mississippi and other Southern States from the same cause. An uprising of the slaves in Tennessee was apprehendel at this period, and extra precautions were taken to pre- vent it. The " Committee of Vigilance and Safety " at Nashville was authorized to adopt measures to hold the blacks in subjection.
As a consequence of the anti-slavery movements, public meetings were held throughout the State to denounce the course of the abolition- ists and to nullify their proceedings. On the 30th of August, 1835, at Nashville, a public meeting of the " Committee of Vigilance and Safety " was held, John Shelby serving as chairman. The following boycotting resolutions (similar ones being adopted in many other parts of the State) were adopted :
WHEREAS, It is believed by this committee that funds to a large amount have been con. tributed by Arthur Tappan and other fanatics of New York, for the purpose of disseminat. ing through the Southern and Western States incendiary pamphlets, inciting the slaves :0 revolt; and it is known that many of our merchants are in the bibit of purchasing zooda of said Tappan (merchant of New York) thereby increasing his power to injure us, There- fore,
Resolved, That we recommend to the merchants of this city and of the State of Tennessee to make no purchases of said Tappan; also
Resolved, That we advise our citizen, to abstain from dealing with any merchant who is known to make any purchase from said Tappan or any other abolitionist after this date.
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Resolved, That the merchants of Nashville and the State of Tennessee be requested to hold meetings and express their views upon the subject of trading or dealing with Arthur Tappan & Co. or with any other abolitionist.
So vigorous and so prompt was the action taken by tho slave-holders that abolition agitators were obliged precipitately to leave the State.
From this time until the war of 1861-63 the breach between the North and South continued to grow wider and deeper. The abolitionists con- tinued their work, sending broadcast over the South. so far as they could escape the vigilance of slave-holders, active representatives and sundry publications calculated to encourage partial or general emancipation. To a large extent this was accomplished despite the watchfulness and op- posing energy of the slave-holders. Slight insurrections of the slaves under these teachings were promptly and effectually checked. Abolition- ists were persecuted and driven from the State. Hundreds of runaway slaves were assisted by Northern societies and individuals on their way to Canada. The underground railroad became an historie organization. Finally the fugitive slave law was passed, but it afforded little relief to slave-holders. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott decision, the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the Kansas war, John Brown's in- surrection, the multiplication of Northern abolition societies, and the fiery debates in Congress kindled everywhere, both North and South, extreme bitterness and widened to an impassable degree the gulf dividing the two factions of the Government.
During the session of the Legislature of 1859-60 the " Free Negro Bill" was introduced. It provided that all free negroes, except certain minors, who should remain in Tennessee after the 1st of May, 1881, should be sold into slavery. It was admitted that free negroes were en- titled to the following vested rights : 1. Freedom from any master. 2. Could hold property. Vested rights, it was stated, did not extend to such free colored persons as had assumed a residence within the Stato after the passage of the act of 1831, as such residence was obtained in violation of law; their rights were natural only. It was argued that free colored porsons who had assumed a residence before 1881 had vested rights under the laws but not under the State constitution ; and that the Legislature might repeal such laws and thus annul their vested rights. On the contrary it was maintained that, as the Constitution permitted no retrospective law voiding or impairing the sacredness of contracts. free colored persons who had secured vested rights, such as to hold property, etc., could not be molested; and that, owing to their natural rights, such persons as had assumed a residence within the State after the passage of the law of 1831 and who had thus no ves- ted rights, as they had settled in violation of law, could not be ejected
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from the State by the Legislature. The Supreme Court had decided in the case of The State rs. Claiborne that the word "freeman " meant " cit- zen," and that as a negro could not be a citizen he could not be a free- man. But this, it was rightly urged, referred to the political rights of free colored people and not to their natural rights. such people occupying much the same relation to the State that aliens did. The leading argu- ment against the bill was its unconstitutionality. The debate was closed early in January, 1860, Messrs East, Ewing, Neill S. Brown, Williams, Bennett, Meigs, Keeble, et. al. speaking against the bill, several of their speeches being published verbatim et literatim in the daily papers. it failed to become a law.
About the time of Gov. Carroll's first election, a committee, appointed by the Legislature for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the condition of the banks, and what legislation, if any, was required, re- ported that nothing was necessary to be done. The banks were much more solvent than was generally supposed. This was especially the case with the Knoxville and Nashville banks, the former of which would have to call in but 16 per cent and the latter 29 per cent of its loans, to en- able them to discharge all their indebtedness. The question then nat- urally arose, why were their notes so greatly depreciated ? The commit- tee, of which A. V. Brown was chairman, thought it was owing to ignor- ance on the part of the people as to the true financial condition of the banks, and to the intrigue and management of brokers in some of the principal towns of the State, but especially to the excessive importation of foreign fabrics to the neglect of domestic manufactures. During the early portion of the history of the State, and especially after the close of the war with Great Britain, opposition to the importation of foreign fab- ries was general and intense, and the sentiment was very strong in favor of domestic manufactures. Numerous laws are on the statute books, favoring the establishment of iron works, salt works, paper-mills, etc. ; and Gov. Carroll's messages were never weary of impressing it upon the minds of the people that habits of industry and economy, and special attention to agriculture and domestic manufactures, were of infinitely more value to them than stay and replevin laws and the issue of irre- deemable paper currency-the latter being in fact positive evils, while the former were positive benefits. But the question of encouragement to domestic manufactures by means of a protective tariff appears not to have received much attention from political parties in this Stato previous to 1524. In that year the revision of the tariff, and the augmentation of the duties under it, was one of the principal subjects before Congress. and turned not so much upon the emptiness of the treasury as upon the
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distress of the country. By this time prosperity had returned to the State, or was visibly returning, and possibly for this reason, as well as from principle, Tennessee's representatives, Blair, Isaaks and Reynolds arrayed themselves on the side of Mr. Webster in favor of free-trade. Four years later, when the woolen bill, subsequently cularged into a general tariff bill, came up and marked an era in American legislation, & very large majority of Southern members of Congress, including the en- tire delegation (nine) from Tennessee, were found to oppose its passage.
Yet notwithstanding the predilections of the people of his adopted State in favor of free-trade, Gen. Jackson himself, in his message after he became President, as had all of his Republican predecessors in that office, favored protection. In 1822 his friends who desired his elevation to that great office began a movement which in 1823 resulted in his elec- tion to the United States Senate, and they also procured for him from the General Assembly of tho State a nomination to the presidency, which would give him, it was believed, more prestige before the country than he could otherwise obtain, for the people generally had no very high opinion of his qualifications for civil administration. With reference to this nomination Mr. Tucker says: "At first this nomination afforded matter for jest and merriment rather than for serious animadversion in other States; since, unquestionable as were Gen, Jackson's military qualifica- tions, he was not thought to possess the information, the respect for civil authority, nor the temper decmed requisite in the office of President, and very few believed that the favor which his military successes had pro- duced for him in his own State would find much support for him in other parts of the Union." The General was nominated, however. in 1824, and received 99 electoral votes to 84 for John Quincy Adams, 41 for William H. Crawford, and 37 for Henry Clay. But as he failed to receive a majority of the electoral votes, there was no choice of Presi- dent by the people, and the election was carried into the House of Rep- resentatives, where, through the influence of Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams was elected President, and Mr. Clay made Secretary of State. This appointment by President Adams led to charges by Gen. Jackson's friends against him and Mr. Clay of a bargain with reference to these two high positions, which charges every well informed person now knows to have been without foundation. But the General's defeat only served , to stimulate his friends to renewed and greater efforts in his behalf. The question was again taken up by the Tennessee Legislature as early as October 6, 1$25, on which day the House of Representatives, after a long preamble expressive of confidence and admiration for Gen. Jackson, passed a resolution already passed by the Senate, nominating him their
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next candidate for the presidency. The resolution was carried thirty- seven to one, the one being Lewis Renean, who objected to the action of the Legislature as impolitic and in bad taste, inasmuch as the election was nearly four years hence. Upon hearing of this nomination Gen. Jackson immediately resigned his seat in the United States Senate, thinking it due to himself to practice upon the maximus he had recom- mended to others, and hence felt constrained to retire from a position whence imputation might exist and suspicions arise in relation to the exercise of an influence tending to his own aggrandisement.
HIngh L. White was elected October 23, 1825, to succeed Andrew Jackson in the Senate, and Gon. Jackson becoming a candidate for the presidency in 1828 was triumphantly elected to that office, receiving ITS electoral votes to 83 for Mr. Adams.
In his first inaugural message President Jackson said: "With ro- gard to a proper selection of subjects of impost with a view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity and compromise in which the constitution was formed, requires that the great interests of agriculture, commerce and manufactures should be equally favored, and that per- haps the only exception to this rule should consist of the peculiar en- couragement of any products of either of them that may be found essen- tial to our National independence."
Gen. William Carroll served continuously as governor from 1521 uu- til 1827, in which latter year he was succeeded by Gen. Samuel Houston. who was inaugurated in the Baptist Church in Nashville, October 1. Gov. Houston's administration appears to have been distinguished by nothing more extraordinary than its termination. The Governor was married January 22, 1829, to Miss Eliza H. Allen, daughter of John Allen, of Sumner County, and shortly afterward discovered, or thought he discovered, that she was wanting in that affection which a wife should have toward her husband. His mind was haunted also by the suspicion that she was not a pure and chaste woman. Mrs. Houston was informed by her husband of the thoughts that were in his mind, and which de- stroyed his happiness, the natural result being a serious difficulty be- tween them; and, notwithstanding that the Governor's suspicions were soon dispelled and his opinions changed, that he gave her and her father his assurance of his acceptance of her as a virtuous and chaste wife, and that he would defend her character against all assailants with his life if need be, yet the poison of suspicion had inflicted its wound, and no recon- ciliation could be affected.
Gen. Houston, for this, and perhaps for other reasons, resigned the office of governor of Tennessee into the hands of William Hall. speaker
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of the Sonate. Gen. Houston in his letter of resignation said: " In dis- solving the political connection which has so long, and in such a variety of forms, existed between the people of Tennessee and myself, no private afffictions, however deep or incurable, can forbid an expression of the grateful recollections so eminently due to the kind partialities of an in- telligent public. * * That veneration for public opinion by which I have measured every act of my official life, has taught me to hold ho delegated trust which would not daily be renewed by my constituents, could the choice be daily submitted to a sensible expression of their will; and although shielded by a perfect consciousness of undiminished claim to the confidence and support of my fellow-citizens, yet delicately cir- cuinstanced as I am, and by my own misfortunes, more than by fault or contrivance of any one, overwhelmed by sudden calamity, it is cortainly due to myself and my respect to the world that I should retire from a position which, in the public judgment, I might seem to hold by question- able authority."
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