USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee, its people and its institutions > Part 16
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ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIE BLOUNT.
The carnage was terrible. The Indians neither asked nor would they receive quarters. Between eight and nine hundred of their braves ' were slain. Hardly more than a score escaped. Jackson's fatalities were 49 killed and 154 wounded, about one-third of whom were friendly Indians. This was the last stand made by the Indians. Their power was utterly and permanently broken.
298. Weatherford's Speech .- Weatherford accepted Jackson's terms of peace in a speech that has been pronounced the most remark- able of any in the Indian tongues.3 "There was a time," he said, "when I had a choice and could have answered you. I have none now - even hope has ended. Once I could animate my warriors to battle, but I can not animate the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my voice ; their bones are at Talladega, Tellushatchee, Emuckfau, and Tohopeka. I have not surrendered myself thoughtlessly. Whilst there were chances of success I never left my post nor supplicated peace, but my people are gone, and I now ask it for my nation and for myself. On
the miseries and misfortunes brought upon my country, I look back with deepest sorrow, and wish to avert still greater calamities. If I had been left to contend with the Georgia army, I could have raised my corn on one bank of the river, and fought them on the other; but your people have destroyed my nation. You are a brave man. I rely upon your generosity. You will exact no terms of a conquered people but such as they should accede to. Whatever they may be, it would now
be murder and folly to oppose. If they are opposed, you shall find me amongst the strongest enforcers of obedience. Those who would still hold out can be influenced only by a mean spirit of revenge, and to this they must not and shall not sacrifice the last remnant of their country. You have told our nation where we might go and be safe. This is good talk, and they ought to listen to it. They shall listen to it!"
299. Jackson Goes to New Orleans .- On the return of General Jackson and his militia to Tennessee, they were everywhere received with unbounded enthusiasm. Jackson was the idol of the State. Old enmities were forgotten; geographical boundaries were obliterated : the whole State united to do him honor. His fame penetrated even beyond the State. In May, 1814, a brigadier generalship in the regular army fell vacant, and the President offered it to General Jackson. few days later. Major General William Henry Harrison resigned. Be- fore General Jackson had accepted or rejected the brigadier generalship.
3 Henry A. Wise's Seven Decades of the Union, p. 62. See Pickett's History of Alabama.
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he received a tender of the major generalship, which he at once accepted. He now marched to New Orleans, and the fame of his exploits there penetrated to the remotest quarters of the civilized world.
300. The Battle of New Orleans .- The principal engagement at New Orleans was fought on the Sth of January, 1815. Jackson's position was protected by a line of mud breastworks, with a ditch in front, and was defended by a miscellaneous force of some 5.500 men. consisting largely of Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen. The enemy numbered 10,000 fighting men, chiefly veterans of the Peninsular war, and were commanded by Sir Edward Packenham, among the ablest of the Iron Duke's lieutenants. They were reputed the best troops in Europe. and certainly lost nothing of their character by their conduct in America. All night on the 7th, the din of preparation could be heard
in the British camp. By sunrise on the 8th, they were drawn up in martial array. Then the column moved forward with a firm step and
determined purpose. The main attack was to be on the Americans' left, which was defended by the Tennessee riflemen under Generals Carroll and Coffee. Amid a terrific artillery duel, the scarlet column moved steadily forward in perfect order and with unfaltering tread. As they approached the American works, they broke into a run. Gen- eral Carroll coolly waited until they were within two hundred yards before he gave the word "fire!" Then rank after rank of the Tennessee riflemen rose and fired with such deadly aim that the withering column of the enemy staggered, halted, and gave back. The gallant Packenham then rallied them, and with the determined purpose of veterans, they renewed the assault. The leaden hail again beat in their faces, and Packenham and Gibbs both fell before it. In vain Keane brought the stubborn High- landers to the assault. They could do no more than mingle their blood with that of their comrades, as his blood mingled with that of Packenham and Gibbs. The British lost more than two thousand men in the GEN. EDMUND PENDLETON GAINES. engagement, most of whom fell in the main attack, in which the American loss was only
thirteen. "The American soldiers deserve great credit for doing so well; but greater credit still belongs to Andrew Jackson, who, with
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ADMINISTRATION OF JOSEPH MCMINN.
his cool head and quick eye, his stout heart and strong hand, stands out in history as the ablest general the United States produced from the outbreak of the Revolution down to the beginning of the Great Re- bellion."៛
301. Generals Gaines and Winchester. - While Jackson was making the arms of Tennessee famous, in the South, Generals Edmund Pendleton Gaines and James Winchester were adding honor to her martial spirit, in the North. General Gaines was brevetted major general and received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal for his gallant defense of Fort Erie, in 1814.
CHAPTER XXIV.
ADMINISTRATION OF JOSEPH M'MINN - 1815-1821.
302. McMinn Elected Governor .- The administration of Gov- ernor Blount had closed in a blaze of glory. He had contributed much to the successful termination of the Creek War by his hearty and ener- getic cooperation with General Jackson. In Jackson's greatest need he had raised $370,000 on his own responsibility, for which he received the thanks of the President, three Secretaries of War, and the Legis- lature of his State. He now retired, and a number of distinguished citizens contested for the succession-Jesse Wharton, Robert C. Foster, Robert Weakley, and Thomas Johnson, from Middle Tennessee, and Joseph McMinn, from East Tennessee. McMinn was elected. The new governor was a Pennsylvanian by birth. He came to Tennessee before the organization of the Territorial government in 1790, and acted a prominent part in the early history of the State. He was twice reelected governor, defeating Robert C. Foster in 1817, and Enoch Parsons in 1819.
303. The Seminole War .- In 1817, the Seminole war broke out. General Jackson was sent to conduct it, and was authorized to call on the adjacent States for such additional troops as he might need. The only volunteers he carried with him were 1, 100 Tennesseans. It was in this campaign that he seized Pensacola, notwithstanding the protest of the Spanish governor. He also arrested Arbuthnot and Ambrister.
4 Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812, p. 492.
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who were English subjects, and had them tried by courtmartial for aiding the Indians. In accordance with its sentence, the former was hanged and the latter shot. This invasion of Spanish territory and execution of English subjects not only threat- ened international complications, but were made subjects of the bitterest criticism by Jackson's opponents at home.
In 1818, John H. Eaton was appointed to the United States Senate .. He had completed and published, in 1817, a life of Andrew Jackson, which had been commenced by John Reid. This was the first life of Jackson printed. Eaton con- tinued in the Senate until 1829, when he retired to enter Jackson's Cabinet as Secretary of War.
304. West Tennessee Opened for Entry .- JOHN HENRY EATON. Two of the most interesting questions that arose in the administration of Governor McMinn was the opening of West Tennessee for settlement, and the financial panic of 1819-20. West Tennessee embraces that part of the State lying west of the Tennessee River. When it was first opened for settlement, it was called the Western District, because, up to that time, the middle portion of the State had been called West Tennessee. But it was not long before the three grand divisions of the State received their natural designations of East, Middle, and West Tennessee. The reader will remember that the compact of 1806, between the United States and Tennessee, vested the title to all the lands in the Congressional Reservation, which included West Tennessee, in the United States, with the proviso that if there should not be enough land north and east of the Congressional line to satisfy the North Carolina land warrants, issued in accordance with the reservation in her deed of cession, any excess might be satisfied cut of the Congressional Reservation. In 1818, it was clearly and certainly ascertained that there was not a sufficient quantity of land north and east of the Congressional line to satisfy the outstanding claims of North Carolina.1 Accordingly, on the 4th of April, 1818, Congress passed an act authorizing Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles on such claims, to lands south and west of the Congressional line. in the same manner she did to those north and east of that line.ª
1 American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. IV, p. 382.
33 United States Statutes at Large, p. 416.
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ADMINISTRATION OF JOSEPH MCMINN.
305. Indian Title to West Tennessee Extinguished .- The right to have North Carolina land warrants satisfied out of West Tennessee lands did not carry with it the right of present possession. West Ten- nessee was then in the possession of the Chickasaw Indians. It was necessary to extinguish their title before it could be opened for settle- ment. For this purpose, Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson were appointed to treat with the Indians. Accordingly, on the 19th of Oc- tober, 1818. a treaty was concluded, by which the United States pur- chased from the Chickasaws, for $300,000, payable in fifteen annual installments, all the land lying north of the southern boundary of Ten- nessee, and between the rivers Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi. Hence, this country has been often called the "Purchase," the "Western Purchase," or "Jackson's Purchase."?
306. Settlement of West Tennessee .- The last obstacle to its settlement having been removed, the Legislature passed an act+ laying off the newly opened territory into surveyors' districts, requiring it to be surveyed into ranges and sections, and making proper provision for obtaining title to its lands. Emigrants in great numbers now found their way to West Tennessee. Most of them came from the older settlements in Middle and East Tennessee, but many came down the Mississippi River and entered it from the west. Adam R. Alexander settled about two miles west of a place at first called Alexandria, in his honor, now the city of Jackson. Still an important place, it was, for a time, the leading town in West Tennessee. Jesse Benton settled near the mouth of Big Hatchie River, where a town grew up called Randolph, now of small importance, but for many years the commercial rival of Memphis. David Crockett settled on the Obion River, and has made the whole district famous, as well for his unparalleled success in bear hunting as for his famous political contests with Adam R. Alexander, William Fitzgerald, and Adam Huntsman. By 1830, West Tennessee had a pupolation of 99,000.
307. Memphis .- Shelby . County, erected in 1819, was the first county that lay wholly in West Tennessee. The commanding position of the Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis now stands, marked it as one of the most important points on the Mississippi River. It was recog- nized by the French and Spanish, who erected forts there before the earliest settlements in this State. They viewed it from a military
3 See Chapter XVIII on Indian Treaties, p. 134.
'October 23, 1819 -Acts of ISI9. Chapter I.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
standpoint. Afterwards far-seeing men recognized its equally impor- tant commercial advantages.
In the troublous winter of 1791-92, when General Robertson called for volunteers to act as spies and rangers, John Rice and some other young men left Sevier's Station, on the north side of Red River, near Clarksville, intending to proceed up the Cumberland by boat, and join him at Nashville. Discovering their purpose, a party of Indians under Doublehead, crossing a peninsula made by the river just above Clarks- ville, lay in wait for them at a place now called Seven Mile Ferry, and as their boat came round the bend, fired a volley into it, which killed John Rice, three sons of Colonel Valentine Sevier, and John Curtis. Rice appears to have been a young man, not only of energy and enterprise, but of sound judgment and foresight. When North Carolina established the land office known as John Armstrong's office, in 1783. which opened all the land in this State to entry, he obtained a grant for 5,000 acres of the best lands on the Chickasaw Bluffs. By his will, this grant was bequeathed to his brother, Elisha Rice, who, in 1794, sold JOHN OVERTON. it to John Overton for $500. Overton then conveyed a half interest in the same to his friend, Andrew Jackson. The devoted and uninterrupted friendship through life of these two men is as beautiful as that of Jonathan and David. For politic reasons, Jackson sold his entire interest in the property before it was developed. On this tract the city of Memphis was laid out in 1819.
308. John Overton .- The founder of Memphis merits more than
a passing mention. A native of Virginia, Jolin Overton went to Kentucky, after the close of the Revolutionary War, and began the practice of law. Removing to Tennessee, he reached Nashville during the same month3 that witnessed the arrival of Andrew Jackson from North Carolina. Overton recognized from the first the greatness of Jackson, and did everything to forward his inter- ests. He wrote for the press, used his influence with Legislatures, and prepared speeches for their members, drew resolutions and had them passed by town meetings - and of all this he never mentioned one word
" Judge John M. Lea, Proceedings Tennessee Bar Association, 1891, p. 170.
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ADMINISTRATION OF JOSEPH MCMINN.
to Jackson. Overton succeeded Jackson on the Supreme bench of the State in 1804, where he made great reputation as a judge, and did the State an especial service by preparing and publishing two volumes of Reports of the Opinions of the Supreme Court - the first reported cases in the State. In business affairs, Judge Overton was careful, prudent, and far-seeing. His earnings were invested in wild lands, which have proved a rich heritage to his descendants. He bought the Rice grant twenty-five years before the Indian title had been extinguished. But he conceived the idea of making it the seat of a great city, and having kept that idea patiently, confidently, and persistently before him, after many years he saw his most sanguine anticipations surpassed. The original plan of the city was laid off by Judge Overton, and the name of Memphis was given it by Gen. James Winchester, to whom Jackson had conveyed a one-eighth interest in the property. The subsequent devel- opment of the city, its triumphs over aspiring rivals, and its present secure position as the metropolis of West Tennessee, is due largely to the vigilance and wisdom of its founder.6
309. Financial Difficulties .- A number of causes combined to produce the period of financial distress, after the close of the war of 1812-15, which culminated in the West during the years 1819 and 1820. "Stop laws, property laws, replevin laws, stay laws, loan office laws, the intervention of the legislator between the creditor and the debtor - this was the business of legislation in three-fourths of the States of the Union - of all south and west of New England."7 Tennessee was not exempt from the prevailing conditions. Governor McMinn convened the General Assembly in extraordinary session, April 26, 1820, and recommended the establishment of a State bank of issue, with a capital of $1,000,000, as the leading relief measure of his administration.
310. The Old Bank of Tennessee .- The first bank incorporated by the Legislature of Tennessee was the Nashville Bank, chartered in 1807. It was an institution in which the State had no stock, or other direct financial interest.
In 1811, the charter of the first United States Bank expired by limitation, and Congress refused to re-charter it. To meet the con- traction of the currency it was feared might result from closing out the United States Bank, the General Assembly established the Bank of the
6 See a Biographical Sketch of Judge Overton, by Judge John M. Lea. in the Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Bar Association of Ten- · nessee, at page 170.
" Benton's Thirty Years' View. Vol. I, p. 5.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
State of Tennessee, at Knoxville. This was the first bank in which the State was a stockholder. Its interest, however, was small, being only $20,000 out of a capital stock of $400,000.
311. The New Bank of Tennessee .- After the close of the War of 1812-15, Congress chartered the second United States Bank. This institution was so unpopular in Tennessee that, in 1817, the Legislature prohibited it from establishing a branch bank in the State. Some pro- vision for a currency, however, seemed imperative. The Legislature, accordingly, established a State bank, under the name of the Bank of the State of Tennessee. The capital of the new Bank of Tennessee consisted of $1,000,000 in bills payable to the order of bearer, to be emitted on the credit and security of the borrower, and warranted by the State. The bills were perfectly good, but the machinery by which they were put in circulation was extensive and cumbersome.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF WILLIAM CARROLL, 1821-1827; SAM HOUSTON, 1827-1829, AND WILLIAM HALL, APRIL TO OCTOBER, 1829.
312. William Carroll .- Governor McMinn having served three terms, Gen. William Carroll was elected to succeed him. Carroll had a feeble opposition in the candidacy of Edward Ward, who received only 11,200 votes out of a total of 53.446. The new governor, like his immediate predecessor, was a native of Pennsylvania. He moved to Nash- -iner ville in 1810, and opened the first nail store in the State. He had been here only two years when he entered the War of 1812 as General Jackson's brigade inspector. In the Creek war he displayed able generalship and cool courage, and in the battle of New Orleans sustained the burden of the British assault. He was reëlected in GOV. WILLIAM CARROLL. 1823 and 1825, without opposition.
313. A Business Administration .- Governor Carroll was a prac- tical business man. He was also a man of judgment and enterprise.
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ADMINISTRATIONS OF CARROLL, HOUSTON, AND HALL.
It was he who put afloat the first steamboat that plied the waters of the Cumberland. This was the "General Jackson," that steamed into Nash- ville in the year 1818. His administration was conducted on sound business principles, and with the same judg- ment and foresight that characterized the man- agement of his own affairs. The people were just recovering from the paralyzing effect of the financial troubles of 1819-20, and Governor Carroll warned them against too great reliance upon the relief measures of the government, and advised a course of rigid individual economy, and an enlarged use of domestic products. In the meantime, he caused the finances of the State to be put on a sound footing, by having the affairs of the banks thoroughly examined, and requiring them to resume specie payments. GOV. SAM HOUSTON.
314. Sam Houston .- Governor Carroll was succeeded by Sam Houston, who defeated Willie Blount and Newton Cannon by a very large majority. A Virginian by birth, in his youth he removed, with his widowed mother, to Tennessee, and settled in Blount County. His home was near the country of the Cherokees, with whom he mingled freely, and became a favorite of Alu-tucky,1 their chief. His restless spirit becoming impatient of the prosy life of a clerk in a country store, he suddenly disappeared from home, and was received and adopted as a son by Alu-tucky. He lived with the Indians about three years. In 1813, he volunteered as a private in the Creek war, but was promoted to be an ensign before the battle of Tohopeka, in which he exhibited such desperate courage as won the admiration of General Jackson. A friendship followed, which was active and uninterrupted until Jackson's death. He continued in the army until 1818, when he resigned his commission, and took up the study of the law. But the law to him was only the door-way to politics. Brave, handsome, eloquent, chivalrous. with a decided spice of romance, he was a popular favorite from the start. He was district attorney, major general of the militia. and twice a member of Congress, in seven years.
315. Jackson Elected President .- In 1828, Andrew Jackson defeated John Quincy Adams for the Presidency by an overwhelming
1 The name is so written by Col. Samuel D. Morgan, in Guild's Old Times in Tennessee, p. 283.
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majority. Jackson's election meant much to Tennessee and Tennesseans. In his early life, he had made it a principle never to be departed from, if he could avoid it, "not to stand between a friend and a benefit."2 The same prin- ciple, in the time of his power, made him the active dispenser of favors to his friends. He built up the strongest per- sonal following any man ever had in America.
Among the ablest and most devoted of his partisans was Sam Houston, his companion in arms, his personal and political friend, and the governor of his State. Houston was ambitious, and with ANDREW JACKSON. Jackson in the White House, there was nothing to which he might not aspire. He was a man of heroic stature, with great vigor and energy. His
temperament was ardent and romantic, and, like Jackson, he had a chivalric devotion to the fair sex. In the spring of 1829, he announced his candidacy for reelection to the governorship. His opponent was Gen. William Carroll, who had again become eligible. The contest, which opened in April, promised to be of the warmest.
316. Governor Houston's Brilliant Marriage .- There lived at this time, in a stately old mansion on the bluffs of the Cumberland River, near Gallatin, a beautiful young lady - Miss Eliza Allen - fair as a lily, perfect in form and feature, and as dignified and graceful as a princess. She was the only daughter of Col. John Allen, an old-fash- ioned country gentleman, of considerable wealth, and was at once the delight and despair of all the gallants of her circle. Houston became a suitor for the hand of Miss Eliza, and he pressed his suit with all the ardor and impetuosity of his nature. She yielded, perhaps reluctantly. The marriage ceremony was performed at the old mansion, in the presence of a brilliant company, January 22, 1829. The festivities were then removed to the Capitol, where citizens of every rank vied with each other in their attentions to the distinguished couple.3.
2 William Blount to Sevier, American Historical Magazine, Vol. V, p. 122.
3 The late Thomas Boyer, of Gallatin, in the Nashville American; Guild's Old Times in Tennessee, 262, et seq .; American Historical Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 297, et seq.
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317. Governor Houston Resigns .- Notwithstanding the plaudits with which he led his fair bride into society, Governor Houston's domestic life was not happy. He resented the coldness of his wife, and the most unhappy domestic quarrel followed, which resulted in their per- manent separation. Only a few days after the opening of his canvass. while fully exonerating his wife, he declared himself a ruined man, and sent to Gen. William Hall, Speaker of the Senate, his resignation of the office of governor of the State of Tennessee. Then, concealing his identity, he went directly to his foster-father, Alu-tucky, in the Chero- kee country, on the Arkansas River.
318. General Houston's Subsequent Career .- The subsequent career of General Houston was in a new field. After many romantic incidents while living with the Cherokee Indians, he drifted to Texas, where he became a leader in her gallant struggle for independence. Having been made commander in chief of the Texas army. he defeated Santa Anna in the decisive battle of San Jacinto, which won him the proud title of "Liberator of Texas." The tragic fate of another heroic Tennessean+ and his comrades furnished him with the inspiring battle- cry, "Remember the Alamo." He was the first president of the inde- pendent Republic of Texas, and when she was admitted to the Union. became one of her first United States Senators. He was elected gov- ernor of Texas in 1859, but had his office declared vacant when the State seceded from the Union in 1861. He died in 1863.
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