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319. Succession of William Hall .- Upon the resignation of Gov- ernor Houston, Gen. William Hall. Speaker of the Senate, succeeded to the office. Governor Hall was one of the pioneers of Sumner County, a part of the country that suffered incredibly from the Indian wars during the first settlement of the Cumberland Valley. As a boy of thirteen, he saw his broth- GOV. WILLIAM HALL. er, who had accompanied him to the field for their father's horse, tomahawked and scalped by a party of Indians, and he escaped the same fate only by his presence of mind and
* Col. David Crockett.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
fleetness of foot in avoiding his pursuers. Three months later, as they were removing to the fort for protection, his father and another brother fell pierced by Indian bullets. The next year a brother-in-law was killed on the way to his mother's house." He was a brigadier general in the Creek War, and held many honorable civil offices. His administration as governor was in the general lines pursued by his predecessors, Carroll and Houston.
CHAPTER XXVI.
ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIAM CARROLL - 1829-1835. .
320. Leading Measures of Carroll's Administration .- The resig- nation and voluntary exile of Governor Houston left General Carroll without an opponent for the office, and he was accordingly elected and took his seat in October, 1829. He was reëlected in 1831, and again in 1833, both times without opposition. He served the people as governor twelve years - the longest time any man has ever held the office of gov- ernor in this State. Many important events occurred during this last period of his service as governor. A system of public education was attempted, old banking institutions were wound up and new ones incor- porated, the criminal laws were reformed and a penitentiary established. the State's first charitable institution was founded, and the subject of internal improvements began to take shape, though little was done in that line until after the adoption of the Constitution of 1834.
321. The Beginning of the State Debt .- The subject of public education will be considered in Chapter XLVIII, and that of interna! improvements in Chapter XLIII.
After winding up the affairs of the Bank of the State of Tennessee. the Legislature chartered a third Bank of Tennessee, in 1831, but this charter was repealed the next year, and the Union Bank incorporated. The capital stock of the Union Bank was $3,000,000, of which the State took $500,000. For the payment of this stock the State issued, in January, 1833. five hundred five-per-cent bonds, of the denomination of one thousand dollars each. This constituted the first issuance of bonds
3 Indian Battles, Murders, Sieges, and Forays in the Southwest. p. 5. This pamphlet is reprinted from Wales & Robert's South-Western Magazine, Nashville, 1852.
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ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIAM CARROLL.
ever made by the State of Tennessee. One hundred and twenty-five of these bonds are still outstanding, and form a part of the bonded debt of the State.1
322. The Penitentiary .- As early as the administration of Gov- ernor Blount, in 1813, there was a feeble effort made to raise a fund by voluntary subscription for the purpose of building a penitentiary. Governor McMinn, in 1819, made an earnest appeal to the Legislature to commence such a work, which he declared would do lasting honor to its founders. Nothing, however, was done until 1829, when the repeated recommendations of Governor Carroll resulted in the passage of the act under which the first penitentiary was built. At the same session another act was passed, abolishing such barbarous means of punishment as the whipping-post, stocks, pillory, and branding-irons, and making all felonies under the grade of murder in the first degree punishable by imprisonment at hard labor in the "Jail and Penitentiary House."2
The ground selected for the site of the penitentiary consisted of some ten acres, situated about a mile west of the public square in Nash- ville. Contracts for the buildings were let in April, 1830, and the work pushed rapidly to completion. The entire cost of the building was about $50,000, and it was opened for the reception of prisoners, January 1, 1831. The State managed the prison by its own officers up to the Civil War.
323. The First Asylum for the Insane .- In 1832, the Legislature passed an act for the establishment of a lunatic hospital, which was located on a small tract of land about a mile from Nashville. The work dragged, and the buildings were not ready for the reception of patients until 1840. This was the first charitable institution established and maintained by the State. It was soon found both inadequate and unsuitable for the proper accommodation of the insane of the State. In 1847, under the inspiration of that earnest philanthropist, Dorothy L. Dix, it was decided that the old buildings and grounds should be dis- posed of, and a new site selected. Accordingly, the commissioners bought a farm about six miles out from Nashville, on the Murfreesboro Pike, on which the Central Asylum for the Insane was erected. It was
1 Letter. of Gov. James D. Porter to W. F. Harrington, Esq. A history of the State Debt - how it was created - its present status - how it may be met. Nashville, 1878.
'Act of 1829, Chapter XXIII.
The Act providing for the building of a penitentiary is Chapter V, of the Acts of 1829.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
built after the most approved model of the day. The patients were removed from the old hospital in April, 1852. Since then, the State has erected two other insane asylums, at a cost of about $300,000 each --- the East Tennessee Insane Asylum, at Lyon's View, about four miles from Knoxville, and the West Tennessee Insane Asylum, between three and four miles northwest of Bolivar.
324. Constitutional Convention of 1834 .- The administration of Governor Carroll points continually and unmistakably to the dawn of a new order of things in the State. The old frontier civilization, with its simple and inartificial conditions, was passing away with the pioneers who made. it. Tennessee was growing great. She had become the center and dominant element in American politics. The change in her economic condition was hardly less marked. Her for-
ests had been turned into fields. In 1840, she was the first State in the Union in the production both of corn and hogs. Manufacture and commerce were beginning to flourish. Wealth was being accumulated, and with it, ambitious schemes of private enterprise and public improvement were projected. The State felt that she had outgrown the Constitution of 1796. Accordingly, a new convention was called, which met in 1834. William Blount Carter, a son of Gen. Landon Carter, Secretary of the first Constitutional Convention of the State of Franklin, and delegate from Washington County in the Convention of 1796, was chosen President of the Convention. The body contained a large number of strong men, such, for instance, as the Mckinneys. Blount, Alexander, Huntsman, Cannon, Fogg, McClel- lan, Senter, Cahal, Marr, and Humphreys. They W. B. CARTER. framed an instrument better suited to a more artificial and complex civilization. The new Constitution was submitted to the people and ratified by a vote of 42,666 against 17.691, at an election held on the 5th and 6th of March, 1835. An examination of the Constitution of 1870, printed in the Appendix, will show how closely it follows that of 1834.
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TOPICAL ANALYSIS.
TOPICAL ANALYSIS OF DIVISION I.
TENNESSEE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1796.
I. Organizing the State .-
1. John Sevier Governor. (a) An Fast Tennessean. (6) Not in Touch with Middle Tennessee.
2. State put in accord with the Federal Government. (a) Andrew Jackson Elected to Congress.
3. Public Questions. (a) Indian Boundary. (6) Public Lands. (c) The Militia.
II Sevier-Jackson Quarrel .-
1. Land Speculation in the West.
2. Jackson Charges Sevier with Fraud in Procuring Land Titles. (a) In the Sevier- Jackson Race for Major-General. (b) In the Sevier-Roane Race for Gov- ernor.
3. Legislative Investigations - Personal Rencounters.
III. Controversy as to the Public Lands .-
1. Sources of Land Titles. (a) Private Purchases from the Indians. (6) Entries in the County Land Offices. (c) Entries in John Armstrong's Office. (d) Pre- emptions.
2. Southwest Territory. (a) North Carolina Cedes Her Western Lands to the United States. (6, Absence of Legislation on the Subject of Public Lands.
3. The Compact of 1306. (a) Land Offices Closed from 1784 to 1806. (b) Agreement with North Carolina. (c) Ratified by the United States. (d) Agreement with the United States.
IV. Religious Development .-
1. Churches Organized. (a) Presbyterians. (6) Baptists. (c) Methodists.
2. The Great Revival-1800. (a) James McGready. (6) The McGee Brothers. (c) First Camp-Meeting. (d) The Jerks.
3. Cumberland Presbyterian Church -1810. (a) Offspring of the Great Revival. (6) Organized in Dickson County, Tennessee.
V. Willie Blount Governor - War of 1812-1815 .-
1. Campaign of 1812.
2. Creek War-1813-1814. (2) Tecumseh and Weatherford. (b) Massacre of Fort Mims. (c) Jackson again in the Field. (d) Decisive Battle of Tohopeka. (e) Weatherford's Speech.
3. New Orleans Campaign - 1814, 1815. (a).Jackson Goes to New Orleans. (6) Battle of January 8.
VI. Joseph McMinn Governor .-
1. Seminole War -1317.
2. Settlement of West Tennessee-1819. (a) Open for Entry. (b) Indian Title Extin- guished. (c) Open for Settlement. (d) First Settlement. (e) Memphis. (f) John Overton.
3. Financial Difficulties-1819, 1820. (a) First Bank in the State. (6) New Bank of Tennessee Established.
VII. Carroll, Houston, and Hall .-
1. William Carroll's a Business Administration.
2. Sam Houston. (a) Early Life. (b) Elected Governor. (c) Brilliant Marriage. (d) Separates from His Wife and Resigns his Office. (e) Subsequent Career.
3. William Hall a Pioneer.
VIIL Dawn of a New Era .--
1. Penitentiary Established- 1829. (a) Abolition of Whipping-Post, Stocks, Pillory and Branding-Irons.
2. First Charitable Institution - 1832.
3. First Bonds Issued - 1833.
4. New Constitution - 1834.
IS2
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
DIVISION II.
TENNESSEE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1834.
CHAPTER XXVII.
RISE OF THE WHIG PARTY -ADMINISTRATION OF NEWTON CANNON, 1835-1839.
325. President Jackson's Choice of a Successor .- With the adop- tion of the Constitution of 1834, Tennessee entered upon a new and distinct epoch in her history. Hitherto there had been no considerable division in the State upon questions of national politics. There had been notable contests; such, for instance, as the celebrated race for Congress in the Nashville district in 1827, when John Bell, a young man of giant intellect, but of little experience in public affairs, was elected over the veteran orator and statesman, Felix Grundy, then in the zenith of his power and reputation, although the latter had the cordial and active support of General Jackson. But such contests were generally determined on personal considerations. There was but one political party in the State - that now known as the Democratic party, of which Andrew Jackson had long been the masterful leader. Jackson was about to retire from the Presidency. He felt himself under a weight of obligation to Martin Van Buren, of New York, whom he desired should succeed him as President. His wish was well understood, and proved to be a fatal blunder, so far as the success of his party in Ten- nessee was concerned.
326. David Crockett Opposes Jackson .- When President Jackson ordered his Secretary of the Treasury to remove the government deposits from the United States Bank, he added, "I take the responsi- bility." This saying became famous because it expressed a sublime moral courage. In the same line, and hardly less celebrated, is the motto of Col. David Crockett, "Be sure you are right, and then go ahead." Crockett was the most amiable, but at the same time the most independent and courageous of men. Born and reared in East Ten-
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ADMINISTRATION OF NEWTON CANNON.
nessee, he spent his early manhood in the middle portion of the State, and finally moved to West Tennessee, which became the scene of his remarkable bear hunts and inimitable electioneering campaigns. The
sum total of his schooling amounted to four days. But he early manifested a heroic spirit. He worked a whole year for no other wages than a clear receipt against a small debt his father owed his em- ployer, in order that he might have the pleasure of seeing the joyous surprise and grati- tude of his father when he presented it to him at the end of the year. He was never able to follow the leadership of General Jackson. In 1827 COL. DAVID CROCKETT. he entered Congress as a Republican, but his hostility to Jackson soon landed him in the ranks of the opposition. He was defeated for reëlec- tion in 1831, but was again elected in 1833. During this term he made his "Tour to the North and Down East," an account of which he pub- lished. He also wrote a "Life of Martin Van Buren, Heir Apparent to the Government and the Appointed Successor of General Andrew Jackson." These books were widely read for their quaint humor, and were effective Whig campaign literature. Defeated for Congress again in 1835, he went West to join in the Texas war of independence, and thrilled the country by his heroic death at the Alamo. He was one of the Tennessee Congressmen who, in December, 1834, called on Judge Hugh Lawson White to become a candidate for President.
327. White Enters the Race for President .- Next to Jackson only, whose personal and political friend he had hitherto been, Hugh Lawson White was the most popular man in Tennessee. He was a son of the founder of Knoxville, and grew up in time to participate in the last of John Sevier's famous Indian campaigns. In the Creek war he rendered most valuable aid to General Jackson. Before he entered the field of national politics, he had served as a member of the State Senate, had distinguished himself as a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and had shown much ability as a financier by his successful management of the first Bank of Tennessee. When Jackson retired
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
from the United States Senate, in 1825, White was unanimously elected to succeed him. He was continued in the Senate until 1840, when he resigned, because he could not conscien- tiously obey the instructions of the Legislature to support the leading meas- ures of Van Buren's administration. In 1832, he was made president pro tem. of the Senate - a position that has been held by only two other Tennesseans: Joseph Anderson and Isham G. Harris. White was in perfect sympathy with the principles of Jackson's administration, and continued so until his death. But he stoutly refused to sanction his pur- pose to make Van Buren his successor. He was, himself, mentioned as a candi- HUGH L. WHITE. date. Jackson undertook to placate him, first by the tender of a cabinet position, afterwards by the offer of a position on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, and finally, by the suggestion that he accept the place of Vice-President on the ticket with Van Buren. All these overtures were firmly declined. White was then informed that Jackson had threatened to denounce him as soon as it was ascertained that he was willing to be a candidate in opposition to Van Buren.1 Being both obstinate and pugnacious, White now became an avowed and active candidate.
328. John Bell Directs the White Campaign .- John Bell referred not inaptly to the followers of Judge White as the "undisciplined militia of the party. The responsibility of outlining a plan of action so as to secure something like unity of purpose in this mass of raw material devolved largely upon him. Whatever may have been his defects as a party leader, he could plan a canvass and state its issues with consum- mate skill. He was a native Tennessean, and a graduate of Cumberland College (University of Nashville). Soon after his admission to the bar he had a taste of public life. as a member of the State Senate, but he wisely declined a reelection, and devoted the next ten years to the practice of his profession and the pursuit of literature. In 1827. he entered Congress, superbly equipped for his public duties. He was a Thember of the House of Representatives until 1839. In 1834, he was
1 Memoirs of Hugh Lawson White, by Nancy N. Scott, pp. 253, 254, and 359.
IS5
-
ADMINISTRATION OF NEWTON CANNON.
elected Speaker of that body, but was defeated for reelection in 1835 by James K. Polk. Subsequently, he was Secretary of War in Harri- son's Cabinet. From 1847 to 1857, he was a member of the United States Senate, and served with such distinguished ability that he was nominated by the Constitutional Union party for President in 1860. A man of profound intellect, he was far-seeing, deliberate, and cau- tious. His mental constitution was such that he could never enter heartily into the bold, aggressive, and apparently reckless methods that distinguished the Jackson party, though he supported the JOHN BELL leading measures of Jackson's administration with perfect consistency.
329. Leaders of the Democracy .- The Tennessee election in August, 1835, received national attention on account of its supposed influence on the Presidential election in 1836. Interest was intense from the beginning, and the contest determined and bitter. It was at this time that the followers of Judge White began to be called Whigs - White Whigs - though White never accepted the name for himself.
The leaders of the Democracy were among the ablest men of the nation. James K. Polk was afterwards Presi- dent of the United States. Felix Grundy, a famous orator and the most successful crim- inal lawyer in the Southwest, knew every chord that touched the popular heart. When trouble was brewing with England in ISII, he was elected to Congress as a war Republican. He made himself conspicuous for his bold and efficient support of the war measures. It
was the successful prosecution of this war. against their opposition, that broke down the Federalist party. The Federalists paid a high tribute to Grundy's influence. by ascribing the FELIX GRUNDY. war to the instigations of "Madison, Grundy. and the Devil." At this time. Grundy was in the United States Senate. but upon the election of Van Buren, he accepted the place of Attorney
I86
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
General in his cabinet. Quite as active and hardly less efficient than Polk and Grundy was John Catron, a man who stood very close to President Jackson. He was reared in the Mountain District of Middle
JOHN CATRON.
Tennessee, and raised himself to the head of his profession by the force of his own talents and energy. He made much repu- tation by a series of articles published in aid of President Jackson's fight against the United States Bank. At the time of the White revolt, he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, being the first and only Chief Justice of that Court prior to the Civil War. From 1837 to his death, in 1865, he was one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, by appointment of President Jackson.
Cave Johnson served on the staff of his father, General Thomas Johnson, in the Creek War. He was first elected to Congress in 1829, and, with the exception of one term, continued there until 1845, when he became Postmaster General in President Polk's Cabinet. After his retirement from the cabinet, he became president of the last Bank of Tennessee, which he managed with ability and success.
330. Newton Cannon Elected Governor .- Carroll had again served three consecutive ternis - six years - as governor, but the people, having adopted a new Constitution in the meantime, he offered himself for a fourth term. He adhered, as he had always done, to the party of General Jackson, but, as it boded no good to him, he deprecated the introduction of national politics in State elections. His oppo- nent was Newton Cannon, whom Houston had defeated for the same office in 1827. Cannon had served in the Creek War, but was criticised for returning home before its conclusion. In 1814, he was elected to succeed Felix Grundy in Congress, and continued in Congress, with the intermission of a single term, until his voluntary retirement, in 1825. He had never been in rap- port with the Jackson party, and now appeared CAVE JOHNSON. as the avowed champion of Judge White. The current of public senti- . ment in favor of Judge White was too strong to be stemmed even by
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ADMINISTRATIONS OF POLK AND JONES.
Carroll, and Cannon was elected by a plurality of more than 11,000 votes.
331. Cannon Reelected .- In 1836, there was a call for volunteers to serve in the Florida War. The quota for Tennessee was 2,000. More than double that number offered. The East Tennesseans were commanded by Gen. R. G. Dunlap, and those from Middle Tennessee by Gen. Robert Armstrong. The last battle in which the Tennessee soldiers were engaged, was fought on November 18-21, at Wahoo Swamp, soon after which they were ordered home and discharged, though the war dragged on until 1842 before it was finally concluded. In 1837, General Armstrong, with his military laurels fresh upon him, became GOV. NEWTON CANNON. a candidate for governor in opposition to Cannon, but the tide had not yet turned, and Cannon was again elected by an increased majority.
The absorbing public question during Cannon's two terms was that of internal improvements, which is treated in Chapter XLIII.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF JAMES K. POLK, 1839-1841, AND JAMES C. JONES, 1841-1845.
332. Preparation for the Canvass of 1839 .- At the Presidential election in 1836. White carried Tennessee by a majority of nearly 10,000 over all the other candidates. This result was most painful to President Jackson, who, in the last three Presidential elections had received prac- tically the unanimous vote of the State. He believed the people had been estranged from him by partisan management. The Democrats determined to make a supreme effort to recover the State in 1839. The leading newspapers of the State had gone off with the White movement. To overcome this disadvantage, they invited two young New Englanders to Tennessee, who became famous political editors - Jeremiah George Harris and E. G. Eastman. Harris had been brought up in the jour- nalistic school of George D. Prentice, though of opposite political
188
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
principles. The Nashville Union, hitherto a small weekly paper, was newly fitted out as a tri-weekly, and he was made its editor. He was a tower of strength to the Democracy of Tennessee. Eastman established the Knoxville Argus, the publication of which was, perhaps, the most bril- liant part of his editorial career, though he was afterwards distin- guished, as the editor both of the Nashville Union and Union and American.
The most influential of the many able Whig papers were Allan . Hall's Republican Banner, of Nash- ville, and Parson Brownlow's I'hig, published successively at Jonesboro, Elizabethton, and Knoxville.
GOV. JAMES K. POLK.
333. The Candidates Take the Field .- Governor Cannon offered for reelection and was accepted as the Whig candidate. - The Democrats desired to put their strongest man forward to oppose him. The choice fell on James K. Polk. then serving his second term as Speaker of the national House of Represent- atives. Polk was a man of boundless energy, and as soon as Congress adjourned he entered the canvass, and for the first time the candidates for governor stumped the State "from Carter to Shelby."
334. Polk and Cannon on the Stump .- In 1835, General Carroll had deprecated the introduction of national questions in a State contest. Polk, on the contrary, opened his campaign with a clear and masterly discussion of national issues, in an address to the people, which has been pronounced the ablest political document which appeared in the State before the Civil War.1 Cannon was not a popular speaker. Moreover. he committed the fatal blunder of hesitating to declare his choice between Van Buren and Clay for President. Polk was handsome and
attractive in person.
He had coal-black hair, rather dark complexion.
and steel-grey eyes.
Taken as a whole, his face was clear-cut, flexible,
and expressive. His style of oratory was singularly attractive. Usually grave and dignified, he was ready at repartee, quick to detect a weakness in the position of his adversary, full of humorous anecdotes
1 Phelan's History of Tennessee, p. 381. ,
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ADMINISTRATIONS OF POLK AND JONES.
and striking illustrations, and possessed a power of ridicule rarely equalled. "There was something in his manner and delivery that sug- gested the idea of labor, effort, power - of a giant defending b inself against the onslaught of a thousand assailants, deliberate yet vehement, and he won the sympathy of his auditors by the gallantry and strength with which he downed every foeman with whom he grappled."> He was the greatest stump speaker the State has ever produced, unless Isham G. Harris be an exception. Cannon could not meet him on the stump, and felt it so keenly that he would have permanently abandoned the joint discussion but for the remonstrance of his political friends. Polk was elected by a majority of 3,000, and the Democrats secured a majority in both branches of the State Legislature.
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