USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee the making of a state > Part 23
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On the 25th of February, 1869, an act was passed to liquidate the State Debt contracted in aid of railroad com- panies. This act was passed in the interest of the rail- roads, who were represented by strong lobbies at the capi- tal during the pendency of the bill. It allowed them to
1 Add to this $3,000,000 issued in 1833 and 1838 to the Union Bank and the Bank of Tennessee, $1,323,000 issued to turnpikes from 1836 to 1854, S1,166,000 issued between 1848 and 1860 for building the Capitol, $30,000 issued July 19, 1856, for the Agricultural Bureau, and $48,000 on March 29, 1836, for buying the Hermitage, and the entire State Debt at the beginning of the war, exclusive of the repudiated Confederate loan, was 520,408,000.
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cancel their indebtedness to the State by paying in bonds of the series issued to them. The State was to receive. at par, bonds quoted in 1869 as low as 403. That provision of the law, however, which required bonds of the same series as those issued to be paid in acted as a restraint on the railroads, and the act of January 2, 1870, was lobbied through the legislature which allowed them to pay the State, in liquidation of the principal of the debt, any of the legally issued six per cent. bonds of the State, with- out regard to series or number. It was anticipated that questions of the validity of the post-bellum issue of bonds would be raised. The acts of 1865, 1866, and 1867, the last being the " Omnibus Railroad Bill," had been passed under circumstances of such notorious fraud and so clearly in defiance of law, that as soon as the Brownlow and Senter régime was overthrown, steps were taken to repu- diate those bonds which were issued contrary to law. A committee was appointed by the legislature of 1869-70 to investigate the railroads and the bonds issued to them. But the work of the committee had scarcely been begun when a movement looking to the reconstruction of the State began to assume shape at Washington. The ground upon which reconstruction was urged was the belief that the Brownlow and Senter bonds would be repudiated. Mr. D. B. Thomas, speaker of the Senate and Mr. W. O'N. Perkins, speaker of the House, went to Washington, and by their assurances saved the State from what would have been the disaster of reconstruction. It became neces- sary to abandon the line of policy mapped out by the com- mittee, according to which the validity of the bond-issuance was to be tested by proceedings at law.
The railroads hastened to take advantage of the laws of 1869 and 1870. It is a remarkable circumstance that of the $14,841.000 issued to railroads before the war, up to 1880 85,330.000 had been canceled, and of the $14.393 .- 000 issued to railroads since the war, $11,258,000 had
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been canceled. More even than this. Of the ante-war bonds, a part was retired before the war and a part was paid, November 17, 1865, by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Under an act of 1871, for the sale of insol- vent and delinquent roads, eleven roads were sold for $6,698,000 and the amounts paid in by the railroads under the acts of 1869 and 1870 was 814,787,600. The total amount of the State Debt in January, 1879, according to the report of James L. Gaines, comptroller, was, including interest, $27,008,480, represented by 21,005 bonds out- standing, of which 10,067 were issued before the war to banks, turnpikes, and railroads, to build the Capitol, to buy the Hermitage, and for the Agricultural Bureau, and 10,938 issued since the war, of which 113 were for turn- pikes, 3,135 for railroads, 2,254 under the Funding Act of 1866, 569 under the Funding Act of 1868, and 4,867 under the Funding Act of 1873.
The constitution of 1870 put an end to the possibility of any further internal improvements as a political or economie scheme at the expense or with the aid of the State. It enacts that " the credit of this State shall not hereafter be given or loaned to or in aid of any person, association, company, corporation, or municipality." The State Debt was long a political issue in Tennessee. It passed practically out of politics with the compromise of 1882, which settled the so-called State Debt proper, the Capitol, Hermitage, Bank, Agricultural Bureau bonds in full, and the rest of the debt at fifty cents on the dollar, with three per cent. interest. The war interest was repu- diated.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CARROLL, HOUSTON, AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
THE period which intervened between the first election of Carroll and the Constitutional Convention of 1834 is one of steady progress. During this period of thirteen years, Carroll was governor eleven. This was an era of reform and growth, and nearly every step forward was taken at the suggestion of the brave old warrior. His overwhelming vietory in 1821 emphasized his popularity with the people, and in 1823, and again in 1825 he was elected without opposition.
In 1827 Willie Blount, Newton Cannon, and Sam Hous- ton were candidates for the governorship. The vote cast for Blount was contemptibly small. Houston was elected by a large majority. His administration was successful, his recommendations conservative. Houston's career, even before he was made governor of Tennessee, was not with- out a touch of romantic diversity. He had been brought up among the East Tennessee mountains, and on the banks of the beautiful stream which gave its name to the State. As a boy, he had been a familiar inmate of the wigwams of a small settlement of Cherokees in the neighborhood of his mother's cottage. Here he had tasted the pleasures of that undisciplined mode of life which seems to have a strong fascination even for those reared in the lap of lux- urious indulgence. When a mere boy, Houston entered the army, fought with desperate bravery through the Creek War, won the applause of General Jackson, was made a lieutenant in the regular army, resigned, studied
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law, was elected solicitor-general of the Nashville district, removed to Nashville, was elected adjutant-general in 1821 over Newton Cannon, to succeed William Carroll, and was elected in 1823 and 1825 a member of Congress. Cannon was known to be lukewarm in the cause of Jaek- son. Houston was known to be his ardent partisan. This may have influenced the final result, both in the contest of 1821 and again in 1827.
Houston had a tall, commanding figure, an imposing bearing, an affable demeanor, and popular address. As solicitor-general he had displayed oratorieal talents of no mean order. Oratory, or rather public speaking, had not yet been developed to the extent which has sinee made it the distinguishing feature of American political life. The passionate eloquence of Patrick Henry had been adapted to times of danger, to a turbulent and troubled period. The ineisive discourse of Franklin, the luminous exposition of Hamilton, the philosophie reasoning of Jef- ferson, the persuasive declamation of Fisher Ames, were adapted to the deliberations of men engaged in the seri- ous occupation of making laws for nations. Clay and Webster were just rising through the morning mists. There were no orators in Tennessee. Houston, it was then thought, would be a great orator. Perhaps a more favorable field for the cultivation of his talents might have accomplished this result. His first efforts, considered as first efforts, were full of promise, which, however, was never realized. Perhaps there is something which unfits the man of action for words. Houston was certainly a man of action. Indeed he was a great man, though his claim to this title rests upon his achievements after he left Tennessee. In January, 1829, Houston married a Miss Eliza Allen, daughter of an influential family in Sumner County, and a member of " the quality." In April of the same year Houston's wife left him and returned to her father's house, after Houston had written to the father
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requesting him to bring about a reconciliation between him and his wife. The first information that came to the public was Houston's resignation, which took place on the 16th of April. He at onee abandoned the State, went to the Cherokee country, to the wigwam of an Indian chief who had adopted him when a boy. From here he drifted to Texas where, fortunately for his fame, he found a proper field for the display of those strong and admirable qualities of mind which, united to a steadfast character and a high purpose, made him great despite his puerile affectations and his robust vanity. The cause of separa- tion was at that time a mystery, and the lapse of time has in no wise lessened it. Houston, even when deepest in his cups, never suffered a word of explanation to escape him. He always protested that the virtue of his wife remained unimpeached. The most plausible and satisfac- tory explanation appears to be this: Houston was spir- ited, sensitive, and vain. The young woman had been driven to the marriage by the importunities of her family, who were ambitious, and who saw, as they imagined, a brilliant career opening for Houston. Her affections had been won by another lover of less pretension and promise. She yielded to the wishes of her friends. The marriage took place. She was cold. Houston was importunate and passionate. Suddenly he discovered the truth. She did not love him. His suspicions were aroused, and he suspected more than the truth. Reproaches and recrimi- nations followed. An explanation took place. Houston saw the real truth. He tried to effect a reconciliation. He wrote the letter, already mentioned, to her father, to enlist his services. She remained obdurate, and returned to her father's house. Houston, who was fond of dramatic effects, determined to resign. This he did in a dramatic manner, and surrounding himself with a cloak of mystery, he left the State. This explanation is consistent with Houston's character, with the ordinary transactions of
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daily life, with what we know of the event, and most of all with the letter which Houston wrote before his wife left him. In this he says: "Whatever had been my feelings or opinions in relation to Eliza at one period, I have been satisfied, and it is now unfit that anything should be adverted to." Again, "Eliza stands acquitted by me. I have received her as a virtuous, chaste wife, and as such I pray God 1 may ever regard her, and I trust I ever shall. She was cold to me, and I thought did not love me."
Houston was succeeded by the speaker of the Senate, General William Hall. Hall was born in Virginia, and came to Tennessee when young, had been sheriff of Sum- ner County, brigadier-general of the fourth regiment of state militia during the Creek War, - at various times a member of the state legislature, and in 1823 speaker pro tem. of the Senate. When elected to the Senate in 1827, on the eve of Jackson's election to the presidency, all eyes appear to have been turned toward Hall as the proper man to be speaker. He possessed the important qualifi- cation of being an intimate friend of Jackson. Houston in his letter of resignation speaks of him as one who has been " the consistent friend of the great and good man now enjoying the triumph of his virtues in the conseious security of a nation's gratitude." As soon as elected, William Carroll had written to him, " I have no hesitancy in saying you ought to be speaker of the Senate. If you give authority to mention your name. I feel confident that there will be no opposition, to produce which, my best efforts shall be directed." Robert C. Foster also urged him to be a candidate, and he was elected without serious opposition. He served as governor until Carroll was again elected, which was in August of that year.
Carroll was reelected without opposition in 1831 and 1833. During his last term the second Constitutional Convention of Tennessee assembled.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
The Constitutional Convention of 1834 marked an era in the making of the State. The admission of Tennessee to the Union brought about generally that condition of affairs which is said to make a people happy at the ex- pense of the historian. The epic stage of our develop- ment was during the turmoils and wrangles of Indian
warfare, ineipient secession, and civil agitation. With the end of these came the end of striking episodes, tragic climaxes, and events that influence a people's destiny. From 1796 to 1834 we see the gradual expansion of the area of cultivation, the steady inflow of immigration, the building of cabins, the widening of settlements, the for- mation of new counties, the laying off of new county seats, and the building of schools, churches, and court- houses.1 While this is going on among the people, we see their representatives first at Knoxville, then at Mur- freesboro, and then at Nashville, where the permanent seat of government was finally located in 1843, attempting to devise legislation to help forward the material interests of the commonwealth. The primitive and clumsy machin- ery of state government is gradually improved. The most complex problem of all, involving the highest func- tions of legislation, just laws firmly administered, is vig- orously undertaken. Always, however, and even to this day, without a complete or entirely satisfactory solution. The cultivation of the soil brings gradually increasing wealth, and the planting of corn, cotton, and tobacco, as it spreads, carries with it the curse of slavery and the seeds of future disasters. The beautiful blue-grass re- gions of Middle Tennessee and an abundance of water, draw the attention of the thrifty to stock-raising. New inventions gradually creep in and a better mode of agri- culture. The increasing power of the press brings with it a widening of mental vision, a humanizing of passions
1 The Penitentiary was built in 1831. The State Capitol, begun in 1845, was finished in 1855.
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which, in subsequent years, finds practical expression in the establishment of asylums for the afflicted. Comforts become generally diffused and luxuries follow comforts. In the homely phrase of the day, Tennessee is fairly out of the woods. On all sides are pleasant visions, beautiful landseapes, fast-flowing streams, thriving towns, thrifty plantations, a happy, prosperous, industrious, and, in the main, virtuous population.
The changes in the organic law of the State aecom- plished by this convention have already been described under other heads. It was a fit culmination that it should be held during the administration of Carroll, whose elec- tion had opened the way for the changes in the official organization of Tennessee, and whose influence had created the impulse which resulted in a radical reform in other branches. Among the signs of the times were the im- peachments of Judge Nathaniel W. Williams and Judge Joshua Haskell. Feeling seeure in their seats, many of the judges had become so high-handed and overbearing, and in many cases so neglectful of their duties, that a gen- eral protest went up from the people as well as the bar. The experiment of filling judicial seats with officers quam diu bene se gesserint was not a success in Tennessee.
The four ablest governors of Tennessee before the war were John Sevier, William Carroll, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. But John Sevier earned his reputa- tion before he became governor, and Polk and Johnson, after they had been. None of them had an opportunity of displaying any species of statesmanship, even in so circumscribed a sphere. Carroll was more fortunate. The opportunity was offered and he seized it. In his circular issued in June, 1821, he set his face against the recently organized Loan Office or Bank of Tennessee, which Felix Grundy had pushed through the extra session of the leg- islature. In his first message he took a decided stand against all the relief and stay and replevin laws, by
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
which, acting on the suggestion of Governor M'Minn, the General Assembly had hoped to cure the financial and commercial evils of the State. He urged, instead, rigid economy and retrenchment by the people themselves. He called attention to the inefficiencies of the judicial organi- zation of the State and the confusion resulting from a lack of sharply defined jurisdiction among the courts. He urged the repeal of the law which gave the county and cireuit courts concurrent jurisdiction, and suggested the establishment of district courts of equity. He advised the establishment of a penitentiary, and the abolition of nch barbarons methods of punishment as the pillory, Jks, branding, and the like. He dwelt upon the im- 'tance of a system of general education, internal im-
vements, and a more thorough organization of the state militia. Many years elapsed before all these re- forms were accomplished, but it is due to Carroll's liberal- minded appreciation of the necessities of the times, and his unwavering obstinacy in pressing thein that they were at last achieved. All his messages from the first to the last returned repeatedly to the charge. If we divide our state history into ancient and modern periods, the credit would fall to Carroll's lot of having foreseen and ushered in the latter. He was essentially the reform governor of Tennessee.
At the Constitutional Convention of 1834 appeared representatives from a division of the State which had heretofore attracted little attention. They now came in numbers sufficient to demand and to enforce consideration. Although having been open to emigration only abont fif- teen years, its growth had been so rapid and yet so quiet, that the older communities of East and Middle Tennes- see could scarcely realize and were loath to acknowledge that they were threatened with a rearrangement of politi- cal power. This division of the State was West Tennes- see, at that time known as the Western District.
CHAPTER XXIX.
WEST TENNESSEE.
THE history of West Tennessee has never been written. Its real history begins at a time when the troubles which attended the formation of the State were at an end. The treaty of 1818, by which the Chickasaws lost their inter- est in the soil of Tennessee, is the beginning of the his- tory of this part of the State. This groups itself for the first part of its development around Jackson and Browns- ville and then around Shelby County and Memphis. The inflow of population was of two kinds - that which gradually spread like waves on ruffled water, approaching from the east, and that which came down the rivers. In an interesting account of " The Chickasaw Country lately ceded to the United States," written in 1819 for the " Ra-/ leigh (North Carolina) Register," by Calvin Jones, he says : "There is not a white family nor a trading hous in the country, unless a store at Fort Pickering near the Mississippi line should be on the north side of it, a fact of which I am not well informed. . . . In 1784, all that portion of country which I have described as lying be- tween the inundated lands and gravelly ridges, together with some parcels on the elevated banks of the Mississippi at or near the mouths of the rivers which empty them- selves into it, were surveyed by Judge Harris, General Roberts, and Henry Rutherford of Nashville, in tracts of 500 to 5,000 acres each. Five years ago these lands were selling at from twelve and a half cents to twenty-five cents an acre, and within a few months they have been
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
sold in Raleigh at fifty. cents. I once witnessed a convey- ance to the late Governor Williams of 640 acres. very fa- vorably situated on the Obian (sic), given in exchange for an indifferent gig-horse. The average value of all these lands is now ten dollars an acre, and many tracts are worth double that sum." Those who first came to this country were surveyors and land speculators who, according to an old chronicler, were stopped by no difficulty. By an act of the legislature, the priority of location was decided by a lottery.
Hickman County was organized as a county in 1808, two years after the first settlement on Pine River by Adam Wilson. The first county seat was Vernon, but was succeeded in 1824 by Centreville. Lewis County was organized in 1806 and Wayne County in 1820, five years after the first settlement at Buffalo Creek by Fred- erick Meridith. Perry, which at that time included De- catur, was organized in 1820.1 Humphreys, which includes also the present limits of Benton. was organized in 1810. The first county seat was Reynoldsburgh, on the east bank of the Tennessee, which is now a deserted village more desolate than sweet Auburn itself. In 1838 the seat was removed to Waverly. The first settlement in Carroll `ounty was made by John Woods, Thomas Hamilton, and chers on Clear Creek near where Mckenzie now stands. Huntingdon, the county seat, was built on ground donated oy the heirs of Memucan Hunt, whence the name.
The first settlement made in Henry County was in 1819 by Joel Hagler, John Stoddurt, and Jones Williamson near where Manley's Chapel now stands, or stood a few years ago. The county, named for Patrick Henry of Vir- ginia, was organized in 1823, and Paris was founded the same year. Hardin County, which is partly in West and partly in Middle Tennessee, was organized in 1820. It
1 The county was sometimes organized a year or two after the passage of the act authorizing its establishment.
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was named in honor of Captain John Hardin, a Revolu- tionary hero. The first settlement was made at the mouth of Horse Creek by James Hardin. Henderson County, organized in 1822, was first settled by Joseph Reed, a few miles east of Lexington, which was founded the same year. McNairy was established in 1823 and named for Judge John McNairy. It was organized at the house of Abel V. Murray. Purdy, the county seat, was founded in 1824. The first settlers upon the territory that after- wards became MeNairy, were the Murrays, McAlpins, Sweats, Gillespies, Beattys, and Kirbys. Gibson County was organized in 1823 and named in honor of Colonel Thomas Gibson, who had gained distinction under Jack- son in the Creek War. The first settlement was made by Thomas Fite and James Spencer near Trenton in 1819. Gibsonport was laid off as the county seat, but the name was changed to Trenton in 1825. By the act of 1823-24 Gibson, Fayette, Hardeman, Haywood, Dyer, and Tipton became separate counties and commissioners were ap- pointed to lay off county seats. The first county court of Fayette was organized in 1824 at the house of R. G. Thornton, about a quarter of a mile south of the north fork of Wolf River. Somerville was laid off as the county seat by the commissioners appointed for that pur- pose. The commissioners were Henry Kirk. Daniel John- son, Hamilton Thornton, William Owen, and John T. Patterson. The immigration to Fayette County in 1825 was very great. One author says enthusiastically of it : "Settled by men of enterprise, intelligence, and wealth, it early took a stand among the most favored counties in the district noted for the refined, cultivated taste and good morals of its citizens." In 1837 William Lewis issued the first number of the "Somerville Reporter." La Grange, one of the principal towns of Fayette County, at first at- tained great prominence. It carried on a lucrative trade with the Indians of North Mississippi and was for a time a
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substantial rival of Jackson. In 1828 it had sixty houses, two hundred and forty inhabitants, four stores, two tav- erns, and twelve mechanics. The final completion of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, to which it had looked for growth and prosperity, had an opposite result, and it yielded to the commercial supremacy of Memphis.
The first county court in Dyer County was organized in 1824, and was named for Colonel Henry Dyer, who served in the battle of New Orleans. The first building, put up in 1824, was a double log cabin with a dirt floor. Dyersburg was made the county seat.
The first settlement in Hardeman County was made by Colonel Ezekiel Polk, his son William, and son-in-law, Thomas MeNeal, and Colonel Thomas J. Hardeman in 1823 near Hickory Valley. The county court was organ- ized at the house of Thomas McNeal. The county seat was named at first, Hatchie, but was changed in 1825 to Bolivar, in honor of Simon Bolivar, "the Liberator of his Country," a name as familiar to the ears of our grand- fathers as that of Kossuth to our fathers or Garibaldi to our own.
The first settlements in the territory which afterwards became Tipton County were made by General JJacob Tip- ton in 1821. by Jesse Benton below the third Chickasaw Bluffs, by H. Yarbrough on Indian Creek, and by Henry Turnidge and others on Big Creek. The county was named for Captain Jacob Tipton, who fell in St. Clair's defeat near Fort Washington in 1791, and who was the father of General Tipton. The county court was organ- ized in 1823 at the house of Nathaniel Hartsfield, about one mile south of Covington. Covington. the county seat, was located on lands donated by John C. MeLemore and Tyree Rhodes. The constitution of 1834 having pro- vided for the formation of a new county out of territory lying between Hatchie and Forked Deer, Lauderdale was established in 1835, leaving Hatchie as the north bound-
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