USA > Tennessee > Old times; or, Tennessee history, for Tennessee boys and girls > Part 11
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might be free for swimming. In this way he pulled the raft after him, while Gideon and another man swam behind and pushed it. How Andrew Jackson passed the river is not known, but he was there, and probably this was his first experience in that military carcer in which he afterward became so distinguished. He was then & young lawyer, and had lately emigrated from North Carolina.
The troops were safely landed on the south- ern bank, and, with their equipments all in good order, stood ready for the work they had come to do. The Indians had not the least notice of the attack, until the keen report of the rifles was heard in the very heart of the town. Being completely surprised, the warriors were equally unready to fight and unable to escape. Many of them -- warriors, squows, and chillron together-atteminteil to get off in their can es, but were mostly killed before they could put out into the streamn. A few saved themselves by lying close in the bottom of the carne. while they were carried down by the mail current.
Running-water town, about a mile distant Soon Nickojack, shared the same file. They w re lio a destrovet, with every thing valuable
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which the Indians had collected there, much of it plunder which for years they had been carry- ing off from the white settlements. About seventy warriors are known to have perished, and eighteen women and children were made prisoners. As the men were taking these latter down the river to the crossing-place, one of the squaws slyly get rid of her clothes, jumped out of the canoe, and swait rapidly away. She might have been casily killed in the water, but as the men could not bring themselves to shoot a woman, she was allowed to escape. The only daninge suffered by the invaders was three men slightly wounded.
On the same day, the troops returned to the north bank of the river, and rejoined their com- rades, who had been left to take care of the horses. By the same route they had pursued in the ir outward march, they remirued to Nesh- ville. where the volunteers were disbanded. Colonel Orr went immediately to Knoxville, and reported to Governor Blote + : preyeni the expedition, undertaken contrary to the Governor's priblic orders. In a few days. this was followed by a letter of explanation or apl- ver from General Rearter, and the whole affair was allowed to mess withour Dette
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question. The great advantages which were expected to result from the expedition made every one inclined to overlook any irregularity in the procedure.
And this expectation was not disappointed. Indian murders and robberies did not abso- lutely cease, but they became much less fre- quent and general. At Nickojack the savages had been taught a severe but wholesome lesson. Thenceforth they seem to have been convinced that they could never succeed in preventing the occupation and settlement of the country by white men. Even horse-stealing. and other similar depredations, were practiced with less boldness, when they had discovered that their strongholds at The Narrows could not pro- tect them against the avenging visitations of western volunteers. It was not till the war between Great Britain and the United States, in 1812. that they were roused to a last, ex- pring effort to drive back the tide of civiliza- tion, which was fast covering their favorite hunting-grounds with farms and villages.
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CHAPTER VII.
CIVIL REGULATIONS OF THE TERRITORY.
UNDER th's head, as well as any other, it may be mentioned that the first newspaper published in what is now the State of Tennessee, was issued on the 5th of November, 1791. It was called the "Knoxville Gazette," of which George Roulstone was printer. proprietor, and editor. The earlier numbers were printed at Romeraville, in Hawkins county: but the publi- cation was er transferred to Knoxville. as was contemplated from the first. About this time Knoxvill - had become the territorial cap- ital, and a and many buildings went up in the course of the year 1792. Mr. White, the owner of the land, Lidl of the town in the most liberal gheit. allowing a skal it for a church. an entire sattare as the site for a college, another for a court-lampen, juil, etc.
The country of Hawkins was now divided. and Knox county organize I, of which Knox- ville was the county seat. In the next your,
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(1792,) Jefferson county was taken from Groene and Hawkins. The first county court was hell in Kuox on the 16th of June. 1792. An ordi- nance was passed by the Governor an l Julges, authorizing the county courts of the Territory to levy a tax for county purposes, such as build- ing court-houses and jails, paying jurors, etc. The poll-tax was not to be more than fifty cente, nor the land-tax more than seventeen cents on a hundred acres.
According to the ordinance of Congress for the government of the Territory, the Governor and Judges were to regulate its atfairs until the population should amount to five thousand men qualined to vote. The people were then entitled to have a Territorial Government, con- sisting of the Governor, a Legislative Council, and a House of Representatives. Governor Blount being satisfied that the Territory then contained the requisite number of votes issued a proclamation calling upon the people to vote for members of the House of Representatives, on the third Friday and saturday in Deveriber, 1793. Washington, Hawkin, Jebursa, and Knox were to have each two representatives; Sullivan, Greene, Tennessee, Davidson. aud Semner, each one representative.
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The election having been held, the Governor appointed the fourth Monday of February, 1794, as the day of their first meeting, at Knoxville. They assembled accordingly, and chose David Wilson for Speaker, and Hopkins Lacy, Clerk. On the second day, and before entering upon any business, the members, with the Governor and Sneaker at their head, marched in a body to the church, where re- ligious services were performed by the Rev. Me. Carrick. Upon returning to their room, the first business done was to select ten persons. of whom Congress was to appoint five, as mem- bers of the Legislative Council. They also prepared and adopted an address to the Gov- ernor. and a memorial to Congress, setting forth the condition of the Territory, and asking that more effectual measures should be employed by the Federal Government. to protect the inhab- itants against Indian aggression ...
As no law could be passed without the Coun- cil, the representatives then returned to their homes, to assemble again on the 25th of August, 1794, agreeably to the Governor's appointment. In the meantime, the mentbers of the Council had been commissioned by the President. They were Griffith Rutherford, John serker, James
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Winchester, Stokeley Donelson, and Parmenas Taylor. At the appointed time, both the Coun- cil and the House of Representatives were duly organized, and duly notified each other, ani also the Governor, that they were ready to pro- ceed to business. A committee was appointed by each of these bodies, to consult together, and adopt proper rules for regulating the intercourse between them.
From the "Rules of Decorum," adopted by the House for the government of its own mem- bers, we can perceive that their behavior was not permitted to be quite zo "free and easy" as legislators have come to indulge in since that time. One of these rules was that, " Upon ad- jourument, no member shall presume to move until the Speaker arises and goes before." In- deed, much greater ceremony was used in those days, upon all serious occasions, than is now fashionable. Governors, judges, legislators, and even justices of the peace. in the times imme- diately succeeding the Revolution. were re- gardell as in some measure representing the dignity of the State, and treated with a respect- ful awe to which the present generation are cafire strangers.
Some opinion may be formed of the unlustry 9
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and earnestness with which public business was transacted in those primitive times, when we learn that it was usual for the House to be in session as early as seven o'clock in the morning, in the month of September. While they were working at this rate, each member was receiv- ing two dollars and fifty cents per day for his legislative services, and that for a session of little more than one month. For want of ac- commodation in Knoxville, many members boarded several miles out, and walked to town every morning. As an evidence of the state of the country at this time, it may be mentioned that the two members from Knox county ob- tained leave of absence from the House for a week, that they might assist in driving off a band of marauding Cherokees that were doing mischief in the settlements.
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TENNESSEE HISTORY.
CHAPTER VIII.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLA- TURE.
BOTH the Council and the House being now fully organized, and the mode of doing business being agreed upon, they at once took into con- sideration the condition of the Territory, and proceeded to enact such laws as the public interests seemed to them to demand. To men who had partaken of all the hardships and pri- vations of the inhabitants from the commence- ment of the settlements, there could be little difficulty in ascertaining what were the most pressing needs of the community to be relieved by legislation. The members, being almost entirely of this sort of persons, had little occa- sion to inquire what ought to be done, though their want of experience in such matters might produce some embarrassment as to the mode of doing it.
Among the first acts of the session was one,
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introduced by General Sevier, providing for the relief of persons who had been disabled in the Indian wars, and of the families of such as had been killed. By other acts, two colleges were chartered: Greeneville College, in Greene county, and Blount College, at Knoxville. The latter institution has since taken the name of East Tennessee University. A memorial was prepared, to be presented to Congress, in regard to the condition of the settlers south of French Broad River. It has been before explained that this part of the Territory had been settled, under a treaty made with the Cherokees, by the State of Franklin. As this turned out to be no authority in law, those who had settled and improved lands there, were now liable to be dispossessed by Congress.
The ordinance establishing a government for the Territory, bad provided that the Council and the House of Representatives, by a joint vote, should elert a Pelerate to the Congress of the United Fontes. This dury was performed, and the choice i'll upon James White, of Knoxville. The Delegate was instructed ear- nestly to represent to Congress the sutheripss of the people from Lilian hostilities, and to ask, in the most pressing manner, that the pro.cetion
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of the Federal Government might be extended to them. In this representation it was to be insisted that the defensive policy of the Govern- ment would continue to fail, as it bal already failed, to obtain any adequate security against Indian aggressions. A list of the names of per- sons, killed by the savages in the six months preceding, was furnished the Delegate, to be laid before the President. They amount to more than a hundred.
The Council and the House readily agreed upon all subjects, except the single cue of taxes to be levied. As this proved to be, for some years, a subject of considerable interest and excitement among the people of the Territory, and afterward of the State, it deserves a few words of explanation. At this time, large bodies of the beat land in Tennessee were owned by men who did not live here, but in the old States. . In many instances. the old soldiers, to whom North Carolina bad granted lands in the Wert, were forced by their poverty to sell their claims to wealthy speculators, who would expect to make a great profit by a rise in the price of the lands. This increase in the value of the lauds would d peud upon the settlens ne of the country, and the settlement. of course. piast he
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made by those who were. in making it, to be exposed to all the hardships and dangers of frontier life, while many of the land-owners were living in ease and safety elsewhere.
In fixing the taxes for the support of the Territorial Government, the House of Repre- sentatives, coming immediately from the people, were inclined to lay a heavier tax on land, and a lighter one on polls, or persons. They in- sisted on a tax of twenty-five cents per hundred aeres, while the Council proposed only eighteen. As the consent of both branches was necessary to pass a law, this difference between them pro- duced a deud-fork in the Legislature for several days; but at length the Council gave way, and the tax was settled according to the views of the Representatives. From a similar feeling, no doubt, a proposition to exempt workmen at iron foundries from military d'ty, was success- fully opposed by the House.
The people of the Territory. from the time of its transfer to the Federal Government, kad been looking to a separate State organization in a few years. On this account, much less wits done er attempted by the Tenin rial Legisla- ture thau would otherwise have been requisite and proper. The ordinance of Congress au !-
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thorized the formation of a State whenever it was ascertained that the population of the Ter- ritory had inercased to sixty thousand white inhabitants. After a session of thirty-seven days, both Houses were prorogued by Governor Blount, to meet again, at Knoxville, on the first Monday of October, 1705. The entire expense of the session was ascertained to be two thousand six hundred and seventy-one dollars. The session of the Legislature of Tennessee, in 1859-60, cost the State more than ninety thou- sand dollars.
In the interval between the first and second sessions of the Legislature, there were a few instances of Indian murder, one of which was attended by circumstances so singular as to de- serve particular mention. Mr. Mann, living twelve miles from Knoxville, was called out of his house at night to attend to some disturbance which he heard at his stable. He was fired upon and wounded by Indians, who passed him to a cave not far off. where they killed en 1 scalped him. His wife was left in the house, with several small children asleep. Pecting oct, she presently saw the Indians marching (' to the house, one behind another. She lad that morning learned how to ire a rifle. With-
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out speaking a word, she pointed the muzzle through the crack of the door, and, as the fore- most Indian pressed against it, she pulled the trigger. The Indian fell dead, and the one next to him was wounded. As the room was too dark for them to see into it, and Mrs. Mann and her children maintained perfect silence, the Indians concluded that there might be sev- eral armed men in the house, and made haste to get out of the supposed danger.
TENNESSEE HISTORY.
CHAPTER IX.
SECOND SESSION - PREPARATION FOR THE NEW STATE.
As we have seen, the Territorial Legislature was to meet again on the first Monday of October, 1795. However, Governor Blount thought proper to convene them by proclama- tion at an earlier day, namely, the 23th of June. The principal reason for this step was the general wish of the people that the neces- sary measures should be adopted to change the Territorial into an independent State Government as speedily as practicable. I the western settlements had been neglected. by North Carolina, they were no less ill- treated, in the opinion of the inhabitants, " by the restrictions, especially in regard to Iulian intercourse, imposed upon them by their guardian, the Federal Government. In a word, the community ils itself to be
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now of full age, and was naturally desirous to undertake the management of its own affairs.
Among the acts of this, the second and last, session of the Territorial Assembly, was one to raise " Martin Academy" to the rank of a col- lege, with the name of Washington. By another, Knox county was divided, and Blount county formed of a part of it. The county scat was called Maryville, in compliment to the amiable wife of Governor Blount, whose Chris- tian name was Mary, and subsequently another new county was called Grainger, which was her family name before marriage. Little time, however, was consumed in attention to minor affairs, and the Legislature hastened to pro- vide by law for those preliminary proceedings which were to usher in the now state. The feeling in favor of the change was so general that only one member vored against the measure.
In furtherance of the desired object, the . Legislature passed an act requiring a census to be taken of the inhabitants of the Territory, to ascertain whether or not it had the population required by the law of Congress. In case a population of sixty thousand should be re-
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ported to the Governor, that officer was then authorized to call upon the citizens, by proc- lamation, to cleet five men front each county, to meet in convention, and frame a consti- tution for the new State. The convention was to be held at Knoxville, at such time as the Governor should appoint, and its members were to receive the same pay as those of the Legislature. Having thus pre- pared the way for the incoming of a new organization of government, the Legislature was prorogued, sine die -- that is, dissolved to meet no more.
In obedience to the act of the Legislature, the sheriff's of the eleven counties, then com- posing the Territory, procecded to enumerate the population. From the returns made to the Governor, it appears that there were then in the Territory a total of seventy-seven thousand two hundred and sixty-three, of which there were thirty-six thousand one hundred and twenty-three white males twenty-nine thousand five hundred and fifty-four white females, tou thousand six hundred and thirteen slaves, and nine hundred and seventy-three of all other persons.
Though not required to do so by law,
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it seems that the sheriff's of all the counties, except Sumner, took and reported the vote for and against an independent State. The result was six thousand five hundred and four in favor, and two thousand five hundred and sixty- two opposed.
The requisite amount of population having been thus ascertained to exist, Governor Blount, on the 28th day of November, 1795, issued his proclamation, directing elections to be held in the several counties for members of a constitu- tional convention. The elections were held accordingly, and the convention commenced its session, at Knoxville, on the 11th of January, 1796. The body was organized for business by the election of Governor Blount, as President, William Maclin. Secretary, and John Sevier, Jr., Reading and Engrossing Clerk. It was resolved that the session on the second day should be opened with prayer, and also a ser- mon from the Rev. Mr. Carrick.
Two members from each county were ap- pointed to make a draft of a constitution, to be afterward submitted to the whole body. The work of the comingtree was completed, and reported on the 27th of January. It was examined, discussed, and amendel, from that
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time to the 6th of February, when "the en- grossed copy of the constitution was read, and passed unanimously." The President was di- rected to keep a copy of the constitution to be delivered to the Secretary of State, when appointed, and to forward another to the Secretary of State of the United States, at Philadelphia. The same officer was farther instructed to call upon the sheriff's, in the several counties, to hold the first election for Governor and members of the Legislature, under the Constitution of the STATE OF TEN- NESSEE.
Having fully accomplished their work in twenty-seven days, the convention was dis- solved. The pay of the members had been fixed at two dollars and a half per day by the act of the Territorial Legislature; but no pro- vision had been made for clerks, printing, and! other incidental expenses. To meet this want, the men bers agreed to receive only one dollar and a half for their daity pay, and that out of the remainder those expenses should be paid, for which no provision had been made. Cader this resolution, the clerks received cash two dollars and a half per day, and the door- keeper two dollars. For furnishing seats for
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the convention ten dollars was allowed, and two dollars and sixty-two cents for oil-cloth to cover the tables used by the President and Secretary.
TENNESSEE HISTORY.
CHAPTER X.
ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT.
As authorized and required by an ordinance of the convention, the President issued his writs, directed to the several sheriffs, to open and hold an election for Governor and members of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee. An election was held accordingly, and by the President's appointment, the first session of the General Assembly of Tennessee was held at Knoxville commencing on the 28th of March, 1796. James Winchester was chosen Speaker of the Senate, and James Stewart of the House, and the two bodies exchanged messages notif'- ing each other that they were organized and ready to proceed to business.
On the same day the two Houses met in the chamber of the Representatives to examine the returns of the election for Governor. Upon counting the votes, it was duly shown that John Sevier bad been chosen for that office, and the
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result proclaimed by the Speaker of the Senate in presence of the two Houses. A committee was appointed to notify Governor Sevier of his election, and to request his attendance, at twelve o'clock of the next day, in the House of Repre- . sentatives, to take the oaths of office. Another committee was sent to inform Governor Blount of these arrangements, and invite him to be present at the inauguration of his successor.
The next most important proceeding of the General Assembly, was the appointment of two Senators in Congress. This trust was commit- ted to Governor William Blount and William Cocke, Exq. The election was attended with much greater ceremony than is now usually em- ployed upon such an occasion. The joint com- mittee of the two Houses appointed for the purpose, in notifying these gentlemen of their election, addressed both of them by the singular title of "Citizen." This form of speech was probably an imitation of the French Republi- cans, for whose character and principles there was then great admiration among a large por- tion of the American people.
Congress being in session when the Constitu- tion of Tennessee was adopted and transmitted to the Secretary of State of the United states,
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President Washington immediately, by a special message, brought the subject before that body. There was at first some show of objection in the Senate, which, however, was at longth over- ruled, and in June an act of Congress was passed, admitting Tennessee into the Union upon the same footing as the other States. Vermont and Kentucky had been admitted before -- the former in 1791, the latter in 1792. Tennessee was therefore the third new State added to the original thirteen, and making the whole number sixteen. The name, TENNESSEE, was given by the convention that framed the constitution. Before that, the name had be- longed only to the great river of the country, and to a county on the Cumberland. which was subsequently divided into the two counties of Robertson and Montgomery.
Governor Sevier having assumed the duties of his office, and the various subordinate officers having been duly, commissioned, the goveru- mental machinery was at once in operation, and nothing was wanting to a complete organization. The constitution then adopted, remained in force till the year 1834, when another conven- the. was hekl, and a new one ma le. This new constitution, with the various amendments it
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has since received, differs in a good many re- spects from the old one of 1796. Among other matters, many officers-judges, clerks, sheriff:, etc .- who were formerly appointed by the Legislature and the circuit and county courts, are now elected by the people.
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The Territorial Government had left the public treasury in a prosperous condition. The State commenced its existence out of debt, and with some money on hand. The Federal au- thorities had made a treaty with Spain, by which that nation had agreed that the people of the United States should enjoy the free and unmolested navigation of the Mississippi River, and thus removed a source of great irritation among the western people, and of danger to the whole Union. The neighboring Indian tribes, no longer instigated by Spanish agenta, and humbled by their defears and disasters at Etowah and Niekojack, were comparatively inoffensive, certainly ne: inclined to provoke farther chastisement.
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