USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 27
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The settlements had reached as far as Long Creek, in the 1784 [ present Jefferson county, as at this session of the
( court, "Thomas Jarnagin hath leave to build a mill on Long Creek."
" A tax was laid, at the same time, of one shilling in specie for each one hundred pounds value of taxable property, for the purpose of erecting public buildings. An appropriation of eight pounds was also made to Mr. Carr, for the use of his house in which the court met. At August Term, a road was laid out from the mouth of Bent Creek to the mouth of
* County Recorde.
.
278
GEN. WHITE AND COL. RAMSEY EXPLORE THE COUNTRY.
Dumplin (now Sevier). Also from the county line south of Chucky, and where the War Path crosses the same, the nearest and best way to the War Ford, on Pigeon (now Cocke county).
. "Ordered, that a Bench Warrant issue to Captain John Newman, to take suspected persons.
".At November Sessions, leave was granted to Thomas Stockton to build a mill on French Broad, at Christian's Ford" (now Sevier county) .*
In August, of this year, the late General James White, 1783 § Col. Robert Love and Col. F. A. Ramsey and others, for the purpose of locating land warrants, explored the country as low as the confluence of the Holston and Ten- nessee. They crossed the French Broad at the War Ford. There were but few inhabitants then south of Chucky. At the mouth of Pigeon, Mr. Gilliland had corn growing, but no cabin had then been erected there. A few miles below his clearing, the remains of three or four Indians were found ; they had been killed several days before. The explorers con- tinued on the south side of the river as low down as the mouth of Dumplin Creek, near which they recrossed French Broad and fell down between that and Holston, pass- ing the Swan Pond and crossing Holston a few miles above, where Knoxville now stands. Their route was continued through the Grassy Valley to the mouth of Holston. It was upon this tour that General White and Col. Ramsey .saw the lands, which they afterwards entered and eventually occupied in the present Knox county.
The Indians, late in this year, commenced hostilities, by stealing horses and cattle, and retreating across the Pigeon Mountains, in what is now Cocke county. Major Peter Fine raised a few men and pursued them. After killing one Indian and wounding another, and regaining the stolen property, they began their return and encamped. They were fired upon in the night by the savages, who had fol- lowed their tracks. Vinet Fine, a brother of the major, was killed, and Thomas Holland and Mr. Bingham were wounded. After the departure of the Indians, who hung around the camp till morning, the white men broke a hole * County Records.
279
ARMSTRONG'S LAND OFFICE OPENED.
in the ice and put the body of V. Fine in the creek, which has ever since been called Fine's Creek. The wounded men were brought in, in safety, and recovered.
It continued to be necessary for two years, to keep out scouts between Pigeon and French Broad. In this time Nehemiah and Simeon Odell were killed, scalped and their guns taken. A boy ten years old, named Nelson, was killed and his horse taken seven miles up Pigeon. McCoy's Fort was built on French Broad, three miles above New Port Whitson's, on Pigeon, ten miles above New Port, where McNabb since lived ; Wood's, five miles below. These were all guarded several years.
The General Assembly laid off a district for the ex- clusive satisfaction of the officers and soldiers of the late continental line, which was raised in North-Carolina. The claims to be satisfied, were founded upon certain promises held out to them by the legislature, in May, 1780. Shortly afterwards it was provided, that in case of a deficiency of good land in this district, to satisfy these claims, the same might be entered upon any vacant land in the state, which should be appropriated for their satisfaction, by grant .*
On the 20th of October, seventeen hundred and eighty- three, John Armstrong's office was opened, at Hillsborough, for the sale of the western lands not included in these reser- vations, nor in the counties of Washington and Sullivan, at the rate of ten pounds, specie certificates, per hundred. These certificates had been issued by Boards of Auditors, appointed by public authority, for services performed and articles impressed or furnished in the time of the revolu- tionary war, and were made payable in specie. The lands were to be entered in tracts of five thousand acres or less, at the option of the enterer. By the 25th of May, 1784, vast quantities of land were entered, and certificates, to a very large amount, had been paid into the public offices.t
. By a subsequent law of the next session, the surveyor of Greene county was allowed to survey all lands for which warrants might be granted by John Armstrong, lying west- ward of the Apalachian Mountains, and including all the
* Haywood. + Idem.
880
TREATY OF PEACE,
.
lands on the waters of Holston, from the mouth of French Broad River, upwards to the bounds of Washington and Sullivan counties, exclusive of the entries made by the entry- taker of Greene county.
By the eighth article of the treaty of 1788, it was provided that the navigation of the Mississippi River, from its source.to the ocean, shall, forever, remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States.
In conformity with the ninth article of confederation, Con- gress issued a proclamation, prohibiting all persons from making setlements on lands inhabited or claimed by Indians, without the limits or jurisdiction of any particular state, and from purchasing or, receiving any gift or cession of such lands without the express authority and directions of the United States in Congress assembled.
The state of peace brought with it new motives for exer- tion in all the industrial pursuits of life, and new incentives to patriotism. The country had secured to itself indepen- dence ; each citizen became proud of his connexion with it, and felt that, as he had had an agency in giving to the government form, vitality and vigour, he was also responsi- ble for its success, prosperity and enlargement. The ten- dency westward was greatly increased, and multitudes of emigrants from the Middle and Southern States turned their eyes upon the new lands in the West. . Holston, Cumberland and Kentucky, each received its share of enterprising and ·resolute men, willing to undergo the hardships and brave the perils of the wilderness. The facility of procuring cheap and fertile lands induced a new and large emigration to what is now Upper East Tennessee. The settlements upon the French Broad and its tributaries extended rapidly. This in- duced a renewal of hostilities on the border settlements, and Major Fine and Col. Lillard raised a company of thirty men, and penetrated through the mountains to the Over-hill Town of Cowee, and burned it. From this town the aggressions against the Pigeon settlements had been principally made. These were afterwards less frequent.
In seventeen hundred and eighty-four, the frontier inhabi- tants were clearing their fields and building their cabins as low down as the Big Island, and along the banks of the
281
PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT.
Big and Little Pigeon. A few adventurers were also on 1784 § Boyd's Creek, south of French Broad. North of Hol- ston they were extending their improvements, within a few miles of the present Rogersville. Heretofore, none but men of little or no fortune had crossed the mountain. A pack- horse carried all the effects of an emigrating family. The country could now be reached, not as at first, only by a trace, but by wagon roads. This invited men of larger property, and society began to put on the aspect of permanence and respectability. Forts and stations had served as places for private and public instruction in learning and religion, as well as for the administration of justice. Now, in the oldest part of the settlements, might occasionally be seen the back- wood's school-house, without floors or windows, and at still greater intervals an equally unpretending building set apart for public worship. At Jonesboro', in Washington county, the first court-house in Tennessee had been erected. It was .built of round logs, fresh from the adjacent forest-was co- vored in the fashion of cabins of the pioneers, with clap- boards.
Improvement was the order of the day, and "The court recommend that there be a court-house built in the following manner, viz : 24 feet square, diamond corners, and hewn down after it is built up ; 9 feet high between the two floors ; body of the house 4 feet above upper floor ; floors neatly laid with plank ; shingles of roof to be hung with pegs. A justice's bench ; a lawyer's and clerk's bar; also, a sheriff's box to sit in."*
But improvement and progress and change had dawned upon its future fortunes, and Jonesboro', already distinguish- ed as the oldest town established in the present Tennessee, the centre of much of the intelligence and political influence in the new country, and the seat of its courts, was now to be- come the scene of exciting events-the theatre on which, at first, the master spirits of the frontier should co-operate and harmonize upon their political organization, and the arena where afterwards they became factionists and partizans, for and against the State of Franklin. The history of that an- cient commonwealth will be given in the next chapter.
* County Records.
282
STATE OF FRANKLIN.
CHAPTER IV.
THE STATE OF FRANKLIN.
THE revolutionary war was now ended, and the indepen- 1788
dence of the United States acknowledged by England, ( and some of the great powers on the Eastern con- tinent. The transition from a state of provincial vassalage and colonial dependence to self government, was sudden, and in some of the states almost imperceptible. The change from a monarchy to a republic, brought with it, here and there over the country, a little of the spirit of insubordina- tion, but to a much more limited extent than, under existing circumstances, might have been expected. The boundary between liberty and licentiousness, has at no time and in no place, been better understood and more strictly observed, than at the close of the American Revolution, and by the peo- ple of the new republics then entering upon a new theatre of national existence. Still, under the recent order of things, it is not matter of wonder that there should be immature concep. tions of the nature of government and mistaken views of public policy, and that even lawlessness and violence should result from error and inexperience. To a limited extent it was so. The wonder rather is, that so little anarchy, misrule and in- subordination existed amid the chaos, convulsions and up- turnings of society, which the separation of the colonies from the parent government produced, and where the rights of the people were substituted for the prerogatives of sovereignty.
Apart from these considerations, there was a further diffi- culty involving the honour, the stability and almost the exis- tence, of the United States government.
In achieving their independence, the states had each con- 1784 § tracted a large debt upon its own treasury, for expen- ( ses incurred during the war. In addition to this, Con- gress had created a heavy liability upon the general trea- sury for advances made by American citizens and foreign-
.
283
CENSION ACT OF NORTH-CAROLINA.
ers, to meet expenditures growing out of a protracted conflict. While the country received the news of an honourable and advantageous peace with acclamations of joy and triumph, government felt itself borne down by its heavy public indebt- edness, and harassed by the importunate clamour of its pub- lic creditors. Among the expedients adopted by Congress to lighten this burden, replenish its treasury and increase its exhausted credit, was the recommendation to such of the states as owned vacant and unappropriated lands, to throw them into the common stock, cede them to. the United States, and out of the joint fund thus created, liquidate the common debt. North-Carolina was one of these. She owned a vast amount of unappropriated lands in that portion of her west- ern territory extending from the Alleghanies to the Missis- sippi. Sympathizing with Congress in the distress and diffi- culty resulting from the embarrassed financial condition of the Union, the General Assembly of North-Carolina, at its April session of this year, at Hillsborough, adopted measures to relieve them. Taxes were laid for this purpose, and au- thority was given to Congress to collect them, and also to levy a duty on foreign merchandize. Partly for the same reason, and for others which will hereafter be noticed, the As- sembly passed an act in June, ceding to the Congress of the United States the western lands, as therein described, and authorized the North Carolina delegates to execute a deed for the same. In this cession thus authorized, was embraced all the territory now constituting the State of Tennessee, and . including, of necessity, the trans-montane counties, Washing- ton, Sullivan, Greene and Davidson .*
By an additional act of the same session, it was declared that the sovereignty and jurisdiction of North-Carolina in and over the territory thus ceded, and all its inhabitants, should be and remain the same in all respects, until the United States, in Congress, should accept of the cession. It had been pro- vided in the cession act that if Congress should not accept in two years, the act was thenceforward to be of no effect.
The Assembly, at the same session, closed the land office
. Davidson county was erected in 1788, on Cumberland, as will be elsewhere fully stated.
984
COMPLAINTS OF WESTERN COUNTERS.
for the Western Territory, and nullified all entries of land, except as therein specified.
Members from the four western counties were present at Hillsborough, and voted for the act of cession. They had observed a growing disinclination on the part of the legisla- ture to make any provision for the protection and defence of the Western people, or to discharge the debts that had. been contracted in guarding the frontiers, or inflicting chastise- ments upon the Indians. Accounts for these purposes had been, and of necessity would continue to be, large and fre- quent. These demands against the treasury of the state were received reluctantly-were scrutinized with the ut- most caution, and paid grudgingly. Often they were ro- jected as informal or unauthorized. It was intimated oven, that some of these demands were fabricated by the Western people, and that the property of the citizens east of the mountains was wrongly and unjustly taken to cancel the debts of their Western brethren.
It will be recollected that the Bill of Rights, which was adopted at the same time with the Constitution of North- Carolina, had made provision for the formation of a new state or states out of her Western Territory. Her western settlements were becoming expensive and burdensome to her, and as the time was at hand when a new and indepen- dent state might be formed out of them, her rulers felt it to be impolitic, to be very lavish in expenditures, for those who might soon become strangers to her peculiar interests, or members of a separate organization. The West complained of inadequate provision on the part of North-Carolina for their necessities, while the mother state lost no opportunity to impute to her remote children in the wilderness extravagance and profligacy-filial ingratitude and disobedience. To the influence of these mutual criminations and recriminations, may be traced the hasty passage of the cession act of June, 1784.
The members from the four western counties, immediately after the adjournment of the Assembly, at Hillsborough, re- turned home. They brought with them the first intelligence that had reached the West, of the passage of the cession act.
285
REDUCED TO POLITICAL ORPHANAGE.
The impression was generally entertained, that Congress would not formally accept the cession of the Western Terri- tory for the space of two years, and that, during that period, the new settlements being under the protection neither of Congress nor of North-Carolina, would be left in a state of anarchy, without aid or support from abroad, and unable to command, under the existing state of affairs, their own re- sources at home. This aspect of their condition was made the more discouraging and alarming, from the consideration that heretofore no provision had been made for the establish- ment of a Superior Court west of the mountains. Violation of law was permitted to pass unpunished, except by the summary process of the Regulators appointed for that pur- pose, by the people themselves. Nor was the military organi- zation adequate to the exigencies of the new settlements. There was no brigadier-general allowed by law to call into service the militia of the counties, or to concentrate its ener- gies on sudden emergencies. This defect was the more dan- gerous, and the more sensibly felt, now when Indian aggression continued. With a frontier exposed to the inroads of a sa- vage enemy, and with no authority amongst themselves to whom the settlers could apply for assistance-with the set- tlements infested with culprits of every degree of guilt, re- fagees from other places, and escaping to these seclusions on account of their supposed immunity from conviction and punishment-distracted by the apprehension of an uncertain or questionable allegiance, ceded by the parent state, not yet accepted by their federal owners depressed by the contem- plation of the state of political orphanage to which they were now reduced, and of the anarchy which must result from it-the opinion became general with the entire popula- tion that the sacred duty devolved upon themselves to de- vise the means-to draw upon their own resources-and, by a manly self reliance, to extricate the inhabitants of the ceded territory from the unexpected difficulties by which they were suddenly surrounded. Self protection is the first law of na- ture. Salus populi suprema lex. The frontier was suffering constantly by Indian perfidy and assailed by Indian atro-
286
MEMBERS OF CONVENTION CHOSEN.
city, and the settlers seemed to hold their lives by the per mission and at the will of their Cherokee neighbours.
In this dilemma it was proposed that in each captain's company two representatives of the people should be elect- ed, who should assemble, as committees, in their respective counties, to deliberate upon the state of public affairs, and recommend some general plan of action suited to the emergency. These committees, for Washington, Sullivan and Greene, met and recommended the election of deputies from each of the counties, to assemble in convention at Jonesboro', with power to adopt such measures as they should deem advisable. The election of deputies to the convention was held, and resulted in the choice for Wash- ington county of John Sevier, Charles Robertson, William Purphey, Joseph Wilson, John Irvin, Samuel Houston, Wil- liam Trimble, William Cox, Landon Carter, Hugh Henry, Christopher Taylor, John Chisolm, Samuel Doak, William Campbell, Benjamin Holland, John Bean, Samuel Williams, and Richard White. -
For the county of Sullivan-Joseph Martin, Gilbert Chris- tian, William Cocke, John Manifee, William Wallace, John Hall, Saml. Wilson, Stockley Donelson, and William Evans.
For the county of Greene-Daniel Kennedy, Alexander Outlaw, Joseph Gist, Samuel Weir, Asahel Rawlings, Joseph Ballard, John Maughon, John Murphey, David Campbell, Archibald Stone, Abraham Denton, Charles Robinson, and Elisha Baker.
Davidson county sent no delegates; probably none were elected.
These deputies, on the day appointed, August 23d, as- sembled at Jonesboro'. John Sevier was appointed presi- dent of the convention. Landon Carter was the secretary. ' Immediately after its organization, the convention raised a committee, to take into consideration the state of public affairs, and especially the cession of her Western Territory, by North-Carolina to Congress.
The committee consisted of Messrs. Cocke, Outlaw, Car- ter, Campbell, Manifee, Martin, Robinson, Houston, Chris- tian, Kennedy and Wilson.
287
REPORT OF COMMITTEE.
While discussing and deliberating upon the object of the convention, the committee came to its conclusion in the following manner : " A member rose and made some re- marks on the variety of opinions offered, for and against a separation, and taking from his pocket a volume con- taing the Declaration of Independence by the colonies in 1776, commented upon the reasons which induced their sepa- ration from England, on account of their local situation, etc., and attempted to show that a number of the reasons they had for declaring independence, applied to the counties here represented by their deputies."
" After this member had taken his seat, another arose and moved to declare the three western counties independent of North-Carolina, which was unanimously adopted" by the committee .* This decision was submitted to the conven- tion in the following
' REPORT.
" Your Committee are of opinion and judge it expedient, that the Counties of Washington, Sullivan and Greene, which the Cession Bill particularly respects, form themselves into an Association and combine themselves together, in order to support the present laws of North Caro- lina, which may not be incompatible with the modes and forms of lay- ing off a new state. It is the opinion of your committee, that we have a just and undeniable right to petition to Congress to accept the cession made by North-Carolina, and for that body to countenance us in form- ing ourselves into a separate government, and either to frame a permanent or temporary constitution, agreeably to a resolve of Congress, in such case made and provided, as nearly as circumstances will admit. We have a right to keep and hold a Convention from time to time, by meeting and convening at such place or places as the said Convention shall adjourn to. When any contiguous part of Virginia shall make ap- plication to join this Association, after they are legally permitted, either by the State of Virginia, or other power having cognizance thereof, it is our opinion that they be received and enjoy the same privileges that we do, may or shall enjoy. This Convention has a right to adopt and pre- scribe such regulations as the particular exigencies of the time and the public good may require ; that one or more persons ought to be sent to represent our situation in the Congress of the United States, and this Convention has just right and authority to prescribe a regular mode for his support."
This report was received and adopted by the convention. The question was then taken.
. Manuscripts of Rev. S. Houston.
288
YEAS AND NAYS ON QUESTION OF SEPARATION.
" On motion of Mr. Cocke, whether for or against forming ourselves into a separate and distinct state, independent of the State of North- Carolina, at this time, it was carried in the affirmative.
" On motion of Mr. Kennedy, the yeas and nays were taken on the above question.
" Yeas .- Mr. Tirril, Samms, North, Taylor, Anderson, Houston, Cox, Talbot, Joseph Wilson, Trimble, Reese, John Anderson, Manifee, Chris- tian, Carnes, A. Taylor, Fitzgerald, Cavit, Looney, Cocke, B. Gist, Raw- lings, Bullard, Joshua Gist, Valentine Sevier, Robinson, Evans and Maughan. (28.)
"Nays .- John Tipton, Joseph Tipton, Stuart, Maxfield, D. Looney. Vincent, Cage, Provincer, Gammon, Davis, Kennedy, Newman, Wear, James Wilson and Campbell." (15.)
The manuscript from which the above is taken, was found among the papers of General Kennedy. It is without a date upon it. It is not known from the paper itself, which of the conventions had these proceedings. It was probably at the first convention at Jonesboro', in August, 1784. That body, however, consisted of forty members, and at this calling of the yeas and nays, forty-three voted. Some names are also found in this list of members, which are not put down in the convention at Jonesboro'. Credentials were of little conse- quence at that day, and perhaps were not required from members. This may account for the discrepancy, both as to the names and members of the convention.
It was then agreed that a member from the door of the house inform the crowd in the street of the decision. Procla- mation was accordingly made before the anxious spectators, who seemed unanimously to give to the proceedings, their consent and approbation. In pursuance of one of its recom- mendations, the convention appointed Messrs. Cocke and Hardin a committee to draw up and form the plan of asso- ciation. That plan was presented the next day to the con- vention in the following report :
"To remove the doubts of the scrupulous; to encourage the timid, and to induce all, harmoniously and speedily, to enter into a firm asso- ciation, let the following particulars be maturely considered. If we should be so happy as to have a separate government, vast numbers from different quarters, with a little encouragement from the public, would fill up our frontier, which would strengthen us, improve agricul- ture, perfect manufactures, encourage literature and every thing truly laudable. The seat of government being among ourselves, would evi- dently tend, not only to keep a circulating medium in gold and silver
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