USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 51
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Few families suffered greater losses and misfortunes, than the family of Mr. Brown. The father, two sons, three sons- in-law, were killed by the Indians-one other shot in his right hand and cut above his wrist-another son, Joseph, and his two sisters, prisoners and in captivity nearly a year-the mother and another daughter, prisoners, seventeen months- the former driven on foot by the Creeks two hundred miles,
517
GENERAL MARTIN'S CAMPAIGN.
and not permitted to stop long enough to take the gravel from her shoes, and her feet blistered and suppurating-a younger son, a prisoner five years.
During the summer after this remarkable disaster to Brown and his family, Sevier invaded and chastised the Cherokees, as has been already narrated.
The Indians continued their attacks on the stations. In rapid 1788 succession, expresses were sent from the frontier to General Martin and Col. Kennedy, representing their exposed condition, and soliciting succour. An army was raised from the upper counties, which' rendezvoused at White's Fort, where Knoxville now stands. Their number was about four hundred and fifty men.
Col. Robert Love commanded the regiment from Wash- ington county, Col. Kennedy from Greene, and Col. Doherty from below. The army crossed Hiwassee near the present Calhoun, and reached the point where the Tennessee River breaks through the Cumberland Mountain, and encamped in an old Indian field. It was supposed the Indians had taken off their property to a town six miles below. After dark, Col. Doherty, at the head of fifty men, started with the view of surprising it. As soon as this party reached the spur of the mountain, they were fired upon, and retreated to camp. The troops remained all night with their bridles in their hands. Next morning the spies, who had gone forward to reconnoitre, were fired upon, and William Cunningham, late of Knox county, was wounded. The troops were immedi- ately paraded, and riding to the foot of the mountain, tied their horses, and engaged with .the Indians at a point be- tween the bluff and the river. Captains Hardin, Fuller and Gibson, were killed. These were buried in a large town house, standing near where the path entered the mountain. After burying their dead with all the precaution possible, they sct fire to the town house and burned it down over them. One of Col. Love's captains, Vincent, was badly wounded, but was put upon a horse litter and brought home, and recovered.
General Martin then proposed to pursue the Indians, but his men rebelled and refused to follow him, except about
518
GILLESPIE'S STATION TAKEN.
sixty. These, he thought, were inadequate to the undertak- ing, and the troops started home.
General Martin's troops had scarcely reached home, when a party of Cherokees and Creeks, two or three hundred strong, came to Gillespie's Station on Little River, within eight or ten miles from Knoxville. They captured several prisoners, and retreated. General Sevier made a vigorous pursuit, overtook and re-captured the prisoners. Some In- dians, also, were taken, who were afterwards exchanged for such white captives as had been carried into the nation.
"On the 21st of September, a large body of the enemy, not less than two hundred, attacked Sherrell's Station, late in the evening. Sevier that day, with forty horsemen, was out ranging, and came on the In- dians' trail, making towards the inhabitants; he immediately advanced after them, and opportunely arrived before the fort, when the Indians were carrying on a furious attack. On coming in view of the place, he drew up his troop in close order, made known his intention in a short speech, that he would relieve the garrison, or fall in the attempt ; and asked who was willing to follow him. All gave an unanimous consent, and, at a given signal, made a charge on the enemy, as they were busily employed in setting fire to a barn and other out-buildings. The Indians gave way, and immediately retired from the place, and the gallant little band of heroes reached the fort, to the great joy of the besieged. This exploit was performed under cover of the night, and, conformably to the Governor of Frankland's usual good fortune, not a man of his party was hurt.
" On the 17th of October, Gillespie's Fort, (below the mouth of Little River,) on Holston, a little after sunrise, was attacked by about three hundred Indians, under the command of John Watts. The few men in the fort made a gallant resistance; but, being overpowered by numbers, and their ammunition being expended, the Indians rushed over the walls, or rather, the roofs of the cabins which made a part of the fort. Great was the horror of the scene that then ensued. The best accounts say our loss is twenty-eight persons, mostly women and children, as several of the men belonging to the fort, were abroad at the time.
" I am just now informed, that one thousand Indians have crossed the Tennessee in two divisions, and that one of them had attacked Major Houston's Fort, and the other was near Captain White's, on the north side of Holston. The whole of our militia are under marching orders, and Colonel Kennedy has already set out with those that were first ready."*
At the attack on Gillespie's Station, October 15th, a letter of that date was left, signed by the Indian chiefs, and ad- dressed to
*N. C. State Gazette.
519 .
HAWKINS COUNTY RECORDS.
Mr. John Sevier, and Joseph Martin, and to you, the Inhabitants of the New State :
We would wish to inform you of the accident that happened at Gil- lespie's Fort, concerning the women and children that were killed in the battle. The Bloody Fellow's talk is, that he is here now upon his own ground. He is not like you are, for you kill women and children, and he does not. He had orders to do it, and to order them off the land, and he came and ordered them to surrender and that they should not be hurt, and they would not, and he stormed it and took it. For you be- guiled the head-man* that was your friend, and wanted to keep peace, but you began it, and this is what you get for it. When you move off the land, then we will make peace, and give up the women and chil- dren; and you must march off in thirty days. Five thousand men is our number.
BLOODY FELLOW. CATEGISKEY. JOHN WATTS. GLASS.
In Sullivan county, there appears to be an interregnum from 1784 to March, 1787. The records were, probably, · mislaid or lost during the Franklin revolt. At that last date, a Commission, appointing justices of the peace, was present- ed. The magistrates, thereby appointed, met at the house of Joseph Cole. They resolved, "that it is the opinion and judgment of the Court, that John Rhea, formerly Clerk of the Court, has not forfeited his office by his absence, and therefore has a right to continue Clerk. In 1788, John Vance was Clerk."
Among the last legislative acts of North-Carolina, for 1789 S her western counties, was one establishing a town in the county of Hawkins. Rogersville is the last town in Tennessee established under the dynasty of the mother state.
After the fall of the Franklin Government, early in 1788, the people gradually gave in their adhesion to that of the parent state. On the part of some, it may have been done reluctantly. The transition, however, from a separate and independent state, to their former position of a colonial ap- pendage to North-Carolina, was so gradual as to be almost imperceptible. It certainly produced no convulsion, and was followed by no commotion. It was accompanied by no
* The Old Tassel.
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520
INHABITANTS RETURN TO THEIR ALLEGIANCE.
triumphs, and attended with scarcely a single regret. No one on the frontier has to eat the bitter bread of political or official dependence. Office, under either the one régime or the other, brought with it little distinction, and conferred al- most no emolument. Its possession was seldom sought after. Its loss produced neither disappointment nor mortification. Under both systems of government the people recognized the same constitution, and were ruled almost by the same laws. The change of officers was hardly known. In mili- tary affairs it was essentially so. Upon the frontier the vo- lunteering system had always obtained. If an enemy was to be repelled, or a campaign to be carried on, the volunteers exercised the right of selecting their leader. Did he hold a commission ? If he had the confidence of his troops, he com- manded. Without this he entered the ranks cheerfully, and yielded the command to a subaltern, preferred over him and chosen by the men. Many who, after the first of March, . 1788, became functi officiis, were soon after that date, rein- vested with authority by the people themselves, and often by the aid of the strongest zealots for North-Carolina. In one section of Franklin-that south of French Broad and west of Big Pigeon-the functionaries of that government continued in power, under no other regulation than the popu- lar will, which was sovereign, supreme, omnipotent. Else- where, in all her western counties, the jurisdiction of North- Carolina was acknowledged and her authority obeyed. Un- der her laws, elections of members to her Legislature were held.
The Assembly met at Fayetteville in November. Amongst the laws passed at this session, was one for paying the mili- tia officers and soldiers for their services in the campaign, carried on, as has been heretofore narrated, by Gen. Martin. against the Chickamaugas, in the preceding year. By the provisions of this law, the pay rolls of the expedition were to be exhibited under oath to the Comptroller, with the names of the officers. These were to be examined by the Comptroller, who was then to issue his certificate to each officer and soldier. The certificate was made receivable in . payment of the public tax due in the District of Washington,
521
DISCONTENTS OF THE PEOPLE REVIVED.
and no other, until all such certificates were paid. A like provision was made to liquidate the accounts of the Commis- sary on this expedition, making certificates issued to him re- ceivable in payment of public dues. The frugality of the parent state was further exhibited at the same session, by repealing the law for erecting a garrison on the north side of the Tennessee River. These several enactments served to revive the complaints and discontents of the western peo- ple, and especially of those of them in the late Franklin counties.
"They found themselves suddenly re-attached to a country in which a considerable portion of them could perceive no affection for them- selves, nor any disposition to give them protection, nor otherwise actua- ted, as many believed, but by a desire to get from the sale of their lands more certificates of public debt; and the opinion was entertained that North-Carolina could expose them to the tomahawk and scalping knife, without feeling in the least for their sufferings, and without having the least inclination to prevent them. Past experience, in their judgment, had fully demonstrated the advantages which were to be expected from the renewal of their connexions with North-Carolina ; they were to fight for themselves, protect their own possessions and pay taxes ; which, if . not sufficient for the expenses incurred in defending themselves, were to be applied as far as they would go, and the surplus of expenses was to be left. unsatisfied. On the other hand, the members of the Atlantic counties had the near prospect, as they supposed, of becoming subject to a still greater aggravation of burthen, and this anticipation never failed to recall a desire for separation ; indeed, it seemed as if, at this moment, there was a presentation to the Assembly of more western claims than had ever before come forward at one time. The Atlantic members laboured to find ways and means; and, still more, to avoid making contributions from the counties east of the Alleghanies. They had, in the late revolt, been furnished with the hint, that for very small provocations as they deemed them, the western counties would set up for independence, which it was not in their power to control. Ope- rated upon by these and other motives, the Atlantic counties came to the conclusion to let them separate, stipulating for themselves, as the price of emancipation, such terms as were necessary and convenient for their own people."
It soon became evident that her western counties were an inconvenient, and expensive, and troublesome appendage to North-Carolina, and many on both sides of the Alleghanies, who had more recently opposed the Franklin separation, or any dismemberment of the distant and disjoined sections of the parent state, were the first now to make the frank avowal
522
HER WESTERN TERRITORY CEDED BY NORTH-CAROLINA.
that it was the policy of each, and the interest of both, that the two communities should no longer remain united, but should at once become separate and distinct political organi- zations. The Assembly proceeded to mature a plan to sever them forever asunder, and passed an "Act for the purpose of ceding to the United States of America, certain western lands therein described."
In conformity with one of the provisions of the Act of Cession, Samuel Johnston and Benjamin Hawkins, Senators in Congress from North-Carolina, executed, on the 25th of February, 1790, a Deed to the United States, in the words of the Cession Act.
On the second of April, of the same year, the United States, in Congress assembled, by an act made for that special pur- pose, accepted the Deed, and what is now Tennessee, ceased to be a part of North-Carolina. The separation, though once resisted as unfilial, disobedient and revolutionary, was now in accordance with the judgment and wishes of all-peacea- ble, dutiful, affectionate. The Old North State is yet held in grateful remembrance by every emigrant she has sent to Tennessee. And there and elsewhere, to the farthest West, in all their wanderings and migrations, the succeeding gene- ration still cherish, with ancestral pride, the name, and cha- racter, and worth of North-Carolina, their mother state.
523
NEGOTIATION WITH SPAIN.
CHAPTER VI.
NEGOTIATION WITH SPAIN.
As EARLY as 1780, Spain had indicated a determination to claim the country west of the following boundary : "A right line should be drawn from the eastern angle of the Gulf of Mexico to Fort Toulouse, situated in the country of the Alibamas ; from thence the River Louishatchi should be ascended, from the mouth of which a right line should be drawn to the fort or factory of Quesnassie ; from this last place, the course of the River Euphasee* is to be followed till it joins the Cherokee ;t the course of this last river is to be pursued to the place where it receives the Pelissippi ;} this last to be followed to its source ; from whence a right line is to be drawn to Cumberland River, whose course is to be followed untill it falls into the Ohio."
And, on other questions then arising between her and the United States, Spain declared : "The savages to the west of the line described should be free and under the protection of Spain ; those to the eastward should be free and under the protection of the United States."-" The trade should be free to both parties."-" As to the course and navigation of the Mississippi, they follow with the property, and they will belong, therefore, to the nation to which the two banks belong."-" Spain alone will be the proprietor of the course of the Mississippi, from the thirty-first degree of latitude to the mouth of this river."
This line, designated by Rayneval, in his negotiation with Mr. Jay, left, not only the lands north of the Ohio without the limits of the United States, but a part of the country now constituting the State of Kentucky, all of Tennessee west of Hiwassee, Tennessee and Clinch Rivers, as above . delineated, and nearly the whole of Alabama and Missis-
* Hiwassee. + Tennessee. # Clinch.
524
PROPOSAL TO FORBEAR THE USE OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
sippi. To this extraordinary territorial pretension, on the part of Spain, was added that of the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi River.
Soon after the ratification of the definitive Treaty of 1784 § Peace, in 1783, Congress turned their attention to ( commercial intercourse with foreign nations, and in- structed the American Ministers particularly, in any nego- tiation with Spain, not to relinquish or cede, in any event whatever, the right of freely navigating the River Missis- sippi, from its source to the ocean .* Spain, still persisting in her extensive claims east of that river and to its exclusive navigation, appointed, in 1785, Don Diego Gardoqui her Minister, to adjust the interfering claims of the two nations. Mr. Jay, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs, was appointed to treat with him on the part of the United States. The Spanish Minister declared that the king, his master, would not permit any nation to navigate any part of the Missis- sippi between the banks claimed by him. The American Minister, on the other hand, insisted on the right of the United States to its free navigation. On a previous occa- sion, while representing his country in Europe, Mr. Jay had strenuously contended for that right, and urged the impor- tance of retaining it. Now, the negotiation being renewed at home, he reminded the Spanish Minister " that the adja- cent country was filling fast with people, and that the time must soon come when they would not submit to seeing a fine river flow before their doors, without using it as a highway to the sea, for the transportation of their productions," and pointed out the wisdom of such a treaty being now formed, as would not contain in its stipulations the seeds of future discord. These appeals were resisted by the Don, and he still insisted that the Mississippi must be shut against the commerce of the western people and of the United States.
At a later period in the negotiation, Mr. Jay, in a commu- - nication to Congress, adds : " Circumstanced as we 1785 are, I think it would be expedient to agree that the treaty should be limited to twenty-five or thirty years, and that one of its articles should stipulate that the United States
* Pitkin.
525
EXCITES INDIGNATION IN THE WEST.
would forbear to use the navigation of that river below their territories to the ocean."
In support of this concession, Mr. Jay stated : "That the navigation of the Mississippi was not at that time very . important, and would not probably become so in less than twenty-five or thirty years, and that a forbearance to use it, while it was not wanted, was no great sacrifice ; that Spain . then excluded the people of the United States from that navigation, and that it could only be acquired by war, for which we were not then prepared ; and that in case of war, France would no doubt join Spain." A resolution was sub- mitted to Congress, repealing Mr. Jay's instructions of Au- gust 25, 1785, and directing him to consent to an article, stipulating a forbearance, on the part of the United States, to use the Mississippi River for twenty years. In support of these resolutions, the members from New Hampshire, Mas- sachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New-York, New Jer- sey and Pennsylvania, voted unanimously ; while those from Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia, with equal unanimity, voted against them. .
These proceedings of Congress, though with closed doors, soon became partially known, and excited great indignation and alarm in Virginia, and in all the.western settlements. In November, 1786, in consequence of a memorial from the western inhabitants, the Virginia Assembly declared unani- mously " that the common right of navigating the Mississippi, was considered as the bountiful gift of nature to the United States ; that the Confederacy, having been formed on the broad basis of equal rights in every part thereof, and confided to the protection and guardianship of the whole, a sacrifice of the rights of any one part, would be a flagrant violation of jus- tice, and a direct contravention of the end for which the Federal Government was instituted, and an alarming inno- vation on the system of the Union." They, therefore, in- structed their delegates " to oppose any attempt that may be made in Congress to barter or surrender to any nation what- ever, the right of the United States to the free and common use of the Mississippi ; and to protest against the same as a dishonourable departure from the comprehensive and bene-
526
THE NEGOTIATION CONTINUED.
volent feeling, which constitutes the vital principle of the Confederation ; as provoking the just resentment and re- proaches of our western brethren, whose essential rights and interests would be thereby sacrificed and sold ; and as tend- ing to undermine our repose, our prosperity, and our Union itself."
After the instructions of Mr. Jay, as already mentioned, were rescinded by the seven Northern States, negotiations were renewed, but without effect. The Spanish Minister still refused to admit the United States to any share in the navigation of the river, below the boundaries claimed by his monarch, on any terms and conditions whatever.
All further negotiation with Spain wasreferred to the new Federal Government.
By the eighth article of the treaty between Great Britain and the United States, it was provided, that the navigation of the River Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects and citizens of the two powers, respectively. The boundaries of Spanish Louisiana, after the dismemberment, comprised all the region west of the Mississippi. It included, also, the island of New- Orleans, on the east side of that river, and south of the Ba- you Iberville ; thus including, necessarily, the mouth and the river itself, with the eastern bank above the Iberville, and both banks from the Iberville to the Balize. With France, Spain had also become involved in the war in fa- vour of the American Colonies, and against Great Britain. By the treaty of September, 1783, on the part of all the bel- ligerents, Great Britain confirmed to Spain, the whole of the Floridas, south of the thirty-first degree of latitude. The Provinces of Louisiana and Florida returned to a state of peace and prosperity, under the wise administration of Go- vernor Mero. The river trade with Upper Louisiana and the settlements upon the Ohio and its tributaries, had become active, and the Spanish dominion upon the Mississippi ap- peared to be increasing continually, in importance and power.
In the meantime, the serious attention of the Spanish au- thorities was directed to the growing influence of the west-
WESTERN PEOPLE, PROJECT AN INVASION OF LOUISIANA. . 527
.
-
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ern settlements of the United States, which were coming in collision with their own. Georgia claimed much of the ter- ritory from Loftus' Heights, northwardly, several hundred miles. But this whole region was in the possession of Spain, with a population of nearly ten thousand souls. An active trade from the people on Holston, Cumberland, and other branches of the Ohio, had forced itself down the Mississippi, and they claimed the natural right of the use of this stream, throughout the Province of Louisiana, and to the ocean. On the other hand, it had become a matter of great interest to the Spanish authorities to derive a large revenue from this trade, by the imposition of transit and port duties. For this purpose, a revenue office, with a suitable guard, and a mili- tary post, was established at New-Madrid and other points, at which all boats were required to land, and comply with the revenue laws. These were enforced with great rigour, even to seizure and confiscation of the cargo. It requires but little knowledge of the character of the western people to know what effect these exactions and restrictions upon their trade would produce. They believed they had a right to navigate the river, free from all these impositions ; that the duties were exorbitant, oppressive and unjust. Under these impressions, it is not strange, that many of them should resist the laws, and disregard the attempts of the revenue officers to enforce them. In this manner, it frequently happened, that the west-" ern traders were seized, fined and imprisoned, their cargoes confiscated as contraband or forfeited, and the owners or supercargoes discharged, penniless, to find their way home." Occurrences of this kind had greatly incensed the western people, and disseminated a general discontent and opposi- tion. To such an extent had this vindictive feeling been car- ried in Kentucky, and upon the Cumberland, that a milita- ry invasion of Louisiana was devised, for redressing the wrongs of the western people, and seizing the port of New- Orleans, should the Federal Government, then negotiating on the subject, fail to obtain from Spain the free navigation of the Mississippi. So general had become this excitement,
*Martin, as quoted by Monette.
528
GENERAL WILKINSON'S MISSION TO NEW-ORLEANS.
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