USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 53
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010 . .121 WEST REMAINED URANDOOND ..
remained unseduced by the coquetry of monarchical intrigue, and the stern virtue and primitive integrity of the simple- hearted pioneer and hunter, resisted the art and baffled the designs of the diplomatist and the emissary. . . .....
The negotiation on the subject of boundaries, and of the right of navigating the Mississippi, extending, as it did, through ten years, has been thus presented in one general view. It will serve to explain and illustrate some smaller. incidents, detailed on other pages, as they took plitce, com nested with the early settlements of Tennessee.
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TERRITORY OF UNITED STATES SOUTH OF OHIO RIVER. . 541
CHAPTER VII
TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES SOUTH OF OHIO RIVER.
HAVING accepted the deed of cession from North-Carolina, 1790 ( of the "territory south-west of the River Ohio." The § Congress soon after passed a law for the government ordinance itself, and the act of Congress amendatory of it, passed August 7, 1789.
Provision being thus made for the government of the ter- ritory, it remained for the President to nominate suitable officers to carry the Territorial Government into operation. Several gentlemen, of acknowledged capacity and worth, were presented to President Washington, for the appoint- ment of Governor. Patrick Henry recommended to him Mr. Mason of Virginia. But there was an obvious propriety in selecting, for this station, a citizen of the state which had ceded the territory, and who was presumed, on that account, to be familiar with the circumstances and interests con- nected with and involved in the cession. William Blount, of North-Carolina, received the appointment of Governor. He has been heretofore mentioned in these pages, as the vigilant agent of his state, and the faithful guardian of the interests of North-Carolina, at the treaty of Hopewell. He was of an ancient English family, of wealth and rank, which, at an early day, emigrated to Carolina. The name is often mentioned in the annals of that state during the Revolution. Charles, James and Benjamin Blount, were all civil or military officers during that period. William Blount was one of the deputies from North-Carolina to the Conven- tion which formed the Constitution of the United States. It was on this occasion, probably, that General Washington, the President of the Convention, first became acquainted with him, and, appreciating his qualifications for the public service, his discernment selected him for the important posi- tion of Governor of the new Territory. He was remarkable
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542
GOVERNOR BLOUNT ARRIVES IN THE TERRITORY,
for great address, courtly manners, benignant feelings, and a most commanding presence. His urbanity-his personal in- fluence over men of all conditions and ages his hospitality, unostentatiously, but yet elegantly and gracefully extended to all, won upon the affections and regard of the populace, and made him a universal favourite. He was at once the social companion, the well-bred gentleman and the capable officer. He received his commission as Governor of the Territory, August 7, 1790. On the 10th of October, he reached the theatre of his new and important public duty ou the frontier, amidst a people unacquainted as yet with the . forms and usages of old and refined society, but unsurpassed any where in all the strong traits of character which form the man, the patriot and the citizen. At first, he made his residence at the house of William Cobb, in the fork of Hol- ston and Watauga Rivers, not far from the Watauga Old Fields, where was planted, twenty years before, the germ of the future Tennessee." Mr. Cobb was a wealthy farmer, an emigrant from North-Carolina, no stranger to comfort and taste, nor unaccustomed to what, in that day, was called style. Like the old Carolina and Virginia gentlemen, ho entertained elegantly, with profusion rather than with plenty, without ceremony and without grudging. Like theirs, his house was plain, convenient, without pretension or show. His equipage was simple and unpretending. He kept his horses, his dogs, his rifles, even his traps, for the use, comfort and entertainment of his guests. His servants, his rooms, his grounds, were all at their bidding. They felt themselves at home, and never said adieu to him or his family, without the parting regret and the tenderness of an old friendship.
It was here, and under such circumstances, that Governor Blount opened and held his court in the ancient woods of old Sullivan. The President had associated with him, in the administration of the Territorial Government, as Judges, David Campbell and Joseph Anderson. The former had held a like position under the State of Franklin, and subse- quently, under the authority of North-Carolina. The latter
. Mss. furnished by General Deery, then of Blountsville.
543
AND ASSUMES ITS GOVERNMENT.
had been an officer in the Continental service during the war of the Revolution.
Governor Blount proceeded to appoint and commission the officers, civil and military, for the counties forming the District of Washington. Those holding office under North- Carolina, generally continued to serve in the same capacity under the Territorial Government ; a new commission and a new oath of office were required. The oath was admin- istered by Judge Campbell, in the presence of the Governor. The names of some of those commissioned by him are here given.
WASHINGTON COUNTY, NOV. TERM, 1790 .- Charles Robertson, John Campbell, Edmond Williams, John Chisholm, Magistrates. James Sevier, was appointed Clerk-a position he occupied under the Franklin organization, under the authority of North-Carolina, during the Territorial Government, and under the State of Tennessee up to the time of his death in 1842.
SULLIVAN COUNTY .- The first Court was held December, 1790, when the magistrates commissioned by the Governor were sworn into office by Judge Campbell.
GREENE COUNTY, FEBRUARY SESSION, 1791 .- Present, Joseph Har- din, John Newman, William Wilson, John McNabb and David Ran- kin. Daniel Kennedy was appointed Clerk-an office he had also held under each of the preceding governments, and which he retained many years afterwards. At this session, David Allison and Wm. Cocke were admitted Attorneys.
HAWKINS COUNTY, DEC. TERM, 1790 .-- Richard Mitchell received the appointment of Clerk from Governor Blount.
The same gentleman also became, for a time, the Private Secretary of the Governor. He yet (1852) survives, in a green old age, an intelligent chronicle of past events. To him is this writer indebted for some of the incidents detailed in these pages.
Having commissioned the necessary officers in Washing- ton District, Governor Blount, on the 27th of November, set out for the District of Mero, then composed of Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee counties, to make similar appoint- ments there.
The Governor had, in all the counties, appointed military officers below the grade of brigadier-generals. These he could not appoint, but recommended to the President, Col. John Sevier, as the brigadier for Washington, and Col.
544
MAJOR KING VISITS CHEROKEES.
James Robertson, for Mero District. These appointments were afterwards confirmed accordingly.
In his tour, passing through the Territory from one extreme settlement to the other, Governor Blount endeavoured to make himself familiar with its condition and wants, so as to enable him the better to discharge his official duties, to the satisfaction of the Government, and with benefit to the people His instructions from the Executive, were to restore and maintain peaceful relations with the Indians. To effect this, he had sent Major King to the Cherokee nation, with an in- vitation to meet and hold a treaty with the whites the suc- ceeding May. This proposition was now more likely to be accepted, as the Creeks had entered into terms of' peace in August of the last year, at New-York. Major King found the Cherokees divided into two parties, of which Hanging Maw was the leader of the northern, as the Little Turkey was of the southern party. At the time of his mission, Ma- jor King found each of them disposed to negotiate.
The settlements formed in the Territory, at the time Go- vernor Blount assumed the government of it, extended from the Virginia line on the east, in a peninsular shape, south west to the waters of Little Tennessee, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles in length, by a width no where more than fifty, and in some places less than twenty-five miles. This narrow strip of inhabited country, was bounded on the south by a constant succession of mountains, claimed, if not occupied, by the Indians. On the west, by the Indian territory then in their occupancy ; and on the north and northwest, by the Clinch and Cumberland Mountains. In- decd, the settled country was confined to the valleys of the Holston, the Nollichucky, and the French Broad and Little Rivers below the mountains. All the rest of what is now East Tennessee, was either covered over with Cherokee villages, or frequented by the Indians in their hunting and predatory excursions. The white population thus insulated, was quite small. It was estimated that Washington District contained less than thirty thousand inhabitants. Besides these, there were, along the Cumberland Valley and its lower tributaries, settlements still more feeble and more ex-
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545
BLOUNT'S FAMILIARITY WITH INDIAN AFFAIRS.
posed to Indian assault and aggression-entirely insulated by desert wilds, and dissociated from all contact with civil- ized neighbours. Mero District contained about seven thousand inhabitants ; while the four southern Indian tribes numbered above twenty thousand warriors alone.
Between those two remote sections of the Territory, there 1790 § was no direct communication, either by land or water. The rapids and shoals in the Tennessee, and the ascent of the Ohio and Cumberland, was an obstacle to the latter ; and the intervention of a wilderness and a mountain, made the other difficult, if not impracticable, to any but In- dian marches.
At the commencement of Governor Blount's administra- tion, the Cherokees resided upon, and many of them within, the boundaries of the Territory, upon lands which they claimed, but much of which had been granted by North-Ca- rolina to her citizens, and a whole section of which had been occupied and settled under the laws and treaties of Franklin. The Chickasaws claimed also, but did not reside upon, the country between the Tennessee and Mississippi. Much of their claim was covered by grants from North-Carolina, but none of it was settled. It furnished a hidden retreat, and a thoroughfare, inaccessible to the whites, through which con- stant intercommunication was had, between the southern and northern tribes, and foreign emissaries, who sought to incite them against the intervening American settlements. The Choctaws and Creeks had no valid claim to any part of the Territory, but each of them had settled, and permitted Span- iards to reside in, their towns, near the Great Bend of Ten- nessee.
With the local condition of these tribes, Governor Blount had been long familiar, as wellas with all the circumstances by which they were surrounded, and would continue to be affected. He had been often a member of the Legislature of his native state, North-Carolina, and was well acquainted with the exposed condition of the West, and had been active, as a member, in meliorating that condition. Having been a member of the old Congress, of the Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States, and likewise of the 35
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546
BLOUNT APPOINTED SUPERINTENDENT
State Convention that ratified and adopted it, on the part of North-Carolina, and also a member of its legislature in 1789, when the Cession was made, and of which he was a zealous advocate, his appointment gave general satisfaction.
Mr. Blount also received the appointment of Superinten- dent of Indian Affairs. To his selection for the joint duties thus assigned him, President Washington was led by the ur- gent solicitation, and at the unanimous recommendation of the members of the legislature of 1789, who were present as representatives from the western counties. It is believed that no one was better qualified than he, to reconcile the con- flicting elements that had estranged, to some extent, the western citizens, after the dissolution of the Franklin Go- vernment ; none, with more ability and fidelity, to regulate Indian affairs between the Government of the United States, the people of the Territory, the Indian tribes, and the frontier population generally.
The superintendency of Indian affairs embraced the four southern tribes-the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws and Chick- asa ws. Some judgment may be formed of the difficult, re- sponsible and delicate duties these two offices devolved ou the Governor, by a brief reference to the posture of affairs when he received his appointments. The Territory over which Governor Blount was called to preside, bordered upon the frontiers of Virginia, North and South-Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky, within the boundaries of which, as well as his own Territory, all the southern tribes either resided or claimed hunting grounds. The interests and pursuits of this entire frontier, constantly produced collision, if not hostility, between the whites and the several Indian tribes. All com- plaints on whatsoever subject, between these parties, were cognizable by, and made to Mr. Blount, for redress or palli- ation. This duty was arduous in the extreme, and delicate. There were in all of the tribes, several distinct parties, swayed by opposite influences, some adhering to the United States, some to the Spanish authorities south and west of them, who held a number of trading and military posts, not only in Florida, but within the limits of the United States, east of the Mississippi. The British still held possession of
547
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OF SOUTHERN INDIAN AFFAIRS.
a number of posts of like character on the lakes, and in the northwest, within the boundaries of the treaty of 1783, and from these emanated counsels unfriendly to the peace and extension of the territorial settlements. On account of ex- isting foreign negotiation, Governor Blount was restricted by his instructions from the Federal Government, to defensive measures only ; offensive measures against the southern tribes, being forbidden by the delicate and unsettled posture of af- fairs between the United States and England, and the United States and Spain. Foreign intrigue had been suc- cessful in fomenting quarrels in portions of each tribe, and in stimulating invasions and strifes between some of the seve- ral Indian nations within the superintendency. To reconcile all these animosities between savages, and to protect his Ter- ritory from their injurious effects, required frequent confer- ences and correspondence, imposing a Herculean labour upon Mr. Blount. His correspondence with the Governors of ad- joining States, with the Secretary of War, and with the au- thorities of Spain, is extensive and minute. Being well pre- served in the printed archives of state, at Washington, but a small portion of them need be transferred to these pages. To keep the Indian tribes quiet-to conciliate their friend- ship to the United States to save the Territory from inva- sion, and to neutralize and prevent foreign influence, and, at the same time, not to jeopardize negotiations then pending, required a high degree of administrative capacity and diplo- matic talent. In the discharge of these arduous duties, Go- vernor Blount was aided by his two private secretaries, his brother, the late Governor Willie Blount, and the late Hon. Hugh Lawson White, whose lives, as will be hereafter seen in the prosecution of these Annals, were spent in the service, and identified with the interest, and character, and honour of Tennessee.
Along the frontiers of the four eastern counties, were seve- ral forts and stations, rudely constructed by the inhabitants in times of imminent danger, but furnishing no adequate pro- tection. These were manned, generally, by the militia of the neighbourhood, under no permanent organization.
About one thousand men, capable of bearing arms, resi-
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548
DUTIES OF GOVERNOR BLOUNT
ded west of the Cumberland Mountains-confined, princi- pally, to a circle embraced by a radius of less than forty miles, of which Nashville was the centre. Beyond that circle was an unsettled wilderness of almost indefinite ex- tent, used only as Indian hunting grounds. Whilst, on the other hand, the Indian population of the tribes surrounding, furnished not less than from thirty to fifty thousand* fight- ing men, in alliance with more distant tribes in the north- west, and in friendly intercourse with military posts occupied by British and Spanish garrisons, the commanders of which were in the habit of issuing trading licenses, alike to native and foreign companies, who resided among the Indians. Such were the posts of Mobile, Pensacola, St. Marks, St. Augustine, Baton Rouge, New-Madrid, Cape Gerardeau, St. Genevie and St. Louis, where supplies were kept, and am- munition and arms furnished, to the Indians, to excite them to commit murder and depredation upon the citizens of the Territory, then, except on its eastern extremity, an exposed and defenceless frontier extending, with the meanders of the several treaty lines, nearly a thousand miles. A border, thus extensive and thus exposed, invited attack. Several invasions, as will be hereafter more specially detailed, were carried on by the Indians, in large bodies, not only against the border settlements, but extending to the interior and better settled neighbourhoods. Instructed, as he was, to refrain from offensive war, and to act purely on the defen- sive, Governor Blount was, of course, often and severely censured, for affording so inefficient protection to the people of the Territory. The aggressions upon them were frequent, nu- merous, and of several years continuance. They gave rise to many complaints, not only by his own people, but by those of other states contiguous to his superintendency. The people complained that offensive measures were not vigorously adopt- ed-the Indians, that they were adopted-and the Executive and Congress of the United States, that the expenses of pro- tecting the frontier were so great, and accumulated so rapidly. These complaints the Governor bore with equa- nimity. The people, at length, ascertaining that the fault * Blount Papers.
549
WERE LABORIOUS, DELICATE AND RESPONSIBLE.
was not with him, withheld their censures, and generally sustained his authority.
Some of the duties assigned to the Governor were com- plex, delicate and difficult. Much of the land in Greene and Hawkins counties, entered and held by the inhabitants, according to the provisions of the laws of North-Carolina, were south and west of the line described as the line of allotment in the fourth Article of the Treaty of Hopewell. Some settlers had crossed Clinch River in violation of the same treaty ; and the entire population south of French Broad and Holston, were upon lands reserved to the Chero- kees, as hunting grounds, by the legislation of the mother state, but yet relinquished by the Indians at the treaties held under the authority of Franklin-an authority denied by North-Carolina, and not recognized by the United States. These were only a part of the embarrassments which Go- vernor Blount had to encounter. The provisions of the treaty of Hopewell, for the delivery of property stolen by the Indians, during the Revolution, were not only disregarded by them, but additional thefts were constantly practiced, both by Cherokees and Creeks, upon the citizens of the Ter- ritory. This disregard of treaty stipulations by one party, led to a like disregard and violation of treaties by all. A proclamation from the Federal Executive, warning intruders upon Indian territory to withdraw within the treaty limits, and others to observe and comply with treaty stipulations, were issued, but, as the Indians broke the treaty, the whites refused to perform its requirements on their part, and the proclamation was disregarded.
Another serious difficulty presented itself. By an act of the State of Georgia, disposing of certain vacant lands, three million and a half acres of land, lying south of Ten- nessee River, were conveyed to the Tennessee Company, con- sisting of Zachariah Cox, Thomas Gilbert and John Strother, Esquires, and their associates. The proprietors took mea- sures, soon after, to effect a settlement of their purchase. Zachariah Cox and Thomas Carr, as agents of the Company, repaired to the Territory, and there, Sept. 2d, 1790, issued
550
COX'S EXPEDITION DESCENDS
an advertisement that it would embark a large armed force at the mouth of French Broad. The fleet was to start Jan. 10, 1791, carrying, in the boats, such emigrants as desired to settle near the Muscle Shoals. A bounty of five hundred acres was offered to each family, and half of that quantity to each single man. A land office was opened for the dis- position of these lands, which was to be kept at the conflu- ence of Holston and French Broad till the company embarked, and was then to be opened at the Great Bend. Undoubted fee simple titles were promised to the adventurers.
Against this projected settlement, and two others, known as the South-Carolina Yazoo Company, and the Virginia Yazoo Company, the Secretary of War earnestly remonstra- ted, and the President issued a proclamation, forbidding the intended settlement, and declaring that those who made them would be considered, to all intents and purposes, entirely without the protection of the United States.
A copy of this proclamation the Governor communicated to such agents and employees of the Company, as were then in the Territory and preparing to embark on the pro- jected expedition ; with the declaration, that if the expedition should go forward to the Muscle Shoals, he would at once acquaint the Indians of its movements, who should be at liberty to act towards the Company as they might think right without offence to the United States. 1
Not deterred by the Federal prohibitions, Col. Hubbardt, ¿ Peter Bryant, and fifteen others, embarked at the 1791 ( mouth of Dumplin, and went with Zachariah Cox to take possession of the Tennessee Grant, near the Muscle Shoals. In a small boat and two canoes, and with so few men, the enterprise was hazardous in the extreme. The "Narrows" were still in the occupancy of the same sa- vage hordes, who, in 1788, had butchered and captured Colonel Brown's company. His sad fate was a warning, which Hubbardt and his comrades could not disregard. They proceeded with the utmost caution and circumspection. . Be- low the Suck, at the Indian Old Fields, a small party of In- dians came out in their canoes and hailed them. The same
551
THE RIVER TO MUSCLE SHOALS.
number of white men were sent out to meet them, advancing firmly with their rifles in their hands, but with orders not to fire till the last extremity. Their canoe floated down to- wards the Indians, who observing their preparation for at- tack, withdrew and disappeared. A little further down, night overtook the voyagers, and when, from the dangers of the navigation at night, it was proposed to steer to the shore, they saw upon the bank a row of fires, extending along the bottoms as far as they could see, and standing around them armed Indian warriors. They silenced their oars by pouring water upon the oar pins-spake not a word, but glided by as silently as possible. The dogs barked from the bank. The Indians rekindled their fires and appeared to listen. The boat escaped. Several times next day the Indians tried, by various artifices, to decoy them to land. On one occasion three of them insisted, in English, to come and trade with them. After they refused and had passed by, three hundred warriors rose out of ambush. They were then beyond the reach of their guns, and escaped. For three days and nights they did not land, but doubled on their oars-beating to the south side at night, and in the middle of the river through the day.
Cox and his party built a block-house, and erected other works of defence, on an island, at the Muscle Shoals. The Glass, with about sixty Indians, appeared shortly afterwards, and informed them, if they did not peaceably withdraw, he would put them to death. After some further conference, the works were abandoned. The Indians immediately re- duced the works to ashes.
A bill of indictment was twice sent to the Grand Jury against Cox and his associates, at the next term of the Su- perior Court of Washington District, but the indictment was not sustained as a true bill.
Another source of embarrassment to Governor Blount, was the immature negotiation with Spain concerning bounda- ries, the navigation of the Mississippi, and the treaties of that Power with the Indians. The delicate posture of that negotiation required caution and forbearance on the part of the western people, and subjected the Government and its
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