USA > Tennessee > The civil and political history of the state of Tennessee from its earliest settlement up to the year 1796 : including the boundaries of the state > Part 24
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they trusted, would not be refused, especially as the United States were pleased to interest themselves on this occasion, and were willing to bear the expense. And these, they said, were the names of several persons, inhabitants of Davidson and Sumner Counties, who had been killed since the first day of January, 1787, by the Indians: Cornelius Riddle, Eneas and James Thom- as, William Price and Mrs. Price, Mr. Bowman, William Bush, Maj. William Hall and two sons, Richard and James Hall, John Buchanon, Abner Bush, Mr. Dunham, Mark Robertson, Josiah Renfro, Thomas Hickman, Mr. Wallis, M. Ramsey, Mr. Staten, James Biswell, William Smothers and a Frenchman, Thomas Nolans, William Hays, and five others; William Colyears and three others, killed since the representatives left home, as they had been informed by letters. Gen. Wilkinson was in Tarbor- ough at the time of this session of the Legislature, and from him they may have received some intimation of Spanish in- terference and claims. These sentiments were never avowed with such little reserve. It was evident that from that time the Spaniards were considered as the authors of Indian violences. The General Assembly which commenced its session at Tarbor- ough on the 18th of November, 1787, upon a representation from the members from Davidson and Sumner, authorized the com- manding militia officers of those counties to appoint two or more persons to examine, survey, and mark out the best and most convenient way from the lower end of the Clinch Mount- ain to the settlements of Cumberland, and to order out the militia of these counties to cut and clear the road so marked. The regiments of these counties were ordered to be divided into four classes and parts of classes, beginning with the first, and so on, in rotation, until the road should be cut. The counties of Davidson and Sumner were directed to pay a tax with which to satisfy the laborers to be employed in cutting the road. And no person was permitted to go through Davidson or Sumner to any of the Indian towns, unless he had a pass from some officers duly authorized under the United States, the executive of North Carolina, or the militia field officers of one of the said counties. This was to prevent the going of disorderly persons into the In- dian towns, and provoking them by outrageous conduet to acts of revenge; and they subjected to severe penalties those of the counties of Davidson and Sumner who should provoke or plun-
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der any friendly Indian, or who should threaten to kill or de- stroy or beat any such Indian or any of his tribe. And the mi- litia officers of these counties were directed to raise militia guards, not exceeding fifty men each, when it should be known to such officers that a number of families were at the Cumber- land Mountains, waiting for an escort to conduct them to the Cumberland settlements, the expense to be paid by a poll-tax which the County Courts were authorized to levy upon those counties respectively. A road was soon afterward cut from Bledsoe's Lick into the Nashville road, leading to the Clinch River, and the last-mentioned road was also cleared. By these improvements emigration into the new settlements was greatly facilitated and encouraged. Especially when being traveled by a guard there was little or no danger from Indian aggressions, the emigrants and the guard together generally making up a formi- dable corps. The Assembly at the same time passed a law to encourage the making of salt in Davidson County.
The gates of the new year (17SS) were unfolded under cir- cumstances less propitious than in olden times usually accom- panied the like ceremony at the temple of Janus. The settlers experienced a mixture of prosperity and distress, which, how- ever, gave them the foretaste of a final triumph over the calam- ities by which they had been so long oppressed. Increase of population, with agricultural exertion and success, had given a firm establishment to the settlement, and there was no longer any apprehension that they would ever be broken up. But they were still disturbed by the implacable enmity of the savages, who would expose themselves to the most imminent dangers rather than not wreak their vengeance on the Cumberland peo- ple, who every day became more formidable and more efficient.
In the month of February, 1788, the Indians came to Bled- soe's Station in the night-time, and shot into it through the gaps between the logs, and wounded George Hamilton, and went off. Near Asher's Station, on the north side of the Cumberland, they wounded Jesse Maxey. He fell, and they scalped him and stuck a knife into his body. Contrary to all expectation, he re- covered.
In this year. on Drake's Creek, they came to the house of William Montgomery, the same person whose son was wounded in the year 1787, and killed this son and two of his brothers in
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the day-time, at the spring, one hundred yards from the house. In the early part of March, at the plantation of Col. Robertson, on Richland Creek, a few days after he and Col. Bledsoe wrote to McGillevray, a party of Creeks killed Peyton Robertson, his sou, at a sugar camp; took prisoner another lad, John Johnston, led him off. and detained him in captivity several years. In this year they killed Robert Jones, on the lands of David Wilson, called Wilson's Station, in the day-time; and also Benjamin Williams, near the head of Station Camp Creek. They killed, also, the widow Neely, in Neely's Bend, below Neely's Lick, and wounded Robert Edmonson at the same time and place, by breaking his arm. In the month of October in this year they killed two men, of the names of Dunham and Astill.
Though not without information which pointed to Spanish policy as the chief engine of their suffering from the Indians, Cols. Robertson and Bledsoe were yet desirous to discover, as a director in future resolves, whether the Creeks had any real or alleged cause for their displeasure against the people of Cumberland. The Creeks had no land on the south side of Tennessee to which they had ever laid claim. The people of the Cumberland had never encroached upon any of their possessions, nor had they acted inimically toward any of the Creeks, except in defense of themselves and their families when attacked. They could not conceive, therefore, how the Creeks could have any ground of complaint peculiar to themselves which should urge them into the extremes to which they had gone. But if, unknown to them, the Creeks really had any such grounds, and did not act under an impulse received from others, these gentlemen hoped that, if it were made known to them, they could give sat- isfactory explanations to the enraged Creeks or could remove the exasperating causes. Early in the spring they addressed a letter in their joint names to McGillevray, the celebrated chief of the Creek Nation, inquiring into the grounds of the offensive deportment of the Creeks toward them, and transmitted it to him by special messengers, Mr. Hoggatt and Mr. Ewing. To this application MeGillevray replied at Little Tallassee, on the 4th of April, 17SS: "I will not deny that my nation has waged war against your country for several years past, and that we had no motives of revenge for it, nor did it proceed from any sense of injuries sustained from your people; but, being warmly at-
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tached to the British, under their influence our operations were directed by them against you, in common with other Americans. After the general peace had taken place you sent us a talk, pro- posing terms of peace, by Samuel Martin, which I then accept- ed and advised my people to agree to, and which should have been finally concluded in the ensuing summer and fall. Judg- ing that your people were sincere in their professions, I was much surprised to find that while this affair was pending they attacked the French traders at the Muscle Shoals, and killed six of our nation who were there trafficking for silver ware. These men belonged to different towns, and had connections of the first consequence in the nation. Such an unprovoked outrage raised a most violent clamor, and gave rise to the expedition against Cumberland which soon took place. But as that af- fair has been since amply retaliated, I now once again will use my best endeavors to bring about a peace between us. And, in- deed, before I received your dispatches I had given out strict orders that on the return of all hunting parties none should go out under any pretense until the first general meeting, which I expect to hold in May next, when all my influence and authori- ty will be exerted in the manner you wish. I shall take leave of this subject, referring you to Mr. Hoggatt, to whom I have free- ly explained my sentiments.
"I have seen the resolves of Congress respecting Indian affairs as early as the beginning of January last, besides being notified of the same by Gen. Pickens; but I have as yet heard nothing of a superintendent or Georgia commissioner. Relative to the business of their commission I had received his Excel- lency, Gov. Caswell's letter and duplicate only a short time be- fore the unlucky affair of the Muscle Shoals, so that I deferred writing an answer until I could be satisfied in my own mind that he might depend on what I should say to him. As I abhor every species of duplicity, I wish not to deceive; and if I were not decided on settling and terminating the war, I would not now write. I have hitherto only seen my friend, Col. Hawkins, on paper, and I highly honor and esteem him on this kind of acquaintance. The excellent character everybody gives him makes him a valuable advocate for your cause. Chance may put us in each other's view one day or other, and I shall rejoice in having the opportunity of saluting him as my friend."
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A personal avowal of one's own candor, sincerity, or probity is seldom the best evidence to be had of either, and by the max- ims of prudence, as well as by the principles of law, it should generally be rejected till better be produced. The Creeks were not inclined to a pacific demeanor by exhortations received from any quarter. About the 20th of the month of July, in this year, in the night-time, they killed Col. Anthony Bledsoe, standing in an entry between two cabins. He heard the cattle running, as they always did when the Indians were about, and the dogs barking. He encouraged the dogs, and the Indians from the cor- ners of the fence near the house fired upon and wounded him so that he died the next morning. At the same time and place they killed Campbell, an Irishman, who had been a servant of James and George Winchester.
Col. Robertson, seeing the union in disorder and at the point of dissolution from the imbecility of its own structure, and ex- pecting no aid from that quarter or from North Carolina, which betrayed inability and disinclination, thought it most prudent to temporize and amuse awhile both the Spanish agents and the Creek chieftain; to dissemble the deep resentment he had at their conduct, and even to insinuate that he had come to a state of unconcernedness with respect to their main object; so true it is in nature that the strong and rich man speaketh surlily, but the weak one in the language of mildness. Col. Robertson replied to the letter of McGillevray on the 3d of August, 1788; and though he could not be otherwise than greatly irritated at the recent death of Col. Bledsoe, not the least symptom of asperity escaped him. He stated to McGillevray that his letter had given much satisfaction to the country in general; that he had transmitted copies of it to Gov. Caswell, which he had since seen published in the Kentucky Gazette. The Indians, said he, still continue their incursions in some measure, though trifling to what they had experienced in the spring. He imagined, he said, that they were made by the Cherokees or some outlying Creeks who were not apprised of McGillevray's orders. He in- formed McGillevray that Col. Anthony Bledsoe was killed by a small party about the 20th of July. It is reported, said he, that the inhabitants of Holston and the Cherokees are at war, but we have not received any account that may be depended on, nor whether you and the Georgians are likely to terminate your dis-
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pute. "From Mr. Hoggatt's account," said he, "I have expected some of the Creeks in. I have caused a deed," said the colonel, "for a lot in Nashville to be recorded in your name, and beg you "will let me know whether you will accept of a tract or two of land in our young country. I could say much to you," continued the colonel, "respecting this fine country, but am fully sensible you are better able to judge what may take place a few years hence than myself. In all probability we cannot long remain in our present state; and if the British, or any commercial na- tion who may be in possession of the mouth of the Mississippi, would furnish us with trade and receive our produce, there can- not be a doubt but that the people west of the Appalachian Mountains will open their eyes to their real interests. I shall be very happy to hear your sentiments of this matter." We shall see hereafter that the contents of these letters really had upon the Spanish commissioners the influence which it was expected they would create. If love conquers all things in the natural world, so does well-applied compliments in the civil depart- ments of life, and in the prosperous management of affairs per- haps the latter are equally as operative as the other.
In the fall of this year the Indians killed one Watters after they had killed Bledsoe, near the place where Stamps now lives, two or three hundred yards from Winchester's mill. In the fall of this year, also, twenty-two families came to the Cumberland. settlements by the way of Knoxville, escorted by a guard of one hundred men raised in the counties of Davidson and Sumner, commanded by Col. Mansco and Maj. Kirkpatrick. The guards to escort emigrant families were kept up for several falls, and such families were enabled to come through the wilderness with- out much danger. On the south side of the Cumberland the In- dians did mischief also in this year. They attacked the station of Southerland Mayfield, upon the head of the west fork of Mill Creek, four miles above its junction with the east fork. They were in a body of ten or twelve men. In the evening they came to a place near the station, where Mayfield and his two sons and another person were making a wolf-pen, together with the pres- ent Col. Jocelyn, then a private man. The Indians, unperceived, got between them and their guns. They fired upon and killed Mayfield and one of his sons and another person who acted as a guard at that station. They fired upon the soldier and the son
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as they went toward the guns to bring to the pen something that was there, and jumped over a log from where they had lain behind it, to scalp them in the presence of Jocelyn and Mayfield. Jocelyn ran for his gun and got amongst the Indians, who fired upon him and set fire to his clothes, and drove him back pursu- ing him, a string of them being on both sides in the form of a half-moon. At length they drove him to a very large log, over which if he could not have jumped, he was completely penned. Beyond his own expectations, he jumped over it and fell upon his back; but, despairing of taking a man of so much activity, they desisted from any further attempt, and left him. He took a cir- cuitous route, and got into the station. Some bullets, not aimed at Southerland Mayfield, had glanced and wounded him, for the Indians did not see nor follow him when he ran. He did not return to the station, however, and looking for him the next day in the direction he had run, he was found dead, by a bullet which had penetrated his body. They took George Mayfield, the son of Southerland Mayfield, prisoner, and led him to the Creek Nation, where he remained ten or twelve years. The Indians made no attempt upon the station, but went off with their pris- oner and the guns they had taken. Those who were in the fort removed to Capt. Rains's, near Nashville, their situation being deemed too exposed and dangerous for them to remain where they were with any hope of safety. The Indians who committed this massacre were Creeks. In the same year, in the spring season, at Brown's Station, on the west fork of Mill Creek, a mile below Mayfield Station, the Indians attacked and killed four boys, two of them sons of Stowball, one a son of John Brown, and one the son of Joseph Denton. The people who were liv- ing at that station immediately withdrew to Rains's Station. In the same year, after the boys were killed, James Haggard and his wife were killed at Brown's Station, and at the same time and place a man of the name of Adams. A few days after this John Haggard was killed, and then it was that the station was broken up and removed to Rains's. In the month of August of this year a convention of delegates from all the counties of the State met at Hillsborough to consider the proposed federal Constitution, and rejected it by a great majority, the members from the coun- ties of Davidson and Sumner, as well as those from the counties on the waters of Holston, being amongst the dissentients.
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In November, 17SS, the increased population of Davidson again called for its division, and a new county with the name of Tennessee was taken from the western part of it. The old county of Davidson was divided by a line beginning on the Vir- ginia line; thence south along Sumner County to the dividing ridge between the Cumberland River and Red River; thence westwardly along said ridge to the head of the main south branch of Sycamore Creek; thence down the said branch to the mouth thereof; thence due south across the Cumberland River to the Davidson County line. All that part of Davidson which lay west was erected into a county by the name of Tennessee. Officers of all sorts, both civil and military, were directed to be appointed, and courts to be held for the administration and execution of the laws. In their November session of 1788, they erected the coun- ties of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee into a Superior Court district, and appointed Superior Courts to be held therein. It was usual in the Assembly of North Carolina on the third reading of a bill for the establishment of a district or county, and some- times at the second reading, for the speaker to call for the name with which the blank left for the purpose was to be filled up, at which call the name was given by the advocate and father of the bill. Upon the passage of this bill the name was called for and the name of Mero given. It was received without opposi- tion. The leading members of the House, being probably ac- quainted with the motives which dictated this nomination, made no objection, and others, without the same knowledge, followed their example. But some who were not so well informed as to be able to see the groundwork of this procedure, took offense at it. To such men it seemed to be as strange, as unexampled, that the name of an officer of a foreign government who was not and never had been in our service should be selected as the favor- ite whose name should be perpetuated on our public records, and that it should be given to a great political section of country which might perhaps sustain that name for many ages. They wished to know the meaning of this phenomenon, not having yet learned that political ends are liable to be defeated by a pub- lication of the means used to attain them. Not receiving satis- faction, they argued on the basis of conjecture.
Don Estephan Mero was a colonel in the service of the King of Spain, and Governor of Orleans; was an enlightened man, of
1
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engaging deportment, and of a very benevolent heart; but so were ten thousand other foreigners who had not been honored with any mark of peculiar esteem. And again, why select a Spaniard of so much distinction at the very time when that na- tion unjustly withheld from us the free navigation of the Mis- sissippi, and when this very officer was the one chosen by the Spanish courts to see that exclusion completely executed. And this not all: at the very time, too, when it was proposed by Spain, and had been submitted to Congress by their minister negotiating with Spain, that the United States should relinquish the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty-five years, a meas- ure which, if acceded to, would have completely ruined and bro- ken up all the settlements on the western waters.
And still more, when it was fiercely urged in the neighboring State of Kentucky that certain visitants from that country to Orleans who were now suspected as having passed through the Cumberland settlements in returning to Kentucky, had indus- triously scattered the seeds of alienation from our own govern- ment through all parts of their progress. It was reported of them that they had vilified our own government for its incom- petency to procure for the people those advantages which were essential to their existence; that at the same time they advised the rejection of the proposed Constitution for the government of the United States, the object of which was to establish a more ef- ficient government and to give to it an arm strong enough for the protection of all its parts; that they had treated with derision the fallacy and futility of transmontane promises, and referred to the long experience which the western people had of them. Those who reasoned upon these conjectures were fearful lest in some parts of the western country there might have been im- bibed a portion of the insidious opinion that there was more congeniality between their circumstances and Spanish connec- tions than between them and the prostrated energies of the At- lantic confederacy. These speculations harrowed up the imagi- nation till it had rendered the danger of separation extreme and imminent. They called to mind that the proposal to give up the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty-five years was made about the time when certain political characters in Kentucky were accused of intriguing with the Spanish agents to detach the western country from the Union, and to render it a province
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or dependency of the Spanish government. These accusations, it was said, were urged with vehemence, referring to divers parts of the conduct of the accused, as evidence in support of the charge, and that they supplied at least plausible testimony to- ward substantiating the fact. It was undeniable, they said, that some of the accused had visited the Governor of Orleans, Don Stephen Mero, and had negotiated, as rumor proclaimed, for the transportation and sale of Kentucky tobacco in the Spanish market; and that this was only a part of a more extended plan, which was not submitted to public inspection.
Commercial indulgences coming from the spontaneous per- mission of the Spanish government when they could not be pro- cured by the influence of the Union were suspected to be the art- ful substratum of an invincible argument for separation. To these, it was believed, were added the surprising apathy with which Congress received the proposal for the relinquishment of the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty-five years, whilst the situation of the Spanish possessions in the neighborhood of ours, the means they had of depreciating the value of our re- sources by commercial restrictions, and the friendly disposition they manifested toward us could all be mustered in aid of the scheme for becoming a part of their connections or subjects. These visionaries believed that such apprehensions were not the airy fabrics of a dream, but that Mero had far more studiously shaped his conduct to please and to seduce the western people, wavering between the love of country and of freedom on the one hand, and the actual deprivation of all commerce on the other. than becomes a friendly neighbor, a disinterested politician, or a man of undisguised candor. His benevolence, it was hinted, must be of the most uncommon species if he voluntarily took upon himself all these pains for the relief of a people whom he had not known but as a people oppressed by the jealousy of his sovereign, and every day tomahawked by his Indian allies. who in one moment could be hushed into silence by his word; for a people, too, who could not be supposed to be greatly actu- ated by affection toward himself, except as they could be induced to believe that their own prosperity was promoted, or was intend- ed to be promoted, by the means which he had at command. These theorists, like the people of Athens, and the strangers who were there, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or
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