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 26
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To know precisely what this government was which was now extended over the whole of the ceded territory since called the State of Tennessee, recourse must be had to the ordinance itself, and to an act of Congress, amendatory of the ordinance, passed the 7th of August, 1789, which ordinance and act of Congress, together with the cession act of North Carolina, are inserted in the "Appendix."
These preparations being duly made, President Washington proceeded to the nomination of proper officers to exercise the territorial government as directed by the ordinance and its asso- ciate laws. William Blount, of North Carolina, was appointed Governor of the Territory, and David Campbell and Joseph An- derson, judges. Gov. Blount received his commission on the 7th of August, 1790, and arrived in the Territory South of the River Ohio, the name then given to the ceded territory, on the 10th of October, 1790; and took up his residence at the house of Mr. Cobb, in the fork between the Holston and French Broad Rivers, and near Washington Court-house. He appointed and commissioned the officers, both civil and military, for the coun-
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ties of Washington, Sullivan, Greene, and Hawkins, which formed the District of Washington, and had caused the neces- sary oaths to be administered to them by Judge Campbell in his presence. On the 27th of November, 1790, he set off for the District of Mero, which was then composed of the counties of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee, to appoint and commission the necessary officers there, and to cause the proper oaths to be administered to them. He could not appoint brigadier-generals, but recommended Col. Sevier for Washington, and Col. James Robertson for Mero. He had gone, by the 11th of February, 1791, through all the counties, and had made many inqui- ries as to matters which it was proper for him to be acquainted with. He had sent Maj. King to the Cherokees with proposals to hold a treaty in the ensuing May, to make peace if possible, as the Creeks had done at New York on the 7th of August, 1790. The Cherokees were then divided into Northern and Southern. Hanging Maw was the leader of the North, and Little Turkey of the South. Maj. King reported that they manifested a great disposition for peace.
In order to understand perfectly the motives which governed the conduct of Gov. Blount and of the government of the United States, under whose direction he acted, as well as that of the Creeks and Cherokees toward the people of the Territory during the time of his administration, which is to be detailed in the se- quel of this story, it will be proper to take a view of the circum- stances in which Gov. Blount found the Territory, of the opin- ions which were entertained, and of the politics which were embraced at this time by our neighbors, the Spaniards.
Three millions of acres of land had been sold in John Arm- strong's office, and south and west of the line described as the line of allotment in the fourth article of the treaty of Hopewell. Nine-tenths of Greene and six-tenths of Hawkins had been en- tered in this office, and were part of the three millions men- tioned. In Greene County were eleven hundred militia-men, and in Hawkins five hundred. The settlements extended to the Clinch River, and some of the settlers had gone over the Clinch, and had seated themselves between that river and the Cumber- land Mountains. All these were on the lands allotted to the In- dians by the treaty of Hopewell. There were also other settlers south of the French Broad. They were there in violation of the
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law of North Carolina, passed in April, 1783, which made a part of the lands reserved for the Cherokee hunting-grounds to be bounded by a line running up the Tennessee and Holston, to the middle of the French Broad; thence up the middle of the French Broad River, which lines are not to include any island or islands in said river, to the mouth of Big Pigeon Creek; thence up the same to the head thereof; thence along the divid- ing ridge between the waters of the Pigeon and Tuckasejah Rivers, to the southern boundary of this State. They were there, also, against the treaty of Hopewell. Their numbers amounted to twelve hundred militia-men, and they were extend- ed over the ridge that divides the waters of Little River from those that flow into the Tennessee, down as low as Nine Mile Creek, a branch of the Tennessee, within five miles of Chota. The settlers of Greene and Hawkins Counties were on lands al- lotted by treaty to the Cherokees, which they had settled under the laws of North Carolina. The people south of the French Broad had settled in opposition to these laws, nor would the As- sembly of North Carolina ever form them into a county, though often solicited by petitions to do so. They first commenced their settlements under the assumed authority of the State of Frankland. The lands occupied by these settlers were very val- uable, and amounted to at least five hundred thousand acres, no part of which had been granted by the State of North Carolina, and would, upon the extinction of the Indian claim, be at the disposal of Congress. The settlers expected the right of pre- emption to be granted to them. The Assembly of North Caro- lina had provided in the cession act that the people then resid- ing south of the French Broad, between the rivers Tennessee and Big Pigeon, should not be precluded by that act from en- tering their preemptions in that tract of country, should an of- fice be opened for that purpose under an act of that Legislature. The Cherokees had not delivered the negroes and horses taken by them in the last war, as stipulated by the first article of the treaty of Hopewell; but, on the contrary, the Cherokees and Creeks had taken horses in great numbers since the treaty of Hopewell, and chiefly from the quiet and orderly people of the District of Mero. They had taken from them since the treaty of Hopewell upwards of one thousand horses; they had taken ninety-three from the two Col. Robertsons, and seventy-two from
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five other persons. The Creeks had no claims to any lands north of the Tennessee. The Indians had then lately killed a number of persons in the Territory. North Carolina and Frankland had paid no regard to treaties, and the Cherokees followed their ex- ample. The Cherokees exacted pay for all the property they restored to their former owners. They had lately fired on Maj. Doherty's boat. It had not been ascertained on the 11th of Feb- ruary, 17S1, whether the Indians would agree to the establish- ment of a post at the mouth of Bear Creek or not.
Of the Tennessee company there were in the Territory on the arrival of Gov. Blount, Williams, Strother, and Gardner-all moneyless-who talked of raising a party, to go from the conflu- ence of the Holston and French Broad, on the 10th of January, to the Muscle Shoals, there to form a settlement. They were not attended to, being supposed not able to effect any of their purposes; but about the 10th of January, Cox, another of the company, came over, and with him twenty-five or thirty men, who began to prepare in earnest to go down the river. The gov- ernor, on the receipt of a letter of the 13th of January, from the Secretary of War, dispatched Maj. White, of Hawkins County, to make known to them the President's proclamation, and to inform them that if they went to the Muscle Shoals the Indians would be immediately notified of it, and be at liberty to act toward them as they might think proper, without offense to. the government of the United States; and to inform them that if the Indians would permit them to settle at the Muscle Shoals, the government of the United States would not. They were in- timidated by this communication, and began to doubt whether they should proceed or not; but it was expected that in the course of February three hundred men from Kentucky would proceed with a determination to settle the Yazoo. Such was the state of affairs at the time Gov. Blount arrived in the Ter- ritory.
Spain for several years past, and indeed ever since the conclu- sion of the American war, had viewed with jealousy the exten- sion of our settlements toward the West and the diffusion of our political principles toward their own settlements on the Missis- sippi and in the Floridas. It became a settled object of policy with them to break up these settlements, if possible, or to with- draw them from their union with the Atlantic States. The first
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they thought to effect by their influence with the Southern In- dians, with whom they began to tamper as early as 1784; and to give themselves some color for interfering in their affairs they pretended a claim to part of the country of the United States far to the north of the 31st degree of north latitude. This pre- tense they absurdly founded upon the capture by their forces in the time of the war with Great Britain of some places within our bounds, which, as allies of the United States, they occupied for some time. They endeavored to effect the second object by de- nying our right to navigate the Mississippi, even down to the 31st degree of north latitude, to which we owned all the territo- ry on the east side of the river. They unequivocally denied the right as to all parts of the river below the 31st degree of north latitude to the ocean, though the British were entitled to nav- igate the whole river by their treaty of 1763, and passed that right to us by the treaty of 1783, after which the British ceded to them the Floridas and the French Louisiana, subject inevita- bly to the right of navigation, derived to us long anterior to their claims to the adjoining counties. They hoped by render- ing the production of the western country of no value, for want of a market, to make the settlers remove into their territories, or otherwise to make it to their interest to separate from the At- lantic States, and to enter into arrangements with Spain suita- ble to her views, or to become her tributaries or dependents. America had been separated from England, and the latter pro- portionately disabled. The western part of America was now to be separated from the eastern part of it, to reduce her to so much imbecility as to free the Spanish possessions in America from danger. These were objects of no small moment. The Spanish government never lost sight of them till placed in cir- cumstances which demonstrated the impossibility of her ever succeeding. The entertainment by her of this policy will serve to explain every part of her conduct which shall be narrated in this history. At some periods when she had hopes of effecting a separation, her officers paid the most flattering attention to our leading men, and granted commercial privileges which none but themselves could grant. At other times, when that hope faltered, hosts of savages were sent upon our frontiers, supplied with all munitions of war. When afraid of the rumored inva- sion of the western people, they recommended to the Indians
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peace with their neighbors, the Americans; and as soon as diffi- culties began to appear less formidable again excited them to war and mischief. Sometimes the leaders of our unprotected settlers, pretending esteem for their officers and a wish to be un- der their government, would procure an abatement of the hor- rors of war. But liberty to those settlers was of more value than all the benefits they had it in their power to bestow, and might have taught them, if the servants of despotism had known how to calculate, that however our leaders might in calamitous circumstances think proper to temporize, they never could en- tertain the serious wish to coalesce with them; and they might have understood that with the great body of the western people all the wealth of the Spaniards could not bear a comparison with this single article. During the whole time that the American negotiations were pending with Spain, from 1785 to 1795, orders were constantly repeated to our military officers on the frontier to behave toward the Spaniards with the utmost politeness, and to act only on the defensive against the Indians, for fear of offending the Spaniards, who had unjustifiably taken them under their pro- tection. The government itself submitted patiently to the Span- ish establishment of posts on the Walnut Hills and two hundred miles above, in 1791, judging it best to give a fair chance to the pending negotiation, and not to make any innovations in the state of things till it was over. At the same time, by military force, the American government prevented the Yazoo company from settling themselves at the Walnut Hills. The American government was the more cautious in her expressions of dissat- isfaction at Spanish interference with the Indians in the terri- tory of the United States, because it was clearly perceived that the Spaniards had made them, in their policy, a barrier against our settlements, and for that reason were sensitive in an extraor- dinary degree upon any subject connected with either their or our behavior toward their Indian allies. In these negotia- tions the United States suffered much for patience's sake, and made it plain to the world that a true diplomatic politician must be deeply versed in the book of Job.
The Spaniards even went so far as to be displeased because in the treaty of Hopewell the United States had taken the Creeks under their protection, so far as they were within their limits, that being incompatible with a former treaty of 1784, which they
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had made with the same people. What right had they to inter- meddle with inhabitants who lived in the United States' terri- tory? But the Americans forbore to ask the question. The Creeks fell upon them in 1792, after coming directly from the Spaniards at Pensacola. They then complained that the United States had stirred up the Chickasaws to war against their allies. The Spaniards by indulgence had become childish, and did not perceive that the United States could ask the question: "What right had you to meddle either with the Creeks or Chickasaws? From our long forbearance they had conceived the extravagant notion that we were not to make opposition in any event. By this brief statement we shall be the better able to trace to its proper source the greater part of those facts which are about to be unfolded.
On the 23d of February, 1791, the President signed a commis- sion appointing Col. Sevier to be a brigadier-general of the mi- litia of Washington District, in the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio.
On the 28th of April Gen. Sevier informed the Secretary of War that the recruits called for should be raised and sent for- ward by the 1st of June.
Before the month of June, in the year 1791, Zachariah Cox, with his brother William Cox, James Hubbard, Peter Bryant, John Ruddle, and several others, went down to the Muscle Shoals, and returned on the 2d of June to Knoxville. They were immediately arrested, by warrant from Judge Campbell, to answer for the offense. A short history of their transactions is this: Gilbert Strother & Co. proceeded down the Tennessee to an island in that part called the Muscle Shoals, on which they landed, built a block-house, and erected other works of defense. Shortly afterward appeared Glass, with about sixty Indians, and informed them that if they did not depart in peace the Indians would put them to death. After some conversation upon the subject, it was agreed that the company would and might move off in peace and without injury, and they accordingly did so. The Indians burned the works. But Cox and his party were still determined to make another attempt to form a settlement at the same place in the ensuing autumn.
At the next term of the Superior Court for the District of Washington a bill of indictment was twice sent to the grand
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jury against Cox and his associates, and was returned at both times not a true bill. Cox and twenty young men from Georgia seemed on this event to triumph over the government, and were encouraged to persevere in the prospect of settling the Muscle Shoals. They immediately found purchasers for many thou- sands of acres of land, and made public declarations of their in- tentions to make another attempt, and that they would do so in great force, to be drawn from Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- . lina, South Carolina, and Georgia; and that they would make the attempt in November, 1791, as soon as their forces could be collected, or as soon afterward as might be. Many of the grand jurors, it was supposed, had been themselves trespassers on the Cherokee lands, under grants from North Carolina. Strother went to the Chickasaws, and they at the block-house assured him of their friendship; but he did not mention to them that he intended to settle in the country, and when truly informed of his objects they very strongly objected to them.
Gov. Blount, by the 1st of July, had ascertained the whole population of the Territory. It amounted to 36,043, including 3,417 slaves. The whole population of Cumberland was 7,042. He repealed by proclamation the licenses of several Indian traders, for transgressing the regulations made for the govern- ment of trade.
A report was in circulation in the Cherokee Nation that it was the intention of Gov. Blount to draw them to the treaty ground and cut them all off. In consequence of it, many of them had made up their minds not to come to the treaty at all. Gen. Rob- ertson, being informed, went into the Nation about the Sth of June, 1791, and undeceived them, and revived their confidence in the United States. He completely effaced all the unfavora- ble impressions which had been made upon them. According to the invitation of Gov. Blount, the Cherokee chiefs met him at the treaty ground on the bank of the Holston, near the mouth of the French Broad River, the place where Knoxville now stands; and on the 2d of July, 1791, they concluded a treaty of peace and perpetual friendship.
On the 11th of November, 1791, it was ratified by the Presi- dent and Senate, and the President issued his proclamation, commanding its observance.
The hostility of the Indians was very distressing through a
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great part of 1791. In the month of May of the same year John Farris and his brother, of Lincoln County, about three miles from home, were fired upon by a party of Indians, who wound- ed Farris in the shoulder and broke his arm. Also, in the same month, in Nelson County, Ky., from the Rolling Fork, a number of horses were taken. One Miller and his family, five in num- ber, were killed, and his house robbed. This party was followed southwardly. One Indian was killed when they were overtaken. and one wounded. On Tuesday, the 23d of August, 1791, near Mockason Gap, in Russell County, Va., Mrs. McDowell, wife of William McDowell, and Frances Pendleton, daughter of Benja- min Pendleton, aged about seventeen years, were killed and scalped. Mrs. Pendleton and a boy eight years of age were car- ried into captivity. At the same place, on Friday, the 26th of August, 1791, at S o'clock in the morning, seven Indians came to the plantation of Elisha Farris, killed and scalped Mrs. Farris, Mrs. Livingston, and a child of Mrs. Livingston, about three years of age; and wounded Mr. Farris, so that he died at about 2 o'clock. They carried off Nancy Farris, aged about nineteen years. The Indians stripped those they had killed on both days, and laid the women on their backs extended at full length.
A short time before the 14th of June, 1791, several white men were killed in Powell's Valley, in Russell County, Va .; and shortly before the 15th of July, 1791, a party of Creeks were seen on the Lookout Mountain, of the Cherokees, with three scalps, which they acknowledged they had taken from Cumber- land. On the Wednesday preceding the 5th of September, 1791, a party of Indians killed James Patrick in Poor Valley, about seven- teen miles from Hawkins Court-house and three miles from the main Kentucky road. He had gone out to drive up his cattle, and was not more than four hundred yards from the house when the Indians fired upon him. They instantly made off without at- tempting to scalp him. About the 10th of November a compa- ny going through the wilderness were met in the road by a party of Indians. Upon the first sight their men, being seven in num- ber, rode off with the utmost precipitation, and left the women, four in number, who were so terrified that they were unable to proceed. The Indians came up, shook hands with them, and told them they should not be hurt; made a fire for them, and caught a horse which one of the company had jumped from,
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which they tied to a tree; they went after a small boy who was at- tempting to escape, and brought him back to the women. Four of the fugitives did not stop till they reached the settlement; the other three, after some time, returned to the women.
Gov. Blount recommended to Gen. Robertson, in the most earnest terms, to preserve the treaty of the Holston inviolate, and to punish the infractors of it, if any such should be found. He enjoined it upon the general to maintain a friendly de- meanor toward the Indians, and to furnish such of them as ap- plied with small presents-such as provisions, powder and ball- and to keep an account of the supplies to be paid by the United States.
Bowles, a man of some consideration among the Creeks, had gone in the year 1790, with several Indians of the Southern tribes, to England, where to a certain degree they had received countenance and support. During the summer of 1791 he sailed from England, enriched with presents, for the Bahama Islands. After arriving at the Bahamas, he sailed for Indian River, in East Florida; and thence proceeded to that part of the Creek country which was inhabited by the Seminoles, where he arrived in September, 1791.
The Creeks were then preparing to execute the treaty made be- tween them and the United States at New York, in August, 1790. They had chosen the chiefs to attend at the Rock Landing, on the 1st of October, the time stated for running the bound- ary line agreed upon in the treaty, White Bird, king of the Cus- setahs, being of the commission. Bowles appeared at this junc- ture. The presents he brought with him and his bold assertions caused great agitation and hesitancy amongst the ignorant part, and of course amongst the mass of the Creeks. Although a con- siderable part of the Upper Creeks, and indeed of all the res- pectable chiefs, were for running the line, he pretended that he had powers from the British Government to conclude a treaty with the Creeks, the basis of which should be a revocation on their parts of the treaty with the United States, and a guaran- tee of their lands. He declared that he would write to Georgia. and prevent the running of the lines; and he accordingly wrote to the commissioners who were waiting at the Rock Landing ex- pecting the Creek chiefs, by a letter dated the 26th of October, at Usuchees, and signed "GEN. WILLIAM A. BOWLES, Director of
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the Affairs of the Creek Nation." He asserted that Alexander McGillivray had deceived the Indians in the treaty made at New York, but that he was willing to form a treaty with the United States in behalf of the Creek Nation, and declared that the for- mer treaty should not be executed. The Indians, distracted by his artifices, entreated of the United States to wait till spring before they should mark the boundary, saying that if Bowles should then turn out to be an impostor they would attend and run the dividing lines without further difficulty.
A considerable detachment of the troops of the United States and Mr. Ellicutt, the surveyor, and three respectable commis- sioners from the State of Georgia, were assembled punctually at the Rock Landing, on the Oconee, the Ist of October; and they waited for the Creek chiefs till the 1st of November, when, de- spairing of effecting the business they came upon that season, they returned home.
Gov. Blount, attending to every improvement which the ne- cessities of his new government required, in order to give infor- mation to the people and to be able to communicate quickly whatever intelligence he wished to spread amongst them, pro- cured Mr. Roulstone, a printer, to come with his printing-press to Rogersville. On the 5th of November, 1791, the first printing- press ever introduced into the Territory was set up by Mr. Roul- stone, at Rogersville; and on that day issued the first number of the Knoxville Gazette, though Knoxville was not laid off till Feb- ruary, 1792. It was then laid off upon the ground on which the treaty had been held and made with the Cherokees, on the 2d of July, 1791.
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