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 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
461
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
They gave orders not to molest or injure Gen. Robertson in the Chickasaw Nation, nor any of the escort. Col. White had urged to them the great impropriety of carrying on hostilities when Gen. Robertson was there in the character of mediator, at their request, to bring about a peace. Gen. Robertson arrived at Log Town on the 8th of September. On the day before the Creeks had attempted to kill some of the Chickasaws, and on the latter day the Chickasaws were so provoked that they determined to detain the prisoners.
On the 29th of September Piomingo, by letter, communicated to Gen. Robertson an affair which had recently taken place be- tween the belligerents. About a thousand Creeks had come to break up the Chickasaw nation. They brought white people with them, and drums and ammunition for a long siege. A great number of them were on horseback. As they gave way, the warriors of Big Town attacked them and put them to the rout. The Chickasaws pursued them about five miles, their horsemen upon the flank and their foot upon the rear. The Chickasaws took from them all their baggage and clothing, ex- cept their flaps, the only clothes they had on when they began the attack. The baggage consisted of their blankets and other clothing, except their flaps, their ammunition, kettles, and their provisions. The loss of the Chickasaws was six men killed and one woman. Of the Creeks were found twenty-six men killed, and many more must have been wounded. About two hundred Chickasaws were engaged in defeating this great army of the Creeks. In a few days afterward the Chickasaws presented a memorial to the Creek nation. In it they accuse the Creeks of perfidy in coming to attack them when Gen. Robertson was there obtaining the prisoners from the Chickasaws which they had agreed to deliver. Gen. Robertson, they said, believed that the Creeks were in earnest for peace, but the next morning he heard their guns. "If you want peace, send your flag; your prisoners shall come." "The Mad Dog," in council, said they, had no tongue for peace, but the Creeks had not lost the use of their legs, for the Chickasaw horses had not been able to over- take them. They had not pursued far, for they returned to consult with Gen. Robertson on the peace which they so much desired. "We are willing for peace," said the Chickasaws, "but not afraid of war. If you thirst for blood, we will sell ourselves
462
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
dearly." They set forth the advantages and blessings of peace, and the madness of rushing into war. "We are a small nation, and the Creeks have long insulted us. If war continue, we will send out our war parties and head them, but we seek sincerely for peace." They finally besought to bury in oblivion all former heart burnings.
At the conference on the 10th of October were present the Cherokees, some chiefs of the Chickasaws, and some of the Creeks. The differences between the Creeks and Chickasaws were fully discussed, and it was agreed that Gov. Blount should send a proper person into the Creek Nation to lay the founda- tions of peace between them, and Chisholm was selected.
Four hundred dollars had been left by the Secretary of War in the hands of Mr. Foster to purchase provisions for the Chick- asaws, in case the Governor approved of it. He, on the 13th of November, approved the purchase, and instructed Gen. Robert- son, agent to the Choctaws and Chickasaws, to forward the pro- visions to the Chickasaw Nation at the least possible expense to the United States. The Governor at this time entertained very sanguine hopes that Capt. Chisholm with the Creeks, and Col. McKee with the Chickasaws, with the address and influence of Gen. Robertson, would restore peace between them; on which event, as the Chickasaws might turn out and hunt, any further necessity for furnishing them with supplies would be super- seded. On the 30th of November Chisholm, in full council of the Creeks, read to the chiefs the instructions he had received. "The Mad Dog" and the other chiefs lamented the late disturb- ances. They said that forty of their men had never returned from the Chickasaw Nation; but they imputed no blame to the Chickasaws, who did not seek them, but were sought by them. They sent beads and tobacco by him, one of them a string of black beads connected with another string of white beads. The Chickasaws were requested, if for peace, to separate the black ones and to throw them away, and to keep the other to be brightened as the chain of friendship; but if for war, to send both back. They proposed to meet the Chickasaws at the river Sipsey, there to take them by the hands as brothers. They now looked to the white people with clear eyes and straight hearts, and wished for peace with all mankind. They reminded the Chickasaws of the happy days they had passed in the time
463
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
of their old chiefs. now dead, and exhorted them to follow the good examples which were then set them. These dispositions and overtures were soon laid by Capt. Chisholm before the Chickasaws. They closed with the proposal, and soon after- ward concluded a peace with the Creeks. In their conferences with Capt. Chisholm, on the 2d of December, they rejoiced at the firm friendship which he informed them subsisted between the British and Americans, and at the mutual interchange of good offices between them. And "The Mad Dog" remarked: "Now my father, the king, will take back the towns"-meaning New Orleans, Pensacola, and the Floridas generally-"which the rogues, the Spaniards, stole from him while he was quarrel- ing with his children, the Americans." The Creeks, as early as the beginning of June in this year, being terrified and kept in a state of constant alarm by the war which the Chickasaws waged against them, and being not now encouraged and backed by the Spaniards, began to profess a strong desire for peace with the whites, and their circumstances procured them credit.
The President ordered a treaty to be held with the Creeks, and he directed inquiry to be made into the causes of that dis- satisfaction which they had manifested ever since the treaty of New York, by the numerous and distressing depredations which they had committed on the south-western frontiers. Those on the Cumberland River, he observed, had been so frequent and so peculiarly destructive as to induce an apprehension that they must have originated in some claim to the lands on that river. The cause he proposed to trace, whatever it might be; and the commission, said he, will be instructed to inquire into the causes of the hostilities to which he referred, and to enter into such reasonable stipulations as will remove them and give permanent peace to those parts of the United States. He nominated as commissioners Benjamin Hawkins, of North Carolina; George Climer, of Pennsylvania; and Andrew Pickens, of South Caro- lina. This nomination and appointment was made on the 25th of June, 1795; and the commissioners made a treaty in behalf of the United States on the one part, with the kings, chiefs, and warriors of the Creek Nation on the other, which settled their boundaries and all other matters in difference, and restored peace. It was dated on the 29th of June, 1796, but hostilities were suspended in 1795.
464
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
About the 31st of July, 1795, the wagon-road from Knoxville to Nashville was completed so far that a wagon with a ton weight had then actually passed on it; and the commissioners had en- tered into a contract for its thorough completion in the month of October, in whose hands ample funds were provided for the purpose. A day or two before this, two wagons arrived at Knoxville from South Carolina, having passed through the mountains by way of the Warm Springs of French- Broad; so that a wagon-road may be said to have been then opened from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and other Atlantic States, by way of Knoxville to Nashville. Torrents of popula- tion were expected, and actually began to flow through these channels, and it was now confidently expected that the new census would show a population of at least sixty thousand in- habitants.
Man continually prays to be at rest from all his labors, but such is his restless temper, whether it be his lot to live in small or large communities, that no sooner is he relieved from dis- quietude in one quarter than he begins to search for new troubles in another; no sooner is an external enemy pacified, than instantly he looks internally for some one to whom he may oppose himself and give employment to his active powers. Ac- cordingly, symptoms of political and personal disunion now be- gan to checker the face of affairs. Moneys had been placed, in the month of May, in the hands of Col. Henly to pay for the military services which had been performed by the people of Tennessee, and some misunderstanding arose in regard to pay- ments claimed by virtue of powers of attorney. Col. Henly did not like to pay to applicants with powers, for in some, and indeed in many instances, such powers might be forged so as not to be detected by his inspection, in which case he would lose the sum paid to the applicant, and have to pay it over again to the true debtee. This produced some sensation, and caused the Governor to state to the colonel his opinion upon the sub- ject, which was that payments should be made to well-authen- ticated powers, and at all events to those who applied in per- son. Suggestions were afterward made that everybody was paid except Gen. Robertson, but that no moneys were retained for the satisfaction of his services. It seemed as if two parties. hostile to each other, were already about to be formed in the
465
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
bosom of the country, which might thereafter give disturbance to the community as well as to each other. But the truth is that such differences are not to be regretted by the great body of the people, though sometimes hurtful to the parties con- cerned; for like strong currents of wind upon the face of the waters, which, by putting them in motion, render them salu- brious, whilst stagnant waters become putrid and injurious to health, so in politics, where the noisiness of faction is hushed by despotism or too much confidence in those who govern whilst the public doze, corruption creeps in; and in a little time, by the combinations which it forms, becomes too potent to be removed. He who knows that the town bell will ring, even upon suspicion of his motives, will take care not to give cause for alarm by his conduct.
At the close of this eventful year the Spaniards had become reconciled to the people of this Territory. Their limits on our borders were fixed, the free navigation of the Mississippi was yielded to the United States, the northern and southern Indians had suspended their incursions, emigration flowed in full tide upon the country, the people were about to make for themselves a new Constitution and to assume the rank of an independent State. James Robertson, the first settler both of East and West Tennessee, and the political father of the latter, who had shared in all the dangers and sufferings of the first settlers, still lived; and saw the country, which he had fostered with so much care, smiling for the blessings it enjoyed, and for the still greater blessings which Providence seemed to have in store.
30
CHAPTER X.
Cherokee Conferences-Peace-Intruders Removed-Cherokee Protected Who Had Killed a Creek-Scalp Dance-Moneys Appropriated for Trade with the Cherokees-Jack's Claim-Cherokee Chiefs-Their Address to the Governor -- His Advice to Them -- Cox and His Party-Grantees of Lands Threaten to Take Possession-Trespassers upon Indian Lands Removed-Goods Depos- ited for the Indians at Tellico-Indians Come to Hunt Near the Cumberland Road-Indians Killed-The Nation Irritated-Persons Killed or Wounded- Mrs. Mason; Her Heroic Behavior-Troops Kept Up-Invasion of the Creeks Recommended by the Governor-Reasons in Support of This Measure-The Secretary of War Opposed to It-Declares against Offensive Operations- Troops Who Acted Offensively Refused Pay-Grand Jury at Knoxville; Their Sentiments upon This Subject-Wish to Be Formed into a State-Unpleasant Remarks of the Secretary of War -- The Chickasaws Not to Be Assisted- Blames the Governor and Gen. Robertson-War with the Creeks Condemned by Him-Prescribes the Conduct to Be Observed toward the Indians-Post at the Creek Crossing Recommended-Settlers on the Indian Lands to Be Re- moved-Creeks Coming to Rob or Steal Not to Be Prevented by the Cherokees by Force-Numbers of the Inhabitants Greatly Increased-Variety of Events Unfavorable to the Creeks-Gen. Wayne's Victory over the Northern Indians -Plundering Parties of Creeks Pass through the Cherokee Nation-Creeks Inclined to Peace-Preparations Made by Them to Bring It About-The White People They Promise Shall Not Be Molested-Begin to Surrender Their Prisoners-Again Resume a Disposition for War-Appoint a Meeting at Tellico-Gen. Robertson Sent to Obtain the Creek Prisoners from the Chicka- saws-Col. Titsworth Goes into the Creek Nation-The Spaniards Intercede with the Creeks to Be at Peace with the United States-Indians Desire That the Whites Should Educate Their Children-Enumeration of the Inhabitants Called For-The Necessary Number for a State Believed to Be in the Territory - Gen. Robertson's Resignation-The Assembly Called to Decide on the Ques- tion Whether a New State Shall Be Formed-A Law Passed for the Enumer- ation of the Inhabitants-Provide for a Road through Buncombe County, in North Carolina, into the Territory-The Number of the Inhabitants Ascer- tained-Proclamation Issued by the Governor for the Election of Members to Sit in Convention-Constitution Formed-Tennessee Admitted into the Union -Writs Issued for the Election of Members of Assembly and Governor-John Sevier Elected Governor-The Assembly Meet.
A FTER the conferences of Gov. Blount with the Cherokees, which terminated on the 3d of January, 1795, and had been attended by fifteen hundred Cherokees and by a great number of whites, the general opinion was that peace was again
(466)
467
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
restored as between them and the United States. The Governor received private assurances from the chiefs that their warriors could be engaged to protect the frontiers, though they could not publicly say so, for fear the Creeks would fall on them before they could be prepared for their reception. "The Bloody Fel- low" and John Watts made part of the representation from the lower towns; and, besides the assurances of peace given on the part of their nation, pledged themselves to use their exertions to prevent the hostile Creeks from plundering and killing the people of Cumberland and Kentucky, and to remove all obsta- cles inconsistent with the harmony and good understanding which ought to subsist between people at peace. The Governor, by his proclamation issued on the 8th of January, gave orders for the removal of all those who had settled upon lands guaran- teed to the Cherokees by the treaty of Holston, between the Cumberland Mountains and the Clinch River and that part of the territory called Powel's Valley; and, considering the treaty as in full force and operation by the existing state of peace, he demanded, on the 27th of January, that the Indians who had killed a man should be delivered up to be tried according to its provisions, and if Creeks that they should be seized wherever they could be found in the Nation. Considering, also, that the Cherokees were under the protection of the United States, he directed that one of them who had killed a Creek as he was go- ing to the frontiers to rob and murder should come to his house if in danger; and after the meeting at Allejoy to come to Telli- co block-house, where he would receive as much powder and lead as would be necessary for his defense against the Creeks. This Indian was one of the warriors who accompanied Double Head, in the summer of 1794, to Philadelphia to visit the President. He was called Chiccunee, or "The Stallion." With nine others, about the 20th of December, he fell in with a party of Creeks approaching the frontier of Georgia with hostile intentions, as he and his party supposed, and killed one of them. With his scalp he and his associates appeared at Tellico block-house, where the scalp dance was that night held by several of the principal chiefs and warriors of the Cherokees, in the presence of many of the frontier and other citizens of the United States. These and other appearances gave sure indications of a perma- nent and general peace with the Cherokees, and in April the
46S
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
Governor announced that peace with the Cherokees was in real- ity completely restored. He was directed to procure from them their assent to the establishment of a trading-post on the north bank of the Tennessee, near the Creek crossing-place, and he ordered the application to be made to them at the next meeting of their general council, which was to be at Estanaula on the 7th of May; and they were to be informed that Congress had appropriated $50,000 to extend trade to the Indians, and that the goods could be conveniently sent by water to the place proposed, from which they could easily be conveyed to the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws; and that a small military post would be established, at which the hunters might sell their meat.
The Cherokees were very much disturbed in the latter part of May by a report which some maker of mischief had put in cir- culation, purporting that another visit was to be made to them by the people of Kentucky and Cumberland, but on this head their fears were quieted.
A part of the Cherokees felt some uneasiness respecting a claim of Col. Jacks; and at the conferences in October, when upon the subject of lands formerly ceded which were to remain as the several cessions placed them, "The Bloody Fellow " de- livered a medal to the Governor, which Col. Patrick Jack had given to him with a desire that it should be sent to the Presi- dent with an explanation of the intent of the donor. The Gov- ernor said he had understood the intention of the giver of this medal, and promised to explain the matter and to send it to the President. The explanation given by the Governor was this: "Patrick Jack, at that time of Pennsylvania, who gave the medal to 'The Bloody Fellow,' reports himself to have been an armorer in Fort Loudon, and that a deed was made to him by the Cher- okees for fifteen miles square of lands upon the south bank of the Tennessee, including that fort, for a valuable consideration. Certain it is that he has an instrument of writing, signed about the time that the British possessed that fort by Alla cullee cullee, or 'The Little Carpenter,' great chief, if not the head of the nation, the object of which appears to have been to con- vey the above-described tract of land to him. It was also signed by Arthur Dobbs, the then Governor of North Carolina, and by others whose names Gov. Blount did not recollect, for the paper
469
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
was not in his possession when he gave the information; he had only incidentally seen it. Within the limits of this tract of IAnd, in October, 1795, were a number of Indian towns. The ob- ject of Col. Jack in giving medals to several of the leading chiefs was no doubt to purchase their good-will, to the end that he at some future day might the more easily claim the possession of the land. Gov. Blount assured the Indians that they had noth- ing to fear from the claim of Jack, nor from cunning white mer making purchases unauthorized by the government, and that the government would protect the land against such purchases. Jack, it is said, petitioned Congress respecting his claim, and Gov. Blount informed him that he never would obtain posses- sion until the Indian claim should be extinguished by treaty, and that then he would have an opportunity to try the legality of his title in a court of law."
The engaging manners and fascinating address of the Gov- ernor had captivated the hearts of the Cherokees, and when they heard in the latter part of that year that he was about to resign his office, the chiefs were deeply affected at the information, and addressed him on the subject. He answered them very af- fectionately that the Territory was about to become a State, which would elect its own Governor as other States did, at which time his office both as Governor of the Territory and as Indian Agent would expire. He noticed that peace was at length hap- pily re-established, and recommended to them in the most oblig- ing terms a continuance of it by all the means in their power, as upon that depended their happiness and existence as a nation. War, he observed, was a destroyer, and many nations, both white and red, had perished under its influence. The high opinion which they had of his talents and benevolence, and the softened feelings which the occasion produced, had prepared their minds for lasting impressions. The advice he gave sunk deep into their souls, and never has it since been erased from their remem- brance. But the Governor himself had great difficulties to en- counter to preserve the peace which he so earnestly pressed upon the Cherokees. A report was circulated in August that Cox and his party again talked of making the attempt to establish a settlement on the lands they had purchased from the State of Georgia, and Gov. Blount recommended a regular military force to prevent them.
470
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
Some time in January, 1796, in the early part of it, some per- sons arrived from Georgia whose business was said to be a pas- sage to the Muscle Shoals, and to keep possession there till a settlement could be established by a part of the Tennessee com- pany for them. It was some time before the Governor could get possession of their secret designs, and he then immediately took such steps as appeared to him most likely to defeat them. He wrote to the chiefs of the Cherokees, on the 1Sth of Febru- ary, 1796, that four weeks before the date of his letter, a boat with many men, who came from Georgia-forty in all-had left Knoxville, as they pretended, for Natchez, but as he since un- derstood for the Muscle Shoals, to settle upon their lands in the great bend of the Tennessee. He assured them that if this were a fact the United States would remove them, and not to be uneasy.
He was no less perplexed with another set of land purchasers bent upon acts subversive of a state of peace with the Indians. Many of the grantees under the laws for opening John Arm- strong's office, and the office for the appropriation of the lands laid off for the officers and soldiers, came in December, 1795, into the south-western territory, and threatened to take posses- sion, notwithstanding the Indian treaties, having obtained legal advice to that effect.
If it were truly said, some centuries ago, "Uneasy is the head which wears a crown," the experience of our own times shows that the head is not less uneasy which has to regulate the con- cerns of a man's own fellow-citizens. Being in less danger of punishment for setting the government at defiance, they are less submissive to its injunctions than the subjects of a crowned head. How many instances have we seen in this Territory in the course of a few years of undertakings deeply affecting other States, and our relations with them, not only unauthorized, but directly in the face of authority! Such have been the symptoms of the politic body, so as to make it discernible, and clearly so, that in some time of difficulty and danger the whole engine may fall to pieces unless both the cement of the Union shall be of a more binding quality and the government itself enabled to act with more promptitude and more efficacy against the refractory, whether States or individuals, who refuse the observance of their federal duties; and in time, while the danger is yet afar off, pro-
.
471
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
vision should be made to prevent the recurrence of meetings for desperate purposes, whether of land-mongers or conventions. Taking into view the magnitude of the evil, and of the public misfortunes which are likely to spring from it, forfeiture of life and fortune and perpetual outlawry could not be deemed a pun- ishment with too much tincture of severity. Like the lightning from heaven, its stroke should be sudden, and should first fall upon objects of the highest elevation. As machinations to dis- turb the peace with the Indians were multiplied the efforts of the government to maintain it were proportionately invigorated.
About this time the United States purchased goods, and sent them to the Territory to be disposed of to the Indians for costs and charges. Gov. Blount directed them to be delivered at Tellico. He also directed Col. Kelly and the sheriff of Blount. County to remove those settlements which began to be formed between Clinch River and the Chilhowee Mountain upon the lands of the Indians, and he issued a proclamation for the re- moval of the trespassers in Powel's Valley upon the Indian lands.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.