_THE PICKETS OF CIVILIZATION._
The first settlers in Tennessee: what did they do?
They founded and administered the first free and independent government
in America. They established the first church, the first institution
of learning, and the second newspaper, in “the new world west of the
Alleghanies.”
They were in the wilderness. The hour of the day was determined by the
shadow cast by the sun upon the home-made dial; the time of the night
was reckoned from the positions of particular stars in the firmament.
Years and months they measured by moons. From the course, color and
velocity of clouds, from the temperature and from the direction of
the winds, they foretold the weather. They also observed the habits
of animals and birds of passage, as aids to their weather bureau;
and they watched and studied closely the development and growth of
plants, herbs, vines, vegetables and the cereals, as helps to their
agricultural department.[B]
The country in which Andrew Jackson made his home for about two years
deserves a name and place in history not yet fully given to it. In its
wild and picturesque magnificence, in the rugged honesty and frank
simplicity of the people who settled it, in their love and struggle for
liberty, “home rule” and local self-government, it was a counterpart of
the Switzerland of tradition and story.
The sun shone nowhere upon a land of more ravishing loveliness and
awe-inspiring sublimity--silver threads of river and streamlet, and
gem of valley set in emerald of gorgeous luxuriance; waters murmuring
and thunderous, striking every note in the gamut of nature’s weird
minstrelsy, dashing and bounding to the sea; every acclivity a
Niagara of color flashing from rhododendron and mountain magnolia,
elysian fields without Rhenish castles or Roman towers; grooved with
fastnesses, terraced with plateaus and monumented with peaks upheaved
into a very dreamland of beauty and grandeur, all overlooked by the
majestic Roan--
“The monarch of mountains--
They crowned him long ago,
On a throne of rock, in a robe of clouds,
With a diadem of snow!”
About one hundred and thirty years ago, the first permanent white
settlement was made on the Watauga river, near where Elizabethton now
stands. Up to the winter of 1770-1, there were in all probability
twenty families in the new settlement.
May 16, 1771, the “Regulators” fought the famous but disastrous battle
of the Alamance, about forty miles northwest of Raleigh. During the
summer and fall following this battle, settlers came in considerable
numbers to “the new world west of the Alleghanies,” and cast their lot
with the settlers on the Watauga; and about this time settlements were
made on the Holston and Nolichucky rivers.
Who were these people? Whence and why did they come? I answer:
They were every one patriots, soldiers and good citizens. They came
from the battle-field of the Alamance--that first contest of the
revolution which eventuated in American independence. They left their
homes because of the disastrous result of that battle, in which many of
them had participated, and because of their unconquerable hatred of the
British government and their open revolt against British authority and
the oppression of British officials.
The following letter from Hon. George Bancroft, the historian, then
Minister from the United States to Great Britain, on the subject of
the “Mecklenburg Resolves,” and the subsequent course and conduct of
some of those engaged in the battle of the Alamance, is still of great
interest to Tennesseans:
90 EATON PLACE, LONDON, July 4, 1848.
MY DEAR SIR--I hold it of good augury that your letter of the 12th
of June reached me by the Herman just in time to be answered this
morning. You may be sure that I have spared no pains to discover the
Resolves of the Committee of Mecklenburg. A glance at the map will
show you that in those days the traffic in that part of North Carolina
took a southerly direction, and people in Charleston, and sometimes
in Savannah, knew what was going on in ‘Charlotte Town’ before Gov.
Martin. The first account of the Resolves extraordinary, ‘by the
people in Charlotte Town, Mecklenburg County,’ was sent over by Sir
James Wright, then Governor of Georgia, in a letter of the 20th of
June, 1775. The newspaper thus transmitted is still preserved, and
is the number 498 of the South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal,
Tuesday, June 13, 1775. I read the Resolves, you may be sure, with
reverence, and immediately obtained a copy of them, thinking myself
the sole discoverer. I do not send you the copy, as it is identically
the same with the paper you enclosed to me, but I forward to you a
transcript of the entire letter of Sir James Wright. The newspapers
seem to have reached him after he had finished his dispatch, for
the paragraph relating to it is added in his own handwriting, the
former part being written by a secretary. I have read a great many
papers relating to the Regulators, and am having copies made of a
large number. Your own state ought to have them all, and the expense
would be, for the state, insignificant, if it does not send an agent
on purpose. A few hundred dollars would copy all you need from the
State Paper Office on all North Carolina topics. The Regulators are
on many accounts important. They form the connecting link between
the resistance to the Stamp Act and the movement of 1775, and they
also played a glorious part in taking possession of the Mississippi
Valley, toward which they were irresistibly carried by their love
of independence. It is a mistake if any have supposed that the
Regulators were cowed down by their defeat at Alamance. Like the
mammoth, they shook the bolt from their brow and crossed the mountains.
I shall always be glad to hear from you and to be of use to you or
your State.
Very truly yours,
GEORGE BANCROFT.
D. L. SWAIN, ESQ., Chapel Hill, N. C.
One of the “ringleaders” in organizing the Regulators for the battle of
the Alamance was John Pugh, who was afterwards sheriff of Washington
county, which at that time included all of the territory now embraced
within the boundaries of the state of Tennessee. Among the few names
of the participants in the battle of the Alamance which have been
preserved in history may be found those of several who were afterwards
prominent among the settlers on Watauga, Holston and Nolichucky. I have
said this much because of some facts which will be given further along.
These people were on the very verge of the frontier, standing as a
mere handful of pickets out on the confines of civilization, where
the war-whoop of the painted savage rang through the forests, and the
constant apprehension of the tomahawk and the scalping-knife haunted
every abode, and every thicket ambushed a bloodthirsty foe. When open
daring failed, fiendish cunning, the torch and midnight butchery
wrought the ruin. Atrocity followed atrocity, in the utter extinction
of homes. Men hunted, fished, toiled, slept and worshipped with their
trusty rifles at hand. The women also, through necessity and with
courage inspired by constant peril, were no less dextrous in the use
of deadly weapons, and no less unerring in the precision of their aim.
The very genius of evil and desolation seemed at times to brood over
the infant settlements. Still, they prospered; and, amid their dangers,
they followed industrial pursuits. The creaking clang of the loom and
the whir of the spinning-wheel furnished the “accompaniment to the
maiden’s concord of measured monotones.” The woodman’s axe felled the
forest trees, and fields and farms were opened up, fenced and put in
cultivation. Churches and schools were established, and public highways
“viewed out” and opened up in the wilderness.
[Illustration: FIRST GRIST MILL BUILT IN WASHINGTON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.
Erected by Michael Bacon, on Little Limestone Creek, six miles
southwest of Jonesboro, in the year 1779.]
Among the wealthiest the wheaten cake appeared only at the Sabbath
breakfast. Milk and spring water were their only drinks at meals. The
red deer flitted through the voiceless solitudes, and bruin roamed the
jungles at will. The fruits of the chase and the fishing-rod, together
with pounded maize, supplied the wholesome comforts of the hospitable
board. Quilting bees, log rollings, house raisings, corn shuckings,
flax pullings, maple sugar boilings and the innocent abandon of the
dance, enlivened with brimming gourds of nectared dew and the high fun
and mirth of backwoods “social functions,” gave variety and zest to the
monotony of frontier life.
Maid and matron were clad in fabrics of their own handiwork, each a
Joan of Arc in moral and physical prowess and power, and a Venus in
rounded symmetry and development, with all the unaffected graces of
natural and unspoiled womanhood, “the red wine of lusty life mantling
and blushing in the alabaster face”; the men garbed in skins or the
coarsest textures of the loom, athletic of limb and fleet of foot as
the roe, more than a match for all the cunning stratagems of Indian
warfare, “lion-hearted to dare and win, and yet with gentleness and
generosity to melt the soul.”
The log structure rose in the wilderness, with puncheon floor,
slab benches, port-hole windows and rifle-rack, in whose cribbed
and darkened shrine alternated the thunderous vociferations of the
fire-and-brimstone preacher and the cries of the truant urchin under
the savage birch of the pitiless schoolmaster.
These people were without any local form of civil government, without
executive, military, civil or peace officers; but they had among them
John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, James Robertson and others, who kept the
good of the community at heart. It will be remembered that there has
been much controversy, at times in the not very distant past, as to
when, where and by whom the first declaration of a free and independent
government was made and entered into on this continent--some claiming
that Mecklenburg, North Carolina, was the place, its citizens the
people, and May, 1775, the date; others asserting that the association
formed for Kentucky, “under the great elm tree outside the fort at
Boonsboro”--this also in 1775--was the first. I propose to show that
neither one of these associations, declarations or formations of
government was the first “free and independent government” established
on this continent; but that this honor belongs to the settlers on the
Watauga. Haywood, in his history of Tennessee (page 41), says: “In 1772
(May), the settlement on the Watauga, being without government, formed
a written association and articles for their conduct. They appointed
five commissioners, a majority of whom was to decide all matters of
controversy, and to govern and direct for the common good in other
respects”; and again (page 46): “This committee settled all private
controversies, and had a clerk, Felix Walker, now or lately a member of
Congress from North Carolina. They had also a sheriff. This committee
had stated and regular times for holding their sessions, and took the
laws of Virginia for the standard of decision.” Haywood further says
that they were living under this government in November, 1775.
Some four years after this local, self, independent government had been
entered into by the settlers of Watauga, John Sevier, in a memorial to
the North Carolina legislature explaining it, says: “Finding ourselves
on the frontiers, and being apprehensive that, for want of a proper
legislature, we might become a shelter for such as endeavor to defraud
their creditors; considering also the necessity of recording deeds,
wills, and doing other public business, we, by consent of the people,
formed a court for the purposes above mentioned, taking, by desire
of our constituents, the Virginia laws for our guide, so near as the
situation of affairs would permit. This was intended for ourselves, and
was done by consent of every individual.”
I rather suspect that some inquiry was made by the authorities of North
Carolina, as to what kind of a government this was which had been set
up within their jurisdiction, and which established courts that took
the laws of _Virginia_ as their guide.
The “written association and articles for their conduct,” entered
into by the settlers on the Watauga, in May, 1772, formed the first
“free and independent government” established and put into practical
administration on this continent.
The five commissioners or committeemen first appointed were John
Sevier, James Robertson, Charles Roberson, Zachariah Isbell and John
Carter. This was an independent government, because they did not ask
permission of any power on earth to enter into it, and they did not
recognize any authority as superior to that which they had voluntarily
vested in the five commissioners chosen by them. It was not a compact
or league with any other power, but, as Sevier says, “was intended
for ourselves.” It was a free government, because it was voluntarily
entered into by the whole people, “by consent of every individual.”
The settlers lived, prospered and were happy, under the government
of the five commissioners, for about six years. These commissioners
settled all questions of debt, determined all rights of property, took
the probate of wills and the acknowledgment of deeds, recorded the
same, issued marriage licenses and hanged horse thieves, with much zest
and great expedition--the arraignment, trial, conviction, condemnation
and execution of a horse thief all occurring within an hour or so after
he was arrested, inasmuch as they had no jail in which to imprison him
overnight, and believed strongly in the idea that a man who was bad
enough to be put in jail deserved to be hanged on the spot.
In November, 1777, the assembly of North Carolina erected the District
of Washington into Washington county, which included the whole of what
is now the state of Tennessee. This was the first territorial division
in the United States named in honor of George Washington. The Governor
of North Carolina appointed justices of the peace and militia officers
for this county, who, in February, 1778, met and took the oath of
office, and organized the new county and its courts. Thereupon, the
first “free and independent government” formed and put into operation
in America was no more, the jurisdiction and authority of the five
commissioners having, by their own consent and that of the people,
been superseded by the newly appointed authorities. The first written
instrument, paper or record authoritatively made in the organization
of what is today the judicial, political, civil and military existence
of the state of Tennessee, is in the office of the county clerk at
Jonesboro, and is in the words and figures following:
FEBRUARY COURT 1778
The oaths of the Justices of the peace melitia & for officers There
Attestments, &c,
Washington County, I A. B. do solemnly swear that as a Justice of the
peace, and a Justice of the County Court of pleas, & Quarter Sessions
in the County of Washington, in all articles in the Commission to me
directed. I will do equal Right to the poor and to the Rich to the
Best of my Judgment and according to the Law of the State. I will not
privately or Openly by my-self or any other person, be of Council in
any Quarrel, or Suit, depending Before me, and I will hold the County
Court, and Quarter Sessions of my County, as the Statue in that case
shall and may direct.
The fines and amerciaments that shall happen to be maid and the
forfeitures that shall be incurred I will cause to be duly entered
without Concealment. I will not wittingly or willingly take by myself
or any Other Person, for me, any fee, Gift, Gratuity, or reward
whatsoever for any matter or thing by me to be done, By virtue of
my office except such fees as are or may be directed or Limited by
statue, but well and truly I will do my office, of a Justice of the
peace as well within the County Court of pleas, and Quarter Sessions
as without. I will not delay person of common Right, By reason of
any Letter, or order from any person or persons in authority to me
directed, or per any other Cause whatever, and if any Letter or Order
Come to me, contrary to Law I will proceed to Inforce the Law, such
letter or Order notwithstanding. I will not direct or cause to be
directed any warrent by me to be maid to the parties. But will direct
all such Warrants to the Sheriff or Constable of, the County or Other
the Officers, Of the State or Other Indiferant person to do execution
Thereof, and finally, in all things belonging to my office, during
Continuation therein will faithfully, Truly and Justly according to
the best of my (Jud) skill and Judgment do equal and Impartial Justice
to the Public and to Individuals, So help me God. Jas, Robertson,
Valentine Sevier, John Carter, John Sevier, Jacob Womack, Robert
Lucas, Andr, Greer, John Shelby Jr, George Russill, William Been,
Zacr. Isbell, Jno McNabb, Tho, Houghton, William Clark, Jno McMaihen,
Benjamin Gist, J. Chisholm, Joseph Wilson, William Cobb, James Stuart,
Michl, Woods, Richd. White, Benjamin Wilson, Charles Roberson, William
McNabb, Thos Price, Jesse Walton.
This oath has a deep and significant meaning, in view of the practices
which had characterized the administration of justice by British
officials. It is worthy of note that this oath, so full and specific
in detail, did not bind those who took it to allegiance either to the
state or the colony of North Carolina, or to the United States of
America. It did bind them, however, to be honest, just and faithful
to the people; it did bind them to “do equal right to the poor and to
the rich”; it did bind them not to make suggestions or give counsel
in any quarrel or suit pending before them, not to delay any person
in obtaining justice, not to allow outside influence to dictate or
control their actions, not to accept any fee, gift, gratuity or reward
whatsoever for any matter or thing by them to be done, except the
compensation allowed by law; to keep an account of fines and to enter
them without concealment; and, finally, to “do equal and impartial
justice to the public and to individuals.” This oath was not merely
administered to them in the modern, perfunctory way, as “You do
solemnly swear,” etc. They _took_ it, repeated it after the officer,
and signed it.
The new order of things was an innovation on the former simple,
direct and expeditious way of administering justice; but the five
“committeemen” were also members of the new court, and methods were
not very materially changed, as the records of the clerk’s office at
Jonesboro will show. They took jurisdiction of all matters relating to
the public good, and disposed of all questions summarily, as will be
more fully and particularly shown in another chapter.
Whenever a stranger appeared in the settlements, and gave his name as
William Morningstar, Samuel Sunshine or Walter Rainbow, he would not
be there long before he would be waited upon by a committee, one of
whom would say to him: “Look here, stranger, we have examined the book
of Genesis from end to end since you came here, and we can’t find the
name of your ancestors. We think that you have got another name, and
that you stole a horse somewhere and have run off. You must leave this
settlement before night, or we’ll hang you!” Such frank treatment was
invariably effective: its object was sure to heed the warning and to
disappear before sunrise the next morning.
About this time a vigorous and ambitious young man left the city of
Philadelphia for the wilds of the southwest. His mind was stored with
the rich intellectual treasures of old Princeton, then under the
presidency of the father of Aaron Burr. He walked, driving before
him through Delaware and Maryland, over the Alleghanies and across
Virginia, his “flea-bitten grey,” burdened to the utmost capacity with
a huge sack of books. These classics were the nucleus of the library
of an institution of learning yet unborn. After a fatiguing journey
through a large portion of territory, with only obscure paths through
gloomy forests for a highway, this devout and dauntless adventurer
halted among the settlers whom I have been describing. Soon thereafter,
the first church--a Presbyterian--and the first institution of learning
that were established west of the Alleghanies were founded. These
were “Salem Church” and “Washington College,” both established in the
year 1780, eight miles southwest of the seat of the present town of
Jonesboro--the college being the first one in the United States that
honored itself by assuming the name of the Father of his Country. It is
stated as a fact that, long prior to the late war, twenty-two members
of the Congress of the United States had received or completed their
education at Washington College, under this pioneer in letters and
religious training, whose achievements constitute the jewels of our
early literary and moral history. This man was Rev. Samuel Doak, D.D.
Though he left a deep and indelible impress on the civilization and
the literature of the Southwest, he sleeps today, amid the scenes of
his successful earthly labors, with only a simple and fast crumbling
memorial to mark the hallowed sepulchre of his silent dust.
[Illustration: THE FIRST CHURCH AND FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE BUILT IN THE “NEW
WORLD WEST OF THE ALLEGHANIES.”
Afterward, and now, Washington College and Old Salem Church. The
picture in an exact reproduction of the original log house, with log
partition, erected by Samuel Doak, D.D., 1780, eight miles southwest of
Jonesboro.]
The settlers lived and their public affairs were conducted under the
jurisdiction of the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for a
period of about six years, in a quiet and orderly manner; but ever
since that May day of 1772 when they organized the first “free and
independent government,” their dream had been of a new, separate and
independent commonwealth, and they began to be restless, dissatisfied
and disaffected toward the government of North Carolina. Many causes
seemed to conspire to increase their discontent. The first constitution
of North Carolina had made provision for a future state within her
limits, on the western side of the Alleghany mountains. The mother
state had persistently refused, on the plea of poverty, to establish a
Superior Court and appoint an attorney general or prosecuting officer
for the inhabitants west of the mountains. In 1784, many claims for
compensation for military services, supplies, etc., in the campaigns
against the Indians, were presented to the state government from the
settlements west of the Alleghanies. North Carolina was impoverished;
and, notwithstanding the fact that these claims were just, reasonable
and honest, it was suggested, and perhaps believed, “that all pretences
were laid hold of (by the settlers) to fabricate demands against the
government, and that the industry and property of those who resided on
the east side of the mountains were becoming the funds appropriated
to discharge the debts contracted by those on the west.” Thus it came
about that, in May, 1784, North Carolina, in order to relieve herself
of this burden, ceded to the United States her territory west of the
Alleghanies, provided that Congress would accept it within two years.
At a subsequent session, an act was passed retaining jurisdiction and
sovereignty over the territory until it should have been accepted by
Congress. Immediately after passing the act of cession, North Carolina
closed the land office in the ceded territory, and nullified all
entries of land made after May 25, 1784.
The passage of the cession act stopped the delivery of a quantity of
goods which North Carolina was under promise to deliver to the Cherokee
Indians, as compensation for their claim to certain lands. The failure
to deliver these goods naturally exasperated the Cherokees, and caused
them to commit depredations, from which the western settlers were of
course the sufferers.
At this session, the North Carolina assembly, at Hillsboro, laid taxes,
or assessed taxes and empowered Congress to collect them, and vested in
Congress power to levy a duty on foreign merchandise.
The general opinion among the settlers west of the Alleghanies was
that the territory would not be accepted by Congress (and in this they
were correct); and that, for a period of two years, the people in that
territory, being under the protection neither of the government of the
United States nor of the state of North Carolina, would neither receive
any support from abroad nor be able to command their own resources at
home--for the North Carolina act had subjected them to the payment of
taxes to the United States government. At the same time, there was no
relaxation of Indian hostilities. Under these circumstances, the great
body of the people west of the Alleghanies concluded that there was but
one thing left for them to do, and that was to adopt a constitution
and organize a state and a state government of their own. This they
proceeded to do. Was there anything else which these people could have
done? Perhaps there was; but did they not adopt just such a course as
any people situated as they were would have taken?
They proceeded to take steps for the holding of a convention. Delegates
were elected from Washington, Sullivan and Greene counties, who met
in convention at Jonesboro, August 23, 1784. Messrs. Cocke, Outlaw,
Carter, Campbell, Manifee, Martin, Roberson, Houston, Christian,
Kennedy and Wilson were appointed a committee, “to take under
consideration the state of public affairs relative to the cession of
the western country.” This committee appointed Messrs. Cocke and
Hardin a sub-committee to draft a report, which they did. This report
was in the nature of an address to the people. The convention then
adjourned, to meet again in Jonesboro, September 16. It did not,
however, assemble on that date. In October, 1784, the North Carolina
assembly repealed the act of cession. In the following November,
the delegates again assembled at Jonesboro, but failed to adopt a
constitution, and broke up in confusion, because of the repeal of the
act of cession. John Sevier, having received official information that
the cession act had been repealed, courts established, an attorney
general appointed and military officers commissioned, made a speech
advising the people to go no further; but Cocke and a majority of the
people were unwilling to abandon their dream of a new state--and Sevier
went with his people.
December 14, 1784, another convention assembled at Jonesboro, and
adopted a constitution, which was to be ratified or rejected by a
convention called to meet at Greeneville, November 14, 1785. In the
meantime, a general assembly was elected, which met at Greeneville,
early in 1785, and chose John Sevier for Governor, David Campbell judge
of the Superior Court, and Joshua Gist and John Anderson assistant
judges. Landon Carter was chosen Speaker of the Senate, and William
Cage Speaker of the House. The same assembly, at the same session,
afterward elected Landon Carter Secretary of State and William Cage
State Treasurer. Joseph Hardin was then elected Speaker of the House,
but I have not been able to ascertain from any source who was elected
Speaker of the Senate in place of Carter. Stoakley Donaldson was made
Surveyor General, and Daniel Kennedy and William Cocke were appointed
Brigadiers General. The assembly elected all other officers, civil
and military, being careful to choose those who already held offices
under the government of North Carolina--and so the ill-starred “state
of Franklin” began its career. The new state was named in honor of
Benjamin Franklin, as the correspondence of Sevier conclusively shows,
and the name should therefore always be written “Franklin,” and not
“Frankland.”
The boundaries of the new state, as set forth in a paper in the
handwriting of Col. Arthur Campbell of Virginia, were as follows:
“Beginning at a point on the top of the Alleghany or Appalachian
mountains, so as a line drawn due north from thence will touch the bank
of the New river, otherwise called Kenhawa, at the confluence of Little
river, which is about one mile above Ingle’s ferry; down the said river
Kenhawa to the mouth of Rencovert or Greenbriar river; a direct line
from thence to the nearest summit of the Laurel mountain, and along
the highest part of the same to the point where it is intersected by
the parallel of thirty-seven degrees north latitude; west along that
latitude to a point where it is met by a meridian line that passes
through the lower part of the rapids of Ohio; south along the meridian
to Elk river, a branch of the Tennessee; down said river to its mouth,
and down the Tennessee to the most southwardly part or bend in said
river; a direct line from thence to that branch of the Mobile called
Donbigbee [Tombigbee]; down said river Donbigbee to its junction
with the Coosawatee river to the mouth of that branch of it called
the Higtower [Etowah]; thence south to the top of the Appalachian
mountains, or the highest land that divides the sources of the eastern
from the western waters; northwardly along the middle of said heights
and the top of the Appalachian mountains, to the beginning.”
I am not prepared to say whether or not these people intended their new
state to become part of the Union, as one of the provisions in their
proposed form of government was that “the inhabitants within these
limits agree with each other to form themselves into a free, sovereign
and independent body politic or state, by the name of the commonwealth
of Franklin.” I am inclined to the opinion that in the beginning
they did not intend to join the Union of states, but that later they
concluded that they would, as there was an effort made to have Congress
recognize the new state.
An examination of the boundary lines of the state of Franklin will show
that it included fifteen counties of Virginia, six of West Virginia,
one-third of Kentucky, one-half of Tennessee, two-thirds of Alabama and
more than one-fourth of Georgia. Cast your eye over this magnificent
area: see the blue mountains, the sun-browned cliffs, the beautiful
rivers, the broad valleys with their golden wheat-fields and verdant
meadows, with the hundreds of smaller streams and sparkling springs:
it seems like one grand piece of natural embroidery, fashioned and put
together by the fingers of infinity and spread out by the hand of the
Almighty. Think of the iron, coal, marble, lead, copper, zinc and other
minerals hidden within its soil--you might have put a Chinese wall
around the people of the “state of Franklin,” and still they could have
lived in absolute independence of the outside world. There is more iron
and coal in this territory than can be found in the same area elsewhere
in the United States, and it is today yielding a vast revenue to its
inhabitants. You can stand on some of its mountain-tops, and see the
heavens darkened by day with the pillar of cloud, and made luminous by
night with the pillar of fire, arising from furnace and forge in the
valleys below, and hear the hammer of Thor beating the iron ribs of
those majestic old mountains into the marvellous machines of modern
invention and the utilities of a grand civilization.
At the first session of the general assembly of the state of Franklin,
held in March, 1785, fifteen acts or laws were passed. In the act
levying a tax for the support of the government was the following
section:
Be it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the aforesaid land
tax, and the free polls, to be paid in the following manner: Good
flax linen, ten hundred, at three shillings and six pence per yard.
Nine hundred at three shillings: Eight hundred two shillings and
nine pence: Seven hundred two shillings and six pence: Six hundred
two shillings: tow linen one shilling and nine pence: linsey three
shillings: and woolen and cotton linsey three shillings and six pence
per yard: Good clean beaver skin six shillings: cased Otter skins
six shillings: uncased ditto five shillings: rackoon and fox skins
one shilling and three pence: woolen cloth at ten shillings per
yard: bacon well cured at six pence per pound: good clean beeswax
one shilling per pound: good clean talow six pence per pound: good
distilled rye whiskey at two shillings and six pence per gallon: good
peach or apple brandy at three shillings per gallon: good country
made sugar at one shilling per pound: deer skins, the pattern six
shillings: good neat and well managed tobacco fit to be prized that
may pass inspection the hundred, fifteen shillings, and so on in
proportion for a greater or less quantity.
The last section of the act is in these words: “And all the salaries
and allowances hereby made shall be paid by any treasurer, sheriff or
collector of public taxes to any person entitled to the same, to be
paid in specific articles as collected, and at the rates allowed by the
state for the same, or in current money of the state of Franklin.” This
provision furnished those who adhered to the North Carolina government
much amusement. They asserted that the salaries of the Governor, judges
and other officers were to be paid in skins, absolutely; and, to add
to their amusement, had them payable in mink skins at that. From this
provision the inhabitants of that section of the country fell into
the habit of referring to money as “mink skins;” and this term, as
descriptive of money, thus spread all over the southwestern country.
They estimated by law two dollars and fifty cents to be equal to
fifteen shillings of the current money of Franklin. They allowed the
Governor two hundred pounds annually; the Attorney General twenty-five
pounds for each court he attended; the Secretary of State twenty-five
pounds and fees; the judge of the Superior Court one hundred and fifty
pounds; the assistant judges twenty-five pounds for each court they
attended; the treasurer forty pound; and each member of the council six
shillings per day for each day of actual service.
A convention met in Greeneville, in November, 1785, to adopt a
constitution. Up to this time no disagreement had taken place--all
were for Franklin; but when the constitution which had been proposed
was submitted, it was rejected; and, on motion of Col. William Cocke,
the convention adopted the entire constitution of North Carolina. Thus
began the trouble which ended in the overthrow of the state of Franklin.
[Illustration: HOUSE USED AS CAPITOL OF THE STATE OF FRANKLIN.
In Greeneville, Tennessee. From a photograph taken in April, 1897.]
I can not now notice the various sessions held by the assembly of
Franklin. It met for the last time in Greeneville, in September,
1787. “During the years 1786 and 1787, a strange spectacle was
presented--that of two empires being exercised at one and the same
time, over one and the same territory and people.” County courts were
held in the same counties, under the Franklin and the North Carolina
governments; “the same militia was called out by officers appointed
by each government; laws were passed by both assemblies”; taxes were
laid by authority of both states--but the people said that they did
not know which government had the right to receive their taxes, and
therefore they adopted the easy solution of paying to neither. The
Superior Courts of Franklin were held at Jonesboro; the courts under
North Carolina were held at Davis’s on Buffalo creek, ten miles east
of Jonesboro, and at Col. Tipton’s. There were now two strong parties,
one under Tipton, adhering to North Carolina, and the friends of
Franklin following Sevier, each of whom endeavored by every possible
means to strengthen his cause. “Every provocation on the one side was
surpassed in the way of retaliation by a still greater provocation on
the other.... The clerks of the county courts of Washington, Greene and
Sullivan, under Franklin, issued marriage licenses, and many persons
were married by virtue of their authority.”
In 1786, while a court was in session at Jonesboro, under the Franklin
government, Col. John Tipton entered the court house with a party of
men, took the records away from the clerk and drove the justices out
of the house. Not long after this, Sevier entered the house where the
North Carolina court was sitting, turned the justices out bodily and
carried off the records. “The like acts were repeated several times
during the existence of the Franklin government.” James Sevier was
clerk of Washington county under the Franklin government, as he had
been under North Carolina. Tipton went to Sevier’s house and took the
old records away from him by force. Shortly afterward, the same records
were recaptured, and James Sevier hid them in a cave. During these
captures and removals many of the records were lost. Of the Franklin
records all save one were either lost or destroyed.
This single remaining record of the Franklin courts is not only
interesting but amusing; and, to be as drunk as it unquestionably is,
contains some law and a great deal of early history. This record was
evidently made late at night, by the light of a “tallow dip” or a
bear-oil lamp, with a bottle of well-distilled apple or peach brandy
near by. It is the only written record relative to the “lost state” and
its courts that I have ever been able to find. It is like an old-time
copy-book. On the outside are the following entries and memoranda--I
give them literally:
State of Franklin,--Washington County
J James Sevier, State of Franklin James Sevier clerk of
Washington County State of Franklin
Franklin
Franklin
Franklin
Inside, in the same handwriting, will be found the following:
Good deeds are very commendable in youth,
Good many men of good many minds
Good birds of Good many kinds
State of ---- Court Adg’d, till court In course from a general
insurrection of the times, to this date 7th, of May 1786,
On the next page the record continues as follows:
Something ambiguous will say he went to the Indians, no witnesses,
no opportunity, they are not able to proove anything, The meaning
is to be taken, the latter in contracts, deeds and wills, construed
differantly was there a ejectment, and he never tryed, nothing can
be done until Injunction issue from the judge. The law says no party
shall be tryed without witnesses Hobgobblins, and Ghosts. So many
tryals
Read and interpret this record in the flickering light of the history
of the times. The court had been broken up and the justices driven out
of the house--this, I suppose, is the “ejectment” referred to. John
Sevier was at this time on the frontier, fighting the Indians--hence,
he “went to the Indians.” There was at this time in the hands of the
North Carolina sheriff a bench warrant for the arrest of Sevier; if
he was arrested, the charges against him could not be proven without
witnesses; these would be hard to procure against John Sevier, and yet
no one could be fairly “tryed without witnesses.” So this clerk, alone
at midnight, with no company except the flask whose odor seems still
perceptible in the pages of his record, reasoned and wrote--until the
“Hobgobblins and Ghosts” got after him!
In January or February of 1788, John Sevier’s property was seized under
a _fieri facias_ issued by North Carolina. Sevier and Tipton, with
their respective followers, met and fought a slight battle two miles
south of the present site of Johnson City, in which the former was
repulsed. In the following October, Sevier was arrested and carried to
North Carolina for trial. Soon afterward, the government of Franklin
collapsed, and North Carolina passed an act of “pardon and oblivion,”
and reassumed her government of these people.
The state of Franklin, in 1787-8, was composed of the three original
counties of Washington, Sullivan and Greene, together with four new
counties--Sevier, which covered the same territory it now covers and a
part of what is now Blount; Caswell, which occupied the same section of
country now included in Jefferson; Spencer, which covered Hawkins; and
Wayne, covering Johnson and Carter.
As late as February, 1789, the record in Jonesboro shows the following
entries:
James Allison and James Sevier came into open court and prayed to be
admitted to take the benefit of the act of pardon and oblivion by
taking the oath provided by law, which was deferred till tomorrow for
want of the acts of the General Assembly.
On the next day the following entry was made:
James Sevier, James Allison and Francis Baker, persons _who had
withdrawn their allegiance_ [from North Carolina] came into open
court, and availed themselves of the act of pardon and oblivion by
taking the oaths prescribed by law.
At the February term, 1788, of the court, the following order was made
and entered of record:
Ordered by the Court that Johnathan Pugh Esqr, Sheriff of Washington
County, Take into custody the County court docket of said county,
supposed to be in the possession of John Sevier Esqr, And the same
records bring from him or any other person or persons, in whose
possession they are now, or hereafter shall be, and the same return to
the Court or some succeeding court for said county.
At the May term, 1788, this order was made:
Ordered by the court that the Sheriff of this County demand the public
records of this County from John Sevier, former clerk of the court.
The records referred to were lost, or remained in the cave where they
were hidden.
All opposition to North Carolina authority was now virtually withdrawn,
but the people west of the Alleghanies worked quietly for a separation
and a new state.
North Carolina passed a second cession act, under the provisions
of which, February 25, 1790, Samuel Johnston and Benjamin Hawkins,
Senators in Congress from North Carolina, deeded the territory to the
United States, and the sovereignty of North Carolina over it instantly
expired. It has been aptly said that “the separation was not like that
of a disconsolate mother parting from a beloved daughter, but rather
like that when Abraham said to Lot, ‘Separate thyself, I pray thee,
from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right;
or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.’”
President Washington appointed William Blount Governor of the
territory, August 7, 1790. On the 10th day of the following October,
Governor Blount organized the territorial government, at the house
of Mr. Cobb, in Sullivan county, on the north side of Watauga river,
since known as the Massengale farm, above and opposite where Austin
Springs are. The population of the territory in July, 1791, was
36,043, including 3,417 slaves. The whole population of the Cumberland
settlement at that time was 7,042.
November 5, 1791, the second printing press introduced in the “New
World west of the Alleghanies” was set up, at Rogersville, by Mr.
George Roulstone.
The people who made it possible for Tennessee to have a centennial were
a wonderful people. Within a period of about fifteen years, they were
engaged in three revolutions; participated in organizing and lived
under five different governments; established and administered the
first free and independent government in America; founded the first
church and the first college in the southwest; put in operation the
second newspaper in the “New World west of the Alleghanies;” met and
fought the British in half a dozen battles, from King’s Mountain to
the gates of Charleston, gaining a victory in every battle; held in
check, beat back and finally expelled from the country four of the most
powerful tribes of Indian warriors in America; and left Tennesseans
their fame as a heritage, and a commonwealth of which it is their
privilege to be proud.
These are the people among whom Andrew Jackson settled and began
life, and from whose character, example and achievements he must have
received some little degree of inspiration.
Passing from the scene of their toil and trials, their struggles and
dangers, from war with the savage and war with the civilized, let us
devote a little time to further examination into their character, as
revealed in the judicial records made and left by them.
FOOTNOTES:
[B] The almanac-groundhog and goose-bone theories were adopted
by a later and wiser generation.