Franklin Township (part 7 of 19)

In the meantime Greene received information, through General La Fayette, that Lord Gomwallis's movements indicated an intention of retreating from the pursuit of the allied army on the Chesapeake southwardly. This intention was supported by the simultaneous rising of all the royalists in the different sections of the South. They began immediately to assemble and renew their ravages, and to harass tfie whigs in every quarter. At this crisis, and on the sixteenth of September, General Greene wrote to Col. Sevier, informing him of the posture of affairs near Yorktown, and of the suspicions which were entertained that Lord Comwallis would endeavour to escape by marching back through North-Carolina to Charleston ; to prevent which. General Greene begged that the colonel would bring as large a body of riflemen as he could, and with as much expedition as was possible, and march them to Charlotte. Sevier immediately raised two hundred mounted riflemen in Washington eonnty, and marched with them across the mountain. The well liffected in South-Carolina were suffering extremely by the eruelties which the tories were inflicting ugon them. Sevier joined hn forces to those of General Marion, on the

Santee, at Davis^s Ferry, and contributed macli to keep np resistance to the enemy ; to raise the spirits of those 'who were friendly to the American caase, and to affotd protection to those who were in danger from the infuriated royalists.

Lord Cornwallis being now besieged in Ycwrktown, and his retreat through Noith-Carolina being no longer apprehended, General Greene, with a view of stopping the depredations of the enemy, who were now committing their r»- vages in St. Stephen's Parish, endeavoured to collect a foree sufficient to drive them into Charleston, and only awaited lor the arrival of the mountain men before he began his open^ tions.

Col. Shelby had also been called upon by Greene^ to bring his regiment to his relief in intercepting Cornwallis, should he effect his escape from the blockade by the French fleet in the Chesapeake bay, and attempt a retreat through the Care- Unas. His lordship's surrender took place on the nineteeatk of October, and the riflemen of Shelby were also attached to Gen« Marion's command below on the Santeie. To this both Shelby and Sevier consented with some reluctance- Their men were called out upon a pressing emergency, whic^ no longer existed. They had been, moreover, enrolled only for sixty days. Much of that time had already expired, and the contemplated service under Afarion would take thea still further from their distant homes. Besides, Shelby was a member of the General Assembly of North-Carolina, from Sullivan county, and its session at Salem took place early in December. Notwithstadding these considerations, they promptly joined Marion early in November, with five hundred mounted riflemen. With these were associated, under the command of the same distinguished leader, the forces of Col. Mayhem and Col. Horry. Together they formed a most efficient corps of cavalry, Vnoun ted infantry and riflemen.

The enemy, at that time under General Stewart, lay at a place called Ferguson's Swamp, on the great road leading to Charleston. General Marion, some weeks after the arrival of the mountain men at his camp, received information that several hundred Hessians, at a British post near Monk's Corner, eight or ten miles below the enemy's main army.

And Capturb A British Post. 255

were in a state of mutiny, and would surrender the post to any considerable American force that might appear before it^ and he soon determined to send a detachment to surprise it. Sevier and Shelby solicited a command in the detachment. Marion moved down eight or ten miles, and crossed over to the south side of the Santee River, from whence he sent a detachment of five or six hundred men to surprise the post, the command of which was given to Col. Mayhem, of the South-Carolina dragoons. The detachment consisted of parts of the regiments of Sevier and Shelby, one hundred and eighty of Mayhem's dragoons, and twenty or thirty lowland militia. The line of march was taken up early in the morning, and the detachment marched fastly through the woods, crossing the main Charleston road, leaving the enemy's main army three or four miles to the left ; and on the evaping of the second day, struck the road again leading to Charleston, about two miles below the post which it was intended to surprise. The men lay all night upon their arms across the road, so as to intercept the Hessians in case the enemy had got notice of the approach of the Americans, and had ordered them to Charleston before morning. In the eonrse of the night, an orderly sergeant from the main British army rode in^ among the riflemen and was taken prisoner. No material paper was found upon him that night (which was very dark) before he made his escape, except some returns, which contained the strength of the enemy's main army, and their number on the sick list, which was i^ery great As soon as daylight appeared, the detachment advanced to the British post. Col. Mayhem sent in a confidential individual to demand an immediate surrender of the garrison, who returned in a few minutes, and reported that the oflicer commanding would defend the post to the last extremity. Col. Shelby immediately proposed to Mayhem that he would go in himself and make another eflx)rt to obtain a surrender. This was readily assented to. On his approach to the garrison, Shelby declared to the commander that if he was so mad as to sufier the post to be stormed, he might rest assured that every soul within should be put to the sword, for there were several hundred mountain men at hand, who would soon be in with their tomahawks upon them. The, officer then inquired of Shelby whether they had any artillery. To which he replied, **we have gons that will blow you to atoms in a minate." Upon which the British officer said, ^ I suppose I must surrender,** and immediately thmw open the gate, whieh Mayhem saw and advanced up quiokly with the detachment It was not until this moment, that another strong British post was seen, five or six hundred yards eastof the xme which had surrendered. It had been built to coves a landing on Cooper River. It was a sttoiig brick house, erected at a very early period, and known to have been calculated for defence as well as comfort. This had been enclosed by a strong abbati% and being on tlie route from Charleston to Monk*s Comer, had been used . hy the enemy as a stage for their troc^ and convoys, in pasring from post to post It was sufficiently eapaeious to ootov « party of considerable magnitude, and was unassaUablo by cavalry, the only force from which stidden inooniawi oould be apprehended.* The garrison .consisted of ahoot one hundred soldiers and forty or -fifty dragoons. Tliese immediately marched out as if intending a charge iq[N>a llie riflemen. These, however, stood firm and prepared to meet them. A party of the horsemen were ordered to dismount, and approaching the abbatis, appear and act as infantry, while the residue of that corps, headed by the cavalry, advanced boldly into the field and demanded a surrender. The idea of resistance was abandoned, and the place surrendered at discretion. One hundred and fifty prisoners were taken, all of whom were able to have fought fVom the windows of the large brick building and from the abbatis. Three hundred stand of arms were also captured, besides many stores of great value. Ninety of the prisoners were carried ofi* on horseback behind the mounted men - the officers and such of the garrison as were unable to march to Marion's camp,, sixty miles ofi*, were paroled. The house, with its contents and the abbatis, were consumed.

Americans and rescue their prisoners. But they arrived at Marion's camp about three o'clock the morning following. Before sunrise, it was announced in camp that the whole British army was in the old field, three miles off, at. the outer end of the causeway, which led into the camp. Sevier and Shelby were immediately ordered out, with their regiments, to attack the enemy if he approached the swamp, and to retreat at their own discretion. But, receiving information that Marion was reinforced with a large body of riflemen from the West, the enemy retreated, in great disorder, nearly to the gates of Charleston.* t

About the 28th of November, Col. Shelby obtained leave of absence from the army, for the purpose of attending the approaching session of the Legislature of North-Carolina, of which he was a member. It met early in December, at Salem, nearly four hundred miles from the then seat of war. He had remained in camp to the last minute that would permit his arrival at the seat of government at the commencement of the session. Laying down the sword, and relinqaishing the duties of a commander, he left the camp of Marion to enter another field of service and assume the fonctions of a legislator.

SAtB in South-Carolina. A detachment of mounted infantry had been at Monk's Corner to watch the motions of tho enemy, who, by means of Cooper River, had free access, in their boats and gallies, to that neighbourhood. To destroy this detachment, in the absence of Marion, a mce of three hundred and fifty men were transported, by water, from Oharleaton. The unexpected return of Marion enabled him, partly, to defeat their enterprise. His force did not equal that which was arrayed agunst him, but he, nevertheless, resolved upon attacking it. In order to detain tho enemy, he despatched Colonels Richardson and Sevierf and a part of Mayhem's horse, with orders to throw themselves in front of the British and engage them until he should come up with tho main body. The order was gallantly executed. Tho British advance was

* The details of this caippaign of the riflemen to South-Carolina, are taken ftom Shelby's Narrative, now before mo. Tliey aro also found in Haywood.

f Tliia was probably Col ValcntiDe Sevier. There is reason to believe that GoL John Sevier was, at this lime, on the frontier or in the Cherokee nation.

In the mcaDtime, elections were held and Governor Ri ledge ooDvened the legislatoro of the Ktale at JaeksoDl] rough, a sniall village about thirtyfive miles from Cbarlt toD. This event, which once more restored the fomis civil government to Soutb-Carolina, after an interrepium nearly two years, took place in January, 1783.f It was m however, till December 14th that Charleston was evacuate But that inte§ini famished little opportunity for milUai adventure or achievement. The emergency that had call) the pioneers of Tennessee from their mountain recesses^ hi ceased to exist, as soon as the common enemy waa driven i the environs of Charleston, and civil government establiahl in South-Carolina. This being accomplished, the riflema returned to their distant homes and were disbanded. The felt a proud consciousness of having performed a patriot] duty, and of having rendered the country some service They bad rendezvoused at the western base of the Apala chian Range - they had ascended its summit, and, precipi tating themselves upon the plains below, had punned tb enemy to the coast of the Atlantic. They bad suffered fron the mountain snow storm and the miasmata of the lov grounds of the Santee and Edisto. Toils and marches anc watches, by night and by day, were cheerfully endured, anii wherever the enemy could be found, his post assaulted o: bis abbatis stormed, the backwoodsman was there, ready, witl his spirited charger, his war whoop and his rifle, to executi the purpose of his mission.

A large number of negroes and a vast amount of otbei property, were taken from Georgia and South-Carolina, am carried away. But to the honour of tlic troops under Sflviei and Shelby, no such captives or property came with them inb the country of their residence; their integrity was as littli impeached as their valour.J They came home enriched by n( spoils, stained with no dishonour ; enriched only by an im peiishable fame, an undying renown and an unquestionabh - SimniB. t Uem. } Uajwood.

claim to the admiration and gratitude of their countrymen and of posterity. This has been accorded to them by a consent aUnost unanimous. The authorities of the states in whose service they were employed, conceded it to them. The officers wbo commanded them, asserted it for them. The commander-in-chief of the southern department, attests its validity by inviting them to a second campaign under his standard. The very impatience of Gen. Greene at their delay in reaching^ his camp at the hour of a perilous conflict, vouches for the value he placed upon their conduct and courage ; and the regret expressed by that oflicer at the retirement of Shelby, is itself an admission that he considered the co-operation of that leader and his regiment, as an essential element in his farther success. In the expression of that regret no censure is even implied. Though the conduct of the riflemen from their rendezvous at Watauga to their return to the frontier, has generally received unqualifled eulogy and approbation, by one historian a single part of it has been censured and a term of reproach used, which shall not stain these pages, by an idle and profane and distasteful repetition of it. The writer holds the memory of these patriot heroes in too grateful veneration, not to repel an imputation upon their high-souled honour, the constancy of their patriotism, and the majesty and steadfastness of their pubHc virtue. The imputation belongs hot to Tennessee ; it contradicts all her past history ; it does violence to her very instincts ; - ^she repudiates, disclaims and disavows it.

The substance of the censure alluded to is, that Shelby and his men returned home before the object of the campaign was accomplished. An injustice, no doubt unintentional, has been thus inflicted. These pages already contain an ample vindication of the mountain men from the imputation. Uude, some of them may have been, - illiterate, many of them doubtless w^re ; but nothing unpatriotic, nothing unmilitary, nothing nnsoldiery, can be imputed to them or their gallant leader. An honest fame belonged to them through life. Let not their graves be desecrated by a posthumous reproach.

of their colonel, Shelby, who had obtained leave 6f absence. Somethings tooj has beep said of the service not being sufficiently active for th^r habits r but reasons such as these, furnish a poor apology for soldiers who, in th^ cause of their country^s liberty, should be well pleased to encounter anjr sort of service which it may be the policy of their commander to impose. Marion had endeavoured to find them sufficient employment. He had approached and defied the enemy, but could neither tempt nor provoke him to leave his encampment. With numbers decidedly inferior, the brave partizan was chagrined to find it impossible to bnng his enemy into the field."*

And so it continued to be afterwards. The enemy never did again enter into the field. Small foraging parties and plundering detachments occasionally presented themselves. But this was not the entertainment to which the mountain men had been invited. Something worthier of their mettle had brought them from their homes. Enterprise, adventure, heroism, was their sentiment - achievement their purpose. Nothing less than to intercept Lord Corn wallis and to capture his army, was at first the object of their expedition* A " poor apology," this disappointment, produced by the surrender at Yorktown, - but yet involving in it nothing little or inglorious.

It will be recollected, too, that the time of their enrolment was for sixty days. More than that period had expired before their return. The southern enemy had been driven from the interior and was retiring within the lines of Charleston and Savannah, from which the commander did not expect to drive him without the co-operation of a naval force. This co-operation was impossible. Civil government, too, was reinstated, and Marion and Mayhem, and other leaders, like Shelby, obtained leave of absence from the camp to assume their legislative functions. Reinforcements, too, from the army at Yorktown, were on their way to the support of Greene. The crisis was safely passed - the tug of the war was over, and the aid of the Western riflemen could be no longer needed in the South. One half of the guns and of the men had been withdrawn from the exposed frontier^ across the moantain. These were now restored to it where their services were wanted. No further help was afterwards reqairAd from abroad. The safety of South-Carolina was left in the keeping of its own citizens. To defame the mountain men for their leaving it, is to insult the native valour of the South, then and afterwards, as it still is, adequate to the achievement of everything but an impossibility.

The results of the campaigns of seventeen hundred and 1Y82 \ ^^S^^y A^^ eighty-one, sensibly affected the measures ( of the British ministry, and rendered the American war unpopular in Great Britain.

On the nineteenth of April, seventeen hundred and eighty- 1788 i ^h'669 Peace was proclaimed in the American army, ( by the commander-in-chief, George Washington, pTeoisely eight years from the first day of the effusion of blood at Lexington. For more than that length of time the pioneers of Tennessee had been engaged in incessant war. On the tenth of October, seventeen hundred and seventy-four, their youthful heroes, Shelby and Sevier, flushed their maiden swords at the battle of Kenhawa, and with little intermission thereafter, were constantly engaged in guarding the settlements or attacking and invading the savage enemy. The gallant and patriotic participation of the mountain men in the revolutionary struggle, under the same men, now become leaders, has been just related. To preserve the chain of these transactions unbroken, it has been found necessary to depart from the chronological order of events, which has been generally pursued in these annals. To that order we again return.

On the return march of the army from King^s Mountain, 1780 i Sevier, apprehending an outbreak from the Cherokees I in the absence from the frontier of so many men and gans, detached Capt. Russell home, as soon as the riflemen with the prisoners had safely crossed the Catawba. Russell returned by a rapid march, and found that Sevier's apprehensions were well founded. Two traders, Thomas and Harlin, brought information from the Cherokee towns that a large body of Indians were on the march to assail the frontier.

The men oomposiDg Capt. Russell's command continued their organization. Col. Sevier soon after, with his viotoriouB companions in arms, reached their homes in good time to repel the savage invaders. Without a day's rest bb set on foot another expedition.

Whilst the volunteers were being enrolled and equipped in sufficient numbers for the magnitude of the campaign he contemplated, Sevier put himself at the head of about one hundred men, principally of Captain Russell's and Captain Guess's companies, with whom he set out in advance of the other troops. The second night this party camped upon Long Creek. Captain Guess was here sent forward with a small body of men to make discovery. On ascending a slight hill, they found themselves witblti forty yards of a large Indian force, before they discovered it. They fired from their horses and retreated to Sevier's camp. The Indians also fired, but without efiect. Sevier prepared his command to receive a night attack. Before day» Captain Pruett reinforced him after a rapid march, with about seventy men. Thus reinforced, Sevier next morning pursued his marcb» expecting every minute to meet the enemy. When they came to the point at which the spies had met and fired upon the Indians, they found traces of a large body of them. They had, in their hasty retreat, left one warrior who had been killed the evening before by the spies. The pursuit was continued vigorously by the troops, who crossed French Broad at the Big Island and encamped on Boyd's Creek. The next day, early in the morning, the advance guard under the command of Captain Stinson, continued the march, and at the distance of three miles found the encampment of the enemy and their fires still burning. A reinforcement was immediately ordered to the front, and the guard was directed if it came up with the Indians, to fire upon them and retreat, and thus draw them on. Three-quarters of a mile from their camp, the enemy fired upon the advance from an ambuscade. It returned the fire and retreated, and, as had been anticipated, was pursued by the enemy till it joined the main body. This was formed into three divisions : the centre commanded by Col. John Sevier, the right wing by Major Jesse Walton, and the left by Major Jonathan Tipton. Orders were given that as soon as the enemy should approach the front, the right wing should wheel to the left, and the left wing to the right, and thus enclose them. In this order were the troops arranged when they met the Indians at the Cedar Spring, who rushed forward after the guard with great rapidity, till checked by the opposition of the main body. Major Walton with the right wing wheeled briskly to the left, and performed the order which he was to execute with precise accuracy. But the left wing moved to the right with less celerity, and when the centre jfired upon the Indians, doing immense execution, the latter retreated through the unoccupied space left open between the extremities of the right and left wings, and running into a swamp, escaped the destruction which otherwise seemed ready to involve them. The victory was decisive. The loss of the enemy amounted to twenty-eight killed on the ground, and very many wounded, who got oif without being taken. On the side of Sevier's troops not a man was even wounded. The victorious little army then returned to the Big Island - afterwards called Sevier's Island - and waited there the arrival of reinforcements that promised to follow..

This prompt collection of troops, and rapid expedition of Sevier, saved the frontier from a bloody invasion. Had he been more tardy, the Indians would have reached the settlements, scattered themselves along the extended border, driven them into stations, or perhaps massacred them in their cabins and fields. Their force was understood to be large and to be well armed.

Another narrative of this engagement gives further details : The Indians had formed in a half-moon, and lay concealed in the grass. Had their stratagem not been discovered, their position, and the shape of the ground, would have enabled ibem to enclose and overcome the horsemen. Lieutenant Lane and John Ward had dismounted for the fight, when Sevier, having noticed the semi-circular position of the In« dians, ordered a halt, with the purpose of engaging the two extremes of the Indian line, and keeping up the action until the other part of his troops could come up. Lane and his comrade, Ward, remounted and fell back upon Sevier without being hurt, though fired at by several warriors near them. A brisk fire was, for a short time, kept up by Sevier's party and the nearest Indians. The troops behind, hearing the first fire, had quickened their pace and were coming in sight. James Roddy, with about twenty men, quickly came up, and soon after the main body of the troops. The Indians noticed this reinforcement and closed their lines. Sevier immediately ordered the charge, which would have been still more fatal, but that the pursuit led through a swampy branch, which impeded the progress of the horsemen. In the charge, Sevier was in close pursuit of a warrior, whO| finding that he would be overtaken, turned and fired at him. The bullet cut the hair of his temple without doing further injury. Sevier then spurred his horse forward and attempted to kill the Indian with his sword, having emptied his pistols in the first moment of the charge. The warrior parried the licks from the sword with his empty gun. The conflict was becoming doubtful between the two combatants thus engaged, when one of the soldiers, rather ungallantly, came up, shot the warrior, and decided the combat in favour of his commander. The horse of Adam Sherrill threw his rider, and, in the fall, some of his ribs were broken. An Indian sprang upon him with his tomahawk drawn. When in the act of striking, a ball from a comrade's rifie brought him to the ground, and Sherrill escaped. After a short pursuit, the Indians dispersed into the adjoining highlands and knolls, where the cavalry could not pursue them. Of the whites not one was killed, and but three seriously wounded. This battle of Boyd's Creek has always been considered

1780 \ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ fought battles in the border war of ( Tennessee. Major Tipton was severely wounded. Besides the ofiicers and men already mentioned as having participated in it, there were Capt. Landon Carter, James Sevier, the son, and Abraham Sevier, the brother, of John Sevier, Thomas Gist, Abel Pearson, James Hubbard, Major Benj. Sharp, Captain Saml. Handly, Col. Jacob Brown, Jere-

Sevier remained but a few days at his eneampment on French Broad» till he was joined by Colonel Arthur Campbell, with his regiment from Virginia, and Major Martin, with his troops from Sullivan county. The army consisted of seven hundred mounted men. They crossed Little Tennessee, three miles below Chota, since the residence of David Russell. The main body of the Indians, having notice of their approach, lay in wait for them at the principal ford, a mile below Chota. The imposing array of the cavalry, and the fact of their crossing at the lower ford, so disconeerted the Indians, that no attack was made by them, nor any attempt made to hinder the crossing. Ascending the opposite bank, the horsemen saw a large party of Indians on a neighbouring eminence, watching their movements. These, on the approach of the troops, retreated hastily, and escaped. They then pushed up to Chota. A detachment of sixty men, under command of Robert Campbell, immediately set off to reduce Chilhowee, eight' miles above, on the same river. It was found deserted. They burned it. The Indians were seen on the opposite shore, but beyond the reach of their rifles. They returned, without loss, to the army. Every town between Tennessee and Hiwassee was reduced. to ashes, the Indians flying before the troops. Near to Hiwassep, after it was burned, an Indian warrior was surprised and captured. By him a message was sent to the Cherokees, proposing terms of peace. But one white man was killed ^n this expedition - Captain Elliott, of Sullivan. He was buried in an Indian hut at Tellico, which was burned over hiB ^ave, to prevent the Indians from finding and violating it.

At Tellico, the army was met by Watts and Noon Day, who proposed terms of peace, which were accepted as to the villages contiguous. Tellico was then a small town of thirty or forty houses, built on forks and poles and covered with bark. They did not destroy it. Watts and Noon Day aecorapanied and piloted the army. The Indians made no hostile demonstration till the army had crossed Hiwassee, when it became necessary to place out sentinels aroand their camps. Hiwassee town was found evacuated, and the troops saw but a single Indian warrior, who was placed npon the summit of an adjoining ridge, there to beat a drum and giro otiier signals to the Indians secreted in hearing of him. The spies stole upon and shot him. The troops then continaed their march southwardly till they came near the Chickamauga or Look Out Towns, when they encamped and next day marched iilto the towns. The warriors had deserted them. The only persons found there were a Captain Rogers, four negroes, and some Indian women and children. These were taken prisoners. The warriors were dispirited by the vigorous defence of Sevier at the commencement of the campaign, and never ventured again to meet him, but secreted themselves in the fastnesses around Chtckamauga. The troops killed all the cattle and hogs which could be found ; burnt many of the towns and villages, and spread over the face of the country a general devastation, from which the Indians could not recover for several years.*'

The march was continued so low down Coosa as to reach the region of the long-leafed pine and cypress swamps. Here they began an indiscriminate destruction of towns, houses, grain and stock. The Indians fled precipitately. A few of. .them were killed and captured. In one of the villages a well dressed white man was found, with papers in his possession showing that he was a British agent. Attempting to escape, he was shot and left unburied. The army here turned to the left, scouted among the hills, and turned their faces homeward, killing and capturing several Indians, and devastating their country. Returning as far as Chota, the con^manders here held a council with a large body of the Cherokees, which lasted two days. Hanging Maw made a free exchange of prisoners, whom he had brought with him had be.en captured on Roane's Creek, were exchanged. They were nearly naked, and other ways looked like Indians. They had been well treated, though closely watched during their captivity. They were frantic with joy at their restoration.

Vbootiatiom At Ohota

A peace was agreed upon, and the army crossing near the mouth of Nine Mile, returned home. They found that set^ tiers had followed the route pursued by the army as low as French Broad, and at every spring had begun to erect their cabins.'

Gol. Arthur Campbell communicated to Governor Jefferson a further account of this expedition, and of the treaty of peace. **0n the 25th, Major Martin went with a detachment to discover the route by which the enemy were flying off. He surprised a party of the enemy, took one scalp and seventeen horses loaded with clothing, skins and household furniture. He discovered that most of the fugitives were making towards Tellico and the Hiwassee. On the 26th, Major Tipton was detached with one hundred and fifty mounted infantry, with orders to cross the river, dislodge the enemy on that side, and destroy the town of Telassee. At the same time Major Gilbert Christian, with a like number of foot, were to patrol the hills south of Chilhowee, and burn the remaining part of that town. This was effected, three Indians being killed and nine taken prisoners."

-* Ghdbfs akd Warriors - ^We came into your country to fight your Toanff men. We have killed many of them and destroyed your towns. Yoa know you begun the war by listening to the bad counsels of the King of England, and the falsehoods told you by his agents. We are now satbfied with what is done, as it may convince your nation that we can distress you much at any time, when you are so foolish as to engage in war against us. If you desire peace, as we understand you do, we, out of pity to your women and children, are disposed to treat with you on that subject.

** We therefore send you this by one of your young men, who is our prisoner, to tell you, if you are disposed to make peace, six of your head men mmt come to our agent. Major Martin, at the Great Island, within two mooDs, so as to give him time to meet them with a flag-guard, on Holston River, at the boundary line. To the wives and children of those men of your nation who protested against the war, if they are willing to take refuge at the Great Island until peace is restored, we will give a supply of provisions to keep them alive.

*- Warriors, listen attentively ! - If we receive no answer to this message, until the time already mentioned expires, we shall then conclude that yoa intend to continue to be our enemies. We will then be compelled to Mud another strong force into your country, that will come prepared to

It was not till the ensuing year that a treaty could be concluded under a Commission appointed by General Greene, as commander of the southern department, Notwithstanding the overtures of the Indians sent by Col. Campbell, of a disposition to treat and the prompt measures adopted by General Greene to negotiate with them, and the. severe punishment that had been so recently inflicted upon the Cherokees, the deep passion for war and glory which constantly agitates the bosom of the savage, continued to excite to further aggression and hostility. The emissaries of England, in thepei^ sons of refugee tories, were in the Indian villages, and stimn*- lated to its highest point their natural thirst for blood. It was the policy of the British commander, then upon the sources of the Yadkin, to instigate the Cherokees to renewed warfare upon the western frontier, so as to prevent the hardy inhabitants from crossing the mountain again and forcing him to a second retreat. This policy succeeded but too well, and occasioned the necessity of collecting troops and establishing garrisons on the frontier.

But stationed troops were a most inadequate defence. The , < Indians still prowled around the more remote settle- ( ments, and in an unguarded moment committed murder and theft. Col. Sevier suspected that the perpetrators of this mischief came from some hostile towns in the mountain gorges, where his troops had never yet penetrated. He collected together, in March of this year, one hundred and thirty men in the Greasy Cove, and with them he marched against the Middle settlements of the Cherokees. He entered and took by surprise the town of Tuckasejah, on the head waters of the Little Tennessee. Fifty warriors were slain and fifty women and children taken prisoners. In that vicinity the troops under Sevier burnt fifteen or t\yenty towns and all the granaries of corn they could find. It was a hard and disagreeable necessity that led to the adoption of these apparently cruel measures.

Major Martin 8C0Ur8 Clinch

Still, nothing less would keep the savages in their towns, or prevent more cruel massacres of the whites upon the frontier. Sevier had but one man killed at Tuckasejah, and but one "wounded, and he recovered. Ten of the prisoners resided with Colonel Sevier three years, and were treated with humanity and kindness. They were afterwards delivered to Col. Martin, and by him restored to their own nation.

David McNabb was one of the captains in this expedition. The command went up Cane Creek, and crossed Ivy and Swannanoa. Isaac Thomas, an old Indian trader, was their pilot. The mountains were so steep that the men had to dismount and lead their horses. Before an exchange of prisoners was effected, some of the Cherokee women and children made their escape. ' This campaign lasted twenty-nine days, and 'was carried on over a mountainous section of country never before travelled by any of the settlers, and scarcely ever passed through, even by traders and hunters. The Indians of the Middle towns were surprised at this unexpected invasion of Sevier - were pQ,pic stricken and made little resistance.

April 24. - ^Under this date, Joseph Martin writes from Long i Island to Col. Sevier that he had returned lately with I his command of sixty-five men from an expedition on Clinch : that he saw evidences of Indians all through his route: had pursued them, but had not had any engagement. On his return he turned south and went across Clinch, within thirty miles of Chota, then turned up Holston and returned home. He went out with the hope of finding the camp or town of the Hanging Maw, but made no discovery that led to it.

During the summer of this year, a party of Cherokees invaded the settlements then forming on Indian Creek. Colonel Sevier again raised troops to drive them off. With about one hundred men he marched from Washington county, crossed Nollichucky, and proceeded south of that river to what has flince been known as the War Ford, near the present town of New Port. Crossing French Broad at that place, and also Big Pigeon at the War Ford, he fell unexpectedly upon the trail of the Indians, surrounded their camp, and by a sudden Are killed seventeen of them. The rest fled and escaped.

Scarcely were these troops disbanded when a letter received by CoL Sevier from Gen. Greene, dated S^t. 16th»bu1 not received till several weeks after, urging him to come tohis standard with his riflemen, for the purpose of intercepting' Lord Cornwallis, should be attempt a retreat through the Garolinas to Charleston. That enterprising officer had been since June, of 1780, constantly in the field with his regiment, in various expeditions against the British, the loyalists and the Indians, and their services were still needed at home to give protection to the feeble settlements ; but he promptly complied with the request of the southern commander, and as has been elsewhere nletrrated, repaired to his camp aboot the last of October, and remained with Marion on the Santee till the enemy were driven to the lines of Charleston ; and the period for which his riflemen were enrolled having expired, he returned 'to Watauga and there disbanded his regiment. This was early in January of 1782.

Immigrants followed close upon the rear of the army, and began to form settlements along the route pursued by it south of French Broad. The Cherokees complained of this intrusion, which brought from Governor Martin the following :

'' Sir : I am distressed with the repeated complaiDts of the Indians respecting the daily intrusions of our people on their lands beyond the French Broad River. I beg you, sir, to prevent the injuries these savages justly complain of, who are constantly imploring the protection of the state and appealing to its justice in vain. By interposing your influence on these, our unruly citizens, I think will have sufficient weighty without going into extremities disgraceful to them and disagreeable to the state. You will, therefore, please to warn these intruders off the lands reserved for the Indians by the late act of the Assembly, that ihejr remove immediately, at least by the middle of March, otherwise they will be drove off. If you find them still refractory at the above time, you will draw forth a body of your militia on horseback, and pull down their cabins, and drive them off, laying aside every consideration of their entreaties to the contrary. You will please to give me the earliest information of your proceedings. The Indian goods are not yet arrived from Philadelphia, tnrough the inclemency of the late season ; as soon as a and he made us ; we are all his children, and we hope our elder lier will take pity on ns, and not take our lands from us that our ftther gave us, because he is stronger than we are. We are the first people that ever lived on this land ; it is ours, and why will our elder Momer take it from us ? It is true, some time past, the people over the

Sat water persuaded some of our young men to do some mischief to our er brother, which our principal men wero sorry for. But you our elder brothers come to our towns and took satisfaction, and then sent ferns to come and treat with you, which we did. Then our elder hiofher promised to have the line run between us agreeable to the first tieafjf and all that should be found over the line should be moved off. Bui it is not done yet. We have done nothing to offend our elder brother since the last treaty, and why should our elder brother want to qoarrel with us 9 We have sent to the Governor of Virginia on the same aabgect We hope that between you both, you will take pity on your jomiger brother, and send Colonel Sevier, who is a good man, to have all jonr people moved off our land. I should say a great deal more, but onr friend. Colonel Martin, knows all our grievances, and he can inform yoii. A string.^

The old Tassel of Chota did not represent the feelings of i ^^^ great body of the Cherokees, who still retained ( their deep-seated animosities against the whites, and ia September, of this year, were hurried, by a revengeful spirit, against the frontiers. The Chickamauga Indians were the least placable of the Cherokee nation, and, imparting their hostile feelings to some of the Lower Towns, and also to some of the Creeks, they united together and again begai their work of murder and depredation upon the more ex - 2 posed neighbourhoods. Some white men were killed an< much property stolen. Colonel Sevier immediately summoned to his standard a hundred men from Washingtoi county, and was joined by Colonel Anderson, with nearly many volunteers, from Sullivan. These troops rendezvoosed^E at the Big Island, on French Broad, and from that placets marched towards the towns of the enemy. The ofiScers in ^M this expedition were Jonathan Tipton and James Hubbard, majors; and Mr. Green and others, captains. The night after they left the Big Island, they camped upon Elyah* Creek, at a place now known as McTeer's Mills. They crossed Little River the second day, and camped upon Nine- Mile Creek. The third day they crossed the Tennessee River at Citico, and there held a council with the friendly Indians, at which was present the Hanging Maw. They engaged to continue the existing peace. Here, also, John Watts, who afterwards became a distinguished chief in his tribe, was engaged to accompany the expedition, to effect^ by friendly negotiation, an arrangement for peace with the entire nation. On the fifth day they crossed the Tellico, on the Hiwassee trace. On the sixth day they encamped on the Hiwassee River, above what is now called '* The former Agency." Crossing that stream, on the seventh day, they encamped at an Indian town upon the opposite bank. There they entered upon the territory of the hostile Indians. Thence they marched, immediately, against Vann's Towns, and reduced them to ashes. Thencie to Bull Town, on the head of Chickamauga Creek. The troops destroyed the town, and marched, thirty miles, to Coosa River. Near a village, on that stream, they killed a white man, who called himself Clements. In his possession were found papers which showed that he had been a British sergeant ; he was then living with an Indian woman, Nancy Coody, and, it was believed, had instigated the warriors of her town to maintain their hostile attitude. Bean, one of the soldiers, shot him dead. The troops then marched to Spring Frog Town,

'thence up Coosa to Estanaula, which they destroyed. After killing all the warriors they could find, and burning their villages, the troops returned, by the Old Hiwassee Towns, to Chota, on the Tennessee River. Here another council was held with the friendly Indians, and the troops returned home by the same route they had gone.*

Daring the infancy of the settlements on Nollichucky, com had become scarce, and availing themselves of a short sus^ pension of hostilities, Jeremiah Jack and William Rankin, of Greene county, descended the river in a canoe, for the purpose of bartering with the Indians for corn. They reached Coiatee without interruption. The warriors of that place refoaed to exchange or sell the corn, and manifested other signs of suspicion, if not of open enmity. They entered the canoe and lifted up some wearing apparel lying in it, and which covered their rifles. This discovery increased the unwillingness of the Indians to tradcy'^and they began to show a disposition to oflTer violence to their white visitants. The beloved woman, Nancy Ward, was happily present, ani was wMe by her commanding influence to appease their wrath, and to bring about friendly feelings between the parties. The little Indians were soon clad in the home made vestments brought by the traders - the canoe was filled with corn, and the white men started on their return voyage well pleased ^th the exchange they had made, and especially with the Idmd offices of the beloved woman.

On their return, the white men landed and camped one night, a mile above the mouth of French Broad, on the north bank of the little sluice of that river. Mr. Jack was so well pleased with the place, that he afterwards selected it as his future residence, and actually settled and improved it on his emigration to the present Knox county, in 1787.

The district of Salisbury, by Act of Assembly, was divided, and the counties of Berke, Wilkes, Rutherford, Lincoln, Washington and Sullivan, erected into the district of Morgan.

boro*, for Washington and Sullivan counties. This was done' on account of '' the extensive mountains that lie desolate between the inhabited parts of Washington, and the inhabited parts of Berke counties.**

** At a Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery, for the counties of Washington and Sullivan, begun and held on the 1 5th of August, 1782. Present, the Hon. Spruce McCay, Esq. Waightstill Avery, Esq., was appointed Attorney for the State, and John Sevier, Clerk,*'

The peace procured by the several campaigns already mentioned, was momentarily interrupted by the conduct of James Hubbard, and a comrade no less wicked and reckless. They were shooting at a mark with two Indians. During the shooting one of the warriors was killed - the other escaped and fled to the nation. It was believed that Hubbard had killed the Indian designedly, and that a border war would be the consequence. The settlers assembled together at Henry*s, near the mouth of Dumplin, and there built a station. A half breed passing through the neighbourhood, was requested to procure a friendly conference between his exasperated countrymen and the settlers. The conference was held at Gist*s, now Underwood's. Six or eight Cherokees attended there, having crossed the river at Henry's. Soon after their arrival, Hubbard and a gang of mischievous associates came in. They had been way-laying the Indians on the other side of French Broad, and having missed them, followed on to Gist's. For fear of further mischief, the Indians were kept in the centre of the white men in attendance. Hubbard, desirous of another outbreak, slipped up to one of the Indians and whispered to him to run, as the whites intended to kill them. Captain James White told him to remain and they would protect them. Thus reassured, the Indians remained - the conference was held - the difficulty was satisfactorily adjusted and peace prolonged.

leases, purchases and treaties, from the Cherokees, had uniformly been small. The wisdom of this policy was seen in every step in the growth and enlargement of the frontier settlements. The lease to Robertson, of the Watauga colony, confined that infant settlement to a limited area, which took at first, and retained for some time afterwards, a compact form, that favoured defence and gave an easier protection from Indian aggression. The same may be said of other leases and purchases. Had relinquishments of larger extent of territory been obtained, the adventurous disposition of the settlers would have led them so far into the wilderness, and spread them over so large a section of country, as to have deprived them of mutual protection in times of war and danger. The first ten years of its existence, the yonng community west of the mountain maintained a compact form, and could assume a defensive attitude upon any alarm. Its gradual expansion served also to quiet Indian jealousy of encroachment from the whites. But, almost imperceptibly, the seed of civilization had been planted, was firmly fixed in the soil, was germinating under saecessful culture, was producing its fruits of permanent society and established government. Its eradication was impossible. Still, it was found necessary to restrain the too rapid expansion of the frontier. The General Assembly of North-Carolina deemed it inexpedient to continue the Land Office open, and, accordingly, in June, of J 781, closed it. It was not opened again, till after the end of the revolutionary war. In May, of 1783, the Assembly opened an office for the sale of western lands, for the purpose of paying the arrears then due the officers and soldiers of that part of the eontinental line which was raised in North-Carolina, and of extinguishing her part of the national debt. Without any previous consultation with the Indians, the Assembly enlarged the western boundary -

** Beginning on the line which divided that state from Virginia, at a point due north of the mouth of Cioud*s Creek ; running thence west to the Miasinippi ; thence down the MiMissippi to the thirtj-fifth degree of north latitude ; thence due east, until it strikes the Apalachian Mountlini ; thence with the Apalachian Mountains to the ridge that divides the wsten of Frendi Broad River and the waters of NoUichucky River,

-nd with that nige, until it strikes the line described in the set of 11 oommonly called llrown's Line, and nitb that line and Uioaa Mfi vater courses to the beginning."

" Beginning at tha TennewM, where the sonthem boundary of Koi Carolina intersects the pame, nearest to the Chickamauga Towm> ; tbe np the middle of the Tennessee and Rolaton to the middle of Frei Broad River, which line;* arc not to include anv island or islands in i river, to the mouth of Bigl^gbon River; thence np the lameto tliebi thereof; tbence along the dividing ridge between the waters of I^ 'Bivei and TuckasejVi River, to tbo southern boundair of this state.'

The Assembly of North-Carolina took into considerati the claim set up by Henderson and company, under I Transylvania purchase. It was considered that the compa was entitled to a handsome remuneration for their expeni in holding the treaty and buying the territory, and an i was accordingly passed granting to Richard Henderson a his associates two hundred thousand acres of land, to be li off in one survey, and with the following boundaries. "Beg: ning at the Old Indian Tower, in Powell's Valley, runni down Powell's River, not less than four miles in width, one or both sides thereof to the junction of PovvelTs a Clinch Rivers ; then down Clinch River, on one or both sidi not less than twelve miles in width, for the complement two hundred thousand acres." Thenceforward all dout were removed as to the right of the state to grant the otb lands on tbe western waters, which were contained with the bounds specified in the Indian deeds to the company.

At the same session, an Act was pafiscd authorizing tl governor to hold a treaty with the Chickamauga and Ovc hill Cherokees, and also with those of the Middle and Valli settlement, at the Long Island. Joseph Martin is appoint by the same Act, agent. It is made his duty to visit the I dian country once in six months, deliver the governor's mc sages and receive the talks of the Indians, record them inh Journal, etc.

In order that all dealing and intercourse with the Cher keea should he carried on in tbe most friendly and aprig manner, it was fardier provided that no one but "men of tl

Daring the same session of the Assembly, the county of i Washington was again divided, and a new county ( erected, which was called Greene, in honour of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, under whose general command many of the western riflemen had acted their part in the Revolution, and whose valour and skill had done so much in establishing the Independence of the United States.

** On the third Monday in August, the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, for Greene county, met at the house of Mr. Robert Carr. Present, Joseph Hardin, John Newman, George Doherty,- James Houston, Amos Bird, and Asahel Rawlings, Esqs. ; Daniel Kennedy wa$ elected Clerk, and James Wilson, Sheriflf; William Cocke, Esq., Attorney for the State ; Joseph Hardin, Junr., Entry-Taker ; Isaac Taylor, Surveyor; Richard Wood, Register. ***

Jeflferson county, as known at present, received its first settlers in this year. These were Robert McFarland, Alexander Outlaw, Thomas Jarnagin, James Hill, Wesley White, James Randolph, Joseph Copeland, Robert Gentry and James Hubbard. The first of these made a crop in 1782, at the bend of Chucky, and the next year moved his family to that place. Capt Jarnagin settled four miles above the mouth of Chucky, on the north side ; James Hill, a mile lower down ; Wesley White, immediately opposite Taylor's Bend ; Robert Gentry, four miles above Dandridge ; Joseph Copeland settled this year south of the French Broad, seven miles above Dandridge.

The settlements had reached as far as Long Creek, in the 1784 \ present Jefierson county, as at this session of the ( court, '^ Thomas Jarnagin hath leave to build a mill on Long Creek."

" A tax was laid, at the same time, of one shilling in specie for each one hundred pounds value of taxable property, for the purpose of erecting public buildings. An appropriation of eight pounds was also made to Mr. Carr, for the use of his house in which the court met. At August Term, a road was laid out from the mouth of Bent Creek to the mouth of

Dumplin (now Sevier). Also from the county line south of Chucky, and where the War Path crosRses the same, the nearest and best way to the War Ford, on Pigeon (now Cocke county).

In AuTUst, of this year, the late General James White, 1788 \ ^^'* Robert Love and Col. F. A. Ramsey and others; ( for the purpose of locating land warrants, explored the country as low as the confluence of theHolston and Ten* nessee. They crossed the French Broad at the War Ford. There were but few inhabitants then south of Chucky. At the mouth of Pigeon, Mr. Gilliland had corn growing, but no cabin had then been erected there. A few miles below his clearing, the remains of three or four Indians were found ; they ha3 been killed several days before. The explorers continued on the south side of the river as low down as the mouth of Dumplin Creek, near which they recrossed French Broad and fell down between that and Holston, passing the Swan Pond and crossing Holston a few miles above, where Knoxville now stands. Their route was continued through the Grassy Valley to the mouth of Holston. It was upon this tour that General White and Col. Ramsey .saw the lands, which they afterwards entered and eventually occupied in the present Knox county.

The Indians, late in this year, commenced hostilities, hy stealing horses and cattle, and retreating across the Pigeon Mountains, in what is now Cocke county. Major Peter Fine raised a few men and pursued them. After killing one Indian and wounding another, and regaining the stolen property, they began their return and encamped. They were fired upon in the night by the savages, who had followed their tracks. Vinet Fine, a brother of the major, was killed, and Thomas Holland and Mr. Bingham were wounded. After the departure of the Indians, who hung around the camp till morning, the white men broke a hole in the ice and pat the body of V. Fine in the creek, which has ever since been called Fine's Greek. The wounded men were brought in, in safety, and recovered.

It continued to be necessary for two years, to keep out scouts between Pigeon and French Broad. In this time Nehemiah and Simeon Odell were killed, scalped and their guns taken. A boy ten years old, named Nelson, was killed and his horse taken seven miles up Pigeon. McCoy's Fort was built on French Broad, three miles above New Port Wbitson's, on Pigeon, ten miles above New Port, where HcNabb since lived ; Wood's, five miles below. These were all guarded several years.

The General Assembly laid off a district for the exclusive satisfaction of the officers and soldiers of the late continental line, whi(^i was raised in North-Carolina. The claims to be satisfied, were founded upon certain promises held out to them by the legislature, in May, 1780. Shortly afterwards it was provided, that in case of a deficiency of good land in this district, to satisfy these claims, the same might be entered upon any vacant land in the state, which flhould be appropriated for their satisfaction, by grant.*

On th^ 20th of October, seventeen hundred and eightythree, John Armstrong's office was opened, at Hillsborough, for the sale of the western lands not included in these reservations, nor in the counties of Washington and Sullivan, at the rate of ten pounds, specie certificates, per hundred. These certificates had been issued by Board:^ of Auditors, appointed by public authority, for services performed and articles impressed or furnished in the time of the revolutionary war, and were made payable in specie. The lands were to be entered in tracts of five thousand acres or less, at the option of the enterer. By the 25th of May, 1784, quantities of land were entered, and certificates, to a very large amount, had been paid into the public offices.f . By a subsequent law of the next session, the surVeyor of Greene county was allowed to survey all lands for which warrants might be granted by John Armstrong, lying westward of the Apalachian Mountains, and including all the lands on the waters of Holston, from tbe month of Frcmeh Broad River, upwards to the bounds of Washington aod Sullivan counties, exelusive of the entries omde by the entiy taker of Greene county.

By the eighth article of the treaty of 1768, it was provided that the nawgation of the Mississippi River ^fi^om its someeio tike oeean^ shall^ forever^ remain free and open to the subjecie of Qreat Britain ani the citizens of the United States.

In conformity with the ninth article of confederation. Gob* gtess issued a proclamation, prohibiting all persons from making setlements on lands inhabited or claimed bylndiann^ without the limits or jurisdiction of any particular state^ and from purchasing or , receiving any gift or cession of saeh lands without the express authority and directions of the Uiiited States in Congress assembled.

The state of peace brought with it new motives for evertion in all the industrial pursuits of life, and new incentives to patriotism. Tbe country had secured to itself independence ; each citizen became proud of his connexion with it^ and felt that, as he had had an agency in giving to the government form, vitality and vigour, he was also responsible for its success, prosperity and enlargement. The tendency westward was greatly increased, and multitudes of emigrants from tbe Middle and Southern States turned their eyes upon the new lands in the West. -Holston, Cumberland and Kentucky, each received its share of enterprising and -resolute men, willing to undergo the hardships and brave the perils of the wilderness. The facility of procuring cheap and fertile lands induced a new and large emigration to what is now Upper East Tennessee. The settlements upon the French Broad and its tributaries extended rapidly. This induced a renewal of hostilities on the border settlements, and Major Fine and Col. Liliard raised^ company of thirty men, and penetrated through the mountains to the Over-hill Town of Gowee, and burned it. From this town the aggressions against the Pigeon settlements had been principally made. These were afterwards less frequent.

In seventeen hundred and eighty-four, the frontier inhabit tants were clearing their fields and building their cabins as low down as the Big Island, and along the banks of the

Big and Little Pigeon. A few adventurers were also on i Boyd's Credk, south of French Broad. North of Hol- ( ston they were extending their improvements, within a few miles of the present Rogersville. Heretofore, none but men of little or no fortune had crossed the mountain. A packhorse carried all the effects of an emigrating family. The country could now be reached, not as at first, only by a trace, but by wagon roads. This invited men of larger property, and society began to put on the aspect of permanence and respectability. Forts and stations bad served as places for private and public instruction in learning and religion, ag "well as for the administration of justice. Now, in the oldest part of the settlements, might occasionally be seen the backwood's school-house, without floors or windows, and at still greater intervals an equally unpretending building set apart for public worship. At Jonesboro', in Washington county, the first court-house in Tennessee had been erected. It was built of round logs, fresh from the adjacent forest - was covered in the fashion of cabins of the pioneers, with clapboards.

Improvement was the order of the day, and ** The court recommend that there be a court-house built in the following manner, viz : 24 feet square, diamond corners, and hewn down after it is built up ; 9 feet high between the two floors ; body of the house 4 feet above upper floor ; floors neatly laid with plank; shingles of roof to be hung with pegs. A justice's bench ; a lawyer's and clerk's bar ; also, a sheriff's box to ait in." *

But improvement and progress and change had dawned upon its future fortunes, and Jonesboro', already distinguished as the oldest town established in the present Tennessee, the centre of much of the intelligence and political influence in the new country, and the seat of its courts, was now to become the scene of exciting events - the theatre on which, at first, the master spirits of the frontier should co-operate and harmonize upon their political organization, and the arena where afterwards they became factionists and partizans, for and against the State of Franklin. The history of that aneient commonwealth will be given in the next chapter.

Chapter Iv The State Of Franklin

The revolutionary war was now ended, and the indepaa- ( denoe of the United States acknowledged by England, I and some of the great powers on the Eastern c<mtinent. The transition from a state of provincial vassalage and colonial dependence to self government, was sodden, and in some of the states almost imperceptible. 'The chango from a monarchy to a republic, brought with it, here ana there over the country, a little of the spirit of insubordination, but to a much more limited extent than, under existing circumstances, might have been expected. The boundary between liberty and licentiousness, has at no time and in no place, been better understood and more strictly observed, than at the close of the American Revolution, and by the people of the new republics then entering upon a new theatre of national existence. Still, under the recent order of things, it is not matter of wonder that there should be immature concep* tions of the nature of government and mistaken views of public policy, and that even lawlessness and violence should result from error and inexperience. To a limited extent it was so. The wonder rather is, that so little anarchy, misrule and insubordination existed amid the chaos, convulsions and upturnings of society, which the separation of the colonies from the parent government produced, and where the rights of the people were substituted for the prerogatives of sovereignty.

Apart from these considerations, there was a further difficulty involving the honour, the stability and almost the existence, of the United States government.

In achieving their independence, the states had each con- 1784 i tracted a large debt upon its own treasury, for expen- ( ses incurred during the war. In addition to this, Congress had created a heavy liability upon the general treasury for advances made by American citizens and foreign- ers, to meet expenditures growing out of a protracted conflict. While the country received the news of an honourable and advantageous peace with acclamations of joy and triumph, government felt itself borne down by its heavy public indebtedness, and harassed by the importunate clamour of its public creditors. Among the expedients adopted by Congress to lighten this burden, replenish its treasury and increase its exhausted credit, was the recommendation to such of the states as owned vajcant and unappropriated lands, to throw them into the common stock, cede them to. the United States, and out of the joint fund thus created, liquidate the common debt. North-Carolina was one of these. She owned a vast amount of unappropriated lands in that portion of her westem territory extending from the Aileghanies to the Mississippi. Sympathizing with Congress in the distress and difficulty resulting from the embarrassed financial condition of the Union, the General Assembly of North-Carolina, at its April session of this year, at Hillsborough, adopted measures to relieve them. Taxes were laid for this purpose, and authority was given to Congress to collect them, and also to levy a duty on foreign merchandize. Partly for the same reason, and for others which will hereafter be noticed, the Assembly passed an aet in June, ceding to the Congress of the United States the western lands, as therein described, and authorized the North Carolina delegates to execute a deed for the same. In this cession thus authorized, was embraced all the territory now constituting the State of Tennessee, and including, of necessity, the trans-montane counties, Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Davidson.*

By an additional act of the same session, it was declared that the sovereignty and jurisdiction of North-Carolina in and over the territory thus ceded, and all its inhabitants, should be and remain the same in all respects, until the United States, in Congress, should accept of the cession. It had been provided in the cession act that if Congress should not accept in two years, the act was thenceforward to be of no eCect.

Members from the four western counties were present at Hillsborough, and voted for the act of cession. They had observed a growing disinclination on the part of the legisla* tore to make any provision for the protection and defenoa of the Western people, or to discharge the debts that had. been contracted in guarding the frontiers, or inflicting chaati - ments upon the Indians. Accounts for these pui^poses had been, and of necessity would continue to be, large and iiro* quent. These demands against the treasury of the stata were received reluctantly - were scrutinized with tho u^ most caution, and paid grudgingly. Often they were rejected as informal or unauthorized. It was intimated eves, that some of these demands were fabricated by the Western people, and that the property of the citizens east of the mountains was wrongly and uigustly taken to cancel the debts of their Western brethren.

It will be recollected that the Bill of Rights, which was adopted at the same time with the Constitution of North- Carolina, bad made provision for the formation of a new state or states out of her Western Territory. Her western settlements were becoming expensive and burdensome to her, and as the time was at hand when a new and independent state might be formed out of them, her rulers felt it to be impolitic, to be very lavish in expenditures, for those who might soon become strangers to her peculiar interests, or members of a separate organization. The West complained of inadequate provision on the part of North-Carolina for their necessities, while the mother state lost no opportunity to impute to her remote children in the wilderness extravagance and profligacy - filial ingratitude and disobedience. To the influence of these mutual criminations and recriminations, may be traced the hasty passage of the cession act of June, 1784.

The members from the four western counties, immediately after the adjournment of the Assembly, at Hillsborough, returned home. They brought with them the first intelligence that had reached the West, of the passage of the cession act.

Reduced To Politioal Orphanage

The impression was generally entertained, that Congress woald not formally accept the cession of the Western Territory for the space of two years, and that, during that period, the new settlements being under the protection neither of Congress nor of North-Carolina, would be left in a state of anarchy, without aid or support from abroad, and unable to command, under the existing state of affairs, their own resoarees at home. This aspect of their condition was made the more diilcoaraging and alarming, from the consideration that heretofore no provision had been made for the establishment of a Superior Court west of the mountains. Violation of law was permitted to pass unpunished, except by the Eommary process of the Regulators appointed for that pur> po0e» by the people themselves. Nor was the military organization adequate to the exigencies of the new settlements. There was no brigadier-general allowed by law to call into the militia of the counties, or to concentrate its energies on sudden emergencies. This defect was the more dangeroas, and the more sensibly felt, now when Indian aggression eontinned. With a frontier exposed to the inroads of a savage enemy, and with no authority amongst themselves to whom the settlers could apply for assistance - with the settlements infested with culprits of every degree of guilt, re- Itagees from other places, and escaping to these seclusions on acoount of their supposed immunity from conviction and punishment - distracted by the apprehension of an uncertain or questionable allegiance, ceded by the parent state, not yet accepted by their federal owners - depressed by the contemplation of the state of political orphanage to which they were now reduced, and of the anarchy which must result from it - the opinion became general with the entire population that the sacred duty devolved upon themselves to de- Tise the means - to draw upon their own resources - and, by a manly self reliance, to extricate the inhabitants of the ceded territory from the unexpected difficulties by which they were suddenly surrounded. Self protection is the first law of nature. Salus populi suprema lex. The frontier was sufiering ctastantly by Indian perfidy and assailed by Indian atro-

In this dilemma it was proposed that in each captain'ji company two representatives of the people shoald be electa edy who should assemble, as committees, in their respective counties, to deliberate upon the state of public affauri^ and recommend some general plan of action suited to th« emergency. These committees, for Washington, SuUiv«a and Greene, met and recommended the election of deputies from each of the counties, to assemble in oonventioa at Jonesboro', with power to adopt such measures as they should deem advisable. The election of deputies to the convention was held, and resulted in the choice for Washington county of John Sevier, Charles Robertson, William Purphey, Joseph Wilson, John Irvin, Samuel Houston, Wit liam Trimble, William Cox, Landon Carter, Hugh Heqiy, Christopher Taylor, John Chisolm, Samuel Doak, William Campbell, 3eigamin Holland, John Bean, Samuel WiUiams^ and Richard White.

For the county of Sullivan - ^Joseph Martin, Gilbert Christian, William Cocke, John Manifee, William Wallace, John Hall, Saml. Wilson, Stockley Donelson, and William Evans.

For the county of Greene - Daniel Kennedy, Alexander Outlaw, Joseph Gist, Samuel Weir, Asahel Rawlings, Joseph Ballard, John Maughon, John Murphey, David Campbell, Archibald Stone, Abraham Denton, Charles Robinson, and Elisha Baker.

These deputies, on the day appointed, August 2dd, assembled at Jonesboro'. John Sevier was appointed pi^eaident of the convention. Landon Carter was the secretary. ' Immediately after its organization, the convention raised a committee, to take into consideration the state of public affairs, and especially the cession of her Western Territory, by North-Carolina to Congress.

Kbport Of Committeb

While discussing and deliberating upon the object of the convention, the committee came to its conclusion in the following manner : '* A member rose and made some remarks on the variety of opinions offered, for and against a separation, and taking from his pocket a volume containg the Declaration of Independence by the colonies in 1776, commented upon the reasons which induced their separation from England, on account of their local situation, etc., and attempted to show that a number of the reasons they had for declaring independence, applied to the counties here represented by their deputies/^

^ After this member had taken his seat, another arose and moved to declare the three western counties independent of North-Carolina, which was unanimously adopted" by the eommittee.* This decision was submitted to the convention in the following

** Your Committee are of opinion and judge it expedient, that the Counties of Washington, Sullivan and Qreene, which the Cession Bill pivticaUrlj respects, form themselves into an Association and combine themselves together, in order to support the present laws of North Carolina, which may not he incompatible with the modes and forms of laying off anew state. It is the opinion of your committee, that we have a Joit and undeniable right to petition to Congress to accept the cession made by North-Carolina, and for that body to countenance us in formingouraelves into a separate government, and either to frame a permanent or temporary constitution, agreeably to a resolve of Congress, in such case made and provided, as nearly as circumstances will admit We bare a right to keep and hold a Convention from time to time, 'by meeting and convening at such place or places as the said Convention -hall adjourn to. When any contiguous part of Virginia shall make appKcation to join this Association, after they are legally permitted, either Dj the State of Virginia, or other power having cognizance thereof, it is our opinion that they be received and enjoy the same privileges that wo do, may or shall enjoy. This Convention has a right to adopt and pre* acribe such regulations as the particular exigencies of the time and the public good may require ; that one or more persons ought to be sent to represent our situation in the Congress of the United States, and this Convention has just right and authority to prescribe a regular mode for lut support''

** On moticm of Mr. Cocke, whether for or igaiiMfc formhig ooreeb«s into a separate and distinct state, indeDendent of the State of North- Carolina, atikis time^ it was carried in tne affirmative.

The manuscript from which the above is taken, was found among the papers of Genei^al Kennedy. It is without a date upon it It is not known from the paper itself, ^hich of the conventions had these proceedings. It was probably at the first convention at Jonesboro', in August, 1784^ That body, however, consisted of forty members, and at this calling of the yeas and nays, forty-three voted. Some names are also found in this list of members, which are not put down in the convention at Jonesboro'. Credentials were of little consequence at that day, and perhaps were not required from members. This may account for the discrepancy, both as to the names and members of the convention.

It was then agreed that a member from the door of the house inform the crowd in the street of the decision. Proelamation was accordingly made before the anxious spectators, who seemed unanimously , to give to the proceedings, their consent and approbation. In pursuance of one of its recom« mendations, the convention appointed Messrs. Cocke and Hardin a committee to draw up and form the plan of asso* ciation. That plan was presented the next day to the convention in the following report :

^To remove the doubts of the scrupulous ; to encourage the timid, and to induce all, harmoniously and sp^dily, to enter into a firm association, let the following particulars be maturely considered. If we should be so happy as to have a separate government, vast numbers from different quarters, with a little encouragement from the public, would fill up our frontier, which would strengthen us, improve agiiculture, perfect manufactures, encourage literf^ure and every thing truly laudable. The seat of government being among ourselves, would evidently tend, not only to keep a circulatuig medium in gold and silver among ns, but draw it frora many individuals living in otber states, who claim large quantities of lands that would lie in the bounds of the new state. Add to the foregoing reasons, the many schemes as a body, we could execute to draw it among us, and the sums which many travel' lers out of curiosity, and men in public business, would expend amonff us. But all the^ advantages, acquired and accidental, together wim many more that might be mentioned, whilst we are connected with the old counties, may not only be nearly useless to us, but many of them prove injurious ; and this will always be the case during a connexion with them, because they are the most numerous, and consequently will always be able to make us subservient to them ; that our interest must be generally neglected, and sometimes sacrificed, to promote theirs, as was instanced in a late taxation act, in which, notwithstanding our local situation and improvement being so evidently inferior, that it is unjust to tax our lands equally, yet they have expressly done it ; and our lands, at the same time, not of one fourth of the same value. And to make it still more apparent that we should associate the whole councils of the stale, the Continental Congress, by their resolves, invite us to it The assembly of North-Carolina by their late cession bill, opened the door, and by their prudent measures invite to it ; and as a closing reason to induce to a speedy association, our late convention chosen to consider public afiairs, and concert measures, as appears from their resolves, have QDammously agreed that we should do it, by signing the following ar-

*^Fir8t That we agree to entrust the consideration of public affiurs, and the prescribing rules necessary to a convention, to be chosen by each company as fellows : - That if any company should not exceed thirty, there be one representative ; and wher^it contains fifty, there be two ; and so in proportion, as near as may be, and that their regulations be reviewed by the association.

* Secondly. As the welfare of our common country depends much on the friendly disposition of Congress, and their rightly understanding our situation, we do therefore unanimously agree, speedily to furnish a person with a reasonable support, to present our memorial, and negotiate our business in Congress.

"Thirdly. As the welfare of the community also depends much on public spirit, benevolence and regard to virtue, we therefore unanimously affree to improve and cultivate these, and to discountenance every thing 0? a'oontradictory and repugnant nature.

**JSe9alved^ That the clerks of the county courts who have the bonds and recognizance of any officers, shcrifi^ and collectors, who have collected any of the public monies, or are about now to collect any of the same, are hereby specially commanded and required to hold said bonds ill their possession and custody, until some mode be adopted and pre-

-cribed to have our accounts iairly aad properij liquidated vith tb* State of North-Carolina. And they resolved, further^ tli^t all the aj^- riflb and collectors, who have before collected any of the publip inoBice^ shall be called on, and render due accounts of the monies that tliej have collected and have in their hands, or may collect by virtue of their

"^Messrs. White and Doak moved, and were permitted to enter their against both of these resolutions, because, in their opioioD, it was contrary to law to detain the bonds."

The depaties then took into consideration the propriety of having a new convention called to form a constitutionp aind give a name to the Independent State. They decided tluU eaeh oonnty should ekct five membera to the coaventiiHi - ^ the same number that had been elected in 1776^ to form the cboatitution of North-Carolina. They fixed the time and place of meeting to be at Jonesboro', on the 16ih of Septeobi ber, and then adjourned.

For some reason not now distinctly knov^n, the convention did not meet till November, and then broke up in great ^bppir fusion. The members bad not harmonized upon the details of the plan of association. There was a still greater conflict of opinion amongst their respective constituencies, a^id in a new community the voice of a constituent is always omnipotent, and musttiot be disregarded. Each party ^vas tenacious of its own plan, and clamourous for its adoption. Some preferred a longer adherence to the mother state, under the expectation and hope that by the legislation of North- Carolina, many, if not all, of the grievances which had dig* affected her western counties, would be soon redressed. Her Assembly was then in session at Newbern, and did repeal the act for ceding her western territory to Congress. During the same session they also formed a judicial district of the four western counties, and appointed an assistant judge and an attorney-general for the Superior Court, which was directed to be held at Jonesboco'. The Assembly also formed the militia of Washington District into a brigade, and appointed Col. John Sevier the brigadier-general.

In the law repealing the cession act, it is mentioned as the reason for the repeal: '*That the Cession, so intended, was made in full confidence that the whole expense of the Indian expeditions, and militia aids to the States of South-Carolina and Georgia, should pass to account in our quota of the continental expenses in the late war; and, also, that the other states, holding western territory, would make similar cessions, and that all the states would unanimously grant imposts of five per cent, as a common fund for the discharge of the federal debt ; and, whereas, the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut, after accepting the cessions of New- York and Virginia, have since put in claims for the whole or a large part of that territory, and all the above expected measures for constituting a substantial common fund have been either frustrated or delayed ;" - the said act is, therefore, repealed. On account of the remote situation of the ivestern counties, these causes of the legislation of the parent state were not well understood across the mountain, or were so misrepresented as to give rise to the charge, against North-Carolina, of fickleness, or rather to the imputation of neglect and inattention towards the new settlements. But '^ revolutions never go backwards;" the masses had been put in motion ; some steps had been taken in remo-> deling their governments - a change was desired. A new convention was determined on, and, accordingly, another electioA was held, and deputies were again chosen to a future convention. On the day of the election, at Jonesboro', General Sevier declared himself satisfied with the provisions that had been made by the Legislature of North-Carolina in favour of the western people, and, enumerating them in a public address, recommended to the people to proceed no further in their design to separate from North-Carolina. He also wrote to Col. Kennedy, of Greene county, under date -

2d January, 1785. Dkab Colonel : - ^T have just received certain information from Col. MarUn, that the first thing the Assenoibly of North-Carolina did was to repeal t!io Cession Bill, and to form this part of the country into a separate District, by name of Washington District, which I have the honour to command, as general. I conclude this step will satisfy the people with the old state, and wo shall pursue no further measures as to a new sUite. David Campbell, Esqr., is appoiutcd one of our judges. I wonld write to you officially, but my commission is not yet come to

I informing them what had been done for their relief by the legislature, and, with the purpose of preventing confusion and controversies amongst the people of the western counties, he begged them to decline all further acticm in respect to a new government

Notwithstanding this earnest advice of the president of the late convention, and the redress of the grievances of which they complained, and which had alienated the people from the mother state, they persisted in their determination ; the election was held, and five deputies from each county were elected. Those chosen for Washington county inrere John Sevier, William Cocke, John Tipton, Thomas Steward and Rev. Samuel Houston. For Sullivan county, David Looney, Richard Gammon, Moses Looney, William Cage* and John Long. For the county of Greene, James Reese, Daniel Kennedy, John Newman, James Roddye and Joseph Hardin. The number of deputies was fifteen, less than half of the convention previously elected. They were choeen, too, by the counties and not by captain*s campanies, and, representing larger bodies of their fellow citizens, were less trammeled by local prejudices and instructions. Their action was less restricted, and their deliberations freer and more enlightened. In this body, as now composed, was considerable ability and some experience.

The convention being organized and ready for business, the Rev. Samuel Houston, one of the deputies from Washington county, arose and addressed the convention on the importance of their meeting, showing that they were about to lay the foundation on which was to be placed, not only their own welfare and interest, but, perhaps, those of their posterity for ages to come ; and adding that, under such interesting and solemn circumstances, they should look to Hea* ven, and offer prayer for counsel and direction from Infinite Wisdom. The president immediately designated Mr. Hous-

A form of a constitution under which the new government should be put in motion, was submitted and agreed to, subject to the ratification, modification or rejection of a future convention directed to be chosen by the people, and to meet on the fourteenth of November, 1785, at Greenville. Ample time was thus given to examine the merits and defects of the new organization, and by discussing them in detail, to harmonize conflicting opinions, and to secure to it general public sentiment and popular favour.

By an ordinance of the convention, however, it was provided that the electors in the several counties should, in the meantime, proceed to elect members of the legislature for the new state, according to the laws of North-Carolina ; and that when thus chosen, the assembly should meet and put the new government into operation.

The election was accordingly held, and members of the ( legislature chosen for the State of Franklin. These ( met at the appointed time in Jonesboro'. After the most diligent search, the writer has been unable to procure a list of the members of this first legislative assembly in what is now Tennessee. It was, probably, for the most part composed of the same members who had constituted the two conventions that preceded, and gave form and vitality to it. This much is known, that Landon Carter was speaker, and Thomas Talbot, clerk of the Senate; and William Cage, speaker, and Thomas Chapman, clerk, of the House of Commons. Thus organized, the assembly proceeded to the election of governor. To this office John Sevier was chosen. A judiciary system was established also at this first session. David Campbell was elected Judge of the Superior Court, and Joshua Gist and John Anderson Assistant Judges.

The first session of the Legislature of Franklin, terminated on the thirty-first day of March, 1785, on which day the following acts were ratified, and signed by the speakers and countersigned by the clerks of their respective bodies, viz :

** An act to appoint commissioners, and to vest them vritb fhll powers to make deeds of conveyance to such persons as have purchased lots in the town of Jonesboro*.*^

^ An act forthe promotion of leamingin the county of Wash* 1786 \ ^^^^^^'^ Under the provisions of this act, the foundaitioil ( of Martin Academy was laid. It is believed that this is the earliest legislative action taken anywhere west of the Alleghanies, for the encouragement of learning. Rev. Sanft* nel Doak, who had been a member of the convention, and^ probably, of the Franklin assembly, and the apostle of reli* gion and learning in the West, was the founder and first pre» sident of Martin Academy. He was a graduate of Nassati Hall, in its palmiest days, under the presidency of Dr* Witherspoon. His school-house, a plain log bnilding erected on his own farm, stood a little west of the present site of what is now Washington College. For many years it viras the only, and for still more, the principal seat of classical education for the western country.

" An act for dividing Sullivan county and part of Greene^ into two distinct counties, and erecting a county by the name of Spencer." This new county covered the same territory now known as Hawkins county.

" An act for procuring a great seal for this state." This act was probably n^ver carried into effect. More than two years afterwards commissions to the officers of Franklin were issued, having upon them a common wafer as the seal of the state.

** An act directing the method of electing members of the General Assembly.** The first Monday of August, was the time fixed by law for the annual meeting of the legislature.

** An act to divide Greene county into three separate and distinct counties, and to erect two new counties by the name of Caswell and Sevier.** The former occupied the section of country which is now JeflTerson, and extended probably further west There is reason to believe that Caswell county extended down the French Broad and Holston to their confluence, and perhaps further west. This much is certain : that General White and others, known to be steadfast friends of the new state and officers under it, were at this time forming settlements in this part of the present Knox county. The other new county embraced what is still known as Sevier county, south of French Broad, and also that part of Blount east of the ridge dividing the waters of Little River from those of the Tennessee. The courts of Sevier county were held at Newell's Station, near the head of Boyd's Creek, This is one of the prettiest places in Tennessee; its ruins are still to be seen - about fifteen miles south-east from Knoxville - on the farm lately owned by Edward. Hodges, Esq.

** An act to ascertain the value of gold and silver foreign coin, and the paper currency now in circulation in the state of North-Carolina, and to declare the same to be a lawful tender in this state."

** An act to ascertain the salaries allowed the Governor, Attorney-General, Judges of the Superior Courts, Assistant Judges, Secretary of State, Treasurer and members of Council of State.**

*- An act for ascertaining what property in this state shall be deemed taxable, the method of assessing the same, and collecting public taxes."

"An act to ascertain the powers and authorities of the Judges of the Superior Courts, the Assistant Judges and Justices of the Peace, and of the County Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, and directing the time and place of holding the same.**

*- An act for erecting apart of Washington county and that part of Wilkes lying west of the extreme heights of the Apalachian or Alleghany Mountains, into a separate and distinct county by the name of Wayne." This new county covered the same territory now embraced in the limits of Carter and Johnson counties.

same as those adopted by North-Carolina at the commence ment of her state government. The style of the enactments was this : *' Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Franklin.**

The Governor^ the Judge of the Superior Court, and the Assistant Judges, were elected, as has been already mentioned, by the legislature at its first session. The other state ofiicers were Landon Carter, Secretary of State ; William Cage, Treasurer ; Stockley Donaldson, Surveyor-General ; Daniel Kennedy and William Cocke, Brigadier^Grenerals of the Franklin militia. General Cocke was also dele* gated to represent the condition of the new government in the Congress of the United States. Members of the Counoil of State were - General William Cocke, Colonel Landon Carter, Colonel Francis A. Ramsey, Judge Campbell, General Kennedy, Colonel Taylor. Until the new constitution should be adopted by the people, the temporary form of goremment was that of North-Carolina.

County courts were, at the same session, established, and justices of the peace appointed. The civil and military officers for each county, as far as can now be ascertained, were - James Sevier, Clerk of Washington County Court ; John Rhea, of Sullivan ; Daniel Kennedy, of Greene ; Thomas Henderson, of Spencer; Joseph Hamilton, of Caswell ; and Samuel Weir, of Sevier. On the 10th of June, 1785, Governor Sevier, by proclamation, announced the appointment of F. A. Ramsey, Esq., as Clerk of the Superior Court of Washington District.*

The salaries of the officers of state were - of the Governor, two hundred pounds annually; Attorney-General, twentyfive pounds for each court he attended ; Secretary of State twenty-five pounds annually, and his fees of office ; Judge of Superior Court, one hundred and fifty pounds per annum ; Assistant Judges, twenty-five pounds for each court ; Treasurer, forty pounds annually ; each member of Council of State, six shillings per day, when in actual service.

And Its Currbkcy

" ' Be it That it shall and may be lawful for the aforesaid land tax, and all free polls, to be paid in the following manner : Good flax linen, ten hundred, at three Rhillings and six pence per yard ; nine hundred, at three shillings; eight hundred, two shillings nnd nine pence; seven hundred, two shillings and six pence; six hundred, two shillings ; tow linen, one shilling and nine pence ; linsey, three shillings^ and woollen and cotton linsey, three shillings and six pence per yard ; ^ood, clean beaver skin, six shillings; cased otter skins, six shillings; uncased ditto, five shillings ; rackoon and fox skins, one shilling and three pence; woollen cloth, at ten shillings per yard; bacon, well cured, six pence per pound ; good, clean tallow, six pence per- pound ; ^ood, clean beeswax, one shilling 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 weU managed tobacco, fit to bo prized, that may pass inspection, the hundred, fifteen shillings, and so on in proportion for a greater or less quantity.' »-