THE ETHEL CARR PEACOCK 
 MEMORIAL COLLECTION 
 
 Matris amori moimmentum 
 
 TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 DURHAM, N. C. 
 
 1903 
 
 Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Dred Peacock 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/annalsoftennesse01 rams 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wit 
 
 THE 
 
 ANNALS 
 
 OF 
 
 TENNESSEE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: 
 
 COMPRISING ITS SETTLEMENT, 
 
 THE WATAUGA ASSOCIATION, 
 
 FROM 1769 TO 1777; 
 
 A TAUT OF NORTH-CAROLINA, 
 
 FROM 1777 TO 1784; 
 
 THE STATE OF FRANKLIN, 
 
 FROM 1784 TO 1788; f 
 
 A PART OF NORTH- CAROLINA, 
 
 FROM 1788 TO 1790; 
 
 THE TERRITORY OF THE U. STATES SOUTH OF THE OHIO, 
 
 FROM 1790 TO 1796; 
 
 THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, 
 
 FROM 1796 TO 1800. 
 
 J. G. M. RAMSEY, A.M, M.D., 
 
 CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY: 
 HONORARY MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA; 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, ETC. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 J. B. LIPPIjSTCOTT & CO. 
 
 1860 . 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 J. G. M. RAMSEY, M.D., 
 
 In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Tennessee. 
 
°l 7 £>. ? 
 H ft 3 A 
 
 p 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 TO THE SURVIVING PIONEERS OF TENNESSEE, 
 
 WHOSE ENTERPRISE SUBDUED HER DOMAIN, AND WHOSE VALOUR DEFENDED IT, 
 
 MOST gratefully; 
 
 TO THEIR IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS, 
 
 WHOSE PATRIOTISM, WISDOM AND VIRTUE, PROVIDED FOR AND BEQUEATHED TO POSTERITY, THE 
 PATRIMONIAL BLESSINGS AND WISE INSTITUTIONS OF LIBERTY, OF LAW, OF LEARNING 
 AND RELIGION, 
 
 MOST dutifully; 
 
 TO THE YOUNG MEN OF TENNESSEE, 
 
 INHERITING- SO MUCH THAT IS ESTIMABLE, MANLY, VIRTUOUS AND PATRIOTIC, 
 
 AND 
 
 TO WHOSE GUARDIANSHIP, FILIAL PIETY, ANCESTRAL AND STATE PRIDE, 
 
 ARE C OMMITTED 
 
 THE PRESERVATION OF HER UNSTAINED ESCUTCHEON, HER ANCIENT FAME, HER HEROIC 
 
 EXAMPLE, HER SOVEREIGNTY, HER CHARACTER AND HER GLORY 
 
 HER HIGH DESTINY AND FUTURE IMPROVEMENT 
 
 MOST confidently; 
 
 “Let no mean hope your souls enslave; 
 
 Be independent, generous, brave ; 
 
 Your fathers such example gave, 
 
 And such revere!” 
 
 fs this Volume Dedicated, by their fellow-citizen-, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Charleston, S. C., February 22d, 1S53. 
 
 a 6 9 
 
* 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The writer is one of the first-born of the sons of the State of Ten- 
 nessee. If this seniority brings with it none of the rights of primoge- 
 niture, it certainly has imposed the duty of filial veneration and regard 
 for the land of his nativity. With this devotion to his State, and to its 
 worthy pioneers, has always been united the deep regret, that their 
 early history has been so little known, and is now almost forgotten. 
 Oppressed by this feeling, and impelled by the desire to revive and pre- 
 serve the knowledge of past events in Tennessee, he determined, many 
 years since, to collect such incidents of her history as were within his 
 reach. At first, his object was merely to occupy, in these researches, 
 the leisure hours which could be spared from professional engagements ; 
 but he soon discovered, that by extending his labours, he might add to 
 his own pleasure, the high gratification of contributing something, how- 
 ever humble, to the historical literature of the day, and thus do a ser- 
 vice, at least, to the people of his own State. 
 
 For the collection of the materials of such a work, he has had some 
 peculiar facilities. His boyhood and his youth were spent with the 
 pioneer and the emigrant. Later in life, he has not been without some 
 share of intercourse, with the public men and principal actors in the 
 early settlement of the country. His opportunity of conferring with 
 many of them, has not been infrequent, and has been sedulously im- 
 proved. He became, whilst yet a young man, the possessor of the 
 journal and papers of his deceased father, the late Col. F. A. Ramsey — 
 a pioneer of the country, whose life was identified with its interests, at 
 every period of its growth, up to the time of his death, in 1820. He 
 has, since, become the depositary of the papers of Sevier, of Shelby, 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the Blounts, and other public men. His position as Corresponding Sec- 
 retary of the East Tennessee Historical aud Antiquarian Society, has given 
 him the advantage of its collections and correspondence. In addition to 
 these sources of valuable information, he has availed himself of others. 
 The records of all the old Franklin Counties have been patiently ex- 
 amined by him. He has also visited the Capitals of Georgia, North- 
 Carolina, and Virginia, and, by the courtesy of Governor Towns, Go- 
 vernor Reed, aud Governor Floyd, of these States, has been allowed free 
 access to the Public Archives at Milledgeville, Raleigh, and Richmond, 
 from which has been procured, all that they contain on the subjects of 
 his research. The Archives of Tennessee, preserved in the office of 
 the Secretary of State at Nashville, he has also examined. Private 
 and public libraries, the offices at Washington, and the periodical jour- 
 nals of the day — all sources, within the writer’s reach, likely to contri- 
 bute to his purpose, and add to the perfection of his work, have 
 been carefully examined and culled from. 
 
 Haywood’s History of Tennessee is the authority for many events 
 detailed herein. In several instances, corrections and additions, impor- 
 tant and valuable, have been made. 
 
 In the narratives — verbal and written — of the old soldiers and pio- 
 neers, and in the matter furnished by authors, correspondents, and 
 public documents, the language of the original narrator is often re- 
 tained, though his statements are very much abridged and condensed. 
 The usual marks of quotation have not, therefore, been always given. 
 
 On some of the subjects of the volume, the writer may be charged 
 with unnecessary prolixity. He has not felt at liberty to withhold the 
 minutim of some of the topics, now published for the first time. The. 
 perishable condition in which they are found, in old and nearly illegible 
 manuscripts, exposes them to an early destruction. 
 
 The biography of General Robertson and General Joseph Martin 
 would have been more minutely given, but that their private files had 
 been placed in the hands of L. C. Draper, Esq., of Wisconsin. This 
 is the less to be regretted, as that competent writer has promised, in 
 addition to the lives of these Tennessee pioneers, those of many West- 
 ern adventurers, which cannot fail to make a valuable contribution to 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 VII 
 
 the biographical literature of the West. He has been indefatigable in 
 the procurement of material for such a work. Its publication may be 
 expected within the next year. 
 
 The space devoted in this volume, to that section of Tennessee east 
 of Cumberland Mountain, will not be considered disproportionate, when 
 it is recollected, that it had a priority of ten years in its settlement; 
 that in it were conducted the more important negotiations and treaties 
 with the Indians ; and that the scenes of the Revolution — as participated 
 in by the Western soldiery — the Franklin Revolt and Administration ; 
 the Organization of the Territorial Government, and that of the State 
 of Tennessee, all occurred within its limits. 
 
 Thus much as to the plan and materials of the work, and the sources 
 from which they have been drawn. As to the manner of it, the writer 
 only further adds, that, earlier in life, it had been his ambition and his 
 design, to have made it, not only more creditable to himself, but, which 
 he desired much more, worthier of Tennessee and her patriotic and 
 chivalrous sons. In the vain hope, and under the fond illusion, that 
 some future day would allow him the necessary leisure to do so, he has 
 postponed the preparation of these sheets several years. The pressure 
 of other engagements — some of them in the service of Tennessee — 
 some, more private, but not less imperative — has dispelled the youth- 
 ful illusion, that, after his half century was passed, life would be without 
 care or active employment, and has brought with it the conviction, that, 
 if his work shall be* published at all, it must be done in its present 
 shape — written always currente calamo — at intervals of time, snatched 
 from the continued succession of professional and public duties, and 
 with little opportunity to revise or perfect it. In that condition, and 
 under these circumstances, the volume now goes to press. Scarcely 
 has a single page been re-written. 
 
 Many of the Sevier papers, and all those of Governor Willie Blount, 
 being in the writer’s possession, should the public voice seem to demand 
 a continuation of these Annals, to a more recent period, the materials 
 being on hand, or within reach, a second volume will be prepared. 
 The administration of Governor Blount, covering the period of the 
 Creek War, and that of 1812, with England, is an exceedingly interest- 
 
VIII 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ing period in the Annals of the Volunteer State. Since that time, the 
 history of Tennessee has continued to be equally important, and is 
 now national and fully identified with the history of the United States. 
 
 The writer cannot omit this opportunity of returning his thanks to 
 such of his correspondents, in Tennessee and elsewhere, as have not 
 been specifically mentioned in the volume, for their assistance in col- 
 lecting and furnishing material for the work. 
 
 The Hon. Mitchell King, during the publication of the volume, has 
 politely opened to the writer’s use his large library and extensive col- 
 lection of maps. Professor Dickson, of the Medical College of South- 
 Carolina, and an honourary member of the East Tennessee Historical 
 and Antiquarian Society, has, heretofore, presented to its collections 
 several valuable works on the history of his State, and her early wars 
 with the Indians of the interior. Both of these gentlemen have, from 
 the first conception of this undertaking, given to the writer, under 
 many and great discouragements, their friendly advice and countenance. 
 To each of them, and to the members and officers of the Charleston 
 Library, to whose privileges he was politely introduced, the writer begs 
 here to make his acknowledgments. 
 
 The size of this volume has excluded much that had been intended 
 for the Appendix. 
 
 Conscious, as he is, of the imperfections of his performance, the 
 writer persuades himself, that he has rendered some acceptable service 
 to Tennessee, in his attempt, thus, to perpetuate her Annals, and illus- 
 trate the actions of her people. Consoled with this reflection, he con- 
 fides it to his countrymen. ' 
 
 “ Si quid novisti rectius istis 
 
 Candidus imperti ; si non, his utere mecum.” 
 
 J. G-. M. RAMSEY. 
 
 Mecklenburg, 
 
 Near Knoxville, Tenn., Nov. 16, 1852. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 Cabot sees the coast of North Carolina ; invasion of Narvaez ; is shipwrecked 
 Ferdinand De Soto ; his army ; he invades Florida ; defied by Acuera ; arrives at 
 Oeali ; Vitachuco’s village described ; De Soto fortifies Anchayea and goes into 
 winter quarters ; resumes march ; passes the mountains near Choualla ; reaches 
 Talisse. Battle of Alibamo and of Chisca ; Indian council. De Soto and his 
 army approach and cross the Mississippi, near Chickasaw Bluff. French ascend 
 the St. Lawrence. Raleigh lands in N. Carolina ; his patent from Queen Eliza- 
 beth. Jamestown laid off. First representative body in America; self-government 
 provided for. Alleghanies first crossed ; Marquette and Joliet descend the Missis- 
 sippi ; first cabin and fort in Tennessee, built at the present Memphis. Charlestown 
 laid off; Culpeper’s rebellion, Albemarle independent ; Bacon’s rebellion. ■ ’arolina 
 divided. First store in Tennessee, established at the present Nashville ; Paducah 
 built ; Tenassee chief town ; Fort Assumption built ; treaty with the Cherokees. 
 Fort Prince George, Fort Loudon and Long Island Fort built ; Fort Loudor. 
 threatened ; Prince George attacked. Col. Montgomery invades the Cherokees ; 
 surrender of Fort Loudon ; massacre of its garrison ; escape of Capt. Stuart. Col. 
 Grant invades the Cherokees, and conquers them. Tennessee visited by traders ; 
 Dr. Walker passes Cumberland Gap ; Daniel Boone’s arrival — his camp ; Walker 
 hunts on Clinch ; Smith explores Cumberland ; Findley passes through East 
 Tennessee. The king forbids western grants ; most of Tennessee unoccupied by 
 Indians; aboriginal claims; treaty of Fort Stanwix ; first cession of lands in 
 Tennessee. The Shawnees, Chickasaws, Uchees, Cherokees ; their mines ; their 
 martial spirit ; Chota, their city of refuge. Beauty and euphony of Indian names 
 of rivers and mountains in Tennessee ; great Indian path described ; tumuli and 
 other remains ; traditions. ....... Page 13-91 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WATAUGA. 
 
 Watauga; first permanent settlement in Tennessee. Christian, Anderson and 
 Sawyers explore East Tennessee ; station at French Lick. Rains explores 
 Cumberland ; discontents in North-Carolina ; landing of the stamps prevented. 
 The Regulators defeated at Alamance ; treaty of Lochaber. James Robertson 
 arrives on Watauga ; his character; Lower Cumberland explored. Watanga 
 forms articles of association, and a court ; character of John Sevier ; lease to 
 Watauga from Cherokees ; Brown’s lease and settlement of Nollichucky ; wis- 
 dom and intrepidity of Robertson. Boone attacked in a defile ; great nautical 
 adventure ; expedition to Kenhawa. Capt. Shelby’s volunteers ; desperate 
 battle; heroic charge of Sawyers. Purchase by Henderson & Co., of Transyl- 
 
X 
 
 COX T E X 'i' S . 
 
 vania ; eloquent speech of Oconostota ; purchase of Watauga ; its land office ; 
 names of first patentees ; Brown’s principality. Parliamentary taxation ; colonies 
 oppose it ; martial spirit of the people ; Hooper foretells independence ; provin- 
 cial congress meets at Newbern; end of royal government in North-Carolina. 
 Meeklenberg declares independence ; Dr. Brevard ; a whig congress controls 
 South-Carolina, and recommends independence ; currency ol North-Carolina. 
 Watauga association petitions to be annexed to North-Carolina ; the petitioners 
 names ; is represented in the provincial congress, at Halifax, by Sevier, Carter, 
 Haile and Robertson. Residences of the pioneers of Watauga ; first mills erected' 
 jn Tennessee ; commencement of Cherokee hostility. Another Pocahontas, 
 Nancy Ward ; test oath administered to tories; description of a station. Stuart’s 
 letter to the frontier people ; Williams’ disclosures of a threatened invasion ; 
 express carries Sevier’s letter ; plan of Cherokee invasion. Volunteers assemble 
 at Heaton’s ; battle of the island flats ; official report ; Lieut. Moore’s conflict 
 with a brave ; Watauga Fort attacked ; Indians repulsed ; Mrs. Bean’s captivity; 
 Sevier attempts the rescue of Moore ; the Raven : Rev. Cummins attacked ; 
 Creswell killed ; a frontier congregation. Invasion of Cherokees by McBury. 
 Jack Williamson, Rutherford and Christian ; army of the latter rendezvous at 
 Lang Island — marches — wades the French Broad ; crosses Tennessee; peace, 
 New flood of emigrants ; treaty of Long Island ; Chickamaugas refuse to sign 
 the treaty; Watauga dynasty terminates, and the rule of North-Carolina begins. 
 
 Page 92-174 
 
 CHAPTER 111. 
 
 TENNESSEE AS A PART OF NORTH-CAROLINA. 
 
 Tennessee, as a part of North Carolina, and the participation of her pioneers in 
 the revolutionary war ; character of the pioneers ; reinforcements from Holeton, 
 to Boonsborough. Warm springs discovered. Summary punishment of tories ; 
 their property confiscated. First records of Washington county ; first Christian 
 ministers. Captain Robertson’s agency to the Indians ; description of the passage 
 of the Tennessee river through the Cumberland mountains, and of the cave of 
 Nickajack, and of the Narrows ; these resorted to by banditti ; the Algiers of the 
 West ; Col. Shelby’s rapid descent upon these miscreants ; their defeat. Chick - 
 amauga expedition ; the return of the adventurers by land. Jonesborourgh the 
 oldest town in Tennessee; Sullivan county laid off ; Cumberland further explored. 
 Arrival of Captain De Mumbrune ; first plantation on Cumberland. Robertson’s 
 first colony at the Lick ; his second colony ; forts and block houses there. 
 Journal of “ the Adventure passes the Narrows ; is fired upon by Indians 
 intrepidity of Mrs. Jennings ; attack on the fleet, below the “ Muscle Shoals ;’’ , 
 happy meeting of the voyagers with the colonists at the Lick. Extreme dearth 
 on the frontier ; their exposed condition ; permanent settlement at the Bluff ; 
 ancient remains on Cumberland. The revolutionary war ; capitulation of 
 Charleston ; Clarke gallantly attacks the enemy ; Gen. Rutherford calls for the 
 western riflemen ; meeting of Col. Sevier and his commissioned officers. Cot. 
 Shelby and his riflemen ; capture of Col. Moore ; measures to embody the 
 loyalists ; Col. Ferguson secures the allegiance of the inhabitants of Shelby and 
 Clarke; Cedar Spring defeat ; battle at Musgrove’s Mill ; death of Capt. Inman ; 
 Americans retire across the mountain; depressed condition of the American cause. 
 
C O N TEN T S . 
 
 n 
 
 Cornwallis advances to Charlotte; Ferguson takes post atRutharfordton. Sevier 
 and Shelby appeal to the western volunteers ; patriotism of Mrs. Sevier, and of 
 Squire Adair ; co-operation of Col. Campbell. The rendezvous of the riflemen 
 at Watauga ; Campbell, Shelby, Sevier and M’Dowell ; their mien and deport- 
 ment ; divine protection implored. Army marches ; ascends and crosses the 
 Alleghany by Bright’s trace, joined by Cleveland. Ferguson retreats from 
 Gilberttown and retires before the riflemen, who approach the enemy’s camp, on 
 King’s. Mountain, and surround it and attack Ferguson’s camp ; desperate courage 
 of Ferguson and his death ; plan of the battle; Col. Williams’ heroic charge; 
 monument at King’s Mountain . minor details of the battle ; Col. Cruger’s letter 
 in cypher. Return of the riflemen ; official report ; the expedition was patriotic 
 and eminently successful ; hunting shirt of the volunteers; results of Ferguson’s 
 defeat. Cornwallis’ rapid retreat ; swords presented to Shelby and Sevier ; they 
 are again called into the field. Gen. Greene’s descent into South-Carolina ; 
 Sevier again crosses the mountain, and with Shelby joins Marion, and captures a 
 British post. Return to Marion’s camp ; Shelby attends as a member of the 
 legislature at Salem, N. C. Gov. Rutledge convenes the legislature of South- 
 Carolina. Vindication of the western riflemen; civil government restored. Sevier 
 despatches Capt. Russell to the frontier ; Sevier’s Cherokee expedition ; battle of 
 Boyd’s creek ; combat between Sevier and an Indian brave ; Col. Campbell 
 reinforces Sevier, and with him penetrates the Cherokee country. Hiwassee 
 evacuated; negotiation at Chota. Sevier reaches Tuckasejah ; Major Martin 
 scours Clinch ; Governor Martin’s order to Sevier ; Talk of the Old Tassel. 
 Sevier again invades the Cherokees; Jack and Rankin go to Coiatee. Captain ' 
 White promotes peace ; boundary fixed ; Greene county established. Colonel 
 Ramsey and others explore the country ; Armstrong’s land office opened; treaty. 
 Progress of improvement ; new court house at Jonesboro. - Page 175-281 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE STATE OF FRANKLI&. 
 
 Ijjbbiendence of the United States acknowledged; the debt incurred by the revo- 
 lutionary war ; States endeavour to relieve the indebtedness* by cessions to 
 congress of their unappropriated lands ; North-Carolina cedes the country now 
 known as Tennessee. Complaints of the western counties ; are reduced to a 
 state of political orphanage ; a convention is chosen ; meets at Jonesboro ; 
 committee reports and proposes separation from North-Carolina ; yeas and nays , 
 report concurred in ; new convention breaks up in confusion. Gen. Sevier 
 dissuades from separation ; his letter. Deputies chosen to another convention ; 
 meets at Jonesboro ; Gen. Sevier chosen president, and F. A. Ramsey secretary; 
 opened with prayer. Legislature of Franklin chosen ; meets and passes laws 
 for the new commonwealth ; its judiciary; list of acts passed ; new counties 
 established ; Sevier chosen governor ; council of state ; other officers of Franklin; 
 its currency; it negotiates treaty with the Cherokees ; condition of new state. 
 Death of Untoola ; killed by Hubbard. Gov. Martin sends Major Henderson 
 to the disaffected counties ; his mission to Cherokees ; his instructions. Gov. 
 Sevier announces the separation and independence of Franklin. Gov. Martin 
 issives his manifesto ; explains the cession act and the cause of its repeal ; imputes 
 
XU 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 sinister designs to the insurgents ; threatens the revolters ; effects of the mani- 
 festo in Franklin. Gov. Sevier issues a counter manifesto in explanation of the 
 revolt ; Gov. Caswell’s reply, which draws from Sevier further vindication. 
 Major Martin writes to Caswell, inclosing talks from Chota ; disaffection reaches 
 Virginia. Gov. Henry’s message ; boundaries oi Frankland ; constitution pre- 
 pared by Mr. Houston ; offered in convention and rejected; that constitution; 
 declaration of rights ; qualification for membership ; election of officers given 
 to the people ; duties of governor and council ; freemen to elect registers, magis- 
 trates; provision made for a university; disputes to be settled by arbitration. 
 Gen. Cocke as commissioner to congress from Franklin ; Greeneville the seat of 
 government. Treaty of HopevJell ; Cherokee boundary. Elections held in 
 Franklin, of members to North-Carolina legislature ; civil and military officers 
 of Franklin. War with the Cherokees ; valley towns destroyed. Col. Martin’s 
 letter ; commissioners form the Coyatee treaty ; negotiation at Chota Ford trans- 
 ferred to Coyatee. The treaty ; mission of Judge Campbell and Gen. Cocke; 
 Gov. Sevier to Gov. Caswell, accrediting his commissioners ; Judge Campbell’s 
 written argument. Gen. Cocke’s address to North-Carolina assembly ; patheti- 
 cally recounts the trials and makes vindication of the Franks. Removal of old 
 officers draws from Judge Campbell a further remonstrance ; conflicts between 
 the old and new states. Gen. Shelby confers with Gov. Sevier; terms of the 
 compromise ; a temporary quiet restored. Col. Martin to Gov. Caswell ; Cas- 
 well to Sevier ; Sevier’s reply ; conciliatory letter from Caswell ; Gen. Shelby 
 advises energetic measures. Letters from Cols. Hutchings and Bledsoe ; Gov. 
 Caswell dissuades from violence, and addresses the malcontents ; popular dis- 
 content appeased. Progress of settlements south of French Broad ; stations in 
 Sevier and Blount. Heroism of Mrs. M’Ewen ; Gillaim’s station erected at 
 the present Mecklenburgh ; Mrs. Gillespie’s wonderful presence of mind. White 
 and Conner settle the future Knoxville ; the rural beauty of its environs. Camp- 
 bell’s station. Foreign affairs of Franklin ; law of the State of Franklin ; tho 
 manner of promulgating its laws. Projected invasion of the Creek country. 
 Elholm’s embassy to Georgia ; daring feat of Elholm. Franklin negotiates with 
 Georgia to march against Creeks ; action of the Georgia authorities. Sevier 
 elected member of the Cincinnati ; letters encouraging Sevier from Col. Clarke, 
 Col. Downs and Doctor Franklin. Proceedings in Washington county assume 
 a serious aspect ; Sevier invites the mediation of Georgia, and writes to its 
 assembly. Gov. Sevier to Gov. Matthews ; Cols. Robertson and Bledsoe to 
 Sevier. Major Elholm’s project ;> Col. F. A. Ramsey commissioner from Frank- 
 lin to North-Carolina. Elholm’s further embassy to Georgia ; its success ; 
 rejoicings in Franklin at the alliance with Georgia. Sevier’s circular to the 
 Franklin militia. Western prejudice against Spain. Decline of the Franklin 
 government ; last Franklin legislature ; its increasing debility ; civil disturb- 
 ances. Sevier and Tipton ; Sevier marches against Tipton, and besieges him 
 in his own house ; rally of the clans ; besieging forces retire from Tipton’s ; 
 Pugh is killed ; Tipton releases his prisoners. Sevier’s demeanor during the 
 siege ; both parties indisposed to bloodshed ; date of the siege. Sevier writes to 
 governor of Georgia, and repairs to the frontier ; Gen. Martin pursues concilia- 
 tory measures with Sevier. Bishop Asbury’s opportune arrival on Watauga. 
 Gov. Johnson directs the apprehension and arrest of Sevier ; John Sevier to tho 
 inhabitants; is again at the head of volunteers; invades and punishes tho 
 
COSl'KNTS. 
 
 XIU 
 
 Cfaerokees ; Sitico defeat ; other Indian battles. Judge Spencer issues a bench 
 warrant against Sevier, who is arrested and taken prisoner to Morganton ; is 
 pursued and rescued by his friends ; his romantic rescue ; escapes without pursuit. 
 Convention to form constitution of United States. Sevier’s disabilities removed ; 
 is elected senator from Greene, and member of congress from counties west of 
 the mountain. People south of French Broad, and west of Pigeon, form articles 
 of association; the original paper containing them ; self-government exercised. 
 Vindication of Franklin ; inhabitants pursue a pacific and conservative policy ; 
 no tendency to radicalism. General public sentiment sustained the revolters. 
 Gen. Cocke, Gen. White, Col. Ramsey and others. - - - Page 282-444 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CUMBERLAND AND THE FRANKLIN COUNTIES. 
 
 Ominous words of a young brave to Daniel Boone : Cherokees and Creeks invade 
 Cumberland ; Manseo’s station broken up ; Buchanan pursues the Indians to 
 Buck River ; Robertson makes peace with the Chickasaws. Attack upon 
 Donelson’s boats; night attack on Freeland's station. Mrs. Dunham rescues 
 her daughter; the Bluff vigorously attacked, and as bravely defended. Buchanan 
 brings oft Swanson ; remarkable recovery of David Hood. First mills erected ; 
 Kilgore’s station abandoned ; Robertson dissuades the inhabitants from breaking 
 up their stations ; obtains a cession from the Chickasaws. Capt. Pruett pursues 
 the Indians ; gallantry of Mason and Trammel ; courageous defence of Aspie 
 and others : Chickasaw boundary. Bledsoe proposes to attack the Chickamau- 
 gas ; Robertson marches ;o the Tennessee river ; attacks and defeats them at 
 Cold water. Indians and French traders routed ; army recrosses the Tennessee • 
 capture of French traders. Robertson’s official report ; disaster to Hay’s boat- 
 men ; Robertson’s explanation of his campaign ; Shannon’s expedition. Capt. 
 John Rains — his several campaigns. Indian aggression continues ; mission of 
 Hoggart and Ewing ; Robertson temporises and negotiates skilfully. Davidson 
 county militia guard the emigrants. Brown’s station attacked ; Henry Ramsey 
 shot ; Robertson’s station attacked. Arrival of Col. Pillow ; signal valour. 
 Intrepidity and suffering of the Cumberland people ; civil government at the 
 Bluff; first child bom in Nashville; bounty lands to soldiers. Character of 
 Isaac Shelby and Gen. Davidson. Nashville established ; records of Davidson 
 county court; first officers; superior court established. Adventurous spirit of 
 the pioneers — a characteristic still of the young men of Tennessee. A father's 
 lament for an expatriated and deceased son ; a victim of western adventure ; 
 treaty stipulations. Road laid off to Cumberland, by Crab Orchard and Flat 
 Rock ; Sumner county established. Petition to assembly ; currency of Cumber- 
 land ; manufacture of salt encouraged ; Adah’s provision house. Mero district 
 established ; remarkable adventure aud, tragical disaster and death of Col. Brown, 
 and the pillage of his boat ; captivity of his family ; his son is denuded, and 
 his ears bored ; affecting meeting of the captives ; are exchanged and restored ; 
 noble conduct of M’Gillevray. Gen. Martin’s campaign ; Gillespie’s station 
 taken. Records of Hawkins county ; inhabitants of Franklin return to their 
 allegiance ; discontents of the people revived. North-Carolina cedes her western 
 territory to congress. Page 445.532 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NEGOTIATION WITH SPAIN. 
 
 Spain claims all of Tennessee, west of Hiwassee river ; proposal of Mr. Jay to 
 forbear the navigation of the Mississippi excites indignation in the west. The 
 western people project a hostile invasion of Louisiana ; Gen. Wilkinson’s mission 
 to New Orleans. Mr. Jay’s advice to congress ; resolutions of congress ; Mero’s 
 policy partly successful ; diplomacy and intrigue of Spain and her colonial 
 authorities. Baron De Carondelet succeeds Mero ; M. Genet issues commissions ; 
 Carondelet renews the intrigue, to separate the west from the Atlantic states ; 
 treaty made, and boundary run. Integrity of the western settlers ; the west 
 remained unreduced -------- Page 523-540 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES, SOUTH OF OHIO RIVER. 
 
 William Blount appointed governor ; his character ; arrives in the territory, and 
 assumes its government. Mission of Major King to the Cherokees ; Blount’s 
 familiarity with Indian affairs ; is appointed superintendent of the four southern 
 tribes ; his duties were laborious, delicate and responsible. Expedition of Zae- 
 chariah Cox to Muscle Shoals ; mouth of French Broad appointed as the place 
 of rendezvous ; descends the river to Muscle Shoals ; the Glass requires him to 
 abandon his fortifications ; Cox indicted and acquitted ; repulse of the Indiana 
 at Houston’s station. Levies are sent to reinforce Gen. St. Clair ; heroism of the 
 Tiptons ; the treaty of Holston ; boundary. First printing press in Tennessee. 
 Knoxville established ; its first inhabitants and their houses. Scalp dance in 
 Cherokee towns ; Mrs. Campbell’s intrepidity. Zeigler’s station attacked ; militia 
 called out ; inadequate force iu the stations. Blount’s report of attack oa 
 Buchanan’s station. Knox and Jefferson counties laid off ; Knox county records. 
 Scouts on French Broad ; Blount’s letters ; Capt. Handley’s defeat ; his captivity 
 and restoration ; his letter during his captivity. The people incensed ; hostilities 
 continue. Jefferson county records ; Beard’s attack on the Hanging Maw. 
 Andrew Croswell’s station. Doherty invades the Cherokees ; army of 1,000 
 Cherokees march against Knoxville ; massacre at Cavet’s station ; Col. White 
 takes measures of defence. Volunteers concentrate at Ish’s ; army marches under 
 Sevier and encounters and defeats the enemy, at Etowah ; decisive victory, 
 Sevier’s report ; campaign closes ; terminates Sevier’s military life; his character. 
 Funeral procession attacked by Indians ; Spencer killed. Dreadful massacre at 
 Casteel's ; of his whole family but one survived. Scott’s boat captured, and his 
 crew killed. McClelland’s repulse by the Creeks ; murder of Valentine Sevier’s 
 family. Gen. Robertson wounded; Indian hostilities; conference with them, at 
 Nashville. Defence of Buchanan’s station ; heroic repulse at Greenfield ; Gen. 
 Hall’s gallantry. Major Beard’s route" ; Capts. Gordon and Rains overtake 
 and defeat the Indians. Robertson conceives the design of invading the five 
 lower towns ; route to them discovered. Rendezvous of the volunteers near 
 Nashville ; order from Gen. Robertson to Major Ore. Army crosses the Ten 
 nessee ; battle of Nickajack ; Indiaus reinforced from Running Water Town. 
 The heroine of Nickajack ; surprise of the Indians ; Col. Whitley’s new mode 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XV 
 
 ©f warfare ; Major Ore’s official report. Nickajaek expedition ; Robertson 
 vindicates the invasion. Original letter of Valentine Sevier. Results of the 
 Etowah and Nickajaek expeditions. Territorial legislature meets ; forward 
 memorial to congress ; legislative council ; parliamentary rules, bills ; Knox 
 county members absent on a scout. Dr. White elected the territorial delegate ; 
 one shilling fine assessed on absent members ; primitive times in Knoxville. 
 H„ L. White appointed private secretary of Gov. Blount ; wages of members. 
 First public printer appointed ; difficulty in adjusting taxes. Resolution prepa- 
 ratory to a state organization ; assembly prorogued. Sevier county ; its extensive 
 jurisdiction. Knoxville the ancient capital of Tennessee. Heroism of Mrs. 
 Mann. Blount’s message ; flattering state of the finances ; Blount county 
 established. Gov.Vanderhorst suggests the opening of roads from South-Carolina 
 to Tennessee. Territorial government terminates ; court of Gov. Blount. 
 
 Page 541-646 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 Census of the territory ; Blount’s proclamation ; convention of Tennessee meets at 
 Knoxville ; Blount elected president ; form a constitution ; debates of the con- 
 vention ; decision on several questions. Andrew Jackson suggests the name 
 Tennessee to new state ; constitution forwarded to. Secretary Pickering. First 
 legislature of Tennessee ; John Sevier inaugurated first governor. Senators to 
 congress elected ; legislative address to each senator ; his reply ; judges and 
 other officers elected ; instructions to senators. Robertson and Montgomery 
 counties laid off ; Carter and Grainger counties ; finances. Action of congress 
 concerning the admission of Tennessee into the union ; Washington’s message ; 
 reports of congressional committees. Gov. Sevier convenes the legislature ; 
 his message ; reply of the legislature ; act providing for election of electors of 
 president and vice-president. Andrew Jackson elected first representative to 
 congress ; supports the claims of the volunteers ; his speech in their behalf. — 
 Bear barbacued on the ice. Federal troops at Knoxville; vindication of state 
 rights. “ Campbell” enlarges upon the argument; subject continued. Action 
 of congress on the land claims of Tennessee. Louis Philippe in Knoxville. 
 Mail facilities in Tennessee; legislature meets. Cocke county established. — 
 Coxe’s expedition prevented by Col. Butler. U. S. commissioners hold a treaty 
 at Tellico. Sevier appoints agents to represent Tennessee ; they attend the 
 treaty ; Cherokee boundary. Original letter of Gen. Washington ; list of senators 
 and representatives from Tennessee, in congress. Blount’s impeachment ; is 
 acquitted; vindication of Blount; his decease. Legislature meets; governor’s 
 message. Smith, Wilson and Williamson counties laid off; sons of Tennessee 
 in other states. Governor Sevier’s court ; his country residence ; his character- 
 Decease of Sevier and Robertson ; they deserve a cenotaph. Appeal to the pub- 
 lic spirit of Tennessee ; characteristics of the pioneers ; frontier life ; manners, 
 society and education ; their costume, amusements and pursuits ; dwelling-houses 
 and homes of the frontier people ; great adaptation of the soil to the production 
 of Indian corn ; its various uses. The sports of the backwoodsman ; barring 
 out “the master.” A Christmas on the frontier; rural frolics. Stamina of early 
 
XVI 
 
 COSIESTS ERRATA. 
 
 Tennessee character ; dearth of the means of moral and intellectual education. 
 Nashville a great source of improvement to the country; her merchants skiifal, 
 enlightened and public-spirited. Patriotism of the people a principle deep, strong, 
 active, full of vitality and vigour. Great religious revival ; first camp meeting. 
 Frontier education ; the illiterate not necessarily ignorant ; general intelligence 
 of the frontier people. Power of vigorous thought ; moral training of the fire- 
 side ; home influence; the pleasant charities of life. Lofty state pride of the 
 Tennessean. Appendix ; county boundaries. .... Page 647-744 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 The William Trousdale mentioned on page 611 was not William Trousdale, lat<? 
 
 Governor of Tennessee. 
 
 In the fifth line, on page 509, erase “ the late.” 
 
 On the eighteenth line of page 241, add ere to Sawy, so as to read Sawyers. 
 
INTRODUCTION.* 
 
 When Columbus, in the name of their Catholic majesties, 
 took formal possession of San Salvador, the natives of that 
 island stood around and gazed upon the strange ceremony in 
 silent admiration. A feeling, somewhat dissimilar, but scarcely 
 less intense, would be excited in the bosom of an aboriginal 
 inhabitant of Tennessee, could he now revisit this theatre of 
 his nation’s existence. Could he stand upon an eminence, 
 near the ancient capital of the state, and survey the scenes 
 now presented to his view, he would notice with surprise the 
 magic changes effected in this land of his fathers. The soli- 
 tude of his native forest has given place to the industry and 
 enterprise of a strange people ; its silence is dissipated by the 
 hum of business, and its quiet disturbed by the incessant toil 
 and the active pursuits of civilized life. The ancient woods 
 have been felled, and the wilderness converted to the purposes 
 of agriculture. A town has risen up, as if by enchantment, 
 presenting to his astonished view the evidences which sur- 
 round him, of wealth, of commerce, of learning and the arts. 
 Associating the awakened recollections of his boyhood with 
 the transmutation before him, he would withdraw from the 
 unwelcome contrast, and, chagrined and sorrowful, seek else- 
 where some solace to his wounded spirit. Repairing to the 
 place where once stood the wigwam of his father, he finds 
 erected over it the stately mansion of the white man. He 
 recollects to have seen his chieftain recording his victories 
 upon a tree, or perpetuating the annals of his tribe in rude 
 hieroglyphics upon the mountain granite. These vestiges, 
 
 * Much of this Introduction is taken from the “ Address ” delivered by this ■writer 
 at the organization of the “ East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society.” 
 
 1 
 
2 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 too, have disappeared. The war-paths of his ancestors have 
 been converted into the channels of a gainful commerce ; in 
 the place of their extinguished council fires, are seen the 
 courts of justice ; and amidst the ruins of their Pagan tem- 
 ples, churches, consecrated to the worship of the true God, 
 elevate their spires in the direction of the Christian’s hope — 
 to heaven. 
 
 This sudden transition from barbarism and rudeness to 
 civilization and refinement, it is the business of history to ex- 
 amine, investigate and record. Labouring in this extended 
 field, the curious student will be carried back to that period 
 when the “ great West ” was 
 
 “ A solitude of vast extent, untouched 
 By hand of art ; where nature §ow’d herself, 
 
 And reap’d her crops 
 
 when, as yet, no Anglo-American had penetrated the dark 
 recesses of the Alleghany, or explored the unknown wilds 
 now embraced within the limits of Tennessee. He will be 
 led to analyze the first promptings of that spirit of adventure 
 which incited the pioneers of the country to leave their homes 
 of peace, safety and comfort, to endure the toils and priva- 
 tions of a mountain desert, to brave the dangers of an un- 
 known wilderness, and to disregard the perils attending the 
 formation of a remote and feeble settlement upon the bor- 
 ders of numerous and warlike tribes, jealous of their ap- 
 proach, and determined to resist it. Extending his researches, 
 he will find that no section of the United States has fur- 
 nished more of interesting and attractive incident, than is 
 presented from a review of the first exploration and settle- 
 ment of Tennessee. The tales of romance are scarcely equal 
 to the patient perseverance, enterprise and hardihood, the 
 daring heroism and chivalrous adventure, of its inhabitants. 
 Savage barbarity drenched the frontier with the blood of the 
 first emigrants, and the hardy soldier, alike with the helples- 
 female and the child, became victims to the scalping knife 
 and the tomahawk of the Indian. The industrious husband- 
 man derived no immunity from the common danger, in his 
 peaceful pursuits, but found a grave where he hoped to gather 
 a harvest ; and the secluded and quiet cabin, lighted by 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 3 
 
 savage incendiaries, became the funeral pile of its occupants. 
 Every valley became the avenue of Indian aggression, and 
 every mountain a lurking place for the merciless Cherokee. 
 Nothing intimidated by these circumstances, the constant 
 attendants of the pioneers of the wilderness, they became, in 
 their turn, the invaders ; and on the rugged banks of the Ken- 
 hawa, in the wilds of Cumberland and on the plains of Coosa, 
 we hear of their daring adventure, their prowess and their 
 triumph. 
 
 But the proudest recollections are awakened, when we re- 
 cur to the part taken by the infant settlements on Holston, 
 Watauga, and Nollichuckee, in that “ perilous conflict that 
 tried men’s souls,” and at its darkest period, when the confi- 
 dence of the firmest friends of independence was shaken, 
 when British valour and the treachery of the disaffected in the 
 South had given an ascendency to the royal army, and 
 threatened an easy conquest of other sections of the Confede- 
 racy. South-Carolina was scarcely longer considered an 
 American state, but a subdued British colony ; — her lion- 
 hearted and invincible whigs, indignant but not dispirited, 
 retiring before the invading enemy, had sought an asylum 
 in the frontier of the West. It was at this crisis the pioneers 
 of Tennessee — though by their remote and insulated position 
 secure from foreign invasion, and exposed at home to the 
 cruelties of a savage foe — evinced their devotion to the cause 
 of their country and of freedom. At this crisis, western patri- 
 otism projected the most daring expedition, and western va- 
 lour achieved the brightest victory, which adorn the page of 
 our revolutionary history. Free as the air of their mountains, 
 and indignant that the land of freemen should be polluted by 
 the footsteps of an invader, the patriots of the West flew, 
 uninvited, to the rescue of their bleeding country — ascending 
 the Alleghany, and precipitating themselves from its summit, 
 they overwhelmed the enemy with discomfiture and death. 
 
 The early civil and political history of Tennessee presents, 
 also, a fruitful and interesting subject of investigation. A 
 feeble and remote settlement of hunters, herdsmen and small 
 farmers — dissociated from Virginia and North-Carolina by 
 the intervention of a desert mountain, not embraced within 
 
4 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the ascertained boundaries, and beyond the reach of the ju- 
 risdiction of either province, without its laws, its courts and 
 its protection — this primitive, simple and virtuous commu- 
 nity, formed a civil and military organization adapted to 
 their peculiar condition, and, under the unpretending name 
 of the Watauga Association, laid the foundation of the future 
 Tennessee. Assuming for themselves the name of Washing- 
 ton District — the first thus entitled to the credit of doing this 
 honour to the father of his country — at the dawn of Ameri- 
 can independence these pioneers of the West applied to the 
 Council of North-Carolina to be annexed to that province. 
 They give as reasons, in support of their application, that 
 “they had already organized their militia, and were willing 
 to become a party in the existing war, acknowledging 
 themselves indebted to the American colonies their full pro- 
 portion of the Continental expense, and pledging their deter- 
 mination to adhere “ to the glorious cause in which we are 
 now struggling, and to contribute to the welfare of our own 
 or of ages yet to come.” This pledge was most nobly 
 redeemed, — the revolution was effected, and independence 
 achieved. 
 
 Become thus a colonial appendage of North-Carolina, 
 consisting of intrepid adventurers from every section of the 
 country, and bound together by no principles of union but a 
 sense of common danger, they were ceded by the mother state, 
 soon after, to the Congress of the Confederacy, and thus 
 reduced to a condition of political orphanage. Struggling 
 with the difficulties attendant on such a state, its onward 
 march may be traced, with much interest and curiosity, 
 through the period of its existence as the State of Franklin. 
 This incipient effort of the western people to exercise the 
 “ divine right” of self-government — this first combination of 
 the discordant materials, of which the trans-montane com- 
 munity then consisted — their crude and immature legislation, 
 the disorder and tumult which resulted, their return to 
 their former allegiance, and the overthrow of the new com- 
 monwealth, — are all fruitful themes of research and enquiry. 
 From the investigation of these, the philosophic historian will 
 be furnished with irrefragable proofs of the adequacy of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5 
 
 people, under tlie most unfavourable circumstances, to gov- 
 ern themselves, and will be enabled to trace the important 
 bearing these unhappy commotions had upon great national 
 interests, till then not perceived in their true light. 
 
 Peace, order and law, succeeding to tumult, and chaos, 
 and violence, the character of the partizan became merged 
 in that of the citizen and patriot ; and throughout the subse- 
 quent stages of political organization, whether as a territory 
 of the United States, or as one of the independent sovereign- 
 ties constituting the American Union, we are proud to find 
 the impress of the valour, virtue and patriotism of the first 
 emigrants, stamped upon their descendants, who, obeying the 
 injunction, 
 
 “ Let no mean hope your souls enslave ; 
 
 Be independent, generous, brave ; 
 
 Tour fathers such example gave, 
 
 And such revere !” 
 
 have, in all after times, emulated the heroism exhibited by 
 their ancestors in their own wilderness and on the heights of 
 King’s Mountain ; and animated by the same lofty spirit of 
 freedom and independence, and glowing with the holiest im- 
 pulses of patriotism, have displayed at Tohopeka and 
 Emuckfaw, in the fastnesses of Florida, on the plains of the 
 Mississippi, at the Alamo and St. Jacinto, under the walls of 
 Monterey, at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco and Cha- 
 pultepec, the same fearless disregard of danger, the same in- 
 extinguishable love of freedom, the same pure devotion to 
 liberty, the same undying thirst for glory. 
 
 The soldiery of Tennessee have, under the lead of her own 
 Jackson, hallowed the plains of Chalmette with a renown as 
 extensive and immortal as the channel and the sources of 
 the Mississippi. The lustre of the escutcheon of Tennessee 
 has grown brighter wherever they were present, whether 
 serving in the ranks, or leading the battalions and columns 
 of the Volunteer State to the assault of a fortress or against 
 the bristling bayonets of an enemy. On the fields of battle 
 where the riflemen of Tennessee have fought, new laurels 
 have been won, fresh victories have been achieved, and un- 
 
6 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 dying glory acquired, worthy of her ancient fame and her 
 deathless renown. 
 
 Virginia has been called the mother of statesmen. Ten- 
 nessee, with equal truth, has been called the mother of states. 
 From her prolific bosom, more than from any other state in 
 the Union, have been sent forth annually, for half a century, 
 numerous colonies for the peopling of the great valley of the 
 Mississippi. Her emigrants are found everywhere in Ala- 
 bama, Florida, Northern Georgia and Mississippi. The early 
 population of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, went from her 
 boundaries ; while the entire Northwest of the United States, 
 and the Pacific possessions, have been enriched from year to 
 year by swarms of her enterprising and adventurous people 
 from the parent hive. 
 
 Tennessee has already assumed an elevated rank among 
 her sister republics, tier future must be prouder and even 
 magnificent. From the amount of her population, now num- 
 bering more than a million,* from the extent of her territory, 
 
 * Tennessee Statistics of 1850, in population, agriculture, manufactures, c be. 
 
 The relative rank of Tennessee, as compared with other states of the Union, is: 
 
 In area of square miles, Tennessee is the seventeenth, containing 45,600 square 
 miles. 
 
 In population, the fifth, and the second of the Western States — being exceeded 
 only by New- York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio. 
 
 In number of inhabitants to the square mile, the sixteenth. 
 
 In ratio of deaths to the number of living in 1850, the fifth — being exceeded 
 even in a cholera year only by Wisconsin, Vermont, Iowa and Michigan. 
 
 In number of acres of improved land, the eighth. 
 
 In value of agriculture, implements, &c., the eleventh. 
 
 In value of live stock, the seventh. 
 
 In number of bushels of Indian corn, the fifth — being exceeded only by Ohio, 
 Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana — the product of Tennessee, in 1850, being 
 52,131,863 bushels. In the census of 1840, Tennessee was the first in the pro- 
 duct of this grain. 
 
 In tobacco, the fourth — being exceeded only by Virginia, Kentucky and Mary- 
 land — the crop of 1850 being 20,144,480 pounds. 
 
 In number of bales of cotton, the fifth — the amount of the year’s crop being 
 112,625 bales ; being exceeded only by Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South- 
 Carolina. 
 
 In the production of wool, the eleventh. 
 
 In the value of home made manufactures, the first state in the Union, amount- 
 ing, in 1850, to $3,168,116. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 7 
 
 and from her peculiar geographical location, touching upon 
 eight members of the Union, and in close propinquity to three 
 others, she will in all future time exert a weighty influence 
 * upon coterminous states, as well as upon the country at large. 
 She has already furnished two Presidents of the U. States— 
 Jackson and Polk — whose iron will and energy, whose ability 
 and virtue, have stamped their administrations as worthy 
 of the state, honourable and glorious to themselves, and 
 eminently useful to the country and to the world. White 
 and Grundy have added dignity and effulgence to the United 
 States Senate ; and a long list of statesmen, and jurists, and 
 patriots, and heroes, have adorned the public councils, the 
 bar, the bench, and in peace and war given eclat and celebrity 
 to Tennessee. This relative consequence will become still 
 more considerable when a concentration of the intelligence, 
 and public spirit, and enterprise of her citizens, shall have 
 more fully developed her physical and commercial resources. 
 Her history is becoming, therefore, every day more inter- 
 esting and more important. What visions of the future 
 greatness and glory of their country, would have burst upon 
 the view of Boone and his associates, could they have con- 
 ceived, that their lonely and toilsome passage through the 
 Apalachian mountain should open up a communication to 
 the West, for that flood of emigration, which, restrained for 
 a time within narrower limits, at length broke over every im- 
 pediment, and extending further, and wider, and onward, has 
 overspread the vast valley of the Mississippi, and crossed, in 
 its mighty sweep of adventurous enterprise, the mountain de- 
 sert and the arid plain, to the shores of the distant Pacific? 
 How must the heart of Robertson have thrilled with honest 
 exultation, when he saw his feeble settlement on Watauga 
 expand and grow to its present dimensions ; and what rays of 
 comfort would have cheered the evening of his life, could he 
 have realized that Tennessee, in eighteen hundred and fifty, 
 
 In the value of cotton manufactures, the eleventh. 
 
 In the value of woollen goods, the tenth. 
 
 In the value of pig iron, the fourth. 
 
 In the value of wrought iron, the sixth. 
 
 [Extracted from Nashville American ; 
 
8 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 had become in population the fifth state in the Union, and 
 the second of its western division ? With what zeal should 
 we of the present day cherish a grateful and hallowed re- 
 membrance of the wisdom, patriotism and enterprise, which 
 have bequeathed to us such a country, and endowed it with 
 the “ patrimonial blessings of wise institutions, of liberty and 
 of religion ?” How keen should be our regret that we know 
 so little of those who have done so much for us? With one 
 brilliant exception, no one has attempted to perpetuate the 
 achievements of the pioneers of Tennessee. An adopted son 
 is the only one who has recorded her annals. In his history 
 the late Judge Haywood has left a monument of industry, of 
 research and of talents, scarcely less imperishable or honour- 
 able to himself, than the distinction acquired in another de- 
 partment of science — of being designated, by a competent 
 authority, the Mansfield of America. But it is no qualifica- 
 tion of this just and sincere tribute to his memory to add, that 
 he has left much of the field before us unoccupied, unexplored 
 and unknown. Some of the most brilliant incidents in our 
 early history are unrecorded, which, if not soon rescued from 
 oblivion, will be lost to the present generation, posterity and 
 the world. We design, by this remark, no imputation of in- 
 difference or neglect on the part of those who have gone 
 before us. The omission may be traced to a more obvious 
 cause. The condition of the country at its first settlement, 
 created a continued demand for exertion in the active pur- 
 suits of life. Cut offby their local situation from all foreign 
 sources of supply, the first adventurers depended upon their 
 own labour in their own country, for the procurement of sub- 
 sistence. A wilderness was to be reclaimed to the use of the 
 husbandman, a border warfare was to be kept up, defences 
 were to be erected, and the foundations of government were to 
 be laid. From the pressure of these varied demands upon 
 their time, no leisure was allowed to record their achieve- 
 ments, to perpetuate the tales of their privations and suffer- 
 ings, to narrate the deliberations of their sages, or the prowess 
 of their heroes. This duty has devolved upon their grate- 
 ful posterity. The task, however, is not without its difficul- 
 ties. Much is already forgotten, and has faded from the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 9 
 
 minds of the oldest inhabitant ; much is indistinctly remem- 
 bered, or handed down by vague and uncertain tradition. 
 Bat difficult as it is, the duty has been attempted. To have 
 shrunk from its performance, were a parricidal ingratitude. 
 Its omission would have been criminal. 
 
 In the investigations which have been made of the history 
 of Tennessee, and the result of which is given in these pages, 
 the usual assistance has not been derived from the archives 
 of state and the portfolios of ministers. Sources more hum- 
 ble, but not less authentic, have supplied this defect. The 
 writer has procured the narratives of the older citizens, who 
 have, “ ab urbe condita,” resided in the country and partici- 
 pated in its settlement and defence, and each of whom may 
 truthfully say of the events he narrates, “ quorum magna 
 pars yah” He has examined the papers of their deceased 
 contemporaries, which have survived the ravages of time and 
 accident. He has, with untiring perseverance, searched for 
 and obtained “the private files of the leaders of the day.” 
 In the loft of a humble cabin, in a secluded neighbourhood, 
 he was so fortunate as to find many of the official papers of 
 the State of Franklin ; in another, the lost constitution of 
 the inchoate or proposed State of Frankland. In the garret 
 of an old uninhabited mansion, in Knoxville, was found an 
 antique trunk, containing the Sevier papers. From like 
 sources, much of the matter in this volume has been pro- 
 cured. But these manuscripts, valuable and interesting as 
 they are, furnished an inadequate supply of material neces- 
 sary to form the Annals of Tennessee. The deficit has 
 been made up by oral communications to this writer from 
 the aged pioneer, whom he has visited in health and watched 
 over in sickness, and from whose dying couch he has received, 
 as a rich legacy, an account of the services of his youth and 
 the exploits of his manhood. He has seen the eye of the 
 aged narrator sparkle with unwonted brilliancy during the 
 recital, the heart of the infirm pulsate with unnatural vigour, 
 and the spirit of the decrepid warrior animated with the fire 
 of youthful heroism. 
 
 Narratives, thus obtained, are the authority for many of 
 the incidents which will be hereafter detailed. Their fre- 
 
10 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quency and minuteness will, to some readers, be tedious and 
 uninteresting. When known to be authentic, the writer con- 
 ceives them to be worthy of preservation in the annals of his 
 countrymen. 
 
 Intimately blended with the general history of Tennessee, 
 is the biography of the prominent actors in the interesting 
 scenes it records. We are proud to mention, among the 
 patriot sages of the country, the names of Carter, Cocke, 
 Campbell, the Blounts, Jackson, White, Claiborne, Roane, 
 Scott, McNairy and Trimble ; among the apostles of religion 
 and learning, Doak, Barton, Houston, Craighead, Carrick, 
 Brooks and Stone. Our state pride is justly excited when, 
 among American worthies, we enumerate Boone, Christian, 
 the Seviers, the Robertsons, the Shelbys, the Tiptons — names 
 dear to the country and known to fame. Yet, where will 
 be found a detailed account of their services, their exploits, 
 or their sufferings ? Where will be read the affecting story 
 of the patriotic and brave Tipton, who, when peace was 
 restored to his own frontier, gallantly led his soldiers to the 
 standard of his country under St. Clair, and fell fighting in 
 the unequal conflict, refusing to leave the field while an 
 enemy survived him? Who has heard the last injunction to 
 his family, given apparently under the presentiment of cer- 
 tain death ? Who has read the biography of Shelby, whose 
 youthful patriotism first glowed under the genial influence of 
 a Carolina sky, but retained its ardour undiminished by the 
 cold and chilling temperature of a Canadian winter ? And 
 who has been the biographer of our own Sevier, that noble 
 chieftain that led the pioneers of Tennessee to battle and to 
 victory ? Who has recited his civic deeds ? or who, when a 
 grateful Tennessean, wandering over the plains of Alabama, 
 enquires in his lonely exile for the grave of the first general 
 and the first governor in the West, can point to the place of 
 his entombment ? On what field of victory has Tennessee 
 gratitude erected his cenotaph ? 
 
 “ How died that hero ? In the field, with banners o’er him thrown ? 
 
 "With trumpets in his falling ear by charging squadrons blown ? 
 
 With scattered foemen flying fast and fearfully before him ? 
 
 With shouts of triumph swelling round, and brave men bending o’er him ? 
 
 He died not thus ; no war note round him rang ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 11 
 
 No warriors underneath his eyes in harness’d squadrons sprang ; 
 
 Alone he perished in the land he sav’d, 
 
 And where in war the victor stood, in peace he found a grave. 
 
 Ah, let the tear flow freely now, it will not awake the sleeper, 
 
 And higher as ye pile his tomb, his slumber shall be deeper. 
 
 Freemen may sound the solemn dirge — the funeral chant be spoken ; 
 
 The quiet of the dead is not by idle mockeries broken ! 
 
 Yet, let Tennessee’S banner droop above the fallen chief, 
 
 And let the mountaineer’s dark eye be dim with earnest grief ; 
 
 For who will stand as he has stood, with willing heart and hand, 
 
 To wrestle well with freedom’s foes, — defender of his land !” 
 
 To remedy and supply, in some small degree, the defects 
 and omissions thus alluded to, is the object and design of the 
 succeeding pages. In the execution of this purpose, the writer 
 proposes to give — 
 
 . 1st. The discovery and exploration of the country now 
 known as the State of Tennessee, the first approaches of 
 civilization to it, and some account of the contiguous Indian 
 tribes. 
 
 2d. Its settlement and government under the Watauga 
 Association. 
 
 3d. As a part of North-Carolina, embracing the participa- 
 tion of the pioneers of Tennessee in the war of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution. 
 
 4th. The history of the revolt of the three western coun- 
 ties, and of the insurrectionary State of Franklin. 
 
 5th. The history of the Cumberland settlements, and of the 
 Franklin counties, after they returned to their allegiance to 
 the mother state. 
 
 6th. The subject of the relations with Spain, and the ne- 
 gotiation with that Power, relating to boundaries and the 
 navigation of the Mississippi river. 
 
 7th. The territory of the United States south of the River 
 Ohio. 
 
 8th. The State of Tennessee to the end of the last century. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . i 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANNALS OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DISCOVERY OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 As has been already remarked, Tennessee is, in popula- 
 tion, the fifth state in the Union. Her geographical position 
 is peculiar, and before the annexation of Texas, and the 
 acquisition of New Mexico and California, entitled her to 
 the name of the Central State. She is one of the rapidly 
 increasing family of daughters which have sprung from the 
 good old thirteen ; and though not a separate and distinct 
 political organization at the eventful period of separation 
 from the crown of Great Britain, it is a proud reflection 
 that Tennessee is closely connected and directly identified 
 with the cause of freedom and independence, and with the 
 American Revolution, by a mournful but glorious consan- 
 guinity. 
 
 The adventures and perils of Tennessee pioneers, their 
 hearty sacrifices for the. general good, their character for 
 conduct and courage in war, their uniform devotion to the 
 honour and greatness of the country, their rapid advance- 
 ments in the arts of peace, in population and political influ- 
 ence, and the impress of their wisdom, valour and patriot- 
 ism which they have stamped upon their descendants, invite 
 to the early history of their state the attention of every 
 American, and secures the deepest regard of every Tennes- 
 sean. 
 
 To examine these various topics satisfactorily, it will be 
 necessary to look a little into the original condition of tha 
 country, its first discovery and exploration, its aboriginal 
 inhabitants, and the approaches of civilized man to it ; since, 
 
14 
 
 CABOT SEES THE COAST OP NORTH-CAROLINA. 
 
 without this examination, feeble and inadequate indeed will 
 be our conceptions of the adventure displayed, the hardships 
 suffered, the dangers encountered, the services rendered, the 
 conquests achieved, the glory won, by those who have effected 
 the transmutation from rudeness to refinement, from barbar- 
 ism to civilization, and from heathenism to Christianity. 
 
 Postponing to another place any remarks upon the bounda- 
 ries, the physical history, and the aboriginal population of 
 Tenuessee, it is proposed here to trace the approaches of 
 civilization to its several boundaries in the exact order of 
 their occurrence ; in doing which, its first discovery, explo- 
 ration and settlement, will be the more clearly delineated 
 and the more easily understood. 
 
 Of the country included within the limits of the present 
 State of Tennessee, little was known for more than two 
 hundred and thirty years after the discovery of America. 
 Until that time, with perhaps a single exception, the foot of 
 no European adventurer had touched her soil. The vast 
 interior of North America was a terra incognita, till long 
 after the skill, and science, and cupidity, and arms of Spain, 
 had crossed the continent further south, and reached the 
 shores of the Pacific ocean. 
 
 After the conquest of Mexico, achieved by Cortes with a 
 handful of soldiers, vastly disproportioned to the population 
 and resources of that immense empire, and after the capture 
 and execution of the Inca and the subjugation of Peru by 
 Pizarro, with a force still smaller,, the fame of their victo- 
 ries, the rapidity and ease with which they had been ob- 
 tained, their sudden acquirement of incalculable treasure, 
 and the imperishable renown of these skilful and indomita- 
 ble leaders, excited afresh the spirit of exploration, adventure 
 and acquisition. 
 
 While Spanish discoveries and Spanish conquests had 
 reached across the American continent, and extended along 
 the Pacific coast from Chili to California, little was known 
 of that immense country north of the Gulf of Mexico. As 
 early as 1497, the coast of our parent state, North-Carolina, 
 had been seen by Gaboto,* a Venetian adventurer, who. 
 
 * Anglice — Cabot. 
 
Narvaez’s invasion. 
 
 15 
 
 under the auspices of Henry VII. of England, and the pa- 
 tronage of Bristol merchants, undertook to prosecute further 
 discoveries in the New World. He returned, however, with- 
 out attempting the conquest of the natives or the formation 
 of a settlement. In 1512, Juan Ponce De Leon visited the 
 continent, in north latitude 30®, 8 1 , and discovered a country 
 of vast and unknown extent, to which, from the abundance 
 of flowers, and from its being first seen on Palm Sunday, 
 (Pascha Florida,) he gave the name of Florida.* Being 
 afterwards invested by the King of Spain with the govern- 
 ment of the country he had discovered, he attempted the 
 erection of a town and fortress, but was assailed with such 
 vigour by the natives, as to compel him to abandon the 
 country. The Indians used poisoned arrows. De Leon died 
 from the wounds received in the encounter, and lost most of 
 his men. Similar disasters seem to have overtaken the ad- 
 venturous leaders who, after De Leon, attempted the subju- 
 gation of Florida. f 
 
 In 1524, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon effected a landing fur- 
 ther east, upon the coast of what is now Georgia or South- 
 Carolina. Two hundred of his soldiers penetrated a few 
 leagues in the interior, while he remained with the rest of 
 his force to guard his ships. The Indians attacked unexpect- 
 edly the detachment he had sent out, and massacred the 
 whole ; then falling suddenly upon the guard near the ships, 
 succeeded in driving them from the coast. The few survi- 
 vors returned to San Domingo. 
 
 In 1528, Pamphilo de Narvaez sailed from Cuba, having 
 on board four hundred foot and twenty horse, for the con- 
 quest “ of all the lands lying from the River of Palms to the 
 Cape of Florida,” for which he had obtained a grant from 
 Charles V. He anchored on the eastern coast, landed his 
 troops, and took possession of the country without opposi- 
 tion. But,. marching into the interior, he at length reached 
 Apalachee, where he encamped several days. The village 
 had offered no resistance to the Spaniards, but this inoffen- 
 
 * From this discovery by De Leon, Spain claimed Florida, as England did from 
 that made, in 1497, by Cabot. 
 
 \ For a long time, all the country south of Newfoundland was called Florida. 
 
16 
 
 NARVAEZ SHIPWRECKED. 
 
 sive spirit did not continue long. The natives were warlike 
 and intrepid, harassed the camp of Narvaez by day and 
 night, and compelled him to leave it. His march was beset 
 by hordes of savages “of gigantic height ; they had bows of 
 enormous size, from which they discharged arrows with such 
 force as to penetrate armour at the distance of two hundred 
 yards.”* After the loss of many of his soldiers and horses, 
 and the endurance of incredible hardships, “ the hopes of 
 wealth and conquest were at an end,” and, coming to an arm 
 of the sea, Narvaez, despairing of reaching his ships by land, 
 determined to construct small barques, and save the remnant 
 of his little army from the ruin that menaced it. His frail 
 barques were shipwrecked, and nearly all of his followers, 
 with himself, found a watery grave. Five only survived the 
 disasters by land and sea. 
 
 We have thus seen the unfortunate termination of several 
 well arranged enterprises, undertaken by able and experi- 
 enced leaders, and promising, under Castilian courage and 
 discipline, a certain, if not an easy conquest, of the original 
 inhabitants of the country. The spirit of the native Ameri- 
 can population seems no where to have been so energetically 
 and so successfully exerted against the invaders of their coun- 
 try. A very different result had followed the standard of 
 the conqueror of Mexico. He, under circumstances scarcely 
 more favourable, had met and discomfited numerous armies 
 of native warriors, fighting for their homes, their monarch 
 and their religion, at Tobasco and Tlascala, and, with a 
 courage bordering upon temerity, had pushed his conquest 
 to the palace of Montezuma. Had the countries south of 
 Tennessee been inhabited by the spiritless and imbecile 
 natives of Mexico, which it was the good fortune of Cortes 
 to meet and conquer, it is not difficult to conceive that some 
 intrepid Castilian would have anticipated the laurels won by 
 Anglo-American prowess on the hardly contested battle- 
 grounds of Tamotlee, Etowah, Nickajack, Emuckfaw and 
 Tohopeka, and erected the standard of the Cross upon the 
 demolished council houses and ruined temples of the ances- 
 tors of Oceola, To-mo-chi-chi and Oconostota. Different, 
 
 * Irving. 
 
FERDINAND DE SOTO. 
 
 17 
 
 indeed, was the character of the aborigines north of the 
 Gulf of Mexico, at the period of which we are treating. A 
 manly firmness of purpose, a wise union in counsel, and a 
 determined bravery in action, enabled them to repel every 
 hostile invasion of their country, and to maintain nearly un- 
 disturbed possession of it for two centuries after the dismem- 
 berment of the Mexican confederacy, and after the Children 
 of the Sun had been driven into exile or reduced to an igno- 
 ble vassalage. The latter are humbled and nearly extinct, 
 while the former retain even yet something of their original 
 character ; though restrained, they are not subjugated — 
 though curbed, their spirit is yet independent and free. 
 
 Baffled and defeated as were the Spaniards, in the several 
 attempts of invasion and conquest which have been thus 
 slightly sketched, they projected further enterprises, upon a 
 still larger theatre, under more imposing and magnificent 
 appointments, and, if possible, under more distinguished and 
 chivalrous leaders. The passion of the age was war and 
 conquest ; the vice of the times was wealth and the pre- 
 cious metals. In all these lay the path to preferment and 
 distinction, and the cavaliers of Spain thrust themselves once 
 more into it. Allured by the hope of finding gold and silver 
 in the interior country, or incited by the thirst for glory, 
 which had crowned their successes elsewhere — perhaps cha* 
 grined at the failure which had marked all previous efforts 
 to achieve the conquest of Florida — they determined to in- 
 vade the continent with such a force as would ensure its 
 accomplishment. Ferdinand De Soto projected the expedi- 
 tion, and received from the Emperor Charles V. permis- 
 sion to undertake the conquest. He was invested 
 with ample power, civil and military ; and from the 
 official relation he bore to the Island of Cuba, was enabled 
 to command all the means necessary for the meditated inva- 
 sion. A companion in arms of Pizarro, he had assisted that 
 renowned leader in the conquest of Peru, and commanded in 
 person the squadron of horse that captured the unfortunate 
 Inca, Atahualpa, and put his army to flight. Having thus 
 added to his fame for courage and adroitness as a soldier, the 
 weight of experience and success as a commander ; having 
 2 
 
J8 FERDINAND DE SOTO HIS ARMY. 
 
 received the most signal marks of his monarch’s confidence 
 and favour ; and having, in addition to the control of the 
 resources of Cuba, the avails of his Peruvian conquests, 
 Ferdinand De Soto, in less than a year from the date of his 
 first proclamation, found himself at the head of nine hun- 
 dred and fifty Spaniards, anxious to serve under him in his 
 adventurous expedition. The chivalry, rank and wealth of 
 Spain entered into his army. “Never had a more gallant 
 and brilliant body of men offered themselves for the New 
 World.”* 
 
 In addition to the forces brought from Spain, the arma- 
 ment of De Soto, by recruits and volunteers in Cuba, was 
 increased to a thousand men, besides the marines. There 
 were also three hundred and fifty horses. 
 
 The account here given of the outfit and composition of 
 the army of De Soto, and the details which follow of his 
 marches, his disasters, and the melancholy fate of himself 
 and his men, will not be considered foreign to the purpose of 
 these annals, when it is remembered that the country they 
 invaded, and through which they marched, has since been 
 invaded successfully by Tennessee enterprise, and won by 
 Tennessee valour, and hallowed by Tennessee blood ; and 
 that the Indian tribes, who attacked them soon after they 
 landed at Tampa Bay, who harassed them on their march, 
 obstructed their passage, broke in upon their bivouac, an- 
 noyed their camp, resisted them in battle, and finally forced 
 them to leave their country uncolonized and unsubdued, have 
 long since yielded to the prowess and arms of American 
 pioneers. The minutiae of the track pursued by the invaders 
 will be excused for the further reason, that it has been con- 
 jectured, with much plausibility, that De Soto was the first 
 European or civilized adventurer whose foot touched the 
 soil, whose eye surveyed the vast wilderness, whose heart 
 expanded with the contemplation of the magnificent scenery, 
 and whose senses were regaled by the influences of the 
 delightful climate of Tennessee. It may be added, in sorrow, 
 that though not the first to see and cross her great mediter- 
 
 Irving. 
 
DE SOTO AT TAMPA BAY. 
 
 19 
 
 ranean boundary — the Mississippi — he was the first to find 
 an inhospitable grave beneath its turbid waters. 
 
 Sailing from Havana on the 12th of May, 1539, the 
 c squadron, containing the army of De Soto, arrived in 
 l fifteen days at Espiritu Santo Bay, about half way 
 down the western side of the peninsula of Florida. A de- 
 tachment of three hundred men were landed, and, finding no 
 Indians, they remained on shore all night in a state of care- 
 less security. Towards morning they were vigorously at- 
 tacked by a great number of savages, and forced to retreat 
 to the edge of the sea in confusion. A reinforcement was 
 soon landed, and put the natives to flight after a slight 
 resistance. 
 
 From his encampment near Espiritu Santo Bay, De Soto 
 marched two leagues to a village, which was found deserted 
 by the inhabitants. By the aid of some straggling Indians 
 whom he had captured, he endeavoured to appease the ca- 
 cique of the village, Hirrihigua, and invited him from his re- 
 treat to a friendly interview. To this message, brought by 
 his subjects, he replied, “ I want none of their speeches nor 
 promises ; bring me their heads, and I will receive them joy- 
 fully. ”* 
 
 A neighbouring cacique, Mucozo, was more placable. At 
 the invitation of the envoys sent to him by De Soto, he visit- 
 ed his camp, accompanied by his warriors. “ He kissed the 
 hands of the governor with great veneration, saluted each 
 one of his officers, and made a slight obeisance to the pri- 
 vates. ”f 
 
 As far as Mucozo, their march had been impeded by mo- 
 rasses, which disappeared, however, as they advanced into 
 the interior. It occupied them four days to go from Mucozo 
 to Urribarracaxi (seventeen leagues). Here they were in- 
 formed, in answer to inquiries about gold and silver, that 
 there was a country to the westward, called Ocali, where 
 the spring was perpetual and gold abundant. 
 
 De Soto had received intelligence, that at the village of 
 Urribarracaxi, a cacique of great influence, to whom Hirri- 
 
 jldem. 
 
 * Irving. 
 
20 
 
 ACUERA DEFIES DE SOTO. 
 
 higua and Mucozo paid tribute, be would find provisions for 
 his army. He took up the line of march always to the north- 
 east, and on the morning of the third day came to the villa ge of 
 Mucozo (thirteen leagues). After marching seventeen leagues 
 further to Urribarracaxi, and passing beyond it, they encoun- 
 tered, at three leagues distance from the village, “ a great mo- 
 rass, a league in width, two-thirds mire and one-third water, 
 and very deep at the borders. ”* After several days’ search, 
 a pass was found, by which the army crossed it with ease. 
 
 Their route soon became obstructed with impassable 
 swamps and bogs, made by the streams of the morass they 
 had just passed. It was, therefore, recrossed by De Soto and 
 his A army. In their march from this place they encountered, 
 again, the greatest difficulties from deep swamps and nu- 
 merous bogs that everywhere intersected the country. In 
 addition to these, they were often annoyed by the Indians, 
 who hung upon their rear and shouted, in words of threat and 
 defiance : “ Keep on, robbers and traitors ; in Acuera and 
 Apalachee, we will treat you as you deserve. Every cap- 
 tive will we quarter and hang upon the highest trees along 
 the road !”f 
 
 At the end of sixty miles from Urribarracaxi, they encamp- 
 ed in “ a beautiful valley, where were large fields of Indian 
 corn, of such luxuriant growth as to bear three and four ears 
 upon a stalk. ” This fertile province was ruled by a ca- 
 cique named Acuera. De Soto invited him to a friendly 
 conference. The haughty chief replied : “ others of your ac- 
 cursed race have in years past poisoned our peaceful shores. 
 They have taught me what you are. What is your employ- 
 ment ? To wander about like vagabonds from land to land ; 
 to rob the poor — to betray the confiding — to murder in cold 
 blood the defenceless. No ! with such a people I want no 
 peace, no friendship. War — never-ending, exterminating 
 
 war — is all the boon I ask. You boast yourselves valiant, 
 and so you may be, but my faithful warriors are not 
 less brave ; and this, too, you shall one day prove, for I have 
 sworn to maintain an unsparing conflict while one white 
 
 * Irving. t Idem, pp. 104 and 105. 
 
DE SOTO ARRIVES AT OCALI. 
 
 21 
 
 man remains in my borders. Not openly in the battle field, 
 though even thus we fear not to meet you; but by strata- 
 gem, and ambush, and midnight surprisal. ” * 
 
 In reply to the demand that he should yield obedience to 
 the emperor, he said : “ I am king in my own land, and will 
 never become the vassal of a mortal like myself. Vile and 
 pusillanimous is he who will submit to the yoke of another, 
 when he may be free ! As for me and my people, we choose 
 death, yes, a hundred deaths, before the loss of our liberty 
 and the subjugation of our country !” 
 
 As the event proved, these were no idle threats or un- 
 meaning bravadoes of Acuera and his warriors. Stratagem, 
 and ambush, and midnight surprisal, cut off many a brave 
 Spaniard ; and while a white man remained in this province, 
 the natives, with most unyielding spirit, continued to oppose 
 and annoy the invaders. 
 
 Unable to appease Acuera by pacific overtures or gentle 
 treatment, De Soto broke up his encampment after a few days’ 
 rest, and passed over a desert tract twelve leagues broad, in 
 a north-eastern direction, and then traversing an inhabited 
 country, seven leagues more, arrived at the principal village 
 of the province, called Ocali. It contained six hundred 
 houses and vast quantities of provisions. “ Hard by the vil- 
 lage ran a wide and deep river, with most precipitous 
 banks. ”f Crossing this stream by a temporary bridge, the 
 army of De Soto continued its march three days to the fron- 
 tiers of Vitachuco — “a province of great extent, being fifty 
 leagues across. ” It was governed by three brothers. Two 
 of these, after a protracted negotiation, entered into terms 
 of peace with De Soto, and agreed to use their influence 
 with Vitachuco, the other cacique, to accept the offers of 
 peace from the Spaniards. This chieftain was the most pow- 
 erful of the three, and disapproved the terms made by the 
 others with De Soto. He detained the envoys charged with 
 the embassy ; imputed the pacific conduct of his brothers to 
 cowardice, or to a spirit of inglorious submission ; and rep- 
 resented the Spaniards as vagabonds and robbers, and warn- 
 ed them not to enter into his dominions, vowing that “ va- 
 *Irving. fldem. 
 
22 
 
 VITACHUCO’S VILLAGE DESCRIBED. 
 
 liant as they may be, if they dare to put foot upon my soil, 
 they shall never go out of my land alive — the whole race 
 will I exterminate !” With similar messages he continued 
 to threaten De Soto. At length, however, his two brothers 
 visited Vitachuco, and he affected to be “ won by their per- 
 suasions, and agreed to enter into a friendly intercourse with 
 the strangers.” * 
 
 After this deceitful alliance, the Spaniards marched to the 
 village of Yitachuco, and were received with great kindness 
 and hospitality. The Indian interpreters, however, in a few 
 days, disclosed to De Soto that a perfidious plot was devised 
 to destroy him and his army. Apprised by this disclosure of 
 the details of the plot, De Soto, at a preconcerted signal, fell 
 unexpectedly upon the cacique and his warriors, made Yita- 
 chuco a prisoner, killed several hundred of his followers, and 
 nine hundred more whom he had captured, he distributed as 
 menials to his soldiers. But the fierce spirit of the cacique 
 was yet unsubdued. Though a prisoner, and in the power of 
 his conqueror, he laid another plot to put into effect the me- 
 naces he had made against the invaders of his country. In 
 this, too, he was unsuccessful. He fell, thrust through with 
 a dozen swords and lances, and lost in these two engage- 
 ments and “ the subsequent massacres; thirteen hundred of 
 his warriors, the flower of his nation. ”f 
 
 The village of Vitachuco, where these battles were fought, 
 is thus described, and may possibly yet be identified by the 
 physical features of the country abound it. “ Near the village 
 was a large plain. It had on one side a lofty and dense for- 
 est, on the other, two lakes ; the one about a league in cir- 
 cumference, clear of trees, but so deep that three or four feet 
 from the bank no footing could be found. The second, which 
 was at greater distance from the village, was more than half 
 a league in width, and appeared like a vast river, extending 
 as far as the eye could reach.” J The village is called by the 
 Portuguese narrator, Napatuca. The province was likely 
 very fertile, certainly very populous, as the chosen warriors 
 in the first battle amounted to ten thousand. 
 
 De Soto, resuming his march, went four leagues the first 
 
 * Irving. 
 
 t Idem. 
 
 t Idem. 
 
DE SOTO REACHES OSACHILI AND APALACHEE. 
 
 23 
 
 day, and “ encamped on the bank of a large and deep river,” 
 a boundary of the province. Crossing the river on a bridge 
 constructed by his army, the march was continued two 
 leagues through a country free from woods ; here were found 
 “ large fields of maize, beans and pumpkins, with scattered 
 habitations.” * At the distance of four leagues further, the 
 Spaniards arrived at Osachili, a village of two hundred 
 houses. Hearing at this place of the fertility and extent of 
 the province of Apalachee, they continued their march, and 
 “ were three days traversing an uninhabited desert, twelve 
 leagues in extent, which lay between the two provinces, and 
 about noon of the fourth day arrived at a great morass. It 
 was bordered by forests of huge and lofty trees, with a dense 
 underwood of thorns and brambles. In the centre of the mo- 
 rass was a sheet of water half a league in width, and as far 
 as the eye could reach in extent. “ The opposite side of the 
 morass was bordered by the same kind of impervious forest 
 as the other; the distance across it was about a league and 
 a half.” f Near this place, ten or eleven years before, the un- 
 fortunate Pamphilo de Narvaez had met with his signal de- 
 feat ; and the Indians, encouraged by their successes over him, 
 made a desperate effort to gain a similar victory over the 
 present invaders ; and the result seemed doubtful while the 
 conflict was carried on in the morass. So soon, however, as 
 the horsemen of De Soto gained the open woods, the contest 
 was decided, and the natives were forced to fly. Apalachee, 
 the province to which De Soto had been directing his course, 
 was found to be not only fertile and well supplied with pro- 
 visions, but, as he had been frequently forewarned, was in- 
 habited by a brave and ferocious population, who, by strata- 
 gem and cunning, not less than by open assaults, attempted 
 to repel the invading Spaniards. 
 
 The first night after they had crossed the morass, they en- 
 camped near a small village in an open plain. The march 
 was resumed next day, and they passed two leagues through 
 fields of corn, and “ came to a deep stream bordered by deep 
 forests.” Here the Indians had made palisades and bar- 
 riers, determining that at this place their utmost opposition 
 * Irving. t Idem. 
 
24 
 
 DE SOTO RESUMES HIS MARCH. 
 
 should be made. But these efforts were insufficient. Seve- 
 ral Spaniards were killed, others were wounded, yet they 
 passed the stream with ease, and continued the march two 
 leagues further, without opposition, and encamped. The next 
 day they reached Anchayea, a village of two hundred and 
 fifty large and commodious houses. Capafi was the name of 
 the cacique of Apalachee. 
 
 The winter was now approaching, and De Soto determin- 
 ed to remain at Anchayea till the next spring. Fortifying 
 the village, and building additional houses for barracks, and 
 collecting from the adjoining neighbourhoods a supply of pro- 
 visions, he went into winter quarters. Here he remained five 
 months, during which time he had received such information 
 of the countries in the interior, as to point out his future 
 course in quest of gold and silver, which seems to have been 
 the primary object of himself and his followers. 
 
 The march was resumed in the spring of 1540, in a north- 
 east direction. On the third day the army reached Capa- 
 chique, a village “situated on high ground, on a kind of 
 peninsula, being nearly surrounded by a miry marsh, more 
 than a hundred paces broad.”* Two days further march 
 brought them to the boundary between Apalachee and Ata- 
 paha, into which latter province they now entered. On the 
 third day, De Soto reached the village of Achese, and meet- 
 ing with no hostile feelings from the natives, rested there 
 several days. “ He then resumed his march northeast, 
 ascending for ten days along the banks of a river, skirted by 
 groves of mulberry trees, and winding through luxuriantly 
 fertile valleys.” On the eleventh day he entered the province 
 of Cofa, (alias Ocute,) which was fertile and plentiful, and 
 inhabited by a kind and hospitable people, who entertained 
 De Soto and his army five days. The march was continued 
 “through a pleasant and luxuriant country, fertilized by 
 many rivers,” to the confines of Cofaqui. The cacique re- 
 ceived the Spaniards with great pomp and kindness, and 
 “ imparted to De Soto every information about his own terri- 
 tory, and spoke of a plentiful and populous province to the 
 northwest, called Cosa.” f De Soto, however, determined 
 • Irving. t Idem. 
 
PASSES THE MOUNTAINS NEAR CIIOUALLA. 
 
 25 
 
 first to visit Cofachiqui, a province separated from Cofaqui 
 by an uninhabited tract of great extent. In passing through 
 this, the army crossed two rivers, “a cross-bow shot broad,” 
 which were with difficulty forded. On the seventh day their 
 march was suddenly arrested by “ a wide, deep and unford- 
 able river.” At length, after travelling along its banks 
 several days, they reached a small village called Aymay, well 
 furnished with provisions and surrounded with corn-fields. 
 H ere they rested seven days, and then continued their march 
 along the bank of the river, till the third day they halted “in 
 a verdant region, covered with mulberry and other fruit 
 trees.” Two leagues further they reached the village of the 
 princess of Cofachiqui, situated on the opposite bank of the 
 river, and were hospitably received. 
 
 From Cofachiqui De Soto started, May 3, 1540, towards 
 the north or northwest, in the direction of Cosa, which was 
 represented to him to be distant twelve days journey. “ He 
 passed through the province of Achalaque — the most wretch- 
 ed country, says the Portuguese narrator, in all Florida.”* 
 Progressing forward, he reached the province of Choualla, or 
 Xualla, and encamped in its principal village of the same 
 name, where he remained several days. “This village was 
 situated on the skirts of a mountain, with a small but rapid 
 river flowing by it.” Unlike Chelaque, this province abound- 
 ed with maize and other provisions. 
 
 At this place De Soto changed his route westward, aiming 
 for the province of Quaxale. “ The first day’s march was 
 through a country covered with fields of maize of luxuriant 
 growth.” f “During the next five days they traversed a 
 chain of easy mountains, covered with oak and mulberry 
 trees, with intervening valleys, rich in pasturage and irri- 
 gated by clear and rapid streams. These mountains were 
 twenty leagues across, and quite uninhabited.” These waste 
 mountains being passed, the Spaniards entered the province 
 of Guaxule. The cacique received them with great parade 
 and courtesy, and conducted them to his village, which con- 
 sisted of three hundred houses. “It stood in a pleasant spot, 
 bordered by small streams, that took their rise in the adjacent 
 
 * Irving. t Idem. 
 
 « 
 
26 
 
 PASSES THE MOUNTAINS NEAR CHOUALLA. 
 
 mountains.” * “ The several streams that traversed this pro- 
 
 vince, soon mingled their waters and formed a grand and 
 powerful river, along which the army resumed their journey.” 
 “ On the second day of their march, they entered the small 
 town of Canasauga. Continuing forward for five days through 
 a desert country, on the 25th of June they came in sight of 
 Ichiaha, thirty leagues from Guaxule. This village stood 
 on one end of an island, more than five leagues in length.”f 
 They crossed the river in many canoes, and on rafts prepared 
 for the purpose, and were quartered in and around the vil- 
 lage, and “ their worn-out horses enjoyed rich and abundant 
 pasturage in the neighbouring meadows.” (Query. What 
 island did Ichiaha stand upon ?) While at this village the 
 Indians showed the Spaniards how they obtained pearls from 
 the oysters taken in the river.J 
 
 * Irving. j- Idem. 
 
 % The width of some of the streams, the number and extent of their islands, 
 and the names of some of the villages and other localities mentioned in the ac- 
 counts given of De Soto’s marches, have led to the belief that he may have visited 
 the southern part of what is now East Tennessee, and that then turning west he 
 crossed and recrossed the Tennessee river. McCullough, in the map accompany- 
 ing his learned work,(*) lays down the route of De Soto’s army as penetrating at 
 its extreme northern point to Choualla, near to the thirty-fifth degree of north lati- 
 tude, and amongst the sources of the Coosa river. Choualla was situated on the 
 skirts of a mountain, with a small but rapid river flowing by it. Could that have 
 been the modern Cherokee Chilhowee 2 The route had previously led the inva- 
 ders to and through the province of Achalaque. It is known that the Cherokees 
 do not pronounce the letter r, and that they call themselves Chelakees. The nar- 
 rator also describes the country as mountainous, and as answering well to the fea- 
 tures of the country near Chilhowee. The Portuguese Gentleman says the moun- 
 tains were very bad. Herrera says that though they were not disagreeable, the 
 mountains were twenty leagues across, and the army was five days in passing 
 over them. After leaving Choualla, the route lay westward. Mention is made of 
 Canasaqua. May this have been the present Canasauga 2 Talisse and Sequa- 
 chee — ’names familiar to Tennessee readers — are also mentioned, and suggest the 
 theory of Martinet) that De Soto may have passed through Tennessee and into 
 Kentucky. 
 
 Col. Pettival, who had been in the service of Napoleon during the peninsular 
 war, and was, therefore, familiar with Spanish fortifications, visited, in 1834, “ two 
 forts or camps on the west bank of the Tennessee river, one mile above Brown’s 
 
 (*) Researches, Philosophical and Antiquarian, concerning the aboriginal his- 
 tory of America. 
 
 (t) Martin’s Louisiana. 
 
REACHES TALISSE AND MAUVILA. 
 
 27 
 
 On the 2d day of July, DeSoto left Ichiaha, and travelled 
 the length of the island to Acoste, a village on its extreme 
 point, where they encamped. Next day they crossed the 
 river in rafts and canoes, and afterwards continued their 
 march through a fertile and populous province called Cosa. 
 It was more than one hundred leagues in extent. The vil- 
 lage of the same name “ was situated on the banks of a river, 
 amidst green and beautiful meadows, irrigated by numerous 
 small streams.” * 
 
 On the 20th of August, De Soto left Cosa, and passing 
 Ullabali, continued the march to Talise. It was a well for- 
 tified post, “and situated on the bank of a very rapid river, 
 which nearly surrounded it.” During his stay at Talise, De 
 Soto received an embassy from Tuscaluza, the cacique of the 
 immense province which the Spaniards now approached, 
 inviting him to his residence, which was about thirteen 
 leagues distant. The army accordingly crossing the river, 
 in a few days reached Tuscaloqsa (alias Piache). “ It was 
 a strong place, situated like Talise, upon a peninsula formed 
 by the windings of the same river, which had here grown 
 wider and more powerful. ”f The next day was spent in 
 making rafts and crossing the river ; and continuing the 
 march oh the third day, October 18, they arrived before the vil- 
 lage of Mauvila. “It was strongly fortified, and stood in a fine 
 plain, and was surrounded by a high wall made of logs.” J 
 The pacific conduct of the several tribes with which the 
 Spaniards had met during the last few months, and espe- 
 cially the friendly overtures of the powerful chieftain in 
 whose capital they now were, had thrown them off their 
 guard. But while reposing in the village and around its 
 
 Ferry, below the Muscle Shoals, and opposite the mouth of Cedar Creek, (the county 
 not mentioned,) which certainly belongs to the expedition of Alphonso De Soto.” 
 He promises, in the letter from which this extract is made, a plan and description of 
 these fortifications. He died soon after, and this writer is without further infor- 
 mation on the subject. It is certainly worthy of the further attention of the curious. 
 
 The information concerning the exact route pursued by De Soto, is so obscure 
 and scanty, that it is difficult to make even an approximation to the truth. After 
 all the speculations and conjectures which several authors have made about it, 
 little progress has been attained in the solution of the enquiry. 
 
 * Irving. f Idem. t Idem. 
 
28 
 
 BATTLE OF ALIBAMO. 
 
 walls in imagined security, they were suddenly assailed by 
 the natives. They had concentrated all their own warriors 
 at this place, and many from neighbouring provinces had 
 joined them. For nine hours the battle raged, often with 
 doubtful success to the Spaniards. At the setting sun, how- 
 ever, victory was obained over the Indians. They fought 
 with desperation, as was evident by the numbers slain — 
 twenty-five hundred. The loss of De Soto was eighty-two. 
 
 After so severe a battle, the army of De Soto needed repose. 
 They rested, therefore, several days at Mauvila, to take care 
 of his wounded followers. On the eighteenth of November 
 he turned his course northward, and after marching five days 
 through an uninhabited country, entered the province of 
 Chicaza. “The first village at which they arrived, was 
 called Cabusto. It was situated on a river, wide and deep, 
 with high banks.”*' To the proffers of peace made by De 
 Soto, the inhabitants replied, “ War is what we want — a war 
 of fire and blood.” Eight thousand warriors collected to- 
 gether to oppose his crossing, but were soon put to flight by 
 the cav ( alry, and dispersed to the fastnesses of the adjoining 
 country. Without further opposition the march was con- 
 tinued to Chicaza. “It stood upon a gentle hill, stretching 
 from north to south, watered on each side by a small stream, 
 bordered by groves of walnut and oak trees.” It was the 
 18th of December when the army arrived at Chicaza, and 
 the weather being cold, with snow and ice, De Soto deter- 
 mined to winter here. At Chicaza, as at Mauvila, the Span- 
 iards were surprised by a well arranged night attack from 
 the Indians. As in the former case, the Spaniards were vic- 
 torious ; their loss, however, was severe. Forty soldiers were 
 killed, and fifty horses. 
 
 After a few days his encampment was broken up, and the 
 army marched to Chiacilla, about a league distant ; here they 
 spent the remainder of the winter, and till the end of March. 
 “The cold was rigorous in the extreme.” 
 
 From this place the army marched, the 1st April, four 
 leagues, and encamped in a plain beyond the Chicaza boun- 
 dary. At a fortress of great strength, called Alibamo, was 
 
 * Irving. 
 
BATTLE AND PILLAGE OF CHISCA. 
 
 29 
 
 the next battle fought. It was “ upon a narrow and deep 
 river, that flowed in its rear.” The loss of the Spaniards was 
 fifteen ; that of the natives, great. Continuing the march 
 towards the north, “ for seven days they traversed an unin- 
 habited country, full of forests and swamps. At length they 
 came in sight of a village, called Chisca, seated near a wide 
 river.”* This was the largest stream they had discovered 
 in their-expeditiou, and the Spaniards called it the Rio Grande. 
 It is evidently the Mississippi." Juan Coles, one of the fol- 
 lowers of De Soto, says that the Indian name of the river was 
 Chucagua. The Portuguese narrator says, that in one place 
 it was called Tomaliseu ; in another, Tupata ; in another, 
 Mico ; and at that part where it enters the sea, Ri. It is 
 probable it had different names among the different Indian 
 tribes. The village of Chisca, near its banks, was called by 
 the Portuguese narrator, Quizquiz. 
 
 It is generally conjectured that Chisca, the village near 
 which De Soto was encamped, and which bore the name of 
 the chieftain of the province through whose territories the 
 Spaniards were passing, occupied the site of the present 
 thriving city of Memphis, and that the point where they 
 crossed the Mississippi was near the Chickasaw Bluff. A 
 mournful interest will be excited in the mind of the Ten- 
 nessee reader to know every incident that occurred during 
 the sojourn of the cavaliers near our boundaries or within 
 our state. We copy from Irving. 
 
 “ The Indians of this province, owing to their unceasing warfare with 
 the natives of Chicaza, and the country lying between them being un- 
 peopled, knew nothing of the approach of the strangers. The moment 
 the Spaniards descried the village, they rushed into it in a disorderly 
 manner, took many Indian prisoners, of both sexes and of all ages, and 
 pillaged the houses. 
 
 “ On a high artificial mound, on one side of the village, stood the 
 dwelling of the cacique, which served as a fortress. The only ascent to 
 it was by two ladders. Many of the Indians took refuge there, while 
 others fled to a dense wood, that arose between the village and the 
 river. Chisca, the chieftain of the province, was very old and lying ill 
 in his bed. Hearing the tumult and shouts, however, he raised himself 
 and went forth ; and as he beheld the sacking of his village, and the 
 capture of his vassals, he seized a tomahawk, and began to descend in a 
 furious rage, threatening vengeance and extermination to all who had 
 
 * Irving. 
 
30 
 
 INDIAN COUNCIL. 
 
 dared to enter his domains -without permission. With all these brava- 
 does, the cacique, besides being infirm and very old, was pitiful in his 
 dimensions ; the most miserable little Indian that the Spaniards had 
 seen in all their marchings. He was animated, however, by the deeds 
 and exploits of his youth, for he had been a doughty warrior and ruled 
 over a vast province. 
 
 “ The women and attendants of the cacique surrounded him, and, 
 with tears and entreaties, prevailed upon him not to descend ; at the 
 same time, those who came up from the village informed him that the 
 enemy were men such as they had never before beheld or heard of, and 
 that they came upon strange animals of great size and wonderful agility. 
 If you desire to battle with them, said they, to avenge this injury, it 
 will be better to summon together the warriors of the neighbourhood, 
 and await a more fitting opportunity. In the meantime, let us put on 
 the semblance of friendship, and not, by any inconsiderate rashness, 
 provoke our destruction. With these and similar arguments, the women 
 and attendants of the cacique prevented his sallying forth to battle. 
 He continued, however, in great wrath, and when the governor sent 
 him a message, offering peace, he returned an answer, refusing all amity, 
 and breathing fiery vengeance. 
 
 “ He Soto and his followers, wearied out with the harassing warfare 
 of the past winter, were very desirous of peace. Having pillaged the 
 village and offended the cacique, they were in something of a dilemma ; 
 accordingly, they sent him many gentle and most soothing messages. 
 Added to their disinclination for war, they observed, that during the 
 three hours they had halted in the village, nearly four, thousand well 
 armed warriors had rallied around the cacique, and they feared that if 
 such a multitude could assemble in such a short time, there must be 
 large reinforcements in reserve. They perceived, moreover, that the 
 situation of the village was very advantageous for the Indians, and very 
 unfavourable to them ; for the plains around were covered with trees 
 and intersected by numerous streams, which would impede the move- 
 ments of the cavalry. But more than all this, they had learned from 
 sad experience, that these incessant conflicts did not in the least profit, 
 them ; day after day, man and horse were slain, and, in the midst of a 
 hostile country, and far from home and hope of succour, their number 
 was gradually dwindling away. 
 
 “ The Indians held a council, to discuss the messages of the strangers. 
 Many were for war ; they were enraged with the imprisonment of their 
 wives and children, and the pillage of their property — to recover which, 
 according to then - fierce notions, the only recourse was arms. Others, 
 who had not lost any thing, yet desired hostilities, from a natural incli- 
 nation for fighting. They wished to exhibit their valour and prowess, 
 and to try what kind of men these were, who carried such strange arms. 
 The more pacific savages, however, advised that the proffered peace 
 should be accepted, as the surest means of recovering their wives, and 
 children, and effects. They added, that the enemy might burn their vil- 
 lages and lay waste their fields, at a time when their grain was almost 
 ripening, and thus add to their calamities. The valour of these stran- 
 
DE SOTO AND HIS ARMY CROSS THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 31 
 
 gers, said they, is sufficiently evident ; for men who have passed through 
 so many enemies, cannot be otherwise than brave. 
 
 “ This latter counsel prevailed. The cacique, dissembling his anger, 
 replied to the envoy, that since the Spaniards entreated for peace, he 
 would grant it, and allow them to halt in the villager, and give them 
 food, on condition that they would immediately free his subjects and 
 restore their effects, not keeping a single article. He also stipulated 
 that they should not mount to see him. If these terms were accepted, 
 he said he would be friendly ; if not, he defied them to the combat. 
 
 “ The Spaniards readily agreed to these conditions ; the prisoners and 
 plunder were restored, and the Indians departed from the village, leaving 
 food in the dwellings for the Spaniards, who sojourned here six days to 
 tend the sick. On the last day, with the permission of the cacique, De 
 Soto visited him, and thanked him for his friendship and hospitality, 
 and, on the subsequent day, they resumed their march. Departing 
 from Chisca, the army travelled by slow journeys of three leagues a day, 
 on account of the wounded and sick. They followed up the windings 
 of the river until the fourth day, when they came to an opening in the 
 thickets. Heretofore, they had been threading a vast and dense forest, 
 bordering the stream, whose banks were so high, on both sides, that 
 they could neither descend nor clamber up them. De Soto found it 
 necessary to halt in this place twenty days, to build boats or piraquas to 
 cross the river ; for, on the opposite bank, a great multitude of Indian 
 warriors were assembled, well armed, and with a fleet of canoes to 
 defend the passage. 
 
 “ The morning after the governor had encamped, some of the natives 
 visited him. Advancing without speaking a word, and turning their 
 faces to the east, they made a profound genuflexion to the sun ; then 
 facing to the west, they made the same obeisance to the moon, and con- 
 cluded with a similar, but less humble, reverence to De Soto. They 
 said that they came in the name of the cacique of the province, and in 
 the name of all his subjects, to bid them welcome, and to offer their 
 friendship and services ; and added, that they were desirous of seeing 
 what kind of men these strangers were, as there was a tradition handed 
 down from their ancestors, that a white people would come and conquer 
 their country. The adelantado said many kind things in reply, and 
 dismissed them well pleased with their courteous reception.” 
 
 At the end of twenty days, four piraquas were built and 
 launched. About three hours before the dawn of day, De 
 Soto ordered them to be manned, and four troopers of tried 
 courage to go in each. The rowers pulled strongly, and 
 when they were within a stone’s throw of the shore, the 
 troopers dashed into the water, and, meeting with no opposi- 
 tion from the enemy, they easily effected a landing and 
 made themselves masters of the pass. Two hours before 
 the sun went down, the whole army had passed over the 
 
32 
 
 THE FRENCH ASCEND THE ST. LAWRENCE. 
 
 ! $ Mississippi. The river in this place, says the Por- 
 ( tuguese historian, was a half league from one shore 
 to the other, so that a man standing still could scarce be 
 discerned from the opposite bank. The stream was of great 
 depth, very muddy, and was filled with trees and timber 
 carried along by the rapidity of the current. 
 
 It is deemed not necessary to the purpose of these annals, 
 to follow the route of De Soto further. The object of his 
 expedition had been conquest and colonization. He had 
 thus far succeeded in neither. The generous mind sympa- 
 thizes in his reverses of fortune. The captor of Atahualpa 
 entreated a peace with the superannuated cacique of Chisca; 
 a leader at the storming of Cusco, asked leave to bivouac 
 in the wigwam of his subjects; and the Governor of Cuba 
 begs for the hospitalities of the chieftain of an interior pro- 
 vince on the banks of the Mississippi. It is painful to wan- 
 der with him a year longer in the wild and boundless soli- 
 tudes west of that stream, or to trace his return to it, to die 
 ( in the secluded forest upon its shore. It will be suffi- 
 t c>ent to remark, that the death of the enterprising 
 commander of the expedition, the vast amount of money 
 (100,000 ducats) expended, the loss of more than two-thirds 
 of his army, his failure to find gold or to achieve any of the 
 objects of the undertaking, discouraged further attempts by 
 Europeans to penetrate this part of the country ; and it was 
 not till 1073 that another adventurer from the Old World 
 again visited what is now known as Tennessee. 
 
 Maritime discoveries were, however, still prosecuted ; 
 and at the very time De Soto was carrying on his abortive 
 invasion by land, the interior of North America was sought 
 in another direction, and under the auspices of another 
 nation. In 1542, Cartier and Roberval had sailed up the St. 
 La wrence, built a fort, and made a feeble effort to explore 
 and settle Canada. The colony was soon abandoned, and 
 for half a century the French took no measures to establish 
 settlements there. England, also, partook of the spirit of 
 exploration and adventure that was still active and engross- 
 ing. That power, in consequence of the discoveries by the 
 Cabots, had taken formal possession, under Sir Humphrey 
 
RALEIGH LANDS IN NORTII-CAROLINA. 
 
 33 
 
 Gilbert, in 1583, of Newfoundland. The next year, Queen 
 Elizabeth, by royal patent, authorized Sir Walter Raleigh 
 to discover and occupy such remote, heathen and barbarous 
 lands, not possessed or inhabited by Christian people, as to 
 him should seem good.* Under this patent, Raleigh sent 
 two experienced commanders, Amadas and Barlow, to ex- 
 plore the country then called Florida. They arrived on the 
 American coast, July 4, 1584, and sailed along the shore one 
 hundred and twenty miles, before they could find an entrance, 
 by any river, issuing into the sea. Coming to one at length, 
 they entered it, and having manned their boats ^nd viewed 
 the adjoining lands, they took formal possession of the coun- 
 try for the Queen of England. f They had landed upon the 
 Island of Wocoken, the southernmost of the islands forming 
 Ocracock Inlet, upon the coast of our parent state, North- 
 Carolina. The adventurers explored Roanoke Island and 
 Albemarle Sound, and, after a short stay, returned to Eng- 
 land, “accompanied by Manteo and Wanchese, two natives 
 of the wilderness ; and the returning voyagers gave such 
 glowing descriptions of their discoveries as might be ex- 
 pected from men who had done no more than sail over the 
 smooth waters of a summer’s sea, among ‘ the hundred is- 
 lands’ of North-Carolina. Elizabeth, as she heard their 
 reports, esteemed her reign signalized by the discovery of the 
 enchanting regions, and, as a memorial of her state of life, 
 named them, Virginia.”J Raleigh, determined to carry into 
 effect his scheme of colonization, found little difficulty in 
 collecting together a large company of emigrants, and, in 
 April of 1585, fitted out a new expedition of seven vessels 
 and one hundred and eight colonists, with which to form the 
 first settlement upon the soil of Carolina. The fleet reached 
 Wocoken the 26th of June, and having left the colony 
 under the direction of Ralf Lane as its governor, Sir Richard 
 
 * Thus Queen Elizabeth executed the first patent from an English sovereign, 
 for any lands within the territory of the United States, to Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 Its date is March 26, 1584. The present State of Tennessee is within its boun- 
 daries, but nearly two centuries elapsed before that part of the queen’s grant was 
 settled. 
 
 3 
 
 \ Holmes. % Bancroft. 
 
34 
 
 JAMES TOWN LAID OFF. 
 
 Grenville, in command of the ships, returned to Plymouth. 
 The colony, however, was destined to be short-lived. Its 
 members became discontented, their supplies were exhausted, 
 they sighed “for the luxuries of the cities of their native 
 land,” and an opportune arrival of Sir Francis Drake fur- 
 nished the means of their return to England. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, not to be driven from his purpose of 
 ^ $ colonization by past failures, collected another body 
 
 l of emigrants, with wives and families and implements 
 of husbandry ; intending to form ah agricultural community, 
 in which the endearments of home and the means of pro- 
 curing a certain subsistence, might ensure stability and per- 
 manence. This new and more promising colony, with John 
 White for its governor, was sent out in April, and arrived 
 July 23, at Roanoke, where the foundations of the “ citie of 
 Raleigh” were laid. 
 
 Eleanor Dare, wife of one of the assistants, and the daugh- 
 ter of Governor White, gave birth to a female child, the first 
 offspring of English parents on the soil of the United States.* 
 It was called, from the place of its birth, Virginia Dare. 
 
 But the wise policy and liberal provision of Raleigh were 
 lost upon this his last colony. In 1590 not a vestige of its 
 existence could be found. 
 
 In 1607, a more successful effort secured the formation of 
 a permanent English colony in America. Captain Newport 
 commanded a fleet of three ships, with one Jiundred emi- 
 grants, to Virginia. He had intended to land at Roanoke, 
 and make further attempts to form a settlement there ; but 
 being driven by a storm to the northward of that place, the 
 fleet entered Chesapeake Bay, and, on the 13th of May, the 
 adventurers took possession of a peninsula upon the north 
 side of the river Powhatan. Here they laid off a town, 
 which, in honour of the king, they called James Town. The 
 charter under which this first English colony in America was 
 planted, reserved supreme legislative authority to the king ; 
 and while a general superintendence of the colony was con- 
 fided to a council in England, appointed by him, its local ad- 
 ministration was entrusted to a council residing within its 
 
 * Bancroft. 
 
FIRST REPRESENTATIVE BODY IN AMERICA. 
 
 35 
 
 limits. “To the emigrants themselves it conceded not one 
 elective franchise ; not one. of the rights of self-government.”* 
 
 A second charter, in 1609, invested the company with the 
 election of the council and the exercise of legislative power, 
 independent of the crown. 
 
 In 1612, a third patent gave to the company a more demo- 
 cratic form ; power was transferred from the council to the 
 stockholders, and “ their sessions became the theatre of bold 
 and independent discussions.” In 1619, the colonists them- 
 selves were allowed to share in legislation ; and in June of 
 that year, the governor, the council, and two representatives 
 from each of the boroughs, constituted the first popular repre- 
 sentative body of the western hemisphere. f In 1621, a writ- 
 ten constitution was brought out by Sir Francis Wyat, gov- 
 ernor of the colony, extending still further the representative 
 principle. Under its provisions two burgesses were to be 
 chosen for the assembly by every town, hundred or particu- 
 lar plantation. All matters were to be decided by a majority 
 in the assembly, reserving to the governor the veto power, 
 and requiring the sanction of the general court of the com- 
 pany in England. On the other hand, no order of the gene- 
 ral court was to bind the colony until assented to by the as- 
 sembly ; each colonist thus became a freeman and a citizen, 
 and ceased to be a servant of a commercial company, and 
 dependent on the will and orders of his superior. J The colony 
 flourished, and its frontier extended to the Potomac in the 
 interior, and coastwise expanded to Albemarle Sound, upon 
 which the first permanent settlers in North-Carolina pitched 
 their tent, having been attracted by the report of an adven- 
 turer from Virginia, who, on his return from it, “ celebrated 
 the kindness of the native people, the fertility of the country, 
 and the happy climate, that yielded two harvests in each 
 year.” § These representations of the advantages of the 
 country, and the prosperous condition of its pioneer emigrants, 
 awakened the cupidity and excited the ambition of English 
 courtiers. On the 24th of March, 1663, Charles II. granted 
 to Edward, Earl of Clarendon, Monk, Lord Craven, Lord 
 Ashley Cooper, Sir John Colleton, Lord John Berkeley, Sir 
 
 * Bancroft. j- Holmes. j: Idem. § Smith’* Virginia. 
 
36 
 
 SELF-GOVERNMENT PROVIDED FOR. 
 
 I 
 
 William Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, all the country 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, included between the 
 thirty-first and thirty-sixth parallels of latitude, and consti- 
 tuted them its proprietors and immediate sovereigns. Exten- 
 sive as was this grant, the proprietaries in June, 1665, secured 
 by a second patent, an enlargement of their powers, and 
 such further extent of their boundaries, as to include all the 
 country between the parallels of thirty-six degrees thirty 
 minutes and twenty-nine degrees north latitude, embracing 
 all the territory of North and South-Carolina, Georgia, Ten- 
 nessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, a part of 
 Florida and Missouri, and much of Texas, New Mexico and 
 California. That part of its northern boundary extending from 
 the top of the Alleghany mountain to the eastern bank of 
 the Tennessee river, is the line of separation between Vir- 
 ginia and Tennessee, and Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 
 “Among other powers conferred upon the lord proprietors 
 was that of enacting laws and constitutions for the people of 
 that province, by and with the advice, assent and approbation 
 of the freemen thereof, or of the greater part of them, or of their 
 delegates or deputies, who were to be assembled from time to 
 time for that purpose.”* So earl}' and so deeply was the 
 germ of self-government planted in Carolina. In 1667, the 
 first constitution was given by the proprietary government. 
 It directed that the governor should act with the advice of a 
 council of twelve, one half to be appointed by himself, the 
 other half by the assembly, and this was to be composed of 
 the governor, the council, and twelve delegates chosen by the 
 freeholders. 
 
 Historians do not agree as to the precise year in which the 
 first legislative body in North-Carolina convened. It was 
 certainly, however, in 1666 or 1667. This legislature was 
 called the “Grand Assembly of the County of Albemarle.” 
 Its principal acts were such as were believed to be required 
 by the peculiar situation of the country, and were prompted 
 by an anxious desire to increase its population.! 
 
 While the colonists of Virginia and Carolina were slowly 
 extending their settlements in the direction of Tennessee, 
 * Preface of Revised Statutes of North-Carolina. t Idem. 
 
ALLEGH ANTES FIRST CROSSED. 
 
 37 
 
 they remained entirely ignorant of the great interior of the 
 continent. It was the policy of the proprietors to know some- 
 thing more of the vast domains within the limits of their 
 grants, and explorations were projected to ascertain and oc- 
 cupy them. In their hunting excursions, the highlands of 
 Virginia had been seen, but adventure had not discovered 
 the distant sources of its rivers, and the country beyond the 
 Blue Ridge was yet unknown. Its original inhabitants still 
 roamed through the ancient woods, free, independent and 
 secure, in happy ignorance of the approaches of civilized man. 
 Its flora, scattered in magnificent profusion over hill and dale, 
 mountain and prairie, still “ wasted its fragrance on the desert 
 air.” La Belle Reviere, in quietude and silence, winded 
 along its placid current through the “dark and bloody land” 
 to the Father of Rivers, which itself, in turbid violence, rolled 
 its angry floods in solitary grandeur to the sea. It was not 
 till 1655, that “Colonel Woods, who dwelt at the falls of 
 James river, sent suitable persons on a journey of discovery 
 to the westward ; they crossed the Alleghany mountains, and 
 reached the banks- of the Ohio and other rivers emptying 
 into the Mississippi.” * The route pursued is not distinctly 
 known. It is scarcely probable that, ascending the James 
 river, Colonel Woods fell into the beautiful valley of Vir- 
 ginia, and, following its course, passed through the upper 
 part of East Tennessee and Cumberland Gap to the Ohio. 
 With the limited knowledge then had of the geography of the 
 West, the Holston would be considered as an immediate tri- 
 butary of the Mississippi. If such was indeed the route pur- 
 sued, Colonel Woods was the pioneer in that great channel 
 of emigration that more than a century afterwards began to 
 pour its immense flood of emigrants from the Atlantic to the 
 West. 
 
 In the meantime, religious enthusiasm and French loyalty 
 were extending discoveries to the westward in another chan- 
 nel. The feeble settlements of the French planted upon the 
 1665 $ St. Lawrence, were strengthened and extended along 
 l the great lakes. In 1665, Father Claude Alloiiez em- 
 barked on a mission to the Far West by way of the Ottawa. 
 
 * Martin’s North-Carolina, vol. 1, p. 115. 
 
'38 
 
 CHICKASAW BLUFF. 
 
 During his voyages along the lakes, and his sojourn in the 
 immense wilds around them, “ he lighted the torch of faith 
 for more than twenty different nations.” His curiosity was 
 roused by hearing from the Illinois “the tale of the noble 
 river on which they dwelt, and which flowed towards the 
 south.” Allol'iez reported its name to be Messipi. 
 
 In 1673, Marquette, another missionary, and Joliet, pene- 
 trated beyond the lakes. Talon, the intendant of New 
 France, wished to signalize his administration by “ ascertain- 
 ing if the French, descending the great river of the central 
 west, could bear the banner of France to the Pacific, or plant 
 it, side by side with that of Spain, on the Gulf of Mexico.”* 
 Under his patronage, Marquette and Joliet, with five French 
 companions and two Algonquins as guides, entered upon the 
 enterprise. Their canoes were carried across the narrow 
 portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and on the 
 10th of June, in the beautiful language of Bancroft, France 
 n ^ and Christianity stood in the valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 I Descending the Wisconsin in seven days, they entered 
 the great river. They were peaceably received by the Illi- 
 nois and other Indian tribes along its banks. The Missouri 
 was then known by its Algonquin name, Pekitanoni. The 
 Ohio was then, and long after, called the Wabash. In the 
 map published with Marquette’s Journal, in 1681, numerous 
 villages are laid down upon its banks as inhabited by the 
 (Chauvanon) Shawnees, and east of them, in the interior, are 
 represented dense Indian settlements or villages of different 
 tribes, and all situated between the thirty-fifth and thirty- 
 sixth degrees. Highlands corresponding to the first, second 
 and third Chickasaw Bluffs, as now known, are delineated 
 with considerable accuracy ; as is also a large island in the 
 Mississippi nearly opposite to the lower bluff, now known as 
 President’s Island. The Ohio has a tributary running into it 
 from the south-east, and the Shawnee villages occupy a 
 place upon the map between that tributary and the Missis- 
 sippi. The latter stream is spelled Mitchisipi. In the land 
 of the Chickasaws, the Indians had guns, obtained probably 
 by traffic or warfare with the Spaniards. Lower down the 
 
 * Bancroft. 
 
FIRST CABIN AND FORT IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 39 
 
 river axes were also seen, acquired probably in the same 
 way. ■ 
 
 The adventurers descended as low as the mouth of the 
 Arkansas, and on the 17th of July ascended the Mississippi 
 on their return. The account of their voyage and discove- 
 ries excited among their countrymen brilliant schemes of 
 colonization in the south-west, — a spirit of territorial aggran- 
 dizement for the crown of France, and of commerce between 
 Europe and the Mississippi — and La Salle was commissioned 
 to perfect the discovery of the great river. In 1682, he de- 
 scended that stream to the sea, planted the arms of France 
 near the Gulf of Mexico, claimed the territory for that power, 
 and in honour of his monarch, Louis XIV., gave it the name 
 of Louisiana. As he passed down the river he framed a 
 cabin and built a fort,* called Prud’homme, on the first 
 Chickasaw Bluff. The first work, except probably the pira- 
 quas of De Soto, ever executed by the hand of civilization 
 within the boundaries of Tennessee. A cabin and a fort ! 
 Fit emblem and presage of the future in Tennessee. The axe 
 and the rifle, occupancy and defence, settlement and con- 
 quest ! 
 
 While at the Bluff, La Salle entered into amicable arrange- 
 ments for opening a trade with the Chickasaws, and esta- 
 blished there a trading post that should be a point of ren- 
 dezvous for traders passing from the Illinois country to the 
 posts that should be established below. The commercial 
 acumen of La Salle in founding a trading post at this point, 
 is now made most manifest. Near the same ground has 
 since arisen a city, whose commerce already exceeds that of 
 any other in Tennessee, and whose facilities for trade, foreign 
 and domestic, by land or water, portend a commercial destiny 
 scarcely inferior to that of the ancient Memphis ; and, after 
 the accomplishment of the public improvements contemplated 
 and projected, not surpassed by any point upon the Missis- 
 sippi above New-Orleans. 
 
 Thus one hundred and eighty years after the discovery of 
 America, and one hundred and thirty years after DeSoto had 
 crossed our western limit, did Marquette and Joliet coast 
 * Martin’s North-Carolina, vol. 1, p. 176. 
 
40 
 
 CHARLES TOWN LAID OUT. 
 
 along and discover the western boundary of Tennessee. And 
 thus, one hundred years after Queen Elizabeth had signed 
 the patent to Sir Walter Raleigh, did La Salle claim for his 
 monarch, Louis XIV., the rich domain, with the illimitable 
 and magnificent resources of the great Mississippi valley. 
 In proof of the uncertain tenure of all earthly monarchs, it 
 may be remarked, that the claims of both these rival king- 
 doms have long since passed into the hands of others, and 
 that American sovereignties and American freemen now 
 possess and control the rich heritage which, in its lust for 
 territorial acquisition, European royalty had, with munificent 
 prodigality, appropriated for trans-atlantic subjects. 
 
 After this rapid survey of French exploration and dis- 
 covery in the West, we return to notice further the growth 
 and extension of Virginia and Carolina, as through them, at 
 later periods, were the principal avenues of emigration to 
 Tennessee. 
 
 In the former colony, temporary difficulties resulted from 
 civil commotion and occasional aggressions of the natives ; 
 still the government had been conducted with such wise 
 moderation that tranquillity was restored, and a rapid in- 
 crease of population and the extension of the settlements 
 followed. In 1671, Virginia contained forty thousand souls. 
 
 Albemarle, as North-Carolina was then called, contained, 
 in 1670, about fourteen hundred inhabitants. Other settle- 
 ments had begun to expand along the coast south of it. 
 “The command of Sir John Yeamans, who ruled the planta- 
 tion around Cape Fear, was extended over that which lay 
 southward of Cape Carteret. The planters from Clarendon 
 and Port Royal resorted to the banks of Ashley river.” * In 
 1671, “old Charlestown” was laid out. In 1674, “all the 
 freemen of Carolina, meeting by summons, there elected 
 representatives to make laws for the government of the 
 colony. There were now a colonial governor, an upper and 
 a lower house of assembly, and these three branches took 
 the name of parliament. This was the first parliament that 
 passed acts which were ratified by the proprietaries, and pre- 
 served in the records of the colony.” f In 1680, Charlestown 
 * Holmes. t Idem. 
 
Culpeper’s rebellion. 
 
 41 
 
 was removed to the point formed by the confluence of the 
 Ashley and Cooper rivers, and was declared to be the capital 
 for the general administration of government in Carolina. 
 
 In December, 1677, Miller, a collector of the royal customs, 
 in attempting to reform some abuses in Albemarle, became 
 obnoxious to the people, and an insurrection followed. The 
 insurgents, conducted chiefly by Culpeper, imprisoned the 
 president and seven proprietary deputies, seized the royal 
 revenue, established courts of justice, appointed officers, 
 called a parliament, and for two years exercised all the 
 authority of an independent state. This insurrection, rather 
 this bold attempt at revolution and self-government by the 
 fourteen hundred colonists of Albemarle, deserves a further 
 notice. We, copy from Marshall : 
 
 “ The proprietors of Carolina, dissatisfied with their own system, 
 applied to the celebrated Mr. Locke for the plan of a constitution. They 
 supposed that this profound and accurate reasoner must be deeply 
 skilled in the science of government. In compliance with their request, 
 he framed a body of fundamental laws, which were approved and 
 adopted. A palatine for life was to be. chosen from among the proprie- 
 tors, who was to act as president of the palatine court, which was to be 
 composed of all those who were entrusted with the execution of the 
 
 1669 -I P owers granted by the charter. A body of hereditary nobility 
 ( was created, to be denominated landgraves and caciques, the 
 
 former to he invested with four baronies, consisting each of four thou- 
 sand acres, and the latter to have two, containing each two thousand 
 acres of land. These estates were to descend with the dignities forever. 
 The provincial legislature, denominated a parliament, was to consist of 
 the proprietors, in the absence of any one of whom his place was to he 
 supplied by a deputy appointed by himself, of the nobility, and of the 
 representatives of the freeholders, who were elected by districts. These 
 discordant materials were to compose a single body, which could initiate 
 nothing. The bills to be laid before it were to be prepared in a grand 
 council, composed of the governor, the nobility, and the deputies of the 
 proprietors, who were invested also with the executive powers. At the 
 end of every century, the laws were to become void without the formality 
 of a repeal. Various judicatories were erected, and numerous minute 
 perplexing regulations were made.” 
 
 The Duke of Albemarle was chosen the first palatine, and 
 
 1670 ( the philosophic Locke himself was created a land- 
 l grave. When Governor Stephens attempted to intro- 
 duce, as he was ordered to do, this constitution in Albemarle, 
 the innovation was strenuously opposed ; and the discontent 
 
42 
 
 ALBEMARLE INDEPENDENT. 
 
 it. produced was increased by a rumour that the proprietors 
 designed to dismember the province. At length these discon- 
 tents broke out into open insurrection, and resulted, as has 
 been narrated, in the establishment, under Culpeper, of an 
 independent government. Thus furnishing, in the language 
 of the same writer, additional evidence to the many, afforded 
 by history, of the great but neglected truth, that experience 
 is the only safe school in which the science of government is 
 to be acquired, and that the theories of the closet must have 
 the stamp of practice, before they can be received with im- 
 plicit confidence. The truth is, the people of Albemarle were, 
 perhaps of all communities, the least favourable for a fair 
 experiment of the philosophic system of Mr. Locke. It con- 
 tained scarcely a single feature suited to the wants of a 
 primitive people. Most of its provisions were in conflict with 
 their interests- They needed little legislation and less gov- 
 ernment, and heretofore they had legislated for and governed 
 themselves. “ The representative principle, indeed the right 
 of self-government, seems to have been, if not an inheritance 
 to the Carolina colonists, certainly cognate and inborn. They 
 were the ‘ freest of the free.’ Self-government was epidemic 
 to them. It was inherited from them. It has descended 
 without alloy or adulteration to their descendants beyond the 
 mountain. Its contagion has affected the original territorial 
 boundaries of Carolina, has crossed the Mississippi, pervades 
 all Texas, approaches Mexico and California, and can have 
 its ardour quenched only by the waves of the Pacific. From 
 the germ at Albemarle sprang, remotely, our independence ; 
 and the seed sown in 1677, although it required the culture 
 of ninety-eight years to bring it to maturity, continued to 
 vegetate, till it produced the rich harvest of American inde- 
 pendence.” # 
 
 The proprietors, discovering the growing dissatisfaction of 
 1688 ) the colonists with the constitution of Mr. Locke, abol- 
 5 ished it, and wisely substituted the ancient form of 
 government. 
 
 While the grievances in Carolina were being redressed, 
 
 * Written before the war with Mexico. 
 
bacon’s rebellion. 
 
 43 
 
 1677 
 
 discontents in Virginia assumed a serious aspect ; and about 
 the same time that Culpeper was revolutionizing Albemarle, 
 a rebellion appeared at Jamestown, and was headed by 
 Bacon, a member of the council. It was so far successful as 
 to produce the flight of Governor Berkeley from the capital, 
 a convention of the people, a new election of burgesses, and 
 a new government. A civil war followed ; the insurgents 
 burned Jamestown, and would probably have entirely sub- 
 verted the authority of the governor, but for the sudden death 
 of their daring leader. 
 
 The pacification which followed the death of Bacon, was 
 accompanied with increased emigration and an exten- 
 sion of the settlements into the valley of Virginia. In 
 1690, they reached to the Blue Ridge, and explorations of the 
 distant West were soon after undertaken. “ Early in his ad- 
 17H $ ministration, Colonel Alexander Spotswood, Lieu 
 f tenant-Governor of Virginia, was the first who passed 
 the Apalachian mountains, or Great Blue Hills, and the gen- 
 tlemen, his attendants, were called Knights of the Horseshoe, 
 having discovered a horse pass.” * “ Some rivers have been 
 
 discovered on the west side of the Apalachian mountains, 
 which fall into the River Ohio, which falls into the River 
 Mississippi below the River Illinois.” f It is said that Gov- 
 ernor Spotswood passed Cumberland Gap during his tour of 
 exploration, and gave the name to that celebrated pass, the 
 mountain and the river, which they have ever since borne. 
 
 Intestine wars prevailed among the numerous Indian tribes 
 in Carolina, and the colonists, as the means of their own 
 security, had fomented these disputes between the natives. 
 As early as 1693, twenty chiefs of the Cherokee nation waited 
 upon Governor Smith, and solicited the protection of his gov- 
 ernment against the Esaw and Congaree (Coosaw) J Indians, 
 who had lately invaded their country and taken prisoners. 
 The governor expressing a disposition to cultivate their 
 friendship, promised to do what he could for their defence. 
 In 1711, the Tuscaroras, Corees, and other tribes, attempted 
 the extermination of the settlers upon Roanoke. One hundred 
 
 * Summary, historical and political, of British Settlements. Yol 2, p. 362 
 t Idem. \ Martin. 
 
44 
 
 CAROLINA DIVIDED. 
 
 and thirty-seven were massacred. The news of the disaster 
 reaching Charleston, Governor Craven sent Colonel Barnwell, 
 with six hundred militia and nearly four hundred Indians, to 
 their relief. These allies consisted, in part, of the Cherokees 
 and Creeks. The Tuscaroras were subdued, and the hostile 
 part of the tribe emigrated to the vicinity of Oneida Lake, 
 and became the sixth nation of the Iroquois confederacy. 
 “ Thus the power of the natives was broken, and the interior 
 forests became safe places of resort to the emigrant.” * 
 
 The alliance between the colonists of Carolina and the 
 aboriginal inhabitants, perhaps never cordial, was certainly 
 of short duration. In less than five years after Colonel Barn- 
 well’s expedition against the Tuscaroras, every Indian tribe, 
 from Florida to Cape Fear, had united in a confederacy for 
 the destruction of the settlements in Carolina. The Con- 
 garees, Catawbas, Cherokees and Creeks, had joined the 
 Yamassees in this conspiracy. They had recently received 
 presents, and guns and ammunition from the Spaniards at 
 St. Augustine ; and it has been supposed that the defection of 
 the Indians may be traced to their authority and seductive 
 influence. The confederates, after spreading slaughter and 
 desolation through the unsuspecting settlements, were met by 
 1 ^ 15 $ Governor Craven at Salkehachie, and defeated and 
 l driven across the Savannah. 
 
 In 1719, a domestic revolution took place in the southern 
 part of Carolina. The proprietary government had, from the 
 operation of several causes, become unpopular with the 
 people. An association was therefore formed for uniting the 
 whole province against the government of the proprietors, 
 and “ to stand by their rights and privileges.” The members 
 elected to the assembly “ voted themselves a convention dele- 
 gated by the people, and resolved on having a governor of 
 their own choosing.” The new form of government went 
 into operation without the least confusion or struggle. f 
 In 1732, the province was divided into two distinct govern- 
 ments, called North-Carolina and South-Carolina. 
 
 In the meantime the French had extended their settlements, 
 laid out Ivaskaskias and other towns, and built several forts 
 * Bancroft. f Martin. 
 
FIRST STORE IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 45 
 
 in the valley of the Mississippi, and established New-Orleans 
 upon its bank. It had become evident that their intention 
 was, not only to monopolize the Indian traffic in the West, 
 but by a chain of forts on the great passes from Canada to 
 the Gulf of Mexico, to confine the English colonies to narrow 
 limits along the coast of the Atlantic, and, by their influence 
 with the natives, to retard their growth and check their ex- 
 pansion westward. Traders from Carolina ha(| already pene- 
 trated to the country of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, but 
 had been driven from the villages of the latter by the influ- 
 ence of Bienville, of Louisiana. By prior discovery, if not 
 by conquest or occupancy, France claimed the whole valley 
 of the Mississippi. “ Louisiana stretched to the head-springs 
 of the Alleghany and the Monongabela, of the Kenhawa and 
 the Tennessee. Half a mile from the head of the southern 
 branch of the Savannah river is Herbert’s Spring, which 
 flows to the Mississippi ; strangers’" who drank of it would 
 say they had tasted of French waters.” This remark of Adair 
 may probably explain the English name of the principal 
 tributary of the Holston. Traders and hunters from Carolina, 
 in exploring the country and passing from the head waters 
 of Broad river, of Carolina, and falling upon those of the 
 stream with which they inosculate west of the mountain, 
 would hear of the French claim, as "Adair did, and call it, 
 most naturally, French Broad. 
 
 M. Charleville, a French trader from Crozat’s colony at 
 17l4 ( New-Orleans, came among the Shawnees then inhab- 
 l iting the country upon the Cumberland river, and 
 traded with them. His store was built upon a mound near 
 the present site of Nashville, on the west side of Cumberland 
 river, near French Lick Creek, and about seventy yards from 
 each stream. M. Charleville thus planted upon the banks of 
 the Cumberland the germ of civilization and commerce, un- 
 conscious that it contained the seminal principle of future 
 wealth, consequence and empire. 
 
 About this period the Cherokees and Chickasaws expelled 
 the Shawnees from their numerous villages upon the lower 
 Cumberland. 
 
 At the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, the French 
 
4G 
 
 PADUCAH BUILT. 
 
 built and garrisoned Fort Toulouse, Tombeckbee, in the 
 country of the Choctaws, Assumption, on the Chickasaw 
 Bluff, and Paducah, at the mouth of Cumberland, and trading 
 posts at different points along the Tennessee river, indicated 
 future conflict of territorial rights, if not aggression and hos- 
 tility between the English and French colonies. Colonial 
 rivalry prompted each to ingratiate itself with and secure 
 the trade and friendship of the native tribes. 
 
 In pursuance of this policy, Governor Nicholson, in 1721, 
 sent a message to the Cherokees, inviting them to a general 
 congress, in order to treat of friendship and commerce. The 
 chieftains of thirty-seven different towns met him. He made 
 them presents, smoked with them the pipe of peace, laid off 
 their boundaries, and appointed an agent to superintend 
 their affairs. With the Creeks he also made a treaty of 
 commerce and peace, and appointed an agent to reside 
 among them. In 1730, the projects of the French, for uniting 
 Canada and Louisiana, began to be developed. Already had 
 they extended themselves northwardly from the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and had made many friends among the Indians west 
 of Carolina. To counteract their intentions, it was the wish 
 of Great Britain to convert the Indians into allies or subjects, 
 and to make with them treaties of union and alliance. For 
 this purpose, Sir Alexander Gumming was sent out to treat 
 with the Cherokees, who then occupied the lands about the 
 head of Savannah and backward among the Apalachian 
 mountains. They were computed to amount to more than 
 twenty thousand, six thousand of whom were warriors. Sir 
 l Alexander havingsummoned the Lower, Middle, Valley 
 ( and Over-hill settlements, met in April the chiefs of all 
 the Cherokee towns at Nequassee,* informed them by whose 
 authority he was sent, and demanded of them to acknow- 
 ledge themselves the subjects of his sovereign, King George, 
 and to promise obedience to his authority. Upon which the 
 chiefs, falling on their knees, solemnly promised obedience 
 and fidelity, calling upon all that was terrible to fall upon 
 them if they violated their promise. Sir Alexander then, by 
 
 * Martin lias it Requassee. It is laid down on Adair’s map among the moun- 
 tains near the sources of the Iliwassec. 
 
TENASSEE CHIEF TOWN. 
 
 47 
 
 their unanimous consent, nominated Moytoy* * * § commander 
 and chief of the Cherokee nation. The crown was brought 
 from Tenassee,f their chief town, which, with five eagle tails 
 and four scalps of their enemies, Moytoy presented to Sir 
 Alexander, requesting him, on his arrival at Britain, to lay 
 them at his majesty’s feet. But Sir Alexander proposed to 
 Moytoy, that he should depute some of his chiefs to accom- 
 pany him to England, and do homage in person to the great 
 king Six of them, accordingly, did accompany him, and, 
 being admitted to the royal presence, promised, in the name 
 of their nation, to continue forever his majesty’s faithful and 
 obedient subjects.^ A treaty was then drawn up and'exe- 
 cuted formally, § of friendship, alliance and commerce. With- 
 out mentioning the Spaniards and French, it is plain that 
 some of its provisions were intended to exclude their traders 
 from any participation in traffic with the Cherokees, and to 
 prevent any settlements or forts from being made by them in 
 their country. In consequence of this treaty, a condition of 
 friendship and peace continued for many years between this 
 tribe and the colonists. 
 
 In 1732, the colony of Georgia was projected, and the 
 governor of it, Oglethorpe, effected a treaty with the Lower 
 and Upper Creeks, a large tribe, numbering together between 
 twenty and thirty thousand. To-mo-chi-chi was their chief, 
 and with his queen and other Indians accompanied Ogle- 
 thorpe to London. This alliance of the Creeks and Chero- 
 kees with the colonists promised security from the approaches 
 of the Spanish and French in Florida and Louisiana. 
 
 These treaties, however, were not considered sufficient 
 guarantees to the southern English colonies of permanent 
 security and quiet. The tribes with which they had been 
 negotiated were in close proximity with rival nations, and 
 
 * Moytoy of Telliquo, probably the modern Tellico. 
 
 f This is the first place in any of the authorities we have consulted, that Tenas- 
 see is mentioned. The town, thus called, was on the west bank of the present 
 Little Tennessee river, a few miles above the mouth of Tellico, and afterwards 
 gave the name to Tennessee river and to the state. 
 
 \ Hewitt. 
 
 § See Hewitt’s History of South-Carolina for an account of this treaty, and also 
 the speech of one of the chiefs, Skijagustah. 
 
48 
 
 PROVINCIAL MEMORIAL. 
 
 were easily seduced from their fidelity to a distant monarch, 
 by the machinations of French emissaries amongst them. 
 It was, therefore, deemed necessary to adopt further measures 
 of protection and defence against future defection and attack. 
 The Carolinas and Georgia were now royal provinces. The 
 crown had already granted them many favours and indul- 
 gences for promoting their success and prosperity, and for 
 securing them against external enemies. What further fa- 
 vours they expected, may be learned from a memorial and 
 representation of the condition of Carolina transmitted to 
 his majesty, bearing date April 9, 1734, and signed by the 
 governor, president of the council, and the speaker of the 
 assembly.* The memorial, after enumerating instances of 
 the royal care and protection of these distant parts of his 
 dominion, represents — 
 
 “That being the southern frontier of all his American possessions, 
 they are peculiarly exposed to danger from the strong castle of St. 
 Augustine, garrisoned by four hundred Spaniards, who have several 
 nations of Indians under their subjection ; that the French have erected 
 a considerable town near Fort Thoulous on Mobile river, and several 
 other forts and garrisons, some of which are not above three hundred 
 miles from their settlements, and that their possessions upon the Missis- 
 sippi are strengthened by constant accessions from Canada ; that their 
 garrisons and rangers are producing disaffection to the English among 
 the Indian tribes, one of which, the Choctaws, consists of above five 
 thousand fighting men ; that they are paving the way for an invasion of 
 the English colonies, by the erection of the Alabama fort in the centre 
 of the Upper Creeks, which is well garrisoned and mounted with four- 
 teen cannon, and which, with the liberal presents they are making to 
 them, has overawed and seduced them from their allegiance to the Bri- 
 tish crown, and from a dependence upon British manufactures for their 
 supplies. An expedient is then proposed, to recover and confirm the 
 Indians to his majesty’s interest, and that is, by presents to withdraw 
 them from the French alliance, and by building forts among them to 
 enable us to reduce Fort Alabama, and prevent the Cherokees from 
 joining our enemies and making us a prey to the French and savages. 
 The Cherokee nation has lately become very insolent to our traders, and 
 we beg leave to inform your majesty that the building and mounting- 
 some forts among them mav keep them steady in their fidelity to us, 
 and that the means of the province are inadequate to its defence — the 
 militia of Carolina and Georgia not exceeding. three thousand five hun- 
 dred men.” 
 
 The results of this memorial will be given at another 
 
 * Hewitt. 
 
FORT ASSUMPTION BUILT. 
 
 49 
 
 1732 
 
 place. In 1732, the country in the neighbourhood of Win- 
 chester, Virginia, began to be settled. 
 
 Louisiana had, in the meantime, reverted from the Missis- 
 sippi Company to the crown of France ; and it con- 
 tinued to be the policy of Louis to unite the extremes 
 of his North American possessions by a cordon of forts 
 along the Mississippi river. The Chickasaws had been an 
 obstacle to the accomplishment of this purpose. They had 
 resisted the insinuations of French emissaries, and were 
 indeed considered unfriendly to them. It was, therefore, 
 determined to subdue them. A joint invasion, carried into 
 their country from opposite directions, by Bienville and D’Ar- 
 taguette, terminated disastrously to France. A further inva- 
 sion was projected, and 
 
 “In the last of June, an army, composed of twelve hundred whites, 
 j and twice that number of red and black men, took up its quar- 
 1 ( ters in Fort Assumption, on the bluff of Memphis ; the re- 
 
 cruits from France — the Canadians — sunk under the climate. In the 
 March of next year, a small detachment proceeded towards the Chicka- 
 saw country ; they were met by messengers who supplicated for peace, 
 and Bienville gladly accepted the calumet. The fort at Memphis was 
 razed — the Chickasaws remained the undoubted lords of their country.”* 
 
 From Kaskaskia to Baton Rouge was a wilderness, and 
 the present Tennessee was again without a single civilized 
 inhabitant, two centuries after Europeans had visited it. 
 
 In this year there was a handsome fort at Augusta, where 
 
 „ f there was a small garrison of about twelve or fifteen 
 1740 1 . 
 
 ( men, besides officers. The safety the traders derived 
 from this fort, drew them to that point. Another cause of the 
 growth of the place, was the fertility of the lands around it. 
 The Cherokee Indians marked out a path from Augusta to 
 their nation, so that horsemen could then ride from Savan- 
 nah to all the Indian nations. 
 
 “ The boundary line between the provinces of Virginia and North- 
 Carolina was this year continued, by commissioners appointed by 
 the legislatures of the respective provinces, to Holstein river, 
 directly opposite to a place called the Steep Rock.”f 
 
 1749 
 
 * Bancroft. 
 
 t Martin. This is the first time that this tributary of the Tennessee river is 
 mentioned. Haywood says it was called Holston, from a man of that name who 
 first discovered and lived upon it. 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 TREATY WITH THE CIIEROKEES. 
 
 The settlements in Virginia were gradually extended along 
 ^ 1 its beautiful valley in the direction of Tennessee. 
 
 ( Those of North-Caroli'na had reached the delightful 
 country between the Yadkin and Catawba, and Fort Dobbs 
 was built in 1750, and had a small neighbourhood of farmers 
 and graziers around it. It stood near the Yadkin, about 
 twenty miles west of Salisbury,* and had been erected 
 agreeably to the stipulations of a treaty held by Col. Waddle 
 with Atta-Culla-Culla, the Little Carpenter, in behalf of the 
 Cherokees. It was usually garrisoned by fifty men. The 
 Indians paid little regard to the treaty, as the next spring 
 they killed some people near the Catawba. 
 
 To prevent the influence of the French among the Indian 
 tribes, it became necessary to build some forts in the heart 
 of their country. This policy had been suggested to the 
 crown by the authorities of South-Carolina, in their memo^ 
 rial, as already mentioned. A friendly message was received 
 by Governor Glen from the chief warrior of the Over-hill 
 Settlements in the Cherokee nation, ‘acquainting him that 
 
 “Some Frenchmen and their allies were among their people, endea- 
 vouring to poison their minds, and that it would be necessary to hold a 
 general congress with the nation, and renew their former treaties of 
 friendship. Accordingly, the governor appointed a time and place for 
 holdi ng a treaty.” 
 
 Governor Glen needed no argument to convince him that 
 $ an alliance with such a tribe was, under present cir- 
 ( cumstances, essential to the security of South-Caro- 
 lina and her sister provinces, and, accordingly, in 1755, he 
 met the Cherokee warriors and chiefs in ttieir own country. 
 
 “ After the usual ceremonies were over, the governor sat down under 
 a spreading tree, and Chulochcullaf being chosen speaker for the Chero- 
 kee nation, took a seat beside him. The other warriors, about five hun- 
 dred in number, stood around them in solemn silence and deep atten- 
 tion. The governor then arose and made a speech in the name of his 
 king, representing his great power, wealth and goodness, and his particular 
 regard for his children, the Cherokees ; and added, that he had many 
 presents to make to them, and expected them, in return, to surrender a 
 share of their territories, and demanded lands to build two forts upon in 
 their country, to protect them against their enemies, and to be a retreat 
 
 * Williamson. 
 
 I Pro! ably Atta-Culla-Culla, witli whom Col. Waddle of North. Carolina also 
 formed a treaty. 
 
FORT PRINCE GEORGE BUILT. 
 
 51 
 
 to tlieir friends and allies. He represented to them the great poverty 
 and wicked designs of the French, and hoped they would permit none 
 of them to enter their towns.* When the governor had finished his 
 speech, Chulocbculla arose, and, holding his bow in one hand, his 
 shaft of arrows and other symbols in the other, spoke to the following- 
 effect: ‘What I now speak, our father, the great king, should hear. We 
 are brothers to the people of Carolina — one house covers us all.’ Then 
 taking a boy bv the hand, he presented him to the governor, saying- — 
 ‘ We, our wives and our children, are all children of the great King 
 George. I have brought this child, that when he grows up he may 
 remember our agreement on this day, and tell it to the next generation, 
 that it may be known forever.’ Then, opening his bag of earth and 
 laying it at the governor’s feet, said— 1 We freely surrender a part of our 
 lands to the great king. The French want our possessions, but we will 
 defend them while one of our nation shall remain alive.’ Then shew- 
 ing his bows and arrows, he added — ‘ These are all the arms we can 
 make for our defence. We hope the king will pity his children, the 
 Cherokees, and send us guns and ammunition. We fear not the 
 French. Give us arms, and we will go to war against the enemies of 
 the great king.’ Then, delivering the governor a string of wampum in 
 confirmation of what he had said, he added — ‘ My speech is at an end ; 
 it is the voice of the Cherokee nation. I hope the governor will send 
 it to the king, that it may be kept forever.’ ” 
 
 At this treaty a large cession of territory was made to the 
 king, and deeds of conveyance were formally executed by 
 the head men, in the name of the whole people. 
 
 Soon after this cession, Governor Glen built Fort Prince 
 George upon the Savannah, near its source, and three hun- 
 dred miles from Charleston, and within gun-shot of an Indian 
 town, called Keowee. It contained barracks for one hundred 
 men, and was well mounted with cannon, and designed for 
 a defence of the western frontier of the province. 
 
 The earl of Loudon, who had been appointed commander 
 of the king’s troops in America, and governor of the 
 province of Virginia, came over in the spring of this 
 year. He sent Andrew Lewis to build another fort on Ten- 
 nessee river, on the southern bank, at the highest point of 
 its navigation, nearly opposite to the spot on which Tellico 
 Block House has since been placed, and about thirty miles 
 from the present town of Knoxville ; the fort was called, in 
 
 * There is reason to believe that the French at this time had trading establish- 
 ments on the Tennessee river, about the Muscle Shoals, in close propinquity with 
 the Over-hill Cherokees, and that in their hunting, trapping and trading excur- 
 sions, they had ascended to the centre of East Tennessee. 
 
52 
 
 FORT LOUDON BUILT. 
 
 honour of the earl, Fort Loudon. Lewis informed Governor 
 Dobbs that, on his arrival at Chota, he had received the 
 kindest usage from Old Hop, the Little Carpenter, and that 
 the Indians in general expressed their readiness to comply 
 with the late treaty with the Virginia commissioners (Byrd 
 and Randolph). They manifested this disposition while the 
 fort was building ; but when it was finished, and they were 
 pressed to fulfil their engagements, and send warriors to 
 Virginia, they equivocated. Lewis observed that the French 
 and their Indian allies, the Savannahs, kept a regular cor- 
 respondence with the Cherokees, especially those of the great 
 town ofTellico. He expressed his opinion that some scheme 
 was on foot for the distress of the English back settlers, and 
 that the Cherokees greatly inclined to join the French. 
 While he was at Chota, messengers had come to the Little 
 Carpenter, (Atta-Culla-Culla,) from the Nantowees, the Sa- 
 vannahs, and the French at the Alabama fort. He took 
 notice that the object of the communications were indus- 
 triously concealed from him, and that a great alteration in 
 that chief’s behaviour towards him had ensued. In return, 
 towards the latter part of September, a Frenchman, who 
 had lived a considerable time among the Cherokees, accom- 
 panied by a Cherokee woman, who understood the Shawnee 
 tongue, went from Chota to the Alabama fort, and to the 
 Savannah Indians. The object of his visit to the French, 
 was to press them for the accomplishment of a promise the 
 commander of the fort had made, to send and have a fort 
 built among the Cherokees, near the town of Great Tellico. 
 The communication concluded, by observing that the Indians 
 had expressed a wish that Captain Dennie, (Demere ?) “sent 
 by the Earl of Loudon, with a corps of two hundred men to 
 garrison the fort, might return to Virginia, the Indians being 
 displeased at seeing such a large number of white people, 
 well armed, among them, expressing a belief that their 
 intention was to destroy any small force that might be sent, 
 in order to take the fort and surrender it to the French. On 
 this information, Captain Hugh Waddle was sent with a 
 small force to reinforce Captain Dennie.”* 
 
 * Martin. 
 
LONG ISLAND FORT BUILT. 
 
 53 
 
 Fort Loudon was then estimated to be five hundred miles 
 from Charleston, and Hewitt remarks, that it was a place to 
 which it was very difficult at all times, but, in case of a war 
 with the Cherokees, utterly impracticable, to convey neces- 
 sary supplies. Prince George and Loudon were garrisoned 
 by the king’s independent companies of infantry stationed 
 there. “ The Indians invited artizans into Fort Loudon by 
 donations of land, which they caused to be signed by their 
 own chief, and, in one instance, by Governor Dobbs of North- 
 Carolina.”* “ These strongholds were garrisoned by troops 
 from Britain ; and the establishment of these defences in the 
 interior, led to the rapid accumulation of settlers in all the 
 choice places in their neighbourhood. ”f Loudon is remarka- 
 ble as being the first fort or other structure erected in Ten- 
 nessee by Anglo-Americans. J 
 
 The continued possession of Fort Du Quesne enabled the 
 French to preserve their ascendancy over the Indians, and 
 to hold undisturbed control over almost the entire country 
 west of the Alleghany mountains. The spirit of Britain rose 
 in full proportion to the occasion, and Mr. Pitt, in a circular 
 letter to the colonial governors, promised to send a large 
 force to America to operate by sea and land against the 
 French, and called upon them to raise troops to assist in that 
 measure. In furtherance of that object, Virginia, pushing 
 her settlements south-west, and guarding and protecting 
 them, as they advanced, by forts and garrisons, had built 
 Fort Lewis near the present village of Salem, in Bottetourt 
 county. In 1758, Col. Bird, in pursuit of the French and 
 Indians, who had recently taken Vaux’s Fort on Roanoke, 
 marched his regiment, and built Fort Chissel and stationed 
 a garrison in it. It stood a few miles from New river, near 
 the road leading from what is since known as Inglis’ Ferry. 
 
 Col. Bird continued his expedition further, and erected an- 
 other fort, in the autumn of this year, on the north bank of 
 Holston, nearly opposite to the upper end of the Long Island, 
 now the property of Col. Netherland. It was situated upon 
 
 * Haywood. f Simms. 
 
 | In Haywood, the time of its erection is giveD in 1757. I have chosen to fol- 
 low Hewitt, who wrote in 1779, and gives it as it is in the text, 1756. 
 
54 
 
 FORT LOUDON THREATENED. 
 
 a beautiful level, and was built upon a large plan, with pro- 
 per bastions, and the wall thick enough to stop the force of 
 small cannon shot. The gates were spiked with large nails, 
 so that the wood was all covered. The army wintered there 
 in the winter of 1758. The line between Virginia and 
 Norfh-Carolina had not then been extended beyond the Steep 
 Rock. Long Island Fort was believed to be upon the terri- 
 tory of the former, but as it is south of her line, the Virgi- 
 nians have the honour of having erected the second Anglo- 
 American fort within the boundaries of Tennessee. 
 
 In the spring of 1758, the garrison of Fort Loudon was 
 augmented to two hundred men. In a few months, by the 
 arrival of traders and hunters, it grew into a thriving 
 tillage. 
 
 In the meantime, the French garrison at Fort Du Quesne, 
 ^ deserted by their Indian allies, and unequal to the 
 ( maintenance of the place against the army of Gene- 
 ral Forbes that approached it, abandoned the fort, and es- 
 caped in boats down the Ohio. The English took posses- 
 sion of it, and, in compliment to the popular minister, called 
 it Pittsburg. In the army of Forbes were several Cherokees, 
 who had accompanied the provincial troops of North and 
 South-Carolina. 
 
 “ The capture of Fort Du Quesne, though a brilliant termination of 
 the several campaigns so successfully prosecuted from the northern colo- 
 nies against the French, was followed by disastrous consequences as to 
 the frontier settlements in the south. The scene of action was only 
 changed from one place to another, and the baneful influence of those 
 active and enterprising enemies that had descended the Ohio, soon 
 manifested itself in a more concentrated form among the Upper Chero- 
 kees ; the interior position of whose country furnished facilities of imme- 
 diate and frequent intercourse with the defeated and exasperated French- 
 men, who now ascended the Tennessee river and penetrated to their 
 mountain fastnesses. An unfortunate quarrel with the Virginians helped 
 to forward their intrigues, and opened an easier access into the towns of 
 the savages. The Cherokees, as before remarked, had, agreeably to 
 their treaties, sent a number of their warriors to assist in the reduction 
 of Du Quesne. Returning home through the back parts of Viriginia, 
 some of them, who had lost their horses on the expedition, laid hold on 
 such as they found running at large, and appropriated them. The Vir- 
 ginians resented the injury by killing twelve or fourteen of the unsus- 
 pecting warriors, and taking several more prisoners. This, ungrateful 
 conduct, from allies whose frontiers they had defended and recovered, 
 
PORT PRINCE GEORGE ATTACKED. 
 
 55 
 
 aroused at once a spirit of deep resentment and deadly retaliation.” * 
 
 * * “The flame soon spread through the upper towns. The garri- 
 
 son of Fort Loudon, consisting of about two hundred men, under the 
 command of Captains Demere and Stuart, was, from its remote position 
 from the white settlements, the first to notice the disaffection of the 
 Indians, and to suffer from it. The soldiers, as usual, making excur- 
 sions into the woods, to procure fresh provisions, were attacked by them, 
 and some of them were killed. From this time such dangers threat- 
 ened the garrison, that every one was confined within the small bounda- 
 ries of the fort.”f * * * “ All communication with the settle- 
 
 ments across the mountains, from which they received supplies, was cut 
 off, and the soldiers, having no other sources from which provisions 
 could be obtained, had no prospect left them but famine or death.. Par- 
 ties of the young warriors rushed down upon the frontier settlements, 
 and the work of massacre became general along the borders of Caro- 
 lina.”! * * * “ Governor Lyttleton, receiving intelligence of these 
 
 outrages, prepared to chastise the enemy, and summoned the militia of 
 the province to assemble at Congaree.” * * * “A treaty was 
 
 made afterwards, signed by the governor and ouly six of the head men ; 
 in this, it was agreed that the twenty-two chieftains should be kept as 
 hostages, confined in Fort Prince George, until the same number of 
 Indians, guilty of murder, should be delivered up, and that the Chero- 
 kees should kill or take prisoner every Frenchman that should presume 
 to come into the nation.Ӥ 
 
 The treaty, however, illy expressed the sentiment of the 
 tribe. And, immediately after the return of the governor 
 and the dispersion of his army from Fort Prince George, 
 hostilities were renewed, and fourteen whites were killed 
 within a mile of the fort. Under a pretence of procuring a 
 release of the hostages, Oconostota approached and 
 surprised the fort, and faithlessly fired upon and killed 
 its officers. Exasperated to madness by this outrage, the 
 garrison fell upon the hostages, and killed them to a man. 
 This was followed by a general invasion of the frontier of 
 Carolina, and an indiscriminate butchery of men, women 
 and children. 
 
 f Hewitt. f Simms. 
 
 § Colonel, afterwards General, Sumpter, accompanied Oconostota and liis 
 Cherokee delegation on their visit to Charlestown. Returning with that distin- 
 guished chief to the seat of his empire, he there found among the Indians one 
 Baron Des Johnnes,..a French Canadian, who spoke seven of the Indian lan- 
 guages. Sumpter, suspecting the baron of being an incendiary sent to excite 
 the several tribes to hostility against their white neighbours, with characteristic 
 resolution arrested him ; taking him single-handed, in spite of the opposition of 
 the Indians, and, at much personal risk, carrying him prisoner to Fort Prince 
 George. Des Johnnes was afterwards sent to Charleston, where he was exam- 
 ined, and though not proved guilty, it was deemed expedient to send him to Eng- 
 land. 
 
5G 
 
 ARMY UNDER COLONEL MONTGOMERY. 
 
 Prompt measures were adopted to restrain and punish 
 these excesses. Application was made to the neighbouring 
 provinces, North-Carolina and Virginia, for assistance, and 
 seven troops of rangers were raised to patrol the frontiers, 
 and the best preparation possible was made for chastising 
 the enemy, so soon as the regulars coming from the north 
 should arrive. Before the end of April, 1760, Colonel Mont- 
 gomery landed with his troops, and, being joined by several 
 volunteer companies, hastened to the rendezvous at Conga- 
 rees, where he was met by the whole strength of the pro- 
 vince, and immediately set out for the Cherokee country. 
 His march was spirited and expeditious. Little Keowee 
 was surprised by a night attack, and every warrior in it put 
 to the sword. Estatoe was reduced to ashes. Sugaw Town, 
 and every other settlement in the lower nation, suffered the 
 same fate. 
 
 “ Montgomery, after the loss of but four men, advanced to the relief 
 of Fort Prince George, which had been for some time invested by the 
 savages. From this place a message was sent to the Middle Settle- 
 ments, inviting the Cherokees to sue for peace, and also to Captains 
 Demere and Stuart, the commanding officers at Fort Loudon, request- 
 ing them to obtain peace with the Upper Towns. Finding the enemy 
 not disposed to listen to terms of accommodation, he determined to 
 penetrate through the dismal wilderness between him and the Middle 
 Towns.” * * * “Captain Morrison’s rangers had scarcely entered 
 
 the valley near Etchoe, when the savages sprang from their lurking den, 
 fired upon and killed the captain, and wounded a number of his men. 
 A heavy fire began on both sides. The battle continued above an hour. 
 Colonel Montgomery lost in the engagement twenty men, and had 
 seventy-six wounded. The Indians, it is believed, lost more. But the 
 repulse was far from being decisive, and Colonel Montgomery, finding 
 it impracticable to penetrate the woods further with his wounded men, 
 returned to Fort Prince George with his army, and soon after departed 
 for New-York. 
 
 “In the meantime, the distant garrison of Fort Loudon, consisting 
 of two hundred men, was reduced to the dreadful alternative of per- 
 ishing by hunger or submitting to the mercy of the enraged Cherokees. 
 The Governor of South-Carolina hearing that the Virginians had under- 
 taken to relieve it, for a while seemed satisfied, and anxiously waited to 
 hear the news of that happy event. But they, like the Carolinians, were 
 unable to send them assistance. So remote was the fort from any 
 settlement, and so difficult was it to march an army through the barren 
 wilderness, where every thicket concealed an enemy, and to carry, at the 
 same time, sufficient supplies along with them, that the Virginians had 
 
SURRENDER OF FORT LOUDON. 
 
 57 
 
 dropped all thoughts of the attempt. Provisions being entirely ex- 
 hausted at Fort Loudon, the garrison was upon the point of starving. 
 For a whole month they had no other subsistence than the flesh of lean 
 horses and dogs, and a small supply of Indian beans, procured stealthily 
 for them by some friendly Cherokee women. The officers had long 
 endeavoured to animate and encourage the men with the hope of suc- 
 cour ; but now, being blockaded night and day by the enemy, and having 
 no resource left, they threatened to leave the fort, and die at once by 
 the hands of savages, rather than perish slowly by famine. In this ex- 
 tremity, the commander was obliged to call a council of war to consider 
 what was proper to be done ; when the officers were all of opinion, that 
 it was impossible to hold out longer, and therefore agreed to surrender 
 the fort to the Cherokees, on the best terms that could be obtained from 
 them. For this purpose Captain Stuart, an officer of great sagacity and 
 address, and much beloved by those of the Indians who remained in the 
 British interest, procured leave to go to Chota, one of the principal 
 towns in the neighbourhood, where he obtained the following terms of 
 capitulation, which were signed by the commanding officer and two of 
 the Cherokee chiefs. ‘ That the garrison of Fort Loudon march out 
 with their arms and drums, each soldier having as much powder and ball 
 as their officer shall think necessary for the march, and all the bag- 
 gage they may choose to carry; that the garrison be permitted to march 
 to Virginia or Fort Prince George, as the commanding officer shall think 
 proper, unmolested ; and that a number of Indians be appointed to 
 escort them, and hunt for provisions during the march ; that such sol- 
 diers as are lame, or by sickness disabled from marching, be received 
 into the Indian towns, and kindly used until they recover, and then be 
 allowed to return to Fort Prince George; that the Indians do provide for 
 the garrison as many horses as they conveniently can for their march, 
 agreeing with the officers and soldiers for payment ; that the fort, great 
 guns, powder, ball and spare arms, be delivered to the Indians without 
 fraud or further delay, on the day appointed for the march of the 
 troops.’* 
 
 “ Agreeable to this stipulation, the garrison delivered up the fort, and 
 marched out with their arms, accompanied by Oconostota, Judd’s 
 friend, the prince of Chota, and several other Indians, and that day went 
 
 * Great guns. Of these there were twelve. It is difficult to conceive how the 
 cannon of Fort Loudon, in 1756, had been transported to a point so interior and 
 inaccesible. A wagon had not then passed the head of Holston, and not till the 
 autumn of 1776 had one come as low down that stream as the Long Island, with 
 provisions for the supply of Fort Patrick Henry. Artillery could not have been 
 brought down the Ohio and up the Tennessee, for after the loss of Du Quesne the 
 French still held undisturbed possession of the rivers below. The cannon at Lou- 
 don were most probably taken there across the mountain from Augusta or Fort 
 Prince George when reinforcements were sent to its relief. In this case the trans- 
 portation of the great guns must have been made aloDg a narrow mountain trace 
 upon pack horses — requiring in the more difficult gorges even yet found in the in- 
 tervening country, the assistance of the soldiers. It is barely possible that these 
 cannon may have been brought from Fort Lewis or Fort Chissel, to the head waters 
 of Holston, and carried down that stream, and up the Little Tennessee to Loudon. 
 There is no tradition on the subject in Tennessee. 
 
58 
 
 MASSACRE OF THE GARRISON. 
 
 fifteen miles on their way to Fort Prince George. At night they en- 
 camped upon a plain about two miles from Taliquo, an Indian town, 
 when all their attendants, upon one pretence or another, left them ; 
 which the officers considered as no good sign, and therefore jflaced a 
 strict guard around their camp. During the night they remained un- 
 molested, but next morning about break of day, a soldier from an out- 
 post came running in, and informed them that he saw a vast number of 
 Indians, armed and painted in the most dreadful manner, creeping 
 among the bushes, and advancing in order to surround them. Scarcely 
 had the officer time to order his men to stand to their arms, when the 
 savages poured in upon them a heavy fire from different quarters, ac- 
 companied with the most hideous yells, which struck a panic into the 
 soldiers, who were so much enfeebled and dispirited that they were in- 
 capable of making any effectual resistance. . Captain Demere, with threp 
 other officers, apcl about twenty-six privates, fell at the first onset. Some 
 fled into the woods, and were afterwards taken prisoners and confined 
 among the towns in the valley. Captain Stuart and those that remained, 
 were seized, pinioned, and brought back to Fort Loudon. No sooner 
 had Attakullakulla heard that his friend Mr. Stuart had escaped, than 
 he hastened to the fort, and purchased him from the Indian that took 
 him, giving him his rifle, clothes, and all he could command by way of 
 ransom. He then took possession of Captain Demere’s house, where he 
 kept his prisoner as one of his family, and freely shared with him the 
 little provisions his table afforded, until a fair opportunity should offer 
 for rescuing him from 'the hands of the savages ; but the poor soldiers 
 were kept in a miserable state of captivity for some time, and then re- 
 deemed by the province at great expense. 
 
 “ While the prisoners were confined at Fort Loudon, Oconostota 
 formed the design of attacking Fort Prince George. To this bold under- 
 taking he was the more encouraged, as the cannon and ammunition sur- 
 rendered by the garrison would, under the direction of French officers 
 who were near him, secure its success. Messengers were therefore dis- 
 patched to the valley towns, requesting their warriors to meet him at 
 Stickoee. 
 
 “ By accident a discovery was made of ten bags of powder, and a 
 large quantity of ball that had been secretly buried in the fort, to pre- 
 vent their falling into the enemy’s hands. This discovery had nearly 
 proved fatal to Captain Stuart ; but the interpreter had such presence 
 of mind as to assure the incensed savages that these warlike stores 
 were concealed without. Stuart’s knowledge or consent. The supply of 
 ammunition being sufficient for the siege, a council was held at 
 Chota, to which the captive Stuart was taken. Here he was reminded 
 of the obligations he was under for having his life spared, and as they 
 had determined to take six cannon and two cohorns against Prince 
 George, the Indians told him he must accompany the expedition — man- 
 age the artillery and write such letters to the commandant as they 
 should dictate to him. They further informed him that if that officer 
 should refuse to surrender, they had determined to burn the prisoners 
 one by one before his face, and try whether he could be so obstinate as 
 to hold out while his friends were expiring in the flames. 
 
ESCAPE OP CAPTAIN STUART. 
 
 59 
 
 “ Captain Stuart was much: alarmed at his present situation , and from 
 that moment resolved to make his escape or perish in the attempt. He 
 privately communicated his design to Attakullakulla and told him that 
 the thought of hearing - arms against his countrymen harrowed his feel- 
 ings, and he invoked his assistance to accomplish his release. The old 
 warrior took him by the hand — told him he was his friend, and was 
 fully apprised of the designs of his countrymen, and pledged his efforts 
 to deliver him from danger. Attakullakulla claimed Captain Stuart as 
 his prisoner, and resorted to stratagem to rescue him. He told the 
 other Indians that he intended to go a hunting for a few days, and to 
 take his prisoner with him. Accordingly the} 7 departed, accompanied 
 by the warrior’s wife, his brother and two soldiers. The distance to the 
 frontier settlements was great, and the utmost expedition was necessary 
 to prevent surprise from Indians pursuing them. Nine days and nights 
 did they travel through a dreary wilderness, shaping their course by the 
 sun and moon for Virginia. On the tenth they arrived at the banks of 
 Holston’s river, where they fortunately fell in with a party of three 
 hundred men, sent out by Colonel Bird for the relief of Fort Loudon. 
 On the fourteenth day the captain reached Colonel Bird’s camp on the 
 frontiers of Virginia. His faithful friend, Attakullakulla, was here loaded 
 with presents and provisions, and sent back to protect the unhappy pris- 
 oners till they should be ransomed, and to exert his influence with the 
 Cherokees for the restoration of peace.” 
 
 After Captain Stuart’s escape, he lost no time in concert- 
 ing measures of relief to his garrison. An express was at 
 once forwarded to the Governor of South-Carolina to inform 
 him of the disaster at Fort Loudon, and of the designs of the 
 enemy against Fort Prince George. The prisoners that had 
 survived the hardships of hunger, disease and captivity, at 
 Loudon, were ransomed and delivered up to the commanding 
 officer at Fort Prince George. 
 
 This account of the siege and capitulation of Fort Loudon, 
 and of the attack upon the retiring garrison, has been copied 
 or condensed from “ Hewitt’s Historical Account of South- 
 Carolina and Georgia,” as republished in the valuable his- 
 torical collection of Carroll. ■ Being written in 1779, soon 
 after the transactions which it relates took place, Hewitt’s 
 work is considered authentic, and may be fully relied on 
 as being generally correct. Still in some of the details other 
 historians differ from him. One of them gives another ver- 
 sion of the assault upon the camp the morning after the 
 evacuation of the fort. Haywood says: “At this place, 
 about day-break, the Indians fell upon and destroyed the 
 whole troop, men, women and children, except three men, 
 
60 
 
 ASSOCIATIONS CONNECTED WITH LOUDON. 
 
 Jack, Stuart and Thomas, who were saved by the friendly 
 exertions of the Indian chief called the Little Carpenter; ex- 
 cept also, six men, who were in the advance guard, and who 
 escaped into the white settlements.” # * * “ It is said 
 
 that between two and three hundred men, besides women 
 and children, perished in this massacre. The Indians made 
 a fence of their bones, but after the war they were, by the 
 advice of Oconostota, King of the Over-hill Cherokees, removed 
 and buried, for fear of stirring afresh the hostility of the 
 English traders, who began again to visit them.” Such, too, 
 has been the prevalent tradition. 
 
 In addition to the concealment within the fort of the am- 
 munition, as already related, Haywood mentions that the 
 garrison threw their cannon, with their small arms and am- 
 munition, into the river. After the close of the war the 
 Cherokees excused their perfidy in violating the terms of the 
 capitulation, and their barbarous massacre of the garrison, 
 by imputing bad faith on the part of the whites in hiding the 
 warlike stores surrendered with the fort. 
 
 Associations connected with Loudon as the first English 
 fort erected within the State of Tennessee, the mournful fate 
 of its garrison, and the tragic issue of the earliest Anglo- 
 American settlement planted upon our soil, have invested the 
 history of O/d Fort Loudon with a romantic and melancholy 
 interest — one that may be deemed elsewhere disproportioned 
 to its real importance. But the writer persuades himself 
 that the tediousness of the preceding details — scarcely in 
 consonance with the object of these annals — will be excused, 
 when it is considered, that hereafter no opportunity will 
 present itself =of again recording the surrender of a fort or 
 the capture and massacre of a garrison. In the narration of 
 the events upon which he will soon enter, it will be the 
 grateful duty of the annalist to show, that in all their border 
 conflicts, in their wild adventures into the wilderness, in 
 their frequent invasions of neighbouring tribes, in their glo- 
 rious participation in the struggle for independence and free- 
 dom, in all their wars with European or American enemies, 
 the sons of Tennessee have every where achieved success, 
 triumph, victory, conquest and glory. 
 
GRANT CONQUERS AT ETCHOE. 
 
 61 
 
 The indecisive battle at Etchoe and the catastrophe in the 
 valley of the Tennessee, served only to stimulate Cherokee 
 aggression ; and Canada being now reduced, an adequate 
 force was at once sent from the north for the defence of the 
 southern provinces. Col. Grant, early in 1761, arrived in 
 Charleston with the British regular troops. A provincial 
 regiment had been raised, and it accompanied the army to 
 the Cherokee country. Among its field officers were Mid- 
 dleton, Laurens, Moultrie, Marion, Huger and Pickens — after- 
 wards so highly distinguished in the service of the country. 
 The army arrived at Fort Prince George on the 27th of May. 
 Attakullakulla hearing that a formidable army approached 
 his nation, hastened to the camp of Col. Grant and proposed 
 
 ^ 1 terms of accommodation. But it was known that the 
 I temper of his countrymen was averse to peace, and his 
 proposals received no encouragement. 
 
 “ The Cherokees encountered Grant, with all their strength, near the 
 town of Etchoe, on the spot where they had fought with Montgomery 
 in the previous campaign. For three hours did the engagement con- 
 tinue, until the persevering valour of the whites succeeded in expelling 
 the Indians from the field. ****** Their granaries and 
 corn fields were destroyed, and their miserable families driven to the 
 barren mountains. The national spirit was, for a while, subdued, and 
 they humbly sued for peace, through the medium of the old and 
 friendly chief, Attakullakulla. ‘ I am come,’ said the venerable chief, 
 ‘to see what can be done for my people, who are in great distress.’ 
 His prayer was granted, peace, was ratified between the parties, and the 
 end of this bloody war, which was supposed to have originated in the 
 machinations of French emissaries, was among the last humbling blows 
 given to the expiring power of France in North America. 
 
 “ The peace which followed this victory over the Cherokees, and the 
 expulsion of the French and Spaniards from the borders of the southern 
 provinces, brought with it a remarkable increase of population and 
 prosperity. Multitudes of emigrants from Europe and the middle 
 provinces came out in rapid succession to the interior, and pursuing the 
 devious progress of the streams, sought out their sources, and planted 
 their little settlements on the sides of lofty hills, or in the bosom of 
 lovely vallies.”* 
 
 Emigrants from Ireland sought the wilds of America, 
 through two avenues. The one by the Delaware Bay, whose 
 chief port was Philadelphia — the other by a more southern 
 landing — the port of Charleston. Those landing at the 
 
 * Simms. 
 
G2 
 
 TENNESSEE STILL UNSETTLED, AND 
 
 latter place, immediately sought the fertile forests of the 
 upper Carolinas, where they met a counter tide of emigra- 
 tion. Those who landed on the Delaware, after the desira- 
 ble lands, east of the Alleghanies, in Pennsylvania, were 
 occupied, turned their course southward, and soon meeting 
 the southern tide, the stream turned westward to the wilder- 
 ness long known as “ the backwoods, or beyond the moun- 
 tains,” now as Tennessee. These two streams from the 
 same original fountain — Ireland — meeting and intermingling 
 in the new soil, preserve the characteristic difference; the 
 one possessing much of the air and manner of Pennsylva- 
 nia, and the other of Charleston.* 
 
 But, as yet, Tennessee was a desert and a wilderness. The 
 Adelantado of Cuba and his proud cavaliers had, indeed, 
 looked upon its south-western angle, but resisted with 
 unyielding spirit by the aboriginal inhabitants, the chivalry 
 of Spain were driven across its western boundary, and glad 
 to escape savage resentment for their daring invasion, buried 
 themselves in the solitudes beyond it. At a later period, La 
 Salle and his voyageurs had coasted along the shores of the 
 great mediterranean of the west, and claimed for the mon- 
 arch of France the magnificent valley watered by its tribu- 
 taries; and Marquette, in his pious zeal for his church, had 
 attempted the conversion of the natives from heathenism 
 and barbarity to the worship of the God of Heaven. Later 
 still, England and her colonies had penetrated far into the 
 western wilds, and erected a fort and planted an infant set- 
 tlement upon the distant banks of the Tennessee. But the 
 efforts of Spain, of France, and of England, had been alike 
 unsuccessful in founding, upon the soil of Tennessee, a per- 
 manent establishment of civilized man. The colonists of 
 the Carolinas and of Virginia had been steadily advancing 
 to the west, and we have traced their approaches in the 
 direction of our eastern boundary, to the base of the great 
 Apalachian range. Of the country beyond it, little was 
 positively known or accurately understood. A wandering 
 Indian would imperfectly delineate upon the sand, a feeble 
 
 * Foote. 
 
TS VISITED BY TRADERS. 
 
 63 
 
 outline of its more prominent physical features — its magnifi- 
 cent rivers, with their numerous tributaries — its lofty moun- 
 tains, its dark forests, its extended plains and its vast extent. 
 A voyage in a canoe, from the source of the Hogohegee* to 
 the Wabash, f required for its performance, in their figurative 
 language, “two paddles, two warriors, three moons.” The 
 Ohio itself was but a tributary of a still larger river, of 
 whose source, size and direction, no intelligible account 
 could be communicated or understood. The Muscle Shoals 
 and the obstructions in the river above them, were repre- 
 sented as mighty cataracts and fearful whirlpools, and the 
 Suck, as an awful vortex. The wild beasts with which the 
 illimitable forests abounded, were numbered by pointing 
 to the leaves upon the trees, or the stars in a cloudless 
 sky. 
 
 These glowing descriptions of the west seemed rather to 
 stimulate than to satisfy the intense curiosity of the approach- 
 ing settlers. Information more reliable, and more minute, 
 was, from time to time, furnished from other sources. In the 
 Atlantic cities, accounts had been received from French and 
 Spanish traders, of the unaparalleled beauty and fertility of 
 the western interior. These reports, highly coloured and 
 amplified, were soon received and known upon the frontier. 
 Besides, persons engaged in the interior traffic with the south- 
 western Indian tribes had, in times of peace, penetrated 
 their territories — traded with and resided amongst the 
 natives — and upon their return to the white settlements, con- 
 firmed what had been previously reported in favour of the 
 distant countries they had seen. As early as 1690, Doherty, 
 a trader from Virginia, had visited the Cherokees, and after- 
 wards lived among them a number of years. In 1730. Adair, 
 from South-Carolina, had travelled, not only through the 
 towns of this tribe, but had extended his tour to most of the 
 nations south and west of them. He was not only an enter- 
 prising trader, but an intelligent tourist. To his observa- 
 tions upon the several tribes which he visited, we are 
 indebted for most that is known of their earlier history. 
 Thej r were published in London in 1775. 
 
 * Holston, t The Ohio was known many years by this name. 
 
64 
 
 TRAFFIC WITH INDIANS 
 
 In 1740 other traders went among the Cherokees from 
 Virginia. They employed Mr. Vaughan as a packman, to 
 transport their goods. West of Amelia county, the country 
 was then thinly inhabited ; the last hunter’s cabin that he 
 saw was on Otter river, a branch of the Staunton, now in 
 Bedford county, Va. The route pursued was along the Great 
 Path, to the centre of the Cherokee nation. The traders and 
 packmen generally confined themselves to this path till it 
 crossed the Little Tennessee river, then spreading themselves 
 out among the several Cherokee villages west of the moun- 
 tain, continued their traffic as low down the Great Tennessee 
 as the Indian settlements upon Occochappo or Bear Creek, 
 below the Muscle Shoals, and there encountered the compe- 
 tition of other traders, who were supplied from New-Orleans 
 and Mobile. They returned heavily laden with peltries, to 
 Charleston, or the more northern markets, where they were 
 sold at highly remunerating prices. A hatchet, a pocket 
 looking-glass, a piece of scarlet cloth, a trinket, and other 
 articles of little value, which at Williamsburg could be 
 bought for a few shillings, would command from an Indian 
 hunter on the Hiwassee or Tennessee peltries amounting in 
 value to double the number of pounds sterling. Exchanges 
 were necessarily slow, but the profits realized from the ope- 
 ration were immensely large. In times of peace this traffic 
 attracted the attention of many adventurous traders. It 
 became mutually advantageous to the Indian, not less than 
 to the white man. The trap and the rifle, thus bartered for, 
 procured, in one day, more game to the Cherokee hunter than 
 his bow and arrow and his dead-fall would have secured 
 during a month of toilsome hunting. Other advantages 
 resulted from it to the whites. They became thus acquaint- 
 ed with the great avenues leading through the hunting 
 grounds and to the occupied country of the neighbouring 
 tribes— an important circumstance in the condition of either 
 war or peace. Further, the traders were an exact thermo- 
 meter of the pacific or hostile intention and feelings of the 
 Indians with whom they traded. Generally, they were for- 
 eigners, most frequently Scotchmen, who had not been long 
 in the country, or upon the frontier, who, having experienced 
 
DOCTOR WALKER PASSES CUMBERLAND GAP. 
 
 65 
 
 none of the cruelties, depredations or aggressions of the 
 Indians, cherished none of the resentment and spirit of reta- 
 liation born with, and every where manifested, by the Ameri- 
 can settler. Thus, free from animosity against the aborigi- 
 nes, the trader was allowed to remain in the village where 
 he traded unmolested, even when its warriors were singing 
 the war song or brandishing the war club, preparatory to an 
 invasion or massacre of the whites. Timely warning was 
 thus often given by a returning packman, to a feeble and 
 unsuspecting settlement, of the perfidy and cruelty meditated 
 against it. 
 
 This gainful commerce was, for a time, engrossed by the 
 traders ; but the monopoly was not allowed to continue long. 
 Their rapid accumulations soon excited the cupidity of an- 
 other class of adventurers ; and the hunter, in his turn, be- 
 came a co-pioneer with the trader, in the march of civiliza- 
 tion to the wilds of the West. As the agricultural popula- 
 tion approached the eastern base of the Alleghanies, the 
 game became scarce, and was to be found by severe toil in 
 almost inaccessible req^sses and coves of the mountain. 
 Packmen, returning from their trading expeditions, carried 
 with them evidences, not only of the abundance of game 
 across the mountains, but of the facility with which it was 
 procured. Hunters began to accompany the traders to the 
 Indian towns ; but, unable to brook the tedious delay of pro- 
 curing peltries by traffic, and impatient of restraint, they 
 struck boldly into the wilderness, and western-like, to use a 
 western phrase, set up for .themselves. The reports of their 
 return, and of their successful enterprise, stimulated other 
 adventurers to a similar undertaking. “As early as 1748, 
 Doctor Thomas Walker, of Virginia, in company with Colo- 
 nels Wood, Patton and Buchanan, and Captain Charles 
 Campbell, and a number of hunters, made an exploring tour 
 upon the western waters. Passing Powell’s valley, he gave 
 the name of ‘ Cumberland’ to the lofty range of mountains 
 on the west. Tracing this range in a south-western direc- 
 tion, he came to a remarkable depression in the chain : 
 through this he passed, calling it ‘ Cumberland Gap.’ On 
 the western side of the range he found a beautiful mountain 
 5 
 
66 
 
 FIRST GRANT IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 stream, which he named ‘ Cumberland river,’ all in honour 
 of the Duke of Cumberland, then prime minister of Eng- 
 land.”* These names have ever since been retained, and, 
 with Loudon, are believed to be the only names in Tennessee 
 of English origin. 
 
 Although Fort Loudon was erected as early as 1756, upon 
 the Tennessee, yet it was in advance of any white settle- 
 ments nearly one hundred and fifty miles, and was, as has 
 been related, destroyed in 1760. The fort, too, at Long Is- 
 land, within the boundaries of the present State of Tennes- 
 see, was erected in 1758, but no permanent settlements had 
 yet been formed near it. Still, occasional settlers had begun 
 to fix their habitations in the south-western section of Vir- 
 ginia, and, as early as 1754, six families were residing west 
 of New River. “ On the breaking out of the French war, 
 the Indians, in alliance with the French, made an irruption 
 into these settlements, and massacred Burke and his family. 
 The other families, finding their situation too perilous to be 
 maintained, returned to the eastern side of New River; and 
 the renewal of the attempt to carry the white settlements 
 further west, was not made until after the close of that 
 war.”f 
 
 Under a mistaken impression that the Virginia line, when 
 
 g ( extended west, would embrace it, a grant of land was 
 l this year made, by the authorities of Virginia, to Ed- 
 mund Pendleton, for three thousand acres of land, lying in 
 Augusta county, on a branch of the middle fork of the Indian 
 river, called West Creek, J now Sullivan county, Tennessee. 
 
 In this year, Doctor Walker again passed over Clinch and 
 $ Powell’s river, on a tour of exploration into what is 
 ( now Kentucky. 
 
 The Cherokees were now at peace with the whites, and 
 hunters from the back settlements began with safety to pe- 
 
 * Monette TJie Indian name of this range was Wasioto, and of the river, 
 Shawanee. 
 
 f Howe. 
 
 t The original patent, signed by Governor Dinwiddie, and now in the possession 
 of the writer, was presented to him by T. A. R. Nelson, Esq., of Jonesboro, Ten- 
 nessee. It is probably the oldest grant in the state. 
 
FIRST ARRIVAL OF BOON. 
 
 67 
 
 1( _ ( netrate deeper and further into the wilderness of Ten- 
 
 l nessee. Several of them, chiefly from Virginia, hear- 
 ing of the abundance of game with which the woods were 
 stocked, and allured by the prospects of gain, which might be 
 drawn from this source, formed themselves into a company, 
 composed of Wallen, Scaggs, Blevins, Cox, and fifteen others^ 
 and came into the valley, since known as Carter’s Vallejq in 
 Hawkins county, Tennessee. They hunted eighteen months 
 upon Clinch and Powell’s rivers. Wallen’s Creek and Wal- 
 len’s Ridge received their name from the leader of the com- 
 pany ; as, also, did the station which they erected in the 
 present Lee county, Virginia, the name of Wallen’s Station. 
 They penetrated as far north as Laurel Mountain, in Ken- 
 tucky, where they terminated their journey, having met with 
 a body of Indians, whom they supposed to be Shawnees. 
 At the head of one of the companies that visited the West 
 this year “ came Daniel Boon, from the Yadkin, in North- 
 Carolina, and travelled with them as low as the place where 
 Abingdon now stands, and there left them.” 
 
 This is the first time the advent of Daniel Boon to the 
 western wilds has been mentioned by historians, or by the 
 several biographers of that distinguished pioneer and hunter. 
 There is reason, however, to believe that he had hunted upon 
 Watauga earlier. The writer is indebted to N. Gammon, 
 Esq., formerly of Jonesboro, now a citizen of Knoxville, for 
 the following inscription, still to be seen upon a beech tree, 
 standing in sight and east of the present stage-road, leading 
 from Jonesboro to Blountsville, and in the valley of Boon’s 
 Creek, a tributary of Watauga. 
 
 I). Boon 
 
 CillEJD A. BAB 
 
 in ThE . 
 
 yEAR 
 
 On 
 
 Tree 
 
 1760 
 
68 
 
 WALKER HUNTS ON CLINCH. 
 
 Boon was eighty-six years old when he died, which was 
 September, 1820. He was thus twenty-six years old when 
 the inscription was made. When he left the company of 
 hunters in 1761, as mentioned above by Haywood, it is pro- 
 bable that he did so to revisit the theatre of a former hunt 
 upon the creek that still bears his name, and where his 
 camp is still pointed out near its banks. It is not improba- 
 ble, indeed, that he belonged to, or accompanied, the party 
 of Doctor Walker, on his first, or certainly on his second, 
 tour of exploration in 1760. The inscription is sufficient 
 authority, as this writer conceives, to date the arrival of 
 Boon in Tennessee as early as its date, 1760, thus preced- 
 ing the permanent settlement of the country nearly ten 
 years. 
 
 In the fall of the next year Wallen and his company return- 
 1 ed again and hunted on the waters of Clinch; they 
 ( crossed the Blue Ridge at the Flower Gap, New ri- 
 ver, at Jones’s Ford, and the Iron Mountain at the Blue Spring ; 
 they travelled down the south fork of Holston, and crossing 
 the north fork and going to the Elk Garden, on the waters of 
 Clinch, they discovered some Indian signs : they extended 
 their journey, in the same direction, to the Hunters’ Valley — 
 so named from their travelling to and down it several days 
 to Black- water Creek. They fixed their station-camp near the 
 Tennessee line, and on the present road from Jonesville to Ro- 
 gersville. Some of the same company travelled down to Greasy 
 Rock Creek, and fixed a station-camp there. It stood near 
 the present line between Hawkins and Claibourne counties.* 
 
 This year Wallen’s company ventured further into the in- 
 jijgg ( terior — passed through Cumberland Gap, and hunted 
 l during the whole season on Cumberland river ; and 
 
 *A grant, signed Arthur Dobbs, Governor of the Province of North-Carolina, 
 William Beatner, Senr., Superintendent and Deputy Adjutant in and for the 
 Cherokee Nation, and William Beamer, Junr., Interpreter, and the Little Carpenter, 
 Half King of the Cherokee Nation of the Over-hill Towns, and Matthew Tool, Inter- 
 preter, made to Captain Patrick Jack, of the Province of Pennsylvania, is recorded in 
 Eegister’s office of Knox county. It purports to have been made at a council held at 
 Tennessee river, March 1, 1757 ; and the consideration is four hundred dollars, and 
 conveys to Captain Jack fifteen miles square south of Tennessee river. The grant 
 itself, confirmatory of the purchase by Jack, is dated at a General Council met at 
 Catawba river, May 7, 1762, and is witnessed by Nathaniel Alexander. 
 
SMITH EXPLORES THE CUMBERLAND. 
 
 69 
 
 for the next several years continued to make fall hunts on 
 Rockcastle river, near the Crab-Orchard, in Kentucky. 
 
 Daniel Boon, who still lived on the Yadkin, though he had 
 1764 ^ previously hunted on the western waters, came again 
 l this year to explore the country, being employed for 
 this purpose by Henderson & Company. YY ith him came 
 Samuel Callaway, his kinsman, and the ancestor of the re- 
 spectable family of that name, pioneers of Tennessee, Ken- 
 tucky and Missouri. Callaway was at the side of Boon when, 
 approaching the spurs of the Cumberland Mountain, and in 
 view of the vast herds of buffalo grazing in the vallies be- 
 tween them, he exclaimed, “ I am richer than the man men- 
 tioned in scripture, who owned the cattle on a thousand 
 hills — I own the wild beasts of more than a thousand val- 
 lies.” 
 
 After Boon and Callaway, came another hunter, Henry 
 Scaggins, who was also employed by Henderson. He extend- 
 ed his exploration to the Lower Cumberland, and fixed his sta- 
 tion at Mansco’s Lick. 
 
 “About the last of June, 1766, Col. James Smith set off to explore the 
 great body of rich lands, which, by conversing with the Indians, 
 
 he understood to be between the Ohio and Cherokee rivers, and 
 
 lately ceded by a treaty made with Sir William Johnston, to the King 
 of Great Britain. He went, in the first place, to Holston river, and 
 thence travelled westwardly in company with Joshua Horton, Hriah Stone 
 and William Baker, who came from Carlisle, Pa., — four in all — and a 
 slave, aged 18, belonging to Horton. They explored the country south 
 of Kentucky, and no vestige of a white man was to be found there, more 
 than there is now at the head of the Missouri. They also explored Cum- 
 berland and Tennessee rivers, from Stone’s river down to the Ohio. 
 Stone’s river is a branch of Cumberland, and empties into it eight or ten 
 miles above Nashville. It was so named in the journal of these explorers, 
 after Mr. Stone, one of their number, and has ever since retained the name. 
 When they came to the mouth of Tennessee, Col. Smith concluded to re- 
 turn home, and the others to proceed to the Illinois. They gave to Col. 
 Smith the greater part of their powder and lead — amounting only to 
 half a pound of the former, and a proportionate quantity of lead. Mr. 
 Horton, also, left with him his slave : and Smith set off with him through 
 the wilderness, to Carolina. Near a buffalo path, they made them a 
 shelter ; but, fearing the Indians might pass that way and discover his 
 fire place, he removed to a greater distance from it. After remaining there 
 six weeks, he proceeded on his journey, and arrived in Carolina in Octo- 
 ber. He thence travelled to FortChissel, and from there returned home 
 to Coneco-Cheague, in the fall of 1767.”* 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
70 
 
 FINDLEY PASSES THROUGH EAST TENNESSEE. 
 
 This exploration of Col. Smith was, with the exception of 
 Scaggins’s, the first that had been made of the country west 
 of Cumberland Mountain, in Tennessee, by any of the Anglo- 
 American race. The extraordinary fertility of the soil upon 
 the Lower Cumberland — the luxuriant cane-breaks upon the 
 table-lands of its tributaries — its dark and variegated forest — 
 its rich flora — its exuberant pasturage — in a word, the ex- 
 act adaptation of the country to all the wants and purposes 
 of a great and flourishing community, impressed the explorer 
 with the importance of his discovery, and of its great value 
 to such of his countrymen as should afterwards come in and 
 possess it Not strange was it, that the recital of what he had 
 seen during his long and perilous absence, should excite in 
 Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvnnia, as he passed 
 homeward, an urgent and irrepressible desire to emigrate to, 
 and settle, this El Dorado of the West.* 
 
 During this year John Findley, a fearless Indian trader from 
 ( North-Carolina, accompanied by several comrades, vis- 
 ( ited the West. Passing through Upper East Tennes- 
 see to the Cumberland Gap ,he continued his explorations to 
 the Kentucky river. 
 
 Indeed, the spirit of exploration and adventure was now a 
 mania : it had become an epidemic — numberipg among its 
 subjects every bold, fearless, daring, ambitious, intrepid back- 
 woodsman. Companies of these, varying in number from two 
 to forty, accumulated in rapid succession upon the border set- 
 tlements, from the Monongahela to the Savannah, and ex- 
 cited in the minds of the more discreet and sagacious settlers, 
 apprehension of renewed hostilities from the now friendly na- 
 tives of the country. They clearly foresaw that an avalanche 
 of population, concentrating thus upon the frontier, could not 
 be restrained from precipitating itself across an ideal line— 
 the feeble barrier that now separated the two races. These 
 apprehensions were not without foundation. 
 
 “ The peace of 1763 had secured to Great Britain the right of terri- 
 torial sovereignty to the country east of the Mississippi, to which France 
 
 * Colonel Croghan, in Iris Journal, May 31, 1765, passing down the Ohio river, 
 mentions “ the mouth of the river Kentucky, or Holsten’s river.” The head of 
 Holston may previously have been seen, and probably was supposed to run in the 
 direction of the Kentucky river. 
 
THE KING FORBIDS WESTERN GRANTS. 
 
 71 
 
 had previously asserted the paramount right of territory and dominion. 
 The change of this right of dominion, whether real or imaginary, necessa- 
 rily facilitated the transmigration of British colonists from their Atlantic 
 settlements to the newly acquired territory on the western waters. * 
 
 * * But the treaty of Paris had made no stipulation for the tribes 
 
 who had been in alliance with France, and who claimed to be indepen- 
 dent nations, and the real owners of the territory ceded by her. They 
 had been no party to the treaty of peace, and they refused to be bound 
 by any transfer which the French King should make of their country to 
 the English. Every excursion, therefore, into their hunting grounds, 
 was, at first, viewed with dissatisfaction and jealousy, and at a later 
 period, resisted as an encroachment upon their rights and an invasion 
 of their soil. This jealousy against t£e English colonists was the more 
 easily excited in the minds of the Indians, as the French had always 
 taken pains to impress upon them the inordinate desire and determina- 
 tion of England to occupy their lands and to dispossess them of their 
 whole country. To quiet, as far as possible, any discontent from this 
 source, and to remove any apprehension that the British government 
 designed to extend its jurisdiction over the territory of the Indians, the 
 proclamation of King George was issued, Oct. 7, 1763, prohibiting all 
 the provincial governors from granting lands, or issuing land warrants, 
 to be located upon any territory lying west of the mountains, or west of 
 the sources of those streams which flow into the Atlantic, and all settle- 
 ments by the subjects of Great Britain, west of the sources of the Atlan- 
 tic rivers. The proclamation of the king further ‘ strictly enjoined and 
 required that no private persons do presume to purchase from the In- 
 dians any lands, &c. And that if the Indians should be inclined to dis- 
 pose of their lands, the same shall be purchased only for us, in our 
 name, at some general meeting or assembly of the Indians, to be held for 
 that purpose, by the governor or commander-in-chief of our colony 
 respectively.’ ”* 
 
 It was further directed and required, that “ all traders 
 should take out licenses from their respective governors, for 
 carrying on commerce with the Indians.” In accordance, 
 also, with the provisions of this proclamation, the boundaries 
 of the Indian hunting grounds were fixed, and a superinten- 
 dent of Indian affairs was appointed for the southern district. 
 This office was conferred upon Captain John Stuart, who, 
 as we have already seen, owed his life, at the massacre of the 
 garrison at Fort Loudon, to the clemency and interposition 
 of his captor, a Cherokee chief. 
 
 However well intended, this proclamation of the distant 
 king was a dead letter. In the back woods of America, it 
 received no hearty response — exacted not the lowest whisper 
 
 * Marshall. 
 
72 
 
 VIRGINIA GRANTS LANDS ON THE OHIO. 
 
 of obedience. It was every where, and by all classes of men, 
 disregarded. Masses of population were, upon the western 
 boundary of all the middle and southern colonies, ready and 
 impatient for the occupancy of the new lands in the wilderness. 
 Hunters and traders had discovered and explored them. They 
 knew the avenues by which they could be reached, and had 
 spread abroad among their countrymen enchanting accounts 
 of their value and beauty. Another circumstance hastened 
 the more perfect exploration and future settlement of the 
 western country. It was the bounty given in these very 
 lands, by several of the provinces, with the approbation of 
 the crown, to the officers and soldiers who had served in the 
 British army, in their wars with the French and their Indian 
 allies.* These, with the script and military warrants in 
 their hands, and accompanied by hundreds of surveyors and 
 agents, were constantly employed in selecting and locating 
 their respective claims. The proclamation of the king could 
 not deter them from their locations and surveys. Even the 
 wise and virtuous George Washington and Chancellor Li- 
 vingston admitted it to be intended merely to quiet the jealous 
 apprehensions of the Indians, against the advance of the 
 white settlements on the western side of the mountains. It 
 was not, in any wise, designed, really, to check the ultimate 
 occupation of the country. Virginia, viewing the procla- 
 mation in no other light than as a temporary expedient to 
 quiet the minds of the Indians, soon afterwards patented 
 considerable tracts of land on the Ohio, far beyond the Apa- 
 lachian mountains. f Thus the discontents of the Indians 
 
 were increased, and by the opening of the spring of 1768, 
 along the whole line of the western frontier, from the sources 
 of the Susquehannah to those of the Tennessee, they became 
 exasperated, and united in their determination to check fur- 
 her encroachments, and to enforce an observance of their 
 rights ; still they refrained from open hostilities, while the 
 
 * By tlie proclamation of the king, the governors were directed to grant “to 
 every person having the rank of a field officer, 5000 acres; to every captain, 3000 
 acres ; to every subaltern or staff officer, 2000 acres ; to every non-commissioned 
 officer, 200 acres; and to every private, 50 acres. 
 
 t See Sparks’s writings of Washington. 
 
MOST OF TENNESSEE UNOCCUPIED BY INDIANS. 73 
 
 restless population of the Atlantic border continued to press 
 forward into the west, regardless, alike of the rights of the 
 Indians and the proclamation of the king, issued five years 
 previously;* 
 
 At the recommendation of Gov. Tryon, an appropriation 
 1767 ( was made by the Province of North-Carolina, on the 
 ( application of the Cherokee nation, for running a 
 dividing line between the western settlements of the pro- 
 vince and their hunting grounds, and the governor was 
 authorized to appoint three commissioners for that purpose. 
 
 “In May of this year, an appeal was made to the proper antho- 
 j rities, to restrain further encroachments on the part of the frontier 
 1 \ people, upon the lands claimed by the Indians. Some of the 
 
 settlements now being formed upon the head of the Kenhawa, and the 
 north fork of Holston, were upon territory to which the Indian title had 
 not been extinguished, and parties of woodmen, explorers, and surveyors, 
 were distributed in the vallies below, preparatory to a further occupancy. 
 The superintendents of Indian affairs were, accordingly, instructed by 
 the royal government to establish the boundaries between the whites 
 and the Indians, and to purchase from the latter the lands already occu- 
 pied by the king’s subjects. But what tribe owned these lands ? Who 
 were the proprietors of the soil 1” 
 
 At the time of its earliest exploration, the country east and 
 north of the Tennessee river was not in the occupancy of 
 any Indian tribe. Vestiges were then found, and, indeed, 
 still remain, of an ancient and dense population — indicating 
 higher progress in civilization and the arts than has been 
 attained by more modern tribes in this part of the con- 
 tinent. A fresh hunting camp was occasionally found, 
 
 “But in their frequent peregrinations and trading expeditions through 
 the vast territories between the Ohio and the Tennessee rivers, the first 
 traders, hunters and explorers never found, within that extent of coun- 
 try, a single wigwam or modern Indian village. The Indian settlements 
 nearest to the frontier border of the Carolinas, and of south-western 
 Virginia, were on the Sciota and Miami, in the north, and on the waters 
 of the Little Tennessee in the south. From these points the various 
 war or hunting parties issued, to engage in the one or the other pursuit, 
 as the passions or the opportunities of their expeditions might lead. 
 Here the Choctaws, Chickasaws or Cherokees, of the south, used to 
 engage with the various tribes of the Miami Confederacy, of the north ; 
 here they indulged their passion for hunting, in the profusion of game 
 afforded by Tennessee and Kentucky. That part of these two states 
 embraced within the boundaries mentioned, was one great park, where 
 
 * Monette. 
 
74 
 
 ABORIGINAL CLAIMS. 
 
 the skill of the uncivilized hunter was practiced, aud a central theatre, 
 upon which the desperate conflicts of savage warriors and bloody rivals 
 were perpetrated. By common agreement of all the surrounding tribes, 
 this whole section of country seems to have been reserved for these 
 purposes, from permanent occupancy ; and so much was it exempted 
 from settlement, that south of the Ohio, and north and east of the Ten- 
 nessee, it is not known that a single village was settled by the Indians ; 
 yet no situations have generally delighted savage tribes, so much as the 
 margins of water courses ; the opportunities of navigation, and of fishing, 
 unite to attract them to such spots. Some known and acknowledged 
 inhibition must have, therefore, prevented the settlement and possession 
 of this great Mesopotamia. What was it? On this subject, tradition 
 and history are alike indistinct and unsatisfactory.”* 
 
 At the point of time to which these annals have reached, 
 the territory of which we are speaking was claimed, though 
 not occupied, by the Confederacy of the Six Nations. These 
 were called by the early French historians, Iroqouis, and by 
 the English, Mohawks. In 1072 these tribes conquered the 
 Illinois and Shawanee Indians, the latter of whom were also 
 incorporated with them. To these conquests they added, in 
 1685 , that of the Miamis, and about the same time carried 
 their victorious arms westward to the Mississippi, and south- 
 ward to what is now Georgia. In 1711 they incorporated 
 with them the Tuscaroras, when expelled from North-Caro- 
 lina.f Gov. Pownal, in his “ administration of the British 
 Colonies,” says that these tribes carried their arms as far 
 south as Carolina and as far west as the Mississippi, over a 
 vast country, twelve hundred miles in length and six hun- 
 dred in breadth, where they destroyed whole nations, of whom 
 there are no accounts remaining among the English : and, 
 continues the same writer, the rights of these tribes to the 
 hunting lands on the Ohio may be fairly proved by their con- 
 quests over the Shawanees, Delawares, &c., as they stood 
 possessed thereof at the peace of Ryswick, in 1697 . In fur- 
 ther confirmation of this Indian title, Butler adds : 
 
 “ It must be mentioned that Lewis Evans represents, in his map of the 
 Middle Colonies of Great Britain, the country on the south-easterly side 
 of the Ohio river, as the hunting lands of the Six Nations. In the analy- 
 sis to his map, he expressly says that the Shawneese, who were once a 
 most considerable nation, have been subdued by the confederates, and 
 
 * Butler’s Kentucky. 
 
 t Butler. 
 
TREATY OF FORT STANWIX. 
 
 75 
 
 their country has since become their property. At a celebrated treaty , 
 held more than a century since at Lancaster, the statement made by the 
 delegates in attendance from the Six Nations to Dr. Franklin, was, ‘ that 
 all the w orld knows that we conquered all the nations back of the great 
 mountains ; we conquered the nations residing there, and that land, if 
 the Virginians ever get a good right to it, it must be by us.’ These In- 
 dian claims are solemnly appealed to in a diplomatic memorial, addressed 
 by the British ministry to the Duke Mirepoix, on the part of France, J une 
 7, 1755. ‘It is a certain truth, states the memorial, that these lands 
 have belonged to the Confederacy, and as they have not been given up 
 or made over to the English, belong still to the same Indian Nations.’ 
 The court of Great Britain maintained, in this negotiation, that the con- 
 federates were, by origin or by right of conquest, the lawful proprietors 
 of the river Ohio and the territory in question. In support of this an- 
 cient aboriginal title, Butler adds the further testimony of Dr. Mitchell's 
 map of North America, made with the documents of the Colonial office 
 before him. In this map, the same as the one by which the boundaries in 
 the treaty of Paris, in 1783, were adjusted, the Doctor observes, ‘ that 
 the Six Nations have extended their territories ever since the year 1672, 
 when they subdued and were incorporated with the ancient Shawaneese, 
 the native ■proprietors of these countries.’ This, he adds, is confirmed by 
 their own claims and possessions in 1742, which include all the bounds 
 as laid down in the map, and none have even thought fit to dispute 
 them.”* 
 
 Such was the aboriginal title to the greater part of Ten- 
 nessee in 1767, when the white settlers approached its east- 
 
 g i ern boundary. On the 6th of May of this year a 
 ( deputation of the Six Nations presented to the super- 
 intendent of Indian affairs, a formal remonstrance against the 
 continued encroachments of the whites upon their lands. 
 The subject was immediately considered by the royal go- 
 verment ; and near the close of summer, orders were issuedjo 
 Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Northern Indian 
 Affairs, instructing him to convene the chiefs, warriors and 
 sachems of the tribes most interested. Agreeably to these 
 orders, Sir William Johnson convened the delegates of the 
 Six Nations, and their confederates and dependents, at Fort 
 Stanwix, (now Utica, N. Y.,) October 24. Three thousand 
 two hundred Indians, of seventeen different tribes, tributaries 
 to the Confederacy, or occupying territories coterminous with 
 theirs, attended. On the 5th of November, a treaty of 
 limits and a deed of cession to the King of England, were 
 
 * Franklin’s works, as quoted by Butler. 
 
76 
 
 FIRST CESSION FROM ABORIGINAL OWNERS. 
 
 signed. In this, the delegates of their respective nations 
 aver that “ they are the true and absolute proprietors of the 
 lands thus ceded , and that for the considerations mentioned, 
 “ we have continued the line south to the Cherokee or Hogohe- 
 gee rivers* because the same is, and we declare it to be, our true 
 bounds with the Southern Indians, and that we have an un- 
 doubted right to the country as far south as that river." 
 
 The cession thus made by the Six Nations, of the country 
 north and east of the Tennessee river, is the first deed from 
 any of the aboriginal tribes for any territory within the 
 boundaries of our state. The title of the Confederates to these 
 lands was, by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, forever transferred 
 from them ; but other tribes contended that the Six Na- 
 tions had not an exclusive claim to them, but that they were 
 the common hunting grounds of the Cherokees and Chicka- 
 saws also. In the journal of the commissioners, detail- 
 ing the progress of the treaty, the tribes represented, &c., 
 no mention is made of delegates in attendance from any of 
 the southern Indian tribes. It is said by Haywood, that 
 some visiting Cherokees were present at the treaty, who 
 upon their route had killed game for their support, and on 
 their arrival at Fort Stanwix, immediately tendered the 
 skins to the Indians of the Six Nations, saying : “ they are 
 yours ; we killed them after we passed the big river,” as 
 they always designated the Tennessee. This would seem 
 to imply an acquiescence on their part, in the validity of the 
 claim of the Six Nations. These claimed the soil, not as its 
 aboriginal owners, but by the right of conquest ; and all tra- 
 dition concurs in admitting their right to that extent. But 
 the Cherokees had long exercised the privilege of hunting 
 upon these lands, and therefore regarded, with jealousy and 
 dissatisfaction, the approaches of the white settlements. Mr. 
 Stuart, the Superintendent of Southern Indian Affairs, was 
 therefore instructed to assemble the southern Indians for the 
 purpose of establishing a boundary with them ; and before 
 negotiations with the confederates at Fort Stanwix had be- 
 gun, he concluded a treaty with the Cherokees at Hard La- 
 bour, in South-Carolina, October 14 , 1768 . By this treaty, it 
 * The Holston was thus called. 
 
ABORIGINES OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 77 
 
 was agreed that the south-western boundary of Virginia 
 should be a line “ extending from the point where the northern 
 line of North-Carolina intersects the Cherokee hunting- 
 grounds, about thirty-six miles east of Long Island, in the 
 Holston river, and thence extending in a direct course, north 
 by east, to Chiswell’s Mine, on the east bank of the Kenhawa 
 river, and thence down that stream to its junction with the 
 Ohio.” This line, however, did not include all the settle- 
 ments then made ; and even during the progress of the treaty, 
 the settlers were advancing further west, and erecting their 
 cabins north-west of the Holston, and upon the branches of 
 the Clinch and Powell’s river, within the limits of the Indian 
 territory. This fact being ascertained, a subsequent treaty 
 became necessary for the adjustment of a new boundary and 
 the remuneration of the savages for an additional extent of 
 country.”* 
 
 ABORIGINES OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 At the time of its first exploration, Tennessee was a vast 
 and almost unoccupied wilderness— a solitude over which an 
 Indian hunter seldom roamed, and to which no tribe put in a 
 distinct and well defined claim, For this reason, and on ac- 
 count of the mildness of its climate, and the rich pasturage fur- 
 nished by its varied ranges of plain and mountain, Tennessee, 
 in common with Kentucky, had become an extensive park, 
 of which the beasts of the forest held undisturbed possession. 
 Into these wild recesses, savage daring did not often venture 
 to penetrate. Equi-distant from the settled territories of the 
 southern and northern Indian tribes, it remained, by common 
 consent, uninhabited by either, and little explored. The ap- 
 proach of civilization, from several directions, began to abridge 
 the territories of surrounding Indian nations ; and the mar- 
 gin of this great terra incognita was occasionally visited by 
 parties of savages in pursuit of game, and as places of retreat 
 from the encroachments of a superior race. In these respects, 
 the value of the country began to be appreciated as hunting 
 
 * Monette. 
 
78 
 
 SIIAWNEES OCCUPIED THE LOWER CUMBERLAND, 
 
 grounds, and as affording immunity from the molestations of 
 civilized man. Vague and uncertain claims to several por- 
 tions of the territory, were asserted by as many several tribes ; 
 but no part of the present Tennessee was held by the actual 
 and permanent occupancy of the Indians, except that section 
 embraced by the segment of a circle, of which Tennessee ri- 
 ver is the periphery, from the point where it intersects the 
 North-Carolina line to that where this stream enters the Stat e 
 of Alabama. This was settled by the Cherokees. All of Ten- 
 nessee, besides this, was uninhabited, though a portion of it 
 was claimed or occupied as hunting grounds by the Shaw- 
 nees, the Chickasaws, the Choctaws and the Cherokees. 
 
 The limits of these several territorial claims were ill defin- 
 ed and indistinct. An ideal line, merely, passing through 
 boundless forests and pathless mountains, with no river or 
 other notorious object to ascertain its exactness, became the 
 occasion of misunderstanding between rival Indian nations. 
 
 Of the four tribes, as above enumerated, a briefnotice will be 
 given, as connected with and illustrative of, the settlement of 
 Tennessee. 
 
 SIIAWNEES. 
 
 The earlier French explorers, and geographers after them, 
 designate the banks ofthe Lower Cumberland as the country of 
 the Shawnees. Numerous villages are laid down on the map, 
 published with Marquette’s Journal in 1681, within the pre- 
 sent boundaries of Tennessee. They were a wandering na- 
 tion — one of their tribes being mentioned as dwelling for a 
 time in Eastern Virginia, and another, soon after, on the head- 
 waters of the Savannah. Adair, little more than a century 
 since, “ saw the chief part of the main camp of the Shawano, 
 consisting of about four hundred and fifty persons, on a tedious 
 ramble to the Muskoghee country, where they settled, seventy 
 miles above the Alabahma garrison.” 
 
 The late General Robertson learned from the Indians, that 
 more than a century and a half ago, (1665,) the Shawnees oc- 
 cupied the country from the Tennessee river to where Nash- 
 ville now is, and north of the Cumberland ; and that about 
 1700, they left this country and emigrated north, and were re- 
 
AND WERE EXPELLED BY CHEROKEES 
 
 79 
 
 ceived as a wandering tribe by the Six Nations, but were not 
 allowed to have there any claim to the soil. As late as 1764, 
 the Shawnees moved from Green river, in Kentucky, where 
 a part of them then resided, to the Wabash. 
 
 In 1772, the Little Corn Planter, a most intelligent Chero- 
 kee chief, narrated, that the Shawnees, a hundred years be- 
 fore, by the permission of his nation, removed from the Sa- 
 vannah river to Cumberland. That many years afterwards, 
 the two nations becoming unfriendly, the Cherokees marched, 
 in a large body, to the frontiers of the Shawnees — and divi- 
 ding themselves into several small parties, unexpectedly and 
 treacherously, as Little Corn Planter expressed himself — fell 
 upon the Shawnees, and put a great many of them to death. 
 The survivors then forted themselves, and maintained a pro- 
 tracted war in defence of their possession of the country. At 
 length the Chickasaws became the allies of the Cherokees ; 
 and the expulsion of the Shawnees from the Cumberland val- 
 ley was gradually effected. This was about the beginning 
 of the last century. A few years later, when Monsieur Char- 
 1714 $ l ev iH e opened a store where Nashville now is, he oc- 
 ( cupied this fort of the Shawnees, as his dwelling. 
 They were then, and had been for several years, so harassed 
 by their enemies, that small parties of them had been, for a 
 long time, gradually withdrawing from the country ; and their 
 number had become so inconsiderable, that they determined 
 to abandon Cumberland entirely, and soon after did so. The 
 Chickasaws, hearing of the intended removal of the Shawnees, 
 resolved to strike an effectual blow against them, and, if pos- 
 sible, possess themselves of their stores. For this purpose, a 
 large party of Chickasaw warriors posted themselves on both 
 sides of Cumberland, above the mouth of Harpeth, provided 
 with canoes, to prevent escape by water. Their attack was 
 successful. All the Shawnees were killed, and their property 
 was captured by the Chickasaws. 
 
 The hostilities between these tribes not being brought to a 
 close, by any formal treaty of peace, they continued to destroy 
 each other as often as opportunity offered. At length, afraid 
 of meeting each other, all of these tribes wholly forsook the 
 country ; and for sixty years it remained not only unoccupied 
 by either, but was seldom visited by a hunting party. In this 
 
80 
 
 CHICKASAWS. 
 
 way, when it was first explored and began to be settled by 
 the whites, the whole country west of Cumberland mountain 
 was found uninhabited, and abounding with all the wild beasts 
 of the forest. 
 
 Small parties of wandering Shawnees occasionally infested 
 the frontiers, and from their familiarity with the mountains, 
 the rivers, and the paths to and from the country, were, able 
 to inflict serious damage to the infant settlements. A part 
 of the banditti who afterwards infested the narrows of the 
 Tennessee river, and committed such enormous outrages on 
 emigrants and navigators, at these celebrated passes, were 
 Shawnees. 
 
 In the map accompanying Adair’s book, the river from 
 the head of Holston to the confluence of the Tennessee and 
 Ohio, is called Cherake. The Cumberland is called Old 
 Shauvanon, or river of the Shawnees. Near the source of 
 the latter stream, a tributary of the Tennessee takes its rise ; 
 it is probably intended for the modern Clinch. The Hiwassee 
 is called Euphasee, of which Chestoe is a confluent. Ten- 
 nase is the stream now known as Little Tennessee. 
 
 CHICKASAWS. 
 
 This nation of Indians inhabited the country east of the 
 Mississippi, and north of the Choctaw boundary ; their vil- 
 lages and settlements were generally south of the 35th degree 
 of north latitude, but they claimed all the territory within the 
 present States of Tennessee and Kentucky, which lies between 
 the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, and a considerable por- 
 tion north of the former. These they claimed as hunting 
 grounds, though they had few or no permanent settlements 
 within them. Tradition assigns to this tribe, when they first 
 emigrated to this country, a very considerable population, 
 but when Adair first visited them, (1735,) the Chickasaw 
 warriors were estimated below five hundred. Though 
 thus inconsiderable in numbers, the Chickasaws were war- 
 like and valiant. They exercised an unwonted influence 
 over the Natches, Choctaws and other tribes. Their peace- 
 able but brave warriors, were instrumental in preventing 
 hostilities between their more numerous neighbouring tribes, 
 or in concentrating their hostile operations against the 
 
UCHEES, MUSKOGEES AND CHEROKEES. 
 
 81 
 
 French and Spaniards. Generally they were the friends and 
 allies of the Anglo-Americans. 
 
 At the time of De Soto’s invasion, this tribe, as has been al- 
 ready mentioned, occupied the same territory which has since 
 been the seat of that nation, extending south from the mouth 
 of the Tennessee river, to the country of the Natches and 
 Choctaws. Chickasaw tradition assigns to this tribe a resi- 
 dence, at one time, upon the Savannah. Chonubbee, one of 
 their chieftains, said, that when his tribe occupied the country 
 opposite to and east of Augusta, Georgia, hostilities arose 
 between their people and the Creeks, and forced a great 
 part of them to migrate to the country bordering on the 
 Mississippi, while another fragment of their tribe was sub- 
 dued by, and became incorporated with, the Creeks. As late 
 as 1795, the Chickasaws presented to Congress their claim 
 for lands on the Savannah. 
 
 There is a close affinity between the Chickasaws and 
 Choctaws, in their physical appearances, their languages, 
 customs, traditions and laws. These tribes are believed to 
 have had a common origin. 
 
 UCHEES. 
 
 A small tribe of Uchees once occupied the country near 
 the mouth of Hiwassee. Their warriors were exterminated 
 in a desperate battle with the Cherokees. Little else is 
 known of them. 
 
 MUSKOGEE OR CREEKS. 
 
 Fragments of this powerful tribe occasionally lived on the 
 southern boundary of Tennessee, but never formed a perma- 
 nent settlement in it. 
 
 CHEROKEES. 
 
 Adair says of the Cherokees, “ their national name is derived 
 from Chee-ra — fire — which is their reputed lower heaven ? 
 and hence they call their magi, Cheera-tahge, men possessed of 
 the divine fire. The natives make two divisions of their coun- 
 try, which they term Ayrate and Ottare, signifying low and 
 6 
 
82 
 
 SILVER MINE IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 mountainous. The former is on the head branches of the 
 beautiful Savannah, and the latter on those of the eastern- 
 most river of the great Mississippi.” 
 
 The same writer says, that forty years before the time he 
 wrote, (1775,) the Cherokees had sixty-four populous towns, 
 and that the old traders estimated their fighing men at above 
 six thousand. The frequent wars between the Over-hill 
 Towns and the northern Indians, and between the Middle 
 and Lower Towns and the Muskogee or Creek Indians, had 
 greatly diminished the number of the warriors, and con- 
 tracted the extent of their settlements. 
 
 “ Within twenty miles of the late Fort Loudon,” continues 
 Mr. Adair, “ there is a great plenty of whet-stones for razors, 
 of red, white and black colours. The silver mines are so rich, 
 that by digging about ten yards deep, some desperate va- 
 grants found at sundry times, so much rich ore, as to enable 
 them to counterfeit dollars to a great amount, a horse-load of 
 which was detected, in passing for the purchase of negroes 
 at Augusta.” He also mentions load stone as being found 
 there and at Cheowhee, and also a variety of precious 
 stones, of “various colour and beautiful lustre, clear and 
 very hard.” A tradition still continues of the existence of 
 the silver mine mentioned thus by Adair. It is derived from, 
 hunters and traders who had seen the locality, and assisted 
 in smelting the metal. After the whites had settled near 
 and began to encroach upon the Over-hill towns, their inhabi- 
 tants began to withhold all knowledge of the mines from the 
 traders, apprehending that their cupidity for the precious 
 metals would lead to an appropriation of the mines, and the 
 ultimate expulsion of the natives from the country. The late 
 Mr. De Lozier, of Sevier county, testified to the existence and 
 richness of mines of silver, one of which he had worked at, in 
 the very section of the Cherokee country described by Adair. 
 
 The Cherokee tribe is closely identified with the settlement 
 and history of Tennessee. Their nation, and some of their 
 villages, are frequently mentioned in the accounts of De 
 Soto’s invasion, and the journals of other explorers and 
 adventurers into the interior of the south-west. They were 
 formidable alike for their numbers and their passion for war. 
 
MARTIAL SPIRIT OF CHEROKEES. 
 
 83 
 
 The frontier of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, all suf- 
 fered from their vigour and their enterprise ; and these pages 
 will hereafter abound with instances of their revenge, their 
 perfidy, and their courage. They were the mountaineers of 
 aboriginal America, and, like all other mountaineers, adored 
 their country, and held on to and defended it with a heroic 
 devotion — a patriotic constancy, and an unyielding tenacity, 
 which cannot be too much admired or eulogized. 
 
 “ Si Pergama dextra 
 
 Defendi possent: etiam liac defensa fuissent.” 
 
 The native land of the Cherokee was the most inviting 
 and beautiful section of the United States, lying upon the 
 sources of the Catawba and the Yadkin — upon Keowee, 
 Tugaloo, Flint, Etowah and Coosa, on the east and south, 
 and several of the tributaries of the Tennessee on the west 
 and north. 
 
 This tribe, inhabiting the country from which the southern 
 confluents of the Tennessee spring, gave their name, at first 
 to that noble stream. In the earlier maps, the Tennessee is 
 called the Cherokee river. In like manner, the name of this 
 tribe also designated the mountains near them. Currahee 
 is only a corruption of Cherokee, and in the maps and trea- 
 ties where it is thus called, it means the mountains of the 
 Cherokees. 
 
 Of the martial spirit of this tribe, abundant evidence will 
 be hereafter given. In the hazardous enterprises of war, they 
 were animated by a restless spirit which goaded them into 
 new exploits, and to the acquisition of a fresh stock of mar- 
 tial renown. The white people, for some years previous to 
 1730, interposed their good offices to bring about a pacifica- 
 tion between them and the Tuscaroras, with whom they had 
 long waged incessant war. The reply of the Cherokees was : 
 “ We cannot live without war. Should we make peace with 
 the Tuscaroras, we must immediately look out for some 
 other, with whom we can be engaged in our beloved occu- 
 pation.” Actuated by the restless activity of this sentiment, 
 there have been but few intervals in the history of the Chero- 
 kees, when they have permitted themselves to sink into the 
 inglorious arms of peace, and to be employed only in the 
 
84 
 
 CREEKS EXPELLED. 
 
 less perilous slaughter of the wild beasts of the wilderness. 
 They have hardly ever ceased to sigh for danger, and to 
 aspire to the rank which is attained by acts of heroic valour.* 
 Under the promptings of this feeling, they have, at different 
 times, been engaged in war against the colonists of England, 
 of France, and of Spain, and also against other Indian tribes, 
 with varied success. They assisted in the reduction of Fort 
 Du Quesne ; they besieged and captured Fort Loudon ; they 
 met the entire tribe of the Uchees, at the Uchee Old Fields, 
 in what is now Rhea county, and, exterminating all its war- 
 riors, compelled the surviving remnant of that brave race to 
 retreat to Florida, where they became incorporated with the 
 Seminoles. 
 
 The Cherokees have a tradition, that when their tribe first 
 crossed the Alleghanies, and settled upon the Little Tennes- 
 see river, some Creeks had previously occupied the country 
 near the mouth of the Hiwassee river. Being near neigh- 
 bours, the latter pretended to enter into alliance with the 
 former, in a war which they were then carrying on against 
 the S'nawnees, but secretly abetted the common enemy. 
 Their treachery became known to the Cherokees while cele- 
 brating one of their national festivals at Chota, when they 
 fell suddenly upon the unsuspecting Creeks, and cut them 
 off. A general war between these two tribes succeeded, and 
 was carried on with such vigour as to cause the Creeks to 
 abandon all their settlements and villages on the waters of 
 Tennessee, and to leave them in the undisturbed possession 
 of the Cherokees. Indeed, the latter pushed their conquests 
 as far as the great Creek Path, and then crossed over to 
 Coosa, where, at a large settlement on an island, they by 
 stratagem drew the Creeks from their towns, in a fleet of 
 canoes, to a place on the bank of Coosa, where they lay in 
 ambush, captured the canoes and all the Creek warriors, 
 sacked their towns, and massacred the defenceless inhabi- 
 tants. The English name of the leader of this excursion was 
 Bullhead. Cherokee tradition abounds with instances of the 
 exploits performed by this Brave against the Creeks. 
 
 These continued successes of the Cherokees made them 
 
 Haywood’s Aboriginal History. 
 
CHOTA A CITY OF REFUGE. 
 
 85 
 
 quarrelsome, arrogant and incautious. They took offence 
 at the Chickasaws, with whom they had confederated in the 
 expulsion of the Shawnees, and in prosecution of a hostile 
 invasion of their country, had advanced as far as the Chicka- 
 saw Old Fields. The inoffensive but brave owners of the 
 country, there met the invaders with great spirit. A terrible 
 conflict ensued. The Cherokees were defeated, and withdrew 
 by the way of the Cumberland river and the Cany Fork, to 
 their own villages. This signal overthrow of the flower of 
 the Cherokee nation, took place about 1769 — the period 
 when the first white settlement was being formed on Wa- 
 tauga, and, doubtless, contributed much to the pacific demea- 
 nour manifested for some years by the neighbouring Indians 
 to that infant, feeble and secluded community. The favoura- 
 ble moment was lost, when the young Hercules might have 
 been strangled in his cradle, by a slight exertion of the usual 
 vigilance and enterprise of the Indian sachem and warrior. 
 A germ of the Anglo-American family was permitted to take 
 root and to grow for a time, unmolested by Cherokee opposi- 
 tion, and unrestrained by savage wariness and caution. 
 
 Every Indian tribe, according to Adair, has a house or town 
 of refuge, which is a sure asylum to protect a man-slayer, or 
 the unfortunate captive, if he can once enter into it. 
 
 Among the Cherokees, Chota, five miles above the ruins 
 of Fort Loudon, was their city of refuge. At this place an 
 Englishman took refuge and found protection, after killing an 
 Indian warrior in defence of his property. His dwelling- 
 house being near to Chota, the English trader resolved, after 
 remaining in the city of refuge some months, to return home ; 
 but he was assured by the head men, that although perfectly 
 safe where he then was, it would be not only dangerous but 
 fatal to him, if he attempted to remove thence. The Indians 
 will revenge blood for blood, unless in some particular case, 
 where the eldest kinsman of the slain is allowed to redeem 
 or pardon. 
 
 Among the distinguished Cherokees, was Oconostota. Of 
 him Adair says : “ Before the last war, Old Hop , who was 
 helpless and lame, presided over the whole nation, as Archi- 
 magus, and lived in Chota, their only town of refuge.” 
 
86 
 
 EUPHONY AND BEAUTY OF INDIAN NAMES 
 
 Speaking of the Indian’s passion for revenge, Adair says : 
 “ I have known them to go a thousand miles for the purpose of 
 revenge, in pathless woods, over hills and mountains, through 
 large cane swamps, full of grape-vines and briars, over broad 
 lakes, rapid rivers and deep creeks ; and all the way endan- 
 gered by poisonous snakes, if not with the rambling and lurk- 
 ing enemy — while, at the same time, they were exposed to the 
 extremities of heat and cold, the vicissitudes of the season, to 
 hunger and thirst — both by chance and their religious scanty 
 method of living when at war — to fatigues and other difficul- 
 ties. Such is their overboiling revengeful temper, that they 
 utterly contemn all those things as imaginary trifles, if they 
 are so happy as to get the scalp of the murderer or enemy, 
 to satisfy the supposed craving ghosts of their deceased rela- 
 tions.” 
 
 Amongst the Cherokees, when first seen by the pioneers of 
 Tennessee, there were no cities or fortresses — scarcely a con- 
 siderable village. Their towns — settlements, rather — were 
 rude huts and wigwams, scattered without order or regular- 
 ity, along the banks of some stream abounding with springs, 
 and convenient to a fishery, a hunting ground, or lands for 
 pasturage. To each hut was attached a small patch of rich 
 land, from which the cane had been removed. This was used 
 as a garden, where the women cultivated beans, Indian corn, 
 and, at a later period, apples, peaches and plums. These 
 lots were often without fences — as the domestic animals which 
 the Indians raised, were not kept near their houses, but roam- 
 ed at large over the cane-breaks, or the more distant prairies 
 or forests. 
 
 The Indians designated the mountains and streams of their 
 country by names remarkable for their euphony and beauty. 
 Many of these have been lost, or are now seldom heard. The 
 loss is, we fear, irreparable. Bay’s, Stone, Iron, Yellow, Smoky, 
 Black, Grand-father Mountains, were once doubtless known 
 by names as smooth and musical as Alleghanee, Unaca, Chil- 
 howee and Chattanooga. Dumplin, Sandy Mush, Little Dis- 
 mal, Bull Run, Calf Killer, Sweet Water, and High Tower, 
 though sufficiently significant, would grate harshly upon the 
 ears of a Cherokee, who had bathed in the waters, luxuriated 
 
OF RIVERS IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 87 
 
 in the shades, formed his ambuscade and sung his war-song 
 upon the banks of the Allejay, the Oustinaila and the Etowah. 
 
 ABORIGINAL NAMES OF THE RIVERS IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 From information derived from all the sources within his 
 reach, this writer believes that the Tennessee river was called 
 by the first explorers and geographers, Reviere des Cheraquis, 
 or Cosquinambeaux — but by the aborigines, Kallamuchee ; 
 which I take to be the aboriginal name of the stream, from its 
 confluence with the Ohio to the mouth of Little Tennessee. 
 From this point to the mouth of the French Broad, it was called 
 Cootcla ; and from there to the mouth of Watauga, and per- 
 haps to its source in Virginia, the Holston was known to the 
 Indians as Hogohegee. The French Broad, throughout its 
 whole length, was the Agiqua, and received, on its northern 
 bank, the Swannanoah and the Nonachunkeh (now Nolli- 
 chucky). The present barbarous Clinch, had the more eupho- 
 nious name, Pellissippi. Little River was the Canot ; Little 
 Tennessee was the Tannassee ; and its confluent, Tellico, has 
 been changed from Ptsaliko, or Saliko ; Iliwassee, was pro- 
 nounced Euphasee ; Cumberland, was called by the Indians, 
 Warioto — but by the French, Shauvanon ; Wolf River was 
 the Margot ; Loushatchee, Hatchee ; Sequatchee, Ocoee. 
 -Conesauga and Watauga have, happily, escaped the Vandal 
 mutilation or corruption which the unfortunate Holston, 
 French Broad, Clinch, Wolf and Forked Deer have suffered. 
 
 When the pioneers of Tennessee settled in the south- 
 western part of Virginia, and the coterminous portions of 
 North-Carolina, the country had ceased to be, perhaps had 
 never been, the settled residence of any of the more modern 
 aboriginal tribes. At this time it was the common hunting 
 grounds of the Shawnees, Cherokees and other southern In- 
 dians. But east and north of the Tennessee river, there was 
 not a single Indian hut. Still, along the vallies of what is now 
 East Tennessee and South-western Virginia, lay the great 
 route and thoroughfare between the northern and southern 
 Indians, in their intercourse with distant tribes, in their hunt- 
 ing excursions, in their hostile expeditions and in their em- 
 
88 
 
 GREAT INDIAN PATH. 
 
 bas.sies of peace ; this was the path of migration, the chase, 
 the treaty and savage invasion. Besides its central position 
 and its direct bearing, the great Apalachian chain could no 
 where else be so easily ascended and crossed. Abundance of 
 game, water and fuel, a healthful and moderate climate, an 
 unoccupied territory, no impracticable swamps, or deep and 
 wide streams to retard their journeyings, were all considera- 
 tions that led to the selection of this path. One branch of it was 
 nearly the same as the present stage route passing the Big 
 Lick, in Bottetourt county, Viginia ; crossing New River at 
 old Fort Chissel, near Inglis’ Ferry, Holston at the Seven 
 Mile Ford, thence to the left of the present stage road and 
 near to the river, to the North Fork, crossing as at present ; 
 thence to Big Creek and crossing the Holston at Dodson’s 
 Ford, to the Grassy Springs, near the residence of the late 
 Micajah Lea ; thence down the waters of Nollichucky to Long 
 Creek, ascending that stream to its source, and descending 
 Dumplin Creek to a point a few miles from its mouth, where 
 the path deflected to the left and crossed French Broad near 
 Buckingham’s Island. Near this, the path divided. One 
 branch of it went up the west fork of Little Pigeon, and 
 crossed some small mountains to the Tuckalechee towns, and 
 so on to the Over-hill villages of the Cherokees. The other 
 and main fork, went up Boyd’s Creek to its source, and falling 
 upon the head branches of Allejay, descended its valley to 
 Little River, and crossing near Henry’s, went by the present 
 town of Maryville, to the mouth of Tellico, and passing 
 through the Indian towns and villages of Tellico, Chota and 
 Hiwassee, descended the Coosa, where it connected with the 
 Great War Path of the Creeks. Near the Wolf Hills, now 
 Abingdon, another path came in from the north-west, which 
 pursued nearly the same route now travelled from the latter 
 place to Kentucky, and crossing the mountain at that remark- 
 able depression called Cumberland Gap. It was along this 
 path that the earlier English explorers and hunters first 
 passed to Kentucky, and through it the Rockcastle and Ohio 
 savages often penetrated, to molest and break up the early 
 settlements upon New River and Holston. 
 
 Dr. Hardy, of Asheville, North-Carolina, believes that the 
 
TUMULI AND OTHER REMAINS. 
 
 89 
 
 Cherokees used the country, near and around the sources of the 
 French Broad, more as hunting grounds than as a place of resi- 
 dence. This opinion is sustained by the fact, that the streams 
 and mountains of that region do not bear aboriginal names. 
 French Broad, Pigeon, Sandy Mush, Ivy, &c., are the 
 water courses. Blue Ridge, Pisgah, Glass, Smoky and Bald? 
 are the mountains, all English names. No considerable war 
 path or Indian trace passed through those elevated and 
 almost inaccessible regions, and it was not till after 1787 
 that emigrants passed through them. 
 
 Little of the former history of the Cherokee tribe can be 
 ascertained from their traditions. These extend little further 
 back than the early days of O-ka-na-sto-ta, the distinguished 
 chief who visited England in the days of George II. From 
 his time they date the declension of their nation ; he was 
 king or principal chief. His seat of government was one of 
 the Over-hill towns, Echota, more properly E-tsaw-ty, on 
 Tellico river, since the property of the late John McGhee, Esq. 
 
 Of the tumuli scattered every where through the country, 
 and of other remains occasionally found in and near them, 
 the Cherokees know nothing, only that when their fathers first 
 took possession of the country, they considered them as the 
 vestiges of an ancient and more numerous population, further 
 advanced in the arts of civilized life than their own people. 
 For these relics they seemed to entertain some peculiar vene- 
 ration, and never appropriated them to any secular purpose 
 or use. 
 
 The piles or heaps of rocks, so often met with in the gaps 
 or crossing places of mountains or ridges, are structures very 
 different from the tumuli proper. They are believed to be 
 more modern, and it is not improbable that they owe 
 their origin to a superstition not uncommon, if not general, in 
 all heathen countries. The Rev. Mr. Winslow, American 
 missionary at Oodooville, in the district of Jafna, makes the 
 following statement in a journal under date of May 19, 1832 : 
 “In coming over a tract of land which would be called in 
 America ‘ barrens,’ where there was no forest and but little 
 cultivation, I saw in several places, near the foot paths lead- 
 ing to the principal bazaar, large piles of stones ; and en- 
 
90 
 
 ABORIGINAL STRUCTURES. 
 
 quiring into the cause, was told that the people, in passing- 
 over such places, are in the habit, each one, of casting a stone 
 upon heaps begun in some particular spot, as an offering to 
 an evil spirit, who would otherwise afflict them and their 
 families.” 
 
 We may not here indulge in further remarks upon the 
 aborigines of America. Were it otherwise proper, the 
 theme would invite us to inquire into and examine their 
 physical, domestic, political, social and religious history ; 
 their manners, rites, arts, traditions, religion, government and 
 laws. The analogies which are found betwen these and 
 those of some Asiatic tribes, not less than their physical 
 affinities, furnish, if not the foundation of legitimate infe- 
 rence, certainly ground for plausible conjecture and specu- 
 lation. In their language or dialects, is presented a subject 
 for philological research that may illustrate the connection 
 which, at some former time, existed between the aboriginal 
 population of America and the rest of the world. But upon 
 these topics we dare not enter. It must be sufficient here, 
 only to say that every where in the West, we find ourselves 
 surrounded with vestiges of different nations who have lived 
 here before us; and that we may infer from these relics, very 
 different degrees of progress and improvement in the people 
 who constructed them. Of these there are three classes. 
 First : — those belonging to the modern Indians ; these are nei- 
 ther numerous nor interesting — such as rude axes of stone, 
 pestles and mortars, arrow heads, earthen vessels, pipes, war 
 clubs, musical instruments and idols, carved out of a spe- 
 cies of serpentine, calumets, &c. Second : — those belong- 
 ing to or constructed by a people of European or foreign 
 descent ; such as medals, coins, beads, crucifixes, furnaces, 
 &c. Third : — those belonging to or made by a people 
 evidently demi-civilized, who anciently inhabited the coun- 
 try ; such as forts, cemeteries, tumuli, temples, altars, camps, 
 towns, videttes, fortifications, &c. These structures fur- 
 nish unquestionable evidence, that a dense population, at 
 a remote period, occupied this country, and had made some 
 advance in the arts of civilized life. These, though they 
 may not awaken in the beholder the same associations as 
 
TRADITIONS OF TENNESSEE TRIBES. 
 
 91 
 
 the ruins of Rome, or the majestic desolations of Greece, 
 are certainly not entirely devoid of interest, but excite a 
 feeling of veneration for the memory of those mighty em- 
 pires which once flourished where these vestiges of their 
 former greatness are yet found. And the inquiry forcibly 
 presents itself, who were these unknown people ? How and 
 when have these nations become extinct ? Did some swarm 
 of ruthless invaders from our northern hive, at some far dis- 
 tant period of time, seeking a more genial climate, descend 
 the vallies of the West, and, carrying devastation in their 
 march, Vandal-like, consign them to oblivion? Tradition, a 
 medium of communication between remote ages too much 
 undervalued, is not altogether silent on this subject. At a 
 very noted congress or treaty, held early in the last century, 
 at Lancaster, Pa., Indian delegates in attendance, said their 
 ancestors had conquered several nations on the west side of 
 the Great Mountains, viz: “The Cony-uch-such-roona, the 
 
 Coch-now-was-roonon, the Tohoa-nough-roonaw, and the 
 Conutskin-ough-roonaw.” 
 
 The traditions of the Tennessee tribes on the subject, are 
 indistinct and conflicting. They agree in this, that their 
 forefathers found these vestiges here, or that they were 
 always here, meaning, thereby, to assign to these ancient 
 relics an indefinite antiquity. The several Indian families 
 in America have been well compared to the fragments of a 
 vast ruin. Certain is it, that these remains imply the former 
 existence of a population so dense as to prove that it was 
 incapable of existing in a country of hunters only, and that, 
 possibly, Tennessee and the West were once the theatre upon 
 which agriculture, civilization and peace exhibited their 
 benign influence, or the dreadful battle field, where the lust 
 of dominion, the bad passions of man and his unhallowed 
 ambition, consigned to the grave and to oblivion hecatombs 
 of human victims, and made the fairest part of God’s crea- 
 tion a desert and a waste. Turning from the contemplation 
 of this gloomy picture, we hasten to trace the progress of 
 civilized man, of enlightenment and art over the wilds of 
 Tennessee. 
 
92 
 
 WATAUGA —ITS SETTLEMENT AND GOVERNMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WATAUGA— ITS SETTLEMENT AND GOVERNMENT. 
 
 In the meantime, the treaty of Fort Stanwix had given a 
 pretext for a general disregard of the king’s proclamation, 
 prohibiting settlements of his subjects west of the mountains, 
 and had excited afresh the spirit of emigration and explora- 
 tion westward. Land-mongers penetrated fearlessly into 
 the wilderness, while masses of emigrants had accumulated 
 along the boundary, and concentrating themselves at the 
 leading avenues from the Atlantic to the western waters, 
 stood for a moment impatient of longer restraint, and cast- 
 ing a wishful look upon the inviting country before them. 
 Tennessee was yet without a single civilized inhabitant. 
 We have traced the approaches of the Anglo-American popu- 
 lation to her eastern boundary. The genius of civilization, 
 in her progress from the east, . had passed the base of the 
 great Apalachian range. She stood upon its summit, proud 
 of past success — and, ambitious of further and greater 
 achievement, surveyed from that height the wide field before 
 and around her. On her right, are the rich vallies and luxu- 
 riant plains of Kentucky and Ohio, as yet imperfectly known 
 from the obscure report of the returning explorer or the 
 Shawnee prisoner. On the left, her senses are regaled by 
 the luxuriant groves, the delightful savannas, and the en- 
 chanting beauties of the sunny south. Far in the distance 
 and immediately before her, she contemplates the Great West. 
 Its vastness at first overwhelms and astounds her, but at 
 the extreme limit of her vision, American adventure and 
 western enterprise are seen beckoning her to move for- 
 ward and to occupy the goodly land. She descends to the 
 plains below, and on the prolific soil of the quiet Watauga, 
 in the lonely seclusion of one of its ancient forests, is de- 
 posited the germ of the future State of Tennessee. In that 
 germ were contained all the elements of prospective great- 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 93 
 
 ness and achievement. What these elements were, succeed- 
 ing pages will but feebly develope and illustrate. Toil, 
 enterprise, perseverance and courage, had planted that germ 
 in a distant wilderness. The circumstances that surrounded 
 it, required for its growth, culture and protection, wisdom, 
 virtue, patriotism, valour and self-reliance. American was to 
 become Western character, and here was the place and this 
 the time of its first germination. 
 
 The news of the great grant from the Six Nations reached 
 
 ( the frontier settlement soon after the treatv of No- 
 1 / 69 t _ 
 
 ( vember, 1768 . Dr. Walker, the Commissioner from 
 Virginia, had returned from Fort Stanwix, and brought with 
 him an account of the cession. He is the same gentleman 
 who, as has been already narrated, had twice explored the 
 new country, and now bore with him one form of authority 
 for an indefinite extension of the white settlements west- 
 ward. The Indian boundary, as adjusted at Hard Labour, 
 in October of the same year, had given the assent of the 
 Cherokees to a further expansion of the Holston settlements ; 
 and late in December, 1768 , and early in January of 1769 , 
 was formed the nucleus of the first permanent establishment 
 of the white race in Tennessee. It was merely an enlarge- 
 ment of the Virginia settlement near it, and at the time was 
 believed to be upon the territory of that province, — the line 
 dividing Virginia and North-Carolina not having been yet 
 run west of Steep Rock. The settlers were principally from 
 what is now Wake county, in North-Carolina. Some of 
 them had been among the troops raised by that province, and 
 sent, in 1760 , for the relief of the garrison at Fort Loudon — 
 others of them had wintered, in 1758 , at the Long Island Fort, 
 around which a temporary settlement had been made, which 
 was soon after broken up and its members forced to retire 
 east of Kenhawa. 
 
 Early in this year further explorations were made. One 
 of them originated with Gilbert Christian and William 
 Anderson. They had accompanied the regiment com- 
 manded by Colonel Bird, and were so pleased with the 
 country through which they had marched, that they deter- 
 mined to explore it more fully. They were joined by the 
 
94 
 
 CHRISTIAN ANDERSON AND SAWYERS. 
 
 late Colonel John Sawyers, of Knox county, and four others. 
 They crossed the north fork of Holston at the present ford, 
 and penetrated as low down that stream as Big Creek, in 
 the present county of Hawkins, where they met a large 
 party of Indians. “ They turned about and went back up the 
 river ten or fifteen miles, and concluded to return home. 
 About twenty miles above the North Fork, they found, upon 
 their return, a cabin on every spot where the range was 
 good, and where only six weeks before nothing was to be 
 seen but a howling wilderness. When they passed by before, 
 on their outward destination, they found no settlers on Hol- 
 ston, save three families on the head springs of that river.”* 
 So impetuous was the current of population westward. 
 
 Of those who ventured farthest into the wilderness with 
 their families, was Capt. William Bean. He came from Pitt- 
 sylvania county, Va., and settled early in 17G9 on Boon’s Creek, 
 a tributary of Watauga, in advance of Carter and others, 
 who soon after settled upon that stream. His son, Russell 
 Bean, was the first white child born in what is now Tennes- 
 see. Captain Bean had hunted with Boon, knew his camp, 
 and selected this as the place of his settlement on the ac- 
 count of its abundant game. His cabin was not far from 
 Watauga. He was an intrepid man, and will be mentioned 
 hereafter. Bean’s Station was afterwards settled by him. 
 
 But explorations were not confined to the country since 
 known as East Tennessee. A glimpse had been obtained 
 by Findley, Boon and Smith, of those portions of Kentucky 
 and Middle Tennessee lying upon the Cumberland river. 
 It had been ascertained, too, that the entire territory between 
 the Ohio and Tennessee was unoccupied by any aboriginal 
 tribe, and that it was the hunting ground and often the bat- 
 tle field of the adjoining Indian nations. Possessed by none 
 of these for residence or cultivation, it presented an inviting 
 field for further exploration and future settlement. It had 
 been represented, also, as a. country of boundless fertility and 
 inconceivably beautiful. Men of hardy enterprise and fear- 
 less spirit were at hand to explore and occupy it. The pio- 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
STATION AT FRENCH LICK. 
 
 95 
 
 neers of civilization in the West, — the trader, the hunter, the 
 surveyor, — were already on the frontier ready to tempt the 
 dangerous wilds. 
 
 After the return of Smith in 1766, from his expedition to 
 the Lower Cumberland, Isaac Lindsay, and four others from 
 South-Carolina, were the next adventurers. They crossed 
 the Alleghanies and the Cumberland at the usual place — 
 hunted upon the Rockcastle and descended Cumberland as 
 low as the mouth of Stone’s river. Here they met Michael 
 
 Stoner, who, with Harrod, had come from Illinois to 
 
 hunt. These two were from Pittsburg. Previous to this 
 time, in 1764, the Shawnees had removed from the Cumber- 
 land and Greene rivers to the Wabash, and no Indians were 
 then there. At the bluff, where Nashville now stands, some 
 French were settled and had a station. Ten or twelve miles 
 above the mouth of Tennessee, there was then another 
 French station. 
 
 The first of May, 1769, Daniel Boon, as narrated by him- 
 self, “left his peaceable habitation on the Yadkin river, in 
 quest of the country of Kentucky,” in company with John 
 Findley, John Stewart, and three others. These hunters must 
 have passed rapidly through Upper East Tennessee, as we 
 learn from the narrative that on the 7th of June they were 
 upon Red River, the northern-most branch of the Kentucky 
 river. In December of that year, John Stewart was killed 
 by Indians, “the first victim, as far as is known, in the heca- 
 tombs of white men, offered by the Indians to the god of bat- 
 tles, in their desperate and ruthless contention for Kentucky.”* 
 Of Findley, nothing more is known than that he was the first 
 huntef of Kentucky, and the pilot of Boon to the dark and 
 bloody ground. 
 
 On the 2d of June, 1769, a larger company of adventurers 
 was formed, for the purpose of hunting and exploring, in 
 what is now known as Middle Tennessee. As the country 
 was discovered and settled by the enterprise and defended 
 by the valour of these first explorers, we choose to give their 
 names, the places from which they came, and such details 
 of their hazardous journeyings as have been preserved. 
 
 * Butler. 
 
96 
 
 RAINS EXPLORES CUMBERLAND. 
 
 May the time never come, when the self-sacrificing toil and 
 the daring hardihood of the pioneers of Tennessee will be 
 forgotten or undervalued by their posterity. The company 
 consisted of more than twenty men. Some of them from 
 North-Carolina ; others from the neighbourhood of the Na- 
 tural Bridge, and others from the infant settlement near 
 Inglis’ Ferry, in Virginia. The names of some of them 
 follow : John Rains, Kasper Mansco, Abraham Bledsoe, John 
 Baker, Joseph Drake, Obadiah Terrill, Uriah Stone, Henry 
 Smith, Ned Cowan, Robert Crockett. The place of rendez- 
 vous was eight miles below Fort Cbissel, on New River. 
 They came by the head of Holston, and, crossing the north 
 fork, Clinch and Powell’s rivers, and passing through Cum- 
 berland Gap, discovered the southern part of Kentucky, and 
 fixed a station camp at a place since called Price’s Meadow, 
 in Wayne county, where they agreed to deposit their game 
 and skins. The hunters here dispersed in different direc- 
 tions ; the whole company still travelling to the south-west. 
 They came to Roaring River and the Cany Fork, at a point 
 far above the mouth and somewhere near the foot of the 
 mountain. Robert Crockett was killed near the head waters 
 of Roaring River, when returning to the camp, provided for 
 two or three days’ travelling ; the Indians were there in am- 
 bush, and fired upon and killed him. The Indians were tra- 
 velling to the north, seven or eight in company. Crockett’s 
 body was found on the war track, leading from the Cherokee 
 nation towards the Shawnees tribe. All the country through 
 which these hunters passed, was covered with high grass ; no 
 traces of any human settlement could be seen, and the pri- 
 meval state of things reigned in unrivalled glory ; though 
 under dry caves, on the side of creeks, they found many 
 places where stones were set up, that covered large quanti- 
 ties of human bones; these were also found in the caves, 
 with which the country abounds. They continued to hunt 
 eight or nine months, when part of them returned in Aprib 
 1770 .* 
 
 The return of Findley and Boon to the banks of the Yadkin 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
COLONEL JAMES KNOX EXPLORES CUMBERLAND. 
 
 97 
 
 1770 
 
 and of the explorers, whose journal has just been 
 given, to their several homes, produced a remarkable 
 sensation. Their friends and neighbours were enraptured 
 with the glowing descriptions of the delightful country they 
 had discovered, and their imaginations were inflamed with 
 the account of the wonderful products, which were yielded 
 in such bountiful profusion. The sterile hills and rocky 
 uplands of the Atlantic country began to lose their interest, 
 when compared with the fertile vallies beyond the moun- 
 tains.* A spirit of further exploration was thus excited in 
 the settlements on New River, Holston and Clinch, which 
 originated an association of about forty stout hunters, for 
 the purpose of hunting and trapping west of Cumberland 
 mountains. Equipped with their rifles, traps, dogs, blankets, 
 and dressed in the hunting shirt, leggins and mocassins, 
 they commenced their arduous enterprise, in the real spirit 
 of hazardous adventure, through the rough forest and rugged 
 hills.f The names of these adventurers are now not known. 
 The expedition was led by Colonel James Knox. The leader, 
 and nine others of the company, penetrated to the Lower 
 Cumberland, and, making there an extensive and irregular 
 circuit, adding much to their knowledge of the country, after 
 a long absence, returned home. They are known as the 
 “ Long: Hunters.” 
 
 In the meantime, the infant settlement on Watauga was 
 receiving constant additions to its numbers from North-Ca- 
 rolina and Virginia, where the rage of visiting unexplored 
 regions had become irresistible, and an irrepressible anxiety 
 to emigrate succeeded. Other causes, too, were exerting an 
 indirect influence upon the people of both North and South- 
 Carolina.. In each of these provinces, civil disturbances 
 existed, the results of which augmented the population and 
 stimulated the growth of the new community germinating 
 across the mountain. , 
 
 In South-Carolina, previous to 1770, no courts of justice 
 were held beyond the limits of the capital, and, in the inte- 
 rior of that province, the inhabitants took the law into their 
 own hands and punished offenders in a summary way. 
 
 * Monette. t Marshall. 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 DISCONTENTS IN NORTH- CARO LINA. 
 
 “ This mode of proceeding was called Regulation, and its 
 authors Regulators.”* Those who opposed them were called 
 Scovilites, after their leader, Scovil, commissioned by the 
 governor to suppress them. Each party was armed and pre- 
 pared for the last extremity. 
 
 These tumults, and the bitter animosities they engendered, 
 drove many from South-Carolina to the settlements on IIol- 
 ston and Watauga. 
 
 In North-Carolina, disturbances existed also, but produced 
 by other and different causes, and, unlike those just narrated, 
 were, unfortunately, not quieted without bloodshed. The 
 inhabitants of this province, who lived upon Lord Granville’s 
 reservation, about two-thirds of the whole, complained that 
 illegal and exorbitant fees were extorted by officers of gov- 
 ernment, that oppressive taxes were exacted by the sheriffs^ 
 and that the. manner of collecting them was arbitrary and 
 tyrannical. The people had long petitioned and remonstrated, 
 but the officers remained unpunished. Another fruitful 
 source of general discontent increased the popular clamour. 
 In 1764 the intentions of the British ministry to quarter 
 troops in America, and to support them at the expense of the 
 colonies, were publicly announced. After debate in the 
 House of Commons, it was unanimously determined that the 
 Parliament of Great Britain had the right to tax the Ameri- 
 cans, but it was not till March, of the next year, that this 
 right was exercised by the passage of an act for raising a 
 revenue by a general stamp duty through all the American 
 colonies. This act excited the most serious alarm. It was 
 received as a violation of the British constitution, and as 
 destructive of the first principles of liberty, and combina- 
 tions against its execution were every where formed. Vir- 
 ginia was the first to assert colonial rights, and to deny the 
 claim of parliamentary taxation. To the bold patriotism 
 and fervid eloquence of Patrick Henry, is due the immortal 
 honour of this early avowal of the inviolability of the repre- 
 sentative principle. 
 
 In North-Carolina, the public mind was- much disturbed by 
 the report that the stamp act had been passed by Parliament. 
 
 * Ramsay- 
 
COLONEL ASHE PREVENTS THE LANDING OF THE STAMPS. 99 
 
 This intelligence reached Wilmington shortly after the meet- 
 ing of the Assembly, and such was the violence exhi- 
 bited by the members of the popular House, that Governor 
 Tryon suddenly prorogued the legislative body.* By the 
 passage of the stamp act, an amalgamation of all par- 
 ties in the province was brought about. The people of 
 North-Carolina were never before so unanimous. All joined 
 in giving a solemn assurance to the mother country that the 
 colonies would not be forcibly taxed— an assurance that was 
 nobly, though not unanimously, enforced, and which achieved 
 the freedom of America. f Col. Ashe, on the approach of 
 the stamp ship, embodied a company of militia, and held 
 himself ready for battle. The odious freight was never 
 landed, and the fiery impetuosity of the colonel, aided by the 
 enthusiasm of the whole people, arrested the stamp master, 
 conducted him to the market house, where, in the presence 
 of the assembled multitude, he swore a solemn oath never 
 to perform the duties of his office. 
 
 The subsequent repeal of the odious stamp act was insuffi- 
 cient to appease the growing discontent, or to repress the 
 insurrectionary tendencies of the people. The extortions of 
 the officers were continued, and the taxes were multiplied. 
 Besides, the office holders were all foreigners, who, not con- 
 tent with having engrossed the stations of authority and hon- 
 our in their adopted country, endeavoured to revel upon the 
 hard earnings of an agricultural and primitive people. The 
 trade, too, of the province was monopolized by foreign mer- 
 chants, “ who came in shoals, to get rich and to get conse- 
 quence. The poor man was treated with disdain, because 
 unable to contribute to their emoluments. He was excluded 
 from their society, unless when he was to be reminded of his 
 insignificance, and to be told with brutal freedom of the low 
 rank which he held.”J Nothing is more offensive to correct 
 taste, virtuous sentiment and just discernment, than the up- 
 start consequence and fictitious importance engendered by 
 sudden or unexpected accumulation. This hauteur is the 
 more intolerable and annoying, as it is never accompanied 
 with intellectual or moral worth. 
 
 *May 18,1765. + Jones. % Haywood. 
 
100 
 
 RESOLVES OF THE REGULATORS. 
 
 Such were the outrages, political and domestic, that dis- 
 quieted the people of North-Carol ina. The perpetrators 
 of the former were the men in power, who were appointed 
 by law to redress the wrongs and protect the rights of the 
 people. Those who were injured met and petitioned for re- 
 lief, and made representations of the mal-practices from 
 which they had suffered. Their petitions were rejected and 
 treated with disdain. They held several meetings, assumed 
 the name of Regulators, and resolved “to pay no more taxes, 
 until they were satisfied that the tax was agreeable to law, 
 and should be applied to the purposes therein mentioned ; to 
 pay no officer any higher fees than the law allows, to attend 
 their meeting of conference ; to consult our representatives on 
 the amendment of such laws as may be found grevious or 
 unnecessary ; to choose more suitable men for burgesses and 
 vestrymen, than we have heretofore done, and to petition the 
 Assembly, Governor, Council, King and Parliament for re- 
 dress, in such grievances as in the course of the undertaking 
 may occur ; and to inform one another, learn, know and en- 
 joy, all the privileges and liberties that are allowed and 
 were settled on us by our worthy ancestors, the founders of 
 our present constitution, in order to preserve it on its ancient 
 foundation, that it may stand firm and unshaken.” In the 
 public and documentary proceedings of the ’Regulators we 
 see nothing to blame and much to admire. “ On these prin- 
 ciples, and to this extent of opposition, the whole western 
 counties were agreed. The most sober and sedate in the 
 community were united in resisting the tyranny of unjust and 
 exorbitant taxes, and had been aroused to a degree of violence 
 and opposition, difficult to manage and hard to quell. And the 
 more restless, and turbulent, and unprincipled parts of society, 
 equally aggrieved and more ungovernable, cast themselves in 
 as part of the resisting mass of population, with little to gain, 
 but greater license for their unprincipled passions ; and little 
 to lose, could they escape confinement and personal punish- 
 ment. Unjustifiable acts perpetrated by these, were charged 
 upon the Regulators, and they were held accountable for all 
 the ill that wicked men chose to do, under the name of 
 struggling for liberty ; while it is well known that the leaders 
 
BATTLE ON THE ALAMANCE. 
 
 101 
 
 of this oppressed party never expressed a desire to be free 
 from law or equitable taxation. The governor’s palace, 
 double and treble fees, and taxes without law or reason, 
 drove the sober to resistance and the passionate and unprin- 
 cipled to outrage. But there were cases of injustice most 
 foul and crying, that might palliate, where they could not 
 justify, the violence that followed. 
 
 “The Regulators continued their resistance to illegal taxa- 
 tion, two or three years. The better part of the community 
 were averse to the irregularities of those lawless spirits, who> 
 attaching themselves to the cause of liberty, greatly impeded 
 its progress ; and desired to govern themselves and persuade 
 their neighbours by reason, to gain the justice they demanded. 
 But tumult, and violence, and rebellion followed; the Regu- 
 lators prevented the setting of courts, and otherwise ob- 
 structed the execution of the laws. Governor Tryon met 
 them on the 16th May, 1771, on the Alamance. They num- 
 bered between two and three thousand. The governor’s 
 troops were something less. The Regulators, being poorly 
 armed, undisciplined and without commanders of skill or 
 experience, were defeated. “ It is the unvarying tradition 
 among the people of the country, that they had but little am- 
 munition, and did not flee until it was all expended. Nine of 
 them, and twenty-seven of the militia, were left dead on the 
 field ; a great number were wounded on both sides in this first 
 battle — in this first blood shed for the enjoyment of liberty. 
 We cannot but admire the principles that led to the result, 
 how much soever we may deplore the excesses that preceded 
 and the bloodshed itself.”* 
 
 The conduct of the Regulators is viewed in the same light 
 by an American historian, who from his official position at 
 the Court of St. James, has had the opportunity of examining 
 in the British State Paper Office, all the documents pertaining 
 to the “Regulation.” Pie says, speaking of them: “Their 
 complaints were well founded, and were so acknowledged^ 
 though their oppressors were only nominally punished. They 
 form the connecting link between resistance to the Stamp 
 Act, and the movement of 1775 ; and they also played a 
 
 * Foote. 
 
102 
 
 TREATY OF LOCHABER. 
 
 glorious part in taking possession of the Mississippi val- 
 ley, towards which they were carried irresistibly by their 
 love of independence. It is a mistake if any have supposed 
 that the Regulators were cowed down by their defeat at the 
 Alamance. Like the mammoth, they shook the bolt from 
 their brow and crossed the mountains.”* 
 
 Thus early did a great political wrong — “ taxation without 
 representation” — ulcerate the minds of the subjects of the King 
 in all the American colonies. A little later, did regal oppres- 
 sion, in exorbitant and illegal fees of Crown officers and their 
 deputies, produce disaffection and resistance in Western Ca- 
 rolina. The defeat of the Regulators on the Alamance quelled, 
 for a time, the spirit of resistance ; but the disaffection re- 
 mained, and caused the voluntary exile of thousands of indig- 
 nant and independent freemen to the western wilds. Re- 
 mote from the seat of power, and free from the oppressions of 
 regal officers, Watauga gave its cordial welcome to these 
 honest-hearted and virtuous patriots : and here was the cra- 
 dle of the infant Hercules — Tennessee. 
 
 The tide of emigration continued from Southern Virginia, 
 ^ and from the country near the sources of the Yadkin 
 l and Catawba, in North-Carolina, and was spreading 
 itself beyond the limits assigned to the white inhabitants, by 
 the treaty of Hard Labour, in 1768. Some of the settlements 
 were within what was supposed to be the Indian territory, 
 and the Cherokees began to remonstrate against the encroach- 
 ment. To avoid Indian resentment, and to prevent hostilities 
 on the part ofthe Cherokees, the Superintendent of Southern In- 
 dian Affairs took measures to establish a new boundary further 
 west. The treaty of Lochaber was signed on the 1 8th of Octo- 
 ber, 1770, by the council of the chiefs, warriors, and head men 
 of the Cherokee nation. The new line commenced on the south 
 branch of Holston river, six miles east of Long Island — thence 
 to the mouth of the Great Kenhawa.f This boundary — the 
 western limit of the frontier settlements of Virginia and North- 
 Carolina — was a feeble barrier against the approaches of the 
 emigrants, who came in greatly increased numbers to the 
 West. The Holston river was considered as the line dividing 
 * Letter to D. L. Swain, Esq., from Mr. Bancroft. f Monette. 
 
ARRIVAL OF ROBERTSON. 
 
 103 
 
 North-Carolina and Virginia. An act of the Legislature of 
 this Province, allowed every actual settler having a log cabin 
 erected, and any portion of ground in cultivation, the right of 
 four hundred acres of land, and so located as to include his 
 improvement. A subsequent act extended the privilege much 
 further — allowing such owner and occupant the preference 
 right of purchasing a thousand acres adjoining him, at such 
 cost as scarcely exceeded the expense of selecting and sur- 
 veying it. These acts greatly encouraged emigration to the 
 West, where every man, with the least industry, could not 
 fail to secure to himself a comfortable home and a valuable 
 estate for his children. Crowds of emigrants immediately 
 advanced to secure the proffered bounty.* When the line 
 was afterwards run, many of these were found to be within 
 the limits of North-Carolina. 
 
 But the misgoverned Province of North-Carolina sent forth 
 most of the emigrants to Watauga. The poor came in search 
 of independence — others to repair their broken fortunes — the 
 aspiring, to attain respectability, unattainable in the country 
 of their nativity. In the wilderness beyond the mountain, 
 they promised themselves, at least, exemption from the super- 
 cilious annoyance of those who claimed a pre-eminence above 
 them.f Others came prompted by the noble ambition of form- 
 ing a new community, of laying broad and deep the founda- 
 tion of government, and of acquiring, under it, distinction and 
 consequence for themselves and their children. 
 
 Amongst those that reached Watauga about this time, was 
 Daniel Boon, who had previously crossed the mountain upon 
 a hunting excursion, and had been as low as Boon’s Creek, 
 in the present county of Washington. He acted as pilot to 
 the new settlements, and continued the pioneer to civilization, 
 from the Yadkin to the district of St. Charles, in Missouri, 
 where he ended his remarkable and eventful life, in 1820, in 
 the eighty-sixth year of his age. 
 
 A little after Boon, and early in 1770, came also James 
 Robertson, from Wake county, North-Carolina. “He is the 
 same person,” to use the language of Haywood, who 
 was his countryman, and knew him well, “ who will ap- 
 * Monette. f Haywood. 
 
104 
 
 CHARACTER OF ROBERTSON. 
 
 pear hereafter by his' actions, to have merited all the eulo- 
 gium, esteem and affection, which the most ardent of his coun- 
 trymen have ever bestowed upon him. Like almost all those 
 in America who have attained eminent celebrity, he had not 
 a noble lineage to boast of, nor the escutcheoned armorials 
 of a splendid ancestry. But he had what was far more val- 
 uable : a sound mind, healthy constitution, a robust frame, a 
 love of virtue, an intrepid soul, and an emulous desire for 
 honest fame. He visited the delightful country on the wa- 
 ters of Holston, to view the new settlements which then 
 began to be formed on the Watauga. Here he found one 
 Honeycut living in a hut, who furnis ed him with food. He 
 made a crop there the first year. On re-crossing the moun- 
 tains he got lost for some time, and coming to a precipice? 
 over which his horse could not be led, he left him there and 
 travelled on foot. His powder was wetted by repeated show- 
 ers and could not be used in the procurement of game for 
 food. Fourteen days he wandered without eating, till he 
 was so much reduced and weakened that he began seriously 
 to despair of reaching his home again. But there is a Provi - 
 dence which rules over the destinies of men, and preserves 
 them to run the race appointed for them. Unpromising as 
 were the prospects of James Robertson, at that time, having 
 neither learning, experience, property, nor friends to give 
 him countenance, and with spirits drooping under the pres- 
 sure of penury and a low estate, yet the God of nature had 
 given him an elevated soul, and planted in it the seeds of vir- 
 tue, which made him in the midst of discouraging circum- 
 stances look forward to better times. He was accidentally 
 met by two hunters, on whom he could not, without much, 
 and pressing solicitation, prevail so far as to be permitted to 
 ride on one of their horses. They gave him food, of which he 
 ate sparingly for some days, till his strength and spirits returned 
 to him. This is the man who will figure in the future so de- 
 servedly as the greatest benefactor of the first settlers of the 
 country. He reached home in safety, and soon afterwards 
 returned to Watauga with a few others, and there settled.” 
 While a nucleus of a civilized community was thus being 
 formed in what is now East Tennessee, the adventurous 
 
LOWER CUMBERLAND EXPLORED. 
 
 105 
 
 hunters whom we left upon the Lower Cumberland were 
 extending explorations in that part of the country. In 1769 
 or 1770, Mr. Mansco, Uriah Stone, John Baker, Thomas Gor- 
 don, Humphrey Hogan, Cash Brook, and others, ten in all, 
 built two boats and two trapping canoes, loaded them with 
 the results of their hunting, and descended the Cumberland 
 river — the first navigation, and the first commerce probably 
 ever carried on upon that stream by Anglo-Americans. 
 Where Nashville now stands they discovered the French 
 Lick, and found around it immense numbers of buffalo and 
 other wild game. The country was crowded with them. 
 Their bellowfings sounded from the hills and forest. On the 
 mound near the Lick the voyageurs found a stock fort, built, 
 as they conjectured, by the Cherokees, on their retreat from 
 the battle at the Chickasaw Old Fields. Descending to the 
 Ohio, they met with John Brown, the Mountain-leader, and 
 twenty-five other warriors, marching against the Senekas. 
 The Indians offered them no personal injury, but robbed 
 them of two guns, some ammunition, salt and tobacco. De- 
 scending the river, they met Frenchmen trading to the Illi- 
 nois, who treated them with friendship. The voyage was 
 prosecuted as low as the Spanish Natches. Here some of 
 them remained, while Mansco and Baker returned by the way 
 of the Keowee towns to New River. 
 
 In the fall of this year the country on the Lower Cumber- 
 1771 ( land was further explored by Mansco, in company with 
 l John Montgomery, Isaac Bledsoe, Joseph Drake, Hen- 
 ry Suggs, James Knox, William and David Linch, Christo- 
 pher Stoph, William Allen, and others. Among them was 
 an old hunter named Russell, who was so dim-sighted that 
 he was obliged to tie a piece of white paper at the muzzle 
 of his gun to direct his sight at the game — and yet he killed a 
 number of deer. The winter being inclement, the party built 
 a skin house. Their ammunition being exhausted, five men 
 were left to take care of the camp, while the rest returned 
 home. During their absence in the settlements the camp 
 was attacked, as was supposed, by Northern Indians, and 
 Stoph and Allen were taken prisoners. Hughes escaped, 
 and met the company returning to the camp. It was found 
 
10G 
 
 WATAUGA FORMS ARTICLES OF 
 
 as it had been left — the Indians had not plundered it. The 
 party thence extended their hunting and exploring excur- 
 sions— formed a station camp upon a creek, which is still 
 known as Station Camp Creek — each hunter made a discov- 
 ery, and time has signalized it with the discoverer’s name. 
 Thus, Drake’s Pond, Drake’s Lick, Bledsoe’s Lick, Mansco’s 
 Lick, etc. In the absence of the hunters, twenty-five 
 Cherokees came to their camp, and plundered it of ammuni- 
 tion, skins, and every thing it contained. As they left no 
 trail, it was supposed that they had retreated by wading 
 along the channel of the creek — no pursuit of them could be 
 made. The hunters soon exhausted the remaining ammuni- 
 tion and returned to the settlements. 
 
 The Holston and Watauga settlements were in the mean- 
 1770 { time receiving a steady stream of emigrants. They em- 
 ( braced within their limits men of very different and in- 
 deed opposite traits of character. Most of them were honest, 
 industrious, enterprising men, who had come there to improve 
 their condition, by subduing and cultivating the new lands in 
 the West. But others had arrived among them, who had fled 
 from justice in their own country, and hoped to escape the 
 demand of the law, and the punishment of crime, by a re- 
 treat to these remote and inaccessible frontiers. There, from 
 the existing condition of affairs, they found safety from prose- 
 cution, and certainly from conviction through the regular 
 channels of law. North of Holston, in what is now Sullivan 
 and Llawkins counties, was then believed to be in Virginia, 
 and the inhabitants agreed among themselves to adhere to 
 the government of that province, and to be governed by its 
 laws. The line separating the two provinces had not then 
 been extended west of the Steep Rock. South of Holston 
 was admitted to be within the boundaries of North-Carolina. 
 There the settlers lived without law or protection, except by 
 regulations of their own adoption. Being thus without any 
 regular government, the people of Watauga, in 1772, exer- 
 cised the “ divine right” of governing themselves. They 
 formed a written association and articles for the manage- 
 ment of general affairs. Five Commissioners were appointed, 
 by the decision of a majority of whom all matters in contro- 
 
ASSOCIATION AND A COURT. 
 
 107 
 
 versy were settled ; and the same tribunal had entire control 
 in all matters affecting the common good. The government 
 was paternal and patriarchal — simple and moderate, but 
 summary and firm. It was satisfactory and sufficient for a 
 number of years. The Articles by which the Association 
 was governed have not been preserved. They formed, it is 
 believed,, the first written compact for civil government any 
 where west of the Alleghanies, and would make a valuable 
 and exceedingly interesting contribution to the historical lite- 
 rature of the Great West, and a most desirable addition es- 
 pecially to these annals. But after the most diligent inquiry 
 and patient search, this writer has been unable to discover 
 them. 
 
 The Watauga settlers, in convention assembled, elected as 
 Commissioners, thirteen citizens. They were, John Carter, 
 Charles Robertson, James Robertson, Zach. Isbell, John Se- 
 vier, James Smith, Jacob Brown, William Bean, John Jones, 
 George Russell, Jacob Womack, Robert Lucas, William Ta- 
 tharn. Of these, John Carter, Charles Robertson, James Rob- 
 ertson, Zach. Isbell, and John Sevier, it is believed, were se- 
 lected as the court — of which W Tatham was the clerk. It 
 is to be regretted hat the account of thelives of all these pio- 
 neers is so meagre and unsatisfactory. The biography of 
 each of them would be now valuable and interesting. Many 
 of them will be hereafter frequently mentioned. 
 
 Col. John Carter was one of the pioneers of Tennessee^ 
 ^ and a principal and prominent member of the Watau- 
 \ ga settlement. He emigrated from Virginia, in 1771 
 or 1772. Intelligent and patriotic, he was soon a leader in 
 the Watauga Association, and became the chairman of its 
 committee and of the court — which, for several years, com- 
 bined the legislative, judicial and executive functions of the 
 infant government west of the Alleghany. His administra- 
 tion was wise and popular. 
 
 Charles Robertson emigrated from South-Carolina — was 
 the Trustee of the Watauga Association ; and to him was the 
 conveyance afterwards made by the Cherokee Indians, for the 
 lands purchased or leased from them. He was distinguished for 
 his great good sense and wisdom, not less than for his virtue. 
 
108 
 
 CHARACTER OF JOHN SEVIER. 
 
 Of James Robertson we have already spoken. He soon be- 
 came distinguished in the new settlement, for sobriety and love 
 of order, as well as for a firmness of character, qualifying him 
 to face danger and defend the feeble colony. 
 
 Zachariah Isbell was a fearless soldier, and was, for years 
 after, engaged in the military operations of the country. 
 
 John Sevier was one of the Watauga Committee. His char- 
 acter and services throughout a long life, will be frequently 
 a theme of remark to the close of these annals. This may, 
 therefore, be the proper place to introduce his family to the 
 reader’s attention. 
 
 The ancestors of Mr. Sevier were French Huguenots. The 
 family name in France, is Xavier. About the beginning of 
 the last century they emigi'ated to England. Valentine Se- 
 vier, the father of John, was born in London, and previous to 
 1740, emigrated to the county of Shanandoab, in the colony 
 of Virginia. Here John Sevier was born, in the year 1744. 
 The opportunity of literary improvement was small, but he 
 used it diligently. The Earl of Dunmore, then Governor of 
 Virginia, conferred upon young Sevier the appointment of 
 captain in the military service of the colony. Not long after, 
 the family emigrated to the West, and settled on Holston, in 
 what is now Sullivan county. The father, Valentine Sevier, 
 moved from there to Watauga, where he settled permanently? 
 occupying a' farm on that river, between the Sycamore Shoals 
 and the present Elizabethton. The remains of part of the 
 old family mansion could be traced in 1844. 
 
 Captain Sevier inherited some of the vivacity, ease and 
 sprightliness of his French ancestry. He was fluent, collo- 
 quial and gallant — frolicsome, generous and convivial — well 
 informed, rather than well read. Of books, he knew little. 
 Men, he had studied well and accurately. Oral communica- 
 tions had been the source of his mental culture and his know- 
 ledge. He was impulsive, but his impulses were high and 
 honourable. The Chevalier and the Huguenot were combined 
 in his character. He exhibited, in good proportions, the suav- 
 iter in modo and the fortiter in re. He was without pride 
 — if that feeling is not one of the ingredients that constitute 
 a laudable ambition — for he was ambitious — not of anything 
 
WATAUGA LEASE FROM INDIANS. 
 
 109 
 
 low or ignoble : he was ambitious of fame, character, distinc- 
 tion and achievement. 
 
 With such traits of character, it is not strange that Captain 
 Sevier at once became a favourite in the wilds of Watauga, 
 where a theatre presented itself for the exercise of the talents 
 and principles which characterized “that portly young stran- 
 ger from Williamsburg.” 
 
 Early in this year the authorities of Virginia made a 
 ij treaty with the Cherokees, by which a boundary was 
 ( fixed between them, to run west from the White Top 
 Mountain, in latitude thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. Soon 
 after this, Alexander Cameron, a deputy agent for the 
 government of Great Britain, and resident among the Chero- 
 kees, ordered the Watauga settlers to move off. Some of 
 the Cherokees expressed a wish that they might be permitted 
 to stay, if they would agree to make no further encroach- 
 ments ; this avoided the necessity of their removal. The 
 inhabitants, however, became uneasy at the precarious te- 
 nure by which they occupied their land, and desired to obtain 
 a more permanent title. For this purpose they deputed 
 James Robertson and John Boon to negotiate with the Indians 
 for a lease. The negotiation succeeded, and for an amount 
 of merchandize, estimated to be worth five or six thousand 
 dollars, some muskets, and other articles of convenience, the 
 Cherokees made a lease for eight years of all the country on 
 the waters of the Watauga.* 
 
 Hitherto the settlements had been confined to the Upper 
 Holston and to the Watauga. About this time another 
 stream south of them was found to present strong allure- 
 ments, and to hold out great inducements to emigrants to 
 settle upon it. The Nollichucky finds its source in the midst 
 of the highest mountains in the United States. The scenery 
 near it is romantic and Alpine. Its numerous tributaries, 
 descending the northern slope of these stupendous heights, 
 bear upon their currents the soil that forms and enlarges its 
 rich alluvial. The bottoms were covered with the most 
 luxuriant cane-brakes ; the vallies near it abounded in game, 
 and presented the most inviting prospect of present succpss 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
110 
 
 BROWN SETTLES ON NOLLICHUCKY. 
 
 to the hunter and grazier, and of a rich requital in future 
 for the toils of the husbandman. The temptation to occupy 
 it could not be resisted by the emigrants, and Jacob Brown, 
 with one or two families from North-Carolina, pitched their 
 tents, in 1772, upon its northern bank. Brown was a small 
 merchant, and for the goods that were carried to his new 
 settlement, upon a single pack-horse, bought a lease of a 
 large tract of this fertile country from the Cherokees. Like 
 that on the Watauga, the property advanced for its purchase, 
 was reimbursed by selling out the lands in small parcels to 
 individuals for the time the lease was to last. 
 
 The boundaries of these two leases are not distinctly 
 known. There were no offices in the country at that time, 
 in which such instruments of writing could be recorded, and 
 the original papers have probably been lost. Brown’s lease 
 is believed to have embraced lands upon both sides of the 
 Nollichucky. The writer has a deed of conveyance now 
 before him, from Jacob Brown to Richard Trivillian, for two 
 hundred and thirty-two acres of land, lying on the south side 
 of the river. The consideration is one hundred pounds, and 
 the title is not a fee simple, but only a relinquishment on the 
 part of the grantor. In these early times, and among these 
 primitive people, little regard seems to have been given to 
 forms, even where real estate was concerned. A transfer of 
 land was made in the most simple mode. Upon the back of 
 the same deed from Brown, is endorsed — 
 
 “ For value received of eighty-five pounds, I do hereby assign all my 
 right, claim and interest of the within deed, unto George Gillespie, as 
 witness my hand and seal. 
 
 Richard Trivillian. (Seal.) 
 
 Witness present test, 
 
 Amos Bird.” 
 
 And again immediately below — 
 
 “ For value received, of Jeremiah Jack, I do hereby assign all my 
 right, claim and interest of the within deed, as witness my hand and seal. 
 
 George Gillespie. (Seal.) 
 
 Witness present, 
 
 Thos. Gillespie.” 
 
 The present name of the river is a corruption of the abo- 
 
WISDOM AND INTREPIDITY OF ROBERTSON. 
 
 Ill 
 
 riginal Nonachunheh. It is so given in Brown’s deed of con- 
 veyance, and also in the plat upon the same paper. In his 
 traffic with the Indians, and in his negotiation for the lease 
 from them, Brown had, doubtless, learned the true pronunci- 
 ation. Its signification is rapid or precipitous, and is exactly 
 descriptive of the upper portion of the stream. 
 
 About the time Robertson was forming his settlement on 
 Watauga, and a little previous to the first emigration to 
 Nollichucky, several families settled in Carter’s Valley, fif- 
 teen or eighteen miles above the present flourishing town 
 of Rogers ville. This country being north of Iiolston, was 
 then believed to be in Virginia. The first emigrants to it 
 were principally from that province. Two of them, Car- 
 ter (whose name the valley still retains) and Parker, after- 
 wards opened a store, which was robbed by the Indians ; the 
 depredators were supposed to be Cherokees, but of this no 
 certain proof was obtained. The relations between them 
 and the whites had recently been of the most friendly char- 
 acter, and mutual confidence was not destroyed on account 
 of this robbery. But at the time when the Watauga 
 lease was executed, an occurrence took place, which had 
 well nigh involved the then feeble settlements of Robertson, 
 Carter and Brown, in hostilities with their savage neighbours. 
 At the close of that treaty, a great race was appointed to be 
 run at Watauga. The occasion had brought together a large 
 concourse of people from all the adjacent settlements. Many 
 of the Indians were still there participating in the athletic 
 amusements of the frontier people. Mischievous white men, 
 from the neighbourhood of the Wolf Hills, in Virginia, as was 
 believed, among others were present, and lurking about the 
 place where the race was run, watched an opportunity at 
 the close of the day and killed one of the Indians. This act, 
 alike atrocious, inhuman and impolitic, gave great offence and 
 produced much alarm. The inhabitants felt that it was not 
 only wrong, but that it would expose them to the retaliatory 
 vengeance of the outraged Cherokees. At this crisis the wis- 
 dom and intrepidity of Robertson saved the infant* settle- 
 ments from extermination. Pie undertook a journey to the 
 Indian nation, one hundred and fifty miles distant, in order to 
 
112 
 
 BOON ATTACKED IN A DEFILE. 
 
 pacify them, and allay the irritation produced by this bar- 
 barous and imprudent act. The attempt was hazardous in 
 the extreme ; but the safety of the whites demanded the mis- 
 sion, and he proceeded at once to the chief town of the Che- 
 rokees, met their head men, and declared to them that his 
 people “viewed the horrid deed which had been perpetrated, 
 with the deepest concern for their own character, and with 
 the keenest indignation against the offender, whom they in- 
 tended to punish as he deserved whenever he could be dis- 
 covered.” The Indians were appeased by this instance of 
 condescension in the white people, and of the discountenance 
 which they gave to the miscreant. The settlers were saved 
 from their fury, and Robertson began to be looked upon as 
 an intrepid soldier, a lover of his countrymen' and as a man 
 of uncommon address, in devising means of extrication from 
 difficulties.* 
 
 In the fall of 1773, Daniel Boon made the attempt to take 
 1773 l his family to Kentucky. Before this time no white 
 ) female, no family, had crossed the Cumberland range. 
 Boon prevailed on four or five other families to join him, and 
 with them advanced towards Cumberland Gap. The little 
 colony was joined in Powell’s Valley by forty hunters, well 
 armed. The whole formed a caravan of eighty persons. 
 While passing a narrow defile in their march, on the fifth of 
 October, they were startled by the terrific yell of Indians, in 
 ambuscade, by whom they were furiously assailed. Some 
 of the men flew to the protection of the helpless women and 
 children, while others of them rushed to encounter the enemy 
 in their coverts. A scene of consternation and confusion for 
 a moment ensued ; but the Indians, surprised at the fierce 
 and resolute resistance of the men, soon fled in every direc- 
 tion. 
 
 The first fire of the Indians killed six men and wounded 
 the seventh. Among the killed was a son of Boon, aged 
 about twenty. The party fell back to the nearest settlement, 
 where the emigrant families remained till after the close of 
 Lord Dunmore’s war.f 
 
 After the extension of the British dominion over West 
 * Haywood. f Monette. 
 
GREAT NAUTICAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 113 
 
 Florida, encouragement was given by the English authori- 
 ties to emigration thereto, from the Atlantic Provinces. No 
 country surpassed in soil and climate that portion of Florida 
 lying upon the Mississippi River, and emigrants began to 
 seek a route to it through the interior, and down the Ten- 
 nessee and Ohio. Many of these stopped one season and 
 made a crop on Holston, sold the crop, built a boat, and per- 
 formed the difficult and dangerous voyoge from the Boat- 
 yard to Natches. A higher degree of nautical adventure 
 has been no where exhibited. The passage, by men unac- 
 customed to navigation, through the Boiling Pot, the Skillet^ 
 the Suck, the Muscle Shoals, more than two thousand miles 
 down an unexplored river, both banks of which were, at these 
 places, in the occupancy of Indians, was more than an adven- 
 ture, it was an enterprise, in which every movement was ac- 
 companied with danger and probable disaster. Through tfyis 
 channel Louisiana and Mississippi received some of the 
 oldest American families. Some of these came from the 
 Roanoke, in North-Carolina, and it was probably the first An- 
 glo-American settlement upon the banks of the Mississippi.* 
 A large number of surveyors and woodsmen had been 
 sent under the authorities of Virginia to the wilder- 
 ness of Kentucky, for the purpose of locating and 
 selecting lands under royal grants and military warrants. 
 This was viewed by the Indians as an encroachment upon 
 their rights, as they still claimed these lands. Hostilities had, 
 indeed, already been commenced by the Shawnees, who at- 
 tacked the party of Boon the October previous. The murder 
 of the whole family of the generous, but unfortunate Logan^ 
 who had been the friend of the whites, and an advocate for 
 peace among his red brethren, aroused the vengeance of that 
 bold warrior and influential chieftain. The Shawnees, in 
 alliance with the warriors of other northern and western 
 tribes, began the work of destruction and massacre, in de- 
 tached parties, on the whole Virginia frontier. The emer- 
 gency was met by Lord Dunmore with great vigour, and 
 measures were immediately adopted to repress the hostilities, 
 and punish the audacity of the enemy. General Andrew 
 * Mai tin’s Louisiana. 
 
 1774 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 CAPTAIN SHELBy’s VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 Lewis* was ordered to raise four regiments of militia and 
 volunteers, from the south-western counties, to rendezvous at 
 Camp Union, and to march down the Great Kenhawaf to 
 the Ohio. Captain Evan Shelby raised a company of more 
 than fifty men, in the section of country now included in the 
 counties of Sullivan and Carter. With these he marched 
 on the 17th of August, and joined the regiment of Colonel 
 Christian, on New River. From this place the regiment pro- 
 ceeded to the great levels of Green Brier, where they joined 
 the army of General Lewis. On the 11th of September, the 
 army set out for the designated point. The route lay through 
 a trackless wilderness, down the rugged banks of the Ken- 
 hawa — through deep defiles and mountain gorges, where a 
 pathway had never been opened. Twenty-five days were 
 consumed in slow and toilsome marches. On the 6th of Oc- 
 tober, the army reached the Ohio and encamped upon its 
 banks. The camp was upon the site of the present town of 
 Point Pleasant. The troops being upon short allowance, 
 select parties of hunters were kept constantly on duty to 
 supply them with food. On the morning of the 10th, about 
 daylight, two of the men belonging to Captain Shelby’s vol- 
 unteer company, James Robertson and Valentine Sevier, 
 who had been out before day hunting, very unexpectedly 
 met a large body of hostile Indians advancing towards the 
 camp upon the provincials. They were on the extreme left 
 of the enemy, and fired on them at the distance of ten steps. 
 As it was yet too dark to see the assailants, or to know their 
 number, the firing caused a general halt of the enemy, while 
 Robertson and Sevier ran into camp and gave the alarm. 
 Two detachments, under Colonel Charles Lewis and Colonel 
 William Fleming, were immediately ordered forward to meet 
 the Indians, and break the force of their assault upon the 
 camp. These detachments had scarcely proceeded beyond 
 the sentinels, when they encountered the enemy advancing 
 upon them. A most violent and hard fought engagement 
 
 * This is the same person who was sent by the Earl of Loudon, in 1756, to 
 erect a fort on the Tennessee River. 
 
 t Anglice. The river of the woods — now known as New River. 
 
BATTLE OE THE KENHAWA. 
 
 115 
 
 ensued. Fleming and Lewis were wounded in the first as- 
 sault — the latter mortally — but refused to leave the field 
 until the main line came to their relief. The contest lasted 
 the whole day, with varied success — each line receding or 
 advancing alternately, as the fate of war seemed to balance 
 between the two armies. In the evening, General Lewis 
 ordered the companies commanded by Captains Shelby, 
 Matthews and Stewart, to advance up the Kenhawa River, 
 under the shelter of the bank and the undergrowth, so as to 
 gain the rear of the Indians, and pour in a destructive fire 
 upon them. In the execution of this order, the men were ex- 
 posed to a galling fire from some Indians, who had taken 
 position behind a rude breast- work of old logs and bushes, 
 and were from that point giving a deadly fire. One of Shel- 
 by’s men, the late John Sawyers, of Knox county, wishing 
 to shorten the conflict, obtained permission to take a few 
 others and dislodge the Indians from the shelter which pro- 
 tected them. His bold conception was gallantly executed. 
 A desperate charge was made — the dislodgement of the In- 
 dians was effected, and the three companies having gained the 
 enemy’s rear, poured in upon the savages a destructive fire. 
 The Indians fled with great precipitation across the Ohio, 
 and retreated to their towns on the Scioto. 
 
 The battle of the Kenhawa is, by general consent, admitted 
 to have been one of the most sanguinary and well contested 
 battles which have marked the annals of Indian warfare in 
 the West. On the part of the provincials, twelve commis- 
 sioned officers were killed or wounded, seventy-five non-com- 
 missioned officers and privates were killed, and one hundred 
 and forty-one were wounded.* 
 
 Of the company of volunteers from what is now East 
 Tennessee, Evan Shelby was captain; and his son, Isaac 
 Shelby, lieutenant. After the fall of his colonel, Captain 
 Shelby took command of the regiment. This was early in 
 the action, and through the rest of the ‘day Isaac Shelby 
 commanded his father’s company. “Two privates, Robertson 
 and Sevier, had the good fortune on this occasion to make 
 
 * Monette. 
 
116 
 
 HEROIC CHARGE OF SAWYERS. 
 
 an unexpected discovery of the enemy, and by that means to 
 prevent surprise and defeat, and possibly the destruction of 
 the whole army. It was the design of the enemy to attack 
 them at the dawn of day, and to force all whom they could 
 not kill into the junction of the river.” The heroic charge 
 of the little detachment under Sawyers is admitted to have 
 had a decided influence in shortening the obstinate conflict. 
 Many of the officers and soldiers in the battle of Kenhawa, 
 distinguished themselves at a later period in the public ser- 
 vice. Thus early did the “Volunteer State” commence its 
 novitiate in arms. 
 
 As the battle of Point Pleasant furnished the first occa- 
 sion for the display, by the pioneers of Tennessee, of the ad- 
 venture and prowess which have since so signally charac- 
 terized her volunteer soldiery in all periods of her history, it 
 is thought proper to present, at this place, a list of Captain 
 Evan Shelby’s company, in the remarkable and patriotic 
 campaign on the Kenhawa. 
 
 James Shelby, John Sawyers, John Findley, Henry Span, 
 Daniel Mungle, Frederick Mungle, John Williams, John Ca- 
 mack, Andrew Torrence, George Brooks, Isaac Newland, 
 Abram Newland, George Ruddle, Emanuel Shoatt, Abram 
 Bogard, Peter Forney, William Tucker, John Fain, Samuel 
 Vance, Samuel Fain, Samuel Handley, Samuel Samples, Ar- 
 thur Blackburn, Robert Handley, George Armstrong, William 
 Casey, Mack Williams, John Stewart, Conrad Nave, Richard 
 Burk, John Riley, Elijah Robertson, Rees Price, Richard Hol- 
 liway, Jarret Williams, Julius Robison, Charles Fielder, Ben- 
 jamin Graham, Andrew Goff, Hugh O’Gullion, Patk. St. 
 Lawrence, James Hughey, John Bradley, Basileel Maywell, 
 and Barnett O’Gullion. Of the non-commissioned officers, 
 it is only known that John Sawyers, James Robertson, and 
 Valentine Sevier, were three of the orderly sergeants. 
 
 After the battle at Point Pleasant, and a further invasion 
 | their country, the Indians made a treaty with Lord 
 ) Dunmore, in which they relinquished all their claim 
 to lands south of the Ohio. To a large extent of this terri- 
 tory, the Cherokees, with other southern tribes, pretended 
 
henderson’s purchase. 
 
 117 
 
 also to hold title. Early in that century they had expelled 
 the Shawnees, and had since occupied their country as hunt- 
 ing grounds. Daniel Boon still adhered to his darling pro- 
 ject of planting a colony upon the Kentucky River, which he 
 had seen, and, desirous of obtaining the consent of the Chero- 
 kees, had stimulated Colonel Richard Henderson and others 
 of North-Carolina, to effect a treaty with them for that pur- 
 pose. Henderson, accordingly, associated with him other 
 men of capital, viz : Thomas Hart, John Williams, James 
 Hogg, Nathaniel Hart, David Hart, Leonard H. Bulloch, 
 John Luttrell and William Johnston. Two of these, Colonel 
 Henderson and Colonel Nathaniel Hart, accompanied by 
 Daniel Boon, proceeded to the Cherokee towns, and proposed 
 a general council, for the purpose of purchasing land. Sub- 
 sequently, on the 17th of March, a treaty was concluded 
 and signed by the agents of this company on the one part, 
 and by certain chiefs and warriors of the Cherokee nation on 
 the other part, at the Sycamore Shoals, on Watauga River. 
 By this treaty, the Indians agreed to cede and relinquish to 
 the associates all the lands lying between the Kentucky and 
 the Cumberland Rivers. “ Which said tract or territory of 
 lands was, at the time of said purchase, and time out of mind 
 had been, the land and hunting grounds of the said tribe of 
 Cherokee Indians.” In consideration of this cession, ten 
 thousand pounds sterling were alleged to have been paid in 
 merchandise. Twelve hundred Indians are said to have been 
 assembled on the treaty ground.* Upon this occasion, and 
 before the Indians had agreed to make the cession, one of 
 the Cherokee orators, said to be Oconostota, rose and deliver- 
 ed a very animated and pathetic speech. He began with 
 the very flourishing state in which his nation once was, and 
 mentioned the encroachments of the white people, from time 
 to time, upon the retiring and expiring nations of Indians, 
 who left their homes and the seats of their ancestors, to gra- 
 tify the insatiable desire of the white people for more land. 
 Whole nations had melted away in their presence, like balls 
 of snow before the sun, and had scarcely left their names 
 behind, except as imperfectly recorded by their enemies and 
 
 * Monette. 
 
118 
 
 ELOQUENT SPEECH OF OCONOSTOTA. 
 
 destroyers. It was once hoped that they would not be will- 
 ing to travel beyond the mountains, so far from the ocean on 
 which their commerce was carried on, and their connections 
 maintained with the nations of Europe. But now that falla- 
 cious hope had vanished ; they had passed the mountains 
 and settled upon the Cherokee lands, and wished to have 
 their usurpations sanctioned by the confirmation of a treaty. 
 When that shall be obtained, the same encroaching spirit 
 will lead them upon other lands of the Cherokees. New 
 cessions will be applied for, and, finally, the country which 
 the Cherokees and their forefathers had so long occupied, 
 would be called for, and the small remnant which then may 
 exist of this nation, once so great and formidable, will be 
 compelled to seek a retreat in some far-distant wilderness, 
 there to dwell but a short space of time, before they would 
 again behold the advancing banners of the same greedy 
 host, who, not being able to point out any further retreat for 
 the miserable Cherokees, would then proclaim the extinction 
 of the whole race. He ended with a strong exhortation to 
 run all risks, and to incur all consequences, rather than sub- 
 mit to any further dilaceration of their territory.*' 
 
 The speech of the venerable chieftain was listened to by 
 his assembled countrymen, with profound attention and mark- 
 ed respect. His counsels were disregarded : the cession was 
 made. The future of his tribe, as delineated by his vehement 
 eloquence, seems now, after the lapse of three quarters of a 
 century ,to be stamped with the inspiration of prophecy. The 
 cotemporaries of Oconostota have left “the lands which 
 their forefathers had so long occupied,” and their bones are 
 mouldering “ in some far-distant wilderness” beyond the Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 The proprietors of Transylvania, as Henderson’s purchase 
 was called, at first contemplated the establishment of a sepa- 
 rate and independent government, not materially dissimilar 
 from the other British colonies. In a memorial, however, ad- 
 dressed to the Continental Congress of 1775, they took care to 
 request that Transylvania might be added to the number of 
 the United Colonies. “ Having their hearts warmed with the 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
PURCHASE OF WATAUGA. 
 
 119 
 
 same noble spirit that animates the colonies” — such is their 
 language — “ and moved with indignation at the late ministe- 
 rial and parliamentary usurpations, it is the earnest wish of 
 the proprietors of Transylvania to be considered by the colo- 
 nies as brethren engaged in the same great cause of liberty 
 and mankind.” * 
 
 During the treaty at the Sycamore Shoals, Parker & Carter, 
 whose store had been robbed by the Indians, attended the con- 
 ference, and demanded, in compensation for the injury they 
 had sustained, Carter’s Valley — to extend from Cloud’s Creek 
 to the Chimney-top Mountain of Beech Creek. The Indians 
 consented, provided an additional consideration were given. 
 This consideration was agreed to, and Robert Lucas was 
 taken in as a partner, to enable them to advance the stipulated 
 price. They leased their lands to job-purchasers. It was* 
 howevei - , afterwards ascertained that the lands thus leased 
 lay in North-Carolina and not in Virginia ; and the purcha- 
 sers refused to hold under them, and drove them off. 
 
 The Watauga Association, holding the lands which they 
 occupied, under a lease of eight years, as has been heretofore 
 stated, desired to obtain for them a title in fee. They pro- 
 cured, two days after the purchase was made by Henderson 
 & Co., a deed of conveyance to Charles Robertson, for a large 
 extent of country. It is found in the Register’s office of Wash- 
 ington county. 
 
 “ LAND RECORDS OF THE WATAUGA H PURCHASE. 
 
 “This Indenture, made the 19th day of March, 1775, by O-con-os-to' 
 1775 i ^ a ’ Chief Warrior and First Representative of the Cherokee Na" 
 ( tion or Tribe of Indians, and Attacullecully and Savanucah, oth- 
 erwise Coronoh, for themselves and the rest of the whole Nation, being 
 the aborigines and sole owners by occupancy from the beginning of time, 
 of the lands on the waters of Holston and Wataugah Rivers, and other 
 lands thereunto belonging, of the one part, and Charles Robertson, of the 
 settlement of Wataugah, of the other part, Witnesseth, &c.” The con- 
 sideration was “ the sum of two thousand pounds, lawful money of Great 
 Britain, in hand paid.” The deed embraced “ all that tract, territory or 
 parcel of land, on the waters of Wataugah, Holston and Great Canaway 
 or New River : beginning on the south or south-west side of Holston 
 River, six English miles above Long Island, in said river ; thence a direct 
 fine near a south course to the ridge which divides the waters of Watau- 
 
 * Morehead’s Address, p. 36. 
 
'120 
 
 WATAUGA LAND OFFICE. 
 
 gall from the waters of Nonachuckeh ; thence along the various courses 
 of said ridge nearly a south-east course to the Blue Ridge or line dividing 
 North-Carolina from the Cherokee lands ; thence along the various courses 
 of said ridge to the Virginia line ; thencp west along the Virginia line 
 to Holston River; thence down the meanders of Holston River to the first 
 station, including all the waters of Wataugah, part of the waters of Hol- 
 ston and the head-branches of New River or Great Canaway, agreeable to 
 the bounds aforesaid, to said Charles Robertson, his heirs and assigns,” &c. 
 
 “And also, the said Charles Robertson, his heirs and assigns, shall and 
 may, peaceably and quietly, have, hold, possess and enjoy said premises, 
 without let, trouble, hindrance or molestation, interruption and denial, of 
 them, the said Oconostota and the rest, or any of the said Nation.” 
 
 Signed in presence of 
 
 John Sevier, Oconostota, his H mark. [Seal.] 
 
 Wm. Bailey Smith, Attacullecully, his M mark. “ 
 
 Jesse Benton, Tennesy Warrior, his M mark. “ 
 
 Tillman Dixon, Willinawaugh, his M mark. “ 
 
 William Blevins, 
 
 Thos. Price. 
 
 Jas. Vann, Linguister. 
 
 The lands thus conveyed to Charles Robertson, were after- 
 wards regularly patented to the settlers. Occupancy had pro- 
 bably heretofore given ownership. The first patentee was 
 Joshua Haughton. The form of his patent is brief and sim- 
 ple, and is given at length. 
 
 “ Joshua Haughton, on the seventh day of May, t'7'75, obtained a 
 patent from this office of a tract of land lying on the south side of the 
 Wataugah, half a mile below the mouth of Doe River, which tract was 
 entered by the said Haughton, April 1, 1 11 5 , and obtained a warrant 
 for surveying the same, a plan of which was returned to this office by 
 the hands of Wm. Bailey Smith, Surveyor. 
 
 James Smith, C. L. O.” 
 
 A list is given here of other patentees in their order : 
 Thomas Haughton, Henry Grymes, Wm. Tacket, Matthew 
 Talbot, Isaac Ruddle, Henry Lyle, John Sevier, John Carter 
 and John Sevier, John Carter, George Russell, Wm. Beam 
 Andrew Greer, Robert Young, James Robertson, Ben. Ry- 
 burn, Baptist McNabb, Edmond Roberts, John McNabb, 
 Andrew Little, John Jones, James Hollis, John Cassada 
 George Gray, Choat Gambal, Jonathan Tipton, Farrer, 
 Fletcher, Thompson, Lincoln, Lucas Messengall, Duncan 
 Abbit, Walding Denton, Hodge, Bennet, Reaves, Cunning- 
 ham, Jesse D. Benton, Catherine Choat. 
 
 To the holders of patents thus given, a deed regularly 
 
brown’s principality. 
 
 121 
 
 drawn up, and signed by Charles Robertson, was made out. 
 One of these is now before the writer, carefully drawn up 
 and indented after the English style. The witnesses to it 
 are John Sevier and J. Smith. 
 
 Another deed was made to Jacob Brown, for lands on both 
 sides of Nonachunheh, and as far west as the mouth of Big 
 Limestone Creek. 
 
 “This Indenture, made the 25th day of March, 1775, between Oco- 
 nostota, chief warrior and head prince, the Tenesay Warrior, and Bread 
 Slave Catcher, and Attakullakulla, and Chenesley, Cherokee chiefs of 
 Middle and Lower Settlements, of the one part, and Jacob Brown, of No- 
 nachuchy, of the other part — consideration ten shillings — a certain tract 
 or parcel of land lying on Nonachuchy River, as follows : Beginning at 
 the mouth of a creek called Great Limestone, running up the meanders 
 of the said creek and the main fork of the creek to the ridge that divides 
 Wataugah and Nonachuchy, joining the Wataugah purchase, from 
 thence up the dividing ridge that divides the waters of Nonachuchy 
 and Wataugah, and thence to the head of Indian Creek, where it joins 
 the Iron Mountain, thence down the said mountain to Nonachuchy 
 river, thence across the said river including the creeks of said river, 
 thence down the side of the Nonachuchy Mountain against 'the mouth 
 of Great Limestone, thence to the beginning. 
 
 In presence of, 
 
 Samuel Crawford, Occonostota, [Seal.] 
 
 “Witness the Warriors — Thomas Bulla, Joseph Yann, Richard Hen- 
 derson.” 
 
 Mr. Brown thus became the purchaser of a principality on 
 Nonachunheh, embracing much of the best lands in Wash- 
 ington and Greene counties. 
 
 Another deed of the same date and between the same 
 parties, conveys another tract of land “lying on Nonachuchy 
 River, below the mouth of Big Limestone, on both sides of 
 said river, bounded as follows, joining the rest of said 
 Brown’s purchase. Beginning on the south side of said 
 river, below the old fields that lie below the said Lime- 
 stone, on the north side of Nonachuchy Mountain, at a large 
 rock ; thence north thirty-two deg. west to the mouth of Camp 
 Creek, on south side of said river ; thence across said river ; 
 thence north-west to the dividing ridge between Lick Creek 
 and Watauga or Holston ; thence up the dividing ridge 
 
 Jesse Denham, 
 Moses Crawford, 
 Zachary Isbell, 
 
 The Tenesay Warrior, 
 The Bread Slave Catcher, 
 Attakullakulla, 
 Chenesley. 
 
 U 
 
 U 
 
 u 
 
122 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY TAXATION 
 
 to the rest of said Brown’s lands-; thence down the main 
 fork ot Big Limestone to its mouth ; thence crossing the river 
 a straight course to Nonachuchy Mountain ; thence down the 
 said mountain to the beginning.” 
 
 In the meantime, the British Parliament persisted in the 
 1*774 S determination to tax the American colonies without 
 their consent. We copy or condense from Holmes: 
 
 The obnoxious port duties of lYGY had been repealed, excepting 
 the duty of three pence a pound on tea, which was continued for the 
 purpose of maintaining the parliamentary right of taxation. ‘That 
 import was continued to keep up the sovereignty,’ and ‘ could never be 
 opposed by the colonists, unless they were determined to rebel against 
 Great Britain.’ Such was the language of Lord North. But the jeal- 
 ousy of the colonies was directed against the 'principle, of the ministry, 
 which was as discernible in the imposition of a small as of a large duty. 
 The partial repeal was, therefore, unsatisfactory, and combinations were 
 formed in the principal commercial cities, to prevent the importation of 
 the excepted article. One sentiment appears to have pervaded all the 
 colonies. The ministerial plan was universally considered as a direct 
 attack upon the liberties of the American citizen, which it was the duty 
 of all to oppose. The tax was every where resisted, and at Boston the 
 cargoes of tea were thrown into the dock. This act so provoked the 
 British government that the city of Boston was selected as the first 
 object of legislative vengeance. A bill was passed by which its harbour 
 was closed. This bill excited universal indignation. At Philadelphia 
 contributions were made for such poor inhabitants of Boston as were 
 deprived, by the act, of the means of subsistence. The Assembly of 
 Virginia resolved to observe the first day of its operation as a fast, and 
 espoused the cause of Massachusetts by the declaration ‘ that an attack 
 made on one of our sister colonies to compel submission to arbitrary 
 taxes, is an attack made on all British America, and threatens ruin to 
 the rights of all, unless the united wisdom of the whole be applied.’ ” 
 
 They also proposed the meeting of a General Congress 
 annually, to deliberate on those measures which the united 
 interests of America might, from time to time, require. This 
 recommendation of Virginia was gradually concurred with, 
 from New-Hampshire to South-Carolina, and on the fifth 
 day of September the first Continental Congress met in 
 Philadelphia. A declaration of rights was soon agreed on ; 
 the several acts of Parliament infringing and violating those 
 rights recited, and the repeal of them resolved to be essen- 
 tially necessary to the restoration of harmony between Great 
 Britain and the colonies. They resolved further on an 
 address to the king and to the people of Great Britain, and 
 
OPPOSED IN ALL THE COLONIES. 
 
 123 
 
 a memorial to the people of British America. These reso- 
 lutions of the Continental Congress, received the general 
 sanction of the Provincial Congresses and Colonial Assem- 
 blies. Massachusetts took immediate measures for the 
 defence of the province. The Assembly of Rhode Island 
 passed resolutions for obtaining arms and military stores, 
 and for raising and arming the inhabitants. In New-PIamp- 
 shire similar precautions were taken. 
 
 In the more southern colonies, signs of discontent and 
 jealousy of the British government were strongly manifested. 
 A meeting of the officers under the command of Lord Dun- 
 more, resolved : — “ That as the love of liberty and attachment 
 to the real interests and just rights of America outweigh 
 every other consideration, they would exert every power 
 within them for the defence of American liberty and for the 
 support of her just rights and privileges, not in any precipi- 
 tate, riotous or tumultuous manner, but when regularly 
 called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen.” 
 The Provincial Congress of Maryland resolved : — “ That if 
 the late acts of Parliament shall be attempted to be exe- 
 cuted by force, Maryland will aid such colony to the utmost 
 extent of its power and further resolved to raise money 
 for the purchase of arms and ammunition. In South-Carolina 
 Judge Drayton, in a charge to a grand jury, said, in speaking 
 of liberty : — “ English people cannot he taxed, nay, cannot 
 be bound by any law, unless by their consent, expressed by 
 themselves or by the representatives of their own election. 
 I charge you to do your duty; to maintain the laws, the 
 rights, the constitution of your own country, even at the 
 hazard of your lives and fortunes. In my judicial character 
 I know no master but the law ; I am a servant, not to the 
 king, but to the constitution.” 
 
 The testimony of one of the earliest and most distinguished 
 martyrs to the cause of liberty is at once illustrative of his 
 own patriotism and that of his countrymen. Dr. Warren 
 said : — “ It is the united voice of America to preserve their 
 freedom or lose their lives in the defence of it. Their reso- 
 lutions are not the effects of inconsiderate rashness, but the 
 sound result of sober inquiry and deliberation. I am con- 
 
124 
 
 MARTIAL SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 vinced that the true spirit of liberty was never so universally 
 diffused through all ranks and orders of people in any coun- 
 ty on the face of the earth, as it now is through all North 
 America.” 
 
 Georgia was the youngest of the colonies, the most feeble 
 and the most exposed ; yet her whigs were aroused and 
 active at the very dawn of the Revolution. Under Haber- 
 sham and Brown, her volunteers assisted in capturing, at the 
 mouth of the Savannah, the schooner of Gov. Wright, con- 
 taining the king’s powder ; and afterwards Doctor N. W. 
 Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, William Gibbon, 
 Joseph Clay, John Millege and others broke into the maga- 
 zine and secured for their little band of whig patriots, the 
 powder intended by the colonial authorities to intimidate the 
 rising spirit of republicanism and resistance to the royal 
 cause. ‘‘ Some of the bravest and most honourable men in 
 the Union were among the patriots of Georgia.” “ Mr. 
 Habersham, alone and unaided, entered the house of Go- 
 vernor Wright and arrested him at his own table.”* 
 
 But all these manifestations of a spirit of determined resist- 
 i ( ance on the part of the American colonies, were disre- 
 
 ‘ ( garaed by the British government. Parliamentary 
 
 supremacy had been asserted, and coercive measures were 
 adopted to enforce and sustain it. A crisis approached which 
 precluded, forever, all reconciliation between England and her 
 American colonies. On the 19th of April the battle of Lex- 
 ington took place, the first act in the great drama of the 
 American Revolution. The blood there shed was the signal 
 for war. The martial spirit of the American people rose 
 with the occasion. The forts, magazines and arsenals through- 
 out the colonies, were instantly secured for the use of the Pro- 
 vincials. Troops were raised, and provision made for their 
 pay and support. Valour in the field was not sufficient for the 
 emergency ; it demanded also wisdom in council. A new 
 Congress met on the 10th of May, adopted measures of de- 
 fence, and unanimously elected one of their number, George 
 Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United 
 Colonies. 
 
 * Dr. Johnson’s Reminiscences. 
 
HOOPER FORETELLS INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 125 
 
 Notwithstanding these proceedings, the views of the colo- 
 nists did not yet extend to a separation from Great Britain, or 
 to the establishment of independent governments, except in 
 the last extremity. This is evinced, not only by the declara- 
 tions of Congress, but from those of the colonial assemblies 
 and conventions in the course of this year. 
 
 “ But the charm of loyalty to the king and allegiance to his govern- 
 ment, was broken — the spell was dissolved. The colonists had armed in 
 defence of their rights, and the transit was easy from resistance to inde- 
 pendence and revolution. For ten years they had been complaining and 
 remonstrating against the unconstitutional enactments of the mother coun- 
 try, in the submissive language of faithful and loyal subjects. Their tone 
 was changed, and ‘independency’ was by many contemplated, and no 
 where earlier than in North-Carolina. In this province, peculation by 
 Crown officers, exorbitant taxes and the court law controversy, were pro- 
 minent causes of early dissatisfaction to the people, and indeed transcend- 
 ed, in their immediate influence upon their personal comforts and rights, 
 the abstract question of British allegiance. At a later period, their op- 
 position to the ministry was embittered, not so much by their personal 
 sufferings as by a deep sympathy with the people of Massachusetts, who 
 were complimented in all their public meetings, and assured of their rea- 
 diness to aid them in any general scheme of protection or resistance. The 
 organization of a Continental Congress had been suggested. That was 
 to be effected through the agency of Provincial Congresses ; and in North - 
 Carolina, as early as April 5, 1774, measures were in progress to con- 
 vene one for that purpose. And on the 26th of the same month, Wil- 
 liam Hooper, in a letter to James Iredell, openly avows the propriety, as 
 well as the probability, of independence. It distinctly says : ‘ With you 
 I anticipate the important share which the colonies must soon have in re 
 gulating the political balance. They are striding fast to independence, 
 and will, ere long, build an empire on the ruins of Britain — will adopt its 
 constitution, purged of its impurities ; and from an experience of its de- 
 fects, will guard against those evils which have wasted its vigour and 
 brought it to an untimely end-’ ” * 
 
 The people of North-Carolina elected delegates to a Pro- 
 vincial Congress, to meet at Newbern, August 25, 1774. The 
 royal governor consulted his council, and with their advice 
 issued his proclamation condemning the elections that had 
 been held as illegal, and warning all officers of the king, civil 
 and military, to prevent all such meetings, and especially that 
 of certain deputies on the 25th instant. Neither the procla- 
 mation, nor the less official menaces of Gov. Martin, could 
 prevent the assembling of the deputies ; and on the appointed 
 
 * Jones. 
 
126 
 
 PROVINCIAL CONGRESS MEETS AT NEWBERN. 
 
 day a deliberative assembly was organized at Newbern, 
 independent of and contrary to the authority of the existing 
 government. This assembly or congress, as it was called* 
 elected William Hooper, Joseph Ilewes and Richard Caswell* 
 delegates to the General Congress to be held in September at 
 Philadelphia, and invested them with such powers as may 
 make any act done by them, “ obligator} r in honour upon every 
 inhabitant of the province, who is not an alien to his country’s 
 good and an apostate to the liberties of America.” They re- 
 cognize George the Third as sovereign of the province ; but, 
 as if to mock this profession of loyalty, they claim the rights 
 of Englishmen, without abridgement, and swear to maintain 
 them to the utmost of their power. One of these rights is de- 
 fined to be, that no subject shall be taxed but by his own con- 
 sent, or that of his legal representative, and they denounce, 
 in unmeasured terms, every policy that assails that most sa- 
 cred right.* The instructions to their delegates were in conso- 
 nance with their resolutions. They contemplated a restora- 
 tion of harmony with Great Britain, but pledged a determined 
 resistance to aggression upon their 'persons or properties, and 
 “ to all unconstitutional encroachments whatsoever.” 
 
 It does not appear that the infant settlements west of 
 the mountains were represented at Newbern. While the 
 Congress of North-Carolina was in session at that place, her 
 Western pioneers were laying the foundation of society, and 
 her brave soldiery had volunteered in an expedition, distant, 
 toilsome, dangerous, patriotic, against the inroads of a savage 
 enemy : thus serving an apprenticeship in self government and 
 self defence, which events transpiring on the Atlantic side of 
 the mountain soon after rendered necessary and important. 
 
 At this period the colonial government claimed the sole 
 right to treat with the Indian tribes and to purchase their 
 lands, as one of the prerogatives of sovereignty. This claim 
 furnished a new pretext to Governor Martin to vent his 
 spleen upon the distant settlers. The purchase which they 
 had made at Watauga of the Cherokee lands, was pro- 
 nounced illegal ; the governor alleging, in his proclamation 
 against it, that it was made in violation of the king’s inhibi- 
 tion of Oct. 7, 1763, as well as of an act of the Provincial 
 
 * Jones. 
 
END OP ROYAL GOVERNMENT IN NORTH- CAROLINA. 
 
 127 
 
 Assembly. This proclamation of Gov. Martin was a dead 
 letter. No regard was paid to it on Watauga. 
 
 A second Provincial Congress was elected. It convened 
 5 { at Newbern, April 3, 1775, the same time and place 
 l appointed for the meeting of the Provincial Legisla- 
 ture. The members elected by the people to one of these 
 bodies, were generally the same persons elected to the other. 
 “ As the Provincial Assembly, with but few exceptions, con- 
 sisted of the delegates to the Congress, and as the Speaker 
 of the former was also the Moderator of the latter body, their 
 proceedings are a little farcical. The Congress would be in 
 session, when the Governor’s Secretary would arrive, and 
 then Mr. Moderator Harvey would turn himself into Mr. 
 Speaker Harvey, and proceed to the despatch of public busi- 
 ness. The Assembly, too, would occasionally forget its duty, 
 and trespass upon the business of the Congress.”*' Governor 
 Martin had, as on a former occasion, endeavoured in vain, 
 by the efficacy of an intemperate and argumentative procla- 
 mation, to prevent the meeting of the Congress. That body 
 issued a counter-proclamation, by way of reply, in terms 
 firm, moderate, forcible, respectful, and not less logical. “ On 
 the 8th of April, 1775, the Assembly was dissolved b} r pro- 
 clamation, and thus ceased forever all legislative action 
 in North-Carolina under the royal government.” 
 
 The Congress at Newbern approved of what had been 
 done by their delegates at Philadelphia, and, in evidence of 
 their continued confidence, re-appointed them delegates to 
 the second Continental Congress. They also approved the 
 Association entered into by that body, and firmly pledged 
 themselves to adhere to its provisions, and to recommend its 
 adoption to their constituents. 
 
 All this had transpired in North-Carolina before the battle 
 at Lexington had been fought. The intelligence of that 
 occurrence produced the most decisive effect. It not only 
 stimulated resistance to arbitrary power, but precipitated a 
 severance from the British government. Meetings were 
 held throughout the province, in which the great whig prin- 
 ciples of the day were asserted, and a cordial sympathy 
 
 * Jones. N. L - U- 
 
128 
 
 MECKLENBURG DECLARES INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 with the distresses of the people of Massachusetts was ex- 
 pressed. Hooper had said, “ that the colonies were fast 
 striding to independence,” and Mecklenburg county was the 
 first to sustain his declaration. In that county a Convention 
 was called, which met on the 19th of May, 1775, at Char- 
 lotte. Abraham Alexander was chosen Chairman, and John 
 McKnitt Alexander, Secretary. After a free and full dis- 
 cussion of the various objects of the meeting, which contin- 
 ued in session till 2 o’clock, A. M., on the 20th, “ It was 
 unanimously 
 
 “ I. Resolved , That whosoever, directly or indirectly, abetted, or in 
 any way, form or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous 
 invasion of our rights as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this 
 country, to America, and to the inherent and inalienable rights of man. 
 
 “ II. Resolved , That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby 
 dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the mother 
 country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British 
 Crown, and abjure all political connection, contract or association, with 
 that nation, who have wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, 
 and inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at Lexington. 
 
 “ III. Resolved , That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and inde- 
 pendent people, are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self governing 
 association, under the control of no power other than that of our God 
 and the general government of the Congress ; to the maintenance of 
 which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co- 
 operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honour. 
 
 “ IV. Resolved , That as we now acknowledge the existence and con- 
 trol of no law or legal officer, civil or military, within this county, we do 
 hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our 
 former laws — wherein, nevertheless, the Crown of Great Britain never 
 can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities or authority 
 therein.” 
 
 Other resolutions were adopted, making provision for the 
 new condition of things. A copy of the proceedings of the 
 Convention was sent by express to the North-Carolina mem- 
 bers of Congress, then in session in Philadelphia. These 
 delegates approving of the spirit of their fellow-citizens and 
 the elevated tone of the resolutions, thought them, neverthe- 
 less, premature, as the Continental Congress had not yet 
 abandoned all hopes of reconciliation, upon honourable terms, 
 with the mother country. The Declaration of Independence 
 was not, therefore, presented to nor acted upon by that 
 body. A copy was also addressed to the Provincial Con- 
 
DOCTOR EPHRAIM BREVARD. 
 
 129 
 
 gress in August, but, for similar reasons, was not particu- 
 larly acted upon. 
 
 But the proceedings being published in the “Cape Fear 
 Mercurjg” a t Wilmington, and thus meeting the eye of Go- 
 vernor Martin, called forth another proclamation, in which 
 he thus notices the Charlotte resolutions: “ And whereas I 
 have also seen a most infamous publication, in the ‘Cape Fear 
 Mercury,’ importing to be Resolves of a set of people styling 
 themselves a Committee of the County of Mecklenburg, most 
 traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, 
 government and constitution of the country, and setting up a 
 system of rule and regulation repugnant to the laws, and 
 subversive of his majesty’s government, &c.” 
 
 Doctor Brevard is the reputed author of the Mecklenburg 
 Resolutions. The names of the delegates, and of the master 
 spirits and patriots of the country through whose influence 
 and popularity the resolutions were adopted, are Hezekiah 
 Alexander, Adam Alexander, Charles Alexander, Ezra Alex- 
 ander, Waightstill Avery, Ephraim Brevard, Hezekiah Jones 
 Balch, Richard Barry, Henry Downs, John Davidson, Wil- 
 liam Davidson, John Flenniken, John Ford, William Graham, 
 James Harris, Richard Harris, Senr., Robert Irwin, William 
 Kennon, Neill Morrison, Matthew McClure, Samuel Martin, 
 Thomas Polk, John Phifer, Ezekiel Polk, Benjamin Patton, 
 Duncan Ocheltree, John Queary, David Reese, William Will- 
 son, and Zacheus Willson, Senr.* 
 
 At this time hope was entertained of a reconciliation with 
 England, and the thought of independence had been con- 
 ceived by few. Even Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to Dr. William 
 Small, under date of May 7, 1775, said : “ When I saw Lord 
 Chatham’s bill, I entertained high hope that a reconcilia- 
 tion could have been brought about. The difference be- 
 tween his terms and those offered by our Congress, might 
 have been accommodated, &c.”f 
 
 A month after the Charlotte Convention, the people of 
 Cumberland county entered into an association. They say : 
 “ Holding ourselves bound by that most sacred of all obliga- 
 
 * State Pamphlet, pp. 11 and 16. Raleigh: 1831. 
 j See American Archives, vol, ii, p. 523. 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 A WHIG CONGRESS CONTROLS NORTH- CAROLINA, 
 
 tions, the duty of good citizens towards an injured country, 
 and thoroughly convinced that, under our distressed circum- 
 stances, we shall be justified in resisting force by force, do 
 unite ourselves under every tie of religion and honour, and 
 associate as a band in her defence against every foe, hereby 
 solemnly engaging, that, whenever our Continental or Pro- 
 vincial Councils shall decree it necessary, we will go forth? 
 and be ready to sacrifice our lives and our fortunes to secure 
 her freedom and safety. This obligation to continue in force 
 until a reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain 
 and America upon constitutional principles — an event we 
 most ardently desire.” Mecklenburg still stood alone in the 
 bold position she had assumed of absolute independence. 
 
 A similar association was also entered into by the people 
 of Tryon county, on the 14th August, but, like the prece- 
 ding, was limited by the “reconciliation to take place upon 
 constitutional principles.” 
 
 On the 20th of August the Provincial Congress assembled 
 at Hillsborough. The royal governor had fled from his pal- 
 ace, and taken refuge on board his majesty’s ship Cruiser, 
 in Cape Fear River, from which he issued his proclamation, 
 vainly hoping by these harmless missiles to intimidate the 
 patriot freemen of North-Carolina. The Provincial Assem- 
 bly had been prorogued — dissolved, rather — no vestige of the 
 royal government was left, and a Whig Congress had as- 
 sumed the control of North-Carolina. Still professing alle- 
 giance to the king, it denied his authority to impose taxes ; 
 and its members took an oath to support the Whig authori- 
 ties of the Continental and Provincial Congress. They de- 
 clared, unanimously, that North-Carolina would pay her due 
 proportion of the expense of raising a Continental army, 
 and appointed a committee to prepare a plan for regulating 
 the internal peace, order and safety of the province. “ This 
 was the most important committee ever yet appointed by 
 popular authority, and it achieved one of the most difficult and 
 trying ends of the Revolution. It substituted a regular gov- 
 ernment, resting entirely on popular authority, for that of 
 the royal government, and annihilated every vestige of the 
 power of Josiah Martin. Nothing but the idle and vain 
 
AND RECOMMENDS INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 131 
 
 theory of allegiance to the throne was left to remind the 
 people of the recent origin of their power.”* 
 
 The Provincial Congress of North-Carolina met again, April 
 
 ( 4, 1776. The following extract from its Journal, shews 
 1*776 ] ° 
 
 ( “ that the first legislative recommendation of a decla- 
 ration of independence by the Continental Congress, origi- 
 nated, likewise, in North-Carolina. It is worthy of remark, 
 that John McKnitt Alexander, the Secretary of the Charlotte 
 Convention, Thomas Polk, Waightstill Avery, John Phifer 
 and Robert Irwin, who were conspicuous actors in the pro- 
 ceedings in Mecklenburg, were active and influential mem- 
 bers of this Provincial Congress from that county, f 
 
 “ Resolved , That the delegates for this colony in the Continental Con- 
 gress, be empowered to concur with the delegates of the other colonies 
 in declaring independency and forming foreign alliances, reserving to this 
 colony the sole and exclusive right of forming a constitution and laws for 
 this colony, and of appointing delegates from time to time, (under the di- 
 rection of a general representation thereof,) to meet the delegates of the 
 other colonies, for such purposes as shall be hereafter pointed out. 
 
 “The Congress taking the same into consideration, unanimously con- 
 curred therewith.” 
 
 This resolution, thus unanimously adopted by the Congress 
 at Halifax, was presented by the delegates of North-Carolina 
 to the Continental Congress, May, 27, 1776 — nearly six weeks 
 before the national declaration of July 4th was made. 
 
 Before, the Congress which thus recommended independence, 
 was debated the project of a civil constitution for North-Caro- 
 lina. The idea of a constitution seemed to follow that of in- 
 dependence ; and, accordingly, on the thirteenth a committee 
 was appointed to prepare a temporary civil form of govern- 
 ment. The subject, after discussion, was postponed to the 
 next Congress.'! 
 
 An ordinance was also passed, “ empowering the governor 
 to issue a proclamation requiring all persons who have at 
 any time, by taking arms against the liberty of America, 
 adhering to, comforting or abetting the enemies thereof, or 
 by words disrespectful or tending to prejudice the indepen- 
 dence of the United States of America, or of this state in 
 
 * Jones. 
 
 f Idem. 
 
 \ Idem. 
 
132 
 
 CURRENCY OF NORTH- CAROLINA. 
 
 particular, to come in before a certain day therein mentioned > 
 and take an oath of allegiance and make submission, on 
 pain of being considered as enemies and treated accordingly.” 
 Also an ordinance “for supplying the public treasury 
 with money for the exigencies of this state, and for the sup- 
 port of that part of the continental army stationed therein.” 
 The form of two of the Treasury Bills is here given. 
 
 ||! J Eight D oll ar s3"~ 
 
 These issues of the North-Carolina Treasury for expenses 
 incurred by her patriotic militia in the cause of indepen 
 dence, are still found in great abundance in the scrutoires and 
 chests of the old families and their descendants in 1 ennessee: 
 
WATAUGA ASSOCIATION. 
 
 133 
 
 valueless now, but still proud remembrancers of past sacri- 
 fices and toils. Of this money, it has been well said, it vin- 
 dicated our liberties, but fell in the moment of victory. 
 
 The device of the volunteer levelling his rifle and the 
 motto chosen for him, are peculiarly appropriate. “Hit or 
 miss” is a homely but significant phrase, and is expressive 
 of the noble sentiment of the patriot Adams, uttered about 
 the same period: — “Sink or swim, live or die, survive or 
 perish.” 
 
 Other ordinances for putting the machinery of the new 
 state into successful motion being passed, the Congress of 
 Halifax adjourned. 
 
 We have chosen thus to throw together, in a connected view, 
 the action and sentiment of the several colonies at the dawn of 
 the Revolution, and to give in more detail, and with a less 
 rapid recital, the early participation of our mother state, 
 North-Carolina, in the cause of liberty' and of freedom, and 
 in the Declaration of Independence. It is no ordinary 
 achievement thus to have laid the foundation of free and 
 independent government. Every review of these illustrious 
 events increases our admiration of that enlightened love of 
 freedom, that noble spirit of independence, and that self- 
 sacrificing and lofty patriotism, which glowed in the bosoms, 
 animated the councils and nerved the hearts of those who, 
 for the inestimable privileges we enjoy, pledged their mutual 
 co-operation, their lives, fortunes and most sacred honour.* 
 
 Returning to the chronological order of events from which 
 we have slightly departed, we find the small community on 
 Watauga still living under the simple government of their 
 own appointment, consisting of five commissioners elected 
 by themselves. Before this tribunal all private controver- 
 sie^were settled. Its sessions were held at stated and regu- 
 lar periods, and as its business increased with the constant 
 enlargement of the settlement, a clerk was found necessary. 
 Felix Walker, Thomas Gomley, William Tatham and John 
 
 * See State Pamphlet, published by North-Carolina, page 6 : Pitkin, Force’s 
 Collections ; State Papers ; Jones, Foote, Wheeler and Martin’s North-Carolina ; 
 •which have all been referred to and consulted. 
 
134 
 
 PETITION FROM WASHINGTON DISTRICT, 
 
 Sevier, all served in that office Lewis Bowyer was the 
 attorney. A sheriff was also appointed, but who he was is 
 not now known. The laws of Virginia were taken as the 
 standard of decision. Of this court, of its decisions and pro- 
 ceedings, little or nothing is certainly known. The records 
 are, probably, all lost. No research of the writer has been 
 successful in discovering them; he has examined in vain the 
 several offices in Tenneseee, and also the state archives at 
 Richmond and Raleigh. At the latter place, by the courtesy 
 of Gov. Reed, the present Executive of North-Carolina, he 
 was allowed free access to the public papers of that state. 
 No trace of the records of Watauga Court was to be found : 
 but his pains-taking search was richly compensated by the 
 discovery, in an old bundle of papers, lying in an upper 
 shelf, almost out of reach, and probably not seen before for 
 seventy-five years, of a petition and remonstrance from Wa- 
 tauga settlement, praying, among other things, to be an- 
 nexed, whether as a county, district or other division, to 
 North-Carolina. The document appears to be in the hand- 
 writing of one of the signers, John Sevier, and is probably 
 his own production. The name of the chairman, John 
 Carter, is written by a palsied hand. It is remarkable that 
 about sixty years afterwards, his grandson, the late Hon. W. 
 B. Carter, from exactly the same Watauga locality, was 
 president of the convention that formed the present consti- 
 tution of Tennessee. The others are all names since, and 
 at the present time, familiar to Tennesseans. 
 
 This document is, throughout, replete with interest ; is full 
 of our earliest history ; breathes the warmest patriotism, and 
 is inspired with the spirit of justice and of liberty. No 
 apology is needed for presenting it entire in these p>ages : f 
 
 “ To the ITon. the Provincial Council of North- Carolina : 
 
 “The humble petition of the inhabitants of Washington 
 District, including the River Wataugah, Nonachuckie, &c., 
 
 * Mr. Walker was a member of Congress from the Buncombe District, N. C., 
 in 1821. 
 
 f The petition is copied literatim et verbatim. 
 
RECITING THE ACTS OF THE WATAUGA ASSOCIATION. 
 
 135 
 
 in committee assembled, Humbly Sheweth, that about six 
 years ago, Col. Donelson, (in behalf of the Colony of Virginia,) 
 held a Treaty with the Cherokee Indians, in order to pur- 
 chase the lands of the Western Frontiers; in consequence of 
 which Treaty, many of your petitioners settled on the lands 
 of the Wataugali, &c., expecting to be within the Virginia 
 line, and consequently hold their lands by their improvements 
 as first settlers; but to their great disappointment, when the 
 line was run they were (contrary to their expectation) left 
 out ; finding themselves thus disappointed, and being too in- 
 conveniently situated to remove back, and feeling an un- 
 willingness to loose the labour bestowed on their planta- 
 tions, they applied to the Cherokee Indians, and leased the 
 land for the term of ten years, before the expiration of which 
 term, it appeared that many persons of distinction were ac- 
 tually making purchases forever ; thus yielding a precedent, 
 (supposing many of them, who were gentlemen of the law, 
 to be better judges of the constitution than we were,) and 
 considering the bad consequences it must be attended with, 
 should the reversion be purchased out of our hands, we next 
 proceeded to make a purchase of the lands, reserving 
 those in our possession in sufficient tracts for our own 
 use, and resolving to dispose of the remainder for the good 
 of the community. This purchase was made and the lands 
 acknowledged to us and our heirs forever, in an open treaty, 
 in Wataugah Old Fields ; a deed being obtained from the 
 chiefs of the said Cherokee nation, for themselves and their 
 whole nation, conveying a fee simple right to the said lands, 
 to us and our heirs forever, which deed was for and in con- 
 sideration of the sum of two thousand pounds sterling, (paid 
 to them in goods,) for which consideration they acknowledged 
 themselves fully satisfied, contented and paid; and agreed, 
 for themselves, their whole nation, their heirs, &c., forever 
 to resign, warrant and defend the said lands to us, and 
 our heirs, &c., against themselves, their heirs, &c. 
 
 “ The purchase was no sooner made, than we were alarmed 
 by the reports of the present unhappy differences between 
 Great Britain and America, on which report, (taking the 
 now united colonies for our guide,) we proceeded to choose 
 
130 
 
 PETITION OF WATAUGA PEOPLE 
 
 a committee, which was done unanimously by consent of 
 the people. This committee (willing to become a party in the 
 present unhappy contest) resolved, (which is now on our 
 records,) to adhere strictly to the rules and orders of the 
 Continental Congress, and in open committee acknowledged 
 themselves indebted to the united colonies their full pro- 
 portion of the Continental expense. 
 
 “Finding ourselves on the Frontiers, and being apprehen- 
 sive that, for the want of a proper legislature, we might be- 
 come a shelter for such as endeavoured to defraud their 
 creditors ; considering also the necessity of recording Deeds, 
 Wills, and doing other public business ; we, by consent of 
 the people, formed a court for the purposes above mentioned, 
 taking (by desire of our constituents) the Virginia laws for 
 our guide, so near as the situation of affairs would admit ; 
 this was intended for ourselves, and was done by the consent 
 of every individual ; but wherever we had to deal with peo- 
 ple out of our district, we have ruled them to bail, to abide 
 by our determinations, (which was, in fact, leaving the mat- 
 ter to reference,) otherways we dismissed their suit, lest we 
 should in any way intrude on the legislature of the colonies. 
 In short, we have endeavoured so strictly to do justice, that 
 we have admitted common proof against ourselves, on ac- 
 counts, &c., from the colonies, without pretending a right to 
 require the Colony Seal. 
 
 “ We therefore trust we shall be considered as we deserve, 
 and not as we have (no doubt) been many times represented, 
 as a lawless mob. It is for this very reason we can assure you 
 that we petition ; we now again repeat it, that it is for want 
 of proper authority to try and punish felons, we can only 
 mention to you murderers, horse-thieves and robbers, and 
 are sorry to say that some of them have escaped us for want 
 of proper authority. We trust, however, this will not 
 long be the case ; and we again and again repeat it, that it 
 is for this reason we petition to this Honourable Assembly. 
 
 “ Above we have given you an extract of our proceedings, 
 since our settling on Wataugah, Nonachuckie, &c., in regard 
 to our civil affairs. We have shown you the causes of our first 
 settling and the disappointments we have met with, the rea- 
 
TO BE ANNEXED TO NORTH- CAROLINA. 
 
 137 
 
 son of our lease and of our purchase, the manner in which 
 we purchased, and how we hold of the Indians in fee simple ; 
 the causes of our forming a committee, and the legality of its 
 election ; the same of our Court and proceedings, and our 
 reasons for petitioning in regard to our legislature. 
 
 “ We will now proceed to give you some account of our 
 military establishments, which were chosen agreeable to the 
 rules established by convention, and officers appointed by the 
 committee. This being done, we thought it proper to raise a 
 company on the District service, as our proportion, to act in the 
 common cause on the sea shore. A company of fine riflemen 
 were accordingly enlisted, and put under Capt. James Robert- 
 son, and were actually embodied, when we received sundry 
 letters and depositions, (copies of which we now enclose 
 you,) you will then readily judge that there was occasion for 
 them in another place, where we daily expected an attack. 
 We therefore thought proper to station them on our Frontiers, 
 in defence of the common cause, at the expense and risque of 
 our own private fortunes, till farther public orders, which we 
 flatter ourselves will give no offence. We have enclosed you 
 sundry proceedings at the station where our men now re- 
 main. 
 
 “ We shall now submit the whole to your candid and impar- 
 tial judgment. We pray your mature aud deliberate con- 
 sideration in our behalf, that you may annex us to your 
 Province, (whether as county, district, or other division,) in 
 such manner as may enable us to share in the glorious cause 
 of Liberty; enforce our laws under authority, and in every 
 respect become the best members of society ; and for our- 
 selves and constituents we hope, we may venture to assure 
 you, that we shall adhere strictly to your determinations, 
 and that nothing will be lacking or any thing neglected, that 
 may add weight (in the civil or military establishments) to 
 the glorious cause in which we are now struggling, or 
 contribute to the welfare of our own or ages yet to come. 
 
 “ That you may strictly examine every part of this our Peti- 
 tion, and delay no time in annexing us to your Province, in 
 such a manner as your wisdom shall direct, is the hearty 
 
138 
 
 FIRST INHABITANTS OF WATAUGA. 
 
 prayer of those who, for themselves and constituents, as in 
 duty bound, shall ever pray. 
 
 John Carter, Chn. 
 
 John Sevier, 
 
 John Jones, 
 
 Charles Roberdson, 
 
 Jas. Smith, 
 
 George Rusel, 
 
 James Robertson, 
 
 Jacob Brown, 
 
 Jacob Womack, 
 
 Zach. Isbell, 
 
 Wm. Been, 
 
 Robert Lucas. 
 
 The above signers 
 
 are the Members in Committee assembled. 
 
 Wm. Tatiiam, Clerk, P. T. 
 
 Jacob Womack, 
 
 John Brown, 
 
 Adam Sherrell, 
 
 Joseph Dunham, 
 
 Jos. Brown, 
 Job Bumper, 
 
 Samuel Sherrell, junr. 
 
 Rice Durroon, 
 Edward Hopson, 
 
 Samuel Sherrell, senr. 
 
 Isaac Wilson, 
 
 Ossa Rose, 
 
 Lew. Bowyer, D. Atty, Richard Norton, 
 
 Henry Bates, jun., 
 
 Joseph Buller, 
 
 George Hutson, 
 
 Jos. Grimes, 
 Christopher Cunning- 
 
 Andw. Greer, 
 
 Thomas Simpson, 
 
 his 
 
 Valentine Sevier, 
 
 ham, sen., 
 
 Joab Mitchell, 
 
 Jonathan Tipton, 
 
 Joshua Barten, sen., 
 
 mark. 
 
 Robert Sevier, 
 
 Joud. Bostin, sen., 
 
 Gideon Morris, 
 
 Drury Goodan, 
 
 Henry Bates, jun., 
 
 Shad rack Morris, 
 
 Richard Fletcher, 
 
 Will’m Dod, 
 
 William Crocket, 
 
 Ellexander Greear, 
 
 Groves Morris, 
 
 Thos. Dedtnon, 
 
 Jos. Greear, 
 
 Wm. Bates, 
 
 David Hickey, 
 Mark Mitchell, 
 
 Andrew Greear, jun., 
 
 Rob’t Mosely, 
 
 Teeler .Nave, 
 
 Ge. Hartt, 
 
 Hugh Blair, 
 
 Lewis Jones, 
 
 Isaac Wilson, 
 
 Elias Pebeer, 
 
 John I. Cox, 
 
 Jno. Waddell, 
 
 Jos. Brown, 
 John Neave, 
 
 John Cox, jr., 
 
 Jarret Williams, 
 
 Abraham Cox, 
 
 Oldham Hightower, 
 
 John Robinson, 
 Christopher Cunning- 
 
 Emanuel Shote, 
 
 Abednago Idix, 
 
 - Tho. Houghton, 
 
 Charles McCartney, 
 
 ham, 
 
 Jos. Luskej 
 
 Frederick Vaughn, 
 
 Jas. Easeley, 
 
 Wm. Reeves, 
 
 Jos. McCartney, 
 
 Ambrose Hodge, 
 
 David Hughes, 
 
 Mark Robertson, 
 
 Danjl Morris, 
 
 Landcn Carter, 
 
 Joseph Calvit, 
 
 Wm. Cox, 
 
 John McCormick, 
 
 Joshua Houghton, 
 
 James Easley, 
 
 David Crocket, 
 
 John Chukinbeard, 
 
 John Haile, 
 
 Edw’d Cox, 
 
 James .Cooper, 
 
 Elijah Robertson, 
 
 Tho’s Hughes, 
 
 William Brokees, 
 
 William Clark, 
 
 William Roberson, 
 
 Julius Robertson, 
 
 his 
 
 Henry Siler, 
 
 John King, 
 
 John M Dunham, 
 
 Frederick Calyit, 
 
 Michael Ilider, 
 
 mark. 
 
 John Moore, V 
 
 John Davis, 
 John Barley.” 
 
 Wm. Overall, 
 Matt. Hawkins, 
 
 William Newberry, 
 
 This document : 
 
 is without date. The 
 
 : original, now in the 
 
 state archives at Raleigh, has endorsed upon it, “ Received 
 August 22, 1776.” It had been probably drawn up in the 
 early part of that year. Nothing has been found after the 
 
WATAUGA SENDS DELEGATES TO PROVINCIAL CONGRESS. 139 
 
 most careful examination, to show what action was taken 
 by the Provincial Council in reference to the petition. It is 
 probable, however, that in the exercise of its now omnipotent 
 and unrestricted authority, the Council advised the settlers to 
 send forward their representatives to the Provincial Congress 
 at Halifax, as it is known they did as delegates from “ Wash- 
 ington District, Watauga Settlement.” The name Washing- 
 ton District, being in the petition itself, must have been 
 assumed by the people petitioning, and was probably sug- 
 gested by John Sevier, who, during his residence at Wil- 
 liamsburg, had doubtless known Col. George Washington, 
 now the commander-in-chief of the American army. It is 
 not known to this writer that the authorities or people of 
 any other province had previously honoured Washington by 
 giving his name to one of its towns or districts — a district, 
 too, of such magnificent dimensions, extending from the Al- 
 leghany Mountains to the Mississippi. A most suitable 
 tribute of respect to the exalted character and enlarged pa- 
 triotism of the Father of his Country ! The pioneers of 
 Tennessee were, probably, the first thus to honour Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 The District of Washington being, as is probable, in accord- 
 ance with the prayer of the petitioners, “ annexed” to North- 
 Carolina, was thus authorized to send its representatives to 
 the Provincial Congress at Halifax. That body assembled 
 at that place Nov. 12, 1776, and continued in session till the 
 18th of December. A Bill of Rights and a State Constitution 
 were adopted. 
 
 In the last section of the Declaration of Rights, the limits 
 of the state, on the west, are made to extend “ so far as is 
 mentioned in the charter of King Charles the Second, to the 
 late Proprietors of Carolina and the hunting grounds are 
 secured to the Indians as far as any former legislature had 
 secured, or any future legislature might secure to them. 
 
 Amongst the members of this Congress were Charles Ro- 
 bertson, J ohn Carter, John Haile and John Sevier, from “Wash- 
 ington District, Watauga Settlement.”* Her remote and pa- 
 triotic citizens, on the extreme frontier, thus participated in 
 * Womack was also elected, but did not attend. 
 
140 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF WATAUGA. 
 
 laying the foundation of government for the free, sovereign 
 and independent State of North-Carolina. In that part of the 
 Declaration of Rights adopted by the Congress, specifying 
 the limits of the state, is the proviso, “ that it shall not be so 
 construed as to prevent the establishment of one or more govern- 
 ments westward of this slate, by consent of the legislature" This 
 was inserted, probably, at the suggestion of the young legisla- 
 tors from Watauga. In their number — the last in the list as 
 here given — was the future Governor of Franklin and of Ten- 
 nessee. His fortune, as will be shown in the further pro- 
 gress of these annals, was hereafter hewn out by his sword 
 and shaped by his wonderful capacities. Could he have been, 
 at this time, preparing a theatre for their future employment 
 and exhibition ? 
 
 WATAUGA. 
 
 The topography o'f Watauga has become interesting, and 
 the modern visitant to that early home of the pioneers of Ten- 
 nessee and the West, lingers around and examines, with in- 
 tense curiosity and almost with veneration, the places conse- 
 crated as* their residence or their entombment. The annalist, 
 partaking deeply in this feeling, has used every effort to identify 
 these localities. He has made more than one pilgrimage to 
 these time-honoured and historic places. In all time to come 
 they will be pointed out and recognized as the abode and rest- 
 ing place of enterprise, virtue, hardihood, patriotism — the an- 
 cestral monument of real worth and genuine greatness. 
 
 “Watauga Old Fields,” already mentioned, occupied the 
 site of the present Elizabethton, in Carter county. Tradition 
 says it was once an ancient Indian village, of which, when 
 Mr. Andrew Greer, an early hunter and explorer, first set- 
 tled it, no trace remained but the cleared land. In confirma- 
 tion of that tradition it may be remarked, that a short distance 
 above that place, on the south side of Watauga River and im- 
 mediately upon its bank, an ancient cemetery is seen, in which 
 are deposited quite a number of human skeletons. 
 
 “The Watauga Fort” was erected upon the land once owned 
 and occupied by an old settler, Matthew Tolbot. The land 
 is now owned by Mrs. Eva Gillespie. The fort stood upon 
 
RESIDENCES OF THE PIONEERS. 
 
 141 
 
 a knoll below the present site of Mrs. Gillespie’s house, in a 
 bottom, about half a mile north-east of the mouth of Gap 
 Creek. The spot is easily identified by a few graves and the 
 large locust tree standing conspicuously on the right of the 
 road leading to Elizabethton. Let it ever be a sacrilege to 
 cut down that old locust tree — growing, as it does, near the 
 ruins of the Watauga fort which sheltered the pioneer and 
 protected his family — where the soldiery of Watauga fought 
 under Captain Robertson and Lieutenant Sevier, and where 
 the Courts of the Association were held, and even-handed jus- 
 tice was administered under the self-constituted legislature, 
 judiciary and executive of the Watauga settlers. 
 
 Besides the fort proper, there were near, and within reach 
 of its guns, a court-house and jail. These were, necessarily, 
 of the plainest structure, being made of round poles. In 1782 
 the former was converted into a stable. 
 
 Higher up the river, and on the north s’de of it, near the 
 closing in of a ridge, upon a low flat piece of land, stood 
 another fort. The land was then owned by Valentine Se- 
 vier, Sen., now by Mr. Hart. On Doe River was a third fort, 
 in the cove of that stream. The Parkinsons forted here. 
 The farm is now owned by Mr. Hampton. Carter Wo 
 mack had a fort near the head of Watauga ; its exact loca- 
 tion is not now known. During an outbreak of the Indians, 
 men were sent from this fort to protect settlements lower 
 down the country. Another fort stood near the mouth of 
 Sinking Creek, on land now owned by Bashere, then by 
 Dunjain. 
 
 RESIDENCES OF THE FIRST SETTLERS OF WATAUGA. 
 
 James Robertson lived on the north side of the river, at 
 the upper end of the island, on lands since the property of 
 A. M. Carter, Esq., deceased, late of Elizabethton. Valen- 
 tine Sevier, Jun., at one time lived where Mr. Hickey now 
 resides, opposite N. G. Taylor’s store. Valentine Sevier, 
 Sen., owned the land now occupied by Mr. Hart. Colonel 
 John Carter’s residence was about half a mile north of Eliz- 
 abethton, on the property still owned by his grandson, Gene- 
 ral James J. Carter. The house of Mr. Andrew Greer was 
 
142 
 
 FIRST MILLS ERECTED IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 on Watauga River, about three miles above Elizabethton, 
 near to the place where Henry Nave, Jun., now lives. Mr. 
 Greer was an Indian trader, and at a very early period, per- 
 haps 1706, came with Julius C. Dugger to the West. They 
 are believed to be the first white men that settled south of 
 what was afterwards ascertained to be the Virginia line. 
 After them came the Robertsons, John Carter, Michael Ily- 
 der, the Seviers, Dunjains, McNabbs, Matthew Tolbot, the 
 Hortons, McLinns, and Simeon Bundy. The latter of these 
 was the first settler on Gap Creek His house stood near the 
 Big Spring, the head of that stream. Soon after the arrival 
 on the Watauga of the emigrants above named, came the 
 Beans, the Cobbs and the Webbs, and, subsequently, the Tip- 
 tons and Taylors. Julius C. Dugger lived and died at a 
 place still owned by his heirs, and known as Dugger’s Bridge, 
 fourteen miles up the Watauga from Elizabethton. Mr. 
 Horton lived at the Green Hill, a little south of the Watauga 
 Springs. Joshua, his son, owned the present residence of 
 Samuel Tipton, and another son, Richard, lived at the place 
 now occupied by Mr. Renfro. Charles Robertson lived on 
 Sinking Creek, on the property now owned by John Ellis. 
 Ambrose Hodge lived where Wm. Wheeler now resides, on 
 the road leading to Jonesboro, from Elizabethton. Mr. Ho- 
 neycut, whose hospitality furnished the first home to James 
 Robertson, lived about Roane’s Creek, near the Watauga. 
 Evan Shelby lived and died at the place now known as 
 King’s Meadows, in Sullivan county, near the Virginia line> 
 where his grave is still pointed out. Michael Hyder lived 
 on Powder Branch, a mile south of Watauga. His son has 
 built his present residence near the site of the old mansion. 
 James Edens settled near the Big Springs on Gap Creek, the 
 place now occupied by his son. 
 
 The first mill erected in all the country, was on Buffalo 
 Creek. It belonged to Baptist McNabb, and stood near 
 where David Pugh since lived. About the same time, an- 
 other mill was built by Matthew Tolbot on Gap Creek. 
 The property is now owned by the heirs of - — — -- Love.* 
 
 *To one of whom, Mr. John Love, recently deceased at Charleston, S. C., the 
 writer is indebted for many of these details. 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF CHEROKEE HOSTILITY. 
 
 143 
 
 In August, 1775, Rev. William Tennent informed the Pro- 
 vincial Congress of South-Carol ina, that Cameron was among 
 the Over-hill Cherokees, and would soon join the disaffected 
 with three thousand Cherokee gun-men, who will fight for the 
 king. An Indian talk was intercepted, which contained an 
 assurance from the Cherokees that they were ready to attend 
 Cameron, and massacre all the back settlers of Carolina and 
 Georgia, without distinction of age or sex. 
 
 In a letter to Lord Dartmouth, under date, Boston, June 12, 
 1775, Gen. Gage said : “ We need not be tender of calling on 
 the savages” * to attack the Americans. 
 
 In this year an Indian trader, Andrew Greer, one of the first, 
 ( if not the very first settler of Watauga, being in the 
 ( Cherokee towns, suspected, from the conduct of Walker 
 and another trader, that some mischief was intended against 
 him. He returned with his furs, but left the main trading 
 path and came up the Nollichucky Trace. Boyd and Dogget, 
 who had been sent out by Virginia, travelling on the path 
 that Greer left, were met by Indians near a creek, were killed 
 by them and their bodies thrown into the water. The creek 
 is in Sevier county, and has ever since been known as Boyd’s 
 Creek. A watch and other articles were afterwards found 
 in the creek — the watch had Boyd’s name engraved on the 
 case. He was a Scotchman. This was the commencement 
 of the Cherokee hostility, and was believed to be instigated 
 by the agents of the British government. One of its mea- 
 sures adopted to oppress and subjugate the disaffected Ameri- 
 can colonies, was to arm the neighbouring tribes and to sti- 
 mulate them against the feeble settlements on their border. 
 The southern colonies had expressed a decided sympathy with 
 their aggrieved brethren in Massachusetts, and lying adjacent 
 to the warlike Cherokee tribe, it was desired to secure the 
 alliance of these savages against them in the existing u r ar. 
 Early in the year 1776, John Stuart, the Superintendent of 
 Southern Indian Affairs, received his instructions from the 
 British War Department, and immediately dispatched to his 
 deputies, resident among the different tribes, orders to carry 
 into effect the wishes of his government. Alexander Came- 
 *Am. Archives, vol. ii., folio 968. 
 
144 
 
 HUMANITY OF NANCY WARD. 
 
 ron, a Highland officer, who had fought for America in the 
 French war, was at this time the Agent for the Cherokee 
 nation. Receiving from Stuart his orders, he lost no time in 
 convoking the chiefs and warriors, and making known to 
 them the designs of his government. He informed them of 
 the difficulties between the King and his American subjects, 
 and endeavoured to enlist them in favour of his monarch. 
 
 The Indians could scarcely believe that the war was real — 
 a war among savages that speak the same language being 
 unknown. This phenomenon confused them. The Ameri- 
 cans, moreover, had friends in the towns, who endeavoured 
 to counteract the intrigues of the Agent, and to gain time to 
 apprise the frontier inhabitants of the danger which threat- 
 ened them. But by promises of presents in clothing, the plun- 
 der of the conquered settlements, and the appropriation to 
 their use of the hunting grounds to be reclaimed from the 
 whites upon the western waters, Cameron succeeded, event- 
 ually, in gaining to the British interests a majority of the head 
 men and warriors. “This formidable invasion was rendered 
 much less destructive than was intended, by the address and 
 humanity of another Pocahontas. Nancy Ward, who was 
 nearly allied to some of the principal chiefs, obtained know- 
 ledge of their plan of attack, and without delay communicated 
 it to Isaac Thomas, a trader, her friend and a true American. 
 She procured for him the means to set out to the inhabitants 
 of Holston as an express, to warn them of their danger, which 
 he opportunely did, and proceeded, without delay, to the Com- 
 mittee of Safety in Virginia, accompanied by William Fallin, 
 as far as the Holston settlements’* 
 
 The westernmost settlement, late in the fall of this year, 
 was in Carter’s Valley. Mr. Kincaid, Mr. Long, Mr. Love and 
 Mr. Mulkey, a Baptist preacher, were the pioneers. Their 
 bread-corn was brought from the neighbourhood where Abing- 
 don now stands. During that winter they hunted and killed buf- 
 falo, twelve or fifteen miles north-west of their settlement. They 
 also cleared a few acres of land, but after they had planted 
 and worked their corn over once, the rumours of a Cherokee 
 invasion forced them to leave their little farms. In great 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
TEST OATH ADMINISTERED TO TORIES. 
 
 145 
 
 haste and confusion all the families below the north fork of 
 Holston recrossed that stream, and the women and children 
 were conducted back as far as the present Wythe county. 
 
 The tide of emigration had, in the meantime, brought large 
 accessions to the three points, Carter’s, Watauga and Brown’s, 
 and radiating from these centres, the settlers were erecting 
 their cabins and opening their “improvements ” at some dis- 
 tance from each, and approximating the boundaries of the 
 parent germ, the whole began to assume the appearance of 
 one compact settlement. The policy pursued in Virginia 
 and tlje Carolinas, under the direction of County Associa- 
 tions and Committees of Safety, ha,d driven many to the new 
 settlements. A test oath was required of all suspected of 
 disaffection to the American cause. To avoid the oath, and 
 to escape the consequences of a refusal to take it or to sub- 
 scribe the test, many tories had fled to the extreme frontier. 
 Brown’s was the furthest point and the most difficult of 
 access. In this seclusion they hoped to remain concealed : 
 but whig vigilance soon ferreted them out, and a body of men, 
 at the instance of John Carter, came from Virginia, went to 
 Brown’s, called the inhabitants together and administered to 
 them an oath to be faithful to the common cause. After 
 this, Brown’s and Watauga were considered one united set- 
 tlement, and appointed their officers as belonging to the same 
 body. 
 
 The murder of Boyd by the Indians, and a rumour of the 
 intrigues practiced by Cameron, had put the frontier people 
 upon their guard against meditated mischief. The Chero- 
 kees had so long maintained friendly relations with them, 
 that they had been lulled into a state of false security. 
 While they had provided civil institutions adequate to the 
 wants of the settlers, the military organization had been 
 neglected. They proceeded at once to adopt defensive mea- 
 sures, and immediately appointed Carter and Brown colonels, 
 and Womack major over their respective militia. It 
 was deemed advisable, also, to take further precautions for 
 the protection of the settlements against any attack that 
 might be contemplated by the savages, and the more exposed 
 families went at once into forts and stations. 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF A “ STATION.” 
 
 A fort, in these rude military times, consisted of pieces of 
 timber, sharpened at the end and firmly lodged in the ground; 
 rows of these pickets enclosed the desired space, which 
 embraced the cabins of the inhabitants. One block house, 
 or more, of superior care and strength, commanding the 
 sides of the fort, with or without a ditch, completed the forti- 
 fication or station, as they are most commonly called. Gene- 
 rally the sides of the interior cabins formed the sides of the 
 fort. Slight as was this advance in the art of war, it was 
 more than sufficient against attacks of small arms, in the 
 hands of such desultory warriors, as their irregular supplies 
 of provisions necessarily rendered the Indians.* The place 
 selected for a station was generally the cabin most central 
 to the whole settlement to be protected by it. Often, how- 
 ever, it was otherwise ; an elevated position, not surrounded 
 by woods, cliffs or other fastnesses, from which assailants 
 could deliver their fire under cover; contiguity to a spring, 
 a river, or other stream of water, a supply of fuel ; — all these 
 had their influence in deciding the place selected for a fort. 
 Sometimes the proximity of a number of adjacent settlers, 
 cultivating the same plantation, or working in the same 
 clearing , overbalanced other considerations. A grist mill 
 was often a sine qua non in the selection of a site, and espe- 
 cially if, in case of a protracted siege, it could be enclosed 
 by the palisades or commanded by the rifles of a fort. 
 
 The boundaries of Brown’s settlement, on the west, ex- 
 tended down Nollichucky, below the mouth of Big Limestone 
 Creek, and that neighbourhood being the weakest and first 
 exposed, a fort was built at Gillespie’s, near the river, and a 
 garrison was stationed in it. Another one was built at 
 Watauga — another at Heaton’s, known as Heaton’s Station. 
 It stood in the fork between the north and south branches of 
 Holston, and about six miles from their confluence. Evan 
 Shelby erected one on Beaver Creek, two miles south of the 
 Virginia line. There was one, also, at Womack’s, and 
 three or four miles east of it, on Holston, John Shelby also 
 built a station. In Carter’s Valley there were several, f 
 
 * Butler. 
 
 t It is to be regretted that the site of many of the forts and stations in Tennessee 
 
stuart’s letter to the frontier people. 
 
 147 
 
 During these preparations for defence, other information 
 reached the Watauga Committee, confirming the previous 
 intelligence of approaching invasion. On the 18th ot May 
 they received a copy of a letter addressed by Mr. Stuart, 
 under date May 9th, to the frontier people. The circum- 
 stances attending its delivery were exceedingly suspicious, 
 and gave rise to the gravest apprehensions. The letter and 
 the affidavit of Nathan Read, who was present at Mr. 
 Charles Robertson’s house at night, when it was delivered, 
 are here given : 
 
 “Wattaga. — This day Nathan Read came before me, one of the Jus- 
 tices of Wattaga, and made oath on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty 
 God, that a stranger came up to Charles Robertson’s gate yesterday eve- 
 ning — who he was he did not know — and delivered a letter of which 
 this is a true copy. Sworn before me the 19th of May, 1776. 
 
 John Carter. 
 
 Attest — James Smith.” 
 
 “ Gentlemen — Some time ago Mr. Cameron and myself wrote you a 
 letter by Mr. Thomas, and enclosed a talk we had with the Indians 
 respecting the purchase which is reported you lately made of them on 
 the Rivers Wattaga, Nollicbuckey, &c. We are sincein formed that you 
 are under great apprehensions of the Indians doing mischief immediately. 
 But it is not the desire of his Majesty to set his friends and allies, the 
 Indians, on his liege subjects : Therefore, whoever you are that are will- 
 ing to join his Majesty’s forces as soon as they arrive at the Cherokee 
 Nation, by repairing to the King’s standard, shall find protection for 
 themselves and their families, and be free from all danger whatever ; 
 yet, that his Majesty’s officers may be certain which of you are willing 
 to take up arms in his Majesty’s just right, I have thought fit to recom- 
 mend it to you and every one that is desirous of preventing inevitable 
 ruin to themselves and families, immediately to subscribe a written paper 
 acknowledging their allegiance to his Majesty, King George, and that 
 they are ready and willing, whenever they are called on, to appear in 
 arms in defence of the British right in America ; which paper, as soon 
 as it is signed and sent to me, by safe hand, should any of the inhabitants 
 
 can no longer be satisfactorily identified. Convinced as he was of the value and 
 interest these sites -would have given to this work, the writer has endeavoured, in 
 various ways, to ascertain them, with the view of perpetuating them in a diagram 
 or map, to be inserted in this volume. These endeavours have been fruitless. F rom 
 some correspondents, in a few counties, he has procured some information on the 
 subject. From others he learns that the early settlers are no longer there to 
 impart the desired knowledge, and from others no reply has been received to his 
 inquiries. Public attention in Tennessee is respectfully invited to this subject. 
 
148 
 
 williams’s disclosures 
 
 be desirous of knowing bow they are to be free from every kind of insult 
 and danger, inform them, that his Majesty will immediately land an army 
 in West Florida, march them through the Creek to the Chickasaw Nation, 
 where five hundred warriors from each nation are to join them, and then 
 come by Chota, who have promised their assistance, and . then to take 
 possession of the frontiers of North-Carolina and Virginia, at the same 
 time that his Majesty’s forces make a diversion on the sea coast of those 
 Provinces. If any of the inhabitants have any beef, cattle, flour, pork 
 or horses to spare, they shall have a good price for them by applying to 
 us, as soon as his Majesty’s troops are embodied. 
 
 I am yours, Ac., 
 
 Henry Stuart.” 
 
 Henry was the brother of John Stuart, and Deputy Superin- 
 tendent of Indian Affairs, and in that capacity had been sent to 
 the Cherokees by Cameron. The letter was doubtless handed 
 by some incognito loyalist from South-Carolina, at the sug- 
 gestion of Col. Kirkland, to whom such negotiations were 
 familiar. Charles Robertson had emigrated from that Pro- 
 vince, and it may have been, was known to some of the dis- 
 affected back-settlers there. They mistook their man. They 
 knew the spirit neither of Robertson nor his countrymen. None 
 could have been more prompt nor more vigorous in spurning 
 the bribe and disregarding their threats or resisting the exe- 
 cution of their plans. 
 
 Mr. Jarret Williams, on his way to Virginia from the Che- 
 rokee villages, came to Watauga and communicated addi- 
 tional confirmation of the hostile intention of the Indians. It 
 will be found in the subjoined affidavit, afterwards published 
 in the “Philadelphia Packet” of Aug. 13, 1776. 
 
 “ Fincastle, ss.- — The deposition of Jarret Williams, taken before me, 
 Anthony Bledsoe, a Justice of the Peace for the county aforesaid, being 
 first sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, deposeth and saith : 
 That he left the Cherokee Nation on Monday night, the 8th inst. (July) ; 
 that the part of the Nation called the Over-hills, were then preparing to 
 go to war against the frontiers of Virginia, having purchased to the amount 
 of 1000 skins, or thereabouts, for mockasons. They -were also beating 
 flour for a march, and making other warlike preparations. Their num- 
 ber, from calculation made by the Raven Warrior, amounts to about six 
 hundred warriors ; and, according to the deponent’s idea, he thinks we 
 may expect a general attack every hour. They propose to take away 
 negroes, horses, and to kill all kinds of cattle, sheep, Ac., for which 
 purpose they are -well stocked with bows and arrows ; also, to destroy 
 all corn, burn houses, Ac. AdcI he also heard, that the Valley towns were, 
 a part of them, set off ; but that they had sent a runner to stop them 
 
OF THREATENED INVASION. 
 
 149 
 
 till all were ready to start. He farther relates, that Alexander Cameron 
 informed them that he had concluded to send Captain Nathaniel Guest, 
 "William Faulin, Isaac Williams and the deponent, with the Indians, till 
 they came near to Nonachucky ; then the Indians were to stop, and Guest 
 and the other whites, above mentioned, were to go to see if there were 
 any King’s men among the inhabitants ; and if they found any, they 
 were to take them off to the Indians, or have a white signal in their hands, 
 or otherwise to distinguish them. When this was done, they were to 
 fall on the inhabitants, and kill and drive all they possibly could. That 
 on Saturday, the 6th instant, in the night, he heard two prisoners were 
 brought in about midnight, but the deponent saw only one. That the 
 within Williams saw only one scalp brought by a party of Indians, with 
 a prisoner ; but, from accounts, they had five scalps. He also says he 
 heard the prisoner examined by Cameron, though he gave a very imper- 
 fect account, being very much cast down. Pie further says, that the 
 Cherokees had received the war-belt from the Shawnese, Mingo, Taa- 
 wah and Delaware Nations, to strike the white people. That fifteen of 
 the said nations were in the Cherokee towns, and that few of the Chero- 
 kees went in company with the Shawnese, &c. That they all intended 
 to strike the settlers in Kentucky ; and that the Cherokees gave the said 
 Shawnese, &c., four scalps of white men, which they carried away with 
 them. The said Shawnese and Mingoes informed the Cherokees that 
 they then were at peace with every other nation ; that the French were 
 to supply them with ammunition, and that they wanted the Cherokees 
 to join them to strike the white people on the frontiers, which the Chero- 
 kees have agreed to. And the deponent further saith, that before he left 
 the nation, a number of the Cherokees of the Lower towns, w.ere gone 
 to fall on the frontiers of South-Carolina and Georgia ; and further saith 
 not. 
 
 Jarret Williams. 
 
 Signed before Anthony Bledsoe .” 
 
 The apprehension of danger excited amongst the remote 
 settlers on Holston, was increased by the report some time 
 after of another trader, Robert Dews. The amount of his 
 statement made on oath was, that the Indians are. deter- 
 mined on war. The Cherokees have received a letter from 
 Cameron, that the Creeks, Chickasaws and Choctaws are 
 to join against Georgia, South-Carolina, North-Carolina and 
 Virginia; also that Captain Stuart had gone up the Missis- 
 sippi with goods, ammunition, &c., for the northern nations, 
 to cause them to fall on the people of the frontier.” 
 
 Nothing could have so aroused, and exasperated, and har- 
 monized public sentiment in Watauga, as the intelligence 
 thus given, that these settlements were to be sacrificed to 
 savage barbarity, incited by British influence. No where 
 
150 
 
 EXPRESS CARRIES SEVIEr’s LETTER. 
 
 more than among a frontier people, is there a keener sense 
 of justice or a warmer homage for kind treatment and right- 
 ful authority. No where, a greater abhorrence of a flagrant 
 injustice or a deeper resentment for wanton wrong and cru- 
 elty. Every settler at once became a determined whig. On 
 the great question then agitating the British Colonies, there 
 was but one opinion in the West. The soldiery was armed, 
 organized and prepared for the conflict, which Cameron’s 
 disclosures demonstrated was at hand. 
 
 John Sevier communicated to the officers of Fincastle 
 county, the following : 
 
 “Fort Lee, July 11, 1*7 7 6. 
 
 “Dear Gentlemen: Isaac Thomas, Win. Falling, Jarot Williams and 
 one more, have this moment come in by making their escape from the 
 Indians, and say six hundred Indians and whites were to start for this 
 fort, and intend to drive the country up to New River before they re- 
 turn. John Sevier.” 
 
 Fort Lee is believed to be the name of the fort at Wa- 
 tauga. Sevier was at the latter place at the attack upon it, 
 July 21, and probably was there at the date of this laconic 
 epistle.* Thus forewarned, the Watauga Committee lost no 
 time in preparing for the approaching invasion. The forts 
 were strengthened, and every measure adopted that could add 
 to the security of their people. Having done everything that 
 could be effected by their own resources, on the 30th May, 
 the Committee sent an express to Virginia for aid and sup- 
 plies of lead and powder. To their application Mr. Preston 
 replies, under date June 3rd, 1776. 
 
 “ Gentlemen : Your letter of the 30th ult. with the deposition of Mr. 
 Bryan, came to hand this evening, by your messenger. The news is 
 really alarming, with regard to the disposition of the Indians, who are 
 doubtless advised to break with the white people, by the enemies to 
 American liberty who reside among them. But I cannot conceive that 
 you have any thing- to fear from their pretended invasion by British 
 troops, by the route they mention. This must, in my opinion, be a 
 scheme purposely calculated to intimidate the inhabitants, either to 
 abandon their plantations or turn enemies to their country, neither of 
 which I hope it will be able to effect. 
 
 “ Our Convention on the 14th of May, ordered 500 lbs. of gunpow- 
 der to each of the counties of Fincastle, Botetourt, Augusta and West 
 Augusta. . . . And double that quantity of lead . . . They likewise 
 
 * The writer is indebted for this letter and the official report of the battle at 
 the Island Flats, to the research and politeness of L. C. Draper, Esq. 
 
PLAN OP CHEROKEE INVASION. 
 
 151 
 
 ordered 100 men to be forthwith raised in Fincastie, to he stationed 
 where our Committee directs for the protection of the frontier. * * * 
 
 I sent the several letters and depositions you furnished me, from which 
 it is reasonable to believe, that when all these shall have been examined 
 vigourous measures will be adopted for our protection. 
 
 “ I have advertised our Committee to meet at Fort Chisw T ell on 
 Tuesday, the 11th instant, and have directed the candidates for com- 
 missions in the new companies, to exert themselves in engaging the 
 number of men required until then ; I much expect we shall have further 
 news from Williamsburg by the time the Committee meets. I have 
 written to Col. Callaway the second time for 200 lbs. of lead, which 
 I hope he will deliver the bearer. This supply I hope will be some re- 
 lief to your distressed settlement, and as I said before, should more be 
 wanted I am convinced you may be supplied. I am fully convinced that 
 the expense will be repaid you by the Convention of Virginia or North- 
 Carolina, on a fair representation of the case being laid before them, 
 whichsoever of them takes your settlement under protection, as there is 
 not the least reason that any one part of the colony should be at any 
 extraordinary expense in the defence of the whole, and you may be 
 assured you cannot be over stocked with that necessary article ; for 
 should it please Providence that the impending- storm should blow over, 
 and there would be no occasion to use the ammunition in the general 
 defence, then it might be sold out to individuals, and the expense of 
 the whole reimbursed to those who so generously contributed towards 
 the purchase. 
 
 “ I am, with the most sincere wishes for the safety of your settlement, 
 your most obedient and very humble servant, 
 
 Wm. Preston.”* 
 
 Such was the posture of defence assumed by the inhabi- 
 tants after the receipt of the intelligence brought by Thomas 
 Fallin and Williams. The former had proceeded on his 
 mission to the authorities of Virginia for succour against a 
 threatened invasion. The projected incursion of the Chero- 
 kees, as communicated by Nancy Ward to Thomas, was this: 
 Seven hundred warriors were to attack the white settle- 
 ments. They were to divide themselves into two divisions 
 of three hundred and fifty each, under chosen leaders, one 
 destined to fall upon the Watauga settlements, by a circui- 
 tous route along the foot of the mountains. The other divi- 
 sion, to be commanded by the Dragging-Canoe in person, 
 was, by a more northwardly route, to fall upon and break 
 up the settlements in the fork of the two branches of the 
 Holston, and thence proceed into Virginia. 
 
 * Original letter in this writer’s possession. 
 
152 
 
 VOLUNTEERS ASSEMBLE AT HEATON’s. 
 
 The alarm produced by this intelligence hastened the com- 
 pletion of the defences and the embodiment of such a force 
 as the western settlements of Virginia and North-Carolina 
 could supply. Five small, companies, principally Virginians, 
 immediately assembled under their respective captains, the 
 eldest of whom, in commission, was Captain Thompson. 
 They marched to Heaton’s Station, where a fort had been 
 built, by the advice of Captain William Cocke, in advance 
 of the settlements. Here they halted, as well to protect 
 the people in the station as to procure information, by their 
 spies and scouts, of the position of the enemy, of their num- 
 ber, and, if possible, of their designs. In a day or two it 
 was ascertained that the Indians, in a body of three or four 
 hundred, were actually on the march towards the fort. A 
 council w«as immediately held to determine whether it was 
 most advisable to await in the fort the arrival of the Indians, 
 with the expectation that they would come and attack it, or 
 to march out in search of them and fight them wherever 
 they could be found. It was urged in council by Captain 
 Cocke, that the Indians would not attack them in the station, 
 and enclosed in their block houses, but would pass by them 
 and attack the settlements in small parties ; and that for 
 want of protection the greater part of the women and chil- 
 dren would be massacred. This argument decided the con- 
 troversy, and it was determined to march out and meet them. 
 The corps, consisting of one hundred and seventy men, 
 marched from the station and took their course down towards 
 the Long Island, with an advance of about twelve men in 
 front. When they reached what are called the Island Flats, 
 the advance guard discovered a small party of Indians 
 coming along the road meeting them, and immediately fired 
 on them ; the Indians fled and the white people pursued for 
 some time, but did not 'rheet the enemy. A halt was then 
 made, and the men w r ere formed in a line. A council was 
 then held by the officers, in which it was concluded 
 that, probably, they would not be able to meet any 
 others of the enemy that day, and, as evening was drawing 
 on, that it was most prudent to return to the fort. But 
 before all the troops had fallen into ranks and left the place 
 
BATTLE NEAR LONG ISLAND. 
 
 153 
 
 where they had halted, it was announced that the Indians 
 were advancing, in order of battle, in their rear.* Captain 
 Thompson, the senior officer, who was at the head ot the 
 left line, ordered the right line to form for battle to the right, 
 and the line which he headed, to the left, and to face the 
 enemy. In attempting to form the line, the head of the right 
 seemed to bear too much along the road leading to the sta- 
 tion, and the part of the line further back, perceiving that 
 the Indians were endeavouring to outflank them, was drawn 
 off, by Lieutenant Robert Davis, as quickly as possible, and 
 formed on the right, across the flat to a ridge, and prevented 
 them from getting round the flank. The greater part of the 
 officers, and not a few of the privates, gave heroic examples 
 to cause the men to advance and give battle ; of the latter, 
 Robert Edmiston and John Morrison made conspicuous exer- 
 tions. They advanced some paces towards the enemy and 
 began the battle by shooting down the foremost of them. 
 The battle then became general. 
 
 The Indians fought, at first, with great fury ; the foremost 
 hallooing, the Unacas are running, come on and scalp them. 
 Their first effort was to break through the centre of our line, 
 and to turn the left flank in the same instant. In both they 
 failed of success, by the well directed lire of our riflemen. 
 Several of their chief warriors fell, and, at length, their com- 
 mander was dangerously wounded. This decided the vic- 
 tory. The enemy immediately betook themselves to flight, 
 leaving twenty-six of their boldest warriors dead on the field. 
 The blood of the wounded could be traced in great profusion, 
 in the direction of the enemy’s retreat. Our men pursued 
 in a cautious manner, lest they might be led into an ambus- 
 cade, hardly crediting their own senses that so numerous a 
 foe was completely routed. In this miracle of a battle, we 
 had not a man killed and only five wounded, who all reco- 
 vered. But the wounded of the enemy died till the whole 
 loss in killed amounted to upwards of forty. f The battle 
 lasted not more than ten minutes after the line was com- 
 pletely formed and engaged before the Indians began to 
 retreat ; but they continued to fight awhile in that way, to 
 get the wounded off the ground. The firing during the time 
 * Haywood. j- Idem. 
 
154 
 
 OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE BATTLE. 
 
 of the action, particularly on the side of the white people, 
 was very lively and well directed. This battle was fought 
 on the 20th of July, 1776. 
 
 An official report of this well fought battle, will be also 
 l77G i given, less in detail than the preceding, but in most of 
 i the essential parts entirely agreeing with it. 
 
 “ On the 19th our scouts returned, and informed us that they had 
 discovered where a great number of Indians were making into the set- 
 tlements ; upon which alarm, the few men stationed at Eaton’s, com- 
 pleted a breast-work sufficiently strong, with the assistance of what men 
 were there, to have repelled a considerable number ; sent expresses to 
 the different stations and collected all the forces in one body, and the 
 morning after about one hundred and seventy turned out in search of 
 the enemy. We marched in two divisions, with flankers on each side 
 and scouts before. Our scouts discovered upwards of twenty meeting us, 
 and fired on them. They returned the fire, but our men rushed on them 
 with such violence that they Were obliged to make a precipitate retreat. 
 We took ten bundles and a good deal of plunder, and had great reason 
 to think some of them were wounded. This small skirmish happened 
 on ground very disadvantageous for our men to pursue, though it was 
 with the greatest difficulty our officers could restrain their men. A coun- 
 cil was held, and it was thought advisable to return, as we imagined there 
 was a large party not far off. We accordingly returned, and had not 
 marched more than a mile when a number, not inferior to ours, attacked 
 us in the rear. Our men sustained the attack with great bravery and 
 intrepidity, immediately forming a line. The Iudians endeavoured to 
 surround us, but were prevented by the uncommon fortitude and vigilance 
 of Capt. James Shelby, who took possession of an eminence that pre- 
 vented their design. Our line of battle extended about a quarter of a 
 mile. We killed about thirteen on the spot, whom we found, and have 
 the greatest reason to believe that we could have found a great many 
 more, had we had time to search for them. There were streams of blood 
 every w T ay ; and it was generally thought there was never so much exe- 
 cution done in so short a time on the frontiers. Never did troops fight 
 with greater calmness than ours did. The Indians attacked us with the 
 greatest fury imaginable, and made the most vigorous efforts to surround 
 us. Our spies really deserved the greatest applause. We took a great 
 deal of plunder and many guns, and had only four men greatly wounded. 
 The rest of the troops are in high spirits and eager for another engage- 
 ment. We have the greatest reason to believe they are pouring in great 
 numbers on us, and beg the assistance of our friends. 
 
 James Thompson, John Campbell, 
 
 James Shelby, William Cocke, 
 
 William Buchanan, Thomas Madison. 
 
 To Major Anthony Bledsoe, for him to be immediately sent to Colonel 
 
 Preston.” 
 
LIEUTENANT MOORE AND INDIAN BRAVE. 
 
 155 
 
 A desperate hand-to-hand conflict took place during the 
 battle. The precise spot is still pointed out in a field on the 
 left of the road passing through the grounds where the battle 
 took place. The combatants were Lieutenant Moore, late of 
 Sullivan, and a very large chief or leader of the Cherokees. 
 Moore had shot the chief, wounding him in the knee, but not 
 so badly as to prevent him from standing. Moore advanced 
 towards him, and the Indian threw his tomahawk but missed 
 him. Moore sprung at him with his large butcher knife drawn, 
 which the Indian caught by the blade and attempted to wrest 
 from the hand of his antagonist. Holding on with desperate 
 tenacity to the knife, both clinched with their left hands. A 
 scuffle ensued in which the Indian was thrown to the ground, 
 his right hand being nearly dissevered and bleeding profusely. 
 Moore still holding the handle of his knife in the right hand, 
 succeeded with the other to disengage his own tomahawk 
 from his belt, and ended the strife by sinking it in the skull 
 of the Indian. Until this conflict was ended, the Indians 
 fought with unyielding spirit. After its issue became known) 
 they retreated. 
 
 Mr. George Hufacre, late of Knox county, was in this bat- 
 tle, and gives further particulars. He says : While the cap- 
 tains were endeavouring to form line, some confusion ensued, 
 when Isaac Shelby (a volunteer under no command and not 
 in ranks) gave orders for each captain to fall into place, and 
 with his company to march back a few paces and form line. 
 This order was obeyed, and the line was immediately formed 
 a short distance in the rear of four men left upon the eminence 
 to watch the movements of the enemy. Encouraged by the 
 apparent withdrawal of the, troops and the small number in 
 sight, the Indians made a rapid forward movement against 
 the four men on the rising ground, and pursued them into the 
 line now completely formed, yelling and brandishing their 
 tomahawks and war clubs. Edmondson being in the centre 
 company, bore the weight of the enemy’s assault several mi- 
 nutes, and himself killed six of the most daring of the Indians. 
 John Findley was one of the wounded. 
 
 The consequences of this victory were of some importance 
 to the Western inhabitants, otherwise than the destroying a 
 
156 
 
 ATTACK ON WATAUGA FORT. 
 
 number pf their influential and most vindictive enemies, and 
 lessening the hostile spirit of the Cherokees. It induced a 
 concord and union of principle to resist the tyranny of the 
 British government. It attracted the favour and attention of 
 the new commonwealth ; it inspired military ideas and a 
 contempt of danger from our savage enemies. The inquiry, 
 afterwards, when in search of Indians, was not, how many of 
 them are there? but, where are they to be found ? This spirit 
 was kept up and often displayed itself on several important 
 occasions during the war. * 
 
 Another division of the Cherokees invaded the settlements 
 at another point and from another direction. This was com- 
 manded by Old Abraham ofChilhowee. That chieftain was 
 distinguished more for stratagem and cunning, than by valour 
 and enterprise. He led his division along the’ foot of the 
 mountain by the Nollichucky path, hoping to surprise and 
 massacre the unsuspecting and unprotected inhabitants upon 
 that river. The little garrison at Gillespie’s Station, apprised 
 of the impending danger, had prudently broken up their fort 
 and had withdrawn to Watauga, taking with them such of 
 their moveable effects as the emergency allowed, but leaving 
 their cabins, their growing crops and the stock in the range, 
 to the waste and devastation of the invaders. The Indians 
 arriving at the deserted station soon after the garrison de- 
 parted from it, hoped, by rapid marches, to overtake and 
 destroy them. In the rapidity of the pursuit, the standing 
 corn, stock and improvements of the settlers, remained un- 
 touched and uninjured. The garrison reached Watauga in 
 safety. The next morning, at sunrise, the Indians invested 
 that place and attacked the fort, now strengthened by the 
 small reinforcement from Gillespie’s. Captain James Robert- 
 son commanded the forces at Watauga, amounting in all to 
 but forty men. Lieut. John Sevier and Mr. Andrew Greer 
 were also present. The assault upon the fort was vigorous 
 and sudden. But, by the unerring aim of the riflemen within 
 it, and the determined bravery of men protecting their 
 women and children from capture and massacre, the assail- 
 ants were repulsed with considerable loss. No one in the 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
X 
 
 CAPTIVITY OP MRS. BEAN. 157 
 
 fort was wounded. Mrs. Bean had been taken prisoner by 
 the Indians on their march, the preceding day. The killed 
 and wounded of the Cherokees were carried off in sight of 
 the people in the fort. The number could not be ascertained, 
 as the Indians remained skulking about in the adjacent woods 
 for twenty days. During that time expresses had succeeded in 
 escaping from the besieged fort at Watauga, and in commu- 
 nicating to the station at Heaton’s the dangerous condition 
 in which the siege involved them. Col. Russell was requested 
 to send them succour : and five small companies were ordered 
 to proceed to Watauga. These could not be well spared 
 from Heaton’s — and some delay occurring, Col. Shelby raised 
 one hundred horsemen and crossed the country to the relief 
 of his besieged countrymen. Before his arrival at Watauga 
 the siege was raised, and the Indians had hastily withdrawn. 
 The attack of the Cherokees under Old Abraham, was on the 
 21st of July, the next day after the Dragging-Canoe had made 
 his unsuccessful march upon Heaton’s Station near Long 
 Island. 
 
 Mrs. Bean was captured near Watauga, and was taken by 
 the Indians to their station camp over on Nollichucky. A 
 white man was there also a prisoner. He told her she was 
 to be killed, and a warrior stepped towards and cocked his 
 gun as if intending to shoot her. The white man, at the 
 instance of the chiefs, then began to ask Mrs. Bean some 
 questions : how many forts have the white people ? how many 
 soldiers in each ? where are the forts ? can they be starved 
 out ? have they got any powder ? She answered these 
 questions so as to leave the impression that the settlements 
 could protect themselves. After conferring among themselves 
 a few minutes, the chiefs told the white man to say to Mrs. 
 Bean .that she was not to be killed, but that she had to go 
 with them to their towns and teach their women how to 
 make butter and cheese. 
 
 After she was taken into captivity Mrs. Bean was con- 
 demned to death. She was bound, taken to the top of one of 
 the mounds, and was about to be burned, when Nancy Ward, 
 then exercising in the nation the functions of the Beloved 
 or Pretty Woman, interfered and pronounced her pardon. 
 Her life was spared. We give further details. 
 
158 
 
 SEVIER ATTEMPTS TO RESCUE MOORE. 
 
 The fort at Watauga, when attacked, had one hundred 
 and fifty settlers within its enclosure. The women from the 
 fort had gone out at daybreak to milk the cows and were 
 fired upon, but made a safe retreat to the fort. A brisk 
 fire was then made upon the garrison, and kept up till eight 
 o’clock, without effect. The assault was repelled with con- 
 siderable loss to the assailants, as was inferred from the 
 quantity of blood left upon the ground. In a short time after 
 the Indians renewed the attack and continued before the fort 
 six days. 
 
 In the meantime, a soldier effected his escape from Wa- 
 tauga and went to Holston express for reinforcements. A 
 detachment of one hundred rangers was instantly forwarded 
 under the command of Col. Wm. Russell. On their way the 
 rangers fell in with a party of forty Cherokees, who were 
 busy skinning a beef at a deserted plantation, fifty miles east 
 of Long Island. Of these Col. Russell’s men killed five and 
 took one prisoner, who was mortally wounded, and also 
 made prize of twenty rifles belonging to the Indians.* 
 
 During the time the Indians were around the fort, James 
 Cooper and a boy named Samuel Moore, went out after 
 boards to cover a hut. When near the mouth of Gap Creek, 
 they were attacked by Indians ; Cooper leaped into the river, 
 and by diving hoped to escape their arrows and bullets, but 
 the water became too shallow and he was killed by them and 
 scalped. The firing by the Indians and the screams of 
 Cooper were heard in the fort, and Lieutenant John Sevier at- 
 tempted to go to his succour. Captain Robertson saw that 
 the Indians were superior in force to that within the fort, and 
 that it would require all the men he commanded to protect the 
 women and children from. massacre. The firing and scream- 
 ing without, he believed to be a feint on the part of the 
 enemy to draw his men from the fortification, and he recalled 
 Sevier and his party from the attempted rescue. Moore 
 was carried prisoner to the Indian towns, and was tortured 
 to death by burning. A few mornings after the battle a man 
 named Clonse was found in the thicket below the fort, killed 
 and scalped. He had probably chosen the darkness of the 
 *Maryland Gazette. 
 
DIVTSION COMMANDED BY RAVEN. 
 
 159 
 
 night to reach the fort from some of the settlements, and had 
 been intercepted and slain. The intelligence of the defeat 
 at the Island Flats had probably reached the division com- 
 manded by Old Abraham, and occasioned the precipitate re- 
 treat from Watauga. 
 
 Another division of the Cherokees, commanded by Raven* 
 had struck across the country, with the intention of falling 
 upon the frontier people of Carter’s Valley. They came up 
 Holston to the lowest station, and finding the inhabitants 
 securely shut up in forts, and hearing of the repulse at Wa- 
 tauga and the bloody defeat at the Flats, they retreated and 
 returned to their towns. 
 
 A fourth party of Indians had crossed the. country still 
 lower down, and fell in upon the inhabitants scattered along 
 the valley of Clinch. To this body of the enemy no oppo- 
 sing force was presented. They divided themselves into 
 small detachments, and carried fire and devastation and 
 massacre into every settlement, from the remotest cabin on 
 Clinch, to the Seven Mile Ford, in Virginia. One of these 
 detachments made a sudden inroad upon the Wolf Hills Set- 
 tlement. A station had been built there, near the present 
 town of Abingdon, at the house of Joseph Black. This 
 station was a centre or rallying point for the infant settle- 
 ments then being extended down the Holston Valley, into 
 what is now Tennessee. As early as 1772, a congregation 
 was organized and two churches built among these primitive 
 people, to whom the Rev. Charles Cummings regularly 
 preached. On this occasion, Mr. Cummings and four others, 
 going to his field, were attacked by the Indians. At the first 
 fire William Creswell, who was driving a wagon, w r as killed, 
 and during the skirmish two others were wounded. Mr. 
 Cummings and his servant, both of whom were well armed, 
 drove the Indians from their ambush, and with the aid of 
 some men from the fort, who, hearing the firing, came to 
 
 * “ The Raven is one of the Cherokee favourite war names. Carolina and 
 Georgia remember Quorinnah, the Raven of Huwhase-town. He was one of the 
 most daring warriors of the whole nation, and by far the most intelligent, and this 
 name or war appellative admirably suited his well-known character.” “ The name 
 points out an indefatigable, keen, successful warrior.” — Adair. 
 
160 
 
 A FRONTIER CONGREGATION. 
 
 their relief, brought in the dead and wounded. Mr. Cres- 
 well had been in the battle at Long Island. His numerous 
 descendants reside in Sevier and Blount counties. 
 
 From the period that Mr. C. commenced preaching in the 
 Holston settlements, up to the time of this attack, the men 
 never went to church without being armed and taking their 
 families with them. On Sabbath morning, during most of 
 this period, it was the custom of Mr. Cummings to dress 
 himself neatly, put on his shot pouch, shoulder his rifle, mount 
 his horse and ride off to church, where he met his gallant 
 and intelligent congregation — each man with his rifle in his 
 hand. The minister would then enter the church, walk 
 gravely through the crowd, ascend the pulpit, deposit his 
 rifle in a corner of it, lay off his shot pouch and commence 
 the solemn services of the day. # 
 
 The several invasions, by as many separate parties of 
 Cherokee warriors, well armed, and carrying with them full 
 supplies of ammunition, were ascribed to the instigation of 
 British officers. The imputation is a serious one, and should 
 not be made without adequate testimony. It is abhorrent to 
 the feelings of civilized man ; it is in direct conflict with the 
 kindly sympathies of a Christian people, and it is repugnant 
 to all the pleasant charities of life, to incite a blood-thirsty 
 and barbarous nation to perpetrate outrage and cruelty, 
 rapine and murder, havoc arid war, indiscriminately upon 
 valiant men, helpless women and innocent children. Not 
 only was this invasion by the Cherokees imputed to British 
 agency, but the details of it were traced to a concerted plan 
 of attack, arranged by Gen. Gage and the Superintendent of 
 Indian Affairs. 
 
 John Stuart was sole agent and Superintendent of his 
 Majesty’s Indian Affairs for the Southern District. For a 
 long time he had been suspected of endeavouring to influ- 
 ence the Indians against the American cause. In support 
 of these suspicions, a gentleman from North-Carolina had 
 given some particulars to the committee of intelligence, in 
 Charleston, which he had collected from the Catawba In- 
 dians. Stuart departed suddenly from Charleston, just before 
 * Letter of General Campbell, of Abingdon. 
 
CAPTAIN STUART^ LETTER-BOOK. 
 
 161 
 
 the meeting of the Provincial Congress, and went to Savan- 
 nah. There his official letter-book was seen, by Mr. Haber- 
 sham, in which a full confirmation was found of the suspi- 
 cions excited against him, and proving that his intention was, 
 evident^, to arouse the resentment and stimulate the bad 
 passions of the savages in their neighbourhood against 
 Anglo-Americans struggling against oppression, and vindi- 
 cating the rights of freemen. In the letter-book was found 
 a despatch from Mr. Cameron, saying to Mr. Stuart, “that 
 the traders must, by some means or other, get ammunition 
 among them, or otherwise they may become troublesome to 
 him for the want of it.” The ammunition was, doubtless, 
 furnished, and went into the outfit of the several detach- 
 ments of warriors that soon after invaded the quiet and 
 unoffending pioneers of Tennessee. 
 
 Only one of these written disclosures of the murderous 
 policy adopted by England against American citizens, had 
 yet reached the frontier ; but there were other sources of in- 
 formation, not less authentic or reliable, from which the 
 machinations of the enemy were soon made known. The 
 traders noticed at first a spirit of suspicion and discontent, 
 and directly after unmistakable evidences of fixed resentment 
 and hostility. This discovery was communicated to the 
 settlers, and along with the friendly interposition of the Che- 
 rokee Pocahontas, saved the settlements from a surprise that 
 might otherwise have proved fatal. 
 
 Simultaneously with these several invasions of the frontier 
 settlements of Virginia and North-Carolina by the Cherokees, 
 that warlike nation was carrying into execution the mur- 
 derous policy instigated by British officers against South- 
 Carolina and Georgia. A plan for compelling the colonies 
 to submission, had been concerted between the British com- 
 mander-in-chief, General Gage, and the Superintendent of 
 Southern Indian Affairs, John Stuart. That plan shall be 
 given in the words of a British historian :* 
 
 “ British agents were again employed, in engaging the Indians to 
 make a diversion, and to enter the Southern Colonies on their back and 
 defencless parts. Accustomed to their dispositions and habits of mind, 
 
 * C. Stedman, History American War, vol. 1. 
 
 11 
 
102 
 
 PREPARATIONS TO INVADE 
 
 the agents found hut little difficulty in bringing them over to their pur- 
 pose, by presents and hopes of spoil and plunder. A large body of men 
 was to be sent to West Florida, in order to penetrate through the terri- 
 tories of the Creeks, Chickasaws and Cherokees. The warriors of these 
 nations were to join the body, and the Carolinas and Virginia were im- 
 mediately to be invaded. At the same time the attention of the colo- 
 nies was to be diverted, by another formidable naval and military force, 
 which was to make an impression on the sea coast. But this under- 
 taking was not to depend solely on the British army and Indians. It 
 was intended to engage the assistance of such of the white inhabitants of 
 the back settlements, as were known to be well affected to the British 
 cause. Circular letters were accordingly sent to those persons by Mr. 
 Stuart, requiring not only the well affected, but also those who wished 
 to preserve their property from the miseries of a civil war, to repair to 
 the royal standard as soon as it should be erected in the Cherokee 
 country, with all their horses, cattle and provisions, for which they should 
 be liberally paid.” 
 
 A part only of this complicated plan was executed. Sir 
 Peter Parker appeared with a British squadron in May, 
 off the coast of North-Carolina, and early in June prepared 
 to attack Charleston with a large naval and military force. 
 The Indians were true to their engagement. Being informed 
 that a British fleet with troops had arrived off Charleston, 
 they proceeded to take up the war club, and with the dawn 
 of day on the first day of July, the Cherokees poured down 
 upon the frontiers of South-Carolina, massacring without 
 distinction of age or sex, all persons who fell into their 
 power. Several white men with whom Cameron and Stuart 
 had been intriguing, painted and dressed as Indians, marched 
 with and directed their attacks upon the most defenceless 
 points of the frontier. The news of the gallant defence at 
 Sullivan’s Island, and the repulse of Sir Peter Parker, in the 
 harbour of Charleston, on the 28th of June, arrived soon after 
 that glorious victory, and frustrated in part the plan as con- 
 certed. 
 
 Preparations were immediately made, to march with an 
 imposing force upon the Cherokee nation. The whole fron- 
 tier, from Georgia to the head of Holston in Virginia, had 
 been invaded at once; and the four southern colonies, now 
 on the point of becoming sovereign and independent states, 
 assumed an offensive position, and determined in their turn 
 to invade and destroy their deluded and savage enemies. 
 
THE CHEROKEE NATION. 
 
 163 
 
 The Cherokee nation at this time occupied, as places of resi- 
 ( dence or as hunting grounds, all the territory west and 
 1 ( north of the upper settlements in Georgia, and west of 
 
 the Carolinas and South-western Virginia. They were the 
 most warlike and enterprising of the native tribes, and, ex- 
 cept the Creeks, were the most numerous. Intercourse with 
 the whites had made them acquainted with the use of small 
 arms and some of the modes of civilized warfare. They had 
 made some advances in agriculture. They lived in towns of 
 various sizes — their government was simple, and in time of 
 war especially, the authority of their chiefs and warriors was 
 supreme. Their country was known by three great geo- 
 graphical divisions : The Lower Towns, the Middle Settle- 
 ments and Vallies, and the Over-hill Towns. 
 
 The number of warriors were, in the 
 
 Middle Settlements and Vallies, 
 
 - 
 
 878 
 
 In Lower Towns, ... 
 
 - 
 
 356 
 
 In Over-hill Towns, - 
 
 - 
 
 7o7 
 
 Total Cherokee men in Towns, - 
 
 _ 
 
 1991 
 
 To these may be added such warriors as lived in the less 
 compact settlements, estimated at five hundred. * 
 
 To inflict suitable chastisement upon the Cherokees, seve- 
 ral expeditions were at once made into their territories. Colo- 
 nel McBury and Major Jack, from Georgia, entered the Indian 
 settlements on Tugaloo, and defeating the enemy, destroyed 
 all their towns on that river. General Williamson, of South- 
 Carolina, early in July began to embody the militia of that 
 state, and before the end of that month was at the head of 
 an army of eleven hundred and fifty men, marching to meet 
 Cameron, who was, with a large body ofEsseneca Indians and 
 disaffected white men, encamped at Oconoree. Encounter- 
 ing and defeating this body of the enemy, he destroyed their 
 town and a large amount of provisions. He burned Sugaw 
 Town, Soconee, Keowee, Ostatoy, Tugaloo and Brass Town. 
 He proceeded against Tomassee, Chehokee and Eustustie, 
 where, observing a recent trail of the enemy, he made pur- 
 suit and soon met and vanquished three hundred of their 
 warriors. These towns he afterwards destroyed, 
 
 * Drayton. 
 
164 
 
 GENERAL RUTHERFORD’S ARMY. 
 
 In the meantime, an army had been raised in North-Caro- 
 lina, under command of General Rutherford, and a place of 
 joining their respective forces had been agreed upon by that 
 officer and Colonel Williamson, under the supposil ion that 
 nothing less than their united force was adequate to the reduc- 
 tion of the Middle Settlements and Vallies. Colonel Martin 
 Armstrong, of Surry county, in August raised a small regiment 
 of militia and marched with them to join General Rutherford. 
 Benjamin Cleveland was one of Armstrong’s captains. Wil- 
 liam (afterwards general) Lenoir was Cleveland’s first lieu- 
 tenant, and William Gray his second lieutenant. Armstrong’s 
 regiment crossed John’s River at McKenney’s ford, passed 
 the Quaker Meadows and crossed the Catawba at Greenlee’s 
 ford, and at Cathey’s Fort joined the army under General 
 Rutherford, consisting of above two thousand men. The Blue 
 Ridge was crossed by this army at the Swannanae Gap, and 
 the march continued down the river of the same name to its 
 mouth, near to which they crossed the French Broad. From 
 that river the army marched up Hominy Creek, leaving Pis- 
 gah on the left and crossing Pigeon a little below the mouth 
 of the East Fork. Thence through the mountain to Richland 
 Creek, above the present Waynesville, and ascending that 
 creek and crossing Tuckaseigee River at an Indian town. 
 They then crossed the Cowee Mountain, where they bad an 
 engagement with the enemy, in which but one white man was 
 wounded. The Indians carried off their dead. From thence 
 the army marched to the Middle Towns on Tennessee River, 
 where they expected to form a junction with the South-Caro- 
 lina troops under General Williamson. Here, after waiting 
 a few days, they left a strong guard and continued the march 
 to the Hiwassee towns. All the Indian villages were found 
 evacuated, the warriors having fled without offering any 
 resistance. Few were killed or wounded on either side, and 
 but few prisoners taken by the whites— but they destroyed all 
 the buildings, crops and stock of the enemy, and left them in 
 a starving condition. This army returned by the same route 
 it had marched. They destroyed thirty or forty Cherokee 
 towns. * The route has since been known as Rutherford’s 
 Trace. 
 
 * Gen. Lenoir’s letter to this writer. 
 
GENERAL CHRISTIAN INVADES CHEROKEE NATION. 
 
 165 
 
 While the troops commanded byMcBury, Williamson and 
 Rutherford, were thus desolating the Lower Towns and 
 Middle Settlements of the Cherokees, another army, not less 
 valiant or enterprising, had penetrated to the more secure, 
 because more remote, Over-hill Towns. We have seen that 
 the great chieftains of these interior places, Dragging-Canoe, 
 Old Abram of Chilhovvee, and Raven, had, at the head of 
 their several commands, fallen upon Watauga and the other 
 infant settlements, and although signally repulsed, some of 
 them had united with another detachment, under another 
 leader, and were spreading devastation and ruin upon the 
 unprotected settlements near the head of Holston and Clinch* 
 in Virginia. The government of that state, indignant at 
 aggressions so unprovoked and so offensive, soon acted in a 
 manner suitable to her exalted sense of national honour. 
 Orders were immediately given to Col. William Christian to 
 raise an army and to march them at once into the heart of 
 the Cherokee country. The place of rendezvous was the 
 Great Island of Holston. This service was undertaken with 
 the greatest alacrity, and so active were the exertions of the 
 officers and men that by the first of August several compa- 
 nies had assembled at the place appointed. This prepara- 
 tory movement was itself sufficient to drive off the Indians 
 who still remained lurking around the settlements. Soon 
 after Col. Christian was reinforced by three or four hundred 
 North-Carolina militia, under Col. Joseph Williams, Col. 
 Love and Major Winston. To these were added such gun- 
 men as could be spared from the neighbouring forts and 
 stations. The whole army took up the line of march for the 
 Cherokee towns, nearly two hundred miles distant. Crossing 
 the Holston at the Great Island, they marched eight miles 
 and encamped at the Double Springs, on the head waters of 
 Lick Creek. Here the army remained a few days, till the 
 reinforcement from Watauga should overtake it. The whole 
 force now amounted to eighteen hundred men, including 
 pack-horse men and bullock drivers. All were well armed 
 with rifles, tomahawks and butcher kni ves. The army was 
 all infantry, except a single company of light horse. While 
 on the march the precaution was taken to send forward 
 
166 
 
 ARMY WADES FRENCH BROAD, 
 
 sixteen spies to the crossing place of the French Broad. The 
 Indians had boasted that the white men should never cross 
 that river. Near the moulh of Lick Creek were extensive 
 cane-brakes, which, with a lagoon or swamp of a mile long, 
 obstructed the march. The army succeeded, however, in 
 crossing through this pass. The packs and beeves did not 
 get through till midnight. At the encampment that night, 
 Alexander Harlin came in and informed Col. Christian that 
 a body of three thousand warriors were awaiting his arrival 
 at French Broad, and would certainly there dispute his pas- 
 sage across that stream. He was ordered into camp with 
 the spies. At the bend of Nollichucky the camps of the 
 enemy were found by the spies, deserted, but affording 
 unerring evidence that the Indians were embodied in large 
 numbers. This, with the message of Harlin, put the com- 
 mander on his guard, and the march was resumed, next day, 
 with every precaution and preparation against a surprise. 
 Harlin was dismissed with a request from Col. Christian that 
 he would inform the Indians of his determination to cross 
 not only the French Broad, but the Tennessee, before he 
 stopped. The route to be pursued was unknown and through 
 a wilderness. Isaac Thomas, a trader among the Cherokees, 
 acted as the pilot. He conducted the army along a narrow 
 but plain war path up Long Creek to its source, and down 
 Dumplin Creek to a point a few miles from its mouth, where 
 the war path struck across to the ford of French Broad, near 
 what has since been known as Buckingham’s Island. As 
 they came down Dumplin, and before they reached the river, 
 the army was met by Fallen, a trader, having a white flag 
 in his rifle. Christian directed that he should not be dis- 
 turbed and that no notice should be taken of his embassy. 
 He departed immediately, and gave to the Indians informa- 
 tion that the whites, as numerous as the trees, were march- 
 ing into their country. Arrived at the river, Col. Christian 
 ordered every mess to kindle a good fire and strike up tent, 
 as though he intended to encamp there several days. During 
 the night a large detachment was sent down the river to an 
 island, near where Brabson’s mill now stands, with direc- 
 tions to cross the river at that place, and to come up the 
 
near Buckingham’s island. 
 
 167 
 
 river, on its southern bank, next morning. This order was 
 executed with great difficulty. The ford was deep, and the 
 water so rapid as to require the men to march in platoons of 
 four abreast, so as to brace each other against the impetu- 
 ous stream. In one place the water reached nearly to the 
 shoulders of the men, but the ammunition and the guns were 
 kept dry. 
 
 Next morning the main body crossed the river near the 
 Big Island. They marched in order of battle, expecting an 
 attack from the Indians, who were supposed to be lying 
 about in ambush ; but to their surprise no trace was found 
 even of a recent camp. The detachment met no molestation 
 from the enemy, and, joining the main body, a halt was made 
 one day, for the purpose of drying the baggage and provi- 
 sions which had got wet in crossing the river. 
 
 When it was understood in the Cherokee nation that 
 Christian was about to invade their territory, one thousand 
 warriors assembled at the Big Island of French Broad to 
 resist the invaders. The great war path, which led through 
 it, was considered as the gate to the best part of their coun- 
 try ; and the island being the key to it, the Indians deter- 
 mined to maintain and defend that point to the last extremity. 
 From that place, a message was sent by Fallen, as already 
 mentioned, addressed to the commanding officer, not to at- 
 tempt the crossing, as a formidable host of their braves 
 would be there to dispute the passage. After the departure 
 of the messenger, a trader named Starr, who was in the 
 Indian encampment, harangued the warriors in an earnest 
 tone. He said that the Great Spirit had made the one race 
 of white clay and the other of red ; that he had intended the 
 former to conquer and subdue the latter, and that the pale 
 faces would not only invade their country, but would over- 
 run and occupy it. He advised, therefore, an immediate 
 abandonment of their purpose of defence, and a retreat to 
 their villages and the fastnesses of their mountains. The 
 trader’s counsels prevailed — all defensive measures were 
 abandoned, and, without waiting for the return of their mes- 
 sengers, the warriors dispersed, and the island was found 
 deserted and their encampments broken up and forsaken. 
 
168 
 
 ARMY CROSSES TENNESSEE. 
 
 The next morning the army resumed its march. The route 
 led along the valley of Boyd’s Creek and down Ellejay to Lit- 
 tle River. From there to the Tennessee River not an Indian 
 was seen. Col. Christian supposed that, as the Cherokee 
 settlements and towns were upon the opposite bank, he 
 would meet a formidable resistance in attempting to cross 
 it. When the troops came within a few miles of the ford, 
 he called upon them to follow him in a run till they came to 
 the river. This was done, and, pushing through, they took 
 possession of a town called Tamotlee, above the mouth of 
 Telico. The army, pack horses, &c., were all safely crossed 
 over before night, and the encampment was made in the 
 deserted town. Next morning they marched to the Great 
 Island Town, which was taken without resistance. The 
 fertile lands in the neighbourhood furnished a supply of corn, 
 potatoes and other provisions, and the Indian huts made 
 comfortable bivouacs for the troops. The commander, for 
 these reasons, made this place, temporarily, head-quarters 
 and a centre for future operations. A panic had seized the 
 Cherokee warriors, and not one of them could be found. 
 Small detachments were, therefore, from time to time, sent 
 out to different parts of the nation, and finding no armed 
 enemy to contend against, they adopted, as not a less effec- 
 tual chastisement of the implacable enemy, the policy of 
 laying waste and burning their fields and towns. In this 
 manner Neowee, Telico, Chilhowee and other villages were 
 destroyed. Occasionally, during these excursion^, a few 
 warriors were seen, escaping from one town to a place of 
 greater safety, and were killed. No males were taken pri- 
 soners. These devastations were confined to such towns as 
 were known to have advised or consented to hostilities, while 
 such, like the Beloved Town, Chota, as had been disposed to 
 peace, were spared. Col. Christian endeavoured to convince 
 the Cherokees that he warred only with enemies. He sent 
 out three or four men with white flags, and requested a talk 
 with the chiefs. Six or seven immediately came in. In a 
 few days several others, from the more distant towns, came 
 forward also and proposed peace. It was granted, but not 
 to take effect till a treaty should be made by representatives 
 
A CONDITIONAL PEACE AGREED UPON. 
 
 169 
 
 from the whole tribe, to assemble the succeeding May, at 
 Long Island. A suspension of hostilities was, in the mean- 
 time, provided for, with the exception of two towns high up 
 in the mountains, on Tennessee River. These had burnt a 
 prisoner, a youth named Moore, whom they bad taken at 
 Watauga. Tuskega and the other excepted town were 
 reduced to ashes. 
 
 Colonel Christian finding nothing more to occupy his army 
 longer, broke up his camp at Great Island Town, marched 
 to Chota, recrossed the Tennessee and returned to the settle- 
 ments. In this campaign of about three months, not one man 
 was killed. A few, from inclement weather and undue fatigue, 
 became sick. No one died. The Rev. Charles Cummings 
 accompanied the expedition as chaplain, and was thus the 
 first Christian minister that ever preached in Tennessee. A 
 pioneer of civilization, of learning and of religion — let his 
 memory not be forgotten ! 
 
 Most of the troops commanded by Christian were disbanded 
 at Long Island, where they had been mustered into service. 
 A portion of them were retained and went into winter quar- 
 ters. A new fort was erected there, which, in honour of the 
 patriotic Governor of Virginia, was called “Fort Henry.” Its 
 ruins are still pointed out on the lands of Colonel Nether- 
 land. Supplies of provisions were brought to it from Rock 
 Bridge and Augusta counties, in wagons and on pack-horses. 
 
 Captain Thompson, who commanded a company at Long 
 Island in July preceding, was with his company in this cam- 
 paign, and formed the life-guard of the commanding general. 
 
 In the centre of the Cherokee towns, taken by Christian’s 
 troops, was found a circular tower, rudely built and covered 
 with dirt, thirty feet in diameter and about twenty feet high. 
 This tower was used as a council house and as a place for 
 celebrating the green corn dance and other national ceremo- 
 nials. Within it were beds, made of cane, rather tastefully 
 arranged around its circumference. Each tower had a single 
 entrance, a narrow door. There was neither window nor 
 chimney. 
 
 The unexpected invasions made by the hitherto peaceable 
 Cherokees upon the infant settlements, retarded for a time 
 
170 
 
 NEW FLOOD OF EMIGRANTS. 
 
 the rapid growth and enlargement by which they had been, 
 for five years, so signally distinguished. But the remarkable 
 success that had followed the unaided efforts of some of the 
 stations, to repulse the assailants and to defend themselves, 
 left little ground of apprehension for the future. Not one 
 emigrant deserted the frontier or crossed the mountain for 
 safety. On the other hand, the campaign that had been carried 
 into the heart of the enemy’s country, had done more for the 
 new settlements than the mere security it afforded from pre- 
 sent assault or future invasion. The volunteers who com- 
 posed the command of Christian were, many of them, from 
 the more interior counties of North-Carolina and Virginia. 
 In their marches they had seen and noticed the fertile vallies, 
 the rich uplands, the sparkling fountains, the pellucid streams, 
 the extensive grazing and hunting grounds, and had felt the 
 genial influences of the climate of the best part of East Ten- 
 nessee. Each soldier, upon his return home, gave a glowing 
 account of the adaptation of the country to all the purposes 
 of agriculture. The story was repeated from one to another, 
 till upon the Roanoke and the Yadkin the people spoke fami- 
 liarly of the Holston, the Nollichucky, the French Broad, Lit- 
 tle River and the Tennessee. Particular places were selected, 
 springs designated and points chosen as centres for future 
 settlements. A flood of emigration followed to strengthen, 
 build up and enlarge the little community already planted 
 across the mountain. 
 
 Notwithstanding these accessions to their strength, the 
 frontier people continued their accustomed vigilance. A gar- 
 rison was still maintained in Fort Henry. The military com- 
 mand of the country was in the hands of Col. Arthur Camp- 
 bell, of Washington county, Virginia, under the belief that 
 the settlements were included within the limits of that state. 
 Col. Campbell ordered Captain Robertson to keep the Wa- 
 tauga people assembled in two places for mutual protection 
 and safety — he designated Patton’s and Rice’s Mills as the 
 most suitable points, on account of the weakness of the set- 
 tlement below the fort, and of the danger to which they might 
 soon be exposed. 
 
 In addition to these precautionary measures, it was ordered 
 
LETTER FROM COLONEL ROBERTSON 
 
 171 
 
 by the authorities of Virginia that four hundred men, under 
 the command of Col. Evan Shelby and Major Anthony Bled- 
 soe, should be stationed on the south-western frontiers, at such 
 places as would most effectually protect the inhabitants 
 against the Indians. A part of the Cherokees were known 
 to be still hostile — their towns had been destroyed and their 
 country laid waste, but their warriors had survived, and some 
 of them still panted for revenge, and had resolved to repu- 
 diate any participation in the contemplated treaty. 
 
 A letter is preserved from Col. Charles Robertson, Trustee 
 of the Watauga Association. In it will be found some infor- 
 mation never before published. It follows : 
 
 Washington District, 27th April, 1777. 
 His Excellency Richard Caswell, 
 
 Captain General of North- Carolina : 
 
 Sir : The many hostilities committed by the Cherokee and Creek In- 
 dians on this frontier, since the departure of the gentlemen delegates 
 from this county, merit your Excellency’s consideration. I will give 
 myself the pleasure to inform you of the particulars of this distressed 
 place, and of our unhappy situation. There have been several murders 
 committed lately, and on the 10th of this instant one Frederick Calvatt 
 was shot and scalped, but is yet living ; and on the day following Capt. 
 James Robertson pursued the enemy with nine men, killed one and re- 
 took ten horses, and on his return in the evening was attacked by a 
 party of Creeks and Cherokees, who wounded two of his men. Rob- 
 ertson returned the fire very bravely, but was obliged to retreat on account 
 of their superior numbers, still kept the horses and brought them in. 
 On the 27th of March last, Col. Nathaniel Guess brought letters from 
 the Governor of Virginia, which letters were sent by an Indian woman 
 to the Cherokee nation, soliciting them to come in, in eighteen days, to 
 treat for peace ; accordingly there came a party of about eighty-five fel- 
 lows, (but none of the principal warriors that had first begun the war,) 
 and at their arrival the commanding officer at Fort Patrick Henry sent 
 for me to march some troops to that garrison, as a guard during the 
 treaty. Accordingly I went, and on the 20th ult. the talks began, and 
 the articles of the treaty were as follows : first, a copy of the governor’s 
 letter was read to them, promising them protection, such as ammuni- 
 tion, provision, and men to build forts, and guard and assist them 
 against any nation, white or red ; and in return the Commissioners re- 
 quired the same from them, to which the Indians replied, they could not 
 fight against their Father, King George, but insisted on Col. Christian’s 
 promise to them last fall, that if they would make a peace they should 
 lie neutral and no assistance be asked from them by the states. The Com- 
 missioners then asked some of them to go to Williamsburgh, not as hos- 
 
172 
 
 TREATY AT LONG ISLAND. 
 
 tages, but to see their goods delivered, to obviate any suspicion of false 
 reports. A number of about ten agreed to go ; the Commissioners then 
 told them that Virginia and South-Carolina gave them peace and pro- 
 tection, and North- Carolina offered it : to which the Indians replied, 
 they heard the talks from South Carolina, and they and the talks from 
 Virginia were very good. The Indians then promised to try and bring 
 in the Dragging Canoe and his party, (a party that lies out, and has refused 
 to come in, but says they will hold fast to Cameron’s talks,) and they still 
 made no doubt but they could prevail on him, and said that he had sent 
 his talk with them, and what they agreed to he would abide by. But 
 the Little Carpenter, in private conversation with Capt. Thomas Price, 
 contradicted it, and said that the Canoe and his party were fighting 
 Capt. Robertson a few days before ; and the last day of the talks there 
 arrived an express from Clinch River, informing us of two men being 
 killed, to which the Indians replied, to keep a sharp look out, for there 
 were a great many of their men out ; and several of their women pre- 
 sent declared that the talks was before the time to get guns and am- 
 munition and continue the war as formerly. Accordingly they de- 
 manded them, which was the finishing of the talk, and in sixty days 
 they were to come in to treat and confirm the peace, and if they could 
 not bring in the Dragging Canoe, they send word laying the blame of 
 the late murder on the Creeks. 
 
 This, sir, is a true stal e of the whole proceedings of which I have the 
 honour to inform your Excellency, conscious you will take every prudent 
 method for our security. 
 
 I am, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 Charles Robertson. 
 
 N. B. There has been to the number of about twelve persons killed, 
 since the delegates departed. 
 
 But the Cherokee nation at large was reduced to great 
 want and suffering. Their national pride being humbled 
 and their martial spirit subdued, they made overtures of 
 peace. Two separate treaties were made. The one at 
 Dewitt’s Corner with Commissioners from South-Carolina 
 and Georgia, by which large cessions of country on the Sa- 
 vannah and Saluda Rivers were made. The other was held, 
 according to the agreement made between Col. Christain 
 and several of the chieis of the Over-hill Towns, at Long- 
 Island. It was conducted by Waight, still Avery, Joseph 
 Winton and Robert Lanier, Commissioners on the part of 
 North-Carolina, and Col Preston, Col. Christian and Col. 
 Evan Shelby on the part of Virginia, and the Head-men and 
 warriors for the Cherokee Indians. By this treaty Brown’s 
 line was established as the boundary line between the con- 
 
CHICK AM AUG AS REFUSE TO SIGN THE TREATY. 
 
 173 
 
 tracting parties, and the Indians relinquished their lands as 
 low down Holston as the mouth of Cloud’s Creek. 
 
 During the progress of the negotiation, the Commissioners 
 reproached the Cherokees with a breach of good faith, on 
 account of some massacres that had been perpetrated da- 
 ring the suspension ofhostilities. They excused themselves by 
 ascribing these murders to the Chickamaugas, a tribe settled 
 on a creek of that name, whose chieftain, the Dragging Ca- 
 noe, had refused to accept of peace on the terms offered by 
 Col. Christian. 
 
 The whole treaty and the proceedings during the negotia- 
 tion, are found in Haywood, Appendix, page 488, and onward. 
 It is deemed to be sufficient here to give the boundaries as 
 agreed upon between North-Carolina and the Cherokees, as 
 found in Article V of the treaty. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 That the boundary line between the State of North-Carolina and 
 the said Over-hill Cherokees shall forever hereafter be and remain as 
 follows, (to wit :) Beginning at a point in the dividing line which 
 during this treaty hath been agreed upon between the said Over-hill 
 Cherokees and the State of Virginia, where the line between that state 
 and North-Carolina (hereafter to be extended) shall cross or intersect 
 the same, running thence a right line to the north bank of Holston 
 River at the mouth of Cloud’s Creek, being the second creek below the 
 Warrior’s Ford, at the mouth of Carter’s Valley, thence a right line to 
 the highest point of a mountain called the High Rock or Chimney Top, 
 from thence a right line to the mouth of Camp Creek, otherwise called 
 Mc’Nama’s Creek, on the south bank of Nolichucky River, about ten 
 miles or thereabouts below the mouth of Great Limestone, be the same 
 more or less, and from the mouth of Camp Creek aforesaid a south-east 
 course into the mountains which divide the hunting grounds of the 
 middle settlements from those of the Over-hill Cherokees. 
 
 The Commissioners of North Carolina appointed Captain James 
 Robertson temporary agent for North-Carolina, and in written instruc- 
 tions directed him to repair to. Chota in company with the warriors re- 
 turning from the treaty, there to reside till otherwise ordered by the 
 governor. He was to discover if possible, the disposition of the Drag- 
 ging Canoe towards this treaty, as also, of Judge Friend, the Lying Fish 
 and others, who did not attend it, and whether there was any danger of 
 a renewal of hostilities by one or more of these chiefs. He was also to 
 find out tne conversations between the Cherokees and the southern, 
 western and northern tribes of Indians. He was to search in all the 
 Indian towns for persons disaffected to the American cause, and have 
 them brought before some justice of the peace, to take the oath of fidelity 
 to the United States, and in case of refusal to deal with them as the law 
 directed. Travellers into the Indian nation without passes, such as the 
 
174 
 
 WATAUGA DYNASTY TERMINATES, AND THE 
 
 third article of the treaty required, were to he secured. He was imme- 
 diately to get into possession all the horses, cattle and other property, 
 belonging to the people ofNorth-Carolina, and to cause them to be re- 
 stored to their respective owners. He was to inform the government of 
 all occurrences worthy of notice, to conduct himself with prudence and 
 to obtain the favour and confidence of the chiefs ; and in all matters with 
 respect to which, he was not particularly instructed, he was to exercise his 
 own discretion, always keeping in view the honour and interest of the 
 United States in general, and. of Horth-Carolina in particular. These 
 instructions were dated on the same day the treaty was signed, the 20th 
 of July, 1777. The commissioners addressed a letter to the chiefs and 
 warriors of the Middle, Lower and Valley towns, on the 21st of July, in- 
 forming them of the treaty of peace which they had just signed, and of 
 the intention of the eomimssioners to recommend to the governor the 
 holding of a treaty with them, of which he should give due notice to 
 them of the time and place. They promised protection and safety to 
 the chiefs and warriors who should attend it, and a suspension of hostili- 
 ties in the meantime, and they requested that the messengers who 
 should be sent from North-Carolina to their towns, might be protected 
 from insult, be permitted to perform their business, and to return in 
 safety. 
 
 In April of this year an act was passed by the Legislature 
 
 ( of North-Carolina, for the encouragement of the mili- 
 1U7 1 & 
 
 ( tia and volunteers in prosecuting the war against that 
 
 part of the Cherokees who still persisted in hostilities. At 
 the same session an act was passed for the establishment of 
 courts of pleas and quarter sessions, and also for appointing 
 and commissioning justices of the peace and sheriffs for the 
 several courts in the district of Washington, in this state. 
 
 No frontier community had ever been better governed than 
 the W atauga settlement. In war and in peace, without legisla- 
 tors or judicial tribunals, except those adopted and provided 
 by themselves, the settlers had lived in uninterrupted har- 
 mony — acting justly to all, offering violence and injury to 
 none. But the primitive simplicity of patriarchal life, as 
 exhibited by a small settlement in a secluded wilderness* 
 uncontaminated by contact with the artificial society of 
 older communities, was forced to yield to the stern commands 
 of progress and improvement. The hunter and pastoral 
 stages of society were to be merged into the agricultural and 
 commercial, the civil and political. Hereafter, Watauga, 
 happy, independent, free and self-reliant, the cradle of the 
 Great West, is merged into and becomes a part of North-Caro- 
 lina ! 
 
RULE OF NORTH- CAROLINA BEGINS. 
 
 175 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TENNESSEE— AS PART OF NORTH-CAROLINA, AND THE 
 PARTICIPATION OF HER PIONEERS IN THE 
 REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 
 
 The general assembly of North-Carolina in November, 
 seventeen hundred andseventy-seven, formed Washington dis- 
 trict into a county of the same name, assigning to it the bound- 
 aries of the whole of the present great State of Tennessee.* 
 By an act passed at the same sessionyestablishing Entry Ta- 
 kers’ offices in the several counties, “ lands which have ac- 
 crued or shall accrue to the state by treaty or conquest ,” are 
 subject to entry, &c.f 
 
 At the same session of the assembly, provision was made 
 for opening a land-office in Washington county, at the rate of 
 forty shillings per hundred acres, with the liberal permission 
 to each head of a family to take up six hundred and forty 
 acres himself, one hundred acres for his wife, and the same 
 quantity for each of his children. The law provided that the 
 Watauga settlers should not be obliged to pay for their occu- 
 pancies till January of 1779, and then for any surplus entered 
 above the quantity before mentioned, the purchaser was re- 
 quired to pay five pounds per hundred. J 
 
 The facility of taking up the choice lands of the country, 
 induced great numbers of persons, principally those without 
 means, to emigrate to the frontier. A poor man, with seldom 
 more than a single pack-horse on which the wife and infant 
 were carried, with a few clothes and bed-quilts, a skillet and 
 a small sack of meal, was often seen wending his way along 
 the narrow mountain trace, with a rifle upon his shoulder — 
 the elder sons carrying an axe, a hoe, sometimes an auger 
 
 *For the boundaries of Washington county, and all counties subsequently 
 erected out of it, see Appendix at end of volume. 
 
 j Iredell’s Revisal, page 292, chap, i., sec. 3. 
 
 t Haywood. 
 
176 
 
 CHARACTER OF PIONEERS. 
 
 and a saw, and the older daughters leading or carrying the 
 smaller children. Without a dollar in his pocket when he 
 arrived at the distant frontier, the emigrant became at once 
 a large land-holder. Such men laid the foundation of society 
 and government in Tennessee. They brought no wealth with 
 them — but what was far better, they had industrious and fru- 
 gal habits, they had hardihood and enterprise, and fearlessness 
 and self-reliance. W r ith such elements in the character of its 
 pioneers, any community will soon subdue the wilderness to 
 the purposes of agriculture. 
 
 Hitherto emigrants had reached the new settlements upon 
 pack-horses and along the old trading paths or narrow traces 
 that had first been blazed by hunters. No wagon road had 
 been opened across the’*mountains of North-Carolina to the 
 West. The legislature of this year appointed commissioners 
 to lay off and mark a road from the court-house of Washington 
 county into the county of Burke. After that road was opened, 
 emigrants of larger property began to reach the country, and 
 some of the settlements assumed the appearance of greater 
 comfort and thrift. The first house covered with shingles was 
 put up this year. It stood a few miles east of the present 
 Jonesboro’, near “The Cottage,” the residence of J. W. 
 Deaderick, Esq. 
 
 Under the provisions of an act passed for encouraging the 
 militia and volunteers to prosecute the war against the In- 
 dians, the militia of Washington county was, for the greater 
 part of this year, in the service of the state. This enabled 
 every able-bodied man between eighteen and fifty years of 
 age to secure the lands he wished to own. It had the fur- 
 ther effect of keeping the frontier well guarded. Companies 
 of rangers were kept upon the most exposed points to scour 
 the woods and cane-brakes, and to pursue and disperse small 
 parties of ill-disposed Indians who, hovering about the settle- 
 ments, occasionally killed and plundered the inhabitants. 
 Under the protection of these rangers, the settlements were 
 widened and extended down Nollichucky below the mouth of 
 Big Limestone, and down Holston to the treaty line. Indeed, 
 the frontiers were so well guarded that the Indians consi- 
 dered their incursions as perilous to themselves as they could 
 
REINFORCEMENT FROM HOLSTON TO BOONESBOROUGH. 177 
 
 be to the white inhabitants, and for a great part of the year 
 forbore to make them.* 
 
 John Carter was appointed Colonel of Washington county, 
 ( and in the execution of his duties as commandant, his 
 ( authority had been interfered with by men acting under 
 the orders of General Rutherford. Bringing this subject to 
 the notice of Governor Caswell, Col. Carter uses this inde- 
 pendent language: “Your Excellency may be assured that I 
 will do everything in my power for regulating the militia, 
 for the defence of our frontier, and for the benefit of the 
 United States, but if my dignity is to be sported with under 
 those circumstances, I have no need of your commission as 
 commanding officer for Washington District. 
 
 “N. B. I have just received intelligence of the Little 
 Carpenter being at the Long Island, with twenty-five or thirty 
 young warriors. They declare the greatest friendship, and 
 say they have five hundred young warriors ready to come 
 to the assistance of Virginia and North-Carolina when called 
 for, if to fight the English or any Indians that want war with 
 the white people of these two states.” 
 
 During the summer of this year the Indians invaded the 
 Kentucky settlements. On the 4th of July two hundred of 
 them appeared before Boonesborough and commenced one 
 of the most memorable sieges in the annals of border war- 
 fare. It continued till September, although relieved by a 
 reinforcement of forty riflemen from Holston. During the 
 siege an Indian was killed, and upon his body was found a 
 proclamation by Henry Hamilton, British Lieutenant-Go- 
 vernor and Commandant at Detroit, in which he offered pro- 
 tection to such of the inhabitants as would abandon the cause 
 of the revolted colonies, but denounced vengeance against 
 those who should adhere to them. Captain Logan, with a 
 select party of woodsmen, left the fort by night and set out 
 for Holston to procure further supplies and reinforcements. 
 With a sack of parched corn for their fare, Logan’s party, 
 travelling by night, on foot, by unfrequented ways, and con- 
 cealing themselves in secluded vallies by day, eventually 
 
 12 
 
 Haywood. 
 
178 
 
 WARM SPRINGS DISCOVERED. 
 
 succeeded in making the journey of two hundred miles, 
 appealed to the patriotism of the pioneers of Tennessee, and 
 returned to the relief of the beleaguered forts with supplies 
 and one hundred riflemen.* 
 
 During this summer two of the spies that were kept out in 
 1^8 | advance of the settlements, viz, Henry Reynolds and 
 ( Thomas Morgan, discovered the Warm Springs on 
 French Broad. They had pursued some stolen horses to the 
 point opposite, and leaving their own horses on the north 
 bank, waded across the river. As they reached the southern 
 shore they passed through a little branch, the tepid water of 
 which attracted their attention. The next year the Warm 
 Springs were resorted to by invalids. 
 
 The frontier people had been so far relieved from appre- 
 hension of Indian hostility, as to dispense during the summer 
 of this year, with a portion of the guards heretofore main- 
 tained for their protection. These were disbanded and re- 
 turned to the quiet pursuits of planting and working their 
 crops. They were lulled into a false security and had neg- 
 lected to take the usual measures of protection and defence, 
 which the exposed condition of the border settlements de- 
 manded. This relaxation of their ordinary watchfulness and 
 care, invited aggression and a renewal of the outrages and 
 massacres which had been before experienced. The settle- 
 ments being thus thrown off their guard, a portion of the 
 militia discharged and little or no regular armed force being 
 at hand, another source of annoyance and injury presented 
 itself. The tories from the disaffected counties of North- 
 Carolina and other states, had come in great numbers to the 
 frontier, and there combining with thieves and robbers, 
 prowled around the feebler neighbourhoods, and for a time 
 committed depredation and murder with impunity. Their 
 number was considerable, and they boasted that they were 
 able to look down all opposition and to defy all restraint. 
 
 In this emergency we have again to mention another in- 
 stance of self-reliance, so characteristic of the pioneer people. 
 A combination of lawless men had been formed, formidable 
 alike for their number and for their desperate character. The 
 
 * Monette. 
 
SUMMARY PUNISHMENT OF TORIES. 
 
 179 
 
 laws could not reach ; them they escaped equally detection 
 and punishment. 
 
 The law-abiding and honest people of the country took the 
 affair into their own hands, appointed a committee, invested 
 it with unlimited power, and authorized it to adopt any mea- 
 sure necessary to arrest the growing evil. The names of this 
 committee of safety are not given, but it is known that under 
 its direction and authority two companies of dragoons, num- 
 bering about thirty each, were immediately organized and 
 equipped, and were directed to patrol the whole country, 
 capture and punish with death all suspected persons, who 
 refused submission or failed to give good security for their 
 appearance before the committee. Slighter offences were 
 atoned for by the infliction of corporeal punishment ; to this 
 was superadded, in cases where the offender was able to pay 
 it, a heavy fine in money. Leaders in crime expiated their 
 guilt by their lives. Several of these were shot ; some of 
 them at their execution disclosed the names and hiding places 
 of their accomplices. These were in their turn pursued, 
 arrested and punished, and the country was in less than two 
 months restored to a condition of safety, and the disturbers of 
 its quiet preserved their lives only by secrecy or flight. 
 
 Isam Yearley, a loyalist on Nollichucky, was driven out of 
 the country by a company of whigs, of which Captain Wm. 
 Bean, Isaac Lane, Sevier and Robertson, were members. 
 The same company afterwards pursued a party of tories, 
 who uuder the lead of Mr. Grimes, on Watauga, had killed 
 Millican, a whig, and attempted to kill Mr. Roddy and Mr. 
 Grubbs. The latter they had taken to a high pinnacle on 
 the edge of the river, and threatened to throw him off. He 
 was respited under a promise that they should have all his 
 property. These tories were concealed high up Watauga in 
 the mountain, but Captain Bean and his whig comrades fer- 
 retted them out, fired upon and wounded their leader, and 
 forced them to escape across the mountain. Capt. Grimes 
 was hung after King’s Mountain battle, in which he was 
 taken prisoner.* 
 
 * Others of Bean’s company -were Joseph Duncan, John Condley, Thomas Hardi- 
 man, Wm. Stone, Michael Massingale, John and George Bean, Edmond Bean, 
 Aquilla and Isaac Lane, James Roddy, and Samuel and Robert Tate. 
 
180 
 
 COURTS CONFISCATE THE PROPERTY OF TORIES. 
 
 The occasion for this summary mode of preserving order 
 and promoting the welfare of the people, having thus been 
 removed, the committee laid down its functions and ceased to 
 exist. It had accomplished the purposes for which it had 
 been created, and the extraordinary powers with which the 
 sovereign people had invested it, were surrendered, and jus- 
 tice was again administered through the regular channels. 
 
 The exercise of these rigorous and sanguinary measures 
 may be, at this day, viewed by some with a degree of disap- 
 probation and regret. This feeling, however, will be quali- 
 fied by a recollection of the peculiar condition of the new 
 community in which they transpired, and the circumstances 
 of the general country at the period of their adoption. 
 Wicked and unprincipled men had chosen to commit their 
 outrages and depredations upon infant settlements, feeble, 
 immature and just germinating into political life. They 
 had selected, too, a period for perpetrating their crimes, when 
 the whole energies of their patriotic countrymen across the 
 mountain were called into requisition in support of the con- 
 flict for Independence ; and it is a proud reflection, that in 
 these times of trial and embarrassment, patriotism, enlarged 
 and lofty, was the sentiment of the pioneers of Tennessee. 
 Their courage never quailed, and their energies never 
 faltered amid the gloom that enveloped their Atlantic coun- 
 trymen. Under these difficulties at home, under such dis- 
 couragements abroad, did the patriots of Nollichucky and 
 Watauga discharge their high duties to themselves and to 
 their bleeding country. The tories were hunted up and pun- 
 ished or driven from amongst them, while the refugee whigs 
 were cordially welcomed, and found shelter and protection 
 in these distant retreats. 
 
 The energetic conduct of the people and the patriotic impul- 
 ses that engendered it, received also the cordial sanction and 
 concurrence of the legal tribunals of the country. In some 
 instances the action of the county courts may have assumed 
 or encroached upon the legislative prerogative. Some ex- 
 tracts from the Journals of the first courts held in the country, 
 may not be uninteresting to the curious, and are here pre- 
 served : 
 
FIRST RECORDS OF WASHINGTON COUNTY. 
 
 181 
 
 “Washington County, Feb. 23. — Court Journals. — At a court 
 begun and held for the county of Washington, Feb. 23, 1 *7 78, Present, 
 John Carter, Chairman, John Sevier, Jacob Womack, Robert Lucas, 
 Andrew Greer, John Shelby, George Russell, Wm. Been, Zachariah Isbell, 
 John McbTabb, Thomas Houghton, William Clark, John McMahan, Ben- 
 jamin Gist, John Chisholm, Joseph Willson, Wm. Cobb, James Stuart, 
 Michael Woods, Richard ■ White, Benjamin Willson, James Robertson 
 and Valentine Sevier, Esqs. On Tuesday, next day, John Sevier was 
 chosen Clerk of the- county; Valentine Sevier, Sheriff; James Stuart, 
 Surveyor; John Carter, Entry-Taker ; John McMahan, Register,; Jacob 
 Womack, Stray -Master and John McNabb, Coroner. 
 
 “ Wm. Cocke, by W. Avery, moved to be admitted Clerk of Washing- 
 ton county, which motion was rejected by the Court, knowing that John 
 Sevier is entitled to the office. 
 
 “ The State vs. , ) It is the opinion of the court that the 
 
 In Toryism. \ defendant be imprisoned during the pre- 
 
 sent war with Great Britain, and the Sheriff take the whole of his estate 
 into custody, which must be valued by a jury at the next court — one 
 half of said estate to be kept by said Sheriff for the use of the State, and the 
 other half to be remitted to the family of defendant.” 
 
 The court thus exhibited a marked instance of judgment and 
 mercy in the same Order — combining patriotism with justice 
 and humanity. 
 
 At term of Washington County Court, “ On motion ofE. Dun- 
 
 lap, State Attorney, that J. H., for his ill practices in harbouring and 
 abetting disorderly persons who are prejudicial and Inimical to the Com- 
 mon Cause of Liberty, and frequently disturbing our Tranquility in 
 General, Be imprisoned for the term and time of one year. 
 
 “ The Court duly considering the allegations Alledged and objected 
 against the said J. H., are of opinion that for his disorderly practices as 
 aforesaid, from time to time, and to prevent the further and future prac- 
 tice of the same pernicious nature, do order him to be imprisoned for the 
 term of one year, & Is, accordingly, ordered into the custody of the 
 Sheriff.” * 
 
 The jurisdiction of the court seems to have extended not 
 only to the persons of political offenders but to their property 
 also, whether in possession or expectancy. We extract again 
 from the minutes : 
 
 “ On motion of E. Dunlap, Esq., that a sum of money of fifteen hun- 
 dred pounds, current money due from R. C. to said J. H. for two negroes, 
 be retained in the hands of said C., as there is sufficient reason to believe 
 that the said H.’s estate will be confiscated to the use of the State for his 
 misdemeanors, &c. 
 
 * Journal of Washington County Court. 
 
182 
 
 FIRST CHRISTIAN MINISTERS. 
 
 “ The Court considering the case, are of opinion that the said monies 
 ought to be retained. 
 
 “ On motion that Commissioners ought to he appointed to take into 
 possession such property as shall be confiscated, &c. 
 
 “ The Court on taking the same under consideration, do Nominate and 
 Appoint John Sevier, Jesse Walton and Zachariah Isbell, Esqs., for the 
 aforesaid purpose.” 
 
 Amidst these scenes of civil disorder and violence, the chris- 
 \ tian ministry began to shed its benign influence. Ti- 
 l deuce Lane, a Baptist preacher, organized a congrega- 
 tion this year. A house for public worship was erected on Buf- 
 falo Ridge. About the same time, Rev. Samuel Doak was 
 preaching through Washington and Sullivan counties. 
 
 The second term of the Washington County Court was held 
 May 25, 1778, at the house of Charles Robertson. Ephraim 
 Dunlap was admitted as Attorney: Valentine Sevier was 
 appointed Sheriff ; John Sevier, Jesse Walton and Zachariah 
 Isbell, entered into bond for faithful performance of duties 
 as Commissioners of Confiscated Estates ; Spruce McCay was 
 admitted as Attorney. 
 
 The first settlers in the Greasy Cove were Webb, Martin 
 and Judd. The large bottoms on the- Nollichucky were then 
 dense masses of cane. Webb discovered, in a cane-brake, 
 a company of Indians. They followed him to his house, and 
 intimated to him that they would not permit him to stay 
 there unmolested. He returned to Virginia and brought 
 back to his settlement additional emigrants, and they were 
 allowed to form a considerable neighbourhood without 
 molestation ; but higher up, above this, on Indian Creek, Mr. 
 Wm. Lewis, his wife and seven children, were killed by the 
 Indians, and his house was burned. One of the sons escaped, 
 and a daughter was taken prisoner and was afterwards ran- 
 somed for a gun. The Indians were pursued by a company 
 of troops commanded by Nathaniel Taylor, but were not 
 overtaken till they, crossing French Broad river, reached the 
 inaccessible retreats beyond it. 
 
 To counteract the intrigues of the British agents, and the 
 wicked influence of disaffected Americans who had taken 
 refuge in the Cherokee nation, a Superintendent of Indian 
 
captain Robertson’s agency to cherokees. 
 
 183 
 
 Affairs was directed by Gov. Caswell to repair to their towns 
 and reside among them. Captain Robertson was selected 
 for that station. He carried, from the governor, a talk for 
 the Raven of Chota, to be delivered to that chieftain and 
 his nation by the hands of the agent and Col. McDowell. 
 By this embassy the governor acknowledged the receipt of 
 a peace talk from Savanuca, and gave assurances that he 
 was pleased with it and desired further correspondence 
 with him, and promised to use every effort for the preserva- 
 tion of peace and to inflict adequate punishment on all who 
 should violate it. He further added that, if any of the 
 Indians were kept in captivity by the whites, they should be 
 restored. But these conciliatory measures were misunder- 
 stood by the deluded savages. Savanuca and some of the 
 more aged chiefs were disposed to peace, but were unable 
 to repress the warlike attitude of the Dragging-Canoe and 
 his hostile tribe, the Chickamaugas. This tribe of the 
 Cherokees, at first, occupied the borders of Chickamauga 
 Creek, but afterwards extended their villages fifty miles 
 below, on both sides of the Tennessee. 
 
 The passage of this river through the several ranges of 
 the Cumberland Mountains, forms one of the most remark- 
 able features in American topography. It is unique, roman- 
 tic and picturesque — presenting views at once variegated, 
 grand, sublime and awful. At the Great Look Out or Chatta- 
 nooga Mountain, commences a series of rapids, where, in its tor- 
 tuous windings along the base of several mountain ranges, the 
 Tennessee River, contracted into a narrow channel, hemmed 
 in by projecting cliffs and towering precipices of solid stone, 
 dashes with tumultuous violence from shore to shore, crea- 
 ting, in its rapid descent over immense boulders and masses 
 of rock, a succession of cataracts and vortices. Beautiful 
 and interesting in the extreme to the beholder, these rapids 
 constitute a formidable obstacle to navigation, which, even 
 yet, is not entirely overcome by the agency of steam. Che- 
 rokee tradition is prolific of accident and disaster to the 
 navigation of the aborigines. It is fabled that a fleet of 
 Indian canoes, rowed by Uchee warriors, and destined for 
 an invasion of the Shawnees, at the mouth of the Ohio, was 
 
184 
 
 CAVE OF NICAJACK. 
 
 engulphed in the Whirlpool, now known as the Suck. Civi- 
 lization, skill and experience have diminished these obstacles 
 to commerce and navigation, but three quarters of a century 
 since it was an achievement of no ordinary kind to pass 
 through them, though at high tide. Even now, the voyageur 
 must be fearless and vigilant. 
 
 If the channel of the river presented dangerous physical 
 impediments, its environs held those of another character, not 
 less formidable. Along those foaming rapids and on either 
 side of the river, the shores are wild, elevated and bold, in 
 some places, scarcely leaving room for a path separating the 
 stream from the adjacent mountain, with here and there a 
 cove running back from the river into the heights which sur- 
 round and frown down upon it, in sombre solitude and 
 gloomy silence. In these mountain gorges were fastnesses, 
 dark, forbidding and inaccessible. Their very aspect invited 
 to deeds of violence, murder and crime. No human eye 
 could witness, no vigilance detect, no power punish, no force 
 avenge them. A retreat into these dreary seclusions, stimu- 
 lated to aggression, as they furnished a perfect immunity from 
 pursuit and punishment. 
 
 NIC-A-JACK CAVE. 
 
 One of the secret resorts of the free-booters who infested 
 this region, was an immense cavern still known as the Nic- 
 a-jack Cave. It is situated in the side, or end rather, of Cum- 
 berland Mountain, at a point near the present depot of the 
 Nashville and Chattanooga Rail Road, and about thirty-six 
 miles below Chattanooga. Its main entrance is on the Ten- 
 nessee River. The cave has been thus described by an- 
 other : “ At its mouth it is about thirty yards wide, arched 
 over head with pure granite, this being in the centre about fif- 
 teen feet high. A beautiful little river, clear as crystal, issues 
 from its mouth. The distance the cave extends into the moun- 
 tains has not been ascertained. It has been explored only four 
 or five miles. At the mouth the river is wide and shallow, but 
 narrower than the cave. As you proceed further up the 
 stream the cave becomes gradually narrower, until it is con- 
 tracted to the exact width of the river. It is beyond this 
 
THE “NARROWS” OF THE TENNESSEE. 185 
 
 point explored only by water in a small canoe.” The abo- 
 riginal name of this cavern was Te-calla-see. 
 
 Into this vast cavern, for the purposes of concealment and 
 murder, the banditti of the “ Narrows” retired with their spoils 
 and their victims. The place now enlivened and enriched 
 by the genius of Fulton, and in view of the Steamer and Loco- 
 motive, was then the dismal and gloomy retreat of savage 
 cruelty and barbarian guilt. 
 
 These impregnable fortresses of nature were as yet un- 
 occupied by the sons of the forest. The hunter avoided and 
 was deterred from entering them. The Indian, in his canoe, 
 glided swiftly by them, as if apprehending that the evil ge- 
 nius of the place was there to engulph and destroy him. It 
 remained for American enterprise to see and overcome them. 
 
 About 1773 or 1774, some families in West Virginia and 
 North-Carolina, attracted by the glowing accounts of West 
 Florida, sought a settlement in that province. They came 
 to the Holston frontier, built their boats, and following the 
 stream, reached Natchez by water. Necessity drove them 
 to employ Indians and Indian traders, as pilots through the 
 dangerous passes of the Tennessee River. Occasionally a 
 boat was either by accident or design shipwrecked, at some 
 point between the Chickamauga Towns and the lower end 
 of the Muscle Shoals. Its crew became easy victims of 
 savage cruelty — its cargo fell a prey to Indian cupidity. As 
 these voyages increased, and the emigrants by water multi- 
 plied from year to year, so did the Indian settlements all 
 along the rapids, also extend. The Chickamaugas were the 
 first to settle there, and to become depredators upon the lives 
 and property of emigrants. Conscious of guilt, unwilling to 
 withhold their warriors from robbery and murder, they failed 
 to attend with the rest of their tribe at treaties of peace, and 
 refused to observe treaty stipulations when entered into by 
 their nation. They broke up their old towns on and near 
 Chickamauga, removed lower down on the river, and laid 
 the foundation of several new villages, afterwards known as 
 the Five Lower Towns — Running Water, Nicajack, Long 
 Island Villages, Crow Town, and Look Out, which soon be- 
 came populous, and the most formidable part of the Cherokee 
 
186 
 
 col. evan shelby’s expedition. 
 
 nation. They were situated near the Great Crossing on 
 Tennessee, where the hunting and war parties, in their ex- 
 cursions from the south to the north, always crossed that 
 stream. To this point congregated, with fearful rapidity, 
 the worst men in all the Indian tribes. Murderers, thieves, 
 pirates, banditti, not of every Indian tribe only, but depraved 
 white men, rendered desperate by crime, hardened by out- 
 lawry and remorseless from conscious guilt, fled hither and 
 confederated with barbarian aborigines in a common as- 
 sault upon humanity and justice, and in defiance of all laws 
 of earth and heaven. These miscreants constituted for a 
 number of years the Barbary Powers of the West — the Al- 
 giers of the American interior. 
 
 They had become very numerous, composing a banditti of 
 more than one thousand warriors. These had refused the 
 terms of peace proposed by Christian, and had perpetrated 
 the greatest outrages upon the whole frontier. The Chicka- 
 mauga Towns were the central points from which their de- 
 tachments were sent out for murder and plunder, and where 
 guns, and ammunition, and other supplies, were received 
 from their allies in Florida. It was determined to invade 
 and destroy these towns. North-Carolina and Virginia, in 
 conjunction, ordered a strong expedition against them, under 
 the command of Colonel Evan Shelby. It consisted of one 
 thousand volunteers from the western settlements of these 
 two states, and a regiment of twelve months’ men under the 
 i 1 command of Col. John Montgomery.* At this period 
 i the two governments were much straightened in their 
 resources on account of the existing war of the Revolution, 
 and were unable to make any advances for supplies or trans- 
 
 * When General George Rogers Clarke, in 1778, was planning his celebrated 
 expedition to Kaskaskias, Vincennes, etc., in the Illinois country, Major W. B. 
 Smith was despatched to the Holston settlements to recruit men for that service. It 
 was desired by the government of Virginia that the troops should be raised west of 
 the Blue Ridge, so as not to weaken the Atlantic defence. Smith raised four com- 
 panies on Holston. Montgomery’s regiment was intended as a reinforcement to 
 Clarke, and was temporarily diverted Irom that object, and opportunely was at 
 hand to assist in the reduction of the Chickamaugas. Montgomery had recently 
 returned from Richmond, whither he had gone in charge of M. Rocheblave, the 
 British commandant of Kaskaskias. 
 
NAVAL ARMAMENT DESCENDS HOLSTON. 
 
 187 
 
 portation necessary for this campaign. All these were pro- 
 cured by the indefatigable and patriotic exertions, and on the 
 individual responsibility, of Isaac Shelby.* 
 
 The army rendezvoused at the mouth of Big Creek, a few 
 miles above where Rogersville, in Hawkins county, now 
 stands. Perogues and canoes were immediately made from 
 the adjacent forest, and, on the 10th of April, the troops em- 
 barked and descended the Holston. So rapid was the descent 
 of this first naval armament down the river, as to take the 
 enemy completely by surprise. They fled in all directions to 
 the hills and mountains, without giving battle. Shelby pur- 
 sued and hunted them in the woods — killed upwards of forty 
 of their warriors, burnt down their towns, destroyed their 
 corn and every article of provision, and drove away their 
 great flocks of cattle. f 
 
 In this sudden invasion Col. Shelby destroyed eleven of 
 their towns, besides twenty thousand bushels of corn. He 
 also captured a supply of stores and goods valued at £20,000, 
 which had been provided by his majesty’s agents for distri- 
 bution, at a general Council of the Northern and Southern 
 Indians, that had been called by Governor Hamilton, of De- 
 troit, to assemble at the mouth of Tennessee. J 
 
 shelby’s chickamauga expedition. 
 
 Evan Shelby commanded 350 and Col. Montgomery 150 
 men, on the Chickamauga expedition. Their pilot was named 
 Hudson. The boats turned up the Chickamauga Creek ; 
 near the mouth of a branch an Indian was taken prisoner. 
 W ith him as their guide, the troops waded out through an inun- 
 dated cane-break, and entered Chickamauga, a town nearly 
 one mile long ; Dragging Canoe and Big Fool were its 
 chiefs. The Indians, five hundred in number, astonished at 
 the sudden invasion of their towns by an armament by 
 water, made no resistance and fled into the mountains. The 
 town was burned. John McCrosky, late of Sevier county, 
 took a party and followed the flying Indians across the river, 
 and dispersed a camp of them which he found on Laurel 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
 t Idem. 
 
 t Monette. 
 
188 
 
 TROOPS RETURN NORTH OP THE RIVERS. 
 
 Creek. Another party took Little Owl’s Town, and others 
 were in like manner taken and burnt. Besides the other 
 spoils, Shelby took 150 horses, 100 cattle and great quanti- 
 ties of deer skins, owned in part by a trader named McDonald. 
 These were all sold at vendue. Isaac and all the other sons 
 of Col. Evan Shelby, were out on this campaign. 
 
 This service performed, the troops destroyed or sunk then- 
 little vessels and the supply of provisions that was in them, 
 and returned home on foot. In their march they suffered 
 much for the want of provisions, which could be procured 
 only by hunting and killing game. They returned on the 
 north side of the Tennessee, passed by the place since known 
 as the Post-Oak-Springs, crossed Emery and Clinch a little 
 above their confluence, and Holston some miles above its 
 junction with French Broad. These were the first troops 
 that had seen the richest lands of the present Hamilton, 
 Rhea, Roane, Knox, and the north part of Jefferson counties, 
 and seen as they were in all the beauty and verdure of May, 
 it is not strange that a new and increasing current of emi- 
 gration was at once turned to this beautiful and inviting 
 country. 
 
 About the time of the expedition of Shelby to Chicka- 
 mauga, Gov. Hamilton was attempting to form a grand co- 
 alition between all the northern and southern Indians, to be 
 aided by British regulars, who were to advance and assist them 
 in driving all the settlers from the Western waters. In the 
 prosecution of this object he had advanced from Detriot and 
 re-captured Vincennes, and contemplated an expedition 
 against Kaskaskias, where he expected to be joined by five 
 hundred Cherokees and Chickasaws. Shelby had destroyed 
 the towns and killed the warriors of his allies at Chicka- 
 mauga, and the coalition of the southern and northern Indians 
 was thus entirely prevented. 
 
 Col. Evan Shelby, the commander of this expedition, has 
 been elsewhere mentioned, as an officer at the Kenhawa 
 battle. He had been before in the military service of Vir- 
 ginia, as a captain of rangers under Braddock, and led 
 the advance under General Forbes when Fort DuQuesne 
 was taken by that officer. After the successful expedition to 
 
JONESBORO, OLDEST TOWN IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 189 
 
 Chickamauga, Col. Evan Shelby was appointed by Virginia, 
 a general other militia. 
 
 At the close of a useful life he died, and was buried near 
 King’s Meadow, in Sullivan county. 
 
 The Legislature of North-Carolina, this year, laid off and 
 1779 $ established Jonesborough as the seat of justice for 
 l Washington county. John Wood, Jesse Walton, George 
 Russell, James Stewart and Benjamin Clerk, were appointed 
 commissioners to lay out and direct its buildings. This was 
 the first town in what is now Tennessee. Jonesboro’ was so 
 called after Willie Jones, Esq., of Halifax, N. C., a friend to 
 the growth and prosperity of the western counties. He 
 was an active patriot and statesman in the days of the 
 Revolution, as well as before and after. He was an intelli- 
 gent, useful and honest legislator, exercising great candour 
 and independence.* 
 
 Commissioners were appointed this year to run the boun- 
 dary between Virginia and North-Carolina. This was the 
 more necessary, as lands near the line had not been entered 
 in the proper offices, and many of the settlers did not know 
 to what jurisdiction, civil or military, they belonged. At 
 the October sessions of the North-Carolina Legislature, a 
 new county was laid o^ It was called, in honour of a 
 general then commanding in the army of the United States, 
 Sullivan. 
 
 Sullivan county Records show that in February, 1780, 
 the county court met at the house of Moses Looney. A 
 commission was presented, appointing as Justices of the 
 Peace Isaac Shelby, David Looney, William Christie, (Chris- 
 tian?) John Dunham, William Wallace, and Samuel Smith; 
 John Rhea was appointed Clerk ; Nathaniel Clark, Sheriff 
 till court in course. 
 
 Isaac Shelby exhibited his commission from Gov. Caswell, 
 dated Nov. 19, 1779, appointing him Colonel Commandant 
 of the county; D. Looney, one of same date, appointing 
 him Major. Ephraim Dunlap was appointed State Attorney, 
 and John Adair, Entry-Taker. 
 
 The next court was to be held at the house of James Hollis. 
 
 * Blount papers. 
 
190 
 
 ATTACK ON BOILSTOn’s HOUSE. 
 
 Anthony Bledsoe had lived, in 1769, at Fort Chisel, and, 
 in a short time after, with his brother Isaac and the Shelbys, 
 removed further west, into what is now Sullivan county. 
 His station was not far from Long Island. He was in the 
 battle of the Flats. 
 
 After the repulse of Sir Peter Parker from Charleston, the 
 Southern States had a short respite from British attack and 
 invasion. The conquest of the states was thereafter at- 
 tempted from north to south. But that order was, from this 
 time, inverted, and his majesty’s arms were directed 
 
 against the most southern of the states. On the 29th 
 Dec., 1778, Savannah, the capital of Georgia, was taken, and 
 soon after British posts were established as far into the i nterior 
 as Augusta. General Lincoln, who commanded the southern 
 department, sent a detachment of fifteen hundred Norih- 
 Carolina militia, under command of Gen. Ashe, to oblige the 
 enemy to evacuate the upper part of Georgia. The detach- 
 ment was surprised by General Provost and entirely defeated. 
 By this victory of the British, their communication with their 
 friends, the tories, in the back country, and with their allies 
 the Cherokees, across the mountains, was restored. The 
 effect of this was soon felt upon the frontier. 
 
 Frequent conferences were he^ with the Cherokees to 
 induce them to further outbreaks upon the western settle- 
 ments. The Indians invaded the country soon after and 
 attacked Boilston’s house, on the frontier, with the loss on 
 the part of the assailants of four warriors killed and a num- 
 ber wounded. During the attack, Williams and Hardin were 
 killed. The enemy was driven off. They were pursued by 
 George Doherty, Joseph Boyd and others, but escaped. 
 
 Other mischief was attempted, but the scouts and light- 
 horse companies guarded the frontier so vigilantly, that little 
 injury was sustained by the settlers. The apprehension of 
 danger kept up the military organization of the new country, 
 made the inhabitants familiar with the duties of camp life, 
 inured them to toil and exposure, deprivation and endurance, 
 and kindled into a flame that martial spirit, which in the 
 course of the next year they were called upon to exhibit with 
 such advantage to the country and such honour to themselves. 
 
FURTHER EXPLORATION OF CUMBERLAND. 
 
 191 
 
 Stopping the order of current events, we return to the 
 ( further exploration and settlement of that part of Ten- 
 ( nessee west of the Cumberland Mountain. By the 
 treaty of Watauga, in March 1775, the Cherokees had ceded 
 to Richard Henderson & Company all (he lands lying between 
 the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers. Although that treaty 
 had been repudiated by the proclamations of Lord Dunmore 
 and Governor Martin, and settlements upon the ceded terri- 
 tory had been inhibited, the Company, regardless of conse- 
 quences, proceeded to take possession of their illegal purchase. 
 The spirit of emigration from Virginia and Norfch-Carolina 
 was aroused, and pioneers were anxious to lead the way in 
 effecting settlements. 
 
 Boon and Floyd and Callaway opened the way, and Benja- 
 min Logan, who resided some time on Holston, soon followed ; 
 and with a host of other valiant and enterprising men erected 
 forts, built stations, repelled, with unsurpassed heroism and 
 self-sacrifice, hostile invasion, and contemporaneously with 
 the pioneers of Tennessee laid the foundations of society and 
 government in Kentucky. 
 
 A portion of Henderson’s purchase on the Lower Cumber- 
 land, was within the supposed boundary of North-Carolina. 
 It was at first reached through the old route by the way of 
 Cumberland Gap, and explorers continued to pass through 
 it on their way to what is now called Middle Tennessee. 
 Amongst others, Mansco * renewed his visit in Nov., 1775, 
 and came to Cumberland River, in company with other hunt- 
 ers of the name of Bryant. They encamped at Mansco’s Lick. 
 Most of them became dissatisfied with the country, and re- 
 turned home. Mansco and three others remained and com- 
 menced trapping on Sulphur Fork and Red River. 
 
 But finding themselves in the neighbourhood of a party of 
 Blackfish Indians, they deemed it essential to their own safety 
 to ascertain where they were encamped and what was their 
 number. Mansco was selected to make the discovery. He 
 came cautiously upon their camp on the river, and standing 
 behind a tree was endeavouring to count them. He could see 
 but two, and supposed the rest were out of camp, hunting. 
 
 * Condensed or copied from Haywood. 
 
 I 
 
192 
 
 ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN DE MUMBRUNE. 
 
 At the moment when he was about to retire, one of the In- 
 dians took up a tomahawk, crossed the stream and went upon 
 the other side. The other took up his gun, put it upon his 
 shoulder, and came directly towards the place where Mansco 
 stood. He hoped the advancing Indian would go some other 
 way, but he continued to come in a straight line towards the 
 spot where he lay concealed, and had come within fifteen 
 steps of him. There being no alternative but to shoot him, 
 Mansco cocked and presented his gun, and aiming at the most 
 vital part, pulled trigger, and fired. The Indian scream- 
 ed, threw down his gun and made for the camp ; but he passed 
 it and pitched headlong down the bluff dead, into the river. 
 The other Indian ran back to the camp, but Mansco outran 
 him, and picking up an old gun tried to shoot, but he could 
 not get it to fire, and the Indian escaped. Mansco broke the 
 old gun and returned in haste to his comrades. The next 
 day they all came to the Indian camp, found the dead warrior, 
 took away his tomahawk, knife and shot-bag, but could not 
 find his gun. The other Indian had returned, loaded his 
 horses with his furs, and was gone. They pursued him all that 
 day and all night, with torches of dry cane, but could not 
 overtake him. Returning to Mansco’s Lick, they soon after 
 began their journey towards the settlements on New-River, 
 but were detained four weeks by snow, which was waist- 
 deep. After that melted, they resumed their journey and 
 arrived safe at home. 
 
 Thomas Sharp, Spencer and others, allured by the flatter- 
 ing accounts they had received of the fertility of the soil, 
 and of the abundance of game which the country afforded, 
 determined to visit it. They came, in the year 1776, to 
 Cumberland River, and built a number of cabins. Most of 
 them returned, leaving Spencer and Holliday, who remained 
 in the country till 1779. 
 
 Captain De Mumbrune who. as late as 1823, lived in 
 Nashville, hunted in that country as early as 1775. He was 
 a native of France. He fixed his residence, during the sum- 
 mer, at the place since known as Eaton’s Station. He saw 
 no Indians, during that season, in the country, but immense 
 numbers oi buffalo and other game. In February, 1777, he 
 
FIRST PLANTATION IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE. 
 
 193 
 
 arrived, after a trip to Nevv-Orleans, at Deacon’s Pond, near 
 where Palmyra now stands, and found there six white men 
 and one white woman, who, in coming to the country, had 
 taken water where Rockcastle River disembogues into the 
 Cumberland, and descended it, hunting occasionally upon its 
 banks. In their excursions they had seen no Indians, but 
 immense herds of buffaloes. One of their companions, Wil- 
 liam Bowen, had been overran by a gang of these animals, 
 and died from the bruises he received. John Duncan and 
 James Ferguson were of this company. They afterwards 
 went down the river, and were cut off at Natchez, in 1779. 
 A settlement of less than a dozen families was formed 
 
 ) near Bledsoe’s Lick, isolated in the heart of the 
 1778 ? 
 
 ) Chickasaw nation, with no other protection than their 
 own courage, and a small stockade inclosure.* 
 
 About the same time, a number of French traders ad- 
 vanced up the Cumberland River, as far as “the Bluff,” 
 where they erected a trading post and a few log cabins, 
 with the approbation of the Chickasaws.f 
 
 The Lower Cumberland continued to be visited and ex- 
 plored further. Richard Hogan, Spencer, Holliday and 
 others, -came this year from Kentucky in search of good 
 lands, and with the intention of securing some for themselves 
 as permanent settlements, they planted a small field of corn 
 in the spring of 1778. This first plantation, in Middle Ten- 
 nessee, was near Bledsoe’s Lick. A large hollow tree stood 
 near the Lick. In this Spencer lived. Pie was pleased with 
 the prospects for further settlement which the situation af- 
 forded, and could not be induced to relinquish them and re- 
 turn home, as Holliday in vain persuaded him to do. The 
 former, however, determined to leave the wilderness, but 
 having lost his knife, was unwilling to undertake his long 
 travel without one with which to skin his venison and cut 
 his meat. With back-woods generosity and kindness, Spen- 
 cer accompanied his comrade to the Barrens of Kentucky, 
 put him on the right path, broke his knife and gave him half 
 of it, and returned to his hollow tree at the Lick, where he 
 passed the winter. Spencer was a man of gigantic stature, 
 * Flint. f Martin’s Louisiana. 
 
 13 
 
194 capt. Robertson’s first colony at frencii lick. 
 
 and passing one morning the temporary cabin erected at a 
 place since called Eaton’s Station, and occupied by one of 
 Captain DeMumbrune’s hunters, his huge tracks were left 
 plainly impressed in the rich alluvial. These were seen by 
 the hunter on his return to the camp, who, alarmed at their 
 size, immediately swam across the river, and wandered 
 through the woods until he reached the French settlements 
 on the Wabash. 
 
 Nearly ten years had now elapsed since the germ of a 
 ( civilized community had been planted in Upper East 
 l Tennessee. No settlement had yet been permanently 
 fixed on the Lower Cumberland. A hunter’s camp, and the 
 lonely habitation of Spencer, were all that relieved the soli- 
 tude or lightened the gloom of that western wilderness. 
 But the cheerlessness of barbarian night was about to be 
 dissipated by the dawn of civilization and improvement. In 
 the early spring of 1779, a little colony of gallant adventu- 
 rers, from the parent hive at Watauga, crossed the Cumber- 
 land Mountain, penetrated the intervening wilds, and pitched 
 their tents near the French Lick, and planted a field of corn 
 where the city of Nashville now stands. This field was at 
 the spot where Joseph Park since resided, and near the lower 
 ferry. These pioneers were Captain James Robertson, George 
 Freeland, William Neely, Edward Swanson, James Hanly, 
 Mark Robertson, Zachariah White, and William Overhall. 
 A negro fellow also accompanied them. To their number 
 was added, immediately after their arrival at the Lick, a 
 number of others conducted by Mansco, who had ten years 
 before visited, and explored, and hunted in the country. 
 These emigrants also planted corn preparatory to the remo- 
 val of their families in the succeeding autumn. Captain 
 Robertson, during the summer, went to the Illinois to pur- 
 chase the cabin rights from General Clarke. After the crop 
 was made, Overhall, White and Swanson, were left to keep 
 the buffaloes out of the unenclosed fields of corn, while the 
 rest of the party returned for their families. 
 
 Mansco, Frazier, and other early hunters and explorers, 
 upon their previous return to the older settlements, had diffused 
 an account of the fertility of the Cumberland lands, the 
 
eobertson’s second colony. 
 
 195 
 
 abundance of game and the salubrity of the climate. This 
 account was now confirmed and extended, by the experi- 
 ment that had been made by the parties under Robertson 
 and Mansco, in planting and raising a crop. Cumberland 
 became the theme of eager conversation in every neighbour- 
 hood, and great numbers prepared to emigrate to this land 
 of future plenty and of promise. Under the lead of Mansco, 
 several families removed and settled at Mansco’s Lick, Bled- 
 soe’s Lick, and other places. John Rains and others, in Oc- 
 tober of this year, leaving New River, on their way to Ken- 
 tucky, were persuaded by Captain Robertson to accompany 
 him to the French Lick. Assenting to this proposal, they 
 were soon joined by several other companies of emigrants — 
 the whole amounting to two or three hundred, many of them 
 young men without families — some of them took out cattle 
 and other domestic animals. The route pursued was by 
 Cumberland Gap, and the Kentucky trace to Whitley’s Sta- 
 tion, on Dick’s River ; thence to Carpenter’s Station, on the 
 waters of Green River; thence to Robertson’s Fork, on the 
 north side of that stream ; thence down the river to Pit- 
 man’s Station ; thence crossing and descending that river to 
 Little Barren, crossing it at the Elk Lick ; thence passing 
 the Blue Spring and the Dripping Spring to Big Barren ; 
 thence up Drake’s Creek to a bituminous spring ; thence to 
 the Maple Swamp ; thence to Red River, at Kilgore’s Sta- 
 tion ; thence to Mansco’s Creek ; and from there to the 
 French Lick. 
 
 The inclemency of the season, the great number of the 
 emigrants, the delay inseparable from travelling over a new 
 route, part of it mountainous, all of it through a wilderness, 
 without roads, bridges or ferries, prevented the arrival of the 
 Cumberland colonists at their point of destination till the 
 beginning of the year 1780. The winter had been intensely 
 cold, and has always been remembered and referred to as 
 the cold winter by all countries in the northern hemisphere, 
 between the thirty-fifth and seventieth degrees of latitude, 
 and is decisive of the chronology that fixes the arrival of these 
 emigrants in seventeen hundred and eighty.* The Cumber- 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
196 FORTS AND BLOCK-HOUSES ERECTED NEAR THE BLUFF. 
 
 1780 ( land was found frozen over. Snow had fallen early 
 l in November, and it continued to freeze for many 
 weeks after the emigrants reached the bluff. Some of 
 them settled on the north side of the river, at Eaton’s Station, 
 where Page afterwards resided. These annals would be im- 
 perfect without their names. Some of them are given from 
 Haywood. They are Frederick Stump, Senr., Amos Eaton, 
 Hayden Wells, Isaac Roundsever, William Loggins, and — 
 Winters. The names of others are not recollected. Here 
 they built cabins, cleared ground and planted corn. The 
 cabins were built with stockades from one to the other, with 
 port holes and bastions. But most of the company crossed 
 immediately after their arrival, over the river upon the ice, 
 and settled at the Bluff where Nashville now stands. They 
 were admonished by the existing condition of things in Ken- 
 tucky on one side, and the hostilities many of them had wit- 
 nessed from the Cherokees on the other, that their settlement 
 could not long escape the aggression of the savages around 
 them. They prudently erected block-houses in lines — the 
 intervals between which were stockaded — two lines were 
 built parallel to each other, and so were other two lines, the 
 whole forming a square within. Freeland’s Station, where 
 McGavock since resided, was at this time also erected. Here 
 were also block-houses and stockades. Mr. Rains settled 
 the place since known as Deaderick’s plantation. Among 
 the emigrants that built their cabins at the bluff, were some 
 from South-Carolina. These were John Buchanan, Alexan- 
 der Buchanan, Daniel Williams, John Mulherrin, James 
 Mulherrin, Sampson Williams, Thomas Thompson, besides 
 others whose names are not given. 
 
 While Robertson and his co-emigrants were thus reaching 
 
 ( Cumberland by the circuitous and dangerous trace 
 1779 ] J 
 
 l through the wilderness of Kentucky, others of their 
 countrymen were undergoing greater hardships, enduring 
 greater sufferings, and experiencing greater privations upon 
 another route, not less circuitous and far more perilous, in 
 aiming at the same destination. Soon after the former had 
 left the Holston settlements, on their march by land, several 
 
JOURNAL OP THE ADVENTURE. 
 
 197 
 
 5J 
 
 boats loaded with emigrants and their property left Fort 
 Patrick Henry, near Long Island, on a voyage down the 
 Holston and Tennessee, and up the Ohio and Cumberland. 
 The journal of one of them, “The Adventure,” has been 
 preserved.* • It was kept by Col. John Donelson, the projec- 
 tor of the enterprise. His grandson, Captain Stockley Do- 
 nelson, who resides near “ the Hermitage,” in Davidson 
 county, has the original journal still in possession. The de- 
 tails of so new and remarkable an adventure by water, are 
 full of interest, and the journal is, therefore, given entire. 
 
 Journal op a voyage, intended by God’s permission, in the good 
 boat Adventure, from Fort Patrick Henry on Holston River, to the 
 French Salt Springs on Cumberland River, kept by John Donaldson. 
 
 December 22, 1779. — Took our departure from the fort and fell down 
 the river to the mouth of Reedy Creek, where we were stopped by the 
 fall of water, and most excessive hard frost ; and after much delay and 
 many difficulties we arrived at the mouth of Cloud’s Creek, on Sunday 
 evening, the 20thFebuary, 1780, where we lay by until Sunday, 27th, 
 when we took our departure with sundry other vessels bound for the 
 same voyage, and on the same day struck the Poor Valley Shoal, 
 together with Mr. Boyd and Mr. Rounsifer, on which shoal we lay that 
 afternoon and succeeding night in much distress. 
 
 Monday, February 28 th, 1780.— In the morning the water rising, 
 we got off the shoal, after landing thirty persons to lighten our boat. 
 In attempting to land on an island, received some damage ana lost sun- 
 dry articles, and came to camp on the south shore, where we joined 
 sundry other vessels also bound down. 
 
 Tuesday, 29 th. — Proceeded down the river and camped on the north 
 shore, the afternoon and following day proving rainy. 
 
 Wednesday , March 1st. — Proceeded on and camped on the south 
 shore, nothing happening that day remarkable. 
 
 March 2d. — Rain about half the day; passed the mouth of French 
 Broad River, and about 12 o’clock, Mr. Henry’s boat being driven on the 
 point of an islandf by the force of the current was sunk, the whole cargo 
 much damaged and the crew’s lives much endangered, which occasioned 
 the whole fleet to put on shore and go to their assistance, but with much 
 difficulty bailed her, in order to take in her cargo again. The same 
 afternoon Reuben Harrison went out a hunting and did not return that 
 night, though many guns were fired to fetch him in. 
 
 Friday , 3d. — Early in the morning fired a four-pounder for the lost man, 
 sent out sundry persons to search the woods for him, firing many guns that 
 
 * For a copy of it this writer is indebted to the politeness of L. C. Draper, Esq. 
 t Probably William’s Island, two miles above Knoxville. 
 
198 
 
 adventure” joins clinch river company. 
 
 day and the succeeding night, but all without success, to the great grief 
 of his parents and fellow travellers. 
 
 Saturday , 4 th . — Proceeded on our voyage, leaving old Mr. Harrison 
 with some other vessels to make further search for his lost son ; about 
 ten o’clock the same day found him a considerable distance down the 
 river, where Mr. Ben. Belew took him on board his boqt. At 3 o’clock, 
 P. M., passed the mouth of Tennessee River, and camped on the south 
 shore about ten’ miles below the mouth of Tennessee. 
 
 Sunday , 5 th . — Cast off and got under way before sunrise ; 12 o’clock 
 passed the mouth of Clinch ; at 12 o’clock, M. came up with the Clinch 
 River Company, whom we joined and camped, the evening proving 
 rainy. 
 
 Monday, 6th . — Got under way before sunrise; the morning proving 
 very foggy, many of the fleet were much bogged — about 10 o’clock lay 
 by for them ; when collected, proceeded down. Camped on the north 
 shore, where Capt. Hutching’s negro man died, being much frosted in 
 his feet and legs, of which he died. 
 
 Tuesday, 1th . — Got under way very early, the day proving very 
 windy, a S.S.W., and the river being wide occasioned a high sea, 
 insomuch that some of the smaller crafts were in danger; therefore came 
 to, at the uppermost Chiccamauga Town, which was then evacuated, 
 where we lay by that afternoon and camped that night. The wife of 
 Ephraim Peyton was here delivered of a child. Mr. Peyton has gone 
 through by land with Capt. Robertson. 
 
 Wednesday, 8th . — Cast off at 10 o’clock, and proceed down to an 
 Indian village, which was inhabited, on the south side of the river ; they 
 insisted on us to “ come ashore,” called us brothers, and showed other 
 signs of friendship, insomuch that Mr. John Caffrey and my son then on 
 board took a canoe which I had in tow, and were crossing over to them, 
 the rest of the fleet having landed on the opposite shore. After they 
 had gone some distance, a half-breed, who called himself Archy Coody, 
 with several other Indians, jumped into a canoe, met them, and advised 
 them to return to the boat, which they did, together with Coody and 
 several canoes which left the shore and followed directly after him. 
 They appeared to be friendly. After distributing some presents among 
 them, with which they seemed much pleased, we observed a num- 
 ber of Indians on the other side embarking in their canoes, armed and 
 painted with red and black. Coody immediately made signs to his com- 
 panions, ordering them to quit the boat, which they did, himself and 
 another Indian remaining with us and telling us to move off instantly. 
 We had not gone far before we discovered a number of Indians armed 
 and painted proceeding down the river, as it were, to intercept us. 
 Coody, the half-breed, and his companion, sailed with us for some time, 
 and telling us that we had passed all the towns and were out of danger, 
 left us. But we had not gone far until we had come in sight of another 
 town, situated likewise on the south side of the river, nearly opposite a 
 small island. Here they again invited us to come on shore, called us 
 brothers, and observing the boats standing off for the opposite channel, 
 told us that “ their side of the river was better for boats to pass.” And 
 
199 
 
 PASSES THE “ NARROWS” FIRED UPON BY INDIANS. 
 
 here we must regret the unfortunate death of young Mr. Payne, on 
 board Capt. Blackemore’s boat, who was mortally wounded by reason of 
 the boat running too near the northern shore opposite the town, where 
 some of the enemy lay concealed, and the more tragical misfortune of 
 poor Stuart, his family and friends to the number of twenty-eight per- 
 sons. This man had embarked with us for the Western country, but 
 his family being diseased with the small pox, it was agreed upon be- 
 tween him and the company that he should keep at some distance in 
 the rear, for fear of the infection spreading, and he was warned each 
 night when the encampment should take place by the sound of a horn. 
 After we had passed the town, the Indians having now collected to a 
 considerable number, observing his helpless situation, singled off from 
 the rest of the fleet, intercepted him and killed and took prisoners the 
 whole crew, to the great grief of the whole company, uncertain how 
 soon they might share the same fate ; their cries were distinctly heard 
 by those boats in the rear. 
 
 We still perceived them marching down the river in considerable 
 bodies, keeping pace with us until the Cumberland Mountain withdrew 
 them from our sight, when we were in hopes we had escaped them. 
 We were now arrived at the place called the Whirl or Suck, where the 
 river is compressed within less than half its common width above, by 
 the Cumberland Mountain, which juts in on both sides. In passing 
 through the upper part of these narrows, at a place described by Coody, 
 which he termed the “ boiling pot,” a trivial accident had nearly ruined 
 the expedition. One of the company, John Cotton, who was moving 
 down in a large canoe, had attached it to Robert Cartwright’s boat, into 
 which he and his family had gone for safety. The canoe was here over- 
 turned, and the little cargo lost. The company pitying his distress, 
 concluded to halt and assist him in recovering his property. They had 
 landed on the northern shore at a level spot, and were going up to the 
 place, when the Indians, to our astonishment, appeared immediately over 
 ns on the opposite cliffs, and commenced firing down upon us, which 
 occasioned a precipitate retreat to the boats. We immediately moved 
 off, the Indians lining the bluffs along continued their fire from the 
 heights on our boats below, without doing aDy other injury than wound- 
 ing four slightly. Jennings’s boat is missing. 
 
 We have now passed through the Whirl. The river widens with a 
 placid and gentle current ; and all the company appear to be in safety 
 except the family of Jonathan Jennings, whose boat ran on a large rock, 
 projecting out from the northern shore, and partly immdrsed in water 
 immediately at the Whirl, where we were compelled to leave them, 
 perhaps to be slaughtered by their merciless enemies. Continued to sail 
 on that day and floated throughout the following night. 
 
 Thursday , 9 th . — Proceeded on our journey, nothing happening wor- 
 thy attention to-day ; floated till about midnight, and encamped on the 
 northern shore. 
 
 Friday, 10 th . — This morning about 4 o’clock we were surprised by the 
 cries of “ help poor Jennings,” at some distance in the rear. He had dis- 
 covered us by our fires, and came up in the most wretched condition. He 
 states, that as soon as the Indians discovered his situation they turned 
 
200 
 
 INTREPIDITY OF MRS. JENNINGS’. 
 
 their whole attention to him, and kept up a most galling fire at his boat. 
 He ordered his wife, a son nearly grown, a young man who accompa- 
 nied them, and his negro man and woman, to throw all his goods into 
 the river, to lighten their boat for the purpose of getting her off, himself 
 returning their fire as well as he could, being a good soldier and an ex- 
 cellent marksman. But before they had accomplished their object, his 
 son,, the young man and the negro, jumped out of the boat and left them. 
 He thinks the young man and the negro were wounded before they left 
 the boat.* Mrs. Jennings, however, and the negro woman, succeeded in 
 unloading the boat, but chiefly by the exertions of Mrs. Jennings, who 
 got out of the boat and shoved her off, but was near falling a victim to 
 her own intrepidity on account of the boat starting so suddenly as soon 
 as loosened from the rock. Upon examination, he appears to have made 
 a wonderful escape, for his boat is pierced in numberless places with bul- 
 lets. It is to be remarked, that Mrs. Peyton, who was the night before 
 delivered of an infant, which was unfortunately killed upon the hurry 
 and confusion consequent upon such a disaster, assisted them, being fre- 
 quently exposed to wet and cold then and afterwards, and that her health 
 appears to be good at this time, and I think and hope she will do well. 
 Their clothes were very much cut with bullets, especially Mrs. Jennings’s. 
 
 Saturday , 1 1 th. — Got under way after having distributed the family 
 of Mrs. Jennings in the other boats. Rowed on quietly that day, and 
 encamped for the night on the north shore. 
 
 Sunday , 12 tli. — Set out, and after a few hour’s sailing we heard the 
 crowing of cocks, and soon came within view of the town ; here they 
 fired on us again without doing any injury. 
 
 After running until about 10 o’clock, came in sight of the Muscle Shoals. 
 Halted on the northern shore at the appearance of the shoals, in order 
 to search for the signs Capt. James Robertson was to make for us at that 
 place. He set out from Holston early in the fall of 1 V T9, was to pro- 
 ceed by the way of Kentucky to the Big Salt Lick on Cumberland River, 
 with several others in company, was to come across from the Big Salt 
 Lick to the upper end of the shoals, there to make such signs that we 
 might know he had been there, and that it was practicable for us to go 
 across by land. But to our great mortification we can find none — from 
 which we conclude that it would not be prudent to make .the attempt,, 
 and are determined, knowing ourselves to be in such imminent danger, 
 to pursue our journey down the river. After trimming our boats in the 
 best manner possible, we ran through the shoals before night. When 
 we approached them they had a dreadful appearance to those who had 
 never seen them before. The water being high made a terrible roaring, 
 
 * The negro was drowned. The son and the youDg man swam to the north 
 side of the river, where they found and embarked in a canoe and floated down the 
 river. The next day they were met by five canoes full of Indians, who took them 
 prisoners and carried them to Chickamauga, where they killed and burned the 
 young man. They knocked Jennings down and were about to kill him, but were 
 prevented by the friendly mediation of Rogers, an Indian trader, who ransomed 
 him with goods. Rogers had been taken prisoner by Sevier a short time before, 
 and had been released ; and that good office he requited by the ransom of Jen- 
 nings. 
 
ATTACK ON THE FLEET BELOW THE SHOALS. 
 
 201 
 
 which could be heard at some distance among the drift-wood heaped 
 frightfully upon the points of the islands, the current running in every 
 possible direction. Here we did not know how soon we should be dashed 
 to pieces, and all our troubles ended at once. Our boats frequently 
 dragged on the bottom, and appeared constantly in danger of striking. 
 They warped as much as in a rough sea. But by the hand of Provi- 
 dence we are now preserved from this danger also. I know not the length 
 of this wonderful shoal; it had been represented to me to be 25 or 30 
 miles. If so, we must have descended very rapidly, as indeed we did, 
 for we passed it in about three hours. Came to, and camped on the 
 northern shore, not far below the shoals, for the night. 
 
 Monday , 1 3 th. — Got under way early in the morning, and made a 
 good run that day. 
 
 Tuesday , 1 1th. — Set out early. On this day two boats approaching 
 too near the shore, were fired on by the Indians. Five of the crews were 
 wounded, but not dangerously. Came to camp at night near the mouth 
 of a creek. After kindling fires and preparing for rest, the company 
 were alarmed, on account of the incessant barking our dogs kept up ; 
 taking it for granted that the Indians were attempting to surprise us, 
 we retreated precipitately to the boats ; fell down the river about a 
 mile and encamped on the other shore. In the morning I prevailed on 
 Mr. Caffrey and my son to cross below in a canoe, and return to the 
 place ; which they did, and found an African negro we had left in the 
 hurry, asleep by one of the fires. The voyagers returned and collected 
 their utensils which had been left. 
 
 Wednesday , 15 th. — Got under way and moved on peaceably the five 
 following days, when we arrived at the mouth of the Tennessee on Mon- 
 day, the 20th, and landed on the lower point immediately on the bank of 
 the Ohio. Our situation here is truly disagreeable. The river is very high, 
 and the current rapid, our boats not constructed for the purpose of stem- 
 • ming a rapid stream, our provision exhausted, the crews almost worn 
 down with hunger and fatigue, and know not what distance we have to 
 go, or what time it will take us to our place of destination. The scene 
 is rendered still more melancholy, as several boats will not attempt to 
 ascend the rapid current. Some intend to descend the Mississippi to 
 Natchez ; others are bound for the Illinois — among the rest my son-in- 
 law and daughter. We now part, perhaps to meet no more, for I am 
 determined to pursue my course, happen what will. 
 
 Tuesday , 21st. — Set out, and on this day laboured very hard and 
 got but a little way ; camped on the south bank of the Ohio. Passed the 
 two following days as the former, suffering much from hunger and fa- 
 tigue. 
 
 Friday , 21th. — About 3 o’clock came to the mouth of a river which I 
 thought was the Cumberland. Some of the company declared it could 
 not be — it was so much smaller than was expected. But I never heard 
 of any river running in between the Cumberland and Tennessee. It 
 appeared to flow with a gentle current. We determined, however, to 
 make the trial, pushed ujr some distance and encamped for the night. 
 
 Saturday, 25th. — To-day we are much encouraged; the river grows 
 wider ; the current is very gentle, and we are now convinced it is the 
 
202 
 
 HAPPY MEETING OP THE VOYAGERS 
 
 Cumberland. I have derived great assistance from a small square sail 
 which was fixed up on the day we left the mouth of the river; and to 
 prevent any ill-effects from sudden flaws of wind, a man was stationed 
 at each of the lower corners of the sheet with, directions to give way 
 whenever it was necessary. 
 
 Sunday, 26th . — Got under way early; procured some buffalo-meat ; 
 though poor it was palatable. 
 
 Monday, 27 th . — Set out again; killed a swan, which was very deli- 
 cious. 
 
 Tuesday , 28 th . — Set out very early this morning ; killed some buffalo. 
 
 Wednesday, 29 th . — Proceeded up the river ; gathered some herbs on 
 the bottoms of Cumberland, which some of the company called Shawnee 
 salad. 
 
 Thursday, 30 th . — Proceeded on our voyage. This day we killed 
 some more buffalo. 
 
 Friday , 31sf. — Set out this day, and after running some distance, met 
 with Col. Richard Henderson, who was running the line between Virgi- 
 nia and North-Carolina. At this meeting we were much rejoiced. He gave 
 us every information we wished, and further informed us that he had 
 purchased a quantity of corn in Kentucky, to be shipped at the Falls of 
 Ohio for the use of the Cumberland settlement. We are now without 
 bread, and are compelled to hunt the buffalo to preserve life. Worn out 
 with fatigue, our progress at present is slow. Camped at night near the 
 mouth of a little river, at which place and below there is a handsome 
 bottom of rich land. Here we found a pair of hand-mill stones set up 
 for grinding, but appeared not to have been used for a great length of 
 time. 
 
 Proceeded on quietly until the 12th of April, at which time we came 
 to the mouth of a little river running in on the north side, by Moses Ren- 
 foe and his company called Red River, up which they intend to settle. 
 Here they took leave of us. We proceeded up Cumberland, nothing 
 happening material until the 23d, when we reached the first settlement 
 on the north side of the river, one mile and a half below the Big Salt 
 Lick and called Eaton’s Station, after a man of that name, who with 
 several other families, came through Kentucky and settled there. 
 
 Monday, April 24 th . — This day we arrived at our journey’s end at 
 the Big Salt Lick, where we have the pleasure of finding Capt. Robert- 
 son and his company. It is a source of satisfaction to us to be enabled 
 to restore to him and others their families and friends, who were entrusted 
 to our care, and who, sometime since, perhaps, despaired of ever meeting 
 again. Though our prospects at present are dreary, we have found a few 
 log cabins which have been built on a cedar bluff above the Lick, by Capt. 
 Robertson and his company. 
 
 The distance traversed in this inland voyage, the extreme 
 
 q ^ danger from the navigation of the rapid and unknown 
 l rivers, and the hostile attacks from the savages upon 
 their banks, mark the emigration under Col. Donelson as one 
 of the greatest achievements in the settlement of the West. 
 
WITH THE COLONISTS AT THE BLUFF. 
 
 203 
 
 The names of these adventurous navigators and bold pio- 
 neers of the Cumberland country are not, all of them, recol- 
 lected ; some of them follow: Mrs. Robertson, the wife of 
 
 James Robertson, Col. Donelson, John Donelson, Jun., Robert 
 Cartwright, Benjamin Porter, James Cain, Isaac Neely, John 
 Cotton, Mr. Rounsever, Jonathan Jennings, William Crutch- 
 field, Moses Renfroe, Joseph Renfroe, James Renfroe, Solo- 
 mon Turpin, Johns, Sen., Francis Armstrong, Isaac 
 
 Lanier, Daniel Dunham, John Boyd, John Montgomery, John 
 Cockrill and John Caffrey, with their respective families ; 
 also, Mary Henry, a widow, and her family, Mary Purnell 
 and her family, John Blackmore and John Gibson. 
 
 These, with the emigrants already mentioned as having 
 arrived with Robertson by the way of the Kentucky trace, 
 and the few that had remained at the Bluff to take care of 
 the growing crops, constituted the nucleus of the Cumber- 
 land community in 1780. Some of them plunged, at once, 
 into the adjoining forests, and built a cabin with its necessary 
 defences. Col. Donelson, himself, with his connexions, was 
 of this number. He went up the Cumberland and settled 
 upon Stone’s River, a confluent of that stream, at a place 
 since called Clover Bottom, where he erected a small fort 
 on its south side. The situation w r as found to be too low, 
 as the water, during a freshet, surrounded the fort, and it 
 was, for that reason, removed to the north side. 
 
 Dr. Walker, the Commissioner on the part of Virginia, 
 for running the boundary line between that state and North- 
 Carolina, arrived at the Bluff. He was accompanied by 
 Col. Richard Henderson and his two brothers, Nathaniel and 
 Pleasant. Col. Henderson erected a station also, on Stone’s 
 River, and remained there some time, selling lands under 
 the deed made to himself and partners by the Cherokees, at 
 Watauga, in March, 1775, as has been already mentioned. 
 He sold one thousand acres per head at ten dollars per thou- 
 sand. His certificate entitled the holder, at a future time, 
 to further proceedings in a land office.* The purchase of 
 • Transylvania in America,” as made by Henderson and his 
 associates, without any authority from the states of North- 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
204 
 
 EXTREME DEARTH ON THE FRONTIER. 
 
 Carolina and Vii'gi'nia, was, in itself, null and void, so far as 
 it claimed to vest the title of lands in those individuals. The 
 associates could be recognized only as private citizens, 
 having no right to make treaties with or purchase lands 
 from the Indians. This treaty was, however, considered as 
 an extinguishment of the Indian title to the lands embraced 
 within the boundaries mentioned in it. The legislatures of 
 the two states, for this reason, and as a remuneration for the 
 expenditures previous and subsequent to the treaty of Wa- 
 tauga, allowed, to the Transylvania Company, a grant of 
 two hundred thousand acres from each state. 
 
 One of the great sources of Indian invasion and of hostile 
 instigation, had been broken up by the capture of the British 
 posts on the Wabash and in the Illinois country, and the 
 captivity of Colonel Hamilton, who was now a prisoner at 
 Williamsburg. Many of the western tribes had entered into 
 treaties of peace and friendship with Col. Clarke, which 
 presaged a temporary quietude to the frontier people. The 
 repeated chastisements of the Cherokees by the troops under 
 Sevier and Shelby, seemed, for a time, to secure the friend- 
 ship of that nation. The news of this condition of western 
 affairs gave a new impulse to emigration, and the roads and 
 traces to Kentucky and Cumberland were crowded with 
 hardy adventurers, seeking home and fortune in their distant 
 wilds. This rapid increase of population exhausted the 
 limited supply of food in the country, and a dearth ensued. 
 Corn, and every other article of family consumption, became 
 remarkably scarce. The winter had been long and exceed- 
 ingly cold. The cattle and hogs designed for the use of the 
 emigrants in their new settlements, had perished from star- 
 vation and the inclemency of the season. The game in the 
 woods was, from like causes, poor and sickly, and, though 
 easily found and taken, was unfit for food. This scarcity 
 prevailed throughout the whole frontier line for five hundred 
 miles, and was aggravated by the circumstance that no 
 source of supply was within the reach of the suffering peo- 
 ple. In the neighbouring settlements of Kentucky, corn 
 was worth, in March, of 1780 , one hundred and sixty-five 
 dollars a bushel, in continental money, which price it main- 
 
 \ 
 
EXPOSED CONDITION OF THE COLONY. 
 
 205 
 
 tained until the opening spring supplied other means of 
 sustenance.* 
 
 Such were the circumstances ruhder which the pioneers of 
 the Lower Cumberland formed the first permanent white 
 settlement in Middle Tennessee. Their position was that of 
 hardship and danger, toil and suffering. As has been well said 
 by anotherf in reference to Kentucky : they were posted in 
 the heart of the most favourite hunting ground of numerous 
 and hostile tribes of Indians on the north and on the south ; 
 a ground endeared to them by its profusion of the finest 
 game, subsisting on the luxuriant vegetation of this great 
 natural park. It was, emphatically, the Eden of the Red 
 Man. Was it then wonderful, that all his fiercest passions 
 and wildest energies, should be aroused in its defence, against 
 an enemy, whose success was the Indian’s downfall ? 
 
 The little band of emigrants at the Bluff were in the centre 
 of a vast wilderness, e’qui-distant from the most war-like and 
 ferocious tribes on this continent — tribes that had frequently 
 wasted the frontiers of Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania, 
 with the tomahawk and with fire, and that were now aided, 
 in the unnatural alliance of Great Britain, by the arts and 
 treasures furnished by the agents of that government. To 
 attack and invasion from these tribes, the geographical po- 
 sition of the Cumberland settlers gave a peculiar exposure 
 and a special liability. Three hundred miles of wilderness 
 separated them from the nearest fort of their countrymen on 
 Holston. They were, perhaps, double that distance from 
 their seat of government in North-Carolina, while all the 
 energies of the parent state were employed in the tremendous 
 struggle for Independence, in the cause of which she had so 
 early and so heartily engaged. This forlorn situation of the 
 settlement at the Bluff became more perilous, as it was so 
 accessible by water from the distant hostile tribes. De- 
 scending navigation could bring, with great rapidity, the 
 fleets of canoes and perogues, from the Ohio and its western 
 tributaries, loaded with the armed warriors of that region ; 
 while upon the Tennessee River, with equal celerity, the 
 Cherokee and Creek braves could precipitate themselves to 
 * Monette. f Butler. 
 
206 
 
 PERMANENT SETTLEMENT AT THE BLUFF. 
 
 the different landings on that stream, and co-operating with 
 their confederates from the north, unite in one general stroke 
 of devastation and havoc. Had this been dene at the period 
 of the first emigration, the Bluff settlement could have been 
 annihilated. Happily, the protracted and inclement winter 
 that inflicted its inhospitable severity and such great hard- 
 ships upon the first emigrants, protected them from attack, 
 by confining their enemies to their towns and wigwams. 
 Early in January, a small party of Delaware Indians came 
 from the direction of the Cany Fork, and passed by the head 
 of Mill Creek, and encamped on one of its branches, which 
 has since been called Indian Creek. The Indians proceeded 
 to Bear Creek of Tennessee, and continued there during the 
 summer. At this time they offered no molestation to the 
 whites. Before the next irruption of the Indians, time was 
 given for the erection of defences, and Robertson’s second 
 colony was planted — consisting, like the first at Watauga, of 
 intrepid men and heroic women — fit elements for the founda- 
 tion of a great and flourishing state. And here, at the Bluff, 
 with its little garrison and rude stations — in the centre of a 
 wide wilderness, and overshadowed by the huge evergreens 
 and the ancient forest around it — amidst the snows, and ice, 
 and storms of 1780, was fixed the seat of commerce, of 
 learning and the arts — the future abode of refinement and 
 hospitality, and the cradle of empire. 
 
 When the first settlers came to the Bluff in 1779-’80, Hay- 
 wood says the country had the appearance of one which had 
 never before been cultivated. There was no sign of any 
 cleared land, nor other appearance of former cultivation. 
 Nothing was presented to the eye but one large plain of 
 woods and cane, frequented by buffaloes, elk, deer, wolves, 
 foxes, panthers, and other animals suited to the climate. The 
 lands adjacent to the French Lick, which Mansco, in 1769, 
 when he first hunted here, called an old field, was a large 
 open space, frequented and trodden by buffaloes, whose large 
 paths led to it from all parts of the country and there con- 
 centred. On these adjacent lands was no under-growth nor 
 cane, as far as the water reached in time of high water. 
 The country as far as to Elk River and beyond it, had not a 
 
ANCIENT REMAINS ON CUMBERLAND. 
 
 207 
 
 single permanent inhabitant, except the wild beasts of the 
 forest ; but there were traces, as everywhere else, of having 
 been inhabited many centuries before by a numerous popu- 
 lation. At every lasting spring is a large collection of graves, 
 made in a particular way, the whole covered with a stratum 
 of mould and dirt, eight or ten inches deep. At many springs 
 is the appearance of walls enclosing ancient habitations, the 
 foundations of which were visible whenever the earth was 
 cleared and cultivated — to these walls entrenchments were 
 sometimes added. The walls sometimes enclose six, eight, 
 or ten acres of land, and sometimes they are more extensive. 
 
 We have thus traced the stream of emigration from the 
 Atlantic to the West. We have seen a few enterprising and 
 adventurous men, clustering together on the banks of the 
 remote and secluded Watauga, felling the forest, erecting 
 the cabin, forming society and laying the foundation of go- 
 vernment. We have seen the plain and unpretending emi- 
 grant from the Yadkin, and his hunter associates, combining 
 the wisdom and virtue of the pioneer condition, and provi- 
 ding laws and regulations suited to the wants of the new 
 community around them. We have seen the patriotism and 
 chivalry of the extreme western settlement rally at the sound 
 of danger. Leaving their own frontier exposed, they mag- 
 nanimously returned to the defence of a sister colony, and on 
 the rugged Kenhawa, met and repulsed the savage invader. 
 We have seen Robertson negotiate an enlargement of his 
 border, and effect a peaceable extension of the settlements. 
 We have seen the fortress erected, the station built, and the 
 enemy repulsed. We have seen armaments by land and wa- 
 ter boldly penetrate to the centre of the warlike Cherokee 
 nation, and the soldiery of the Watauga bivouac upon the 
 sources of the Coosa. The first settlement in Tennessee 
 planted, defended, secure and prosperous, we have seen its 
 founder and patriarch lead forth a new colony, through ano- 
 ther wilderness, to experience upon another theatre, new pri- 
 vations, and undergo new dangers, and perform new achieve- 
 ments upon the remote Cumberland. There, for the present, 
 we shall leave them, and return to the eastern settlements. 
 Here was the cradle of the great State of Tennessee, where 
 
208 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 
 
 its infancy was spent and its early manhood formed. The 
 vigorous shoots sent out from the parent stem — the colonies 
 that have gone abroad from the old homestead and peopled 
 the great West — have ever been worthy of their ancestry. 
 Their rapid growth and enlargement, their unexampled pros- 
 perity and achievement, are noticed with feelings of parental 
 fondness and pride. In no spirit of senile arrogance is the 
 claim upon their filial piety asserted for veneration and re- 
 gard to their East Tennessee forefathers. Through them our 
 proud state claims to be one of the “Old Thirteen,” and to 
 be identified with them in the cause of independence and 
 freedom. 
 
 On a preceding page, it has been mentioned that the capi- 
 tal of Georgia was in the possession of the British, and that 
 their posts had been extended up the Savannah River, as 
 high as Augusta. Simultaneously with the arrival of the 
 enemy in Georgia, was that of General Lincoln in South- 
 Carolina, and the war of the Revolution was at once trans- 
 ferred from the Northern to the Southern States. 
 
 It was hoped that by the co-operation of our generous 
 ally, France, all that had been lost in the south would be 
 recovered at a single blow ; and that by the combined forces 
 of Lincoln and Count D’Estaing, the army under Provost, and 
 then concentrated at Savannah, would be captured. That 
 place was attacked on the 8th of October, but the result 
 blasted all the high hopes of the combined armies ; and 
 their failure was the precursor of the loss of Charleston and 
 the reduction of the Southern States. D’Estaing soon after 
 left the coast. The southern army was nearly broken up ; 
 sickness had diminished the number of the Carolina regi- 
 ments, while those from the north were daily becoming 
 weaker, by the expiration of the term of their enlistment. 
 The quiet possession of Georgia by the enemy, brought to 
 their aid many of the Indians, and of the loyalists who had 
 fled from the Carolinas and Georgia and taken refuge among 
 them. These were now emboldened to collect from all quar- 
 ters, under cover of Provost’s army. These either united 
 with it, or joined in formidable bodies to hunt up and de- 
 stroy the whig inhabitants. Many of these were forced, in 
 
CHARLESTON CAPITULATES. 
 
 209 
 
 their turn, to forsake their plantations, and transport their 
 families beyond the mountains to the securer retreats ol Wa- 
 tauga and Nollichucky. It became evident that all that was 
 wanting to complete British ascendancy in the South, was 
 the possession of Charleston. Should that metropolis, and 
 the army that defended it, be captured, the reduction of the 
 whole state, and probably of North-Carolina also, would 
 ensue. To attain these objects, ten thousand chosen men, 
 with an immense supply of arms and munitions of war, 
 were landed, on the eleventh of February, 1780, on John’s 
 Island, the command of which was taken by Sir Henry 
 Clinton. The assembly of South-Carolina was in session ; 
 and though the regular troops in the state did not then 
 amount to one thousand men, and the defences of the city 
 were in a dilapidated or unfinished condition, it was resolved 
 with one voice to defend the capital to the last extremity. 
 Governor Rutledge was invested with dictatorial powers, 
 and measures were taken to hasten the arrival of reinforce- 
 ments from the interior of the state and from North-Caro- 
 lina. The besieged at no time amounted to four thousand 
 men, and yet had to defend an extent of works that could 
 not be well manned by less than ten thousand. Besides, 
 they were badly furnished, and, before the siege was over, 
 were even suffering for food. Yet the defence was pro- 
 tracted, under every discouragement and disadvantage, from 
 the 29th of March to the 12th of May, when General Lincoln 
 found himself obliged to capitulate. The fall of the metro- 
 polis was soon after succeeded by the rapid conquest of the 
 interior country, and, from the seacoast to the mountains, 
 the progress of the enemy was almost wholly an uninter- 
 rupted triumph. The inhabitants generally submitted, and 
 were either paroled as prisoners, or took protection as Bri- 
 tish subjects. A few brave and patriotic men, under gal- 
 lant and indomitable leaders, remained in arms, but were 
 surprised and cut to pieces by Tarleton and Webster, or, 
 for security from their pursuit, withdrew into North-Caro- 
 lina. The march of the enemy was continued towards the 
 populous whig settlements, and garrisons were established at 
 prominent points of the country, with the view of pushing 
 14 
 
210 
 
 CLARKE GALLANTLY ATTACKS THE ENEMY. 
 
 their conquest still further into the interior. South-Carolina 
 was considered a subdued British province, rather than an 
 American state, and Sir Henry Clinton, believing the conquest 
 complete, invested Lord Cornwallis with the chief command, 
 and sailed for New- York. 
 
 “ But, in the midst of the general submission of the inhabitants, there 
 remained a few unconquerable spirits, whom nothing but death could 
 quell. These were Sumpter, Marion and Williams, in South-Carolina, 
 and Clarke and Twiggs, in Georgia. The three last had never submit- 
 ted, and were ever in motion, harassing and waylaying the enemy. But 
 their force was seldom considerable. Sumpter and Marion, after the 
 capitulation of Charleston, had retired into North-Carolina, to recruit 
 their commands and gather the means of carrying on that partizan war- 
 fare in which they afterwards became so conspicuous.” * 
 
 When Georgia was overrun by the British, Colonel Clarke, 
 
 ^ $ with about one hundred of his valiant but overpowered 
 ( countrymen, sought safety in the remote settlements 
 on the Watauga and Holston. Here their representations 
 of the atrocities perpetrated by the loyalists induced many of 
 the frontier men to return with Clarke and retaliate the inju- 
 ries he and his associates had suffered. Clarke thus rein- 
 forced, approached the British camp, placed his men near the 
 road that lead to it, and sent forward a small detachment of 
 his men to draw out the enemy into his ambuscade. The 
 stratagem succeeded. On the approach of the British and loy- 
 alists, Robert Bean, of Watauga, fired at and killed the com- 
 manding officer. Many of his men suffered the same fate. 
 The enemy was repulsed, and in their retreat before Clarke 
 several were killed, while he sustained the loss of but a sin- 
 gle Georgian. Here began a lasting friendship between the 
 Georgians and the Western settlers. 
 
 The successes of the British army had stimulated into life 
 the hitherto dormant disaffection of some of the inhabitants 
 of North-Carolina. That army was now approaching, in its 
 career of conquest and victory, the southern boundary of that 
 state. Some who had hitherto worn the mask of friendship, 
 became now the avowed enemies of the American cause. In 
 the settlements beyond the mountain a few tories had taken 
 refuge. To watch their motions as well as those of the Indians, 
 
 * Johnson. 
 
GEN. RUTHERFORD CALLS FOR THE WESTERN RIFLEMEN. 211 
 
 it was found necessary to embody scouting parties of armed 
 men. One of these killed Bradley, a disaffected citizen from 
 Halifax county, and notorious for his crimes and his frequent 
 and artful escapes from justice. With him was also taken 
 another confederate in guilt, Halley. They were both taken 
 and shot by Robert Sevier’s company of horsemen. Another 
 tory named Dykes, was also captured. He and others had 
 concerted a plan to come to the house of Col. Sevier and mur- 
 der him. The wife of Dykes, who had in time of distress 
 been treated by Sevier with great kindness and humanity, dis- 
 closed to him the meditated mischief. Dykes himself was 
 immediately hung. This was done by Jesse Green and John 
 Gibson, two of the Regulators. An act of oblivion was passed 
 for their relief. 
 
 Thus the vigilance and efforts of the Western settlers were 
 not confined to the protection and defence of their own seclu- 
 ded homes. They had left parents and kindred and country- 
 men east of the Alleghanies, and their hearts yet yearned for 
 their safety and welfare. The homes of their youth were 
 pillaged by a foreign soldiery, and the friends they loved were 
 slain or driven into exile. Above all, the great cause of 
 American freedom and independence was in danger, the coun- 
 try was invaded by a powerful foe, and the exigencies of Ca- 
 rolina called aloud for every absent son to return to her res- 
 cue and defence. The call was promptly obeyed. And the 
 mountain men — the pioneers of Tennessee — were the first to 
 resist the invaders, and restrained not from the pursuit of the 
 vanquished enemy till they reached the coast of the Atlantic. 
 
 After the destination of the large armament under Sir 
 Henry Clinton was ascertained to be Charleston, Gen. 
 Rutherford, of North-Carolina, issued a requisition for 
 the militia of that state to embody for the defence of their sis- 
 ter state. That order reached Watauga, and the following 
 proceedings were immediately had in that small but patriotic 
 and gallant community. They are copied from the original 
 manuscript in the possession of this writer. They are almost 
 illegible from the ravages of time and exposure, but even now 
 plainly shew the bold and characteristic chirography of Col. 
 Sevier and the commissioned officers under him. There is 
 
 1780 
 
212 MEETING OF COL. SEVIER AND OTHER MILITIA OFFICERS. 
 
 no preamble, no circumlocution — Nothing but action, prompt 
 and decisive action, and the names of the actors : 
 
 “ At a meeting of sundry of the Militia Officers of Washington County, 
 this 19th day of March, 1780: Present, John Sevier, Colonel, Jonathan 
 Tipton, Major, Joseph Willson, John McNabb, Godfrey Isbell, Wm. Trim- 
 ble, James Stinson, Robert Sevier, Captains, and Landon Carter, Lieute- 
 nant, in the absence of Valentine Sevier, Captain. 
 
 “ In order to raise one hundred men, agreeable to command of the 
 Hon. Brigadier Rutherford, to send to the aid of South-Carolina. 
 
 “ It is the opinion of the officers, that each company in this county do 
 furnish eight effective men, ■well equipt for war, except Samuel Williams’s 
 company, which is to furnish four men well equipt as aforesaid. 
 
 John Sevier, Jno. McNabb, 
 
 Joseph Willson, Jonathan Tipton, 
 
 Wm. Trimble, Godfrey Isbell.” 
 
 James Stinson, 
 
 On the same page is a list of captains. They are “ Cap- 
 tains McKnabb, Sevier, Hoskins, Been, Brown, Isbell, Trim- 
 ble, Willson, Gist, Stinson, Davis, Patterson, Williams.” 
 
 A similar requisition was made upon Isaac Shelby, the 
 Colonel of Sullivan county. He was then absent in Ken - 
 tucky. Fortunately General Rutherford was hurried off 
 with such reinforcements as were near at hand, and the 
 militia of these remote counties were not, with him, placed 
 under the command of General Gates in the ill-advised and 
 badly arranged engagement near Camden. Well was it for 
 the future fame of Sevier and Shelby; well was it for the 
 cause in which, soon afterwards, they acquired distinction 
 for themselves and led their comrades in arms to victory and 
 glory, that they were still left in their mountain recesses to 
 quicken the patriotic impulses, and arouse the martial spirit of 
 their countrymen, and lead them forth against the enemies of 
 their country and of freedom. This duty they were soon called 
 to perform. Col. Charles McDowell, in the absence of 
 General Rutherford, succeeded in command, and immediately 
 forwarded a despatch to Sevier and Shelby, informing these 
 officers of the surrender of Charleston and the main south- 
 ern army, and that the enemy had overrun South-Caro- 
 lina and Georgia, and were rapidly approaching the limits 
 of North-Carolina ; and requesting them to bring to his aid 
 all the riflemen that could be raised, and in as short time as 
 
COLONEL SHELBY AND HIS RIFLEMEN. 
 
 213 
 
 possible. Sevier had already enrolled, under the requisition 
 of General Rutherford, one hundred of the militia of Wash- 
 ington county. At his call, another hundred immediately 
 volunteered, and, with these two hundred mounted riflemen, 
 he started, at once, across the mountain for the camp of Mc- 
 Dowell. The despatch to Shelby reached him the 16th of 
 June, in Kentucky, where he was locating and surveying 
 lands. He immediately returned home, determined to go to 
 the aid of his bleeding country and sustain the struggle in 
 which she was engaged, till her independence should be 
 secured. His appeal to the chivalry of Sullivan county was 
 met by a hearty response, and early in July he found himself 
 at the head of two hundred mounted riflemen, whom he 
 rapidly led to the camp of McDowell, near the Cherokee 
 ford of Broad River, in South-Carolina. Sevier, with his 
 regiment, had arrived there a few days before. 
 
 In the meantime, the British army had advanced to Ninety- 
 Six, Camden and Cheraw, in South-Carolina. At the for- 
 ego <j mer place Nesbitt Balfour commanded, and, on the 
 ( 15th July, issued the following proclamation: 
 
 “ Notwithstanding the extraordinary lenity shown the misled inhabi- 
 tants of this province, that they may now plainly see their true interest 
 is to unite sincerely with his Majesty’s forces to suppress every invader 
 of the public tranquillity, I have certain information that some persons 
 who have been received into his Majesty’s protection, forgetting every 
 tie of honour and gratitude, and led by the hope of enriching them- 
 selves by plundering the peaceable inhabitants, and are engaged in the 
 work of subverting his Majesty’s mild and just government, have f * 
 * * and are now actually in arms, with a body of rebels, assembled 
 
 against the peace- of this province. 
 
 “ This is, therefore, to give notice that every inhabitant of this province 
 who is not at his own home by the 24th instant, or cannot make it 
 appear that he is absent on lawful business, is hereby declared an out- 
 law and is to be treated accordingly, and his property, of whatsoever 
 kind, confiscated, and liable to military execution.” 
 
 Lord Cornwallis meeting with little obstruction in his vic- 
 torious march, contemplated an extension of his conquest 
 through North-Carolina. He had instructed the loyalists of 
 that state not to rise until his approach to its southern bound” 
 
 \ The original, from which this is copied, is here illegible. It was taken from 
 a tory officer by Col. Sevier. 
 
* 
 
 214 CAPTURE OP COLONEL MOORE. 
 
 ary would favour their concentration with his forces, and at 
 the same time intimidate the whigs. As he approached Cam- 
 den, Col. Patrick Moore appeared at the head of a large band 
 of disaffected Americans from Tryon (since Lincoln) county, 
 and erecting the royal standard, invited to it all the loyalists 
 in that section of North and South-Carolina lying between 
 the Catawba River and the mountains. The rapid successes 
 of the enemy and his near approach, encouraged the rising of 
 the tones, and Colonel Moore, after an uninterrupted march, 
 took post in a strong fort built by General Williamson, about 
 four years before, during the Cherokee war. It was sur- 
 rounded by a strong abbatis and was otherwise well provided 
 with defences. It stood upon the waters of Pacolet River. 
 
 Soon after the arrival of Sevier and Shelby at the Chero- 
 kee ford, Col. McDowell detached them, and Col. Clarke, of 
 Georgia, with about six hundi'ed men, against Moore. His 
 post was more than twenty miles distant. The riflemen took 
 up the line of march at sunset, and at the dawn of day next 
 morning surrounded the fort. Shelby sent in one of his men 
 (William Cocke, Esq.) and made a peremptory demand of 
 the surrender of the fort. Moore replied that he would de- 
 fend it to the last extremity. The lines of the assailants were 
 immediately drawn in, within musket-shot of the enemy all 
 round, with a determination to make an assault upon the 
 fort. But before proceeding to extremities a second message 
 was sent in. To this Moore replied, that he would surrender 
 on condition that the garrison be paroled not to serve again 
 during the war. The assailants were as humane as they were 
 brave; and to save the effusion of the blood of their deluded 
 countrymen, the terms were agreed to. The fort was sur- 
 rendered. Ninety-three loyalists and one British sergeant- 
 major were in the garrison, with two hundred and fifty Stand 
 of arms, all loaded with ball and buckshot, and so disposed of 
 at the port-holes that double the number of the whigs might 
 have been easily repulsed. 
 
 As confirming the accuracy of the account as here given 
 of the surrender of Colonel Moore, the subjoined letter is 
 here for the first time published. It was taken amongst the 
 spoils at King’s Mountain, and is now so worn as to be nearly 
 
OTHER MEASURES TAKEN TO EMBODY THE LOYALISTS. 215 
 
 illegible : the writer’s name is no longer upon it. It may be the 
 despatch of Major Ferguson himself to Lord Cornwallis, apolo- 
 gizing for the conduct of some loyalist then under censure. 
 Speaking of the fort and garrison commanded by Col. Moore, 
 the writer says : 
 
 “ It had an upper line of loop-holes and was surrounded by a very 
 strong abbatis, with only a small wicket to enter by. It had been put 
 in thorough repair at the request of the garrison, which consisted of the 
 
 neighbouring militia that had come to , and was defended by 
 
 eighty men against two or three hundred banditti without cannon, and 
 
 each man was of opinion that it was impossible 
 
 . . . . The officer next in command and all the others, gave their 
 
 opinion for defending it, and agree in their account that Patrick Moore, 
 after proposing a surrender, acquiesced in their opinion and offered to go 
 and signify as much to the rebels, but returned, with some rebel officers, 
 whom he put in possession of the gate and place, who were instantly 
 followed by their men, and the fort full of rebels to the surprise of the 
 garrison. He plead cowardice, I understand . . 
 
 “ Mr. Gibbs is a very loyal man and has suffered much in this rebel- 
 lion , . — — — Maj. Gibbs’s fidelity and zeal for the 
 
 King’s service is undoubted. I have only laid the above circumstances 
 before your Lordship, as a proof of the very bad consequences to the pub- 
 lic service Lordship, measures that may 
 
 follow from the mistaken humanity of easy, well-meaning men to the 
 utter subversion of all justice and policy.” 
 
 This bold incursion of the mountain men, together with 
 the capture of the garrison under Moore, induced Lord Corn- 
 wallis to detach from his main army some enterprising offi- 
 cers, with a small command, to penetrate through the 
 country, embody the loyalists and take possession of the 
 strongest posts in the interior. This had become the more 
 necessary as the advance of the American army under 
 De Kalb, and afterwards under Gates, began to inspirit the 
 desponding whigs and at the same time restrained the vigor- 
 ous co-operation of the tories with the British troops. Mea- 
 sures were, therefore, adopted to embody and discipline the 
 zealous loyalists, and for this purpose Col. Ferguson, an 
 active and intelligent officer, and possessing peculiar quali- 
 fications for attaching to him the marksmen of Ninety-Six, 
 was despatched into that district. 
 
 “ To a corps of one hundred picked regulars, he soon succeeded in 
 attaching twelve or thirteen hundred hardy natives ; his camp became 
 
216 FERGUSON SECURES THE ALLEGIANCE OF THE INHABITANTS. 
 
 the rendezvous of the desperate, the idle and vindictive, as well as of the 
 youth of the loyalist, whose zeal or ambition prompted them to military 
 service. There was a part of South-Carolina which had not yet been 
 trodden by a hostile foot, and the projected march through this unex- 
 plored and as yet undevastated region, drew many to the standard of 
 Ferguson. This was the country which stretches along the foot of the 
 mountain towards the borders of North-Oarolina. The progress of the 
 British commander and his unnatural confederates, was marked with 
 blood and lighted up with conflagrations.”* 
 
 Astonished by the bold and unexpected incursion of the 
 western volunteer riflemen, under Shelby and Sevier, and 
 apprehending that the contagion of their example and their 
 presence might encourage the whigs of Carolina to resume 
 their arms, Ferguson and the loyalists took measures to 
 secure the allegiance of the inhabitants by the following 
 written agreement, entered into and signed by disaffected 
 American militia officers. The original is now before the 
 writer. It was found in the possession of a tory colonel, by 
 Sevier, at King’s Mountain. 
 
 “ As the public safety and the preservation of our freedom and pro- 
 perty depends upon our acting together in support of the royal cause, 
 and in defence of our country against any enemy who may attack us ; 
 it is the unanimous opinion of the officers and men of Gibbs’, Plummer’s, 
 Cunningham’s, dairy’s, King’s and Kirkland’s battalions of militia, and 
 also of all the officers and men of Colonel Mills’s battalion of North-Caro- 
 nians, assembled under the command of Major Ferguson at Brannon’s 
 Settlement, August 13, 1780: That every man who does not assemble 
 when required, in defence of his country, in order to act with the other 
 good subjects serving in the militia, exposes his comrades to unnecessary 
 danger, abandons the royal cause and acts a treacherous part to the country 
 in which he lives ; and it is the unanimous opinion that whoever quits 
 his battalion, or disobeys the order of the officers commanding, is a 
 worse traitor and enemy to his king and country, than those rebels who 
 are again in arms after having taken protection, and deserves to be 
 treated accordingly ; and we do, therefore, empower the officers com- 
 manding in camp as well as the officers commanding our several bat- 
 talions of militia, from time to time, to cause the cattle and grain of 
 all such officers and men, as basely fail to assemble and muster as re- 
 quired in times of public danger, or who quit their battalions without 
 leave, to be brought to camp for the use of those who pay their debt 
 to the country by their personal services ; and we do also empower the 
 said commanding officers, and do require of them, that they will secure 
 the arms and horses of such delinquents, and put them into the possession 
 of men who are better disposed to use them in defence of their country, 
 
 * Johnson. 
 
SHELBY AND CLARKE AT THE CEDAR SPRING. 
 
 217 
 
 and that they will bring such traitors to trial, in order that they may he 
 punished as they deserve and turned out of the militia with disgrace. 
 The above resolutions agreed to by every man of the above mentioned 
 
 regiments, as well as by the men of and Philip’s regiment, 
 
 who were at camp at Edward Moverley’s, this 16th day of August, 
 1780. Zach. Gibbs, Major, John Hamilton, Major, Thos. D. Hill, jun., 
 Adjt., John Philips, L. C., W. T. Turner, L. Colonel, Daniel Plummer, 
 Major. 
 
 “ It was also this day unanimously, Resolved, by every officer and man 
 now in camp, of all the above mentioned regiments, that whatever man 
 should neglect to assemble and do his duty in the militia, when sum- 
 moned for public service, shall be made to serve in the regular troops ; it 
 being the unanimous opinion of every man present, that it is the duty 
 of all who call themselves subjects, to assist in defence of the country one 
 way or the other.” 
 
 By such means as these were the whigs dispirited and 
 the ranks of the British and tories hourly enlarged. 
 
 As he advanced, Ferguson increased his command till it 
 1 amounted to above two thousand men, in addition to 
 l a small squadron of horse. To watch their move- 
 ments, and, if possible, to cut off their foraging parties, Col. 
 McDowell, not long after the surprise and capture of Moore, 
 detached Cols. Shelby and Clarke, with six hundred mounted 
 riflemen. Several attempts were made by Ferguson to sur- 
 prise this party, but, in every instance, his designs were 
 baffled. However, on the first of August, his advance of 
 six or seven hundred men came up with the party of Shelby 
 and Clarke, at a place called Cedar Spring, where they had 
 chosen to fight him. A sharp conflict of half an hour ensued, 
 when Ferguson came up with his whole force, and the 
 Americans withdrew, carrying off the field of battle twenty 
 prisoners, with two British officers. The killed of the enemy 
 was not ascertained. The American loss was ten or twelve 
 killed and wounded. Among the latter was Col. Clarke, on 
 the neck, slightly, with a sabre. 
 
 McDowell’s policy was to change his camp frequently. 
 He now lay at Smith’s ford of Broad River. Here he re- 
 ceived information that a party of four or five hundred tories 
 were encamped at Musgrove’s mill, on the south side of Eno- 
 ree River, about forty miles distant. He again detached 
 Shelby and Clarke, together with Col. Williams, of South- 
 Carolina, who had joined his command, to surprise and dis- 
 
218 
 
 BATTLE AT MUSGROVe’s MILL. 
 
 perse them. Ferguson lay, with his whole force, at that 
 time, exactly between. The detachment amounted to six 
 hundred horsemen. These took up their line of march, just 
 before sundown, on the evening of the eighteenth of August. 
 They went through the woods until dark, and then took a 
 road leaving Ferguson’s camp some three or four miles to 
 the left. They rode very hard all night, and at the dawn of 
 day, about half a mile from the enemy’s camp, were met by 
 a strong patrol party. A short skirmish followed, when 
 the enemy retreated. At that moment a countryman, living 
 just at hand, came up and informed the party that the enemy 
 had been reinforced the evening before with six hundred 
 regular troops, under Col. Ennes, which were destined to 
 join Ferguson’s army. The circumstances of this informa- 
 tion were so minute that no doubt could be entertained of 
 its truth. For six hundred men, fatigued by a night ride of 
 forty miles, to march on and attack the enemy, thus rein- 
 forced, seemed rash and improper. To attempt an escape 
 by a rapid retreat, broken down as were both men and 
 horses, was equally hopeless, if not impossible. The heroic 
 determination was, therefore, instantly formed to make the 
 best defence they could under the existing circumstances. 
 A rude and hasty breast-work of brush and old logs was 
 immediately constructed. Captain Inman was sent forward 
 with about twenty-five men to meet the enemy and skirmish 
 with them as soon as they crossed the Enoree. The sound 
 of their drums and bugles soon announced their movements, 
 and induced the belief that they had cavalry. Inman was 
 ordered to fire on them, and retreat according to his own 
 discretion. This stratagem, which was the suggestion of 
 the captain himself, drew the enemy forward in disorder, as 
 they believed they had driven the whole party. When they 
 came up within seventy yards, a most destructive fire from 
 the riflemen, who lay concealed behind their breast- work of 
 logs, commenced. It was one whole hour before the enemy 
 could force the Americans from their slender defences, and 
 just as they began to give way in some points, the British 
 commander, .Col. Ennes, was wounded. All his subalterns, 
 except one, being previously killed or wounded, and Captain 
 
THE BRAVE CAPTAIN INMAN KILLED. 
 
 219 
 
 Hawsey, the leader of the loyalists on the left, being shot 
 down, the whole of the enemy’s line began to yield. The 
 riflemen pursued them close, and drove them across the river. 
 In this pursuit the gallant Inman was killed, bravely fight- 
 ing the enemy hand to hand. In this action Col. Shelby 
 commanded the right, Col. Clarke, the left, and Col. Williams, 
 the centre. 
 
 The battle lasted one hour and a half. The Americans 
 lay so closely behind their little breast-work that the enemy 
 entirely over-shot them, killing only six or seven, amongst 
 whom the loss of the brave Captain Inman was particularly 
 regretted. His stratagem of engaging and skirmishing with 
 the enemy until the riflemen had time to throw up a hasty 
 breast-work— his gallant conduct during the action, and his 
 desperate charge upon their retreat — contributed much to the 
 victory. He died at the moment it was won. The number 
 of the enemy killed and wounded was considerable. The 
 tories were the first to escape. Of the British regulars un- 
 der Col. Ennes, who fought bravely to the last and prolonged 
 the conflict even against hope, above two hundred were 
 taken prisoners. 
 
 The Americans returned immediately to their horses, and 
 mounted with a determination to be in Ninety-Six before 
 night. This was a British post less than thirty miles distant, 
 and not far from the residence of Col. Williams, one of the 
 commanders. It was considered best to push their successes 
 into the disaffected regions before time would allow rein- 
 forcements to reach them. Besides, by making their next 
 expedition in the direction of Ninety-Six, they would avoid 
 Ferguson's army, near whose encampment they would have 
 necessarily to pass on their return to McDowell’s head-quar- 
 ters, at Smith’s Ford. At the moment of starting, an express 
 from McDowell rode up in great haste, with a short letter in 
 his hand from Governor Caswell, dated on the battle ground, 
 apprising McDowell of the defeat of the American grand 
 army under General Gates, on the sixteenth, near Camden, 
 advising him to get out of the way, as the enemy would, no 
 no doubt, endeavour to improve their victory to the greatest 
 advantage, by cutting up all the small corps of the Ameri- 
 
220 
 
 TIIE AMERICANS RETIRE ACROSS THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 can armies. Fortunately, Col. Shelby was well acquainted 
 with the hand-writing of Governor Caswell, and knew what 
 reliance to place upon the intelligence brought by the ex- 
 press. The men and horses were fatigued by the rapid 
 march of the night, as well as the severe conflict of the 
 morning. They were now encumbered with more than two 
 hundred British prisoners and the spoils of victor}'. Besides 
 these difficulties that surrounded the American party, there 
 was another that made extrication from them, dangerous if 
 not impossible. A numerous army under an enterprising 
 leader lay in their rear, and there was every reason to be- 
 lieve that Ferguson would have received intelligence of the 
 daring incursion of the riflemen, and of the defeat of his 
 friends at the Enoree. The delay of an hour might have 
 proved disastrous to the victors. The prisoners were imme- 
 diately distributed among the companies, so as to leave one 
 to every three men, who carried them alternately on horse- 
 back. They rode directly towards the mountains, and con- 
 tinued the march all that day and night, and the succeeding 
 day, until late in the evening, without ever stopping to re- 
 fresh. This long and rapid march — retreat it can scarcely be 
 called, as the retiring troops bore with them the fruits of a 
 well earned victory — saved the Americans. For, as was af- 
 terwards ascertained, they were pursued closely until late in 
 the evening of the second day after the action, by Major Du- 
 poister, and a strong body of mounted men from Ferguson’s 
 army. These became so broken down by excessive fatigue, 
 in hot weather, that they despaired of overtaking the Ameri- 
 cans and abandoned the pursuit. 
 
 Shelby having seen the party and its prisoners beyond the 
 reach of danger, retired across the mountains. He left the 
 prisoners with Clarke and Williams, to be carried to some 
 place of safety to the North, for it was not known then that 
 there was even the appearance of a corps of Americans any 
 where south of the Potomac. So great was the panic after 
 the defeat of Gates, and the disaster of Sumpter, that McDow- 
 ell’s whole army broke up. He, with several hundred of his 
 followers, yielding to the cruel necessity of the unfortunate 
 circumstances which involved the country, retired across the 
 
DEPRESSED CONDITION OF THE AMERICAN CAUSE. 
 
 221 
 
 mountains, and scattered themselves among the hospitable 
 settlers in the securer retreats of Watauga and Nollichucky. 
 
 At this period a deep gloom hung over the cause of 
 | American Independence, and the confidence of its 
 l most steadfast friends was shaken. The reduction of 
 Savannah, the capitulation of Charleston and the loss of the 
 entire army under General Lincoln, had depressed the hopes 
 of the patriot whigs, and the subsequent career of British 
 conquest and subjugation of Georgia and South-Carolina, 
 excited serious apprehension and alarm for the eventual 
 success of the American cause. At the urgent appeal of the 
 patriotic Governor Rutledge, Virginia had sent forward rein- 
 forcements under Col. Buford. His command was defeated 
 and his men butchered by the sabres of Tarleton. At Cam- 
 den a second southern army, and commanded by General 
 Gates, was dispersed, captured and signally defeated by 
 Cornwallis. 
 
 But besides these disasters, there were other circumstances 
 that aggravated the discouraging condition of American 
 affairs. The finances of Congress were low ; the paper cur- 
 rency had failed ; its depreciation was every where sinking 
 with a rapid proclivity still lower ; the treasuries of the states 
 were exhausted and their credit lost ; a general distress per- 
 vaded the country ; subsistence and clothing for the famish- 
 ing and ill-clad troops, were to be procured only by impress- 
 ment ; and the inability of the government, from the want of 
 means, to carry on the war, was openly admitted. British 
 posts were established, and garrisons kept up at numerous 
 points in the very heart of the country, and detachments 
 from the main army were with profane impudence rioting 
 through the land in an uninterrupted career of outrage, ag- 
 gression and conquest. Under the protection of these, the 
 loyalists were encouraged to rise against their whig coun- 
 trymen, to depredate upon their property, insult their fami- 
 lies, seek their lives and drive them into exile upon the 
 Western waters. This was the general condition of Ameri- 
 can affairs in the South, immediately after the defeat near 
 Camden. General Gates endeavouring to collect together 
 the shattered fragments of his routed army, made a short 
 
222 
 
 CORNWALLIS ADVANCES TO CHARLOTTE. 
 
 halt at Charlotte. He afterwards fell back further and 
 made his head-quarters at Hillsboro’. 
 
 After the discomfiture of the American army at Camden, 
 and the defeat and dispersion of Sumpter’s corps, Lord Corn- 
 wallis waited only for supplies from Charleston, before he 
 proceeded to North-Carolina, which he now scarcely con- 
 sidered in any other light than as the road to Virginia. A 
 junction with the royal forces in that state, was expected at 
 so early a day as to give time for prosecuting further opera- 
 tions against Maryland and Pennsylvania. The expectation 
 of some went so far as to count upon a junction with the 
 royal army in New- York, and the subjugation of every state 
 south of the Hudson, before the close of the campaign.* 
 Elated with such delusive prospects of conquest and renown, 
 from achievements so magnificent and romantic, Lord Corn- 
 wallis, until provisions for his army arrived, resumed at Cam- 
 den the consideration of civil affairs, hoping to give quiet 
 and stability^ to the province he had subdued. Finding that 
 many Americans, after swearing allegiance to the British 
 government, had, on the approach of Gates, revolted, he 
 thought it necessary to prevent further defection by severity 
 towards the most active and forward in violation of their 
 oaths. The estates of such were sequestered. Instant death 
 was denounced against those, who after taking protection, 
 should be found in arms against the king. Other measures 
 were at the same time adopted, to secure the submission of 
 the whigs. Some of the most influential of these, in defiance 
 of the terms of surrender and the faith of treaty, were torn 
 from their families, hurried into transports and conveyed to 
 the fortress of St. Augustine. Among these was General 
 Rutherford, whose offence was that while a prisoner at Cam- 
 den, he manifested no signs of penitence for his rebellion, nor 
 of submission to his captors. The lives and property of the 
 whigs were subjected to a military despotism. 
 
 Having completed these arrangements in South-Carolina, 
 his lordship, on the eighth of September, marched towards 
 North-Carolina ; and as he passed through the most hostile 
 and populous districts, he sent Col. Tarleton and Major Fer- 
 
 * Ramsay. 
 
FERGUSON TAKES POST AT RUTHERFORDTON. 
 
 223 
 
 guson to scour the country to his right and left. Arrived at 
 Charlotte, and conceiving it to be a favourable situation for 
 further advances, he made preparations for establishing a 
 post at that place. While he was thus engaged, the com- 
 manders of his detachments were proceeding in their respec- 
 tive expeditions. The detachment under Ferguson, as has 
 been already seen, had been for several weeks on the left of 
 the main army, watching the movements of McDowell, 
 Sevier, Shelby, Sumpter and Williams, and Clarke and 
 Twiggs. His second in command, Dupoister, had followed 
 in close pursuit the mountain men as they retired, after their 
 victory at Enoree, to their mountain fastnesses. Ferguson 
 himself, with the main body of his army, followed close upon 
 the heels of Dupoister, determined to retake the prisoners or 
 support his second in command, if he should overtake and 
 engage the escaping enemy. Finding that his efforts were 
 fruitless, Ferguson took post at a place then called Gilbert 
 Town, near the present Rutherfordton, in North-Carolina. 
 From this place he sent a most threatening message by 
 Samuel Philips, a paroled prisoner, that if the officers west 
 of the mountains did not lay down their opposition to the 
 British arms, he would march his army over, burn and lay 
 waste their country and hang their leaders. 
 
 Patrick Ferguson, who had sent this insolent message, 
 was at the head of a large army. Of the loyalists compo- 
 sing a pai’t of his command, some had previously been 
 across the mountain, and were familiar with the passes by 
 which these heights were penetrated. One of them had been 
 subjected to the indignity of a coat of tar and feathers, in- 
 flicted during the past summer, by the light horsemen of 
 Captain Robert Sevier, on Nollichucky. He proposed to act 
 as pilot to the command, which now stood at the foot of the 
 Blue Ridge, ready to carry into execution the threat made 
 by Ferguson. This gentleman had already displayed that 
 combination of intrepid heroism, inventive genius and sound 
 judgment, which constitute the valiant soldier and the able 
 commander. In early youth he entered the British army, 
 and in the German war was distinguished by a courage as 
 cool as it was determined. The boasted skill of the Ameri- 
 
224 
 
 FERGUSON AT NINETY-SIX. 
 
 cans in the use of the rifle was an object of terror to the 
 British troops, and the rumors of their fatal aim operated upon 
 and stimulated the genius of Ferguson. His invention pro- 
 duced a new species of that instrument of warfare, which 
 he could load at the breech, without using the rammer or 
 turning the muzzle away from the enemy, and with such 
 quickness of repetition as to fire seven times in a minute.* 
 
 After the reduction Charleston, Lord Cornwallis called for 
 the assistance of Ferguson in procuring the submission of 
 South-Carolina. Among the propositions of that commander 
 to secure this object, one scheme was to arm those of the 
 inhabitants who were well-affected to the British cause and 
 embody them for their own defence. Ferguson, now a lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, was entrusted with the charge of marshall- 
 ting the militia throughout the upper districts. Under 
 his direction and conduct, a military force, at once nu- 
 merous and select, was enrolled and disciplined. These 
 he divided into two classes ; one, of the young men, who 
 should be ready to join the king’s troops to repel any enemy 
 that infested the country ; another, of the aged and heads of 
 families, who should unite in the defence of their houses, 
 farms and neighbourhoods. f 
 
 “ In completing this organization, Ferguson had advanced to Ninety- 
 Six, and, with a large body of troops, was, with his usual vigour and 
 success, acting against small detachments of Americans, who, under all 
 the discouragements that surrounded them, still remained true to the 
 cause of independence, and determined to maintain possession of the 
 country against the overwhelming force of the British and the royal 
 militia. At Ninety-Six Ferguson received intelligence that a corps of 
 Americans, under Col. Clarke, had made an attempt upon the British 
 post at Augusta, and, being repulsed, was retreating by the back settle- 
 ments to North-Carolina. To this information, the messenger further 
 added that the commandant at Augusta, Col. Brown, intended to hang 
 upon the rear of Clarke, and urged Ferguson to cut across his route 
 and co-operate in intercepting and dispersing his party. This service 
 seemed to be perfectly consistent with the purposes of Ferguson’s expe- 
 dition, as it would give employment to his loyalists, prevent the con- 
 centration of whig forces, and prevent their junction with Gen. Gates. 
 Clarke was able, however, to elude his vigilance, and was present, as 
 has been seen, at the battle of Enoree, and assisted in that masterly 
 engagement, and the remarkable retreat by which he and his comrades 
 
 * Bissett. 
 
 f Idem. 
 
SHELBY AND SEVIER APPEAL TO THE VOLUNTEERS. 225 
 
 escaped from Ferguson. The pursuit of the retiring Americans 
 brought Ferguson so far to the left as to seem to threaten the habi- 
 tations of the hardy race that occupied and lived beyond the moun- 
 tains. He was approaching the lair of the lion, for many of the fami- 
 lies of the persecuted whigs had been deposited in this asylum.”* 
 
 The refugee whigs received a hearty welcome from their 
 hospitable but plain countrymen on Watauga and Nolli- 
 chucky. The door of every cabin was thrown open, and the 
 strangers felt at once assured of kindness, of sympathy and 
 assistance. Among the neighbours of Sevier and Shelby the 
 exiles from the Carolinas and Georgia were at home. 
 
 Among the refugees, soon after, came Samuel Philips, the 
 paroled prisoner, by whom Ferguson sent his threatening mes- 
 sage as already mentioned. It reached Shelby about the last 
 of August. He immediately rode fifty or sixty miles to see 
 Sevier, for the purpose of concerting with him measures suited 
 to the approaching crisis. He remained with him two days. 
 They came to the determination to raise all the riflemen they 
 could, march hastily through the mountains and endeavour 
 to surprise Ferguson in his camp. They hoped to be able, 
 at least, to cripple him so as to prevent his crossing the moun- 
 tain in the execution of his threat. The day and the place 
 were appointed for the rendezvous of the men. The time was 
 the twenty-fifth day of September, and the Sycamore Shoals, 
 on Watauga, selected as being the most central point and 
 abounding most in the necessary supplies. 
 
 Col. Sevier, with that intense earnestness and persuasive 
 address for which he was so remarkable, began at once to 
 arouse the border-men for the projected enterprise. In this 
 he encountered no difficulty. A spirit of congenial heroism 
 brought to his standard, in a few days, more men than it was 
 thought either prudent or safe to withdraw from the settle- 
 ments: the whole military force of which was estimated at 
 considerably less than a thousand men. Fully one half of 
 that number was necessary to man the forts and stations, and 
 keep up scouting parties on the extreme frontier. The remain- 
 der were immediately enrolled for the distant service. A dif- 
 ficulty arose from another source. Many of the volunteers 
 
 15 
 
 * Johnson. 
 
226 
 
 PATRIOTISM OF MRS. SEVIER. 
 
 were unable to furnish suitable horses and equipments. The 
 iron hand of poverty checked the rising ambition of many a 
 valorous youth, who 
 
 “had heard of battle, 
 
 And who longed to follow to the field some warlike chief.” 
 
 “ Here,” said Mrs. S., pointing to her son, not yet sixteen 
 years old ; “ Here, Mr. Sevier, is another of our boys that 
 wants to go with his father and brother to the war — but we 
 have no horse for him, and, poor fellow, it is a great distance 
 to walk.” Colonel Sevier tried to borrow money on his own 
 responsibility, to fit out and furnish the expedition. But every 
 inhabitant had expended the last dollar in taking up his land, 
 and all the money of the country was thus in the hands of the 
 Entry-taker. Sevier waited upon that officer and represented 
 to him that the want of means was likely to retard, and in 
 some measure to frustrate, his exertions, to carry out the expe- 
 dition, and suggested to him the use of the public money in 
 his hands. John Adair, Esq., late of Knox county, was the 
 Entry-taker, and his reply was worthy of the times and wor- 
 thy of the man. “ Col. Sevier, I have no authority by law to 
 make that disposition of this money. It belongs to the im- 
 poverished treasui’y of North-Carolina, and I dare not appro- 
 priate a cent of it to any purpose. But, if the country is over- 
 run by the British, liberty is gone. Let the money go too. 
 Take it. If the enemy, by its use, is driven from the country, 
 lean trust that country to justify and vindicate my conduct. 
 Take it.” 
 
 The money was taken and expended in the purchase of am- 
 munition and the necessary equipments. Shelby and Sevier 
 pledged themselves to see it refunded, or the act of the Entry- 
 taker legalized by the North-Carolina legislature. That was 
 scrupulously attended to at the earliest practicable moment. 
 The evidence of it is before this writer, in the original receipt 
 now in his possession : 
 
 “ Rec’d., Jan’y. 31st, 1 *7 82, of Mr. John Adair, Entry-taker in the 
 county of Sullivan, twelve thousand seven hundred and thirty-five dol- 
 lars, which is placed to his credit on the Treasury Books. 
 
 Per Robert Lanier, Treas’r. 
 
 1 2,735 Dollars. 
 
 Salisbury Dist,” 
 
CO-OPERATION OF COLONEL CAMPBELL. 
 
 227 
 
 Sevier also undertook to bring Col. McDowell and other 
 field officers who with their followers were then in a state 
 of expatriation amongst the western settlers, into the measure. 
 In this he succeeded at once. All of them had been driven 
 from their homes, which were now deserted and exposed to 
 the depredations of the disorderly and licentious loyalists who 
 had joined the foreign enemy. Most of them had friends and 
 kindred, on whom Ferguson and his tories were even then 
 wreaking their vengeance. These homes and these friends, 
 they longed to rescue and protect from further violence and 
 desecration. 
 
 To Shelby was assigned the duty of securing the co-ope- 
 ration of the riflemen of Western Virginia. These had, in 
 many a past campaign, with the pioneers of Tennessee, 
 bivouaced and fought and triumphed together over a savage 
 foe, and it was now deemed essential to the preservation of 
 liberty and independence to obtain the aid of these gallant 
 men in resisting the invasion of the common country. Shel- 
 by accordingly hastened home, wrote a letter to William 
 Campbell, colonel commandant of Washington county, Vir- 
 ginia, and sent it by his brother, Moses Shelby, to the house 
 of Campbell, a distance of forty miles. In this letter Col. 
 Shelby stated what had been determined on by Sevier and 
 himself, and urged Campbell to join them with his regiment. 
 That gallant officer, true to the general cause, but most loyal 
 to Virginia, replied, by the same messenger, that he did not 
 approve of the measures that had been adopted, and that he 
 should pursue his original intention and march his men down 
 by way of the Flower Gap, and get on the southern borders 
 of Virginia, ready ta meet and oppose Lord Cornwallis when 
 he approached that state. With this answer Shelby was 
 much disappointed. He was unwilling that the whole mili- 
 tary force of Sullivan and Washington counties should be 
 taken upon the contemplated expedition, and thus leave the 
 frontier exposed to attacks from the Cherokees, from whom 
 they were threatened with, and had good reason to expect, 
 an immediate invasion. He, therefore, wrote a second letter 
 and sent it by the same messenger, immediately back to Col. 
 Campbell, giving additional reasons in favour of the projected 
 
228 
 
 THE CAMP AT WATAUGA. 
 
 campaign. To this letter Campbell replied that he would 
 co-operate with his whole force. 
 
 Col. Campbell commanded four hundred men from Vir- 
 ginia, Col. Sevier two hundred and forty from Washington, 
 and Col. Shelby two hundred and forty from Sullivan county, 
 in North-Carolina. The refugee whigs mustered under Col. 
 McDowell. All were well mounted, and nearly all armed 
 with a Deckhard * rifle. 
 
 The camp on Watauga, on the twenty-fifth of September, 
 presented an animated spectacle. With the exception of the 
 few colonists on the distant Cumberland, the entire military 
 force of what is now Tennessee was assembled at the Syca- 
 more Shoals. Scarce a single gunman remained, that day, 
 at his own house. The young, ardent and energetic had 
 generally enrolled themselves for the campaign against Fer- 
 guson. The less vigorous and more aged, were left, with 
 the inferior guns, in the settlements for their protection 
 against the Indians ; but all had attended the rendezvous. 
 The old men were there to counsel, encourage and stimulate 
 the youthful soldier, and to receive, from the colonels, in- 
 structions for the defence of the stations during their absence. 
 Others were there to bring, in rich profusion, the products 
 of their farms, which were cheerfully furnished gratuitously 
 and without stint, to complete the outfit of the expedition. 
 Gold and silver they had not, but subsistence and clothing, 
 and equipment and the fiery charger — anything the frontier- 
 man owned, in the cabin, the field or the range, was offered, 
 unostentatiously, upon the altar of his country. The wife 
 and the sister were there, and, with a suppressed sigh, wit- 
 nessed the departure of the husband and the brother. And 
 there, too, were the heroic mothers, with a mournful but 
 noble pride, to take a fond farewell of their gallant sons. 
 
 The sparse settlements of this frontier had never before 
 seen assembled together a concourse of people so immense 
 and so evidently agitated by great excitement. The large 
 
 * This rifle was remarkable for the precision and distance of its shot. It was 
 generally three feet six inches long, weighed about seven pounds, and ran about 
 seventy bullets to the pound of lead. It was so called from Deckhard, the maker, 
 in Lancaster, Pa. One of them is now in the possession of the writer. 
 
CAMPBELL, SHELBY, SEVIER AND m’dOWELL. 
 
 229 
 
 mass of the assembly were volunteer riflemen, clad in the 
 home-spun of their wives and sisters, and wearing the 
 hunting shirt so characteristic of the back-woods soldiery, 
 and not a few of them the moccasins of their own manu- 
 facture. A few of the officers were better dressed, but all 
 in citizens’ clothing. The mien of Campbell was sterm 
 authoritative and dignified. .Shelby was grave, taciturn and 
 determined. Sevier, vivacious, ardent, [impulsive and ener- 
 getic. McDowell, moving about with the ease and dignity 
 of a colonial magistrate, inspiring veneration for his virtues 
 and an indignant sympathy for the wrongs of himself and 
 his co-exiles. All were completely wrapt in the absorbing 
 subject of the revolutionary struggle, then approaching its 
 acme, and threatening the homes and families of the moun- 
 taineers themselves. Never did mountain recess contain 
 within it, a loftier or a more enlarged patriotism — never a 
 cooler or more determined co'urage. 
 
 In the seclusion of their homes in the West, many of the 
 volunteers had only heard of war at a distance, and had 
 been in undisputed possession of that independence for which 
 their Atlantic countrymen were now struggling. The near 
 approach of Ferguson had awakened them from their secu- 
 rity, and indignant at the violence and depredations of his 
 followers, they were now embodied to chastise and avenge 
 them. This they had done at the suggestion and upon the 
 motion of their own leaders, without any requisition from 
 the governments of America or the officers of the continental 
 army. Indeed, at this moment, the American army in the 
 South was almost annihilated, and the friends of the Ameri- 
 can cause were discouraged and despondent. The British 
 were everywhere triumphant, and the loyalists, under the 
 pretence of promoting the service of his Britannic Majesty, 
 were in many sections perpetrating the greatest outrage and 
 cruelty upon the whigs. The attitude of these volunteer 
 detachments was as forlorn as it was gallant. At the time 
 of their embodiment, and for several days after they had 
 marched against the enemy, Hushed with recent victories 
 and confident of further conquest, it was not known to them 
 that a single armed corps of Americans was marshalled for 
 
230 
 
 DIVINE PROTECTION IMPLORED. 
 
 their assistance or relief. The crisis was, indeed, dark and 
 gloomy. But indomitable patriots were present, prepared 
 and willing to meet it. The personnel of no army could have 
 been better. There was strength, enterprise, courage and 
 enthusiasm. The ardour and impetuosity and rashness of 
 youth were there, to project and execute, with the wisdom of 
 mature age, to temper and direct them ; the caution of the 
 father and the irrepressible daring of the son. 
 
 Without delay, early on the morning of the next day after 
 its rendezvous at Watauga, the little army was on the march. 
 Before the troops left the camp, the officers requested that 
 they should assemble for the purpose of commending the army 
 to Divine protection and guidance. They promptly com- 
 plied with the request. Prayer, solemn and appropriate, was 
 offered by a clergyman present, and the riflemen mounted 
 their horses and started on the^distant campaign. 
 
 After leaving the rendezvous at the Sycamore Shoals, the 
 ti’oops took up the line of march : passing along the valley 
 
 o $ of Gap Creek, they encamped the first night at the 
 / mill of Mr. Matthew Tolbot. They pursued Bright’s 
 trace across the Yellow Mountain. The staff was incom- 
 plete ; rather, there was no staff ; no quarter-master, no 
 commissary, no surgeon, no chaplain. As in all their Indian 
 campaigns, being mounted and unencumbered with baggage, 
 their motions were rapid. Each man, each officer, set out 
 with his trusty Deckhard on his shoulder. “ A shot pouch, 
 a tomahawk, a knife, a knapsack and a blanket, completed 
 the outfit. At night, the earth afforded him a bed and the 
 heavens a covering ; the mountain stream quenched his 
 thirst ; while his provision was procured from supplies ac- 
 quired on the march by his gun.” Some beeves were driven 
 in the rear, to furnish subsistence while in the settlements, 
 but they impeded the rapidity of the march, and, after the 
 first day, were abandoned. After passing the mountain, the 
 troops, sparing the property of the whigs, quartered and 
 subsisted upon the tories. 
 
 On the second day, two of the men were missed. They 
 had deserted, and would doubtless escape to the enemy, and 
 apprise them of the approach of the mountain men, and the 
 
THE VOLUNTEERS CROSS THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 231 
 
 route by which the march would be conducted. Owing to 
 this apprehension, which was subsequently ascertained to be 
 well founded, the troops, after passing the top of the Alle- 
 ghany, left the frequented trace, and turned to the left, de- 
 scending by a worse path than was ever before travelled by 
 an army of horsemen. Reaching the foot of the mountain, 
 they fell in with Colonel Cleveland, of Wilkes county, and 
 Colonel Winston, of Surry county, North-Carolina, with three 
 or four hundred men, who were creeping along through the 
 woods, desiring to fall in with and join any party that might 
 be going to oppose the enemy. 
 
 After reaching the settled country east of the mountain, 
 additions were constantly made to their numbers — of officers 
 with men, and of officers without men, and of men without 
 officers ; some few on horses — most of them on foot — but 
 all eager to find and fight the enemy. 
 
 The junction of the party from Wilkes and Surry took place 
 about the first of October. The second day following was so 
 wet that the army could not move. The delay was improved 
 by the commanding officers, meeting, as if by instinct, in the 
 evening and holding a council. At this meeting it was deter- 
 mined to send to head-quarters, wherever it might be, for a 
 general officer to take the command of the several corps ; and 
 that in the meantime they would meet in council every day 
 to determine on the measures to be pursued. Col. Shelby 
 was not well satisfied with these regulations ; and in support 
 of his objections, observed to the council that they were then 
 in striking distance of the enemy, who lay at that time'at Gil- 
 bert Town, sixteen or eighteen miles distant — that Ferguson 
 would either attack or avoid them until he gathered together 
 such a force that they dared not approach. He therefore 
 advised that they should act with promptness and decision, 
 and proposed that they would appoint one of their own num- 
 ber to command and march the next day and attack the 
 enemy at Gilbert Town. He further proposed that Colonel 
 Campbell was known to him as a gentleman of good sense 
 and warmly attached to the cause of the country — was 
 the only officer from Virginia and commanded the largest 
 regiment in the army, — and that he would accordingly nomi- 
 
232 
 
 FERGUSON LEAVES GILBERT TOWN, 
 
 nate him as their chief. Shelby made this proposition for the 
 purpose of quieting the expectations of some that Colonel 
 McDowell should assume the command. He was the senior 
 officer present, the army was then in his military district, and 
 he had commanded during the past summer against the same 
 enemy— was, moreover, a brave man and a decided friend to 
 the American cause. But he was considered too far advanced 
 in life and too inactive a man to take charge of such an enter- 
 prise, against such an antagonist as was immediately before 
 them. McDowell projiosed that he would be the messenger 
 to go for a general officer. He started immediately, and his 
 brother, Joseph McDowell, took command of his men. On 
 his way, about eight miles from camp, he fell in with Colonel 
 James Williams, of South-Carolina, and a number of other 
 field officers from that state, with near four hundred men. 
 The intelligence of this opportune reinforcement McDowell 
 communicated by express. 
 
 king’s mountain. 
 
 Gilbert Town is distinguished as the extreme point of British 
 invasion in the direction of the home of the mountain men. 
 To that place Ferguson, in the execution of his vain threat 
 to invade and burn up their villages, had advanced and there 
 erected his majesty’s standard, with the double purpose of 
 securing the co-operation of the loyalists and of preventing 
 the rising and concentration of the whigs. At that place he 
 received intelligence of the avalanche of indignant patriotism 
 accumulating along the mountain, and ready to precipitate 
 itself upon and overwhelm his army. From that place, en- 
 terprising as he was, he found it necessary to fall back and 
 seek safety by a junction with the main army of Cornwallis, 
 at Charlotte. Every movement of Ferguson,' from the time 
 he left his camp at Gilbert Town, indicated his apprehension 
 of the impending danger. He commanded the loyalist militia, 
 he importuned them, he held out the language of promise 
 and of threatening, to stimulate their allegiance and their 
 courage. He called in vain. A cloud was gathering upon 
 the mountain, and his loyal militia knew that it portended a 
 storm and a disastrous overthrow. Ferguson changed his 
 
AND RETIRES BEFORE THE RIFLEMEN. 
 
 233 
 
 language and appealed to them in the words of bitter reproach 
 and contemptuous ridicule. On his retreat he issued a circu- 
 lar letter to the tory leaders, informing them of an “ inunda- 
 tion of barbarians” — calls the patriotic riflemen “the dregs 
 of mankind,” and importunes his loyalists thus : “If you wish 
 to live and bear the name of men, grasp your arms in a mo- 
 ment and run into camp. The backwater men have crossed 
 the mountain, McDowell, Hampton, Shelby and Cleveland 
 are at their head — so that you know what you will have to 
 depend upon. If you choose to be degraded for ever and ever 
 by a set of mongrels, say so at once, and let your women turn 
 their backs upon you and look out for real men to protect 
 them.” 
 
 Ferguson, after breaking up his camp at Gilbert Town, had 
 despatched Abram Collins and Quinn, to Lord Corn- 
 
 wallis, informing him of his critical situation and begging a re- 
 inforcement. After despatching his letter, Ferguson marched, 
 on the fourth, over Alain Broad River to the Cow Pens. On the 
 fifth he continued his march to Tate’s, since Dear’s Ferry, 
 where he again crossed and encamped about a mile above. 
 On the sixth, he marched about fourteen miles and formed 
 his camp on an eminence, where he waited for the expected 
 reinforcements, of loyalists in the neighbourhood, and of 
 regulars from the royal army. The loyalty of the former 
 quailed at the approach of the riflemen, and in this hour of 
 need their assistance was withheld ; they remained out of 
 Ferguson’s camp. 
 
 On Wednesday, the fourth of October, the riflemen ad- 
 vanced to Gilbert Town. But Ferguson had decamped, 
 having permitted many of the loyalists to visit their families, 
 under engagement to join him on the shortest notice. 
 In the meantime, he took a circuitous march through the 
 neighbourhoods, in which the tories principally resided, to 
 gain time and avoid the riflemen until his forces could be 
 collected and had joined him. This retrograde movement 
 betrayed his apprehensions, and pointed out the necessity of a 
 vigorous effort to overtake him. Having gained a know- 
 ledge of his designs, the principal officers determined, in 
 council, to pursue him with all possible despatch. Accord- 
 
234 
 
 WILLIAMS, HAMBRIGHT AND CHRONICLE, 
 
 ingly, two nights before the action, the officers were engaged 
 all night in selecting the best men, the best horses and the 
 best rifles, and at the dawn of day took Ferguson’s trail, 
 and pursued him with nine hundred and ten* expert marks- 
 men, while those on foot and with weak horses were ordered 
 to follow on more leisurely. 
 
 On the pursuit, the Americans passed near where several 
 large parties of tones were collecting. At the Cow Pens 
 sixty men under Col. Hambright and Major Chronicle, of 
 Tryon county, and Col. Williams, with the South-Carolina 
 troops, joined them. Here they were informed that a body 
 of six hundred tories were assembled at Major Gibbs’s, four 
 miles to their right, and would join Ferguson the next day. 
 These they did not take time to molest. The riflemen from 
 the mountains had turned out to catch Ferguson. He was 
 their object ; and for the last thirty-six hours of the pursuit, 
 they never alighted from their horses but once to refresh 
 for an hour at the Cow Pens, although, the day of the battle 
 was so extremely wet that the men could only keep their 
 guns dry, by wrapping their sacks, blankets and hunting 
 shirts around the locks, thus exposing their bodies to a 
 heavy and incessant rain. The trail every hour became 
 more fresh, and the Americans hurried with eagerness after 
 the prey, which they determined should not escape their 
 grasp. The advance met some unarmed men, who were 
 fresh from Ferguson’s camp, a short halt was made, and 
 these men were closely examined. From them it was ascer- 
 tained that the enemy was encamped three miles before 
 them, and were to march next morning to Lord Cornwallis’s 
 head-quarters; his position was accurately described, and 
 the route to the camp minutely given. Col. Williams and 
 some of his men were well acquainted with the shape of the 
 ground and the approaches to it. 
 
 It was now after twelve o’clock ; the rain had ceased, the 
 clouds were passing off, the sun shone brightly, and nature 
 seemed to smile upon the enterprise at hand. It was deter- 
 
 * I quote from the Shelby papers in my possession, and from which many of 
 the details of this expedition have been derived. Haywood has extracted from 
 them also. 
 
JOIN THR ARMY, WHICH APPROACHES THE ENEMY’S CAMP. 235 
 
 mined to march at once upon the camp, and decide the con- 
 flict without further rest or refreshment. Each man was 
 ordered to “ tie up his over-coat and blanket, throw the pri- 
 ming out of his pan, pick his touclj-hole, prime anew, ex- 
 amine his bullets, and see that everything was in readiness 
 for battle.” While this was being done the officers agreed 
 upon the general plan of attack, which was to surround the 
 eminence and make a simultaneous assault upon every part 
 of the camp. The men were soon in their saddles and upon 
 their march. When within a mile of the battle ground an 
 express from Ferguson was arrested, on whom was found a 
 despatch to Lord Cornwallis, urging him to send immediate 
 reinforcements and stating the number under his command; 
 and that he was securely encamped upon a hill, which, in 
 in honour of his majesty, he had named King's Mountain, and 
 that if all the rebels out of h — 11 should attack him, they would 
 not drive him from it. The contents of the despatch were, 
 with the exception of the number of the enemy, communi- 
 cated to the riflemen, the march was resumed, their pace 
 quickened and they rode in a gallop within view of the camp 
 of Ferguson. 
 
 A closer examination of the ground and the position of the 
 enemy, demonstrated the feasibility of the plan of attack 
 already concerted bjr the officers. More minute arrange- 
 ments were immediately made and carried into execution. 
 It was decided that the troops commanded by Winston, 
 McDowell, Sevier, Shelby and Campbell, being something 
 more than half of the whole number of the assailants, after 
 tying their horses should file to the right, and pass the moun- 
 tain nearly out of reach of the enemy’s guns, and continue 
 around it till they should meet the rest of the troops encir- 
 cling the mountain on its other side, and led by Hambright 
 and Chronicle, and followed by Cleveland and Williams; 
 after which each command was to face to the front, raise 
 the Indian war whoop, and advance upon the enemy. Ac- 
 cordingly the troops moved forward, and passing up a ravine 
 between two rocky knolls, came in full view of the enemy’s 
 camp above them, and about one hundred poles in front. 
 Here they dismounted, and having tied their horses, left a 
 
23G 
 
 RIFLEMEN SURROUND THE MOUNTAIN 
 
 small guard with them. The right wing or column was led 
 by Winston and Sevier, the left by Cleveland and Williams; 
 the centre was composed of Campbell’s men on the right, 
 and Shelby’s on the left. In this order each officer having 
 formed his ranks, led jjff at the same time to the position as- 
 signed him, under pilots selected from Col. Williams’s men, 
 who were familiar with the ground. On its march around 
 the mountain, the right column discovered that there were 
 two gaps in the ridge at the enemy’s left flank — one about 
 twenty poles from it, the other fifty. It was decided to pass 
 through the latter. About the time they entered it, the enemy 
 began to fire upon them. The fire at first did not attract 
 attention, until some of Shelby’s men being wounded, that 
 officer and McDowell determined to return the fire, and be- 
 fore they had crossed the ridge, broke off towards the enemy, 
 through the gap nearest to his camp, and discharged their 
 rifles with great effect. The rest of the column under 
 Campbell ascended the mountain, and poured in a deadly 
 fire upon the enemy posted upon its summit. The firing be- 
 came so heavy as to attract the attention of Ferguson, who 
 immediately brought up a part of his regulars from the other 
 end of his line, and a brisk charge was made upon the Ame- 
 rican right by the British regulars and some of the tories. 
 This charge pushed McDowell, Shelby and Campbell, down 
 the mountain. At this moment, the left column under Ham- 
 bright, Chronicle, Cleveland and Williams, had driven in the 
 enemy’s picquets at the other extremity of the encampment, 
 and advancing up the mountain, poured in a well directed 
 fire on the enemy protected here by their wagons and some 
 slight defences, and commanded by Ferguson himself. Du- 
 poister, his second in command, was immediately recalled, 
 ordered into line on the top of the ridge, and directed to make 
 a charge with all the regulars upon the Americans at that 
 end of the encampment. On his passage to the relief of Fer- 
 guson, Dupoister received a galling fire from the South-Caro- 
 linians under Williams. The regulars were soon rallied, 
 made a desperate charge, and drove the riflemen to the foot 
 of the hill. Here Major Chronicle fell. 
 
 In the meantime, the recall of Dupoister from the charge 
 
AND ATTACK FERGUSON’S CAMP. 
 
 237 
 
 at the other extremity of the mountain, gave the appearance 
 there of a retreat on the part of the enemy, and the men 
 under Shelby, McDowell and Campbell, having recovered 
 from the slight disorganization produced by the first charge, 
 rallied to the pursuit. The cry was raised — “ huzza, boys, 
 they are retreating ; come on !” They advanced with great 
 firmness up the hill, almost to the lines of the encampment, 
 and for some time maintained a deadly conflict with the tory 
 riflemen. Ferguson, as before, decided to resort again to the 
 bayonet. But the marksmen had so thinned the ranks of the 
 regulars, that the expedient was adopted of trimming the 
 handles of the butcher knives, and adapting them to the 
 muzzles of the tory rifles, and of thus using them in the 
 charge. With the number of his bayonets thus enlarged, 
 Dupoister returned to his first position, and made another 
 charge. It was short and feebly executed, and the regulars 
 returned within their lines. 
 
 About this time the front of the two American columns 
 had met, and the army of Ferguson was surrounded by the 
 riflemen. Their firing became incessant and general in all 
 quarters, but especially at the two ends of the enemy’s line. 
 Sevier pressed against its centre, and was charged upon by 
 the regulars. The conflict here became stubborn, and drew to 
 it much of the enemy’s force. This enabled Shelby and 
 Campbell to reach and hold the crest of the mountain. 
 
 On all sides, now, the fire was brisk and deadly, and the 
 charges with the bayonet, though less vigorous, were fre- 
 quent. In all cases where the enemy charged the Ameri- 
 cans on one side of the hill, those on the other thought he 
 was retreating, and advanced near to the summit. But in 
 all these movements, the left of Ferguson’s line was gradu- 
 ally receding, and the Americans were plying their rifles 
 with terrible effect. Ferguson was still in the heat of 
 battle ; with characteristic coolness and daring, he ordered 
 Captain Dupoister to reinforce a position about one hundred 
 yards distant, with his regulars ; but before they i*eached it, 
 they were thinned too much by the American rifles, to ren- 
 der any effectual support. He then ordered his cavalry to 
 mount, with a view of making a desperate onset at their 
 
238 
 
 DESPERATE COURAGE AND DEATH OF FERGUSON. 
 
 head. But these only presented a better mark for the rifle, 
 and fell as fast as they could mount their horses. He rode 
 from one end of his line to the other, encouraging his men 
 to prolong the conflict. With desperate courage, he passed 
 from one exposed point to another of equal danger. He 
 carried in his wounded hand, a shrill sounding silver whistle, 
 whose signal was universally known through the ranks, was of 
 immense service throughout the battle, and gave a kind of 
 ubiquity to his movements.*' 
 
 But the Americans having reached the top of the moun- 
 tain, were gradually compressing the enemy, and the line of 
 Ferguson’s encampment was sensibly contracted. A flag 
 was raised by the tories in token of surrender. Ferguson 
 rode up to it, and pulled it down. A second flag was raised 
 at the other end of the line. He rode there too, and cut it 
 down with his sword. He was frequently admonished by 
 Dupoister to surrender ; but his proud spirit could not deign 
 to give up to raw and undisciplined militia. When the se- 
 cond flag was cut down, Dupoister renewed his admonition. 
 To this he replied by declaring, he would never surrender to 
 such a damned set of banditti as the mountain men. These 
 men, while they admired the unyielding spirit of Ferguson, had 
 noticed, that whenever his voice or whistle was heard, the 
 enemy were inspirited to another rally. They believed that 
 while he survived, his desperate courage would not permit 
 a surrender. He fell soon after, and immediately expired. 
 
 The forward movement of all the American columns 
 brought them to a level with the enemy’s guns, which here- 
 tofore, in most instances, had overshot their heads. The 
 horizontal fire of the regulars was now considerably fatal ; 
 but the rapid advance of the riflemen soon surrounded both 
 them and the tories, who being crowded close together, and 
 cooped up into a narrow space by the surrounding pressure 
 of the American troops, and fatally galled by their incessant 
 fire, lost all hope from further resistance. Dupoister, who 
 succeeded* Ferguson in command, perceiving that farther 
 struggle was in vain, raised the white flag, and exclaimed 
 for quarters. A general cessation of the American fire fol- 
 lowed ; but this cessation was not complete. Some of the 
 
 ^Foster. 
 
colonel williams’s heroic charge. 
 
 239 
 
 young men did not understand the meaning of a white flag ; 
 others who did, knew that other flags had been raised before, 
 and were quickly taken down Shelby halloed out to them 
 to throw down their guns, as all would understand that as a 
 surrender. This was immediately done. The arms were 
 now lying in front of the prisoners, without any orders how 
 to dispose of them. Col. Shelby, seeing the facility with 
 which the enemy could resume their guns, exclaimed : “ Good 
 God ! what can we do in this confusion ?” “ We can order 
 
 the prisoners from their arms,” said Sawyers. “Yes,” said 
 Shelby, “ that can be done.” The prisoners were accord- 
 ly marched to another place, and there surrounded by a 
 double guard. 
 
 The battle of King’s Mountain lasted about an hour. The 
 loss of the enemy was two hundred and twenty-five killed, 
 one hundred and eighty wounded, seven hundred prisoners, 
 fifteen hundred stand of arms, and a great many horses and 
 wagons loaded with supplies, and booty of every kind, taken 
 by the plundering tories from the wealthy whigs. 
 
 General Bernard, an officer under Napoleon, and after- 
 wards in the United States Engineer Service, on examining 
 the battle ground of King’s Mountain, said : “The Ameri- 
 cans, by their victory in that engagement, erected a monu- 
 ment to perpetuate the memory of the brave men who had 
 fallen there ; and the shape of the hill itself, would be an 
 eternal monument of the military genius and skill of Col. 
 Ferguson, in selecting a position so well adapted for de- 
 fence ; and that no other plan of assault but that pursued by 
 the mountain men, could have succeeded against him.”* 
 
 The loss of the Americans was thirty killed, and about 
 twice that number wounded. Of the former, was Col. Wil- 
 liams of South-Carolina. He fell a victim to the true Pal- 
 metto spirit, and intemperate eagerness for battle. Towards 
 the close of the engagement, he espied Ferguson riding 
 
 *The account of the battle at King’s Mountain, as given, has been taken from 
 ’the Shelby papers, the written statements of Generals Graham and Lenoir, Mr. 
 Foster’s Essay, and manuscript narratives of several of the riflemen, who partici- 
 pated in it. The official report has been seen for the first time, by this writer, in 
 “ Wheeler’s North -Carolina,” just out of press. It is given at page 243. 
 
240 
 
 MONUMENT AT KING’S MOUNTAIN. 
 
 near the line, and dashed towards him with the gallant de- 
 termination of a personal encounter. “ I will kill Fergu- 
 son, or die in the attempt !” exclaimed Williams, and spur- 
 ring his horse in the direction of the enemy, received a bullet 
 as he crossed their line. He survived till he heard that his 
 antagonist was killed, and his camp surrendered ; and amidst 
 the shouts of victory by his triumphant countrymen, said : 
 “ I die contented,” and with a smile upon his countenance, 
 expired. 
 
 Major Chronicle, who, with Col. Hambright, led the left 
 wing, was, in passing round the end of the mountain, much 
 exposed to the fire of the enemy above them, and little more 
 than one hundred yards distant. He fell early in the engage- 
 ment, at the foot of the hill, near the junction of the two 
 streams, while gallantly repulsing the British charge. A 
 plain monument attests the grateful remembrance of his 
 countrymen It bears this inscription : 
 
 Sacred 
 
 To the memory of 
 
 MAJOR WILLIAM CHRONICLE, 
 
 CAPT JOHN MATTOCKS, 
 
 WILLIAM ROBB, 
 
 AND 
 
 JOHN BOYD, 
 
 Who were killed at this place, on the seventh day of October, 1780, 
 fighting in defence of America. 
 
 On the other side of the monument, facing the battle ground, is in- 
 scribed : 
 
 COL. FERGUSON, 
 
 An officer of his Britannic Majesty, 
 
 Was defeated and killed 
 At this place, 
 
 On the 7th day of 
 October, 1780. 
 
 Of Col. Campbell’s regiment, Lieutenant Edmondson, two 
 others of the same name and family, and ten of their asso- 
 ciates in arms, were killed. The names of the Virginia offi- 
 cers are Captains Dysart, Colville, Edmonston, Beattie and 
 Craig; Lieutenants ( ! Edmonston, Bowen; Ensign Robert 
 Campbell, who killed the British Adjutant McGinnis at the 
 head of a charging party. Captain Robert Edmonston said 
 to one of his men, John McCrosky, that he did not like his 
 
MINOR DETAILS OF THE BATTLE. 
 
 -241 
 
 place, and broke forward to the hottest part of the battle, 
 and there received the charge of Dupoister’s regulars, dis- 
 charged his rifle, clubbed’ his gun, knocked the musket out 
 of the hands of one of the soldiers, and seizing him by the 
 neck, made. him his prisoner, and brought him to the foot of 
 the hill. Returning again to the British line, he received a 
 mortal wound in the breast. After the surrender, McCrosky 
 went in search of his captain, and told him the battle was 
 over, and the tories were defeated. Edmonston nodded satis- 
 faction, and died. 
 
 Of the wounded in Col. Shelby’s regiment, was his bro- 
 ther, Moses Shelby, who, in a bold attempt to storm the ene- 
 my’s camp, leaped upon one of the wagons out of which the 
 breast- work was formed, and was wounded. Fagan and 
 some others, suffered in the same way. Col. Snodgrass, late 
 of Sullivan county, belonged to Col. Shelby’s regiment. His 
 captains were Elliot, Maxwell and Webb ; Lieutenant 
 Sawy 
 
 Of the regiment from Washington county, and commanded 
 by Col. Sevier, the captains were his two brothers, Valen- 
 tine Sevier, Robert Sevier, Joel Callahan, George Doherty 
 and George Russell ; Lieutenant Isaac Lane. Capt. Robert 
 Sevier was wounded in the abdomen, and died the second or 
 third day after, and was buried at Bright’s. 
 
 Among the privates, were four others of the Sevier family, 
 viz : Abraham Sevier, Joseph Sevier, and two of Col. Se- 
 vier’s sons, Joseph and James ; the latter in his sixteenth 
 year. 
 
 William Lenoir (since General Lenoir) was a captain un- 
 der Winston. He was encouraging the men who had re- 
 ceived Dupoister’s second charge, to load well, and make a 
 bold push against their assailants, when he received a slight 
 wound in his left arm, and another in his side, while a bul- 
 let passed through his hair, just below the tie, without touch- 
 ing the skin. 
 
 In Ferguson’s possession was found, after his defeat, the 
 following letter to him from Lieut. Col. Cruger, commanding at 
 Ninety-Six. The original is mutilated, and a few words or 
 cyphers are illegible. 
 
 16 
 
242 ‘ 
 
 LETTER IN CYPHER FROM COLONEL CRUGER. 
 
 “ 96, Tuesday Morning, Oct. 3. 
 
 “ Sir — The night before last I returned from the Ceded Lands, having 
 done that business pretty effectually. Your several letters I am now in 
 possession of. This instant I received what you wrote the 30th Septem- 
 ber. I shall repeat for the militia to turn out their 
 
 six months’ men ; — clear that if you. get as 
 
 many as will defend the .... . . from so considerable force 
 
 as you understand is coming from the mountains, is as many, in my 
 opinion, as in reason we have a right to expect, Qr. will join you. Our 
 force of soldiers here does not exceed in number what in your last letter 
 
 is mentioned to march ... I don’t see how 
 
 you can possibly the country and its neighbour- 
 hood that you . . . nowin. The game from the mountains is just 
 
 what I expected. Am glad to find you so capitally supported by the 
 friends to government in North-Carolina. I flattered myself they would 
 have been equal to the mountain lads, and that no further call for the 
 defensive would have been on this part of the Province. I begin to think 
 our views for the present rather large. We have been led to this, pro- 
 bably, in expecting too much from the militia — as, for instance, you call 
 for regiments. They are but just T that number ; 
 
 “ Farewell believe me, very sincerely and with much regard, . 
 
 Dr. Sir, 
 
 “ Yr. Very humb’e Ser’vt., 
 
 Cruger, Lieut. Col. Com’g. 96. 
 
 Addressed, “ On his Majesty’s Service, 
 
 Colonel Ferguson, 
 
 Commanding Detachment 
 
 Of his Majesty’s Troop, &c.” 
 
 The victory at King’s Mountain was complete. Not one 
 of the enemy escaped during the battle : from its commence- 
 ment they were surrounded and could not escape. The army 
 encamped upon the battle ground the night of the seventh. 
 They had more prisoners than whigs with whom to guard 
 them. They were in the neighbourhood of several parties of 
 tories, and had reason to expect that Tarleton or some rein- 
 forcements from Lord Cornwallis, would attempt either to 
 pursue or intercept them. The next day was the Sabbath. 
 Its dawn was solemnized by the burial of the dead. This 
 mournful duty performed, the enemy’s wagons were drawn 
 by the men across their camp fires, and after they were con- 
 sumed the return march was commenced. 
 
 As there was no other method of transporting the arms that 
 had been captured, the strong and healthy prisoners were re- 
 quired to carry them. The flints were taken from the locks, 
 
RIFLEMEN RETURN WITH THE PRISONERS. 
 
 243 
 
 and the most vigilant espionage kept over the prisoners by 
 the troops, who marched the whole day at a present. No 
 escape or rescue was attempted. At sundown they met the 
 men they had left on foot on their hurried march to the bat- 
 tle. The march was continued pretty close to the mountain 
 till the fourteenth, when a court-martial was held at Bicker- 
 staff’s Old Field, in Rutherford county, over some of the pri- 
 soners. A few for desertion, others for greater crimes and 
 enormities, were convicted and sentenced to be hung. The 
 number brought under the gallows was thirty. Nine of these 
 only were executed. Among these were Col. Mills, a tory 
 leader, and Captain Grimes, a refugee tory from Watauga. 
 The rest were respited. 
 
 Apprehending pursuit by Lord Cornwallis, whose head- 
 quarters were close at hand across the Catawba, in Meck- 
 lenburg county, and determined to escape with the eight 
 hundred prisoners and fifteen hundred stand of arms taken 
 at King’s Mountain, the colonels led off their victorious 
 troops, with their valuable spoils, to some place of safety in 
 the direction of Virginia. Sevier and his comrades from the 
 West recrossed the mountain, and remained in arms upon 
 their own frontier. Campbell, Shelby and Cleveland, con- 
 tinued the march, with the prisoners, in search of some posi- 
 tion of greater security. Passing through Hillsboro’, where 
 General Gates then had his head-quarters, these officers made 
 out to that unfortunate commander — 
 
 “A statement of the proceedings of the Western Army, from the 25th 
 
 of September, 1780, to the reduction of Major Ferguson, and the 
 
 army under his command. 
 
 “On receiving intelligence that Major Ferguson had advanced as high 
 up as Gilbert Town, in Rutherford county, and threatened to cross the 
 mountains to the Western waters, Col. William Campbell, with four 
 hundred men from Washington county, of Virginia; Col. Isaac Shelby, 
 with two hundred and forty men from Sullivan county, North-Carolina, 
 and Lieutenant-Col. John Sevier, with two hundred and forty men from 
 Washington county, North-Carolina, assembled at Watauga on the 25th 
 of September, where they were joined by Col. Charles McDowell, with 
 one hundred and sixty men from the counties of Burke and Ruther- 
 ford, who had fled before the enemy to the Western waters. 
 
 “We began our march on the 26th, and on the 30th, we were joined 
 by Col. Cleveland, on the Catawba River, with three hundred and fifty 
 men from the counties of Wilkes and Surry. No one officer having 
 
244 
 
 OFFICIAL REPORT OF BATTLE. 
 
 properly a right to the command-in-chief, oil the 1st of October we 
 despatched an express to Major General Gates, informing him of our 
 situation, and requested him to send a general officer to take command 
 of the whole. In the meantime Col. Campbell was chosen to act as 
 commandant till such general officer should arrive. 
 
 “We reached the Cow Pens, on the Broad River, in South-Carolina, 
 where we were joined by Col. James Williams, on the evening of the 
 6th October, who informed us that the enemy lay encamped somewhere 
 near the Cherokee Ford of Broad River, about thirty miles distant from 
 us. By a council of the principal officers, it was then thought advisable 
 to pursue the enemy that night with nine hundred of the best horsemen, 
 and leave the weak horses and footmen to follow as fast as possible. We 
 began our march with nine hundred of the best men about eight o’clock 
 the same evening, marched all night, and came up with the enemy 
 about three o’clock, P. M. of the ^th, who lay encamped on the top of 
 King’s Mountain, twelve miles north of the Cherokee Ford, in the con- 
 fidence they could not be forced from so advantageous a post. Previous 
 to the attack, in our march the following disposition was made : 
 
 “Col. Shelby’s regiment formed a column in the centre on the left ; 
 Col. Campbell’s another on the right ; part of Col. Cleveland’s regi- 
 ment, headed by Major Winston and Col. Sevier’s, formed a large 
 column on the right wing ; the other part of Col. Cleveland’s regiment 
 composed the left wing. In this order we advanced, and got within a 
 quarter of a mile of the enemy before we were discovered. Col. Shel- 
 by’s and Col. Campbell’s regiments began the attack, and kept up a fire 
 on the enemy while the right and left wings were advancing forward to 
 surround them. The engagement lasted an hour and five minutes, the 
 greatest part of which time a heavy and incessant fire was kept up on 
 both sides. Our men in some parts where the regulars fought, were 
 obliged to give way a small distance two or three times, but rallied 
 and returned with additional ardour to the attack. The troops upon 
 the right having gained the summit of the eminence, obliged the enemy 
 to retreat along the top of the ridge where Col. Cleveland commanded, 
 and were there stopped by his brave men. A flag was immediately 
 hoisted by Captain Dupoister, the commanding officer, (Major Ferguson 
 having been killed a little before,) for a surrender. Our fire immediately 
 ceased, and the enemy laid down their arms — the greater part of them 
 loaded — and surrendered themselves to us prisoners at discretion. It 
 appears from their own provision returns for that day, found in their 
 camp, that their whole force consisted of eleven hundred and twenty- 
 five men, out of which they sustained the following loss : — Of the regu- 
 lars, one major, one captain, two lieutenants and fifteen privates killed, 
 thirty-five privates wounded. Left on the ground, not able to march, 
 two captains, four lieutenants, three ensigns, one surgeon, five sergeants ; 
 three corporals, one drummer and fifty-nine privates taken prisoners. 
 
 “Loss of the tories, two colonels, three captains, and two hundred and 
 one privates killed ; one major and one hundred and twenty-seven pri- 
 vates wounded and left on the ground not able to march ; one colonel, 
 twelve captains, eleven lieutenants, two ensigns, one quarter-master, 
 one adjutant, two commissaries, eighteen sergeants and six hundred pri- 
 
THE EXPEDITION WAS PATRIOTIC AND SUCCESSFUL. 
 
 245 
 
 vates taken prisoners. Total loss of 
 men at King’s Mountain. 
 
 “Given under our hands at camp, 
 
 “The loss on our side — 
 
 Killed — 1 colonel, 
 
 1 major, 
 
 1 captain, 
 
 2 lieutenants, 
 
 4 ensigns, 
 
 19 privates. 
 
 28 total killed.” 
 
 le enemy, eleven hundred and five 
 
 William Campbell, 
 Isaac Shelby, 
 
 Benjamin Cleveland. 
 
 Wounded — 1 major, 
 
 3 captains, 
 
 3 lieutenants, 
 
 53 privates. 
 
 60 total wounded. 
 
 On the 10th, Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to march with 
 the light infantry, the British Legion and a three-pounder to 
 assist Ferguson, no certain intelligence having arrived of his 
 defeat. Tarleton’s instructions directed him to reinforce 
 Ferguson wherever he could find him, and to draw his corps 
 to the Catawba, if after the junction advantage could not be 
 obtained over the mountaineers ; or upon the certainty of his 
 defeat, at all events, to oppose the entrance of the victorious 
 Americans into South-Carolina. Intelligence of Ferguson’s 
 defeat reached Cornwallis, and he formed a sudden determi-' 
 nation to retreat from Charlotte. Tarleton was recalled, 
 and North-Carolina was for the present evacuated. 
 
 The expedition against Ferguson was chivalric in the ex- 
 treme. It was undertaken against a distinguished and skil- 
 ful leader, at the head of a large force which could easily have 
 been doubled. It was composed of raw and undisciplined 
 troops, hastily drawn together, against fearful odds and 
 under the most appalling discouragements. 
 
 The expedition was also eminently patriotic. When it 
 was projected, disaster and defeat had shrouded the South 
 with an impenetrable cloud of despondence and gloom. 
 Ruined expectations and blasted hopes, hung like a pall over 
 the paralyzed energies of the friends of America. 
 
 The expedition was, moreover, entirely successful. The 
 first object of it, Ferguson, was killed and his whole army 
 either captured or destroyed. This gave new spirit to the 
 desponding Americans, and frustrated the well concerted 
 
240 
 
 HUNTING S1IIRT OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 scheme of strengthening the British army by the tories in its 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 The whole enterprise reflects the highest honour upon the 
 patriotism* that conceived and the courage that executed it. 
 Nothing can surpass the skill and gallantry of the officers, 
 nothing the valour of the men who achieved the victory. 
 The whole history of the campaign demonstrates that the 
 men who undertook it, were not actuated by any apprehen- 
 sion that Ferguson would attempt the execution of his idle 
 threat against themselves. For, to these mountaineers, noth- 
 ing than such a scheme would make prettier game for their 
 rifles ; nothing more desirable than to entice such an enemy 
 from his pleasant roads, rich plantations, and gentle climate, 
 with his ponderous baggage, valuable armory, and the booty 
 and spoils of his loyalists, into the very centre of their own 
 fastnesses, to hang upon his flank, to pick up his stragglers, 
 to cut off his foragers, to make short and desperate sallies 
 upon his camp, and finally, to make him a certain prey with- 
 out a struggle and without a loss. 
 
 Nor was it the authority or influence of the state, that led 
 to this hazardous service. Many of them knew not whether 
 to any or to what state they belonged. Insulated by moun- 
 tain barriers, and in consequent seclusion from their Eastern 
 friends, they were living in the enjoyment of primitive inde- 
 pendence, where British taxation and aggression had not 
 reached. It was a gratuitous patriotism that incited the 
 back-woodsmen. In those days, to know that American 
 liberty was invaded, and that the only apparent alternative 
 in the case was American independence or subjugation, was 
 enough to nerve their hearts to the boldest pulsations of free- 
 dom, and ripen their purposes to the fullest determination of 
 putting down the aggressor.* 
 
 From the colonels to the privates, all of the mountain men 
 were attired in hunting shirts. Speaking of this costume, 
 Mr. Custis says : 
 
 “ The hunting shirt, the emblem of the Revolution, is now banished 
 from the national military, but still lingers among the huniers and pio- 
 neers of the Far West. This national costume was adopted in the out- 
 
 * Foster’s Essay. 
 
RESULTS OF FERGUSOn’.S DEFEAT. 
 
 247 
 
 set of the Revolution, and was recommended, by Washington, to the 
 army in the most eventful period of the war of Independence. It was 
 a favourite garb with many of the officers of the line. The British beheld 
 these sons of the mountain and the forest, thus attired, wuth wonder and 
 admiration. Their hardy looks, their tall athletic forms, their marching 
 in Indian file with the light and noiseless step peculiar to their pursuit of 
 woodland game, but above all, to European eyes, their singular and 
 picturesque costume, the hunting shirt, with its fringes, wampum belts, 
 leggins and moccasins, the tomahawk and knife; these, with the well 
 known death-dealing aim of these matchless marksmen, created, in the 
 European military, a degree of awe and respect for the hunting shirt 
 which lasted with the war of the Revolution. And should not Ameri- 
 cans feel proud of the garb, and hail it as national, in which their 
 fathers endured such toil and privation in the mighty struggle for inde- 
 pendence — the march across the wilderness — the triumphs of. Saratoga 
 and King’s Mountain ? But a little while, and, of a truth, the hunt- 
 ing shirt, the venerable emblem of the Revolution, will have disap- 
 peared from among the Americans, and will be found only in museums, 
 like ancient armour, exposed to the gaze of the curious.” 
 
 In Tennessee, the hunting shirt is still worn by the volun- 
 teer, and occasionally forms the costume of the elite corps 
 of a battalion or regiment. It once constituted, very com- 
 monly, a part of the citizen’s dress. It is now seldom seen 
 in private life, though admirably adapted to the comeliness, 
 convenience and comfort of the farmer, hunter and pedes- 
 trian. In all the early campaigns in the West, and in the 
 war of 1812, the soldiery uniformly wore it. Many of them 
 did so in the war with Mexico, but the volunteer’s hunting 
 shirt is evidently going out of use. 
 
 Important results followed the defeat of Ferguson. Emis- 
 saries* had been despatched to the loyalists on Deep and 
 Haw Rivers, in advance of Lord Cornwallis, with instruc- 
 tions to hold themselves in readiness to act in concert with 
 the British army. His lordship had boasted that Georgia 
 and South-Carolina were subdued, and that North-Carolina 
 was but the stepping block to the conquest of Virginia. 
 There was no army south of the Delaware to oppose him. 
 In the realization of this boast, he had passed Charlotte and 
 was advancing to Salisbury, where he had directed Ferguson 
 to join him with the three or four thousand loyalists in his 
 train. On his route, Cornwallis received the intelligence of 
 
 * Steadman. 
 
248 
 
 Cornwallis’s rapid retreat. 
 
 the catastrophe at King’s Mountain. Rumour had magnified 
 the number of the riflemen, and converted their return with 
 the prisoners, into a march upon himself with a force three 
 thousand strong. Abandoning, for the present, his progress 
 northward, he ordered an immediate retreat, marched all 
 night in the utmost confusion, crossed the Catawba, and 
 retrograded as far as Winnsboro’, eighty or one hundred 
 miles in his rear.* There, for the present, he confined his 
 operations to the protection of the country between Camden 
 and Ninety-Six, nor did he attempt to advance until rein- 
 forced by General Leslie, three months afterwards, with two 
 thousand men from the Chesapeake. In the meantime, the 
 whigs of North-Carolina, under General W. L. Davidson 
 and Captain W. R. Davie, assembled in considerable force 
 at New Providence and the Waxaw. General Smallwood, 
 with Morgan’s light corps, and the Maryland line, advanced 
 to the same point. General Gates, with the shattered re- 
 mains of his army collected at Hillsboro’, also came up, and 
 one thousand new levies from Virginia, under General Ste- 
 phens, also came forward. Of these, early in December, 
 General Greene assumed the command. The cloud that 
 had, till the fall of Ferguson, hung over the whole South and 
 enveloped the country in gloom, was dispelled, and from that 
 moment the American cause began to wear a more promi- 
 sing aspect. 
 
 Referring to the signal victory obtained at King’s Moun- 
 tain, Mr. Jefferson says: “ It was the joyful enunciation of 
 that turn in the tide of success, that terminated the revolu- 
 tionary war with the seal of our independence.” 
 
 The General Assembly of North-Carolina, at its first ses- 
 sion after the defeat of Ferguson, held at Halifax, January 
 18 , 1781 , passed a resolution that a sword and pistols should 
 be presented to both Shelby and Sevier, as a testimony of 
 the great services they had rendered to their country on the 
 day of this memorable defeat. The finely finished sword, 
 thus presented by the State of North-Carolina to Colonel 
 John Sevier, was 'inherited by his son, the late Colonel 
 
 * It was upon this retreat of the enemy that Andrew Jackson, then a boy of 
 fifteen, received and resented so manfully, the insult of a British officer. 
 

 
 
 
 

SWORD PRESENTED TO SEVIER AND SHEEBY. 
 
 249 
 
 George Washington Sevier, of Davidson county, and by him 
 given to the State of Tennessee. It is now in the office of 
 Colonel Ramsey, Secretary of State. On one side of the 
 handle is engraven — % 
 
 STATE OF NORTH-CAROLINA 
 TO 
 
 COLONEL JOHN SEVIER. 
 
 And upon the other side — 
 
 KING’S MOUNTAIN, 
 
 7th October, 1780. 
 
 On the third of February, of the same year, Governor 
 Nash signed a commission, appointing John Sevier colonel 
 commandant of Washington county. Theretofore, he had 
 acted as colonel at the spontaneous desire of the troops he 
 commanded. 
 
 Though adopted in 1781 , the resolve of North-Carolina 
 was not carried into execution till 1813 , when Governor 
 Hawkins wwote to General Sevier, under date, 
 
 Executive Office, North-Carolina, 
 Raleigh, I7tk July, 1813. 
 
 Sir : — In compliance with a resolution of the General Assembly of 
 this state, passed at their last session, I have the honour of tendering 
 you the sword, which this letter accompanies, as a testimonial of the 
 distinguished claim you have upon the gratitude of the state for your 
 gallantry in achieving, with your brothers in arms, the glorious victory 
 over the British forces, commanded by Colonel Ferguson, at the battle 
 of King’s Mountain, on the memorable 7th of October, 1780. This 
 tribute of respect, though bestowed at a protracted period, will not be 
 considered the less honourable on that account, when you are informed 
 that it is iu unison with a resolution of the General Assembly, passed 
 in the year- 1781, which, from some cause not well ascertained, it is to 
 be regretted, was not complied with. 
 
 Permit me, sir, to make you an expression of the high gratification 
 felt by me, at being the favoured instrument to present to you, in the 
 name of the State of North-Carolina, this testimonial of gratitude, this 
 meed of valour, and to remark, that contending as we are at the pre- 
 sent time, with the same foe for our just rights, the pleasing hope may 
 be entertained, that the valorous deeds of the heroes of our Revolution 
 will animate the soldier of the existing war, and nerve his arm, in lau- 
 dable emulation, to like achievements. 
 
 I beg you to accept an assurance of the just consideration and re- 
 spect, with which I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 WILLIAM HAWKINS. 
 
 General John Sevier. 
 
250 
 
 LEGISLATURE CALLS AGAIN 
 
 Gen. Sevier was at that time a member of Congress from 
 the Knoxville district, and replied to Governor Hawkins from 
 Washington, acknowledging the honour conferred on him and 
 his brothers in arms, and specially the compliment to himself, 
 implied by the presentation of the elegant sword that had 
 been handed to him : 
 
 “ With that memorable day,” alluding to the 7th Oct., 1780, “ began 
 to shine and beam forth the glorious prospects of our American struggle. 
 
 In those trying days I was governed by love and regard 
 
 for my common country, and particularly for the state I then had the 
 honour of serving, and in whose welfare and prosperity I shall never 
 cease to feel an interest. I was then ready to hazard everything dear to 
 man to secure our Independence. I am now as willing to risk all to re- 
 
 tain. it It is to be lamented that the heroes and fathers 
 
 of our Revolution have fallen into the arms of old age and death, and that 
 so few of them remain to benefit the country by their advice or their ser- 
 vices in the field. . • . . Our countrymen must become acquainted 
 
 with the arts of active warfare, and then I am proud in thinking they 
 will become better soldiers than those of any other nation on the globe, 
 and we will soon be able to meet the enemy at every point.” 
 
 We shall not stop to dwell upon Morgan’s spirited affair 
 1781 i at ^ ie Cow Pens, nor Greene’s masterly retreat through 
 i North-Carolina to Virginia, nor the marches and coun- 
 ter-marches of that prudent commander and his skilful anta- 
 gonist, Cornwallis. It is sufficient for the purposes of these 
 annals to say, that the authorities of North-Carolina had 
 placed a suitable estimate upon the services of the Western 
 riflemen, and now, when ther own state was overrun, called 
 for their aid to rescue it from foreign invasion and domestic 
 outrage. The Assembly, while in session at Halifax, turned 
 their eyes to Shelby and Sevier, and rested their hopes upon 
 them. On the 13th of February, it was 
 
 “ Resolved , That Colonel Isaac Shelby, of Sullivan county, and John 
 Sevier, Esq., of Washington county, be informed by this resolve, which 
 shall be communicated to them, that the General Assembly of this State 
 are feelingly impressed with the very generous and patriotic services ren- 
 dered by the inhabitants of the said counties, to which their influence has 
 in a great degree contributed. And it is earnestly urged that they would 
 press a continuance of the same active exertion ; that the state of the coun- 
 try is such as to call forth its utmost powers immediately, in order to 
 preserve its freedom and independence.” 
 
 By the same resolutions, Sevier and Shelby were requested 
 
UPON SHELBY AND SEVIER. 
 
 251 
 
 to procure again the military co-operation of Cols. Campbell 
 and Preston, and their gallant riflemen, from Virginia. 
 
 Governor Caswell, in communicating this resolution, took 
 the opportunity of depicting to Shelby the melancholy cir- 
 cumstances in which North-Carolina was involved. The 
 tories were in motion all over the state— their footsteps were 
 marked with blood, and their path was indicated by devasta- 
 tion and outrage. The British army was advancing, under 
 Cornwallis, through the most populous and fertile district of 
 the state, and detachments from it, under different leaders, 
 were committing ravages upon the lives and property of the 
 inhabitants. Under this condition of things, the governor con- 
 jured Shelby to return to the relief of his distressed country. 
 Gen. Greene also addressed to the Western leaders who had 
 signalized their zeal at King’s Mountain, the most earnest and 
 flattering letters, reminding them of the glory already acquired 
 and calling upon them to come forward once more to repulse 
 the invaders. 
 
 Col. Sevier was at this time, with most of the militia of 
 Watauga and Nollichucky, engaged in protecting their own 
 frontier and chastising the Cherokees, as will be elsewhere 
 narrated. Neither of the Western commanders could, there- 
 fore, go to the assistance of General Greene. A few of the 
 pioneers of Tennessee, however, were under his command 
 as volunteers at the hardly contested battle of the fifteenth 
 of March, at Guilford Court House, and are said to have 
 behaved well. 
 
 Could the safety of the frontier allowed the entire com- 
 mands of Shelby and Sevier to have joined the army of 
 Greene, the catastrophe that afterwards overtook Lord Corn- 
 wallis at Yorktown, might have overwhelmed him at Guil- 
 ford Court House ; as it can scarcely be doubted that the 
 battle of the fifteenth of March, with the joint assistance of the 
 riflemen from Watauga and Nollichucky, would have re- 
 sulted in the complete overthrow and capture of the British 
 army. Their additional numbers would have made the 
 affair hard by the field of Alamance — the first blood shed in 
 defence of American rights — the last great scene in the drama 
 ol the Revolution ; and North-Carolina, so early in her 
 
252 
 
 greene’s descent on south-carolina. 
 
 declaration of independence, would have contained the field 
 on which that great achievement was consummated. 
 
 After the battle at Guilford Court House, Lord Cornwallis, 
 with his crippled army, retired to Wilmington, and after re- 
 freshing his troops there, marched by way of Halifax, into 
 Virginia. His precipitate retreat from Deep River, to 
 which place General Greene had followed and offered him 
 battle, induced that commander to carry the war immedi- 
 ately into South-Carolina. 
 
 By this movement he hoped the enemy would be obliged 
 to follow him or give up the posts he held in that state. In 
 the prosecution of this plan he broke up his camp on the 
 7th of April, and on the nineteenth, made his appearance 
 before Camden. Lord Cornwallis declined to follow him, 
 and directing the march of his army towards the Chesa- 
 peake, little expectation could be entertained of a reinforce- 
 ment from that direction, to support Greene in his descent 
 upon South-Carolina. He was, of course, compelled to de- 
 pend upon the militia of the three Southern States and the 
 volunteers from the mountain. Active measures were 
 promptly adopted to concentrate these forces for future 
 operations. The expedition that had been carried on a short 
 time previous by the frontier militia, having liberated them 
 from the danger that threatened their firesides with 
 Cherokee invasion and massacre, Shelby and Sevier were 
 enabled to promise the assistance of the riflemen. Greene 
 appointed the latter end of August, and Fort Granby, as the 
 time and place of rendezvous. The volunteers promptly 
 obeyed the call of their leaders, and collected in a large force 
 for the purpose of rescuing South-Carolina from the enemy. 
 They had actually advanced far on their way to Greene’s 
 camp, when intelligence reached them that Cornwallis had 
 left North-Carolina, and that the American commander, by 
 cutting off the supplies between Camden and Charleston, had 
 compelled Lord Rawdon to evacuate the former place ; that 
 the post at Orangeburg, Fort Motte, another post at Nelson’s 
 Ferry, Fort Granby and Georgetown, had in like manner 
 been captured or evacuated in rapid succession ; and that 
 Col. Hampton had, with a party of dragoons, charged within 
 
SEVIER CROSSES THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 253 
 
 five miles of Charleston. They learned, furthermore, that 
 Fort Cornwallis at Augusta, had surrendered to Pickens and 
 Lee, assisted by the brave riflemen of Georgia under Clarke, 
 and that the British had retreated from their stronghold at 
 Ninety-Six, and had contracted their operations almost en- 
 tirely within that small extent of country which is enclosed 
 by the Santee, the Congaree and Edisto ; and to all this was 
 added, that the enemy were driven into Charleston. This 
 information so changed the complexion of affairs in South- 
 Carolina, as to admit the return of the mountain men to then- 
 homes, and Sevier* accordingly wrote to General Greene, 
 that as his recent successes had rendered the services of the 
 Western riflemen unnecessary, they had returned and dis- 
 banded. It was on account of these considerations, that the 
 troops from the mountains of Tennessee had not the good 
 fortune to participate in the battle of Eutaw Springs, which 
 occurred not long after they were disbanded. 
 
 In the meantime Greene received information, through 
 General La Fayette, that Lord Cornwallis’s movements in- 
 dicated 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 immedi- 
 ately to assemble and renew their ravages, and to harass 
 the whigs in every quarter. At this crisis, and on the six- 
 teenth 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 Corn- 
 wallis 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 Wash- 
 ington county, and marched with them across the mountain. 
 The well affected in South-Carolina were suffering extremely 
 by the cruelties which the tories were inflicting upon them. 
 Sevier joined his forces to those of General Marion, on the 
 
 * Johnson. 
 
254 
 
 SEVIF.R AND SHELBY JOIN MARION, 
 
 Santee, at Davis’s Ferry, and contributed much to keep up 
 resistance to the enemy ; to raise the spirits of those who 
 were friendly to the American cause, and to afford protection 
 to those who were in danger from the infuriated royalists. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis being now besieged in Yorktown, and 
 his retreat through North-Carolina being no longer appre- 
 hended, General Greene, with a view of stopping the depre- 
 dations of the enemy, who were now committing their ra- 
 vages in St. Stephen’s Parish, endeavoured to collect a force 
 sufficient to drive them into Charleston, and only awaited for 
 the arrival of the mountain men before he began his opera- 
 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 Caro- 
 linas. His lordship’s surrender took place on the nineteenth 
 of October, and the riflemen of Shelby were also attached 
 to Gen. Marion’s command below on the Santee. To this 
 both Shelby and Sevier consented with some reluctance. 
 Their men were called out upon a pressing emergency, which 
 no longer existed. They had been, moreover, enrolled only 
 for sixty days. Much of that time had already expired, and 
 the contemplated service under Marion would take them 
 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. Notwithstanding these considerations, they 
 promptly joined Marion early in November, with five hun- 
 dred 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, mounted 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 CAPTURE 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 detach- 
 ment. 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-Caroiina 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 ene- 
 my’s main army three or four miles to the left ; and on the 
 evening of the second day, struck the road again leading to 
 Charleston, about two miles below the post which it was in- 
 tended 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 
 course of the night, an orderly sergeant from the main Bri- 
 tish army rode in among the riflemen and was taken pri- 
 soner. 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 
 very great. As soon as daylight appeared, the detachment 
 advanced to the British post. 'Col. Mayhem sent in a con- 
 fidential individual to demand an immediate surrender of the 
 garrison, who returned in a few minutes, and reported that 
 the officer commanding would defend the post to the last ex- 
 tremity. Col. Shelby immediately proposed to Mayhem that 
 he would go in himself and make another effort 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 suffer 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 
 
256 
 
 RETURN TO MARION’S CAMP. 
 
 would soon be in with their tomahawks upon them. The 
 officer then inquired of Shelby whether they had any artil- 
 lery. To which he replied, “we have guns that will blow 
 you to atoms in a minute.” Upon which the British officer 
 said, “ I suppose I must surrender,” and immediately threw 
 open the gate, which Mayhem saw and advanced up quickly 
 with the detachment. It was not until this moment, that 
 another strong British post was seen, five or six hundred 
 yards east of the one which had surrendered. It had been 
 built to cover a landing on Cooper River. It was a strong 
 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 abbatis, and being on the 
 route from Charleston to Monk’s Corner, had been used by 
 the enemy as a stage for their troops and convoys, in passing 
 from post to post. It was sufficiently capacious to cover a 
 party of considerable magnitude, and was unassailable 
 by cavalry, the only force from which sudden incursions 
 could be apprehended.* The garrison consisted of about 
 one hundred soldiers and forty or fifty dragoons. These 
 immediately marched out as if intending a charge upon the 
 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, ad- 
 vanced 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 from the windows pf 
 the large brick building and from the abbatis. Three hun- 
 dred stand of arms were also captured, besides many stores 
 of great value. Ninety of the prisoners were carried off on 
 horseback behind the mounted men — the officers and such of 
 the garrison as were unable to march to Marion’s camp, sixty 
 miles off, were paroled. The house, with its contents and 
 the abbatis, were consumed. 
 
 General Stewart, who commanded the enemy’s main army, 
 eight or ten miles above, made great efforts to intercept the 
 
 * Johnson. 
 
SHELBY ATTENDS AT SALEM. 
 
 257 
 
 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 w r as reinforced with a large body of riflemen 
 from the West, the enemy retreated, in great disorder, nearly 
 to the gates of Charleston.* 
 
 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 w r as 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 per- 
 mit his arrival at the seat of government at the commence- 
 ment of the session. Laying down the sword, and relin- 
 quishing the duties of a commander, he left the camp of 
 Marion to enter another field of service and assume the 
 functions of a legislator. 
 
 Col. Sevier remained with the mountain men. Little more 
 remained to be done to bring the war to a close. 
 
 “John’s and James’s Island, with the city of Charleston and the 
 Neck, were now the only footholds left to the British of all their con- 
 quests in South-Carolina. A detachment of mounted infantry had been 
 left at Monk’s Corner to watch the motions of the 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 force of three hundred and fifty men were transported, by water, from 
 Charleston. The unexpected return of Marion enabled him, partly, to 
 defeat their enterprise. His force did not equal that which was arrayed 
 against him, but he, nevertheless, resolved upon attacking it. In order 
 to detain the 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 the main 
 body. The order was gallantly executed. The British advance was 
 
 * The details of this campaign of the riflemen to South-Carolina, are taken 
 from Shelby’s Narrative, now before me. They are also found in Haywood. 
 
 f This was probably Col Valentine Sevier. There is reason to believe that 
 Col. John Sevier was, at this time, on the frontier or in the Cherokee nation. 
 
 17 
 
258 GOVERNOR RUTLEDGE CONVENES THE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 charged and driven near St. Thomas’s Muster House, by Captain Smith) 
 of Mayhem’s cavalry, and their leader, Captain Campbell, with several 
 others, fell in the flight,”* 
 
 In the meantime, elections were held and Governor Rut- 
 ledge convened the legislature of the state at Jacksonbo- 
 rough, a small village about thirty-five miles from Charles- 
 ton. This event, which once more restored the forms of 
 civil government to South-Carolina, after an interregnum of 
 nearly two years, took place in January, 1782. f It was not, 
 however, till December 14th that Charleston was evacuated. 
 But that interim furnished little opportunity for military 
 adventure or achievement. The emergency that had called 
 the pioneers of Tennessee from their mountain recesses, had 
 ceased to exist, as soon as the common enemy was driven to 
 the environs of Charleston, and civil government established 
 in South-Carolina. This being accomplished, the riflemen 
 returned to their distant homes and were disbanded. They 
 felt a proud consciousness of having performed a patriotic 
 duty, and of having rendered the country some service. 
 They had rendezvoused at the western base of the Apala- 
 chian Range — they had ascended its summit, and, precipi- 
 tating themselves upon the plains below, had pursued the 
 enemy to the coast of the Atlantic. They had suffered from 
 the mountain snow storm and the miasmata of the low 
 grounds of the Santee and Edisto. Toils and marches and 
 watches, by night and by day, were cheerfully endured, and 
 wherever the enemy could be found, his post assaulted or 
 his abbatis stormed, the backwoodsman was there, ready, with 
 his spirited charger, his war whoop and his rifle, to execute 
 the purpose of his mission. 
 
 A large number of negroes and a vast amount of other 
 property, were taken from Georgia and South-Carolina, and 
 carried away. But to the honour of the troops under Sevier 
 and Shelby, no such captives or property came with them into 
 the country of their residence ; their integrity was as little 
 impeached as their valour. J They came home enriched by no 
 spoils, stained with no dishonour ; enriched only by an im- 
 perishable fame, an undying renown and an unquestionable 
 * Simms. + Idem. 1 Haywood. 
 
GOOD NAME OF THE RIFLEMEN. 
 
 259 
 
 claim to the admiration and gratitude of their countrymen 
 and of posterity. This has been accorded to them by a con- 
 sent almost unanimous. The authorities of the states in whose 
 service they were employed, conceded it to them. The offi- 
 cers who commanded them, asserted it for them. The com- 
 mander-in-chief of the southern department, attests its validi- 
 ty by inviting them to a second campaign under his standard. 
 The very impatience of Gen. Greene at their delay in reach- 
 ing 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 officer 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 
 further 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 unqualified 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 wri- 
 ter 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 public virtue. The imputation belongs 
 not 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 vindi- 
 cation of the mountain men from the imputation. Rude, some 
 of them may have been, — illiterate, many of them doubtless 
 were ; but nothing unpatriotic, nothing unmilitary, nothing 
 unsoldiery, 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. 
 
 Commenting upon the return of the mountain men from 
 
260 
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT RESTORED. 
 
 their campaign under Marion, on the Santee, the historian 
 from whom we quote, says : 
 
 “ This was, with some probability, attributed to the departure 
 
 of their colonel, Shelby, who had obtained leave of absence. Something, 
 too, has been said of the service not being sufficiently active for their habits : 
 but reasons such as these, furnish a poor apology for soldiers who, in the 
 cause of their country’s liberty, should be well pleased to encounter any 
 sort of service which it may be the policy of their commander to impose. 
 Mahon 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 bring 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 Cornwallis and to cap- 
 ture his army, was at first the object of their expedition. 
 A “ poor apology,” this disappointment, produced by the sur- 
 render 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 be- 
 fore 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 re- 
 instated, 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 
 
 * Simms. 
 
SEVIER DESPATCHES RUSSELL HOME. 
 
 261 
 
 men had been withdrawn from the exposed frontier, across 
 the mountain. These were now restored to it where their 
 services were wanted. No further help was afterwards re- 
 quired 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 
 
 1782 $ eighty anf i 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- 
 
 1783 f three, Peace was proclaimed in the American army, 
 ( by the commander-in-chief, George Washington, pre- 
 cisely 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 youth- 
 ful heroes, Shelby and Sevier, flushed their maiden swords 
 at the battle of Ivenhawa, and with little intermission there- 
 after, 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 revo- 
 lutionary struggle, under the same men, now become leaders, 
 has been just related. To preserve the chain of these trans- 
 actions unbroken, it has been found necessary to depart from 
 the chronological order of events, which has been gene- 
 rally pursued in these annals. To that order we again 
 return. 
 
 On the return march of the army from King’s Mountain, 
 1780 $ Sevier, apprehending an outbreak from the Cherokees 
 ( in the absence from the frontier of so many men and 
 guns, detached Capt. Russell home, as soon as the riflemen with 
 the prisoners had safely crossed the Catawba. Russell re- 
 turned by a rapid march, and found that Sevier’s apprehen- 
 sions 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. 
 
262 
 
 SEVIER CHEROKEE EXPEDITION. 
 
 The men composing Capt. Russell’s command continued 
 their organization. Col. Sevier soon after, with his victo- 
 rious companions in arms, reached their homes in good time 
 to repel the savage invaders. Without a day’s rest he set 
 on foot another expedition. 
 
 sevier’s cherokee 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 within forty yards of a large In- 
 dian force, before they discovered it. They fired from their 
 horses and retreated to Sevier’s camp. The Indians also 
 fired, but without effect. Sevier prepared his command to 
 receive a night attack. Before dav, Captain Pruett rein- 
 forced him after a rapid march, with about seventy men. 
 Thus reinforced, Sevier next morning pursued his march, 
 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 bod}^ 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 antici- 
 pated, was pursued by the enemy till it joined the main 
 
BATTLE OF BOYD S CREEK. 
 
 263 
 
 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. Or- 
 ders 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 
 w r ere 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 fired upon the In- 
 dians, 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 off without being taken. On tbe 
 side of Sevier’s troops not a man was even wounded. The 
 victorious little army then returned to the Big Island — after- 
 wards 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 7 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 
 them 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 
 
264 
 
 COMBAT BETWEEN SEVIER AND A BRAVE. 
 
 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 with- 
 out 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 en- 
 gaged, 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 rifle 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 $ as one the best fought battles in the border war of 
 l Tennessee. Major Tipton was severely wounded. 
 Besides the officers 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 Sami. Handly, Col. Jacob Brown, Jere- 
 
COLONEL ARTHUR CAMPBELl’s REINFORCEMENT. 
 
 2G5 
 
 miah Jack, Esq., Nathan Gaun, Isaac Taylor and George 
 Doherty. 
 
 Sevier remained but a few days at his encampment on 
 French Broad, till he was joined by Colonel Arthur Camp- 
 bell, 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 Ten- 
 nessee, three miles below Chota, since the residence of Da- 
 vid 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 discon- 
 certed 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 In- 
 dians 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 Hi- 
 wassee, 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 
 on this expedition — Captain Elliott, of Sullivan. He was 
 buried in an Indian hut at Tellico, which was burned over 
 his grave, to prevent the Indians from finding and vio- 
 lating 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 
 accompanied and piloted the army. The Indians made no 
 hostile demonstration till the army had crossed Hiwassee, 
 
26G 
 
 HIWASSEE EVACUATED. 
 
 when it became necessary to place out sentinels around their 
 camps. Hiwassee town was found evacuated, and the troops 
 saw but a single Indian warrior, who was placed upon the 
 summit of an adjoining ridge, there to beat a drum and give 
 other signals to the Indians secreted in hearing of him. The 
 spies stole upon and shot him. The troops then continued 
 their march southwardly till they came near the Chicka- 
 mauga or Look Out Towns, when they encamped and next 
 day marched into 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 se- 
 creted themselves in the fastnesses around Chickamauga. 
 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 wmre killed and captured. In one of the villages a 
 well dressed white man was found, with papers in his pos- 
 session showing that he was a British agent. Attempting to 
 escape, he was shot and left unburied. The arm} 7 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 
 commanders 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 
 
 to the council. Among others, Jane and Ireland, who 
 
 had been captured on Roane’s Creek, were exchanged. They 
 were nearly naked, and other ways looked like Indians. They 
 had been w r ell treated, though closely watched during their 
 captivity. They were frantic with joy at their restoration. 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
NEGOTIATION AT CHOTA. 
 
 267 
 
 A peace was agreed upon, and the army crossing near the 
 mouth of Nine Mile, returned home. They found that set- 
 tlers had followed the route pursued by the army as low as 
 French Broad, and at every spring had begun to erect their 
 cabins. 
 
 Col. Arthur Campbell communicated to Governor Jeffer- 
 son a further account of this expedition, and of the treaty of 
 peace. “On 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 seven- 
 teen horses loaded with clothing, skins and household lurni- 
 ture. He discovered that most of the fugitives were making 
 towards Tellico and the Iliwassee. On the 26th, Major Tip- 
 ton was detached with one hundred and fifty mounted in- 
 fantry, 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 In- 
 dians being killed and nine taken prisoners.” 
 
 After completing the expedition, the leaders of it sent the 
 following message to the 
 
 “ Chiefs and Warriors — We came into your country to fight your 
 young men. We have killed many of them and destroyed your towns. 
 You 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 satisfied 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 must come to our agent, Major Martin, at the Great Island, within 
 two moons, 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 mes- 
 sage, until the time already mentioned expires, we shall then conclude 
 that you intend to continue to be our enemies. We will then be compelled 
 to send another strong force into your country, that will come prepared to 
 
268 
 
 SEVIER PENETRATES TO TUCKASEJAH. 
 
 remain in it, to take possession of it as a conquered country, without making 
 you any compensation for it. 
 
 “Signed at Kai-a-tee, the 4th Jan’y., 1781, by 
 
 Arthur Campbell, Colonel. 
 
 John Sevier, Colonel. 
 
 Joseph Martin, Agent and Major of Militia.” 
 
 It was not till the ensuing year that a treaty could be con- 
 cluded 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 dis- 
 position to treat and the prompt measures adopted by Gene- 
 ral Greene to negotiate with them, and the severe punish- 
 ment 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 ag- 
 gression and hostility. The emissaries of England, in the per- 
 sons of refugee tories, were in the Indian villages, and stimu- 
 lated to its highest point their natural thirst for blood. It 
 was the policy of the British commander, then upon the sour- 
 ces of the Yadkin, to instigate the Cherokees to renewed war- 
 fare upon the western frontier, so as to prevent the hardy in- 
 habitants 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 
 x \ Indians stilt prowled around the more remote settle- 
 l 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 toge- 
 ther, 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 Ten- 
 nessee. Fifty warriors were slain and fifty women and child- 
 ren taken prisoners. In that vicinity the troops under Sevier 
 burnt fifteen or twenty towns and all the granaries of com 
 they could find. It was a hard and disagreeable necessity 
 that led to the adoption of these apparently cruel measures. 
 
MAJOR MARTIN SCOURS CLINCH. 
 
 269 
 
 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 hu- 
 manity 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 S wan- 
 nanoa. Isaac Thomas, an old Indian trader, was their pilot. 
 The mountains were so steep that the men had to dismount 
 and le'ad 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 pass- 
 ed through, even by traders and hunters. The Indians of the 
 Middle towns were surprised at this unexpected invasion of 
 Sevier — were panic stricken and made little resistance. 
 
 April 24. — Under this date, Joseph Martin writes from Long 
 . „ \ Island to Col. Sevier that he had returned lately with 
 
 ( 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 summerof this year, a party of Cherokees inva- 
 ded 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, cross- 
 ed Nollichucky, and proceeded south of that river to what has 
 since 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 
 fire killed seventeen of them. The rest fled and escaped. 
 
270 
 
 GOVERNOR MARTIN’S ORDER TO SEVIER. 
 
 This affair was upon Indian Creek, in what is now Jefferson 
 county. 
 
 Scarcely were these troops disbanded when a letter was 
 received by Col. Sevier from Gen. Greene, dated Sept. 10th, but 
 not received till several weeks after, urging him to come to 
 his standard Math his riflemen, for the purpose of intercepting 
 Lord Cornwallis, should he attempt a retreat through the 
 Carolinas 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 narrated, repaired to his camp about 
 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 : 
 
 “Danbury, Feb. 11, 1782. 
 Gov. Alexander Martin, to Col. John Sevier : 
 
 “ Sir : I am distressed with the repeated complaints 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 in- 
 fluence on these, our unruly citizens, I think will have sufiieient weight, 
 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 they 
 remove immediately, at leasflby 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, through the inclemency of the late season ; as soon as 
 
TALK OF THE OLD TASSEL. 
 
 271 
 
 they will be in the State, 1 shall send them to the Great Island and hold 
 a treaty with the Cherokees. 
 
 The Cherokees of the Upper Towns continued to complain 
 and remonstrate. 
 
 “ A Talk to Colonel Joseph Martin, by the Old Tassel, in Ckota, the 
 25th of September, 1782, in favour of the whole nation. For His Ex- 
 cellency, the Governor of North-Carolina. Present, all the chiefs of the 
 friendly towns and a number of young men. 
 
 Brother : I am now going to speak to you. I hope you will listen to 
 me. A string. I intended to come this fall and see you, hut there was 
 such confusion in our country, I thought it best for me to stay at home 
 and send my Talks by our friend Colonel Martin, who promises to de- 
 liver them safe to you. We are a poor distressed people, that is, in 
 great trouble, and we hope our elder brother will take pity on us and 
 do us justice. Your people from Nollichucky are daily pushing us out 
 of our lands. We have no place to hunt on. Your people have built 
 houses within one day’s walk of our towns. We don’t want to quarrel 
 with our elder brother ; we, therefore, hope our elder brother will not 
 take our lands from us, that the Great Man above gave us. He made 
 you and he made us ; we are all his children, and we hope our elder 
 brother will take pity on us, and not take our lands from us that our 
 father 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 
 brother take it from us ? It is true, some time past, the people over the 
 great water persuaded some of our young men to do some mischief to our 
 elder brother, which our principal men were sorry for. But you our 
 elder brothers come to our towns and took satisfaction, and then sent 
 for us to come and treat with you, which we did. Then our elder 
 brother promised to have the line run between us agreeable to the first 
 treaty, and all that should be found over the line should be moved off. 
 But 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 
 quarrel with us ? We have sent to the Governor of Virginia on the same 
 subject. We hope that between you both, you will take pity on your 
 younger brother, and send Colonel Sevier, who is a good man, to have all 
 your people moved off our land. I should say a great deal more, but 
 our friend, Colonel Martin, knows all our grievances, and he can inform 
 you. A string.” 
 
 The old Tassel of Chota did not represent the feelings of 
 ^ the great body of the Cherokees, who still retained 
 l their deep-seated animosities against the whites, and 
 in 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 
 
272 
 
 SEVIER INVADES THE CHEROKEES. 
 
 to some of the Creeks, they united together and again began 
 their work of murder and depredation upon the more ex- 
 posed neighbourhoods. Some white men were killed and 
 much property stolen. Colonel Sevier immediately sum- 
 moned to his standard a hundred men from Washington 
 county, and was joined by Colonel Anderson, with nearly as 
 many volunteers, from Sullivan. These troops rendezvoused 
 at the Big Island, on French Broad, and from that place 
 marched towards the towns of the enemy. The officers in 
 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 Elijah* 
 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 re- 
 duced them to ashes. Thence 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 main- 
 tain their hostile attitude. Bean, one of the soldiers, shot 
 him dead. The troops then marched to Spring Frog Town, 
 * Elijah — Anglice, Owl Creek. 
 
JACK AND RANKIN GO TO COIATEE. 
 
 273 
 
 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.* 
 
 During the infancy of the settlements on Nollichucky, corn 
 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 pur- 
 pose of bartering with the Indians for corn. They reached 
 Coiatee without interruption. The warriors of that place 
 refused 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 un- 
 willingness of the Indians to trade, and they began to show 
 a disposition to offer violence to their white visitants. The 
 beloved woman, Nancy Ward, was happily present, and was 
 able 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 vest- 
 ments brought by the traders — the canoe was filled with corn, 
 and the white men started on their return voyage well pleased 
 with the exchange they had made, and especially with the 
 kind 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 emi- 
 gration to the present Knox county, in 1787. 
 
 The district of Salisbury, by Act of Assembly, was divi- 
 ded, and the counties of Berke, Wilkes, Rutherford, Lincoln, 
 Washington and Sullivan, erected into the district of Mor- 
 gan. 
 
 A Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Deli- 
 very, was provided to be held by one of the Judges, at Jones- 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 CAPTAIN WHITE PROMOTES PEACE. 
 
 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 inhabi- 
 ted parts of Berke counties.” 
 
 “ At a Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Deli- 
 very, for the counties of Washington and ■Sullivan, begun 
 and held on the 15th of August, 1782. Present, the Hon. 
 Spruce McCay, E.sq. Waightstill Avery, Esq., was appointed 
 Attorney for the State, and John Sevier, Clerk.” 
 
 “1782, February Term. William Cocke was admitted to 
 practice Law. 1783, November Court, F. A. Ramsey quali- 
 fied as Surveyor.”* 
 
 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 wilh two Indians. During 
 the shooting one of the warriors was killed — the other es- 
 cap d 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 Chero- 
 kees 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 In- 
 dians 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 in- 
 tended to kill them. Captain James White told him to re- 
 main and they would protect them. Thus reassured, the 
 Indians remained — the. conference was held — the difficulty 
 was satisfactorily adjusted and peace prolonged. 
 
 The acquisition of territory, made from time to time, by 
 * Court Records. 
 
CHEROKEE BOUNDARY FIXED. 
 
 275 
 
 leases, purchases and treaties, from the Cherokees, had uni- 
 formly 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 colo- 
 ny, confined that infant settlement to a limited area, which 
 took at first, and retained for some time afterwards, a com- 
 pact form, that favoured defence and gave an easier protec- 
 tion 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 wilder- 
 ness, 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 
 young community west of the mountain maintained a com- 
 pact form, and could assume a defensive attitude upon any 
 sudden 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 
 successful 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 (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 
 continental 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 en- 
 larged the western boundary — 
 
 “ Beginning on the line which divided that state from Virginia, at a 
 point due north of the mouth of Cloud’s Creek ; running thence west to 
 the Mississippi; thence down the Mississippi to the thirty-fifth degree of 
 north latitude; thence due east, until it strikes the Apalachian Moun- 
 tains ; thence with the Apalachian Mountains to the ridge that divides 
 the waters of French Broad River and the waters of Nolliekucky River, 
 
27G 
 
 GRANT TO HENDERSON AND COMPANY. 
 
 and with that ridge, until it strikes the line described in the act of 1 7 78, 
 commonly called Brown’s Line, and with that line and those several 
 water courses to the beginning.” 
 
 But a tract of country was reserved for the Cherokee 
 hunting grounds — 
 
 “ Beginning at the Tennessee, where the southern boundary of North - 
 Carolina intersects the same, nearest to the Cbickaraauga Towns ; thence 
 up the middle of the Tennessee and Holston to the middle of French 
 Broad River, which lines are not to include any island or islands in said 
 river, to the mouth of Big Pigeon River ; thence up the same to the head 
 thereof; thence along the dividing ridge between the waters of Pigeon 
 River and Tuckasejah River, to the southern boundary of this state.” 
 
 The Assembly of North-Carolina took into consideration 
 the claim set up by Henderson and company, under the 
 Transylvania purchase. It was considered that the company 
 was entitled to a handsome remuneration for their expenses 
 in holding the treaty and buying the territory, and an Act 
 was accordingly passed granting to Richard Henderson and 
 his associates two hundred thousand acres of land, to be laid 
 off in one survey, and with the following boundaries. “Begin- 
 ning at the Old Indian Tower, in Powell’s Valley, running 
 down Powell’s River, not less than four miles in width, on 
 one or both sides thereof to the junction of Powell’s and 
 Clinch Rivers ; then down Clinch River, on one or both sides, 
 not less than twelve miles in width, for the complement of 
 two hundred thousand acres.” Thenceforward all doubts 
 were removed as to the right of the state to grant the other 
 lands on the western waters, which were contained within 
 the bounds specified in the Indian deeds to the company. 
 
 At the same session, an Act was passed authorizing the 
 governor to hold a treaty with the Chickamauga and Over- 
 hill Cherokees, and also with those of the Middle and Valley 
 settlement, at the Long Island. Joseph Martin is appointed 
 by the same Act, agent. It is made his duty to visit the In- 
 dian country once in six months, deliver the governor’s mes- 
 sages and receive the talks of the Indians, record them in his 
 journal, etc. 
 
 In order that all dealing and intercourse with the Chero- 
 kees should be carried on in the mosf friendly and upright 
 manner, it was further provided that no one but “men of the 
 
GREENE COUNTY ESTABLISHED. 
 
 277 
 
 most upright, unexceptionable, honest characters,” should be 
 licensed to trade with them. 
 
 During the same session of the Assembly, the county of 
 1*83 i Washington was again divided, and a new county 
 l 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 Ilardin, John Newman, 
 George Doherty, James Houston, Amos Bird, and Asahel 
 Rawlings, Esqs. ; Daniel Kennedy was elected Clerk, and 
 James Wilson, Sheriff; Y/illiam Cocke, Esq., Attorney for 
 the State ; Joseph Hardin, Junr., Entry-Taker ; Isaac Tay- 
 lor, Surveyor; Richard Wood, Register.”* 
 
 Jefferson county, as known at present, received its first 
 settlers in this year. These were Robert McFarland, Alex- 
 ander 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 Gentiy, four miles above Dandridge ; Joseph Cope- 
 land settled this year south of the French Broad, seven miles 
 above Dandridge. 
 
 The settlements had reached as far as Long Creek, in the 
 1784 \ P resent Jefferson county, as at this session of the 
 l 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 
 
 * County Eecords. 
 
278 GEN. WHITE AND COL. RAMSEY EXPLORE THE COUNTRY. 
 
 Dumplin (now Sevier). Also from the county line south of 
 Chucky, and where the War Path crosses the same, the 
 nearest and best way to the War Ford, on Pigeon (now 
 Cocke county). 
 
 “ Ordered, that a Bench Warrant issue to Captain John 
 Newman, to take suspected persons. 
 
 “ At November Sessions, leave was granted to Thomas 
 Stockton to build a mill on French Broad, at Christian’s 
 Ford” (now Sevier county).* 
 
 In August, of this year, the late General James White, 
 1783 S ^oh 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 the Holston 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 
 habin had then been erected there. A few miles below his 
 clearing, the remains of three or four Indians were found ; they 
 had been killed several days before. The explorers con- 
 tinued on the south side of the river as low down as 
 the mouth of Dumpliu, Creek, near \yhich they recrossed 
 French Broad and fell down between that and Holston, pass- 
 ing 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, by 
 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 fol- 
 lowed 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 
 
 * County Records. 
 
Armstrong’s land office opened 
 
 279 
 
 in the ice and put the bod}' of V. Fine in the creek, which 
 lias ever since been called Fine’s Creek. 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 
 Whitson’s, on Pigeon, ten miles above New port, where 
 McNabb since lived ; Wood’s, five miles below. These 
 were all guarded several years. 
 
 The General Assembly laid oft’ a district for the ex- 
 clusive satisfaction of the officers and soldiers of the late 
 continental line, which was raised in North-Carolina. The 
 claims to be satisfied, were founded upon certain promises 
 held out to them by the legislature, in May, i780. 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 
 should be appropriated for their satisfaction, by grant.* 
 
 On the 20th of October, seventeen hundred and eighty- 
 three, John Armstrong’s office was opened, at Hillsborough, 
 for the sale of the western lands not included in these reser- 
 vations, nor in the counties of Washington and Sullivan, at 
 the rate of ten pounds, specie certificates, per hundred. 
 These certificates had been issued by Boards of Auditors, 
 appointed by public authority, for services performed and 
 articles impressed or furnished in the time of the revolu- 
 tionary 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, 
 vast quantities of land were entered, and certificates, to a 
 very large amount, had beeu 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 west- 
 ward of the Apalachian Mountains, and including all the 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
 f Idem. 
 
280 . 
 
 TREATY OF PEACE. 
 
 lands on the waters of Holston, from the mouth of French 
 Broad River, upwards to the bounds of Washington and 
 Sullivan counties, exclusive of the entries made by the entry- 
 taker of Greene county. 
 
 By the eighth article of the treaty of 1783, it was provided 
 that the navigation of the Mississippi River, from its source to 
 the ocean, shall, forever, remain free and open to the subjects of 
 Great Britain and the citizens of the United States. 
 
 In conformity with the ninth article of confederation, Con- 
 gress issued a proclamation, prohibiting all persons from 
 making setlements on lands inhabited or claimed by Indians, 
 without the limits or jurisdiction of any particular state, and 
 from purchasing or receiving any gift or cession of such 
 lands without the express authority and directions of the 
 United States in Congress assembled. 
 
 The state of peace brought with it new motives for exer- 
 tion in all the industrial pursuits of life, and new incentives 
 to patriotism. The country had secured to itself indepen- 
 dence ; 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 responsi- 
 ble for its success, prosperity and enlargement. The ten- 
 dency westward was greatly increased, and multitudes of 
 emigrants from the 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 in- 
 duced a renewal of hostilities on the border settlements, and 
 Major Fine and Col. Lillard raised a company of thirty men, 
 and penetrated through the mountains to the Over-hill Town of 
 Cowee, 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 inhabi- 
 tants were clearing their fields and building their cabins as 
 low down as the Big Island, and along the banks of the 
 
PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 281 
 
 Big and Little Pigeon. A few adventurers were also on 
 i) Boyd’s Creek, south of French Broad. North of Hol- 
 l 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 pack- 
 horse 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 had served as places for 
 private and public instruction in learning and religion, as 
 well as for the administration of justice. Now, in the oldest 
 part of the settlements, might occasionally be seen the back- 
 wood’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 co- 
 vered in the fashion of cabins of the pioneers, with clap- 
 boards. 
 
 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 
 sit in.” * 
 
 But improvement and progress and change had dawned 
 upon its future fortunes, and Jonesboro’, already distinguish- 
 ed 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 be- 
 come 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 an- 
 cient commonwealth will be given in the next chapter. 
 
 * County Records. 
 
282 
 
 STATE OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE STATE OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 Tiie revolutionary war was now ended, and the indepen- 
 o $ denceoft.be United States acknowledged by England, 
 l and some of the great powers on the Eastern con- 
 tinent. The transition from a state of provincial vassalage 
 and colonial dependence to self government, was sudden, and 
 in some of the states almost imperceptible. The change 
 from a monarchy to a republic, brought with it, here and 
 there over the country, a little of the spirit of insubordina- 
 tion, 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 peo- 
 ple 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 in- 
 subordination existed amid the chaos, convulsions and up- 
 turnings 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 diffi- 
 culty involving the honour, the stability and almost the exis- 
 tence, of the United States government. 
 
 In achieving their independence, the states had each con- 
 1784 $ tracted a large debt upon its own treasury, for expen- 
 l ses incurred during the war. In addition to this, Con- 
 gress had created a heavy liability upon the general trea- 
 sury for advances made by American citizens and foreign- 
 
CESSION ACT OF NORTH- CAROLINA. 
 
 283 
 
 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 indebt- 
 edness, and harassed by the importunate clamour of its pub- 
 lic 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 vacant 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 west- 
 ern territory extending from the Alleghanies to the Missis- 
 sippi. Sympathizing with Congress in the distress and diffi- 
 culty 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 au- 
 thority 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 As- 
 sembly passed an act 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, Washing- 
 ton, 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 pro- 
 vided in the cession act that if Congress should not accept in 
 two years, the act was thenceforward to be of no effect. 
 
 The Assembly, at the same session, closed the land office 
 
 * Davidson county was erected in 1783, on Cumberland, as will be elsewhere 
 fully stated. 
 
284 
 
 COMPLAINTS OF WESTERN COUNTIES. 
 
 for the Western Territory, and nullified all entries of land, 
 except as therein specified. 
 
 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- 
 ture to make any provision for the protection and defence of 
 the Western people, or to discharge the debts that had been 
 contracted in guarding the frontiers, or inflicting chastise- 
 ments upon the Indians. Accounts for these purposes had 
 been, and of necessity would continue to be, large and fre- 
 quent. These demands against the treasury of the state 
 were received reluctantly — were scrutinized with the ut- 
 most caution, and paid grudgingly. Often they were re- 
 jected as informal or unauthorized. It was intimated even, 
 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 unjustly taken to cancel the 
 debts of their Western brethren. 
 
 It will be recollected that the Bill of Rights, wdiich was 
 adopted at the same time with the Constitution of North- 
 Carolina, had 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 indepen- 
 dent 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, re- 
 turned home. They brought with them the first intelligence 
 that had reached the West, of the passage of the cession act. 
 
REDUCED TO POLITICAL ORPHANAGE. 
 
 285 
 
 The impression was generally entertained, that Congress 
 would not formally accept the cession of the Western Terri- 
 tory 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 re- 
 sources at home. This aspect of their condition was made 
 the more discouraging and alarming, from the consideration 
 that heretofore no provision had been made for the establish- 
 ment of a Superior Court west of the mountains. Violation 
 of law was permitted to pass unpunished, except by the 
 summary process of the Regulators appointed for that pur- 
 pose, by the people themselves. Nor was the military organi- 
 zation adequate to the exigencies of the new settlements. 
 There was no brigadier-general allowed by law to call into 
 service the militia of the counties, or to concentrate its ener- 
 gies on sudden emergencies. This defect was the more dan- 
 gerous, and the more sensibly felt, now when Indian aggression 
 continued. With a frontier exposed to the inroads of a sa- 
 vage enemy, and with no authority amongst themselves to 
 whom the settlers could apply for assistance — with the set- 
 tlements infested with culprits of every degree of guilt, re- 
 fugees from other places, and escaping to these seclusions on 
 account 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 contem- 
 plation 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 popula- 
 tion that the sacred duty devolved upon themselves to de- 
 vise 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 na- 
 ture. Salus populi suprema lex. The frontier was suffering 
 constantly by Indian perfidy and assailed by Indian atro- 
 
28 G 
 
 MEMBERS OF CONVENTION CHOSEN. 
 
 city, and the settlers seemed to hold their lives by the per- 
 mission and at the will of their Cherokee neighbours. 
 
 In this dilemma it was proposed that in each captain’s 
 company two representatives of the people should be elect- 
 ed, who should assemble, as committees, in their respective 
 counties, to deliberate upon the state of public affairs, 
 and recommend some general plan of action suited to the 
 emergency. These committees, for Washington, Sullivan 
 and Greene, met and recommended the election of deputies 
 from each of the counties, to assemble in convention 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 Wash- 
 ington county of John Sevier, Charles Robertson, William 
 Purphey, Joseph Wilson, John Irvin, Samuel Houston, Wil- 
 liam Trimble, William Cox, Landon Carter, Hugh Henry, 
 Christopher Taylor, John Chisolm, Samuel Doak, William 
 Campbell, Benjamin Holland, John Bean, Samuel Williams, 
 and Richard White. 
 
 For the county of Sullivan — Joseph Martin, Gilbert Chris- 
 tian, William Cocke, John Manifee, William Wallace, John 
 Hall, Sami. 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. 
 
 Davidson county sent no delegates ; probably none were 
 elected. 
 
 These deputies, on the day appointed, August 23d, as- 
 sembled at Jonesboro’. John Sevier was appointed presi- 
 dent 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. 
 
 The committee consisted of Messrs. Cocke, Outlaw, Car- 
 ter, Campbell, Manifee, Martin, Robinson, Houston, Chris- 
 tian, Kennedy and Wilson. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 
 
 287 
 
 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 re- 
 
 marks on the variety of opinions offered, for and against 
 a separation, and taking from his pocket a volume con- 
 taing the Declaration of Independence by the colonies in 
 1776, commented upon the reasons which induced their sepa- 
 ration 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 
 committee.*' This decision was submitted to the conven- 
 tion in the following 
 
 “ REPORT. 
 
 “ Your Committee are of opinion and judge it expedient, that the 
 Counties of Washington, Sullivan and Greene, which the Cession Bill 
 particularly respects, form themselves into an Association and combine 
 themselves together, in order to support the present laws of North Caro- 
 lina, which may not he incompatible with the modes and forms of lay- 
 ing off a new state. It is the opinion of your committee, that we have a 
 just and uudeniable right to petition to Congress to accept the cession 
 made by North-Carolina, and for that body to countenance us in form- 
 ing ourselves 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 
 have 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 
 shall adjourn to. When any contiguous part of Virginia shall make ap- 
 plication to join this Association, after they are legally permitted, either 
 by the State of Virginia, or other power having cognizance thereof, it is 
 our opinion that they be received and enjoy the same privileges that we 
 do, may or shall enjoy. This Convention has a right to adopt and pre- 
 scribe 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 U nited States, and this 
 Convention has just right and authority to prescribe a regular mode for 
 his support.” 
 
 This report was received and adopted by the convention. 
 The question was then taken. 
 
 * Manuscripts of Rev. S. Houston. 
 
288 
 
 YEAS AND NAYS ON QUESTION OF SEPARATION. 
 
 “ On motion of Mr. Cocke, whether for or against forming ourselves 
 iuto a separate and distinct state, independent of the State of North- 
 Carolina, at this time , it was carried in the affirmative. 
 
 “ On motion of Mr. Kennedy, the yeas and nays were taken on the 
 above question. 
 
 “ Yeas. — Mr. Ti nil, Samms, North, Taylor, Anderson, Houston, Cox, 
 Talbot, Joseph Wilson, Trimble, Reese, John Anderson, Manifee, Chris- 
 tian, Carnes, A. Taylor, Fitzgerald, Cavit, Looney, Cocke, B. Gist, Raw- 
 lings, Bullard, Joshua Gist, Valentine Sevier, Robinson, Evajis and 
 Maughan. (28.) 
 
 “ Ways. — John Tipton, Joseph Tipton,' Stuart, Maxfield, D. Looney. 
 Vincent, Cage, Provincer, Gammon, Davis, Kennedy, Newman, Wear, 
 James Wilson and Campbell.” (15.) 
 
 The manuscript from which the above is taken, was found 
 among the papers of General Kennedy. It is without a date 
 upon it. It is not known from the paper itself, which 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 conse- 
 quence 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. Procla- 
 mation 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 con- 
 vention in the following report : 
 
 “To remove the doubts of the scrupulous ; to encourage the timid, 
 and to induce all, harmoniously and speedily, to enter into a firm asso- 
 ciation, 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 agricul- 
 ture, perfect manufactures, encourage literature and every thing truly 
 laudable. The seat of government being among ourselves, would evi- 
 dently tend, not only to keep a circulating medium in gold and silver 
 
p 
 
 REPORT OP COMMITTEE. 289 
 
 among us, but draw it from many individuals living in other 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 among 
 us. But all these advantages, acquired and accidental, together with 
 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 
 he 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 
 state, the Continental Congress, by their resolves, invite us to it. The 
 assembly of North-Carolina by their late cession bill, opened the dooiy* 
 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 affairs, and concert measures, as appears from their resolves, have 
 unanimously agreed that we should do it, by signing the following ar- 
 ticles : 
 
 ‘‘First. That we agree to entrust the consideration of public affairs, 
 and the prescribing rules necessary to a convention, to be chosen by 
 each company as follows : — That if any company should not exceed 
 thirty, there be one representative ; and where 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 per- 
 son 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 
 agree to improve and cultivate these, and to discountenance every thing 
 of a contradictory and repugnant nature. 
 
 “Fourthly. We unanimously agree to protect this association with 
 our lives and fortunes, to which we pledge our faith and reputation.” 
 
 These report being concurred in, on motion of Mr. Cocke, 
 it was 
 
 “ Resolved , That the clerks of the county courts who have the bonds 
 and recognizance of any officers, sheriff's and collectors, who have col- 
 lected 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 
 in their possession and custody, until some mode be adopted and pre- 
 19 
 
290 
 
 NEW CONVENTION BREAKS UP IN CONFUSION. 
 
 scribed to have our accounts fairly and properly liquidated with the 
 State of North-Carolina. And they resolved, further, that all the she- 
 riffs and collectors, who have before collected any of the public monies, 
 shall be called on, and render due accounts of the monies that they 
 have collected and have in their hands, or may collect by virtue of their 
 office. 
 
 “Messrs. White and Doak moved, and were permitted to enter their 
 dissent against both of these resolutions, because, in their opinion, it 
 was contrary to law to detain the bonds.” 
 
 The deputies then took into consideration the propriety of 
 having a new convention called to form a constitution, and 
 give a name to the Independent State. They decided that 
 each county should elect five members to the convention — 
 the same number that had been elected in 1776, to form the 
 constitution of North-Carolina. They fixed the time and 
 place of meeting to be at Jonesboro’, on the 16th of Septem- 
 ber, and then adjourned. 
 
 For some reason not now distinctly known, the convention 
 did not meet till November, and then broke up in great con- 
 fusion. The members had not harmonized upon the details 
 of the plan of association. There was a still greater con- 
 flict of opinion amongst their respective constituencies, and 
 in a new community the voice of a constituent is always 
 omnipotent, and must not be disregarded. Each party was 
 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 dis- 
 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 di- 
 rected to be held at Jonesboro’. The Assembly also formed 
 the militia of Washington District into a brigade, and ap- 
 pointed 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 
 
GENERAL SEVIER DISSUADES FROM SEPARATION. 
 
 291 
 
 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 
 ol the federal debt ; and, whereas, the States of Massachu- 
 setts 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, there- 
 fore, repealed. On account of the remote situation of the 
 western 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 imputa- 
 tion 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 
 election was held, and deputies were again chosen to a future 
 convention. On the day of the election, at Jonesboro’, Gene- 
 ral 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. lie also 
 wrote to Col. Kennedy, of Greene county, under date — 
 
 2d January, 1785. 
 
 Dear Colonel: — I have just received certain information from Col. 
 Martin, that the first thing the Assembly of North-Carolina did was 
 to repeal the 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 we shall pursue no further measures as 
 to a new state. David Campbell, Esqr., is appointed one of our judges. 
 I would write to you officially, but my commission is not yet come to 
 hand. 
 
 I am, dr. Colo., with esteem, yr. mt. obdt. 
 
 Colo. Kennedy. JOHN SEVIER. 
 
 
292 
 
 DEPUTIES CHOSEN TO A NEW CONVENTION. 
 
 Gen. Sevier also made a written communication addressed 
 | to Col. Kennedy and the citizens of Greene county, 
 l informing them what had been done for their relief 
 by the legislature, and, with the purpose of preventing con- 
 fusion and controversies amongst the people of the western 
 counties, he begged them to decline all further action in re- 
 spect 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 were 
 John Sevier, William Cocke, John Tipton, Thomas Stewart, 
 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. Thqy were chosen, 
 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 conside- 
 rable ability and some experience. 
 
 The convention subsequently assembled again at Jones- 
 borough, and again appointed John Sevier president, and F. 
 A. Ramsey, secretary. 
 
 The convention being organized and ready for business, 
 the Rev. Samuel Houston, one of the deputies from Wash- 
 ington 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 inte- 
 resting 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- 
 
CONVENTION OPENED WITH PRAYER. 
 
 293 
 
 ton, and he offered up a solemn and appropriate prayer, in 
 which all seemed to unite. 
 
 A form of a constitution under which the new government 
 should be put in motion, was submitted and agreed to, sub- 
 ject 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 harmo- 
 nize conflicting opinions, and to secure to it general public 
 sentiment and popular favour. 
 
 By an ordinance of the convention, however, it was provi- 
 ded 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 
 1785 1 ° 
 
 l 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 com- 
 posed 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 Com- 
 mons. Thus organized, the assembly proceeded to the elec- 
 tion 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 follow- 
 ing acts were ratified, and signed by the speakers and coun- 
 tersigned by the clerks of their respective bodies, viz : 
 
 “ An act to establish the legal claims of persons claiming 
 any property under the laws of North-Carolina, in the same 
 
294 FIRST CLASSICAL SCHOOL WEST OF THE ALLEGIIANIES. 
 
 manner as if the State of Franklin had never formed itself 
 into a distinct and separate, state.” 
 
 “ An act to appoint commissioners, and to vest them with 
 full powers to make deeds of conveyance to such persons as 
 have purchased lots in the town of Jonesboro’.” 
 
 “ An act for the promotion of learningin the county of Wash. 
 2^5 $ ington.” Under the provisions of this act, the foundation 
 ( 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. Sam- 
 uel 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 Nas- 
 sau Hall, in ils palmiest days, under the presidency of Dr. 
 Witherspoon. His school-house, a plain log building erected 
 on his own farm, stood a little west of the present site of 
 what is now Washington College. For many years it was 
 the only, and for still more, the principal seat of classical 
 education for the western country. 
 
 “ An act to establish a militia in this state.” 
 
 “ 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 never 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 Jefferson, and extended probably 
 further west. There is reason to believe that Caswell 
 
THE SEVEN COUNTIES OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 295 
 
 county extended down the French Broad and Holstonto their 
 confluence, and perhaps further west. This much is cer- 
 tain : 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 Ten- 
 nessee ; 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 for levying a tax' for the support of the govern- 
 ment.” 
 
 “ 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 Jus- 
 tices 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. 
 
 The provisions of some of these acts were nearly the 
 
296 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE STATE OF FRANKLIN, 
 
 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 men- 
 tioned, by the legislature at its first session. The other 
 state officers were Landon Carter, Secretary of State ; Wil- 
 liam Cage, Treasurer; Stockley Donaldson, Surveyor-Gene- 
 ral; Daniel Kennedy and William Cocke, Brigadier-Gene- 
 rals 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 Council 
 of State were — General William Cocke, Colonel Landon 
 Carter, Colonel Francis A. Ramsey, Judge Campbell, Gene- 
 ral Kennedy, Colonel Taylor. Until the new constitution 
 should be adopted by the people, the temporary form of gov- 
 ernment 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 ; Tho- 
 mas Henderson, of Spencer; Joseph Hamilton, of Caswell; 
 and Samuel Weir, of Sevier. On the 10th of June, 1785, 
 Governor Sevier, by proclamation, announced the appoint- 
 ment 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, twenty- 
 five pounds for each court he attended ; Secretary of State j 
 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; Trea- 
 surer, forty pounds annually ; each member of Council oi 
 State, six shillings per day, when in actual service. 
 
 “In the law, levying a tax for the support of government, was the 
 clause following : 
 
 Haywood- 
 
AND ITS CURRENCY. 
 
 297 
 
 “ ‘ Be it enacted, 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 shillings and six pence per yard ; nine 
 hundred, at three shillings ; eight hundred, two shillings and nine 
 pence; seven hundred, two shillings and sixpence; 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 ; 
 good, 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 ; 
 good, 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 well 
 managed tobacco, fit to be prized, that may pass inspection, the hun- 
 dred, fifteen shillings, and so on in pro-portion for a greater or less quan- 
 tity.’ ” 
 
 “ ‘ And all the salaries and allowances hereby made, shall be paid by 
 any treasurer, sheriff, or collector of public taxes, to any person entitled 
 to the same, to be paid in specific articles as collected, and at the rates 
 allowed by the state for the same ; or in current money of the State of 
 Franklin.’ In specifying the skins, which might be received as a com- 
 mutation for money, the risibility of the unthinking was sometimes 
 excited at the enumeration. The rapidity of wit, which never stops to 
 be informed, and which delights by its oddities, established it as an 
 axiom, that the salaries of the governor, judges, and other officers, were 
 to be paid in skins absolutely ; and to add to their merriment, had them 
 payable in mink skins.”* 
 
 The provisions of the Franklin Legislature concerning its 
 currency, have been the source of much merriment and 
 pleasantry, at the expense of the Franks. It should be re- 
 collected that many of the articles, which were thus de- 
 clared to be a lawful tender in payment of debts, were, at 
 that moment, convertible into specie, at the prices designated 
 by the law ; and all of them, certainly, at a lower scale of 
 depreciation than the issues of many banks, considered since 
 that time as a legal currency. Besides, in the forming pe- 
 riod of society, when the pastoral and agricultural have not yet 
 been merged into the commercial and manufacturing stages* 
 where the simple wants of a new community confine its 
 exchanges to the bartering of one commodity or product for 
 another, there can be but little use for mon^rj. There it 
 does not constitute wealth, and is scarcely the representa- 
 tive of it. On the frontier, he is the wealthiest man, not 
 
 - Haywood. 
 
298 
 
 CURRENCY OF THE COLONIES. 
 
 who owns the largest, amount of wild lands, while thousands 
 of acres around him are vacant and unappropriated ; or who 
 has money to lend, which no one near him wishes or needs to 
 borrow ; but he whose guns and traps furnish the most peltries, 
 who owns the largest flocks and herds, and whose cribs and 
 barns are the fullest, and whose household fabrics are the most 
 abundant. In a new settlement, these are wealth, and con- 
 stitute its standard. 
 
 In the earlier periods of all the American colonies, a like 
 condition of things existed, as did now in Franklin. Money 
 appears to have been very scarce, and in their domestic 
 transactions, quite unknown. In Virginia, two centuries ago, 
 the price of a wife was estimated at one hundred and fifty 
 pounds of tobacco; and the subject of the transaction was 
 held to impart its own dignity to the debt, which accordingly 
 was allowed to take precedence of all other engagements. 
 In 1088, a stipend of sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco was 
 given by law to each clergymen. In Maryland, tobacco, and 
 not money, was made the measure of value, in all the laws 
 where prices were stated or payrfients prescribed.* InNorth- 
 Carolina, as late as 1722, debts and rents were generally 
 made payable in hides, tallow, furs, or other productions of 
 the country. And still later, in 1738, when money was 
 scarce in that colony, it became necessary to receive pay- 
 ment of quit-rents and other debts, in such articles of country 
 produce as were marketable and easily transported. The 
 price of these several articles was fixed by acts of As- 
 sembly, at which they were a legal tender. When judgment 
 was obtained in a court for damages to a certain amount, 
 the entry was usually made in the docket with the follow- 
 ing addition : “ payable in deer skins, hides, tallow or small 
 furs, at country price. A specific tax of one bushel of In- 
 dian corn, upon every t.ithable inhabitant, was laid in 1715, for 
 the support of some forces upon the frontier, and to discharge 
 a debt due to South-Carolina. 
 
 At an early day in Virginia, tobacco became the standard 
 of value, and supplied in part the place of a circulating me- 
 dium. By a.i act of 1632, “ the secretary’s fees shall be as 
 
 * Grahamc. 
 
 f Williamson. 
 
FRANKLIN TREATY OF PEACE AND BOUNDARIES. 
 
 299 
 
 followeth : ffor a warrant, 05 lbs. of tobacco; ffora passe 
 10 lbs. ; ffor a freedom 20, etc. The marshall’s fees ffor an 
 arrest, 10 lbs.; ffor warning the cort, 02, imprisonment 
 coming in 10, going out 10, laying by the heels 5, whipping 
 10, pillory 10, duckinge 10, ffor every 5 lbs. of tobacco the 
 marshall may require one bushel of corne, etc. etc.”* 
 
 The court of assistants, of Massachusetts, ordered that 
 ^ | corn should pass for payment of all debts at the usual 
 i rate for which it was sold. 
 
 Hard Currency. — ‘‘Musket balls, full bore, were a legal 
 tender in Massachusetts, in 1056, current for a farthing a 
 piece, provided that no man be compelled to take above 
 twelve at a time of them.” 
 
 “ In 1680, the town of Hilham paid its taxes in milk-pails.” 
 Having appointed the officers of state, and provided for 
 the support of the government of Franklin, the Assembly 
 authorized a treaty to be held with the Cherokee Indians. 
 Governor Sevier, Alexander Outlaw and Daniel Kennedy, 
 were appointed commissioners. The treaty was held at the 
 house of Major Henry, near the mouth of Dumplin Creek, 
 on the north bank of French Broad River. The king of the 
 Cherokees, with a great number of their chiefs, met the 
 Franklin commissioners at this place, on the 31st of May, 
 1785. The conference was continued three days, and re- 
 sulted in the establishment of the ridge dividing the waters 
 of Little River and the Tennessee, as the boundary between 
 the whites and Indians, and the cession of all the lands south 
 of French Broad and Holston, east of that ridge. For these 
 lands the Indians were promised compensation in general 
 terms. “Both parties professed a sincere desire for the bles- 
 sings of peace, and an ardent wish that it might be of long 
 continuance. The governor, in a speech well calculated to 
 produce the end he had in view, deplored the sufferings of 
 the white people; the blood which the Indians spilt on the 
 road leading to Kentucky ; lamented the uncivilized state of 
 the Indians, and to prevent all future animosities, be sug- 
 gested the propriety of fixing the bounds, beyond which 
 those settlements should not be extended, which had been 
 * Foote’s Virginia. 
 
300 
 
 CONDITION OF THE NEW STATE. 
 
 imprudently made on the south side of French Broad and 
 Holston, under the connivance of North-Carolina, and could 
 not now be broken up ; and he pledged the faith of the State 
 of Franklin, if these bounds should be agreed upon and made 
 known, that the citizens of his state should be effectually 
 restrained from all encroachments beyond it.”* 
 
 Under the government of Franklin, the county offices 
 were generally conferred upon those who already held com- 
 missions under the State of North-Carolina for the same 
 places. This arrangement gave general satisfaction. The 
 metamorphosis from the old to the new order of things was 
 so noiseless, gradual and imperceptible, it did violence to no 
 one, produced no convulsion, and for the time being recon- 
 ciled all parties west of the mountains to the new govern- 
 ment, which was now in the full tide of successful experi- 
 ment. 
 
 East of the Alleghanies, however, this sudden dismember- 
 ment of the territory of North-Carolina produced surprise, 
 censure and condemnation. A rumour of the insurrectionary 
 tendency across the mountain, had reached Newbern during 
 the session of the legislature, and had, doubtless, much influ- 
 ence in hastening the measures adopted for the conciliation 
 and relief of the western people. Complaints were soon 
 after made to Alexander Martin, then governor of the state> 
 by the chiefs of the Cherokee nation, of the frequent viola- 
 tion of treaty stipulations, and especially of the murder of 
 one of their head men, Butler, by Major Hubbard, one of the 
 Franklin officers, in time of peace. 
 
 Governor Martin, under date Danbury, Dec. 18, 1784, had 
 written to Col. John Gist, authorizing him to convene the 
 witnesses before him, and if they prove the killing, “you 
 will issue your warrant to apprehend the said Hubbard, di- 
 rected to the sheriff or such other officers as you judge 
 proper, to be brought before you, and if he cannot shew any 
 exculpatory reason for this act, you will commit him under a 
 strong guard to Burke county jail, and to be under the care of 
 General McDowell, there to remain until Washington Supe- 
 rior Court.” 
 
 The circumstances of the death of Butler, as furnished by 
 * Haywood. 
 
UNTOOLA, A CHIEF OF CITICO. 
 
 301 
 
 a surviving kinsman, as he received them from Hubbard 
 himself, are these : 
 
 The Death of Untoola or Gun Rod of Citico — or, as known 
 TO THE WHITES, BUTLER A CHEROKEE ClIIEF. 
 
 During an armistice that had taken place between the 
 Upper towns of the Cherokees and the infant settlements 
 upon the French Broad, an attempt was made to revive the 
 peaceful relations which, at happy intervals, had existed be- 
 tween the white and Indian population. The counsels of 
 the elder chiefs had at-length prevailed over the rash and in- 
 considerate decisions of the young men and warriors, and had 
 curbed, if not eradicated, the restless spirit of cruelty and ag- 
 gression which had so often involved the frontier in war. 
 The whites too, were at this moment not indisposed to a 
 state of peace. The emigration from abroad had been so 
 great as to render the amount of the last year’s crop inade- 
 quate for the present wants and support of the country. A 
 pacific policy was necessary to a renewal of that system of 
 barter which, in times of previous scarcity, had been so bene- 
 ficial to all. Impelled by necessity, several small parties 
 ventured into the Indian country to procure corn. Amongst 
 these was one consisting of only two men, Col. James Hub- 
 bardt, and a fellow-soldier. Hubbardt’s parents and their 
 whole family, had been cruelly butchered in Virginia by the 
 Shawnees, and he had hence become the avowed enemy of the 
 Indian race ; and it may not be saying too much to add, that 
 he had killed more Cherokees than any other one man. In 
 every battle with them, he sought the place of danger. Coura- 
 geous in action, ardent in pursuit, artful in stratagie and 
 desperate in his revenges, he had incurred the implacable 
 resentment of the Indians. This feeling had been exaspe- 
 rated by the mortifying result of many a hardly contested 
 rencounter with them.. In one of these it was his good for- 
 tune to meet and unhorse Butler, a distinguished warrior and 
 the chieftain of Citico. To lose his horse, his tomahawk or his 
 rifle, is equivalent, in the Cherokee warrior’s code, to the loss 
 of consequence and of honour. Butler apprehended this effect 
 from his late inglorious retreat from his antagonist. This stain 
 
302 
 
 HUBBARDT AND UNTOOLA. 
 
 upon his character ulcerated his proud and ambitious spirit, 
 and impatient under its corrodings, and panting for an oppor- 
 tunity to retrieve his loss, he had dissented from the peace- 
 talks which were gradually preparing his followers for a 
 general pacification — an event which Butler was well aware, 
 under his peculiar situation, would consign him to temporary 
 obscurity, or perhaps sink him to lasting infamy. His wounded 
 pride could not brook this tormenting apprehension, and he 
 disdained to accept the overture of peace, which he too well 
 knew had not been extorted by his valour. Hearing of the 
 approach of Hubbardt and of his companion to his town, he 
 invited a warrior, who still adhered to his fortunes, to accom- 
 pany him. Well armed and well mounted, they hastened 
 from Citico and soon met the object of their search. Hub- 
 bardt and his companion were encumbered with packages of 
 different kinds, which had been laid upon their horses to be 
 exchanged for corn. At the time of Butler’s approach, they 
 were on foot, leading the horses leisurely along the Indian 
 path. Butler rode directly up, and with an air of insulted 
 dignity demanded, in English, the object of their intrusive 
 visit. Hubbardt, looking at him sternly, replied, with great 
 self possession, As the war is over, we have brought some 
 clothing which we desire to barter for corn ; and as an evi- 
 dence of the conciliatory and peaceable purpose of his visit* 
 he exhihited the contents of a sack taken from his horse. He 
 also drew forth a bottle of whiskey and invited the Indians to 
 drink. To inspire Butler with greater confidence, he'leaned 
 his rifle against a tree, vainly hoping, by this demeanour, to 
 appease the resentment which but too plainly burned in the 
 bosom and flashed from the eyes of his antagonist. To the 
 enquiry about a supply of corn, no answer was made by But- 
 ler, who manifested a stubborn indifference to the negotia- 
 tion. He continued mounted and rode partly around the 
 white men, with the supposed intention of either separating 
 Hubbardt from his gun, by running his horse in between him 
 and the tree, or of getting them both in the range of his dou- 
 ble-barrelled rifle, and of killing the principal and his second 
 at one shot. Hubbardt, however, was not less eagle-eyed 
 than he was brave, and taking his position near his gun, de- 
 
UNTOOLA KILLED. 
 
 303 
 
 termined, that while he made no aggression upon others, he 
 would not allow himself to be deprived of the means of de- 
 fence. The negotiation was now ended — not another word 
 was uttered. Though all verbal communication was sus- 
 pended, it was not difficult to read in their expressive coun- 
 tenances, the reckless determination of the two principals. 
 Their companions remained spectators of the conduct of their 
 chiefs — each of them aware that the fate of his friend might 
 be decisive of his own. 
 
 Hubbardt knew that to resume his rifle, in the present 
 posture of things, would be construed as a breach of the 
 existing armistice or a renewal of the war, and would 
 expose a starving frontier to famine and to the merciless 
 incursions of their savage neighbours. To remain unarmed 
 was to invite an attack from his adversary. He avoided 
 either. He reached his hand to the muzzle of his gun and 
 allowed the breach to remain upon the ground ; then assu- 
 ming a look of stern defiance, he waited, in silence, for the 
 attack. Butler changed the position of his horse and aimed 
 a blow at Hubbardt, but was unable, by this manoeuvre, to 
 gain any advantage over his wary antagonist. Baffled in 
 this expectation, he coolly surveyed him, and, quick as light- 
 ning, levelled his gun and fired. The ball passed between 
 the ear and head of Hubbardt, and cut the hair from his 
 temple and doing little injury to the skin, slightly stunned 
 him. The two Indians immediately retreated. Their flight 
 was so instantaneous and rapid that they had reached the 
 distance of eighty yards when a ball from Hubbardt’s gun 
 struck Butler in the back and brought him to the ground. 
 He begged Hubbardt, who was now approaching him, to let 
 him alone — he was a dead man. At his own request, he 
 was lifted up and placed against a tree, when he breathed 
 easier. To the request that he should tell them, before he 
 died, whether his nation was for peace, he replied angriljq 
 No. They are for war, and if you go any further they will 
 take your hair. To the remark that they had better not 
 again go to war, for the white people would whip them, he 
 he replied : It is a lie, it is a lie ; and making the declaration 
 more emphatic by the addition of other offensive and insult- 
 
304 
 
 GOVERNOR MARTIN SENDS COLONEL HENDERSON, 
 
 ing expletives, continued to provoke Hubbardt till, in a 
 paroxysm of ill-timed rage, by a blow from his heavy gun, 
 he dispatched him. 
 
 The companion of Hubbardt had his attention so wholly 
 absorbed by the principal combatants, that he allowed the 
 other Indian to escape without firing at him. Hubbardt 
 reproached him bitterly for this neglect, and said that, if 
 he had killed the other, intelligence of Butler’s death would 
 not have exposed the whites to immediate retaliation ; as it 
 is, said he, the Indians will invade the settlements before 
 they can be prepared for them. 
 
 It will be seen, hereafter, how severely the frontier suffered 
 from the revenge, cruelty and retaliation of Butler’s towns- 
 men. 
 
 Rumour had ascribed the disturbances on the frontier to the 
 officers of the new government, and Governor Martin sent 
 Samuel Henderson to the West, with instructions and full 
 power to examine into and ascertain the extent of the inju- 
 ries inflicted upon the Indians, and the disaffection the 
 western people. The governor also forwarded, by Major 
 Henderson, a talk from himself to the Cherokees, and a letter 
 to General Sevier. As containing a history of the times at 
 which they bear date, each of these papers is given at 
 length. 
 
 To the Old Tassel and othekWarriors of the Cherokee nation ; 
 
 Brothers : — I have received your talk by Colonel Martin, in behalf of 
 yourself and all the Cherokee nation. I am sorry that you have been 
 uneasy, and that I could not see you this last spring, as I promised 
 you, as our beloved men met at Hillsborough had prevented me, by 
 agreeing and concluding among themselves, that the Great Council of 
 the thirteen American States, at Philadelphia, should transact all affairs 
 belonging to the Red People. ..... 
 
 Brother : — It gives me great uneasiness that our people trespass on 
 your lands, and that your young men are afraid to go a-hunting on ac- 
 count of our people ranging the -Woods and marking the trees. These 
 things, I can assure you, are against the orders of your elder brother, and 
 are not approved of by me and the good men of North-Carolina ; but 
 while we were consulting our council of Philadelphia, our bad men 
 living near your lands thought we had laid aside all government over 
 them, and that they had a right to do as they pleased ; and not willing 
 to obey any law for the sake of ill gain and profit, care not what mis- 
 chief they do between the red and white people, if they can enrich them- 
 
ON A MISSION TO FRANKLIN. 
 
 305 
 
 selves. But, brother, I know your complaints, and will endeavour to 
 set your minds at ease, by again ordering off all these persons from your 
 lands, who have settled on them without your consent. Your friend, 
 Gen. Sevier, is made our First Warrior for the western country, to whom 
 Colonel Martin carries my particular directions to have these intruders 
 moved off. About the 25th of April, I propose to meet you, and such 
 of your beloved men as will be pleased to attend, at the Great Island 
 in Holston, or other place most agreeable to you on Bfoad or that 
 river. I shall bring with me some of our first men, who will assist in 
 the Talks, in whom, as well as myself, you can place your confidence and 
 trust. I propose to bring with me the goods, which, in my last Talk, 
 I informed you, were intended to purchase your right and.claim to some 
 of the lands near you, that a line be drawn and marked between your 
 people and ours, which shall be the bounds in future, and over which 
 our people shall not go and settle upon, without being highly punished. 
 
 Brother : — In the meanwhile, 1 beg you not to listen to any bad 
 Talks, which may be made by either white or red people, which may 
 disturb our peace and good will to each other ; and should mischief be 
 done by any of our bad people, be patient until you hear from me, and may 
 be certain your elder brother of North-Carolina will do every thing in his 
 power, to give your minds satisfaction. I am told the northern Indians have 
 sent you some bad Talks, but do not hear them, as they wish to make vari- 
 ance between all the red and American people without any provocation. 
 
 Brother : — Colonel Martin, your friend, has told me your grievances. 
 I wish to redress them as soon as possible. I cannot come to you sooner 
 than I have proposed. Bad men may make you uneasy, but your elder 
 brother of North-Carolina has you greatly in his heart, and wishes to 
 make you sensible of it. 
 
 Governor Martin to General Sevier : 
 
 Danbury, December, 1784. 
 
 Sir .'—By Major Outlaw, I sent your brigadier’s commission, which I 
 expect you have received, and which I hope will be acceptable to you, 
 as also some proclamations agreeably to a request of the Legislature, 
 to have all intruders removed off the Indian lands. I request your atten- 
 tion to this business, as I have received a Talk from the Cherokee nation, 
 greatly complaining of trespasses daily committing against them ; and 
 that their young men are afraid to hunt, as our people are continually 
 ranging their woods and marking their trees. The importance of keep- 
 ing peace with the Indians you are sufficiently impressed with, and the 
 powers with which you are armed, are sufficient to check the licentious 
 and disobedient, and remove every impediment out of the way, which 
 may give the Indians uneasiness. 
 
 I am informed a daring murder has been committed, on one Butler, 
 a Cherokee Indian, by Major Hubbard, of Greene county, without any 
 provocation. I have given directions for his being apprehended and 
 conveyed to. Burke Gaol for security, until the setting of Washington 
 Superior Court, when he will be remanded back. Col. Gist, of Greene 
 county, is entrusted with this service. I have directed him to call on 
 you for guards if the same be necessary. 
 
 20 
 
306 
 
 TALK OP GOVERNOR MARTIN TO CHEROKEES. 
 
 You will please to write to me the first opportunity on this subject. 
 I propose to hold a treaty with the Indians about the 25th of April, at 
 the Great Island. 
 
 Governor Caswell and Colonel Blount will be commissioners to assist 
 at the treaty, where I shall expect you to attend with such guard as 
 will be thought necessary, and of which you will hereafter have advice. 
 
 Hearing' of the continued revolt in the West, Governor 
 
 * 
 
 Martin again addressed Governor Sevier : 
 
 Sir : — With some concern, I have heard that the counties of Wash- 
 ington, Sullivan and Greene, have lately declared themselves inde- 
 pendent of the State of North-Carolina, and have chosen you governor — 
 that you have accepted the same, and are now acting with a number of 
 officers under the authority of a new government. 
 
 As I wish to have full and proper information on this subject, Major 
 Samuel Henderson waits upon you with this, by whom you will please 
 to transmit me an account of the late proceedings of the people in the 
 western country, that I may have it in my power to communicate the 
 same to the General Assembly. 
 
 The general discontent that prevailed through the state at the late 
 Cession act, and the situation of our public accounts not being as fa- 
 vourable as they were taught to believe, caused the Assembly to repeal 
 that act by a large majority, and to convince the people of the western 
 country, that the state still retained her affection for, and was not desi- 
 rous to part with, such a respectable body of citizens, in the present 
 situation of affairs, attempted to make government as easy as possible 
 to them by erecting a new Superior Court District, creating a Brigadier- 
 General of the Militia, and an Assistant Judge of the said Superior 
 Court, which was, in short, redressing every grievance, and removing 
 every obstacle out of the way that called for a separation, and which 
 the Legislature were induced to expect from one of the members of that 
 district, would give full satisfaction. 
 
 It has also been suggested that the Indian goods are to be seized, 
 and the Commissioners arrested, when they arrive, on the business of 
 the Treaty, as infringing on the powers of your new government ; for 
 which reason they are stopped, and I shall not proceed with the Com- 
 missioners until we are assured how far the militia of Washington Dis- 
 trict may be relied on for guards in conducting the Treaty, whom alone 
 I intend to call upon to attend to this business. 
 
 You will also please to inform me respecting the late Proclamations 
 to remove off all intruders on the Indian lands, and what is done in 
 Hubbard’s case, of which I wrote you by Colonel Martin. 
 
 Gov. Martin also sent another Talk: 
 
 To the Old Tassel of Cliota, and all the warriors of the Friendly 
 Towns of the Cherokee nation : 
 
 Brothers : — The time is about arriving when I expected to have held 
 a great Talk with you, as I promised by Col. Martin, and hope you will 
 not charge me with being false and faithless to my promise, when I ex- 
 
GOY. martin’s INSTRUCTIONS TO MAJOR HENDERSON. 307 
 
 plain to you tlie reason why this business is obliged to be put off to 
 some longer time. I am sorry to give you this information, as the fault 
 is not yours or mine ; but, from a circumstance I could not have foreseen, 
 would have happened, while we were preparing to see each other to ex- 
 change mutual pledges of lasting friendship. A String. 
 
 Our brothers, the white people between the mountains and you, wish 
 to have a council of beloved men and government separate from your 
 elder brothers of North-Carolina, with whom they heretofore sat and 
 held all their councils in common. 
 
 Your elder brothers are not yet agreed to their separation from them, 
 till they are a more numerous and stronger people, till we have held 
 Talks together on the terms of the separation, and till the great Council 
 at New-York are agreed ; while these things are settling among ourselves, 
 the talking with you must be delayed, as the meeting must be on the 
 ground where they live, and from whom we must procure things ne- 
 cessary for the support of you and us ; and by this Talk we intend to 
 make a chain of friendship strong and bright, that will last forever be- 
 tween you and all your elder brothers, more especially those who live 
 near you. We wish to have their full consent and hearty assistance as one 
 people in this business. A String. 
 
 Brothers : — Be’not discouraged at this delay. Whatever disputes may 
 be between your elder brothers, I trust it will not concern you, more 
 than you may think the time long we may take up in understanding 
 ourselves. In the meantime, I, as your elder brother, request you to be 
 peaceably disposed to all the white people who are our brothers, and 
 not suffer any mischief to be done to them, either to their persons or pro- 
 perty, nor listen to any ill Talks which may be offered you, either from 
 the red or white bad people ; but should any injury be done you by the 
 white people near you, complain to their head and beloved men, who I 
 hope will give you redress, till the way is clear for you and us of North- 
 Carolina to see each other. A String. 
 
 Brothers : — The time is shortly to be, by the nature of our govern- 
 ment, when I am to become as a private brother, but the good Talks that 
 have passed between us will not be forgotten. I will deliver them care- 
 fully to my successor, Governor Caswell, w r ho loves you, and wishes to 
 Talk with you in the same manner I have. He will have the conducting 
 of the future Talks with you, which I hope will always be to our mu- 
 tual satisfaction. 
 
 GOV. martin’s INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAJOR SAMUEL HENDERSON. 
 
 Sir : — You will please to repair with despatch to General Sevier, 
 and deliver him the letters herewith handed you, and request his an- 
 swer. You will make yourself acquainted with the transactions of 
 the people in the western country, such as their holding a Convention, 
 and learn whether the same be temporary, to be exercised only during 
 the time of the late Cession act; and that since the repeal thereof, they 
 mean still to consider themselves citizens of North-Carolina, or whether 
 they intend the same to be perpetual, and what measures they have 
 
308 
 
 GOV. SEVIER ANNOUNCES FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT. 
 
 taken to support such government. That you procure a copy of the 
 constitution, and the names of such officers at present exercising the 
 powers of the new government. That you be informed whether a fac- 
 tion of a few leading men be at the head of this business, or whether it 
 be the sense of a large majority of the people that the state be dis- 
 membered at this crisis of affairs, and what laws and resolutions are 
 formed for their future government; also, where the bounds of their 
 new state are to extend, and whether Cumberland or Kentucky, or both, 
 are to be included therein, and whether the people of those places have 
 also taken part in the above transactions. You will learn the temper 
 and disposition of the Indians, and what is done in Hubbard’s case, 
 and how his conduct is approved or disapproved in general. Lastly, every 
 other information you think necessary to procure, you will communicate 
 to me as soon as possible ; at the same time you will conduct yourself 
 with that prudence you are master of, in not throwing out menaces, or 
 making use of any language that may serve to irritate persons con- 
 cerned in the above measures. 
 
 The authorities of North-Carolina were not long allowed 
 to remain in doubt upon the subject of the defection of the 
 western counties. Soon after the organization of the Legis- 
 lature of the State of Franklin, and the appointment of its 
 principal officers, a communication was addressed to Alex- 
 ander Martin, Esq., Governor of North-Carolina, signed by 
 John Sevier, Governor, and Landon Carter and William Cage, 
 as Speakers of the Senate and House of Commons of the 
 State of Franklin, announcing that they and part of the 
 inhabitants of the territory lately ceded to Congress, had 
 declared themselves independent of the State of North-Caro- 
 lina, and no longer considered themselves under the sove- 
 reignty and jurisdiction of the same, and assigning the rea- 
 sons for their separation. This formal Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, officially communicated by the functionaries of 
 Franklin, and transmitted to the Executive of North-Caro 
 lina, induced Governor Martin to issue his circular under 
 date, Danbury, April 7th, 1785, to the members of Council, 
 requiring them to meet him at Hillsborough on the 22d inst. 
 In his circular, he goes on to say that the inhabitants of the 
 western counties “had declared themselves independent of 
 the State of North-Carolina, and have refused, and do refuse, 
 to pay obedience to the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the 
 same and he convenes them at Hillsborough, “then and 
 there in your wisdom to deliberate and advise the measures 
 necessary to be taken on this occasion.” 
 
gov. martin’s manifesto. 
 
 309 
 
 Three days after the meeting of his Council, Governor 
 Martin issued a Proclamation as follows : — ‘‘Whereas, I have 
 received undoubted information of the revolt of the inhabi- 
 tants of Washington, Greene and Sullivan counties, who have 
 declared themselves independent of the State of North-Caro- 
 lina, under the name of the State of Franldin ,” and then 
 convenes the Legislature at Newbern, on the 1st of June. 
 
 Upon the same day he issued also the following spirited 
 and elaborate Manifesto : 
 
 State of North-Carolina . 
 
 By His Excellency Alexander Martin, Esquire, Governor, Captain- 
 
 General and Commander-in-Chief of the State aforesaid — 
 
 To the Inhabitants of the Counties of Washington , Sullivan and Greene: 
 
 A MANIFESTO. 
 
 Whereas, I have received letters from Brigadier-General Sevier, under 
 the style and character of Governor, and from Messrs. Landon Carter and 
 William Cage, as Speakers of the Senate and House of Commons of the 
 State of Franklin, informing me that they, with you, the inhabitants of 
 part of the territory lately ceded to Congress, had declared themselves in- 
 dependent of the State of North-Carolina, and no longer consider them- 
 selves under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the same, stating their 
 reason for their separation and revolt — among which it is alledged, that 
 the western country was ceded to Congress without their consent, by an 
 act of the legislature, and the same was repealed in the like manner. 
 
 It is evident, from the journals of that Assembly, how far that asser- 
 tion is supported, which held up to public view the names of those who 
 voted on the different sides of that important question, where is found a 
 considerable number, if not a majority, of the members — some of whom 
 are leaders in the present revolt — then representing the above counties, 
 in support of that act they now deem impolitic and pretend to reprobate — 
 which, in all probability, would not have passed but through their influ- 
 ence and assiduity — whose passage at length was effected but by a small 
 majority, and by which a cession of the vacant territory was only made 
 and obtained with a power to the delegates to complete the same by 
 grants, but that government should still be supported, and that anarchy 
 prevented — which is now suggested — the western people were ready to 
 fall into. The sovereignty and jurisdiction of the state were, by another 
 act passed by the same assembly, reserved and asserted over the ceded 
 territory, with all the powers and authorities as full and ample as before, 
 until Congress should accept the same. 
 
 The last Assembly having learned what uneasiness and discontent the 
 Cession act had occasioned throughout the state, whose inhabitants had 
 not been previously consulted on that measure, in whom, by the consti- 
 tution, the soil and territorial rights of the state are particularly vested, 
 judging the said act impolitic at this time, more especially as it would, 
 for a small consideration, dismember the state of one half of her territo- 
 
310 EXPLAINS THE CESSION ACT AND THE CAUSES OP ITS REPEAL, 
 
 ry, and in the end tear from her a respectable body of her citizens, when 
 no one state in the Union had parted with any of their citizens, or given 
 anything- like an equivalent to Congress but vacant lands of an equivo- 
 cal and disputed title and distant situation ; and also considering that 
 the said act, by its tenor and purport, was revocable at any time before 
 the cession should have been completed by the delegates, who repealed it 
 by a great majority ; at the same time, the Assembly, to convince the 
 people of the western country of their affection and attention to their 
 interest, attempted to render government as easy as possible to them, 
 by removing the only general inconvenience and grievance they might 
 labour under, for the want of a regular administration of criminal jus- 
 tice, and a proper and immediate command of the militia ; a new district 
 was erected, an assistant judge and a brigadier-general were appointed. 
 
 Another reason for the revolt is assigned, that, the Assembly on the 
 Cession act stopped a quantity of goods intended for the Cherokee In- 
 dians, as a compensation for their claim to the western lands ; and that 
 the Indians had committed hostilities, in consequence thereof. The 
 journals of the Assembly evince the contrary ; that the said goods were 
 still to be given to the Indians, but under the regulations of Congress, 
 should the cession take place ; which occasioned the delay of not imme- 
 diately sending them forward ; of which the Indians were immediately 
 notified, and I am well informed that no hostilities or mischiefs have 
 been committed on this account ; but, on the other hand, that provo- 
 cations have been, and are daily given, their lands trespassed upon, and 
 even one of their chiefs has been lately murdered, with impunity. 
 
 On the repeal of the Cession act, a treaty was ordered to be held with 
 the Indians, and the goods distributed as soon as the season would 
 permit; which, before this, would have been carried into effect, had not 
 the face of affairs been changed. 
 
 Under what character, but truly disgraceful, could the State of ISTorth- 
 Carolina suffer treaties to be held with the Indians, and other business 
 transacted in a country, where her authority and government were re- 
 jected and set at naught, her officers liable to insult, void of assistance 
 or protection. 
 
 The particular attention the legislature have paid to the interest of 
 the western citizens, though calculated to conciliate their affection and 
 esteem, has not been satisfactory, it seems : but the same has been at- 
 tributed to interest and lucrative designs. Whatever designs the ' legis- 
 lature entertained in the repeal of the said act, they have made it ap- 
 pear that their wisdom considered that the situation of our public ac- 
 counts was somewhat changed since that Assembly, and that the interest 
 of the state should immediately be consulted and attended to, that 
 every citizen should reap the advantage of the vacant territory, that the 
 same should be reserved for the payment of the public debts of the 
 state, under such regulations hereafter to be adopted ; judging it ill- 
 timed generosity at this crisis, to be too liberal of the means that would 
 so greatly contribute to her honesty and justice. 
 
 But designs of a more dangerous nature and deeper die seem to 
 glare in the western revolt. The power usurped over the vacant terri- 
 tory, the Union deriving no emolument from the same, not even the 
 
AND IMPUTES SINISTER DESIGNS TO THE INSURGENTS. 311 
 
 proportional part intended the old states by the cession being reserved, 
 her jurisdiction and sovereignty over that country (which, by the con- 
 sent of its representatives, were still to remain and be exercised) rejected 
 and deposed ; her public revenue in that part of her government seized 
 by the new authority, and not suffered to be paid to the lawful Trea- 
 surer, but appropriated to different purposes, as intended by the Legis- 
 lature, — are all facts, evincing that a restless ambition and a lawless 
 thirst of power, have inspired this enterprise, by which the persons con- 
 cerned therein, may be precipitated into measures that may, at last, 
 bring down ruin, not only 6n themselves, but our country at large. 
 
 In order, therefore, to reclaim such citizens, who, by specious pretences 
 and the acts of designing men, have been seduced from their allegiance, 
 to restrain others from following their example who are wavering, and 
 to confirm the attachment and affection of those who adhere to the old 
 government, and whose fidelity hath not yet been shaken, I have 
 thought proper to issue this Manifesto, hereby warning all persons con- 
 cerned in the said revolt, that they return to their duty and allegiance, 
 and forbear paying any obedience to any self-created power and authority 
 unknown to the constitution of the state, and not sanctified by the 
 Legislature. That they and you consider the consequences that may 
 attend such a dangerous and unwarrantable procedure ; that far less 
 causes have deluged states and kingdoms with blood, which, at length, 
 have terminated their existence, either by subjecting them a prey to 
 foreign conquerors, or erecting in their room a despotism that has bid- 
 den defiance to time to shake off ; — the lowest state of misery, human 
 nature, under such a government, can be reduced to. That they reflect 
 there is a national pride in all kingdoms and states, that inspires every 
 subject and citizen with a degree of importance — the grand cement and 
 support of every government- — which must not be insulted. That the 
 honour of this State has been particularly wounded, by seizing that 
 by violence which, in time, no doubt, would have been obtained by 
 consent, when the terms of separation would have been explained and 
 stipulated, to the mutual satisfaction of the mother and new state. 
 That Congress, by the confederation, cannot countenance such a separa- 
 tion, wherein the State of North-Carolina hath not given her full con- 
 sent; and if an implied or conditional one hath been given, the same 
 hath been rescinded by a full Legislature. Of her reasons for so doing 
 they consider themselves the only competent judges, 
 
 That by such rash and irregular conduct a precedent is formed for 
 every district, -and even 'every county of the state, to claim the right 
 of separation and independency for any supposed grievance of the 
 inhabitants, as caprice, pride and ambition shall dictate, at pleasure, 
 thereby exhibiting to the world a melancholy instance of a feeble or 
 pusillanimous government, that is either unable or dares not restrain the 
 lawless designs of its citizens, which will give ample cause of exultation 
 to our late enemies, and raise their hopes that they may hereafter gain, 
 by the division among ourselves, that dominion their tyranny and arms 
 have lost, and could not maintain. 
 
 That you tarnish not the laurels you have so gloriously won at King’s 
 Mountain and elsewhere, in supporting the freedom and independence 
 
312 
 
 GOVERNOR MARTIN THREATENS THE REVOLTERS. 
 
 of the United States, and this state in particular, to be whose citizens 
 were then your boast, in being concerned in a black and traitorous revolt 
 from that government in whose defence you have so copiously bled, and 
 which, by solemn oath, you are still bound to support. Let not Ver- 
 mont be held up as an example on this occasion. Vermont, we are 
 informed, had her claims for a separate government at the first exist- 
 ence of the American war, and, as such, with the other states, although 
 not in the Union, hath exerted her powers against the late common 
 enemy. 
 
 That you be not insulted or led away with the pageantry of a mock 
 government without the essentials — the shadow without the substance — 
 which always dazzles weak minds, and which will, in its present form 
 and manner of existence, not only subject you to the ridicule and con- 
 tempt of the world, but rouse the indignation of the other states in the 
 Union at your obtruding yourselves as a power among them without 
 their consent. Consider what a number of men of different abilities 
 will be wanting to fill the civil list of the State of Franklin, and the 
 expense necessary to support them suitable to their various degrees of 
 dignity, when the District of Washington, with its present officers, 
 might answer all the purposes of a happy government until the period 
 arrive when a separation might take place to mutual advantage and 
 satisfaction on an honourable footing. The Legislature will shortly 
 meet, before whom the transactions of your leaders will be laid. Let 
 your representatives come forward and present every grievance in a 
 constitutional manner, that they may be redressed; and let your terms 
 of separation be proposed with decency, your proportion of the public 
 debts ascertained, the vacant territory appropriated to the mutual 
 benefit of both parties, in such manner and proportion as may be just 
 and reasonable; let your proposals be consistent with the honour of the 
 state to accede to, which, by your allegiance as good citizens, you 
 cannot violate, and I make no doubt but her generosity, in time, will 
 meet your wishes. 
 
 But, on the contrary, should you be hurried on by blind ambition to 
 pursue your present unjustifiable measures, which may open afresh the 
 wounds of this late bleeding country, and plunge it again into all the 
 miseries of a civil war, which God avert, let the fatal consequences be 
 charged upon the authors. It is only time which can reveal the event. 
 I know with reluctance the state will be driven to arms ; it will be the 
 last alternative to imbrue her hands in the blood of her citizens ; but if no 
 other ways and means are found to save her honour, and reclaim her 
 head-strong, refractory citizens, but this last sad expedient, her resources 
 are not yet so exhausted or her spirits damped, but she may take satis- 
 faction for this great injury received, regain her government over the re- 
 volted territory or render it not worth possessing. But all these effects may 
 be prevented, at this time, by removing the causes, by those who have 
 revolted returning to their duty, and those who have stood firm, still con- 
 tinue to support the government of this state, until the consent of the 
 legislature be fully and constitutionally had for a separate sovereignty and 
 jurisdiction. All which, by virtue of the pow r ers and authorities which 
 your representatives and others of the state at large have invested me 
 
ITS EFFECTS IN FRANKLIN. 
 
 313 
 
 with in General Assembly, I hereby will command and require, as 
 you will be liable to answer all the pains and penalties that may ensue 
 on the contrary. 
 
 Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the State, ivhicli I have 
 caused to be hereunto affixed, at Hillsborough, the twenty-fifth day of 
 April, in the year of our Lord 1785, and ninth year of the Independence 
 of the said State. 
 
 ALEXANDER MARTIN. 
 
 By His Excellency’s command. 
 
 James Glasgow, Secretary. 
 
 A document such as this, emanating from the highest 
 authority known to the sovereignty of North-Carolina, con- 
 ceived in language and spirit at once conciliatory and re- 
 spectful, though earnest and firm, could not be wholly disre- 
 garded, and was not without its influence upon the reflect- 
 ing and considerate. Copies of it, in manuscript, were dis- 
 tributed, and read amongst the citizens of the new state. A 
 closer scrutiny into the measure of separation that had been 
 adopted, was instituted. A few had, from the first, advised 
 adherence to the mother state. Their number had increased, 
 after the repeal of the Cession act. To such, the Manifesto 
 of Governor Martin furnished new weapons against Frank- 
 lin and their present rulers. But no one contemplated or 
 advised a permanent connection between North-Carolina 
 and her western counties, as a return to their former alle- 
 giance must soon be succeeded by another separation from 
 her, perhaps not less difficult, or of less questionable validity. 
 The policy of ceding the western territory to Congress, might 
 ultimately be re-adopted, and the existing imbecile condition 
 of the Confederacy, led no one to think favourably of that 
 alternative. A very large majority of the people, therefore, 
 remained firm in their attachment to the new common- 
 wealth ; its machinery worked well. Law was, thus far, 
 effectually administered. Treaties, for the acquisition of 
 new Indian lands, were contemplated, the settlements were 
 daily augmenting in number and strength, and the new gov- 
 ernment was acquiring vigour and stability, from a proposed 
 annexation of a part of Virginia. Besides this, there was a 
 charm in the idea of independence. The Manifesto itself 
 evidently contemplated, and seemed to sanction, a separation, 
 as not improbable at an early day ; and as, in the minds of 
 
314 
 
 GOVERNOR SEVIER’S COUNTER-MANIFESTO, 
 
 most men, the question was one merely as to time, it was 
 almost unanimously determined by the people to maintain 
 their present position. The authorities of Franklin so de- 
 cided also. Governor Sevier, accordingly, on the fourteenth 
 of May, addressed to Governor Caswell, who had succeeded 
 Martin in the executive chair of North-Carolina, his Mani- 
 festo, setting forth the proceedings of the State of Franklin, 
 and answering, in detail, the complaints made against it by 
 Governor Martin. 
 
 Governor Sevier writes to Governor Caswell under date : 
 
 State of Franklin, 
 
 Washington County, 14th May, 1785. 
 
 Sir : — Governor Martin has lately sent up into our country a Mani- 
 festo, together with letters to private persons, in order to stir up sedi- 
 tion and insurrection, thinking, thereby, to destroy that peace and tran- 
 quillity, which have so greatly subsisted among the peaceful citizens of 
 this country. 
 
 First in the Manifesto, he charges us with a revolt from North-Caro- 
 lina, by declaring ourselves independent of that state. Secondly, that 
 designs of a more dangerous nature and deeper die seem to glare in the 
 western revolt, the power being usurped over the western vacant terri- 
 tory, the Union deriving no emolument from the same, not even the 
 part intended for North-Carolina by the cession, and that part of her 
 revenue is seized by the new authority and appropriated to different 
 purposes than those intended by your legislature. 
 
 His Excellency is pleased to mention that one reason we have as- j 
 signed for the revolt, as he terms it, is that the goods were stopped from 
 the Indians, that were to compensate them for the western lands, and 
 that the Indians had committed murders in consequence thereof. He 
 is also pleased to say that he is well informed to the contrary, and that 
 no hostilities have been committed on that account ; but on the other 
 hand, provocations are daily given the Indian^, and one of their chiefs 
 murdered with impunity. In answer to the charge relative to what 
 His Excellency is pleased to call the revolt, I must beg leave to differ 
 with him in sentiment on that occasion ; for your own acts declare to i 
 
 the world that this country was ceded off to Congress, and one part of 
 the express condition was, that the same should be erected into one or 
 more states ; and we believe that body was candid, and that they fully 
 believe a new state would tend to the mutual advantage of all parties ; 
 that they were as well acquainted with our circumstances at that time, 
 as Governor Martin can be since, and that they did not think a new 
 government here would be led away by the pageantry of a mock gov- 
 ernment without the essentials, and leave nothing among us but a 
 shadow, as represented by him. 
 
 But if Governor Martin is right in his suggestion, we can only say 
 that the Assembly of North-Carolina deceived us, and were urging us on 
 
IN EXPLANATION OF SEPARATION. 
 
 315 
 
 into total ruin, and laying a plan to destroy that part of her citizens she 
 so often frankly confessed saved the parent state from ruin. But the peo- 
 ple here, neither at that time nor the present, having the most distant 
 idea of any such intended deception, and at the same time well knowing 
 how pressingly Congress had requested a cession to be made of the 
 western territory ever since the bth of September and 10th of Octo- 
 ber, in the year 1780 — these several circumstances, together with a 
 real necessity to prevent anarchy, promote our own happiness, and pro- 
 vide against the common enemy, that always infest this part of the 
 world, induced and compelled the people here to act as they have done 
 innocently : thinking, at the same time, your acts tolerated them in the 
 separation. Therefore, we can by no means think it can be called a re- 
 volt or known by such a name. As to the second charge, it is entirely 
 groundless. We have by no act, whatever, laid hold of one foot of the 
 vacant land, neither have we appropriated any of the same to any of our 
 use or uses, but intend everything of that nature for further delibera- 
 tion, and to be mutually settled according to the right and claim of each 
 party. 
 
 As to that part of seizing the public money, it is groundless as the 
 former. For no authority among us, whatever, has laid hold of or ap- 
 propriated one farthing of the same to our uses in any shape whatever, 
 but the same is still in the hands of the sheriff and collectors. And on 
 the other hand, we have passed such laws as will both compel and justify 
 them in settling and paying up to the. respective claimants of the same ; 
 all which will appear in our acts, which will be laid before you and fully 
 evince to the reverse of Governor Martin’s charge in the Manifesto. 
 
 Very true, we suggest that the Indians have committed murders in 
 consequence of the delay of the goods. Nearly forty people have been 
 murdered since the Cession Bill passed, some of which lived in our own 
 counties, and the remainder on the Kentucky Path ; and it is evidently 
 known to the Cherokees, and their frequent Talks prove, they are exas- 
 perated at getting nothing for their lands, and in all probability had 
 their goods been furnished, no hostilities would have been committed. 
 
 The murder committed with impunity, alluding to Major Hubbard’s 
 killing a half-breed, which Governor Martin calls a chief (but who was 
 never any such thing among the Indians). We can’t pretend to say 
 what information His Excellency has received on this subject, more 
 than the others, or where from. This we know, that all the proof was 
 had against Hubbard that ever can be had, which is, the Indian first 
 struck, and then discharged his gun at Hubbard, before the Indian was 
 killed by Hubbard. As Governor Martin reprobates the measure in so 
 great a degree, I can’t pretend to say what he might have done, but 
 must believe, that had any other person met with the same insult from 
 one of those bloody savages, who have so frequently murdered the 
 wives and children of the people of this country for many years past, I 
 say had they been possessed of that manly and soldierly spirit that be- 
 comes an American, they must have acted like Hubbard. 
 
 I have now noticed to your Excellency the principal complaints in the 
 Manifesto, and such as I think is worth observation, and have called 
 
316 
 
 governor caswell’s reply 
 
 forth such proofs as must evince fully the reverse of the charge and 
 complaints set forth. 
 
 The menaces made use of in the Manifesto will by no means intimi- 
 date us. We mean to pursue our necessary measures, and with the 
 fullest confidence believe that your legislature, when truly informed of 
 our civil proceedings, will find no cause for resenting anything we have 
 done. 
 
 Most certain it is, that nothing has been transacted here out of any 
 disregard for the parent state, but we still entertain the same high 
 opinion and have the same regard and affection for her, that ever we 
 had, and would be as ready to step forth in her defence as ever we did, 
 should need require it. 
 
 Also our acts and resolutions will evince to the world, that we have 
 paid all due respect to your state. First, in taking up and adopting 
 her constitution and then her laws, together with naming several new 
 counties and also an academy after some of the first men in your state. 
 
 The repeal of the Cession act we cannot take notice of, as we had de- 
 clared our separation before the repeal. Therefore, we are bound to 
 support it with that manly firmness that becomes freemen. 
 
 Our Assembly sits again in August, at which time it is expected 
 commissioners will be appointed to adjust and consider on such matters 
 of moment, as will be consistent with the honour and interest of each 
 party. 
 
 The disagreeable and sickly time of the year, together with the great 
 distance from Newbern, as also the short notice, puts it out of the power 
 of any person to attend from this quarter at this time. 
 
 Our agent is at Congress, and tve daily expect information from that 
 quarter, respecting our present measures, and hope to be advised 
 thereon. 
 
 We are informed that Congress have communicated to your state re- 
 specting the repeal of the Cession act. Be that as it may, I am au- 
 thorized to say nothing will be lacking in us, to forward everything that 
 will tend to the mutual benefit of each party and conciliate all matters 
 whatever.* 
 
 To this counter-manifesto of Gov. Sevier, Governor Cas- 
 well replied, under date — 
 
 Kinston, N. C., 17th June, 1785. 
 
 Sir : — Your favour of the 14th of last month, I had the honour to 
 receive by Colonel Avery. 
 
 In this, sir, you have stated the different charges mentioned in 
 Governor Martin’s Manifesto, and answered them by giving what I 
 understand to be the sense of the people, and your own sentiments, with 
 respect to each charge, as well as the reasons which governed in the 
 measures he complained of. 
 
 * For this letter, I am indebted to the politeness of Hon. D. L. Swain. It is 
 extracted from the letter book of Gov. Caswell in his possession. 
 
DRAWS FROM SEVIER FURTHER VINDICATION. 
 
 317 
 
 I liave not seen Governor Martin’s Manifesto, nor have I derived so 
 full and explicit information from any quarter as this you have been 
 pleased to give me. As there was not an Assembly, owing to the 
 members not attending at Governor Martin’s request, the sense of the 
 Legislature, on this business, of course, could not be had, and as you 
 give me assurances of the peaceable disposition of the people, and their 
 wish to conduct themselves in the manner you mention, and also to 
 send persons to adjust, consider and conciliate matters, I suppose, to the 
 next Assembly, for the present, things must rest as they are with 
 respect to the subject matter of your letter, which shall be laid before 
 the next Assembly. In the meantime, let me entreat you not, by any 
 means, to consider this as giving countenance, by the executive of the 
 state, to any measures lately pursued by the people to the westward 
 of the mountains. 
 
 With regard to the goods intended, by the state, for the Indians as a 
 compensation for the lands, they, I believe, have been ready for many 
 months, at Washington, and if I can procure wagons to convey them 
 to the place destined, (the Long Island,) I mean to send them there 
 to be disposed of according to the original intention of the Assembly, 
 and will either attend myself or appoint commissioners to treat with 
 the Indians ; but in this, you know, it is necessary that whoever attends 
 should be protected by the militia, and, under the present situation of 
 affairs, it is possible my orders may not be attended to in that particular ; 
 and however a man may submit to these things in a private character, 
 he may be answerable to the people, at least they may judge it so, in a 
 public situation. Therefore, without your assurances of the officers and 
 men under your command being subject to my orders in this case, as 
 matters stand, I think it would be imprudent in me to come over or send 
 commissioners to treat with the Indians. Of this you will be pleased 
 to write me the first favourable opportunity. It is my wish to come 
 over myself, and if matters turn so that I can with convenience, it is 
 probable I may. 
 
 Governor Sevier farther writes : 
 
 Washington County, 17th October, 1785. 
 
 Sir : — Having wrote you fully, in my letter of the 14th May last, 
 relative to the proceedings of the State of Franklin, and answered some 
 complaints set forth in Governor Martin’s Manifesto in the same, I shall 
 now only take the liberty to inform ypur Excellency that our Assembly 
 have appointed a person to wait on your Assembly, with some resolves 
 entered into by our Legislature. 
 
 Permit me to assure your Excellency that it was not from any disgust 
 or uneasiness that we had, while under the parent state, that occasioned 
 the separation. Our local situation you are sufficiently acquainted with, 
 and your Cession Act, together with the frequent requisitions from 
 Congress, bad convinced us that a separation would inevitably take 
 place, and, at the time of our declaration, we had not the most distant 
 idea that we should give any umbrage to our parent state, but, on the 
 other hand, thought your Legislature had fully tolerated the separation. 
 I am able, in truth, to say that the people of this country wish to do 
 
318 
 
 COLONEL MARTIN TO GOVERNOR CASWELL. 
 
 nothing that will be inconsistent with the honour and interest of each 
 party. 
 
 The people of this state regard North-0 arolina with particular affec- 
 tion, and will never cease to feel an interest in whatever may concern 
 her honour and safety, and our hearty and kind wishes will always 
 attend the parent state. 
 
 Before this letter was written, Governor Sevier had, in 
 T785 i conjunction with other commissioners, under the au- 
 l thority of Franklin, already concluded a satisfactory 
 treaty with the Indians, and felt neither the disposition nor 
 the necessity of replying to that part of Governor Caswell’s 
 letter, which related to Indian affairs. It seems to have been 
 wholly disregarded west of the mountains ; for, in August, as 
 had been provided for, the Assembly of Franklin met again, 
 and legislated further in promotion of the ulterior views of 
 the new government. At this session, a law was passed, en- 
 couraging an expedition that was to proceed down the Ten- 
 nessee, on its western side, and take possession of the great 
 bend of that river, under titles derived from the State of 
 Georgia. 
 
 In the meantime, Colonel Joseph Martin, whose name is 
 found amongst the members of the first convention at Jones- 
 borough, in discharge of his duty as Indian Agent for 
 North-Carolina, had visited the Cherokee nation. Arrived 
 at the Beloved Toyvn, he writes to Governor Caswell, under 
 date, 
 
 Chota, 19th September, 1*785. 
 
 Bear Sir: — Your Excellency’s favour of the l*7th June, by Mr. 
 Avery, never came to hand until the 10th inst. I find myself under 
 some concern, in reading that part wherein I am considered a member 
 of the new state. I beg leave to assure your Excellency, that I have 
 no part with them, but consider myself under your immediate direction, 
 as agent for the State of North-Carolina, until the Assembly shall direct 
 otherwise. I am now on the duties of that office, and have had more 
 trouble with the Indians, in the course of the summer, than I ever had, 
 owing to the rapid encroachments of the people from the new state, 
 together with the Talks from the Spaniards and the Western Indians. 
 
 These Talks, as further communicated by Colonel Martin, 
 indicated renewed hostilities from several Indian tribes, in- 
 stigated by the Spaniards, who were urging their claims to 
 much of the western country, and to the exclusive naviga- 
 tion of the Mississippi River. 
 
/ 
 
 ENCLOSED TALKS FROM CHOTA. 319 
 
 With this letter, was also sent the subjoined Talk of the 
 Old Tassel. 
 
 Chota, 19th September, 1785. 
 
 Brother : — I am now going to speak to you ; I hope you will hear 
 me. I am an old man, and almost thrown away by my elder brother. 
 The ground I stand on is very slippery, though I still hope my elder 
 brother will hear me and take pity on me, as we were all made by the 
 same Great Being above ; we are all children of the same parent. I 
 therefore hope my elder brother will hear me. 
 
 You have often promised me, in Talks that you sent me, that you 
 would do me justice, and that all disorderly people should be moved off 
 our lands ; but the longer we want to see it done, the farther it seems 
 off. Your people have built houses in sight of our towns. We don’t 
 want to quarrel with you, our elder brother ; I therefore beg that you, 
 our elder brother, will have your disorderly people taken off our lands 
 immediately, as their being on our grounds causes great uneasiness. 
 We are very uneasy, on account of a report that is among the white 
 people that call themselves a new people, that lives on French Broad 
 and Nolechuckey ; they say they have treated with us for all the lands 
 on Little River. I now send this to let my elder brother know how it 
 is. Some of them gathered on French Broad, and sent for us to come 
 and treat with them : but as I was told there was a treaty to be held 
 with us, by orders of the great men of the thirteen states, we did not 
 go to meet them, but some of our young men w r ent to see what they 
 wanted. They first wanted the land on Little River. Our young men 
 told them that all their head men were at home ; that they had no au- 
 thority to treat about lands. They then asked them liberty for those 
 that were then living on the lands, to remain there, till the head men of 
 their nation were consulted on it, which our young men agreed to. Since 
 then, we are told that they claim all the lands on the waters of Little 
 River, and have appointed men among themselves to settle their dis- 
 putes on our lands, and call it their ground. But we hope you, our 
 elder brother, will not agree to it, but will have them moved off. I 
 also beg that you will send letters to the Great Council of America, and 
 let them know hdw it is ; that if you have no power to move them off, 
 they have, and I hope they will do it. 
 
 I once more beg that our elder brother will take pity on us, and not 
 take our ground from us, because he is stronger than we. The Great 
 Being above, that made us all, placed us on this land, and gave it to us, 
 and it is ours. Our elder brother, in all the treaties we ever had, gave 
 it to us also, and we hope he will not think of taking it from us now. 
 
 I have sent with this Talk a string of white beads, which I hope my 
 elder brother will take hold of, and think of his younger brother, who 
 is now iu trouble, and looking to him for justice. 
 
 Given out by the Old Tassel, for himself and whole nation, in presence 
 of the head men of the Upper and Lower Cherokees, and inter- 
 preted by me. 
 
 JAMES McCORMACK. 
 
 For the Governor of Korth-Carolina and Virginia. 
 
320 
 
 DISAFFECTION IN VIRGINIA. 
 
 The intelligence communicated thus by Martin to Gov. 
 Caswell, of the hostile intentions of the Indians, and espe- 
 cially of the policy of the Spaniards relative to their claims 
 upon the Mississippi, had also reached the people of Frank- 
 lin, and furnished additional arguments for a continued sepa- 
 ration from the parent state. As the interests and dangers 
 of the western people were peculiar, they chose to exercise 
 the control of their own policy and means of defence, and 
 to adapt these to the exigencies of their condition. Mutual 
 exposure and common wants had generated a close alliance 
 between themselves and the inhabitants of the coterminous 
 section of Virginia ; and the contagion of independence and 
 separation extended to Washington county of that state, and 
 threatened the dismemberment of the Old Dominion. Patrick 
 Henry was at that time in the executive chair, and at once 
 communicated to the Legislature of Virginia the intelligence 
 of the disaffection in Washington county, in the following 
 message : 
 
 I transmit herewith, a letter from the honourable Mr. Hardy, cover- 
 ing a memorial to Congress from sundry inhabitants of Washington 
 county, praying the establishment of an independent state, to be 
 bounded as is therein expressed. The proposed limits include a vast ex- 
 tent of country, in which we have numerous and very respectable settle- 
 ments, which, in their growth, will form an invaluable barrier between 
 this country and those, who, in the course of events, may occupy the 
 vast places westward of the mountains, some of whom have views in- 
 compatible with our safety. Already, the militia of that part of the 
 state is the most respectable we have, and by their means it is that the 
 neighbouring Indians are awed into professions of friendship. But a 
 circumstance has lately happened, which renders the possession of the 
 territory at the present time indispensable to the peace and safety of 
 Virginia ; I mean the assumption of sovereign power by the western in- 
 habitants of North-Carolina. If the people who, without consulting 
 their own safety, or any other authority known in the American consti- 
 tution, have assumed government, and while unallied to us, and under 
 no engagements to pursue the objects of the federal government, shall 
 be strengthened by the accession of so great a part of our country, con- 
 sequences fatal to our repose will probably follow. It is to be observed, 
 that the settlements of this new society stretch into a great extent in 
 contact with ours in Washington county, and thereby expose our citi- 
 zens to the contagion of the example which bids fair to destroy the 
 peace of North-Carolina. In this state of things it is, that variety of 
 information has come to me, stating, that several persons, but especially 
 Col. Arthur Campbell, have useu their utmost endeavours, and with 
 
 • 
 
GOVERNOR HENRY’S MESSAGE TO VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE. 321 
 
 some success, to persuade tlie citizens in that quarter to break off from 
 this commonwealth, and attach themselves to the newly assumed govern- 
 ment, or to erect one distinct from it. And to effect this purpose, the 
 equality and authority of the laws have been arraigned, the collection 
 of the taxes impeded, and our national character impeached. If this 
 most important part of our territory be lopped off, we lose that barrier 
 for which our people have long and often fought ; that nursery of 
 soldiers, from which future armies may be levied, and through which it 
 will be almost impossible for our enemies to penetrate. We shall ag- 
 grandize the new state, whose connexions, views and designs, we know 
 not ; shall cease to be formidable to our savage neighbours, or respecta- 
 ble to our western settlements, at present or in future. 
 
 “ Whilst these and many other matters were contemplated by the 
 Executive, it is natural to suppose, the attempt at separation was dis- 
 couraged by every lawful means, the chief of which was displacing such 
 of the field officers of the militia in Washington county as were active 
 partizans for separation, in order to prevent the weight of office being- 
 put in the scale against Virginia. To this end, a proclamation was 
 issued, declaring the militia laws of the last session in force in that coun- 
 ty, and appointments were made agreeable to it. I hope to be excused 
 for expressing a wish, that the Assembly, in deliberating on this affair, 
 will prefer lenient measures, in order to reclaim our erring citizens. 
 Their taxes have run into three years, and thereby grown to an amount 
 beyond the ability of many to discharge ; while the system of our trade 
 has been such, as to render their agriculture unproductive of money. 
 And I cannot but suppose, that if even the warmest supporters of sepa- 
 ration had seen the mischievous consequences, they would have retraced 
 and considered that intemperance in their own proceedings, which oppo- 
 sition in sentiment is too apt to produce.” 
 
 The limits proposed for the new government of Frankland, by Col. 
 Arthur Campbell, and the people of Virginia, who aimed at a separa- 
 tion from that state, were expressed in the form of a constitution which 
 Col. Campbell drew up for public examination, and were these : Beo-in- 
 ning at a point on the top of the Alleghany or Apalachian Mountains 
 so as a line drawn due north from thence will touch the bank of New 
 River, otherwise called Kenhawa, at the confluence of Little River, which 
 is about one mile above Ingle’s Ferry; down the said river Kenhawa to 
 the mouth of the Rencovert, or Green Briar River ; a direct line from 
 thence, to the nearest summit of the Laurel Mountain, and along the 
 highest part of the same, to the point where it is intersected by the 
 parallel of thirty-seven deg. north latitude ; west along that latitude to 
 a point where it is met by a meridian line that passes through the lower 
 part of the rapid of Ohio ; south along the meridian to Elk River a 
 branch of the Tennessee ; down said river to its mouth, and down the 
 Tennessee to the most southwardly part or bend in said river • a direct 
 line from thence to that branch of the Mobile, called Don bio-bee ■ down 
 said river Donbigbee to its junction with the Coosawattee River' to the 
 mouth of that branch of it called the Hightower ; thence south’ to the 
 top of the Apalachian Mountain, or the highest land that divides the 
 21 
 
322 
 
 BOUNDARIES OF FRANKLAND. 
 
 sources of the eastern from the western waters ; northwardly, along the 
 middle of said heights, and the top of the Apalachian Mountain, to the 
 beginning. It was stated in the proposed form, that the inhabitants 
 within these limits agree with each other to form themselves into a free, 
 sovereign and independent body politic or state, by the name of the 
 commonwealth of Frankland. The laws of the Legislature were to be 
 enacted by the General Assembly of the commonwealth of Frankland ; 
 and all the laws and ordinances which had been before adopted, used and 
 approved in the different parts of this state, whilst under the jurisdic- 
 tion of Virginia and North-Carolina, shall still remain the rule of deci- 
 sion in all cases for the respective limits for which they were formerly 
 adopted, and shall continue in full force until altered or repealed by the 
 Legislature ; such parts only excepted, as are repugnant to the rights 
 and liberties contained in this constitution, or those of the said 
 respective states.* 
 
 The malcontents in Virginia had thus affixed such boun- 
 daries to their proposed commonwealth, as embraced not 
 only the people and State of Franklin, but much of the terri- 
 tory of Virginia and the present Kentucky on the north, and 
 of Georgia, and what is now Alabama, on the south. The 
 western soldiery had carried their conquests nearly to these 
 limits, and it was probably the right of conquest alone, which 
 suggested the extent of the new state. The magnificent 
 project of the Virginia Franks received the support of few 
 men anywhere, and was abandoned soon after by its friends. 
 
 It was not so with the revolted people of North-Carolina. 
 They continued to exercise all the functions of an indepen- 
 dent government, and under forms anomalous and perplexing 
 beyond example, were adopting measures to improve and 
 perfect their system, and maintain their integrity and separa- 
 tion. Thus far they had legislated and administered law, 
 had held treaties and acquired territory, under the expedient 
 of a temporary adoption of the constitution of the parent 
 state. It remained yet for the people to adopt or reject the 
 form of government that had been prepared by the conven- 
 tion to whom that duty belonged. That body, and also the 
 Franklin Assembly, at its August session, had recommended 
 to the people to choose a convention for the purpose of rati- 
 fying the proposed constitution, or of altering it as they 
 should instruct. The election was held accordingly. It is 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
mr. Houston’s form of a constitution. 
 
 323 
 
 not known who were the deputies chosen. The names of 
 nineteen only of them have been preserved. They are Da- 
 vid Campbell, Samuel Houston, John Tipton, John Ward, 
 Robert Love, William Cox, David Craig, James Montgomery, 
 John Strain, Robert Allison, David Looney, John Blair, James 
 White, Samuel Newell, John Gilliland, James Stuart, George 
 Maxwell, Joseph Tipton and Peter Parkison. These are found 
 signed to a protest against part of the proceedings. The 
 convention was probably larger than either of those previ- 
 ously held. The form of government that had been prepared 
 for the consideration of the people, had excited acrimonious 
 debates and great contrariety of opinion. Some of its pro- 
 visions being novel, were viewed as innovations upon the 
 law and usages to which the voters were accustomed. In- 
 structions were poured in upon the convention from all parts 
 of the country in opposition to the exceptionable clauses. 
 Such diversity of opinion existed as to cause its immediate 
 rejection. 
 
 In their deliberations on a subject so new to most of the 
 members, and in the details of which few in the country had 
 either knowledge or experience to direct them, many propo- 
 sitions were made and suggested for examination merely, 
 which were afterwards withdrawn by the movers themselves. 
 
 In anticipation of the meeting of this convention, Mr. 
 Houston “had, with the advice and assistance of some judi- 
 cious friends, prepared in manuscript A Declaration of Rights 
 and a Constitution, made by the representatives of the free- 
 men of the State of Frankland, which being read on the first 
 day of the meeting, he moved that it be made the platform 
 of the new constitution, subject to such alterations and 
 amendments as a majority might think proper. Another 
 member moved that the Rev. Hezekiah Balch, a spectator, 
 but not a member, should have leave to offer some remarks 
 upon the subject ; which being granted, Mr. Balch animad- 
 verted severely upon the manuscript constitution, as prepared 
 and read by Mr. Houston, and especially upon the section of 
 it respecting an Institution of learning. As already men- 
 tioned, the Frankland Constitution was rejected by a small 
 
324 
 
 FRANKLAND CONSTITUTION REJECTED. 
 
 majority. The president, General Sevier, then presented 
 the constitution of North-Carolina, as the foundation of that 
 of the new state. A majority of the house sustaining this 
 proposition, they proceeded to remodel the North-Carolina 
 Constitution, making only a few necessary alterations. This 
 was, in a short time after, adopted by a small majority.” 
 
 “A variety of names was proposed for the new common- 
 wealth. Some were for calling it Franklin, in honour of 
 Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia ; others Frankland, as 
 the land of freemen. But it was decided by a majority 
 (small) in favour of calling it Franklin.”* 
 
 The rejection of the Frankland Constitution induced its 
 friends to have it published with an explanatory Introduction, 
 written by some of the minority. At the same time there 
 was published a pamphlet, on the “ Principles of Republican 
 Government, by a Citizen of Frankland.” These publications 
 were made at the instance and expense of the Frankland 
 Commonwealth Society. Francis Bailey, of Philadelphia, 
 was the printer. Of this society, Mr. Houston was an active 
 member, f 
 
 Some proceedings of this convention are found published 
 as a preface to the Declaration of Rights and Constitution 
 as presented to the convention, and afterwards published in 
 pamphlet form. They are copied. J 
 
 * Letter of Rev. Samuel Houston, of Rockbridge, Va., March 20, 1838, to 
 this writer. 
 
 t Several years since, this writer, in a communication addressed to Hon. Mitch- 
 ell King, of Charleston, S. C., and extensively published in the Courier and else- 
 where, vindicated at some length, his own accuracy in calling the new state 
 Franklin, and not Frankland, as adopted by several writers and some historians. 
 It is deemed unnecessary to extract, here, a line from that communication or to re- 
 new the argument, as almost every original letter and official paper published in 
 these sheets fortify and authorize his position, and furnish irrefragable proof of 
 its correctness. The question is no longer debatable. 
 
 t This pamphlet is out of print, and cannot now be found. For the copy here 
 republished, and believed to be the only one extant, I am indebted to the late 
 Col. Geo. T. Gillespie. It was found amongst the papers of Ldndon Carter, ; 
 deceased, Secretary of State under the Franklin Government. The pamphlei is, 
 in some places, so worn as to be almost illegible, and one page, at leasi, is 
 wanting. 
 
DECLARATION OP RIGHTS* 
 
 325 
 
 A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, 
 
 MADE BT THE REPRESENTATIVES OE THE FREEMEN OE- THE STATE OF 
 
 FRANKLAND. 
 
 1. That all political power is vested in and derived from the people 
 only. 
 
 2. That the people of this State ought to have the sole and exclusive 
 right of regulating the internal government and police thereof. 
 
 3. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate 
 emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of 
 public services. 
 
 4. That the Legislative, Executive and Supreme Judicial powers of 
 government ought to be forever separate and distinct from each other. 
 
 5 . That all powers of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by 
 any authority, without the consent of the representatives of the people, 
 is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised. 
 
 6. That elections of members to serve as representatives, in General 
 Assembly, ought to be free. 
 
 7. That, in all criminal prosecutions, every man has a right to be 
 informed of the accusation against him, and to confront the accusers and 
 witnesses with other testimony, and shall not be compelled to give evi- 
 dence against himself. 
 
 8. That no freeman shall be put to answer any criminal charge but 
 by indictment, presentment, or impeachment. 
 
 9. That no freeman shall be convicted of any crime but by the unan- 
 imous verdict of a jury of good and lawful men, in open court, as here- 
 tofore used. 
 
 10. That excessive bail should not be required, nor excessive fines 
 imposed, nor cruel nor unusual punishments inflicted. 
 
 11. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may be 
 commiinded to search suspected places, without evidence of the fact 
 committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, whose offences 
 are not particularly described and supported by evidence, are dangerous 
 to liberty, and ought not to be granted. 
 
 12. That no freeman ought to be taken, imprisoned, or disseized of 
 bis freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any 
 manner destroyed or deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by 
 the law of the land. 
 
 13. That every freeman, restrained of his liberty, is entitled to a 
 remedy, to enquire into the lawfulness thereof, and to remove the same, 
 if unlawful; and that such remedy ought not to be denied or delayed. 
 
 14. That in all controversies at law, respecting property, the ancient 
 mode of trial by jury is one of the best securities of the rights of the 
 people, and ought to remain sacred and inviolable. 
 
 15. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of 
 liberty, and therefore ought never to be restrained. 
 
 16. That the people of this State ought not to be taxed, or made 
 subject to payment of any impost or duty, without the consent of them- 
 selves, or their representatives, in General Assembly, freely given. 
 
320 
 
 FRANKLAND CONSTITUTION. 
 
 1 Y. That the people have a right to hear arms for the defence of the 
 State ; and as standing armies, in time of peace, ai - e dangerous to 
 liberty, they ought not to be kept up ; and that the military should be 
 kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. 
 
 18. That the people have a right to assemble together, to consult for 
 their common good, to instruct their representatives, and to apply to the 
 Legislature for redress of grievances. 
 
 19. That all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship 
 Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. 
 
 20. That, for redress of grievances, and for amending and strength- 
 ening the laws, elections ought to be often held. 
 
 21. That a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is absolutely 
 necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty. 
 
 22. That no hereditary emoluments, privileges, or honours, ought to 
 be granted or conferred in this State. 
 
 23. That perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a 
 free State, and ought not to be allowed. 
 
 24. That retrospective laws, punishing acts committed before the 
 existence of such laws, and by them only declared criminal, are oppres- 
 sive, unjust, and incompatible with liberty; therefore no ex post facto 
 law ought to be made. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OR FORM OF GOVERNMENT 
 
 Agreed to and resolved upon by the Representatives of the 
 
 Freemen of the State of Frankland, elected and chosen for 
 
 THAT PARTICULAR PURPOSE, IN CONVENTION ASSEMBLED, AT GrEENE- 
 
 VILLE, THE 14TH NOVEMBER, 1Y85. 
 
 This State shall be called the Commonwealth of Frankland , and 
 shall be governed by a General Assembly of the representatives of the 
 freemen of the same, a Governor and Council, and proper courts of jus- 
 tice, in the manner following, viz : 
 
 Section 1. The supreme legislative power shall be vested in a single 
 House of Representatives of the freemen of the commonwealth of Frank- 
 land. 
 
 Sec. 2. The House of Representatives of the freemen of this State 
 shall consist of persons most noted for wisdom and virtue, to be chosen 
 equally and adequately according to the number of freemen in the com- 
 monwealth ; provided when the number amounts to one hundred it 
 shall never exceed it, nor be ever afterwards reduced lower than eighty, 
 and every county shall annually send the number apportioned to it by 
 the General Assembly. 
 
 Sec. 3. No person shall be eligible to, or hold a seat in, the House of 
 Representatives of the freemen of this commonwealth, unless he actually 
 resides in, and owns land in the county to the quantity of one hundred 
 acres, or to the value of fifty pounds, and is of the full age of twenty-one 
 years. And no person shall b.e eligible or capable to serve in this or 
 
QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 327 
 
 any other office in the civil department of this State, who is of an im- 
 moraFcharacter, or guilty of such flagrant enormities as drunkenness, 
 gaming, profane swearing, lewdness, sabbath breaking, and such like ; 
 or who will, either in word or writing, deny any of the following proposi- 
 tions, viz : 
 
 1st. That there is one living and true God, the Creator and Governor 
 of the universe. 
 
 2d. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments. 
 
 3d. That the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are given by 
 divine inspiration. 
 
 4th. That there are three divine persons in the Godhead, co-equal 
 and co-essential. 
 
 And no person shall be a member of the House of Representatives, 
 who holds a lucrative office either under this or other States ; that is, has a 
 fixed salary or fees from the State, or is in actual military service and 
 claiming daily pay, or minister of the gospel, or attorney at law, or doc- 
 tor of physic. 
 
 Sec. 4. Every free male inhabitant of this State, of the age of twenty - 
 one years, who shall have resided in this State six months immediately 
 preceding the day of election, shall have a vote in electing all officers 
 chosen by the people, in the county where he resides. 
 
 Sec. 5. The House of Representatives of this commonwealth shall be 
 styled the General Assembly of the Representatives of the Freemen of 
 Frankland ; and shall have power to choose their own Speaker, and 
 all other officers, Treasurer, Secretary of State, Superior Judges, Auditors, 
 members to Congress. They shall have power to sit on their own ad- 
 journments ; to prepare bills, and to enact them into laws ; to judge of 
 the elections of, and qualifications of, their own members. They may 
 expel a member, but not a second time for the same cause ; they may 
 administer oaths on the examination of witnesses, redress grievances, 
 impeach State criminals, grant charters of incorporation, constitute 
 towns, cities, boroughs, and'counties, and shall have all other powers neces- 
 sary for the Legislature of a free State or commonwealth. But they 
 shall have no power to add, alter, abolish, or infringe any part of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 Two-thirds of the whole members elected shall constitute a House, 
 (and the expense from the appointed time ’till they make a House, 
 shall be laid on absentees, without a reasonable excuse,) and having 
 met and chosen their Speaker, shall, each of them, before they proceed 
 to business, take and subscribe, as well the oath of fidelity and allegiance 
 hereafter directed, as the following oath — 
 
 “ I, A.»B., do swear, That, a& a member of this Assembly, I will not 
 propose or assent to any bill or resolution, which shall appear to me in- 
 jurious to the people, nor do, nor consent to any act or thing whatever, 
 that shall have a tendency to lessen or abridge the rights and privileges 
 as declared in the Constitution of this State ; but will in all things con- 
 duct myself as a faithful honest representative and guardian of the peo- 
 ple, according to the best of my judgment and abilities. So help me 
 God." 
 
 The doors of the house in which the representatives of the freemen of 
 
328 
 
 ELECTION OF OFFICERS GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 this State shall sit in General Assembly, shall be and remain open, for 
 the admission of all persons who shall behave decently ; except when 
 the good of the commonwealth requires them to be shut. 
 
 Sec. 0 . The votes and proceedings of the General Assembly shall be 
 printed weekly, during their sitting, with the Yeas and Nays on any 
 question, vote, or resolution, (except when the vote is taken by ballot,) 
 when any two members require it; and every member shall have a 
 right to insert the reasons of his vote upon the Journals, if he desires it. 
 
 Sec. 1. That the laws, before they are enacted, may be more maturely 
 considered, and the danger of hasty and injudicious determinations as 
 much as possible prevented, all Bills of a public and general nature 
 shall be printed for the consideration of the people, before they are read in 
 the General Assembly the last time, for debate and amendment ; and, 
 except on occasions of sudden necessity, shall not be passed into laws 
 before the next session of the Assembly : And, for the more perfect 
 satisfaction of the public, the reasons and motives for making such laws 
 shall be fully and clearly expressed in the preambles. 
 
 See. 8. The style of the laws of this commonwealth shall be, Be it en- 
 acted . , and it is hereby enacted , , by the Representatives of the Freemen 
 of the Commonwealth of Frank! and, in General Assembly , and by the 
 authority of the Same. And the General Assembly shall affix their 
 Seal to every Bill as soon as it is enacted into a law ; which seal shall 
 be kept by the Assembly, and shall be called the Seal of the Laws of 
 Frankland, and shall not be used for any other purpose. 
 
 Sec. 9. As in every free government the people have a right of free 
 suffrage for all officers of government that can be- chosen by the people, 
 the freemen of this State shall elect Governor and Counsellors, Justices 
 of the Peace for each county, and Coroner or Coroners, Sheriffs, and all 
 other such officers, except such as the Assembly are empowered to 
 choose. 
 
 Sec. 10. All the able bodied men in this State shall be trained for 
 its defence, under such regulations, restrictions and exceptions as the 
 General Assembly shall direct by law, preserving always to the people, 
 from the age of sixteen, the right of choosing their colonels, and all 
 other officers under that rank, in such manner and as often as shall be 
 by the same laws directed. 
 
 Sec. 11 . The Governor of the State shall be annually chosen by the free 
 suffrages of the people on the day of general election for Representatives 
 for the General Assembly, and the returning officers for each county shall 
 make a fair return to the House of Representatives, of the persons voted 
 for, and the number of votes to each, which the Assembly shall exam- 
 ine, and the highest in votes shall be declared constitutionally elected ; 
 but no person shall be eligible more than three years out of seven, nor 
 hold any other office at the same time. 
 
 Sec. 12. This State shall be divided into six grand divisions, each of 
 which, as in the above mentioned sections, shall choose a Counsellor ; 
 And these divisions shall be thrown into three classes, numbered 1st, 2d 
 and 3d, which shall change their members in Council by rotation, be- 
 ginning with the first class the first year after they have served one, and 
 the second the second year, and so on forever ; by which means some 
 
DUTIES OF GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. 
 
 329 
 
 acquainted with business will be always in Council. And no person 
 shall be eligible more than three years in seven, nor shall hold any 
 other office in the State. 
 
 Sec. 13. The Governor and Council shall meet annually at the same 
 time and place with the General Assembly : The Governor, or, in his 
 absence, the Lieutenant Governor, who shall be one of their number, 
 chosen with the rest, with the Council, (two-thirds of whom shall make 
 a board,) shall have power to correspond with other States : to transact 
 business with the officers of government, civil and military ; to prepare 
 such business as may appear to them necessary to be laid before the 
 General Assembly : They shall also have power to grant pardons and re- 
 mit lines, in all cases whatsoever, except in case of murder, impeachment, 
 and treason, which they may reprieve ’till the end of the next session of 
 Assembly ; but there shall be no mitigation of punishment on impeach- 
 ment, unless by act of the Legislature ; They are to take care that the 
 laws be faithfully executed ; to expedite the execution of such measures 
 as may be resolved upon by the General Assembly : They may draw 
 upon the Treasury for such sums as shall be appropriated by the House 
 of Representatives — they may also lay embargoes,, or prohibit the expor- 
 tation of any commodity for any time not exceeding thirty days, in the 
 recess of the General Assembly only : They may grant licenses, as the 
 laws shall direct, and shall have power to convene the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, when necessary, before the day to which they ‘were ad- 
 journed. The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the forces of 
 the State ; but shall not command in person, except advised thereto by 
 the Council, and then only for so long as they shall approve of. The 
 Governor and Council shall have a Secretary, and keep fair books of their 
 proceedings, wherein any Counsellor may enter his dissent, with his 
 reasons in support of it. 
 
 Sec. 14. All commissions and grants shall be in the name and by the 
 authority of the freemen of the commonwealth of Frankland, sealed 
 with the State seal, signed by the Governor, or, in his absence, the 
 Lieutenant Governor, and attested by the Secretary ; wdiick seal shall 
 be kept by the Council. 
 
 Sec. 15. Ho justice of the peace shall receive any fee, gratuity, or 
 reward for his services as a justice ; but all other officers of this State 
 shall be allowed as moderate fees or salaries as possible, to be an ade- 
 quate compensation for their services. And if any. officer shall take 
 other or greater fees than the laws allow, it shall ever afterwards dis- 
 qualify him to hold any office in this State. 
 
 Sec. 16. Every officer of government shall be liable to be impeached 
 b}' the General Assembly, or presented by the grand jury of any of the 
 superior courts, either in office, or after his resignation or removal, for 
 mal-administration. All impeachments shall be before a temporary 
 court, composed of the Governor or Lieutenant Governor, and two 
 members ot the Council, to be chosen by the Council ; the three senior 
 Judges of the Supreme Court, and three members of the General As- 
 sembly, to be chosen by the Assembly, who shall, or any five of them, 
 hear and determine the same. 
 
 Sec. 17. The Treasurer of State shall be annually appointed, and no 
 
330 
 
 FREEMEN TO ELECT REGISTERS. 
 
 person eligible more than three years successively. The Secretary of State, 
 Attorney-General, Auditors, and such like officers, shall be appointed bi- 
 ennially ; but removable for misconduct. And any officer, representative 
 in General Assembly, or in the Congress of the United States, who is 
 convicted of a second violation of any part of this constitution, shall be 
 forever afterwards disqualified to hold any place or office in this State. 
 
 Sec. 18. That in every case, where any officer, the right of whose 
 appointment is, by this constitution, vested in the General Assembly, 
 shall, during their recess, die, or his office, by other means, become 
 vacant, the Governor shall have power, with the advice of the Council 
 of State, to fill up such vacancy, by granting a temporary commission, 
 which shall expire at the end of the next session of the Assembly. 
 
 Sec. 19. That no Treasurer, until he shall have finally settled his 
 accounts with the public, and paid the money remaining in his hand to 
 the succeeding Treasurer, nor any person who heretofore has been, or 
 hereafter may be, a Receiver of public monies, under this or any other 
 State, until he has fully accounted for and paid into the treasury all 
 monies for which he may be accountable and liable, shall have -a seat in 
 the General Assembly, or be eligible to any civil office in this State. 
 
 Sec. 20. The freemen of each county shall, for the purpose of ease, 
 justice and conveniency in holding elections, and other public affairs, be 
 divided into districts, as near one hundred in each as local circum- 
 stances will admit. 
 
 Sec. 21. The freemen of each district shall meet upon the second 
 Tuesday of February forever, and, at their first meeting, elect three of 
 their own members, who shall be called Registers, and who shall keep 
 a fair alphabetical roll of the freemen of their district. Any two of 
 them agreeing, or upon advice of any five freemen, shall have power to 
 assemble the freemen of their district to consult for the common good, 
 give instructions to their Representatives, or to apply to the Legislature 
 for redress of grievances by address, petition, or remonstrance. They 
 shall preside in all civil district elections, shall meet twice, or oftener, in 
 the year, to deliberate upon and prepare to lay before the people such 
 matters as may be necessary for them to consider. And, to keep up a 
 rotation of the members, the person who shall have fewest votes at the 
 first election, shall continue in office one year, the second two, and the 
 highest three. And no Register shall be eligible for two years after he 
 has served his term. 
 
 Sec. 22. That elections may be free, and corruption prevented as 
 much as possible, the Registers of each district shall summon the free- 
 men of their district to meet at some convenient place, upon the first 
 Tuesday of March forever, where they shall elect, by ballot, all the offi- 
 cers for their district, which shall be hereafter directed, and the number 
 of persons, indiscriminately, out of the county, appointed to represent it 
 in the General Assembly, in the following manner : The senior Register 
 shall call each freeman by name, in the order of the roll, who shall 
 give his ticket or tickets to the second Register, and the highest in 
 votes for district officers shall then be declared constitutionally 
 elected ; but the names of the persons to represent the county in Gen- 
 eral Assembly, and their respective numbers of votes, shall, by one of 
 
MAGISTRATES TO BE ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE. 
 
 331 
 
 the Registers, be laid before a meeting of one from each district, within 
 ten days after the election ; and when all are examined, the highest in 
 votes shall be declared constitutionally elected, and certified by the same 
 Register. No freeman shall have, in this commonwealth, more than one 
 annual vote for any officer of government, and the Legislature hereafter 
 to be appointed, shall, from time to time, enact and keep in force such 
 laws as may appear necessary to prevent and remedy every species of 
 corruption, and to oblige freemen to attend upon elections. 
 
 Sec. 23. Justices of the peace shall be elected for each county, ten or 
 more, by the freemen, as shall, by the General Assembly, be thought 
 necessary for each, of those residing within the same, aud qualified as 
 mentioned in Section 3, who shall be commissioned during good beha- 
 viour, by the Governor or Lieutenant Governor in Council ; and no jus- 
 tice of the peace, or any other commissioned officer, shall hold his com- 
 mission who misbehaves, or is found guilty of such things as dis- 
 qualify ; nor shall any one be chosen who is not a scholar to do the 
 business, nor, unless acquainted with the laws of the country in some 
 measure, but particularly with every article of the Constitution. 
 
 Sec. 24. To prevent the civil power usurping spiritual supremacy, the 
 establishing of professions, denominations, or sects of religion, or patron- 
 izing ecclesiastical hierarchies and dignitaries, also to secure religious 
 liberty and the rights of conscience for ever inviolate, every citizen of 
 this commonwealth shall forever have full and free liberty to join him- 
 self to any society of Christians he may judge most for his edification, 
 and shall experience no civil or legal disadvantages for his so doing : 
 And every society or congregation shall bave full liberty, without . any 
 restraint from law, to choose any minister they think best suited for 
 their Christian instruction, and to support him as they think best; And 
 every such society or congregation shall have full right to hold all lands 
 given to, or purchased by them, for the use of their society, or any other 
 property they may possess for religious purposes : and the society, or any 
 description of men chosen by them, with power to act in their name, 
 shall have power to receive, or to make and execute deeds, and entea 
 into such other specialties as the society may direct them to make ; and 
 shall have full power, by their agent, treasurer, or collector, to receive, 
 recover and retain all property and money justly due to them, in as full 
 a manner as any other collector or agent in this commonwealth. And 
 the future Legislature of this State shall have no power to make any 
 law, act, or resolve whatsoever respecting religion, or the spiritual ser- 
 vice we owe to God ; but shall confine themselves wholly to matters 
 purely civil. 
 
 Sec. 25. Laws for the encouraging of virtue, and preventing and sup- 
 pressing of vice and immorality, shall be made and constantly kept in 
 force, and provision shall be made for then 1 due execution. 
 
 Sec. 26. That no person in the State shall hold more than one lucra- 
 tive office at any one time, provided that no appointment in the militia, 
 or the office of a justice of the peace, shall be considered as a lucrative 
 office. 
 
 Sec. 27. All writs shall run in the name of the State of Frankland, 
 
332 
 
 PROVISION MADE FOR LEARNING. 
 
 and bear test, and be signed by the clerks of the respective courts. In- 
 dictments shall conclude, against the peace and dignity of the State. 
 
 Sec. 28. That the delegates of this State to the Continental Congress, 
 while necessary, shall be chosen annually by the General Assembly, by 
 ballot, but may be superseded, in the meantime, in the same manner; 
 and no person shall be elected to serve in that capacity for more than 
 three years successively. 
 
 Sec. 29. A Sheriff and Coroner shall be annually elected, on the day, 
 and in the manner, for electing Representatives in General Assembly, 
 who shall be commissioned as before mentioned ; and no person shall 
 be eligible more than two years out of five. Also Commissioners, As- 
 sessors, Overseers of the Poor, Surveyors of Roads, and all such officers 
 as each district may require, at the same time and in such number as in 
 future may appear necessary to the Legislature. 
 
 Sec. 30 . That the person of a debtor, where there is not a strong 
 presumption of fraud, shall not be continued in prison, after delivering 
 up, bona fide , all his estate, real and personal, for the use of his credi- 
 tors, in such manner as shall be hereafter regulated by law. ' All prison- 
 ers shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless for capital offences, 
 where the proof is evident or the presumption great. 
 
 Sec. 31. That every foreigner, who comes to settle in this State, hav- 
 ing first taken an oath of allegiance to the same, may purchase, of, by 
 other iust means, acquire, hold, and transfer land or other real estate, 
 and, after one year’s residence, shall be deemed a free citizen. 
 
 Sec. 32. All kinds of useful learning shall be encouraged by this 
 common weal tb, that is to say, the future Legislature shall erect, before 
 the year seventeen hundred and eighty-seven, one University, which 
 shall be near the centre of this State, and not in a city or town : And, 
 for endowing the same, there shall be appropriated such lands as may be 
 judged necessary, one-fourth of all the monies arising from the surveys of 
 land hereafter to be made, one halfpenny upon every pound of inspected 
 indigo, that shall be carried out of the State, by land or water ; three- 
 pence upon every barrel of flour, and one shilling on every hogshead of 
 tobacco, forever.* And, if the fund thence arising shall be found insuffi- 
 cient, the Legislature shall provide for such additions as may be neces- 
 sary. And if experience shall make it appear to be useful to the in- 
 terest of learning in this State, a Grammar School shall be erected in 
 each county, and such sums paid by the public as shall enable the trus- 
 tees to employ a master or masters of approved morals and abilities. 
 
 Sec. 33. That no purchase of lands shall be made of the Indian na- 
 tives, but on behalf of the public, by authority of the General Assembly. 
 
 Sec. 34. That the future Legislature of this State shall regulate en- 
 tails in such a manner as to prevent perpetuities. 
 
 Sec. 35. That the Declaration of Rights is hereby declared to be a 
 part of the Constitution of this State, and ought never to be violated, 
 on any pretence whatsoever. 
 
 Sec. 36. No tax, custom or contribution shall be imposed upon, or 
 
 * Dissented to, as is mentioned in the Preface. 
 
DISPUTES TO BE SETTLED BY ARBITRATION. 
 
 333 
 
 paid by, the people of this State, nor any appropriation of public mo- 
 nies made by the Legislature, except by a law for that purpose , and 
 the purposes for which the money is raised, and to which it is appro- 
 priated, shall be clearly expressed in the preamble. And, annually, the 
 General Assembly shall publish a full account of all money paid into the 
 Treasury, and by whom ; also of all paid out of it, to whom, and for 
 what. 
 
 Sec. 37. If any dispute or difference shall arise betwixt citizens, in 
 matters of debt, property, character, or such things, the parties, agree- 
 ing to state their dispute, and leave it to arbitration, shall proceed in the 
 following manner : — they shall apply by joint petition to the Registers 
 of the district where the case exists, or the defendant lives, unless they 
 shall otherwise agree, who shall name, in writing, twenty-four substan- 
 tial freemen residing in the same, and the parties shall alternately strike 
 out one until one half are struck out ; then the parties shall draw by lot 
 such an odd number as they shall agree upon, out of the remainder, 
 who, after taking an oath to try the case in dispute without favour, affec- 
 tion, or partiality, shall hear and finally determine the same. 
 
 Sec. 38. The printing presses shall be free to every person who un- 
 dertakes to examine the proceedings of the Legislature, or any person 
 or part of government ; and no prosecution shall commence against a 
 printer for printing any thing whatsoever, provided he gives up the per- 
 son’s name. 
 
 Sec. 39. The Legislature shall take care to proportion punishments to 
 the crimes, and may provide houses for punishing, by hard labour, those 
 convicted of crimes not capital, wherein the criminals shall be employed, 
 for the benefit of the public, or for the reparation of injuries clone to 
 private persons. All persons, at proper times, shall be admitted to see 
 the prisoners at their labour. 
 
 Sec. 40. The inhabitants of this State shall have liberty to fowl and 
 hunt in seasonable times, on the lands they hold, and all others therein, 
 not enclosed, and in like manner to fish in all boatable waters, and others, 
 not private property. 
 
 Sec. 41. The Legislature hereafter to be chosen, shall provide that 
 marriages, in this commonwealth, be regularly and solemnly celebrated, 
 between one man and ODe woman, before free and single. 
 
 Sec. 42. That this Constitution may be the better understood by the 
 citizens of this commonwealth, and be more effectually kept inviolate to 
 the latest ages, the future Legislature shall employ some person or per- 
 sons, at the public expense, to draw it out into a familiar catechetical 
 form, and the Registers shall take care that it be taught in all the schools 
 within their respective districts ; and shall further provide, that a suffi- 
 cient number of the Constitution be printed, that each citizen may have 
 one, as the inviolable charter of his privileges. 
 
 Sec. 43. The future Legislature shall choose and keep a chaplain du- 
 ring their session, if to be obtained, and shall annually invite some minis- 
 ter of the gospel to open their first session, after the annual election, 
 with a sermon. 
 
 Sec. 44. The privileges and benefit of the writ of Habeas Corpus 
 shall be enjoyed in this commonwealth, in the most free, easy, cheap, 
 
334 GEN. COCKE APPOINTED TO UNITED STATES CONGRESS. 
 
 expeditious and ample manner, and shall not be suspended by tbe Legis- 
 lature, except upon tbe most urgent and pressing occasions, and for a 
 limited time, not exceeding twelve months : And, iu all cases, every per- 
 son shall enjoy the liberty of being heard by himself and his counsel. 
 
 Sec. 45. In order that the freedom of this commonwealth may be 
 preserved inviolate forever, there shall be chosen by the free suffrage of 
 the freemen of this State, on the day of in the year one 
 
 thousand seven hundred and ninety, and in every succeeding fifth year 
 forever, twenty-four freeholders, two-thirds of which shall constitute a 
 Board in every case, and known by the name of a Council of Safety , 
 and shall meet on the day of next ensuing their elec- 
 
 tion, who, during one year after said day, shall have full power, and 
 their duty shall he, to inquire whether the Constitution has been pre- 
 served [remainder of constitution lost.] 
 
 Before its adjournment the convention appointed General 
 Cocke to present the constitution, as adopted, and a memo- 
 rial to Congress, applying for admission into the Union. He 
 was not received, and no notice was taken of his mission. 
 
 GREENE COUNTY COURT. 
 
 The Franklin government had now commenced, and, at 
 ( the May Sessions of this year, the county officers 
 ‘ \ were re-appointed or confirmed. Under the new dy- 
 
 nasty, “Daniel Kennedy was confirmed as Clerk; James Hous- 
 ton, Sheriff ; Robert Kerr, Register ; and Francis Hughes, 
 Ranger. Tavern rates were, Diet, Is.; liquor, half pint, 
 6d. ; pasture and stable, 6d. ; lodging, 4d. ; corn, per gallon, 
 8d. ; oats, per do., fid.” 
 
 In the meantime, Greeneville had been laid off. The 
 court-house stood at the lower corner of the present court- 
 house lot. It was built of unhewn logs, and coverd with 
 clapboards, and was occupied by the court, at first, without 
 a floor or a loft. It had one opening only for an entrance, 
 which was not yet provided with a shutter. Windows were 
 not needed either for ventilation or light, the intervals be- 
 tween the logs being a good substitute for them. In this 
 simple and unpretending chamber, the third Franklin Con- 
 vention was held, and there the elaborated and original 
 constitution of the Commonwealth of Frankland was pre- 
 sented, angrily discussed, analyzed and rejected, and the 
 constitution of the State of Franklin adopted. In it the 
 
GREENEVILLE, THE CAPITAL OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 335 
 
 Commons assembled and deliberated, while the Senate con- 
 vened in the old court room in Carr’s house, which, at this 
 time, had become the village tavern. Greeneville became 
 the permanent capital of the new state, the seat of its legis- 
 lature, and the place where the governor met his council of 
 state, and projected and matured the measures of his foreign 
 and domestic administration. Most loyal amongst the loyal, 
 to Sevier and to Franklin, were the inhabitants of Greene 
 county. There resided many of his captains and most of 
 his officers of state. They were the last to abandon — they 
 never did abandon him. Some of them may not have sup- 
 ported the Governor of Franklin, but none of them refused 
 their support to John Sevier. 
 
 Petitions were drawn up and circulated among the people, 
 praying the favourable consideration of the Congress of 
 the United States to the separation of the western from 
 the eastern sections of Virginia and North-Carolina. 
 
 Other petitions from the people of the ceded territory, 
 were addressed to the Legislature of North-Carolina. In one 
 of these, here preserved, the petitioners “ beg leave to ob- 
 serve that the honourable legislature of your state, on the 
 2d June, 1784, passed an act ceding to the United States the 
 territory which lies west of the Apalachian or Alleghany 
 Mountains ; containing in said act, several conditions and 
 reservations in behalf of your petitioners, who discovering 
 with pleasure and acknowledged gratitude, the paternal and 
 patriotic disposition of the legislature, to countenance and 
 consent to the ease and happiness of your remote citizens, 
 emboldened us to set about erecting a separate government 
 from that of the parent state. Assuring your honourable 
 body, that it is not from any disgust to your constitution or 
 laws, occasions us to supplicate you to permit a separation, 
 but, on the contrary, (we) regard North-Carolina, and will 
 never cease to feel an interest in whatever may concern her 
 happiness and safety ; and that our hearty and kindest 
 wishes will always attend the parent state.” 
 
 The convention having rejected the constitution as sub- 
 mitted, and adopted that of North-Carolina, under which the 
 Franklin government had thus far been administered, it 
 
336 
 
 TREATY OF HOPEWELL. 
 
 was hoped that the public sentiment would be propitiated, 
 and general harmony restored ; but new elements of strife 
 had arisen during the session of the convention, and new 
 topics of discussion had been thrown out amongst the peo- 
 ple. The dissentients comprised in their number, much of 
 the wisdom and virtue of the body to which they belonged ; 
 and desirous of sustaining themselves with their constitu- 
 ents, they published an account of their proceedings, together 
 with the rejected form of government, and appealed again 
 to the people. Here, as might have been anticipated, secta- 
 rian bigotry, unlettered ignorance, and impassioned ultraism, 
 would all tend to aggravate the existing discord and embit- 
 ter the dispute. Sections I, II, III, and XXXII, became pro- 
 lific sources of controversy and angry debate. The deputies 
 in convention had dissented ; their constituents themselves 
 could not harmonize ; and without any further effort to re- 
 model the government, the people at length acquiesced in 
 the constitution of the mother state. 
 
 In the meantime, the settlements were extended over the 
 territory acquired under the Franklin treaties with the 
 Cherokees, and a new source of hostilities with that tribe 
 arose from the encroachment of the whites upon lands not 
 embraced in former cessions to the adjoining states. It was 
 considered b) r Congress necessary, therefore, that a treaty 
 should be held under the authority of the United States. 
 Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin, and 
 Lachn. McIntosh, were appointed Commissioners on the part 
 of the General Government. They invited the chiefs of 
 the respective towns to meet with them, in treaty, at Hope- 
 well, on Keowee, in South-Carol ina. 
 
 The boundary, which had been the chief cause of com- 
 plaint by the Indians, was made to conform with the lines of 
 their deed to Plenderson & Co., and the treaty held by Com- 
 missioners of Virginia and North-Carolina in 1777. In their 
 report to Richard Henry Lee, President of Congress, the 
 Commissioners say : “ The Spaniards and the French from 
 New-Orleans, are making great efforts to engross the trade 
 of the Indians ; several of them are on the north side of the 
 Tennessee, and are well supplied with the proper goods for 
 
CHEROKEE BOUNDARY. 
 
 337 
 
 the trade. The Governor of New-Orleans or West Florida 
 has sent orders to the Chickasaws to remove all traders from 
 that country, except such as should take the oath of alle- 
 giance to the Catholic King.” “ The Cherokees say that the 
 northern Indians have their emissaries among the southern 
 tribes, endeavouring to prevail with them to form an alli- 
 ance offensive against the United States, and to commence 
 hostilities against us in the spring, or next fall, at the fur- 
 thest ; that, not only the British emissaries are for this mea- 
 sure, but that the Spaniards have extensive claims to the 
 southward, and have been endeavouring to poison the minds 
 of the Indians against us, and to win their affections by 
 large supplies of arms, military stores and clothing.” 
 
 By the fourth article u of the treaty concluded on the 28th 
 November, 1785, the Cherokee boundary is declared to be : 
 
 Beginning at the mouth of Duck River, on the Tennessee ; thence 
 running northeast to the ridge dividing the waters running into the Cum- 
 berland from those running into the Tennessee ; thence eastwardly 
 along the said ridge to a northeast line to be run, which shall strike the 
 River Cumberland forty miles above Nashville; thence along the said 
 line to the river ; thence up the said river to the ford where the Ken- 
 tucky road crosses the river ; thence to Campbell’s line near Cumberland 
 Gap ; thence to the mouth of Cloud’s Creek on Holston ; thence to the 
 Cbimneytop Mountain ; thence to Camp Creek, near the mouth of Big 
 Limestone, on Nollichucky ; thence a southerly course six miles to a 
 mountain ; thence south to the North-Carolina line ; thence to the South- 
 Carol ina Indian boundary, and along the same southwest over the top 
 of the Oconee Mountain till it shall strike Tugalo River ; thence a direct 
 line to the top of the Currahee Mountain ; thence to the head of the 
 south fork of Oconee River. 
 
 In the meantime, North-Carolina was not inattentive to 
 
 „ ( the growing alienation and defection of her western 
 
 1785 ] . . 
 
 ( citizens. The Greeneville Convention had met on the 
 14th of November. On the 19th of the same month, the 
 North-Carolina Legislature assembled at Newbern. Fol- 
 lowing the example of Virginia, they proceeded to take into 
 consideration the state of their revolted counties, and passed 
 an act, preceded by a preamble, in which it is stated as rep- 
 resented to the Assembly — 
 
 “That many of the inhabitants of Washington, Greene and Sullivan 
 counties, have withdrawn their allegiance from this state, and have been 
 22 
 
338 
 
 ELECTIONS HELD IN FRANKLIN, 
 
 erecting a temporary separate government amongst themselves, in con- 
 sequence of a general report and belief that the state, being inattentive 
 to their welfare, had ceased to regard them as citizens, and had made 
 an absolute Cession, both of the soil and jurisdiction of the country in 
 which they reside, to the United States, in Congress. And whereas, 
 such report was ill-founded, and it was, and continues to be, the desire 
 of the General Assembly of this State to extend the benefits of civil 
 government to the citizens and inhabitants of the western counties, until 
 such time as they might be separated with advantage and convenience 
 to themselves ; and the Assembly are ready to pass over, and consign 
 to oblivion, the mistakes and misconduct of such persons in the above- 
 mentioned counties, as have withdrawn themselves from the government 
 of this state ; to hear and redress their grievances, if any they have, and 
 to afford them the protection and benefits of government, until such 
 time as they may be in a condition, from their numbers and wealth, to 
 be formed into a separate commonwealth, and be received by the United 
 States as a member of the Union.” 
 
 The act then grants pardon and oblivion for all that had 
 been done in the revolted counties, on the condition that 
 they return to their allegiance to North-Carolina., and ap- 
 pointed officers, civil and military, in place of the incum- 
 bents under the Franklin dynasty, and empowered the voters 
 of Washington, Sullivan and Greene, to choose their repre- 
 sentatives otherwise than by the then required forms. Three 
 good and honest men, preferred by themselves, were to act 
 as inspectors of the elections, and to return a certificate in 
 favour of members thus chosen. 
 
 It is not known how many of the several counties partici- 
 pated in the provisions thus made by the parent state, for a 
 return of her western citizens to their allegiance. But in 
 Washington county disaffection to the Franklin government 
 began to manifest itself, and George Mitchell, as sheriff, issued 
 the following notice, which is copied exactly from the origi- 
 nal, as found among the Sevier papers. 
 
 July, 19th day, 1V86. 
 
 Advertisement. — I hereby give Publick Notice, that there will be an 
 election held the third 'Friday in August next, at John Rennoe’s, near 
 the Sickamore Slides, where Charles Robertson formerly lived, to 
 choose members to represent Washington county in the General As- 
 sembly of North-Carolina, agreeable to an Act of Assembly, in that 
 case made and provided, where due attendance will given pr.me. 
 
 Geo. Mitchell, Shff. 
 
 The election was held accordingly at the Sycamore Shoals, 
 
FOR MEMBERS TO NORTH- CAROLINA LEGISLATURE. 
 
 339 
 
 ( on Watauga River, when Col. John Tipton was 
 l chosen Senator of Washington county, and James 
 Stuart and Richard White were chosen as members of the 
 House of Commons of the Legislature of North-Carolina. 
 These gentlemen had been members of the convention that 
 formed the new government, and had in other ways partici- 
 pated in its administration. Their well known influence 
 and weight of character in the new settlements, rendered 
 their present position of ill-omen to the future fortunes of 
 Franklin. In Washington county especially, many, influenced 
 by their example, accepted the terms of accommodation held 
 out by North-Carolina, and enrolled their names in opposi- 
 tion to the new state. From this period resistance to, or re- 
 fusal of its authority, assumed a more systematic and deter- 
 mined form. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1Y86, was presented the strange specta- 
 cle of two empires exercised at one and the same time, over one and the 
 same people. County courts were held in the same counties, under 
 both governments ; the militia were called out by officers appointed by 
 both ; laws were passedhy both assemblies, and taxes were laid by the 
 authority of both states. The differences in opinion in the State of 
 Franklin, between those who adhered to the government of North- 
 Carolina, and those who were the friends of the new government, be- 
 came every day more acrimonious. Every fresh provocation on the one 
 side, was surpassed in way of retaliation by a still greater provocation on 
 the other. The Judges commissioned by the State of Franklin, held Su- 
 preme Courts twice in each year, in Jonesborough. Colonel Tipton 
 openly refused obedience to the new government. There arose a deadly 
 hatred between him and Governor Sevier, and each endeavoured, by all 
 the means in his power, to strengthen his party against the other. Tip- 
 ton held courts under the authority of North-Carolina, at Buffalo, ten 
 miles ab($e Jonesborough, which were conducted by her officers and 
 agreeably to her laws. Courts were also held at Jonesborough in the 
 same county, under the authority of the State of Franklin. As the 
 process of these courts frequently required the sheriff to pass within the 
 jurisdiction of each other to execute it, a rencounter was sure to take 
 place. Hence it became necessary to appoint the stoutest men in the 
 county to the office of sheriff. This state of things produced the ap- 
 pointment of A. Caldwell, of Jonesborough, and Mr. Pew, the sheriff in 
 Tipton’s court. Whilst a county court was sitting at Jonesborough, in 
 this year, for the county of Washington, Colonel John Tipton, with a 
 party of men, entered the court house, took away the papers from the 
 clerk, and turned the justices out of doors. Not long after, Sevier’s 
 party came to the house where a county court was sitting for the county 
 of Washington, under the authority of North-Carolina, and took away 
 
340 
 
 CIVIL AND MILITARY OFFICERS OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 the clerk’s papers, and turned the court out of doors. • Thomas Gorly 
 was clerk of this court. The like acts were several times repeated 
 during the existence of the Franklin government. At one time James 
 Sevier, then having the records of the old court under North-Carolina, 
 Tipton, in behalf of the court of North-Carolina, went to his house and 
 took them away by force, and delivered them to Gorly. Shortly after- 
 wards the records were retaken by Sevier’s party, and James Sevier, 
 the clerk, hid them in a cave. In these removals many valuable papers 
 were lost, and at later periods, for want of them, some estates of great 
 value have been lost. In the county of Greene, in 1786, Tipton broke 
 up a court sitting in Greeneville, under the Franklin authority. The 
 two clerks in all the three old counties, issued marriage licenses, and many 
 persons were married by virtue of their authority. In the courts held 
 under the authority of the State of Franklin, many letters of admin- 
 istration of intestate estates were issued, aud probate of wills were 
 taken.* 
 
 Notwithstanding the defection of some of its early advo- 
 cates, and the neutrality of others of its friends, the govern- 
 ment of Franklin continued to exercise its functions in 
 the seven counties composing its sovereignty. County and 
 Superior Courts were held, the militia was mustered and 
 disciplined, and civil and military elections took place under 
 its authority. In the new county of Sevier, Samuel Newell 
 and John Clack were elected representatives ; Samuel 
 Weir was clerk of the county court and colonel of the regi- 
 ment. In Spencer county, these same offices were filled by 
 Thomas Henderson ; and William Cocke and Thomas King 
 were representatives. In Caswell county, Alexander Out- 
 law and Henry Conway were representatives ; Joseph 
 Hamilton was clerk of the county court, and George Doherty, 
 colonel of the regiment. In Greene county, Daniel Kennedy 
 was clerk, and John Newman, colonel. James Sgvier was 
 clerk of Washington county. In Sullivan county, John 
 Rhea was clerk, George Maxwell, colonel of the militia, and 
 John Long, John Provin and George Maxwell, members of 
 the Assembly. 
 
 In addition to the administration of civil affairs, Governor 
 Sevier, early in this year, found it necessary to repel the 
 aggressions made upon the citizens of Franklin, by the Che- 
 rokees. In the treaty of Hopewell, that tribe had agreed to 
 a lasting peace with the frontier people. Lulled into a state 
 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
VALLEY TOWNS DESTROYED. 
 
 341 
 
 of false security by the unanimity with which the treaty had 
 been signed by the chiefs of that nation, emigrants had 
 pushed their settlements on the north side of Holston as low 
 down as Beaver Creek, in what has since become Knox 
 county. Remote from sources of defence, and exposed on 
 three sides to attack, this settlement was selected as the 
 most vulnerable point. The house of Mr. Biram was at- 
 tacked, and two men fell victims to Cherokee cruelty. Many 
 of the settlers fell back upon the stations above them, while 
 a few of them erected, hastily, temporary defences in their 
 own neighbourhood. Some small parties were soon collected 
 and pursued the authors of the mischief. Governor Sevier 
 himself adopted the policy, heretofore ascertained to be the 
 most effectual, of penetrating at once into the heart -of the 
 enemy’s country, securing thereby an immediate return of 
 the hostile Indians to the defence of their villages and homes. 
 A call for volunteers was promptly met, by the rendezvous 
 of one hundred and sixty horsemen at Houston’s Station, on 
 the waters of Little River. The troops crossed the Ten- 
 nessee River at the Island Town, and passing by the Tellico 
 Plains, marched over the Unaca Mountain to Hiwassee. 
 Here, three of the Cherokee villages, called the Valley 
 Towns, were destroyed, and fifteen warriors were killed. 
 Encamping in another village close at hand, Sevier sent for- 
 ward his spies, who soon returned and reported that they 
 had discovered a large trail. The troops were at once put 
 in motion, and marched upon the trail. From the best in- 
 formation before them, it was decided in a council of officers, 
 that as the number of the enemy could not be less than one 
 thousand warriors, as they were under the command of John 
 Watts, a cunning and daring leader, and were probably en- 
 deavouring to draw Sevier into a narrow defile, it was 
 deemed, under existing circumstances, inexpedient to pursue 
 the enemy without reinforcements. The pursuit was aban- 
 doned — the troops marched back to their encampment and 
 returned home. 
 
 The effect of this invasion of the Cherokee country was 
 salutary. Few aggressions were, for some time after, made 
 against the frontier. But it was considered by each of the 
 
342 
 
 COLONEL MARTIN’S LETTER. 
 
 sovereignties claiming jurisdiction over the country, a wise 
 and necessary policy to adopt further methods of conciliation 
 and security. North-Carolina had sent Col. Joseph Martin 
 on a mission of peace into the interior of the Cherokee na- 
 tion. Upon his return, he gave to Governor Caswell the re- 
 sult of his observation on Indian affairs, and on some of the 
 measures of the Franklin government, of which he at first 
 was an officer. His letter follows: 
 
 Smith’s River, Henry County, May 11th, 1 V 86. 
 
 Sir : — The accounts from the Cherokee country are somewhat 
 alarming. I left Chota the fourteenth of last month, when two or three 
 parties had gone out towards Cumberland or Kentucky, to take satis- 
 faction for four of their young men that were murdered by one McClure, 
 and two others, near a small Indian town, on the Tennessee. I left a 
 man in whom I can confide to watch their return, and follow me with 
 certain intelligence, which he has done, which is as follows : — The 1 7 th 
 of last month, the parties of Indians returned with fifteen scalps, sent 
 several letters to Gen. Sevier, which he read, as they were open ; they in- 
 formed that general that they had now taken satisfaction for their 
 friends that were murdered, that they did not wish for war, but if the 
 white people wanted war, it was what they would get. He further says, 
 that he was informed that there was great preparation making by the 
 Creeks, to carry on an expedition against Cumberland — that they were 
 about to erecta postator near the Muscle Shoals — that several pack horses 
 had already passed by Chickamauga — they say the French and Spaniards 
 that are settled there are to furnish them with arms and ammunition — 
 the Indians told me I might depend that the Creeks would endeavour to 
 break up Cumberland this summer — I have lately been through the 
 different Cherokee towns this spring, from Tugalo to Hightower, on the 
 Chattahoochee River ; they all seem very friendly, and I believe not the 
 least danger from any unless Chickamauga ; they seem much divided. 
 The Draggon Canoe, which is one of the chiefs, is much attached to the 
 Spanish interest, and I believe will join the Creeks ; he killed two tra- 
 ders the latter part of the winter, on their way to the Chickasaws from 
 Cumberland. Ellis Haslin, one of the principal traders in the Cherokee 
 country, informed me he saw a party of Creeks and Chickamaugas, on 
 their way to Cumberland, and endeavoured to turn them back, but they 
 told him they were at open war with the Virginians, and they would not 
 go back. I spent some days at Holston, to find out, as well as I could, 
 the disposition of the people respecting the new state, and by the best 
 calculations I can make, two-thirds of them are for the old state, and I 
 make no doubt of their sending;- delegates to North-Carolina next ses- 
 sion; they have held an Assembly lately, and appointed Capt. Cocke a 
 member of Congress, and given Col. Charles Robertson liberty to coin 
 thirty thousand dollars specie. I am told they are to have a coat of 
 arms of their own, having a reference to the State of Franklin. One of 
 the members of the Assembly informed me that the colonel was in such 
 
COMMISSIONERS OF COYATEE TREATY. 
 
 343 
 
 forwardness with his mint, that in the course of three weeks he could 
 furnish their members to Congress with cash of the new coin. 
 
 Governor Sevier and the authorities of Franklin were not 
 inattentive, in the meantime, to their relations with the 
 Indians, and in the exercise of one of the highest at- 
 tributes of political sovereignty, appointed Commissioners to 
 negotiate a second treaty with the Cherokees. The Commis- 
 sioners were William Cocke, Alexander Outlaw, Samuel 
 Weir, Henry Conway, and Thomas Ingles. The conference 
 begun at Chota Ford, July 31, and was concluded at Coytoy, 
 (Coiatee ?) Aug. 3d. On the part of the Indians, the negotia- 
 tion was conducted by Old Tassel and Hanging Maw. The 
 best account of the treaty is found in the letter of one of the 
 Commissioners, enclosing the proceedings to the Governor of 
 North-Carolina. It follows : 
 
 Bend of Chttckey, Oct. 8th, 1786. 
 
 Honoured Sir : — I have enclosed you a copy of a late treaty with the 
 Cherokee Indians, and a just account of their conduct and present situ- 
 ation. They came into our settlement on the north of Holston, the 
 10th of July, and warned the settlement that there were Creeks to 
 attack them the week following, and agreed with our people that they 
 might know them from the Creeks, to wear a white flag on their head 
 and on their guns ; and that whenever they saw any white people, they 
 would halloo “ Chota ” to them ; and on the 20th of July, which was 
 the time they said the Creeks was to attack the settlement, two young 
 men were going from the station to a cornfield, some Indians hailed 
 them, and called “ Chota,” and the young men went to them, and they 
 seemed friendly, offered a swap of guns with one of the white men, and 
 got hold of the white man’s gun, and then shot him down with his own 
 gun; the other man rode off, and the other two Indians fired at him, 
 and shot two bullets through him ; but he rode to the station, and lived 
 three days. He was well acquainted with the Indians that shot him. 
 Col. Cocke and myself got account of the murder the 23d, and the 
 31st we were in the town where the Indians lived that did the mischief, 
 with two hundred and fifty men. We sent for the Heads of the towns 
 to meet us at about six miles from the town, at Chota Ford, as you 
 will see in the Talk, where they refused to give up the murderers, and 
 said they were gone to the Shawnees ; but we had certain accounts that 
 they were then in the town ; on which news we marched to the town, 
 and, luckily, killed two of the very Indians that did the murder ; and 
 sent for all the warriors from all the near towns, which met accordingly, 
 and agreed to the terms I have enclosed ; and I was last week in the 
 town, anc had a Talk with them, and they seem very friendly, and well 
 satisfied we should settle the country, and say they will sell us the coun- 
 t on the south of the Tennessee, and let us settle round them, if we 
 
344 
 
 NEGOTIATION AT CIIOTA FORD 
 
 ■will keep the Creeks from killing them ; or they will leave the country 
 entirely, if we will give them goods for it ; and I am convinced, from 
 the late conduct and accounts I have had from them, the whole country 
 to the Georgia line, on this side of Cumberland Mountain, may be had 
 from them for a very trifling sum. 
 
 With this letter, Col. Outlaw sent the following: 
 
 A Treaty held between the Officers of the State of Franklin and the 
 Cherokee Indian Chiefs, July 31st and August 3d, 1786, as fol 
 lows, viz : 
 
 July 31st, Chota Ford. 
 
 Brothers and Warriors : — We are sorry that you have drove us to 
 the necessity of coming to your ground to hold a Talk with you after 
 the Grand Peace with our Great People, the Congress, and our own 
 treaty with you, at Dumplin Creek, last year. You have now broke 
 through all your Talks, and murdered our young men, and stole our 
 horses from our own settlements, and robbed and murdered our men at 
 Kentucky, and on the Kentucky Road and at Cumberland, and have 
 always laid it on the Creeks; but now we have got proof that it is your 
 own warriors that do the mischief, and lay it on the Creeks. We have 
 now come down to talk plain and straight with you, and to tell you 
 that North-Carolina has sold us all the country on the north side of 
 Tennessee and Holston ; that we intend to settle on it, and wish to do 
 so in jieace with you all, and trade and live friendly with all our bro- 
 thers. And, agreeable to the treaty you made with us, we, in plain 
 words, demand the murderers from you that killed our people, and de- 
 mand all the horses you have taken from us, and from the people on 
 the Kentucky Road and Cumberland ; on which terms we will be bro- 
 thers with you all, and continue so until you do more murder on our 
 frontiers, at which time we will come down and destroy the town that 
 does the mischief, and not let one of the murderers live in the towns 
 that are peaceable and friendly ; and if you are afraid of the other 
 Indians, we will protect you and help you fight them ; on which terms 
 we will make peace with you and be friends. If not, we are warriors, 
 and it is what you will. If you love peace, give up the murderers and 
 you shall have peace. 
 
 answered by the tassel. 
 
 How I am going to speak to you, brothers. We have smoked. 
 The Great Man above sent the tobacco. It will make your hearts 
 straight. I come from Chota. I see you. You are my brothers. I 
 see what has been done is the cause of your coming. I am glad to 
 see my brothers and hold them fast by the hand. The Great Man 
 made us both, and he hears the Talk. The Great Man stopped you 
 here to hear my Talk. They are not my people that spilt the blood and 
 spoiled the good Talk a little. My town is not so ; they will always 
 use you well whenever they see you. The men that did the murder 
 are bad men and no warriors. They are gone, and I can’t tell where 
 they are gone. They lived in Coytoy, at the mouth of Holston. This 
 
TRANSFERRED TO COYATEE. 
 
 345 
 
 is all I have to say. . They have done the murder. Now I give you 
 good talk. I will tell you about the land; what you say concerning the 
 land, I will talk to Congress about, and the man that sold itl shall 
 look to for it. You say that North-Carolina sold you the land over the 
 river. We will talk to all our Head men about it. The Great Man above 
 has sent you this white Talk to straight your hearts through. I give 
 you this pipe in token of a straight Talk. I am very sorry my people 
 has done wrong to occasion you to turn your backs. A little talk is as 
 good as much talk ; too much is not good. 
 
 Coytoy, August 3d. 
 
 Brothers and Warriors : — We are now in Coytoy, and are going to 
 give you a straight Talk. You all well know that the great man over 
 the water, King George, once commanded us all, and then we were all 
 brothere ; and that the great man, the king, got angry with us, and came 
 over the water and killed our men and burnt some of our houses, which 
 caused a war, and all your people, the Indians, helped the great man 
 over the water, and we beat you all ; and then the great man over the 
 water gave up all this land to us, the white people, and made a peace 
 with us, and then our great men, the Congress, made a peace with you, 
 and agreed to live brothers with you all, and gave you such a piece of 
 land to live on as they thought right, and so did your brother, John 
 Sevier, governor of this country, and his commissioners at Dumplin, 
 last year ; but now you have broke all the good Talk, and your people 
 have murdered our young warriors, your brothers, at Kentucky, Cum- 
 berland, and here, at home, and have killed our people as you did when 
 you were helping the great man over the water, and have always laid 
 it on the Creeks ; but now we know it is your people that does the 
 mischief. And to convince you we are willing to live brothers, we have 
 marched a few of our warriors into the town that killed our young men, 
 and burnt the town house where your people held the council to kill 
 our men, and have burnt the bad men’s houses, and destroyed as much 
 corn as we thought belonged to them, but have not marched to any 
 other town where our honest brothers lived, but have sent for them all 
 to come and talk and smoke and eat with us, and let them all see that 
 we will not hurt any of their people, our brothers, that are honest and 
 will not kill our people. And we now tell you, in plain words, that if 
 you kill any more of our people, we will come down and destroy the 
 town that does the mischief, unless you bring the rogues to us ; and if 
 our people have killed any of your people since we came down, you 
 must blame your bad men for it, for we do not know your bad men 
 when they are in the woods. You have killed our old commanders, 
 Colonel Donelson and Colonel Christian, who were always your friends 
 when you were brothers, and were our great warriors and counsellors ; 
 and that you may not be any more deceived, we now tell you, plainly, 
 that our great counsellors have sold us the lands on the north side of 
 the Tennessee to the Cumberland Mountain, and we intend to settle and 
 live on it, and if you kill any of our people for settling there, we shall 
 destroy the town that does the mischief ; and as your people broke the 
 peace you made with Congress and us, and killed our men, it was your 
 
346 
 
 TREATY OF COYATEE. 
 
 faults that we come out to war. We have right to all the ground we 
 marched over, but if you wish to live brothers, and be at peace, we will 
 let you live iu Coytoy, as brothers, in your old houses, if you will agree 
 to give up the murderers when you can get them ; and we only claim 
 the island in Tennessee, at the mouth of Holston, and from the head 
 of the island to the dividing ridge between Holston River, Little River 
 and Tennessee, to the Blue Ridge, and the lands North-Carolina sold 
 us, on the north side of Tennessee, which lines and terms we will agree 
 to lay before our Great Council, and if you will agree to live brothers 
 and friends, notwithstanding our taking of it by the sword, which is 
 the best right to all countries, we will do our best endeavours to get our 
 Council to give you all some goods, in token of our sincere peace and 
 lasting friendship, although you refused to give up the murderers at 
 Chota Ford when we sent to you and demanded them of you, agreeable 
 to your treaty with us before we did you any harm, which, had you 
 have done, we would not have marched into your town, but wouli 
 have taken you by the hand and been brothers. Now, can you blame 
 us, when your people broke the good Talks and spilt our blood ? We 
 call upon the Great Man above to witness, and you, yourselves, know, 
 that we have acted agreeable to our former treaty, and only wish to 
 punish the bad men and settle on the land North-Carolina sold us. 
 
 Wm. Cocke, 
 
 Alex. Outlaw, 
 Samuel Wear, 
 Henry Conway, 
 Thomas Ingles. 
 
 Attest — Joseph Conway. 
 
 answer. 
 
 August 3d. 
 
 Brothers : — You have spoke to me. I am very thankful to you for it. 
 My brother, William Christian, took care of every body, and was a good 
 man ; he is dead and gone. It was not me nor my people that killed 
 him. They told lies on me. I loved Col. Christian, and he loved me. 
 He was killed going the other way, over the big river. I never heard 
 of your Great Council giving you the land you speak of. I talked, last 
 fall, with the great men from Congress, but they told me nothing of 
 this. I remember that the great men and I talked together last fall, 
 and did not think this murder would have happened so soon. We talk 
 good together now, but the great people, a good way off, don’t talk so 
 good as you ; they have spoke nothing to us about the land, but now 
 you have told us the truth. We hope we shall live friends together on 
 it, and keep our young men at peace, as we all agree to sign the above 
 terms and live brothers hereafter. 
 
 Wm. Cocke, 
 
 Alex. Outlaw, 
 
 Saml. Wear, 
 
 Henry Conway, 
 
 Thomas Ingles. 
 
 Attest — Joseph Conway. 
 
 his 
 
 Old td Tassel, 
 mark 
 
 his 
 
 Hanging M Maw. 
 mark. 
 
MISSION OF GENERAL COCKE AND JUDGE CAMPBELL. 
 
 347 
 
 The difficulties with the Indians being thus adjusted, and 
 provision being made for co-operating with Georgia against 
 the Creeks, it remained for the authorities of Franklin to re- 
 concile conflicts nearer home. The imperium in imperio 
 condition of things threatened anarchy or misrule — perhaps 
 disaster and ruin to all parties. The people in some of the 
 revolted counties had sent forward their representatives to 
 the General Assembly of North -Carolina, which met in No- 
 vember, at Fayetteville. They were, in like manner, repre- 
 sented in the Assembly of Franklin. Taxes were laid by 
 both governments and collected by neither, the people not 
 knowing, as was pretended, which had the better right to 
 receive them ; and neither government was forward in over- 
 ruling the plea, for fear of giving offence to those who could 
 at pleasure, transfer their allegiance.* Previous attempts 
 had failed in securing from North-Carolina her consent to the 
 separation of her revolted counties. Disaffection had already 
 manifested itself against the authority of Franklin, and some 
 of those who at first were the most zealous and clamorous 
 for the separation, were now opposing it in their legislative 
 capacity at Fayetteville. Every day brought new embar- 
 rassments to the administration of Governor Sevier, who, 
 with the Assembly, was devising plans, by which to extri- 
 cate the new government from impending danger. One of 
 these was the appointment of General Cocke and Judge 
 Campbell, as Commissioners, to negotiate a separation. Each 
 of them was well suited for the purpose of his mission. The 
 former was identified with the new settlements, by an early 
 participation in the privation, enterprise and danger of the 
 pioneer life. More recently, he had taken an active part in 
 founding the new state — had been appointed its delegate to 
 Congress — commanded a brigade of its militia, and held other 
 positions implying confidence in his talents and address. His 
 colleague had also a minute acquaintance with every ques- 
 tion relating to either of the parties ; — held the highest judi- 
 cial station in the government from which he was accredited, 
 and by his private worth was entitled to the respect of the 
 one to which he was sent. 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
348 
 
 GOVERNOR SEVIER TO GOVERNOR CASWELL, 
 
 To secure to his embassy the greater consideration and 
 weight, the Governor of Franklin addressed to the Governor 
 of North-Carolina a communication, conceived in respectful 
 and lenient terms, yet manifesting, at the same time, earnest- 
 ness and determination, in maintaining the rights and ad- 
 vancing the interests of his state. It is dated at his private 
 residence. 
 
 Mount Pleasant, Franklin, 28th October, 1786. 
 
 Sir : — Our Assembly have again appointed Commissioners to wait 
 on the parent state, who, I hope, will cheerfully consent to the separa- 
 tion as they once before did. 
 
 It gives us inexpressible concern to think that any disputes should 
 arise between us, more especially when we did not in the first instance 
 pray the separation, but adopted our course after the same was done by 
 Act of your Assembly. We humbly conceived we should do no wrong 
 by endeavouring to provide for ourselves, neither had we the most dis- 
 tant idea that the Cession act would be repealed, otherwise matters 
 might not have been carried to the length they are. The propriety of 
 the repeal we do not pretend to scrutinize, as respecting the policy of 
 your state ; but, permit us to say, that, in our opinion, we discover many 
 embarrassments both parties are likely to labour under in consequence 
 of the repeal. We cannot suppose that Congress will consider itself 
 well treated by North-Carolina, and we doubt that body will, thereby, 
 become in some measure inattentive. 
 
 The late Indian Treaties in the south seem deeply to concern each 
 party, especially now we find Congress have ratified the proceedings, 
 and we have called on your state to carry the same into effect, so far as 
 respects the same. We do not pretend to discriminate the motives that 
 induced that body to enter into those measures, but beg leave to say, that, 
 in our opinions, that had the deed or deeds been executed agreeable to 
 the Cession act, that then our lands in the westward would have been 
 secured under the conditions of that act ; but, under the present cir- 
 cumstances, the greatest part of our western country lies in a very 
 doubtful and precarious situation. I hope your Assembly will take un- 
 der their serious consideration our present condition, and, we flatter our- 
 selves, that august body will not submerge into ruin so many of their 
 late citizens, who have fought and bled in behalf of the parent state, and ' 
 are still ready to do so again, should there be an occasion, Our local 
 and remote situation are the only motives that induce us to wish for a 
 separation. Your constitution and laws we revere, and consider our- 
 selves happy that we have had it in our power to get the same estab- 
 lished in the State of Franklin, although it has occasioned some confu- 
 sion among ourselves. We do, in the most candid and solemn manner, 
 assure you that we do not wish to separate from you on any other 
 terms, but on those that may be perfectly consistent with the honour 
 and interest of each party ; neither do we believe there is any among 
 us who would wish for a separation, did they believe the parent state 
 
ACCREDITING HIS COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 349 
 
 would suffer any real inconveniency in consequence thereof. We would 
 be willing to stand or fall together, under any dangerous crisis what- 
 ever. 
 
 We cannot be of the opinion that any real advantages can be ob- 
 tained by a longer connection. Our trade and commerce is altogether 
 carried on with other states, therefore neither party is benefited on that 
 head ; and whether it can be suggested that the business of government 
 can be extended from five to eight hundred miles distance, is a matter I 
 leave to your own good sense to judge of ; and, further, it cannot be 
 supposed that the inhabitants who reside at that distance, are not equally 
 entitled to the blessings of civil government, as their neighbours who 
 live east, south, or any other point, and not one-fourtli of the distance 
 from the seat of government, besides the incomparable advantages of 
 the roads and other easy communications, that you have on the east of 
 the Apalachian. However inconsiderable the people of this country 
 may appear at this day, reason must inform us that the time is not far 
 distant, when they will become as consequential in numbers, if not more 
 so, than most of the Eastern States, and when your Excellency will be 
 pleased to view the many advantages arising from the fertility of our 
 soil, and the moderate and salubrious climate, you cannot, I presume, 
 differ in sentiments on this head. 
 
 We will admit that our importation is not so flattering, but our ex- 
 ports are equal to any. As to our present abilities, we must confess 
 they are not so great as could be wished for; but, happily for us, we have 
 the parent, and many old and experienced states to copy after. 
 
 As to my own part, I have always considered myself happy while under 
 the government of North-Carolina, and highly honoured with the dif- 
 ferent appointments they have been pleased to confer. 
 
 I heartily wish your Legislature had either not repealed, or never 
 passed the Cession act, for probably it may occasion much confusion, 
 especially should your Assembly listen too much to prejudiced persons, 
 though this I have no right to suggest, but fear we may have a quarrel 
 sufficient on our hands without any among ourselves. 
 
 I am authorized to say there is no set of people can think more highly 
 of your government than those who want the separation, and they only 
 wish it to answer their better conveniency ; and, though wanting to be 
 separated iii government, wish to be united in friendship, and hope that 
 mutual good offices may ever pass between the parent and infant state, 
 which is my sincere wish and desire. 
 
 Judge Campbell, on account of ill health, was unable to 
 accompany the other Commissioner on his embassy to Fay- 
 etteville. But, desirous of effecting its object, “ a ratifica- 
 tion of our independence,” he forwarded to Governor Cas- 
 well his written argument in support of it, as follows : 
 
 State of Franklin, ) 
 Caswell County, Nov. 30th, 1786. [ 
 
 May it please your Excellency — 
 
 I have hesitated to address your Excellency on so delicate a subject as 
 
350 
 
 judge campbell’s written argument. 
 
 the present. I shall only state a few facts, and leave your Excellency to 
 draw the conclusion. 
 
 Is not the continent of America one day to become one consolidated 
 government of United States? Is not your state, when connected with 
 this part of the country, too extensive ? Are we not, then, one day to be a 
 separate people ? Do you receive any advantage from us as now situated ? 
 or do you ever expect to receive any ? I believe you do not. Suffer us, 
 then, to pursue our own happiness in a way most agreeable to our 
 situation and circumstances. The plans laid for a regular and sys- 
 tematic government in this country, are greatly frustrated by the oppo- 
 sition from your country. Can a people so nearly connected as yours 
 are with ours, delight in our misfortunes? The rapid settlements that 
 are making, and have been made out of the bounds prescribed both by 
 your state and ours, is a matter worthy your consideration; our divisions 
 are favourable to those who have a mind to transgress our laws. If you 
 were to urge us, and it were possible we should revert back to you. in 
 what a labyrinth of difficulties would we be involved ? Witness the 
 many lawsuits, which have been decided under the sanction of the laws 
 of Franklin, the retrial of which would involve many persons in certain 
 ruin. 
 
 If we set out wrong, or were too hasty in our separation, this country 
 is not altogether to blame ; your state pointed out the line of conduct, 
 which we adopted ; we really thought you in earnest when you ceded us 1 
 to Congress. If you then thought we ought to be separate, or if you 
 now think we ever ought to be, permit us to complete the work that is j 
 more than half done ; suffer us to give energy to our laws and force to 
 our councils, by saying we are a separate and independent people, and 
 Ave will yet be happy. I suppose it will astonish your Excellency to 
 hear that there are many families settled within nine miles of the i 
 Cherokee nation. What will be the consequence of those emigrations? 
 Our laws and government must include these people or they will be- !' 
 come dangerous; it is vain to say they must be restrained. Have not 
 all America extended their back settlements in opposition to laws and 
 proclamations? The Indians are now become more pusillanimous, and 
 consequently will be more and more encroached upon ; they must, they 
 will be circumscribed. Some of your politicians think we have not men 
 of abilities to conduct the reins of government ; this may iu some mea- 
 sure be true, but all new states must have a beginning, and we are 
 daily increasing in men both of political and law knowledge. It was 
 not from a love of novelty, or the desire of title, I believe, that our leaders 
 were induced to engage in the present revolution, but from pure neces- 
 sity. We were getting into confusion, and you know any government is 
 better than anarchy. Matters will be differently represented to you, 
 but you may rely on it, a great majority of the people are anxious for 
 a separation. Nature has separated us ; do not oppose her in her work ; 
 by acquiescing you will bless us, and do yourself^no injury ; you bless us 
 by uniting the disaffected, and do yourself no injury, because you lose 
 nothing but people who are a clog on your government, and to whom 
 you cannot do equal justice by reason of their detached situation. 
 
 I was appointed to wait on your General Assembly, to urge a ratifi- 
 
GENERAL COCKe’s ADDRESS TO ASSEMBLY. 
 
 351 
 
 cation of our independence, but the misfortune of losing one of my eyes, 
 and some other occurrences, prevented me. You will, therefore, par- 
 don me for the liberties I have taken, whilst endeavouring to serve a 
 people whose situation is truly critical. 
 
 Notwithstanding these earnest representations made in 
 behalf of the people of Franklin, the Assembly of North- 
 Carolina, disregarding their protests and memorials, con- 
 tinued to legislate for them. The territory that had been em- 
 braced in the new county of Spencer, under the Franklin 
 Government, was, by the Legislature of North-Carolina, laid 
 off into a new county called Hawkins, and civil and mili- 
 tary officers were at the same session appointed for it, and 
 the time was fixed by law for holding the courts. The As- 
 sembly had also taken into consideration the measures 
 necessary to be adopted in relation to the revolters in 
 Franklin. At this moment, General Cocke, the other Com- 
 missioner from the State of Franklin, appeared in Fayette- 
 ville, and, at his request, was heard at the bar of the House 
 of Commons. In a speech of great length, as copied from 
 Haywood, he pathetically depicted the miseries of his dis- 
 tressed countrymen; he traced the motives of their separa- 
 tion to the difficult and perilous condition in which they had 
 been placed by the Cession act of 1784 ; he stated that the 
 savages in their neighbourhood, often committed upon the de- 
 fenceless inhabitants the most shocking barbarities; and 
 that they were without the means of raising or subsisting 
 troops for their protection ; without authority to levy men ; 
 without the power to lay taxes for the support of internal 
 government ; and without the hope that any of their neces- 
 sary expenditures would be defrayed by the State of North- 
 Carolina, which had then become no more interested in their 
 safety than any other of the United States. The sovereignty 
 retained being precarious and nominal, as it depended on the 
 acceptance of the cession by ; . , ;o it .-uv.- anticipa- 
 
 ted would be the concern of North-Carolina for the ceded 
 territoiy. With these considerations full in view, what were 
 the people of the ceded territory to do, to avoid the blow of 
 the uplifted tomahawk? How were the women and children 
 to be rescued from the impending destruction ? Would Con- 
 
352 PATHETICALLY RECOUNTS THE TRIALS AND 
 
 gress come to their aid ? Alas ! Congress had not yet ac- 
 cepted of them, and possibly, never would. And if accepted, 
 Congress was to deliberate on the quantum of defence which 
 might be afforded to them. The distant states would wish 
 to know what profits they could respectively draw from the 
 ceded country, and how much land would remain, after 
 satisfying the claims upon it. The contributions from the 
 several states were to be spontaneous. They might be too 
 limited to do any good, too tardy for practical purposes. 
 They might be unwilling to burthen themselves for the salva- 
 tion of a people not connected with them by any endearing 
 ties. The powers of Congress were too feeble to enforce 
 contributions. Whatever aids should be resolved on, might 
 not reach the objects of their bounty, till all was lost. 
 Would common prudence justify a reliance upon such pros- 
 pects ? Could the lives of themselves and their families be 
 staked upon them ? Immediate and pressing necessity called 
 for the power, to concentrate the scanty means they possessed 
 of saving themselves from destruction. A cruel and insid- 
 ious foe was at their doors. Delay was but another name 
 for death. They might supinely wait for events, but the first 
 of them would be the yell of the savage through all their 
 settlements. It was the well-known disposition of the sav- 
 ages to take every advantage of an unpreparedness to receive 
 them, and of a sudden to raise the shrieking cry of exulta- 
 tion over the fallen inhabitants. The hearts of the people of 
 North-Carolina should not be hardened against their breth- 
 ren, who have stood by their sides in perilous times, and 
 never heard their cry of distress when they did not instantly 
 rise and march to their aid. Those brethren have bled in 
 profusion to save you from bondage, and from the sangui- 
 nary hands of a relentless enemy, whose mildest laws for 
 the punishment of rebellion, is beheading and quartering. 
 When driven in the late war, by the presence of that enemy, 
 from your homes, we gave to many of you a sanctified asy- 
 lum in the bosom of our country, and gladly performed the 
 rites of hospitality to a people we loved so dearly. Every 
 hand was ready to be raised for the least unhallowed viola- 
 tion of the sanctuary in which they reposed. 
 
 
VINDICATION OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 353 
 
 The. act for our dismissal was, indeed, recalled in the winter 
 of 1784; what then was our condition? More pennyless, 
 defenceless and unprepared, if possible, than before, and un- 
 der the same necessity as ever, to meet and consult together 
 for our common safety. The resources of the country all 
 locked up, where is the record that shews any money or sup- 
 plies sent to us ? — a single soldier ordered to be stationed on 
 the frontiers, or any plan formed for mitigating the horrors 
 of our exposed situation ? On the contrary, the savages are 
 irritated by the stoppage of those goods on their passage, 
 which were promised as a compensation for the lands which 
 had been taken from them. If North-Carolina must yet hold us 
 in subjection, it should at least be understood to what a state 
 of distraction, suffering and poverty, her varying conduct 
 has reduced us, and the liberal hand of generosity should be 
 widely opened for relief, from the pressure of their present 
 circumstances ; all animosity should be laid aside and buried 
 in deep oblivion, and our errors should be considered as the 
 offspring of greater errors committed by yourselves. It be- 
 longs to a magnanimous people to weep- over the failings of 
 their unfortunate children, especially if prompted by the in- 
 considerate behaviour of the parent. Far should it be 
 from their hearts to harbour the unnatural purpose of adding 
 still more affliction to those who have suffered but too much 
 already. It belongs to a magnanimous people to give an 
 industrious attention to circumstances, in order to form a just 
 judgment upon a subject so much deserving of their serious 
 meditation, and when once carefully formed, to employ, with, 
 sedulous anxiety, the best efforts of their purest wisdom, in 
 choosing a course to pursue, suitable to the dignity of their 
 own character, consistent with their own honour, and the 
 best calculated to allay that storm of distraction in which 
 their hapless children have been so unexpectedly involved. 
 If the mother shall judge the expense of adhesion too heavy 
 to be borne, let us remain as we are, and support ourselves 
 by our own exertions ; if otherwise, let the means for the con- 
 tinuance of our connexion be supplied with the degree of 
 liberality which will demonstrate seriousness on the one hand 
 and secure affection on the other. 
 
 23 
 
354 
 
 THE REMOVAL OF OLD OFFICE HOLDERS, DRAWS 
 
 His speech was heard with attention, and he retired. 
 
 The Assembly progressed in deliberating on the measures to be 
 adopted with respect to the revolted counties. By another act of this 
 session, they pardoned the offences of all persons who had returned to 
 their allegiance to the State of North-Carolina, and restored them to all 
 the privileges of the other citizens of the state, as if the said offences 
 and misconduct had never existed. With regard to decisions respecting 
 property, which were incompatible with justice, they enacted, that the 
 person injured should have remedy at common law. They continued 
 in office all officers, both civil and military, who held and enjoyed such 
 offices on the 1st of April, 1*784 ; but declared vacant the offices of all 
 such persons as had accepted and exercised other offices and appoint- 
 ments, the acceptance and exercise of which were considered to be a 
 resignation of their former offices held under the State of North-Caro- 
 lina ; and they directed that such vacant offices, both civil and military, 
 shall be filled with proper persons to be appointed by the General As- 
 sembly, and commissioned by the Governor of North-Carolina, as by 
 law directed.* 
 
 The latter provisions of this act produced great dissatis- 
 faction amongst the people upon whom it was intended to 
 operate. The old office holders were capable, they had been 
 faithful, and their experience and attention to official duty 
 had secured universal confidence and approbation These, 
 upon whom the new appointments were conferred, were 
 many of them non-residents, inexperienced and not reliable, 
 selected by the favouritism of some functionary in the old 
 state, and, for that reason, odious to the people. Their ap- 
 pointment was denounced by and drew forth the bitter con- 
 demnation of some of both parties. The temper of the com- 
 plainants is seen in the letter following, from Judge Camp- 
 bell to the Governor. 
 
 State of Franklin, ) 
 Caswell County, March 18th, 1787. f 
 May it please your Excellency : 
 
 I was honoured with yours of the 23d of February, for which I ' 
 beg you to accept of my most cordial acknowledgments. The majority 
 of the people of Franklin proclaim, with a degree of enthusiastic zeal, 
 against a reversion to your state. Indeed, I am at a loss to conjecture J 
 whether your Assembly wished us to revert ; if so, why did they treat II 
 the old faithful officers of this couutry with so much contempt ? Officers 
 who have suffered in the common cause, who have been faithful in the 
 discharge of the trust reposed in them, have been displaced, without 
 even the formality of a trial. Representations by a few malcontents 
 
 Haywood. 
 
FROM JUDGE CAMPBELL A FURTHER REMONSTRANCE. 355 
 
 might have been the cause of such proceedings, but surely it was a 
 most impolitic step. If the old officers, who were the choice of the 
 people, and under whom they have long served, had been continued, I 
 doubt not hut all things would have been settled here, agreeable to the 
 most sanguine wish of your General Assembly ; but such infringements 
 on the liberties and privileges of a free people will never be attended 
 with any salutary consequence. I also blame the law, which passed in 
 your Assembly, to enable the people here to hold partial elections. If 
 it was intended to divide us, and set us to inassacreing one another, it 
 was well concerted, but an ill-planned scheme, if intended for the good 
 of all. The great number of warrants which issue from your entry- 
 taker’s office, without the composition money being paid, is a very great 
 evil, and will tend exceedingly to embarrass this country. But I under- 
 stand your Assembly have put a stop to such unfair proceedings. You 
 mention, if the people here could be brought to agree in making a 
 general application to the Legislature of North- Carolina, the desired 
 object might easily be brought about. Human nature is the same in all 
 countries. To expect to bring a people, cordially and unanimously, to 
 adopt even the most salutary measure, is not to be expected, and they 
 will most assuredly be refractory to doubtful and exceptionable plans. 
 
 The people here — for I have been in public assemblies and made it 
 my business to collect their sentiments — dread the idea of a reversion. 
 They say, if North-Carolina is in earnest about granting them a separa- 
 tion, why not permit them to go on as they have begun, and not involve 
 them in inextricable difficulties, by undoing the work of two or three 
 years past? They made offers by their agent, which they think was 
 favourable to your country ; but they rejected it with contempt. I 
 mean the bill offered by General Rutherford to your Assembly, in behalf 
 of this people. What conditions, say they, would North-Carolina extort 
 from us, were we under their laws and immediate influence ? Indeed, 
 my mind is tilled with painful anxiety for this people ; the sword of jus- 
 tice and vengeance will, I believe, be shortly drawn against those of this 
 'country who attempt to overturn and viojate the laws and government 
 of Franklin, and God only knows what will be the event. If any blood is 
 spilt on this occasion, the act for partial elections from your country will be 
 the cause of it ; and I am bold to say, -the author of that act was the 
 author of much evil. That your Excellency may not be in the dark 
 about the spirit and determination of a great majority of these people, 
 n supporting, maintaining and defending their beloved Franklin, I shall 
 give you a brief and concise detail of what has transpired here since the 
 ate of our memorial and personal application to the Legislature of 
 Torth-Carolina has been announced to us. Pains were taken to col-- 
 ect the wishes of the people respecting a reversion ; many, who were 
 onnerly lukewarm, are now flaming patriots for Franklin. Those who 
 /ere reai Franklinites, are now burning with enthusiastic zeal. They 
 ay that North-Carolina has not treated us like a parent, but like a step- 
 ame. She means to sacrifice us to the Indian savages ; she has broke 
 ur old officers, under whom we fought and bled, and placed over us 
 jiany men unskilled in military achievements, and who were none of our 
 hoice. The General Assembly has been convened and steps were taken for 
 
356 
 
 AUTHORITY OF FRANKLIN IN GREENE COUNTY. 
 
 our internal security, with a degree of unanimity never before known in a 
 deliberative assembly. A treaty is set on foot with the Indians. The 
 land office, as opened to the Tennessee from the south side of French Broad 
 and Holston Rivers, did not interfere with the north side, where your 
 office was opened, and cautiously avoided interfering with the rights of Con- 
 gress. You may judge from the foregoing whether these people are in 
 earnest or not. You must not conclude we are altogether unanimous, 
 butj I do assure you a very great majority, perhaps nineteen-twentieths, 
 seem determined to persevere at all hazards. I make no doubt but your 
 Excellency will use your influence to bring matters to a friendly and 
 advantageous issue for both countries. Nothing that the love of hu- 
 manity can inspire me with, shall be wanting on my part. 
 
 The Legislature of North-Carolina, at the same session 
 when this obnoxious act was passed, adopted the concilia- 
 tory measure of relinquishing to the citizens of the revolted 
 counties all the taxes due and unpaid since 1784. This, with 
 the act of pardon and oblivion for such as should return to 
 their allegiance to North-Carolina, had the desired influence 
 upon a part of the disaffected. Commissions were sent to 
 and accepted by several in Washington, Sullivan, and Haw- 
 kins counties, as justices of the peace, under the authority 
 of the old state, and by them courts were held and law ad- 
 ministered, as though the State of Franklin did not exist. In 
 Greene county, and the new counties below it, men could 
 not be found willing to accept the offered commissions. Ji 
 There the authority of Franklin was supreme, and there 
 
 ^ ( was no conflict of jurisdiction. It was very different 
 l elsewhere, and especially in Washington county. Pre- 
 vious to the revolt, courts had been held at Jonesboro’, and 
 had afterwards been held at the same place under the new 
 government. Now, w'hen the sentiment of allegiance to 
 North-Carolina had, in some measure, become general, the 
 newly appointed magistrates, as directed by law, opened and ! 
 held their courts at Davis’s, ten miles above Jonesboro’, on 
 Buffalo Creek. The partizans of one government quarrelled 
 with those of the other. The officers of each, in discharge 
 of official duty, came into conflict with the authority of the 
 rival government. The animosity, thus engendered, became 
 the more acrimonious, as this county was the residence of 
 Governor Sevier, and also of Col. John Tipton, who, though 
 at first a leader in the revolt, had now become promi- 
 
GEN. SHELBY HOLDS A CONFERENCE WITH GOV. SEVIER. 357 
 
 nent at the head of the old state party. These two, alike 
 brave, ambitious and patriotic, and champions of their re- 
 spective adherents, kept the people in a constant tumult, 
 each, alternately, breaking in upon and interrupting the 
 courts and jurisdiction of the other. The horrors of a fra- 
 tricidal conflict seemed inevitable, and measures were adopt- 
 ed by both parties to allay the agitation and restore quiet. 
 General Rutherford had introduced before the Legislature of 
 North-Carolina a measure of conciliation, that would have 
 been acceptable to the malcontents beyond the mountain, 
 but it was instantly rejected. The mission of General Cocke, 
 and the pacific overtures of Judge Campbell, had been abor- 
 tive and unsuccessful. As a dernier resort, negotiation was 
 attempted, to reconcile the conflicts of interests and of feeling 
 between the two states. Who should be the negotiator ? An 
 officer of the old state ? The opposition to such an one, was 
 at one time a mere prejudice — it had now become a senti- 
 ment of inappeasable malignity, and no offers of compromise 
 from him could be for a moment entertained. Policy dicta- 
 ted that he should be selected from the western people them- 
 selves, and that he should be one who, from his past position, 
 was identified, in all his sympathies and interests, with the 
 West. General Evan Shelby, high in the confidence of his 
 countrymen everywhere, remarkable for his probity, can- 
 dour, good sense and patriotism, was requested by Gov. Cas- 
 well to take charge of this delicate negotiation ; and, in con- 
 junction with others, whose assistance he solicited, met a 
 Commission from the State of Franklin, on the 20th day of 
 March, 1787, at the house of Samuel Smith. At this con- 
 ference Gov. Sevier represented his own government, aided 
 by such of its friends as he chose to invite. The result of 
 their mutual efforts to accommodate existing difficulties, and 
 to prevent the occurrence of those of greater magnitude, now 
 constantly apprehended, was given in the letter following, 
 from General Shelby to Governor Caswell : 
 
 Sullivan County, March 21st, 1787. 
 
 Dear Sir : — Your letter, and the packets which you were pleased to 
 forward by your son, I have received, and the commissions to the several 
 counties belonging have been forwarded, except those to the county of 
 
358 
 
 TERMS OF THE COMPROMISE. 
 
 Greene, yet in my hands, not well knowing who to direct them to. The 
 proclamations have been disposed of accordingly. I have held a confe- 
 rence with Mr. John Sevier, Governor of the Franklin people. The 
 enclosed is a copy of what was there concluded between him and me. 
 It is submitted to the legislature. The people of Franklin have lately 
 held an Assembly for their state, and have passed a bill for opening an 
 office for to receive entries for the lands included between French Broad 
 and Tennessee Rivers. Also, they have laid a land and poll-tax on the peo- 
 ple. Conformable to the commissions for the peace sent up, courts of 
 pleas, &c., have been held in the counties of Washington, Sullivan and 
 Hawkins, without any opposition. Many people are firmly attached to 
 Nortli-Carolina ; others are as obstinate against it ; however, it is to be 
 hoped that time and reflection will restore them friendly to North- 
 Carolina. 
 
 The animosities arising from difference of opinion in governments 
 among our people here, have run high. To quiet the minds of the 
 people, and preserve peace and tranquillity till something better could 
 be done, was the reason that induced me to hold a conference and con- 
 clude on the articles enclosed. I would be much rejoiced if, as you 
 mention, you would think, in earnest, to come and live among us. You 
 might do much here. 
 
 CONFERENCE AT SMITH’S. 
 
 “ At a conference held at the house of Samuel Smith, Esquire, on the 
 20th day of March, F787, between the Honourable Evan Shelby, 
 Esquire, and sundry officers, of the one part, and the Honourable John 
 Sevier and sundry officers, of the other part. Whereas, disputes have 
 arisen concerning the propriety and legality of the State of Franklin, 
 and the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the State of North-Carolina over 
 the said state and the people residing therein. 
 
 “ The contending parties, from the regard they have to peace, tran- 
 quillity and good decorum in the Western country, do agree and recom- 
 mend as follows : 
 
 “ First. That the courts of justice do not proceed to transact any busi- 
 ness in their judicial' departments, except the trial of criminals, the 
 proving of wills, deeds, bills of sale, and such like conveyances ; the 
 issuing 'of attachments, writs and any legal process, so as to procure 
 bail, but not to enter into final determinations of the suits, except tire 
 parties are mutually agreed thereto. 
 
 “ Secondly. That the inhabitants residing within the limits of the dis- 
 puted territory are at full liberty and discretion to pay their public taxes 
 to either the State of North-Carolina or the State of Franklin. 
 
 “ Thirdly. That this agreement and recommendation continue until the 
 next annual sitting of the General Assembly of North-Carolina, to be 
 held in November next, and not longer. It is further agreed, that if 
 any person, guilty of felony, be committed by any North Carolina jus- 
 tice of the peace, that such person or persons may and shall be recei ved 
 by the Franklin sheriff or gaoler of Washington, and proceeded against 
 iii the same manner as if the same had been committed by and from any 
 such authority from under the State of Franklin. It is also recom- 
 mended, that the aforesaid people do take such modes and regulations, 
 
A TEMPORARY QUIET RESTORED. 
 
 359 
 
 and set forth their grievances, if any they have, and solicit North-Caro- 
 lina, at their nest annual meeting of the General Assembly, for to 
 complete the separation, if thought necessary by the people of the 
 Western country, as to them may appear most expedient, and give their 
 members and representatives such instructions as may be thought most 
 conducive to the interest of our Western World, by a majority of the 
 same, either to be a separate state from that of North-Carolina, or be 
 citizens of the State of North-Carolina. 
 
 “ Signed and agreed, on behalf of each party, this day and year above 
 written. Evan Shelby, 
 
 John Sevier.” 
 
 A temporary quiet succeeded this compromise, and the peo- 
 { pie having the right of paying their taxes, and of owing 
 
 1 I Oi j 
 
 ( allegiance to either of the rival governments, at their 
 own option, the jurisdiction of both was for a time co-ordi- 
 nate. No better proof need be adduced that the inhabitants 
 of the disaffected country were law-abiding, honest, just, and 
 peaceable, than their demeanour under this unwonted condi- 
 tion of questionable allegiance. Anywhere else, anarchy, 
 misrule, tumult and violence, would have followed. Preva- 
 lent sentiment was, amongst these primitive people, essen- 
 tially the law, and had the validity and force of legislative 
 authqrity. Popular opinion was radically sound. It was in 
 favour of right and justice. The people bowed to its supre- 
 macy, and paid allegiance to its mandates. They needed no 
 other tribunal. 
 
 Still, a wound had been inflicted upon the dignity of the 
 parent state, and there were not wanting men in the coun- 
 try, willing to appease her wrath, and make an atonement 
 for the indignity and injury she had received. These, finding 
 fault with and condemning the acts of the new state, re- 
 ported its wrong doings to Governor Caswell. They were 
 clamorous about trespasses committed upon Cherokee terri- 
 tory, by the intruding “ Franklinites,” and foreboded what 
 really took place, a renewal of Indian aggression upon the 
 settlements, if these were not restrained. Such is the im- 
 port of the letter following : 
 
 Chota, 25th March, 1 7 8 7. 
 
 Sir : — At my arrival in this place, I found the Indians in greater 
 confusion than I had ever seen before, owing in part to Colonel John Lo- 
 gan’s expedition against them, together with daily encroachments of the 
 
360 
 
 COLONEL MARTIN TO GOVERNOR CASWELL. 
 
 Franklintons on their lands. They have actually opened a land office 
 for every acre of land that the Legislature of Nortli-Carolina ceded to 
 them north of the Tennessee, which includes several of their principal 
 cornfields, and a part of their beloved town, Chota, and the whole town 
 of Rial, and are now settling on the banks of the river. I this day 
 finished a Talk with, the Indians, a copy of which I enclose to your Ex- 
 cellency. Three letters have lately been brought to the different towns, 
 and read, from the French at the Muscle Shoals, which inform the Indians 
 that the English, French and Spanish, have actually joined to carry on 
 a war against America ; that the Americans have stopped their trade 
 from Detroit, by seizing several of their boats on the Mississippi ; that 
 they will not undertake to furnish them in future with anything but 
 guns, knives, tomahawks, and ammunition ; of these articles they shall 
 have plenty. Various are the conjectures of the traders respecting 
 war with the Cherokees. My opinion is, there will be* a great deal of 
 mischief done, if not an open war, unless the Franklinites can be re- 
 moved off their land ; which, I am well assured, cannot be done without 
 an armed force. 
 
 Another writer, under date March 26 th, of this year, in- 
 forms the governor, “ Politics in this part of the country 
 run high. \ou hear in almost every collection of people, 
 frequent declarations of hurrah for North-Carolina ! and 
 others in the same manner for the State of Franklin.” “ The 
 Franklin Assembly have passed their act to punish, by 
 imprisonment, any person that shall -act in the commission 
 of justice of the peace or other civil office, under the as- 
 sumed authority of North-Carolina. God only knows where 
 this contention will end. I fear it will end in blood.” 
 
 Governor Caswell received another letter of still more por- 
 tentous import, from an accredited agent, who had been sent 
 to spy out the real condition of affairs in his trans-montane 
 territory. In his tour of observation, he seems to have de- 
 tected not only infidelity on the part of the people of Frank- 
 lin to North-Carolina, but “ a tendency to dissolve the federal 
 bands.” He is the first to advise “ the interference of go- 
 vernment” to suppress the insurgents. 
 
 Col. Hutchings to Gov. Caswell : 
 
 Hawkins County, the 1st April, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — I received your Excellency’s letter of the 27th Feb., 1787, with 
 the enclosed papers and others forwarded ; and in compliance with the 
 contents, I give you a statement of the proceedings in this quarter, as 
 you signified a desire to know how the laws and a return to the old go- 
 vernment set on the minds of the'people. I find in the county of Greene 
 the people are much divided. In the other three counties, about two- 
 
GOVERNOR CASWELL TO GOVERNOR SEVIER. 
 
 361 
 
 thirds are much pleased with the laws and a return to the old govern- 
 ment. The commissions and appointments are generally received. The 
 people on the Indian hunting grounds, I learn, are very obstinate, and I 
 suppose will pay little or no respect to your Excellency’s proclamation 
 for their removal. The Franklin party yet persist, and seems to impede 
 the progress of civilization and retard the operation of the most salutary 
 laws. They have lately held an Assembly and passed several acts, and 
 seem vigorous in executing them. They have opened an office for the 
 lands south of French Broad to the banks of Tennessee Paver. The 
 land is to be sold at forty shillings per hundred acres, the first ten 
 shillings in hand, and two years credit for the other thirty shillings. 
 This unites the inhabitants of those lands to their party ; and in order 
 to frighten others into a compliance with them, the Assembly have 
 passed an act to fine and imprison any person who shall dare to act 
 under the authority of North-Carolina : — for the first offence five pounds ; 
 a second offence, ten pounds and a year’s imprisonment; and the governor 
 at his discretion to summon a guard over them, which guard are to be 
 paid out of the property of the offender. They have also empowered 
 the governor to raise the militia to oppose the operation of the laws of 
 North-Carolina, who are now enlisting and giving four hundred acres of 
 land bounty. This is under a colour of guarding the frontiers. Should 
 they offer any insult to the civil authority, I expect it will be difficult to 
 prevent an effusion of blood. I think your Excellency will readily see the 
 necessity of the interference of government ; and unless those people are 
 entitled to exclusive and separate emoluments from the rest of the com- 
 munity, they ought, certainly, to be quelled. If we are in our allegiance, 
 protection ought to be reciprocal. I, therefore, give it as my opinion, 
 that it is highly necessary that notice should be taken of the conduct of 
 those people, as there are many plans and matters agitated by them, 
 which seem to have a tendency to dissolve even the federal bands. Seve- 
 ral letters I have in my possession, which can be spoken of no other 
 way. A few lines from your Excellency, with your advice howto conduct 
 myself in this unhappy dilemma, would be most thankfully received. 
 
 The Governor of North-Carolina thought proper, after the 
 adjournment of its legislature, to communicate directly to 
 Gov. Sevier, the proceedings of that body in reference to the 
 revolters. It follows : 
 
 Kinston, 23d February, 1Y8Y. 
 
 Sir : — I was favoured with your letter of the 28th of October, on the 
 subject of a separate and independent government on your side of the 
 Apalachian, which I did myself the honour of laying before the Gene- 
 ral Assembly. Their resolutions and determinations on that subject, I 
 had 3 at ter ed myself it would be in my power to have forwarded you 
 copies of, by this time. It must, therefore, suffice, that I acquaint you 
 for the present, that the Assembly, from the representation of persons 
 from among yourselves, was induced to believe it was proper for the peo- 
 ple to return to subjection to the laws and government of North-Caro- 
 lina ; that they are not yet of strength and opulence sufficient to sup- 
 
382 
 
 REPLY OF GOVERNOR SEVIER. 
 
 port an independent state ; that they, the Assembly, wish to continue 
 the benefits and protection of the state towards them, until such time 
 as their numbers and wealth will enable them to do for themselves, 
 when they, the Assembly, are free to say, a separation may take place. 
 In the meantime, the most friendly intercourse between the citizens on 
 the eastern and western waters, is strongly recommended; and as the 
 people westward of the Apalachian have received no benefit from Go- 
 vernment for the two years last past, they are willing to exempt them 
 from the payment of the public taxes. 
 
 Thus, sir, you have in substance, as far as I recollect, the amount of 
 the proceedings of the Assembly, save the appointment of civil and 
 military officers for the three old and a new county ; the brigade to be 
 commanded by Evan Shelby, Esq. In the civil department, Judge 
 Campbell is re-appointed; and the representatives carried out commis- 
 sions for the county officers, civil and military. I have not a doubt, but 
 a new government may be shortly established, if the people would 
 unite, submit to the former government, and petition for a separation. 
 This, I think, is the only constitutional mode, and I firmly believe, if 
 pursued, will be a means of effecting the separation on friendly terms, 
 which I much wish ; and I cannot say but I have my own satisfaction 
 in view, as I expect, if life and health and strength last, to lay my 
 bones on the western waters. Twelve months will bring about a re- 
 lease to me from public employment, and it is my intention then to visit 
 that country once more ; and if I can find a place, to secure an agreeable 
 private retreat for the remainder of my life, I mean to establish it as 
 the place of my residence. I wish you and your friends to consider the 
 propriety of these measures, and if you think proper to adopt them, 
 you will. I think, answer your views with respect to a new government, 
 and come a shorter way to obtain the same, than by divisions among 
 yourselves ; for there will be greater obstructions in your way than those 
 occasioned by the mere opinion of the people here. These are my candid 
 sentiments. I may be mistaken, but time will evince the propriety or 
 otherwise, of my observations. 
 
 In answer to this communication, the Governor of Frank- 
 lin writes, under date, 
 
 Jonesboro’, 6th April, 1'78'7. 
 
 Sir : — I was favoured with yours of 23d February, in which your 
 Excellency was pleased to favour me with a detail of the proceedings of 
 your Assembly. I must own, before their rising, I had the fullest hopes 
 and confidence, that body would have either agreed to the separation, on 
 honourable principles and stipulations, or otherwise endeavoured to have 
 re-united us upon such terms as might have been lasting and friendly, 
 but I find myself and country entirely deceived ; and if your Assembly 
 have thought their measures would answer such an end, they are equally 
 disappointed. But I firmly believe, had proper measures been adopted, 
 an union, in some measure, or perhaps fujly, would have taken place. 
 We shall continue to act as independent, and would rather suffer death 
 in all its various and frightful shapes, than conform to any thing that is 
 disgraceful. 
 
COLCILIATORY REPLY OF GOVERNOR CASWELL. 
 
 363 
 
 The firm and decisive tone of this letter, was in accord- 
 ance with the present temper of Sevier and his adherents. 
 The compromise entered into between the contracting par- 
 ties, March 20th, was found to be, in some of the counties, of 
 little avail. “It is agreed and recommended,” were terms 
 sufficiently explicit and strong to be obligatory on the masses, 
 and their “regard to peace, tranquillity and good decorum,” 
 led them to respect the provisions of the agreement. But 
 in Washington, Sullivan and Hawkins, where the recent act 
 of North-Carolina had vacated certain of the offices, 1 and 
 commissions under her authority had been accepted and 
 acted under, a spirit of faction and discontent developed 
 itself. The ins and the outs, as is sometimes seen in more 
 modern times, quarrelled. A question arose as to the pow- 
 ers of those who had negotiated the late “ agreement and 
 recommendation.” By common consent, the office holders 
 considered them invalid and irregular. The truce was ended. 
 Gov. Sevier determined that he and the other officers of 
 Franklin would “ act as independent.” 
 
 To Gov. Sevier’s letter, Gov. Caswell replied, in a very 
 friendly and conciliatory spirit, under date, 
 
 Kinston, April 24th, 1 T87. 
 
 Bear Sir : — I had the honour to receive your letters by Mr. Meek. 
 I cannot account for the conduct of our Assembly in their last session. 
 I know some of the gentlemen’s sentiments did not coincide with my 
 own, but still think if the people on your side the mountain had then 
 been more unanimous, the measures of a separation on just and 
 honourable principles would have been pursued ; and if it were possible 
 for the people amongst you to prevail upon themselves to apply by suffi- 
 cient number, to give convincing proofs of far the greater part of the 
 whole being desirous of establishing a new government upon such prin- 
 ciples, the same may yet be effected. If the violences of the passions of 
 some men among you are not restrained, if they are suffered to break 
 out, it will be putting the day further off ; and, perhaps, the separation 
 may not be effected without bloodshed. This, I am sm - e, neither you nor 
 any other man capable of reflection, would wish to see brought about, 
 if it can be evaded by justifiable means. 
 
 You may rely upon it that my sentiments are clearly in favour of a 
 separation, whenever the people to be separated think themselves of 
 sufficient strength and abilities to support a government. This separa- 
 tion to be established upon reasonable, honourable, equitable and just 
 principles, reciprocally so to those who will still continue the old go- 
 vernment, as well as those who are to form the new. My ideas are that 
 
364 
 
 GENERAL SHELBY ADVISES ENERGETIC MEASURES. 
 
 nature, in this formation of the hills between us, and directing the 
 courses of waters so differently, had not in view the inhabitants on 
 either side being longer subject to the same laws and government ; that 
 it might be convenient for them, as she has liberally bestowed on the 
 minds of thinking men wishes to enjoy and obtain for themselves, and 
 others in their circumstances, equal benefits, privileges and immunities 
 with the rest of mankind. 
 
 I conclude, by recommending unanimity among you, as the only 
 means by which your government ever can obtain energy, even when 
 the separation is effected by consent of North-Carolina. 
 
 General Shelby, the other diplomatist, proposed, in the 
 meanwhile, to the government he represented, the adoption 
 of more energetic and efficient measures. 
 
 Sullivan County, May 4th, 1*787. 
 
 Sir : — The 27th of April past, I called the colonels (viz : Tipton, 
 Maxwell and Hutchings) of Washington, Sullivan and Hawkins coun- 
 ties, in order to consult on some measures which might be most salutary 
 for the safety of this country at the present time. The gentlemen met, 
 accordingly, at my house, and several gave it as their opinion that I 
 should address government in the following manner : As the safety and 
 well being of government are now at hazard, and the liberties and pro- 
 perties of the good citizens thereof wrested from them by parties of fac- 
 tion, notwithstanding the lenient and conciliatory measures of the 
 General Assembly, by a call of the commanding officers of the several 
 counties, and sundry complaints from individuals and the enclosed copies 
 of letters, it was thought proper to advise with your Excellency on the 
 occasion, and send a just statement of the proceedings. The Assembly 
 of Franklin being called, have passed and ratified the following acts : 
 They have opened an office for the lands reserved for the Indians, from 
 French Broad River to the Tennessee River ; also, an act fining and im- 
 prisoning any person who shall dare act under the authority of the St^te 
 of North-Carolina, under which act they proceed' with the greatest rig- 
 our, beating and imprisoning, and seizing the property by men in arms. 
 By a third act, in order to complete their designs and draw a party to their 
 interest, they have laid their taxes one shilling the poll and sixpence 
 per hundred acres of land, after the collection of which they give three 
 years tax free. These methods, with many others, such as appointing 
 officers to carry into execution their treasonable acts and designs, a total 
 subversion of all laws and good government, even every sense of civiliza- 
 tion, are lost among them. I have, therefore, thought it expedient to 
 call upon you for your immediate assistance, having the faith and honour 
 of the Legislature of North-Carolina pledged to us, that we shall remain- 
 secure in our liberties and properties. The matter is truly alarming, and it 
 is beyond a doubt with me that hostilities will in a short time commence, 
 and without the interference of government without delay, an effusion of 
 blood must take place. I, therefore, think it highly necessary that one 
 thousand troops, at least, be sent, as that number might have a good 
 effect ; for should we have that number under the sanction of govern- 
 
COLONELS HUTCHINGS AND BLEDSOE’S LETTERS. 
 
 3G5 
 
 ment, there is no doubt with me they would immediately give way, 
 and would not appear in so unprovoked an insurrection. On the con- 
 trary, should a faint and feeble resistance be made, the consequence 
 might be very fatal, and would tend to devastation, ruin and distress. 
 Should your Excellency think it convenient to call on the commonwealth 
 of Virginia, I have reasons to believe we might meet with their aid, as 
 they have four counties yearly bordering on us, and would be the most 
 speedy assistance we could come at, in case your troops do not reach us 
 in time to relieve us. I think it highly necessary that a quantity of 
 ammunition be forwarded to us, as it is very scarce in this country. Thus, 
 sir, you have before you the result of my conference with the aforemen- 
 tioned colonels; it is plain where the measure therein advised, if adopted, 
 will end. The matter is entirely referred to government, and I hope 
 something may be done and some measure adopted, to put- a final eDd 
 to the present unhappy disturbances. The officers in Greene county 
 have all engaged in the new state affair, and have, therefore, refused to 
 receive their commissions. There is scarcely any money in the country. 
 I have been obliged to fit out this express with horse and cash to bear 
 him down. It is to be expected your Excellency will procure some money 
 to bear his expenses home again. Your Excellency will perceive, by 
 comparing the enclosed in my last letter with this, that the people of 
 Franklin have not assented to the agreement which was entered into 
 with their governor, for the preservation of peace and good order in this 
 country. Not many men are here engaged in vindicating the authority of 
 North-Carolina. They have hitherto behaved with that coolness and 
 prudence which ever ought to characterize good subjects, assured of 
 their safety under the government they are in ; at the same time, con- 
 vinced that allegiance and protection are reciprocal, they expect to enjoy 
 the one as they have yielded the other. 
 
 Among the papers enclosed by General Shelby to the 
 Governor of North-Carolina, was a letter to himself from 
 Col. Hutchings, of Hawkins county, of April 22d, in which, 
 speaking of the officers of the new state, he says : 
 
 They have, among them, a Major Elholm, from Georgia, who, I am 
 informed, is a great advocate for their cause ; also, a Major Jones, who 
 fled from Virginia. They advise Cromwell’s policy to be adopted, Mr. 
 Cocke threatening confiscation and banishment. That the gentle- 
 men have not been very candid, this Major Donelson will give you a 
 further account of. Cocke’s party are getting very insolent. I expect, 
 in a few days, I shall be obliged to try his boasted number. I am ma- 
 king the necessary preparations, and cannot doubt success if they have 
 not ^assistance from Greene county. I have more than five their number 
 in Jdawkins. 
 
 Col. Anthony Bledsoe, at the time a citizen of Davidson 
 county, and of great personal influence and weight of cha- 
 racter, aided, by his presence in the disaffected counties, in 
 
366 
 
 GOVERNOR CASWELL DISSUADES FROM VIOLENCE, 
 
 keeping down any violence or outbreak. He seconded the 
 views of General Shelby, without being so specific as to the 
 “decided part ” he wished the government of North-Caro- 
 lina to act. His letter follows : 
 
 Sullivan County, May 4th, 1787. 
 
 Dear Sir : — When I last addressed your Excellency, I little expected 
 to have dated a second from the same place. I have stayed long enough in 
 this part of the country to see the appearance of the long-dreaded con- 
 fusion — long enough to see and hear the measures of the last session 
 of the General Assembly treated with the greatest contempt. I have 
 always been of opinion that, without the greatest prudence, it was to 
 end in blood, and am now further convinced that, without government 
 acts a decided part, hostilities will shortly commence. Might I be per- 
 mitted to request your Excellency’s addressing these people, and advi- 
 sing them of the necessity and advantage of returning to their duty once 
 more, and the danger and evil consequences of their persisting in the 
 attempt of their supporting an independence ? I do assure your Excel- 
 lency, that it is my opinion, your address on that occasion would have a 
 very good effect on the principal people in the revolted party. I judge 
 this will accompany a letter from General Shelby addressed particularly 
 on this subject. 
 
 To his suggestions of maintaining the authority of North- 
 Carolina by an armed force, Governor Caswell replies to 
 General Shelby, under date, 
 
 Kinston, May 21st, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — Your letter of the 4th current, came to my hands the 19th. I 
 stated the situation of your country to the Council, and laid your letter 
 and every other information I possessed respecting the same, before 
 them for advice ; the result of their deliberations, I have the honour of 
 enclosing you a copy of ; they may not answer your expectations, but I 
 hope will prove satisfactory, when I inform you upon what principles 
 they acted. 
 
 They think it would be very imprudent to add to the dissatisfaction of 
 the people there, by showing a wish to encourage the shedding of blood, 
 as thereby, a civil war would be eventually brought on, which ought at all 
 times to be avoided, if possible ; but more especially at the present, as 
 we have great reason to apprehend a general Indian war. If the 
 northern and southern tribes should unite with your Cherokee neigh- 
 bours, you will stand in need, they think, of all your force ; and there- 
 fore recommend unanimity amongst you, if it can by any means be 
 effected ; as you thereby will be much more able to defend yourselves, 
 than you possibly can be when divided; let alone the circumstances of 
 cutting each other’s throats. Besides these, it would be impracticable to 
 raise an armed force here, to be sent to your assistance at this time, if 
 we were ever so much disposed thereto, for the following reasons : The 
 people in general, are now engaged in their farming business, and if 
 brought out, would very reluctantly march ; there is no money in the 
 
AND ADDRESSES THE MALCONTENTS. 
 
 36? 
 
 treasury to defray the expenses of such as might be called out ; nor, in 
 fact, have we arms or ammunition ; that, under such circumstances, it 
 would be necessary to attempt it. 
 
 I must, therefore, recommend to you, the using every means in your 
 power to conciliate the minds of the people, as well as those who call 
 themselves Franklinites, as the friends and supporters of government. 
 If things could be dormant, as it were, till the next- Assembly, and each 
 man’s mind be employed in considering your common defence against 
 the savage enemy, I should suppose it best, and wherever unanimity 
 prevails among your people, and their strength and numbers will jus- 
 tify, an application for a separation ; if it is general, I have no doubt 
 of its taking place upon reciprocal and friendly terms. 
 
 I have written a letter to the inhabitants of the counties of Washing- 
 ton, Sullivan, Greene and Hawkins, stating matters in such a point of 
 view, as the opinion of the Council ; a copy of which I have the honour 
 to enclose you. Your express also carries a letter for the commanding 
 officer of each of the counties, which you will be pleased to forward 
 to them. 
 
 Accompanying this letter, Governor Caswell also for- 
 warded, through General Shelly, the following address : 
 
 To the Inhabitants of the counties of Washington, Sullivan, Greene and 
 
 Hawkins : 
 
 Friends and Fellow- Citizens : — I have received information that the 
 former contention between the citizens of those counties, respecting the 
 severing such counties from this state, and erecting them into a separate, 
 free, and independent government, hath been again raised, notwith- 
 standing the lenient and salutary measures held out to them by the 
 General Assembly in their last session ; and some have been so far mis- 
 led, as openly and avowedly to oppose the due operation and 
 execution of the laws of the state, menacing such as should ad- 
 here to the same, with violence ; and some outrages on such occasions, 
 have been actually committed, whereby sundry of the good citizens of 
 the said counties have been induced to signify to government their ap- 
 prehension of being obliged to have recourse to arms, in order to sup- 
 port the laws and constitution of this state. And notwithstanding the 
 behaviour of some of the refractory might justify such a measure, yet 
 I am willing to hope, that upon reflection and due consideration of the 
 consequences which must ensue in case of the shedding of blood among 
 yourselves, a moment’s thought must evince the necessity of mutual 
 friendship and the ties of brotherly love being strongly cemented among 
 you. You have, or shortly will have, if my information is well-grounded, 
 enemies to deal with, which will require this cement to be more strong 
 than ever ; your whole force may become necessary to be exerted against 
 the common enemy, as it is more than probable they may be assisted 
 by the subjects of some foreign power ; if not publicly, they will fur- 
 nish arms and ammunition privately to the Indian tribes, to be made use of 
 against you ; and when your neighbours are so supported and assisted 
 
368 
 
 POPULAR DISCONTENT APPEASED. 
 
 by the northern and southern Indians, if you should be so unhappy 
 as to be divided among yourselves, what may you not then apprehend 
 and dread ? Let me entreat you to lay aside your party disputes ; they 
 have been, as I conceive and yet believe will be, if continued, of very 
 great disadvantage to your public as well as private concerns. Whilst 
 these disputes last, government will want that energy which is neces- 
 sary to support her' laws and civilize ; in place of which, anarchy and 
 confusion will be prevalent, and, of course, private interest must suffer. 
 
 It certainly would be sound policy in you, for other reasons, to unite. 
 The General Assembly have told you, whenever your wealth and num- 
 bers so much increase as to make a separation necessary, they will be 
 willing the same shall take place upon friendly and reciprocal terms. Is 
 there an individual in your country who does not look forward, in expec- 
 tation, of such a day’s arriving ? If that is the case, must not every 
 thinking man believe, that this separation will be soonest and most 
 effectually obtained by unanimity ? Let that carry you to the quiet 
 submission to the laws of North-Carolina, till your numbers will justify 
 a general application; and then, I have no doubt, but the same maybe 
 obtained upon the principles held out by the Assembly ; nay, it is my 
 opinion that it may be obtained at an earlier day than some imagine, if 
 unanimity prevailed amongst you. 
 
 Although this is an official letter, you will readily see that it is dicta- 
 ted by a friendly and pacific mind. Don’t neglect my advice on that 
 account ; if you do, you may repent it when it is too late ; when the 
 blood of some of your dearest and worthiest citizens may have been 
 spilt, and your country laid waste in an unnatural and cruel civil war ; 
 and you cannot suppose if such an event should take place, that go- 
 vernment will supinely look on, and see you cutting each other’s throats, 
 without interfering, and exerting her powers to reduce the disobedient. 
 I will conclude by once more entreating you to consider the dreadful 
 calamities and consequences of a civil war. Humanity demands this of 
 me ; your own good sense will point out the propriety of it; at least, 
 let all animosities and disputes subside till the next Assembly ; even let 
 things remain as they are, without pursuing compulsory measures until 
 then, and I flatter myself that honourable body will be disposed to do 
 what is just and right, and what sound policy may dictate. 
 
 Nothing yet had occurred in the transactions between 
 Franklin and North-Carolina so well calculated to heal the 
 breach, and effect a reconciliation between them, as this 
 letter of Gov. Caswell, and the action of the North-Carolina 
 Legislature communicated in it. The origin and cause of 
 the separation, at the time it occurred, was the Cession Act. 
 That had been repealed. The great object of the secessionists 
 now, was independence of North-Carolina, so as to avoid a 
 re-enactment of the repealed law. The apprehension of 
 that objectionable and inadmissable policy was removed in 
 
SETTLEMENTS SOUTH OF FRENCH BROAD. 
 
 369 
 
 the minds of some of the earliest and most steadfast friends 
 of Franklin by the assurances of the Governor and Legisla- 
 ture of North-Carolina, that, at the proper time, a new state 
 should be formed, and their cherished wishes for indepen- 
 dence should be gratified, if the malcontents would return 
 to their allegiance. The argument was forcible — to many 
 perfectly satisfactory and irresistible. It inflicted a vital 
 stab upon the new government, which, within the next year, 
 caused its dissolution. 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENTS SOUTH OF FRENCH BROAD. 
 
 The Irish Bottom began to be settled. George McNutt 
 
 was one of the earliest emigrants. His daughter, , 
 
 afterwards the wife of Col. McFarland, and still living: 
 
 in Jefferson county, was the first white child born south of 
 French Broad. Nancy Rogers, daughter of Jonah Rogers 
 was the second. 
 
 After the treaty of Dumplin, great facilities existed for 
 
 g i occupying the country acquired under it, south of 
 
 l French Broad and Holston, and the stream of emi- 
 gration was principally directed in that channel. From 
 Henry’s Station, at the mouth of Dumplin, the emigrants 
 crossed the river, settling along Boyd’s Creek Valley, where 
 McGaughy’s, Newell’s and other stations were formed. 
 They soon crossed the ridge dividing that stream from Elijah, 
 and formed a station, McTeer’s, still in the occupancy of a 
 descendant of the same name, William McTeer, Esq. It 
 soon became the nucleus of an excellent neighbourhood of 
 intelligent, worthy and patriotic citizens — emigrants princi- 
 pally from the valley of Virginia, who brought with, and 
 diffused around them, republicanism, religion, intelligence 
 and thrift. They were, for several years, annoyed and ha- 
 rassed by Cherokee incursions. The proximity of their set- 
 tlement to the fastnesses of the adjoining mountains, made it 
 necessary, constantly, to guard their frontier. While one 
 worked in the field, another acted as a scout or a sentinel. 
 They were often driven into stations, and twice had to leave 
 their farms and cabins, and fall back, for a short time, upon 
 the older settlements. But gaining, year after year, addition- 
 al strength by new emigrations, they gradually extended the 
 
370 
 
 STATIONS IN SEVIER AND BLOUNT COUNTIES. 
 
 settlements down the valley of Elijah and NailPs Creek. 
 Henry’s, McTeer’s, McCullock’s, Gillespie’s, Craig’s, Kelley’s, 
 Houston’s, Black’s, Hunter’s, Bartlett’s, Kirk’s, Ish’s, and oth- 
 ers, were, soon after, the neuclei of settlements. During the 
 formation and defence of all these stations, a volume would 
 not contain the instances of Indian outrage and aggression 
 perpetrated against the property and lives of the inhabitants, 
 nor the heroic and soldierly conduct of the brave frontier- 
 men, in protecting themselves, repelling invasion, pursuing 
 and chastising the savages, inflicting a just retaliation with 
 vengeful severity upon the cruel Cherokees, in their distant 
 villages and the seclusions of the mountains. Boys became 
 men — women turned soldiers — assisting in defence of the 
 family and the home. Vigilance and heroism, and fearless- 
 ness and energy, characterized the entire population. Could 
 a diagram be drawn, accurately designating every spot sig- 
 nalized by an Indian massacre, surprise or depredation, or 
 courageous attack, defence, pursuit or victory by the whites, 
 or station, or fort, or battle-field, or personal encounter, the 
 whole of that section of country would be studded over by 
 delineations of such incidents. Every spring, every ford, 
 every path, every farm, every trail, every house, nearly, in 
 its first settlement, was once the scene of danger, exposure, 
 attack, exploit, achievement, death. Some of these are 
 given in their chronological order, elsewhere. A few other 
 instances, culled from the whole, are here given : Houston’s 
 
 Station stood about six miles from Maryville, where Mr. 
 Minnis has since lived. It was occupied by the families of 
 James Houston, McConnell, McEwen, Sloane and Henry. 
 It was attacked by a party of Indians, one hundred in num- 
 ber. They had, the day before, pursued the survivors of the 
 Citico massacre, in the direction of Knoxville, many of 
 whom they had killed. Elated with their preceding suc- 
 cesses, they determined, on their return, to take and murder 
 the feeble garrison at Houston’s. A vigorous assault was 
 made upon it. Hugh Barry, in looking over the bastion, 
 incautiously exposed his head to the aim of an Indian rifle. 
 He fell, within the station, fatally wounded, having received 
 a bullet in his forehead. The Indians were emboldened by 
 this success, and prolonged the conflict more than half an 
 
HEROISM OF MRS. M’EWEN. 
 
 371 
 
 hour. The garrison had some of the best riflemen in the 
 country within it, and, observing the number and activity of 
 the assailants, they loaded and discharged their guns with all 
 possible rapidity. The women assisted them as far as they 
 were able. One of them, Mrs. McEwen, mother of R. H. 
 McEwen, Esq., of Nashville, and since the wife of the 
 Senior S. Doak, D.D., displayed great equanimity and hero- 
 ism. She inquired for the bullet moulds, and was engaged, 
 busily, in melting the lead and running bullets for different 
 guns. A bullet from without, passing through the inter- 
 stice between two logs of the station, struck the wall near 
 her, and rebounding, rolled upon the floor. Snatching it 
 up, and melting and moulding it quickly, she carried it to 
 her husband and said : “ Here is a ball run out of the In- 
 
 dians’ lead ; send it back to them as quick as possible. It is 
 their own ; let them have it in welcome.” 
 
 Simultaneously with the extension of the settlement of the 
 country south of French Broad, after the Franklin Treaty 
 at Dumplin, was its expansion north of that stream and on 
 Holston. Adam Meek made the first settlement on the head 
 of Beaver Creek, at the place in the Quaker Valley now 
 owned by John Bales, Sen. Mr. Meek had no neighbour 
 west of him, and so sparse were the settlers on the east, that 
 at first he procured meal from the neighbourhood of Greene- 
 ville. 
 
 Mr. Meek was a surveyor, an emigrant from Mecklenburg 
 county, N. C., and had, as early as 1785, explored the coun- 
 try and made surveys on the frontier. Like most other pio- 
 neers, Mr. Meek built his first cabin of round poles. This 
 he covered with bark and grass, which, for the first year, 
 sheltered his family. During the Indian alarms, the family 
 frequently retired, at evening, to a deep sink, three-quarters 
 of a mile from their cabin, and there spent the night. A fort 
 or station was, at a later period, formed at the Strawberry 
 Plains, now the residence of Rev. Thomas String-field. In 
 this station the settlers collected together for mutual protec- 
 tion and defence. It soon became the centre of an enter- 
 prising, respectable and intelligent population, and there is 
 still, one of the most flourishing and enlightened neighbour- 
 
372 
 
 gillaim’s station erected. 
 
 hoods in the country — distinguished for its Institutions of 
 learning, its churches, its thrift and general prosperity. 
 
 Lands had been entered and surveyed, and grants issued 
 for them, in what is now Knox and Grainger counties. The 
 current of population followed the vallies, and here and 
 there along the valley south of Clinch Mountain, could be 
 seen springing up in the forests, at the head of Flat Creek, 
 Bull Run and Beaver Creek, the humble cabin of the back- 
 woodsman. In the fork between Holston and French Broad, 
 new settlers began their clearings. Henry’s Station, at 
 Dumplin, ceased to be the last post north of the river. A 
 little colony from it crossed Bay’s Mountain, and formed 
 what was known as Greene’s, afterwards Manifold’s, Station.. 
 Near it, Gibson, Beard, Bowman and Cozby settled, and with 
 them came James White, afterwards the proprietor of Knox- 
 ville. He first pitched his tent four miles above the mouth 
 of French Broad, and on its north bank, near the present 
 residence of John Campbell, Esq. His early compatriots, 
 Greene and Cozby, settled soon after near him, but on the 
 opposite side of the river. Captain Thomas Gillespie set- 
 tled three miles below, on the north side of the river. The 
 ruins of his house are still seen. It stood near the present 
 residence of Mr. James Hufacre. A little later came Jere- 
 miah Jack, Esq., and settled the second plantation above the 
 mouth of French Broad. 
 
 Robert Armstrong planted corn and raised a crop, this 
 1787 $ year, on the plantation which, next year, he settled 
 l on Holston, a little above the mouth of Swan Pond 
 Creek. Mr. Devereaux Gillaim, at the same time, occupied 
 the plantation embracing the point between French Broad 
 and Holston. His first cabin stood east of the dwelling house 
 of the present proprietor, between it and the church. 
 
 Archibald Rhea, Sen., settled immediately opposite, on the 
 south bank of French Broad. Alexander McMillan settled 
 the place now occupied by Rev. Thomas Stringfield, then, as 
 now, known as Strawberry Plains, and soon after removed 
 to the farm on which he died, four miles above Armstrong’s 
 Ferry, on the present New Market Road. 
 
 The settlements between the rivers were less annoyed by 
 
mes. Gillespie’s presence of mind. 
 
 373 
 
 the Indians, than those south or north of them. Almost in- 
 sulated by the rivers, the intervention of these large streams 
 furnished to the inhabitants some immunity from invasion. 
 On one occasion, however, some armed warriors crossed the 
 river, and presented themselves at the door of Captain Gil- 
 lespie’s cabin. The captain had, the day before, been clear- 
 ing in the island and burning brush, and the fires were still 
 burning there, in view of the house. He had left home 
 early that morning, on his way to Dumplin, twelve miles off. 
 The Indians, finding Mrs. Gillespie unprotected, entered the 
 house, and one of them taking out a scalping knife, drew it 
 across his bare arm, as if sharpening it He then went to a 
 cradle, in which an infant lay asleep, and indicated with his 
 finger a line around its head, along which he intended to 
 apply the knife in scalping it. The other Indians looked on 
 with savage ferocity. The heroic mother, with surprising 
 presence of mind, sprang to the door, and, looking in the 
 direction of the clearing, exclaimed, in a loud voice, “ White 
 men, come home ! come home, white men ! Indians ! Indians!” 
 The warriors, disconcerted by her well contrived stratagem 
 and her well timed equanimity, precipitately left the house* 
 dashed down the hill towards the spring, and disappeared in 
 the cane-brake. Mrs. G. bearing her child in her arms, es- 
 caped in the opposite direction, and in sight of the path 
 along which her husband would return. She had gone 
 several miles in anxious apprehension of the murderous pursuit 
 of the warriors, when she met the captain. He guessed the 
 cause of their unexpected meeting, took the mother and 
 the child upon his horse, carried them hastily back to Mani- 
 fold’s ; leaving them there, he reinforced himself with three 
 men, and returned in haste to his house. The savages had 
 plundered it of its contents, and while some were carrying 
 off the spoils, one was busily engaged in setting fire to the 
 house. He was fired upon by Captain G., who had outrode 
 the other horsemen, and shot without dismounting. The In- 
 dian was partly obscured by the smoke of the fire he was 
 kindling, and escaped. The ether men came up, the property 
 was recaptured and the Indians were driven across the river. 
 Two of them were wounded in crossing, at the mouth of 
 Burnett’s branch. It was believed that the Indians came to 
 
374 WHITE AND CONNER SETTLE THE FUTURE KNOXVILLE. 
 
 steal rather than to murder ; indeed, this neighbourhood 
 suffered more by having their horses stolen, than by any other 
 form of Indian aggression. On one occasion only, is it re- 
 collected that the people generally went into a station. A 
 sudden invasion of Little River settlement produced an alarm, 
 and the settlers temporarily forted at Gillaim’s ; the alarm 
 subsided, and the people returned to their plantations. 
 
 The population accumulated rapidly ; being accessible by 
 the two rivers, the neighbourhood received many families 
 from the upper counties in boats and canoes. Amongst these 
 were James Anderson, Moses Brooks and George McNutt, 
 Esq., who removed from Chucky and settled on the north 
 side of Holston, above Knoxville. James White, the year 
 before, had moved from his first cabin in the Fork, and settled 
 on what is since White’s Creek. With Captain White, came 
 his old neighbour from Iredell county, North-Carolina, and 
 comrade in arms, James Conner, the worthy ancestor of H. 
 W. Conner, Esq., of Charleston, South-Carolina. These 
 two were the first to disturb the virgin soil, on which the 
 future Knoxville was to be built. Tradition says, that the 
 lot on which the First Presbyterian church now stands, v/as 
 the place first cleared b}^ them. Pounded corn was the only 
 bread the first settlers used. Their rifles, which had been 
 used in the war of the Revolution, procured them meat. 
 Their cabin stood half a mile from the mouth of the creek, 
 and on its west side, north of Mrs. Kennedy’s orchard. This 
 cabin afterwards constituted one corner of White’s Fort ; 
 Captain Crawford and others forted in it with him. A quad- 
 rangular plat of ground, containing a quarter of an acre, 
 was chosen, on each corner of which was a strong cabin, 
 but of less imposing appearance than Mr. White’s, which 
 was two stories high. Between these corners, stockades 
 were placed eight feet high, impenetrable to small arms, 
 and having port-holes at convenient height and distance. 
 A massive gate opened in the direction of the spring*. 
 White’s Fort became the central point for emigrants, and 
 the rendezvous for rangers and scouts. They were charmed 
 with its beauties. In their short rambles around their en- 
 campment, they noticed an elevated parallelogram, extend- 
 ing south, and terminating with a bold front upon the Holston. 
 
THE RURAL BEAUTY OF ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 375 
 
 A creek of considerable size glided along its eastern, and 
 another along its western base, from the banks of which 
 gushed forth, in close proximity, fountains of excellent water. 
 It was noticed that the two streams furnished several eligi- 
 ble sites for water power. The highest point of land between 
 them, seemed designed by nature for a barrack or garrison. 
 As then seen, the site of the future Knoxville was lovely in 
 the extreme — almost entirely sheltered by the primitive forest, 
 in its rich foliage, and having an air of enchanting coolness 
 and rural retirement and seclusion — its quiet disturbed 
 only by the playful murmurings of rivulets, formed by the 
 several springs, and winding through their grassy bordersjn 
 stillness to the creeks. Wooded hills and sylvan slopes com- 
 pleted the picture of rural beauty. The high land terminated 
 abruptly towards the Holston, seen here and there through 
 the tall trees, winding its way along, the cane-brakes 
 which lined its margin. Immediately |opposite, was the Lit- 
 tle Island, robed in green and almost ^submerged by the tur- 
 bid stream. The southern shore presented, in one place ? 
 lofty hills, resting upon a perpendicular cliff — in another, 
 rising with a more gradual ascent to the ridge beyond. The 
 whole country was carpeted with verdure and clothed with 
 trees — dense woods surrounding you, with the solitude and 
 silence of nature. These attractions, and the advantages of 
 its position, had pointed out the place as the nucleus of a fu- 
 ture settlement. Mr. White soon had other settlers as his 
 neighbours. John Dearmond settled south of the river, near 
 Col. Church well’s Ferry, and other emigrants came rapidly 
 around White’s Fort. A small tub-mill was erected by him. 
 The necessity for it was so urgent, that at first he was forced to 
 use a very inferior stone for runners. These were still in 
 use at the time of the treaty in 1791. Amongst other emi- 
 grants, John Adair moved this year to his late residence in 
 Knox county. He had been appointed Commissary under 
 North-Carol ina, to furnish provisions for the Cumberland 
 Guards, and in the discharge of that trust, took his position on 
 the extreme frontier. Adair’s Station was erected at the same 
 time with White’s, about five miles north of it. The country 
 began to be reached by wagons; settlers were gradually ex - 
 
376 
 
 Campbell’s station erected. 
 
 tending themselves west, and in quick succession, Well’s, Ben- 
 nett’s, Byrd’s, Hackett’s and Cavett’s Stations, were formed. 
 Campbell’s Station was settled by several emigrants of that 
 name from Virginia, survivors of the gallant regiment which 
 had signalized itself at King’s Mountain. Of these the 
 principal one was Col. David Campbell, who has left the 
 savour of a good name wherever he was known. He was 
 the ancestor of the present Governor of Tennessee, who has 
 so well sustained the reputation of the Volunteer State, in 
 the late Mexican War. 
 
 At first, each of these stations was a single cabin in the 
 midst of a clearing. When Indian disturbances broke out, 
 the inhabitants clustered together in the strongest one near 
 them, and it then became a Station. They have all disap- 
 peared, except Colonel Campbell’s, which still exists as the 
 east end of the present dwelling house of Mr. Martin. 
 
 Jacob Kimberlin found lead, and furnished it to the inha- 
 
 _ ( bitants. It was found south of French Broad, not far 
 ( from Gap Creek, on the farm now owned by Jere 
 miah Johnson, Esq. 
 
 Besides the Counties of Franklin, the State was also ar- 
 ranged into Districts. Whether these were judicial or mili- 
 tary, this writer has no means of determining. The only 
 evidence he has been able to procure of this subdivision of 
 Franklin, is furnished by the “ commission ” of one of its 
 Colonels, of Elholm District.* The original is before the 
 writer, in the bold chirography of Governor Sevier. The 
 seal of the state affixed to it, is a small wafer, covered with 
 common paper. There was, in all probability, no other seal 
 of state. 
 
 Leaving here the chronological order of events in Frank- 
 lin, we pause to review some transactions in its Foreign 
 policy, which could not be so well introduced elsewhere. 
 
 Georgia, desirous of extending her settlements to the rich 
 
 *Elholm District was, doubtless, so called in honour of Major Elholm. In this 
 district, as the tradition is, was embraced all the territory of Franklin, below 
 Washington county, viz: Greene, Caswell and Sevier counties. Washington 
 District probably embraced Washington, Sullivan, Spencer and Wayne Coun- 
 ties. 
 
FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 377 
 
 interior of the state, had established Houston county in that 
 ( part of her territory north of the Tennessee River, 
 l and including the Great Bend of that stream, oppo- 
 site the Muscle Shoals. The Commissioners appointed to 
 organize the new county, held an adjourned meeting, July 
 30, 1784. 
 
 “Present, Stephen Heard, Chairman ; J ohn Donelson, Joseph Martin 
 and John Sevier, Esqrs. 
 
 “The Board resolved that John Sevier be appointed to receive locations 
 and entries of lands, and that William Blount, Esq., Lachlin McIntosh, 
 John Morell, John Donelson, Stephen Heard, William Downs, John Se- 
 vier, Charles Robertson, Joseph Martin and Valentine Sevier, junior, 
 Esqrs., be appointed justices of the peace. 
 
 “That John Sevier be recommended as Colonel, John Donelson, Lieut. 
 Colonel, and Valentine Sevier, junior, Major. John Donelson, Esq., was 
 appointed Surveyor, and Joseph Martin, Esq., recommended as Agent 
 and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The Entry-taker is requested to 
 attend and receive entries for claims of land, on the fifteenth day of 
 March next, at or near the mouth of Elk River. 
 
 “The Board adjourned to the 15th March next, and then to meet at 
 the mouth of Elk River. Stephen Heard, Chairman.” 
 
 It is not known that the Board ever assembled at the 
 mouth of Elk. It is scarcely probable that they did as the 
 military expedition which accompanied them, descended the 
 Tennessee River no further than the point where it was in- 
 tersected by the state line. The appearances of the Indians 
 were so hostile, the Commissioners remained but a few days, 
 and then withdrew. 
 
 A further meeting of the Board took place 29th July, 
 1785, when it was 
 
 “ Resolved , That the application be made to the Governor and Council 
 by William Downs and Thomas Napier, Esquires, Commissioners, or 
 either of them, for their direction and approbation, to have ten tracts of 
 land, containing ten thousand acres each, to be laid out in the bend of 
 Tennessee, for public use.” 
 
 The Board met at Washington, July the 24th, 1787, and 
 
 “ Took into consideration the state of the business, agreeable to a former 
 resolution of the General Assembly, and having certain accounts from 
 the State of Franklin, and the settlements of the Cumberland and Ken- 
 tucky, that a number of people from the aforesaid settlements are about 
 to go into the District of Tennessee, to make settlements thereon. 
 
 “ Resolved , With leave of the Executive Council, that the business of 
 surveying in said district, be immediately put into execution, agreeable 
 to a Resolve of the Assembly, of February, 1784.” 
 
378 
 
 LAW OF TFIE STATE OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 At the ensuing session of the Legislature of Franklin, the 
 necessary provision was made to raise a force of mounted 
 riflemen, sufficient to succour Georgia and subdue the Creek 
 Indians. We copy the act of the Franklin Assembly from 
 the original manuscript in the possession of this writer. 
 
 Whereas, it appears to this House, from a letter of the 27th of 
 August, 1786, to his Excellency, Governor Sevier, from his Honour, the 
 Governor, Edward Telfair, of the State of Georgia, with certain informa- 
 tion that the Creek Indians had declared war against the white people, 
 and had committed several murders on their frontier of late ; and that 
 in consequence of which, he had sent a Peace Talk to the nation of In- 
 dians, and that from the best accounts he could get, they intended to 
 make vigorous assaults on the white people, as soon as they had 
 gathered their corn ; and that the said state intends to carry on a vigo- 
 rous campaign against said Indians, if they do not treat with said state, 
 and were to march by the first of November next; and also by a letter 
 from Colonel Joseph Martin, dated the first of October, instant, with cer- 
 tain accounts that the Creek Indians were laying in a large quantity of 
 powder, for the purpose of carrying on the war, which was furnished by 
 the Spaniards ; and that they had spies in all the Cherokee towns, and 
 on our frontiers, and were making every preparation for war ; and have 
 had also information from the Cherokee Indians, that the Creeks intended 
 attacking our frontier, and were making outrageous threats against us 
 daily. And whereas, it is the indispensable duty of the inhabitants of 
 this state to guard against all dangers, and the Confederation directs and 
 empowers each state to defend itself against any enemy. 
 
 Be it therefore Resolved by this General Assembly, That each county 
 in this state, raise one-fourth of the militia of each county, who are here- 
 by required to bold themselves in readiness, to march on horse to the 
 frontiers of this state, at the shortest notice, to defend their own state, in 
 case there should be any attacks made on it by any enemy, or nation of 
 Indians, when attacked by the State of Georgia, and that every six men 
 furnish themselves with one pack-horse, and twenty days’ provision 
 each man. 
 
 2. And be it further Resolved , That there be officers appointed to 
 command such men so raised, and that they all go as militia men, and 
 to be paid as such, and all plunder taken in action from the enemy, shall 
 be free plunder to the captors. 
 
 3. That the light horse regiment of this state be immediately 
 equipped, and made ready to march with the above draft. 
 
 4. And be it further Resolved , That the Governor and Council hold 
 a friendly correspondence with his Honour, the Governor of Georgia ; 
 and that they communicate to him our intentions, and that the men 
 so raised, and holding themselves in readiness, march at their direc- 
 tion, on the shortest notice, to the protection of our frontiers. 
 
 And it is Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be directed to 
 hold the militia of this state in immediate readiness to march to the aid 
 of the frontier, on the shortest notice. 
 
PROMULGATION OF THE FRANKLIN LAWS. 
 
 379 
 
 Resolved , That the Governor, by and with the advice of his Council, 
 is hereby empowered to call the Assembly to any part of the state he 
 thinks right, to direct the movements of the army, now ordered out, in 
 case he should find it necessary to march them out of the state. 
 
 Attest — 
 
 Jo. Conway, C. S. Gilbert Christian, S. S. 
 
 I. Taylor, C. C. Henr. Conway, S. C. 
 
 October 13th, 1786. 
 
 As far as is now known, the manuscript from which the 
 above is copied, is the only legislative enactment of the 
 State of Franklin that has survived the ravages of time and 
 accident. At that day, there was no printing press nearer 
 than Richmond, Newbern or Charleston. The proceedings 
 of Franklin were never printed, and for that reason it be- 
 came necessary to revive a provision made under similar 
 circumstances, many years before, in North-Carolina ; and 
 that was, at the opening of the first session of the county 
 courts, and at the first militia training or muster, after the 
 rise of the General Assembly, an individual was appointed to 
 read all recent enactments aloud in the hearing of the peo- 
 ple, at the court-house or muster-grounds. Thirty years 
 since, the late Col. F. A. Ramsey was often mentioned as 
 “ the man who read Sevier’s laws to the militia of Franklin.” 
 If further proof were wanting to show that the “Consti- 
 tution of the State of Frankland ” was never adopted or 
 acted under, the above act furnishes that proof irrefragably. 
 That Constitution, as has been seen, provides for a single 
 house, while this act is signed by the Speaker of the Senate, 
 and by the Speaker of the Commons, and is also attested by 
 the Clerk of the Senate, and by the Clerk of the Commons. 
 
 After intelligence had reached the authorities of Georgia 
 that the people of Franklin, of Cumberland and of Kentucky, 
 were intending to emigrate to the Bend of Tennessee, another 
 attempt was made to effect the settlement of Houston county. 
 Gov. Sevier was written to on the subject. His reply is dated : 
 Gov. Sevier to Gov. Telfair : 
 
 State of Franklin, ) 
 
 Washington County, 14tli of May, 1786. j 
 Sir : — Being appointed one of the Commissioners of Tennessee 
 District, I beg leave to inform your Honour that it appears impractica- 
 ble to proceed on that business before the fall season. 
 
380 
 
 PROJECTED INVASION OP THE CREEKS. 
 
 The people here are apprehensive of an Indian war. Hostilities are 
 daily committed in the vicinities of Kentucky and Cumberland. Cols. 
 Donelson, Christian, and several other persops, were lately wounded and 
 are since dead. 
 
 The success of the Muscle Shoal enterprise, greatly depends on the 
 number that will go down to that place. A small force will not be 
 adequate to the risk and danger that is to be encountered, and the peo- 
 ple here will not venture to so dangerous a place with a few. 
 
 Your Honour will be pleased to be further informed, and, through 
 you, the different branches of your government, that no unfair advan- 
 tage will betaken from this quarter; no surveying will be attempted 
 until a force sufficient can be had, and timely notice given to those who 
 may intend to moVe down. The people in this quarter wish to pro- 
 ceed in the fall, but will wait your advice on this subject. Your Hon- 
 our may rest assured that I shall, with jdeasure, facilitate everything in 
 my power that may tend to the welfare of this business. 
 
 Gov. Telfair, replying to Sevier’s letter of May 14, in- 
 formed him, Aug. 27, 1786, that the Legislature of Georgia 
 had postponed the consideration of the Tennessee Land 
 District ; that the Creek Indians had been committing mur- 
 ders and depredations on the frontier of Georgia ; that com- 
 missioners had been appointed to negotiate terms of a peace, 
 in failure of which, the state would, at once, carry on vigor- 
 ous hostile operations against that tribe. It had been sug- 
 gested, continued Gov. Telfair, that the State of Franklin 
 intended to march a body of men against the Creeks. “ I 
 flatter myself it will be greatly to the success of both 
 armies to begin their movements at one and the same time, 
 should it become necessary. The first of November I sug- 
 gest as the time for marching. On this subject I have to 
 solicit your immediate answer and determination.” He also 
 informs Gov. Sevier that Robert Dixon and Stephen Jett, 
 Esquires, were appointed Commissioners on the part of 
 Georgia,' 'to confer with him on that subject. 
 
 Not long after the date of this letter, to wit, Aug. 26, 
 1786, Governor Houston, of Georgia, commissioned Governor 
 Sevier, Brigadier-General for the District of Tennessee. 
 This brigade was formed for the defence ' of Georgia, and 
 for repelling any hostile invasion. 
 
 Governor Sevier was not unwilling to accept this evidence 
 of the confidence and friendship of the Governor and people 
 of Georgia. He was sensible of the opposition Franklin 
 
EMBASSY OF MAJOR ELHOLM. 
 
 381 
 
 had encountered, and the growing discontent and difficulty 
 yet to be encountered from some in the new state, and from 
 the government of North-Carolina. His Cherokee neigh- 
 bours, and their allies, the Creeks, were ready, at any mo- 
 ment, to take advantage of the necessities of the infant 
 government, and to involve it in a general war. He took 
 the precaution, therefore, to assure himself of the good feel- 
 ing and co-operation of the Georgians, and to identify that 
 people with his own in the common cause of self-defence 
 and self-protection. With many of their leading men he 
 had become acquainted, in his several campaigns to the 
 South, during the Revolutionary war. Some of them were 
 at his side on King’s Mountain, and other battle grounds of 
 that struggle. Some of them, at its close, had followed him 
 to the West, and adhered to his fortunes in every vicissitude. 
 The countrymen of Clarke, and Pickens, and Matthews, all 
 knew his gallantry and were his steadfast friends. Of these, 
 no one appreciated Governor Sevier more highly than a 
 foreigner, Caesar Augustus George Elholm. He was a 
 Frenchman or Polander, a member of Pulaski’s Legion, and 
 was with that brave leader at the siege of Savannah. A 
 feat performed, in part, by him, once considered fabulous, 
 but recently authenticated by I. K. Tefft, Esq., of Savannah, 
 is here given in the words of that learned antiquarian and 
 accurate historian : 
 
 “ While the allied army was engaged before Savannah, and while 
 the siege was pending, Col. John White, of the Georgia line, conceived 
 and executed an extraordinary enterprise. 
 
 “ Captain French, with one hundred and eleven British regulars, 
 had taken post on the Ogechee River, about twenty-five miles from 
 Savannah. At the same place lay five British vessels, of which four 
 were armed, the largest mounting fourteen guns and the smallest four. 
 Col. White having with him only Captain Caesar Augustus George 
 Elholm, a sergeant and three men, on the night of the 1st of October, 
 1'7'79, approached the encampment of French, kindled many fires, 
 which were discernible at the British station, exhibiting from the man- 
 ner of arranging them the plan of a camp. To this stratagem he 
 added another. He and his comrades, imitating the manner of the 
 staff, rode with haste in various directions, giving orders in a loud voice. 
 French became satisfied that a large body of the enemy were upon him, 
 and on being summoned by White he surrendered his detachment, the 
 crews of the five vessels, forty in number, and one hundred and thirty 
 
382 
 
 FRANKLIN NEGOTIATIONS WITH 
 
 stand of arms. Having thus succeeded, Col. White pretended that h« 
 must keep back his troops, lest their animosity should break out, and an in- 
 discriminate slaughter take place, in defiance of his authority, and that, 
 therefore, he would commit them to three guides, who would conduct 
 them safely to good quarters. The deception was carried on with so 
 much address, that the whole of the British prisoners were safely con- 
 ducted by three of the captors for twenty-five miles through the country 
 to the American post at Sunbury. One of these captors was C. A. G. 
 Elholm.” 
 
 Such was Major Elholm, who is now introduced to the 
 reader, and will again be mentioned as bearing further part 
 in the affairs of Franklin. 
 
 When, in 1786, it became necessary for the new state to 
 strengthen the relations of friendship and good feeling with 
 other communities, Governor Sevier, through the Legislature 
 of Franklin, professed a readiness to unite with Georgia, 
 and make common cause with that state in the prosecution 
 of the war against the Creeks, which seemed then inevitable. 
 The management of this proposition, Sevier entrusted to 
 Major Elholm, whom he despatched to Augusta. Bearing 
 with him the strongest evidences of the Governor’s confi- 
 dence, and with “sealed instructions”, in his possession, he 
 waited upon the Executive of Georgia. In accordance with 
 the main object of his mission, Elholm succeeded in procuring 
 an embassy to accompany him on his return, to whose care 
 was committed the charge of enlisting the Western people 
 into an invasion of the Creek nation. An account of the re- 
 ception of the embassy in Franklin, and the Major’s con- 
 jectures of its results, will be given in his own words. The 
 reader will excuse the Major’s Gallicisms. They are well 
 atoned for by his ardour and enthusiasm. 
 
 Major Elholm to Gov. Telfair : 
 
 Governor Sevier’s, Franklin, September 30, 1786. 
 
 Sir ; — I does myself the honour to inform your Excellency, that your 
 Commissioners set out from this the 28th inst., by the way of Kentucky 
 and Cumberland. They were received very politely by his Excellency 
 the Governor, from whose zeal for to assist you, aided by the inclination 
 of the Franks, I am fully convinced your embassy will meet all wished 
 success by the Assembly of this State, which is ordered to assemble 
 12th next, by his Excellency’s command, in consequence thereof. Seve- 
 ral of the inhabitants have waited on the governor, for to be informed 
 of the contents of the embassy from Georgia. And when being ac- 
 
GEORGIA, TO MARCH AGAINST THE CREEKS. 
 
 383 
 
 quainted therewith, it gave me great pleasure to find no other apprehension 
 appeared, but that of making peace with the Creeks without fighting, 
 by which occasion they said so favourable a chance for humbling that 
 nation would fall dormant. The Governor, in order that the Americans 
 may reap a benefit from the dread the Cherokees and Chickasaws feels 
 from the displeasure and power of the Franks, he has despatched letters 
 to them, offering them protection against the Creek nation, with condi- 
 tion that they join him. 
 
 Cumberland, it seems, has it at this time in contemplation to join in 
 government with the Franks. If so, so much the better, and it would 
 surely be their interest so to do, as they are yet few in numbers, and 
 often harassed by the Indians. 
 
 Judging from apparent circumstances, you may promise youself one 
 thousand riflemen and two hundred cavalry, excellently mounted and 
 accoutred, from this state, to act in conjunction with Georgia. 
 
 “ P. S. Governor Sevier received letters from the principal men in 
 Cumberland, which inform him of a convention held lately at that place, 
 when Commissioners were chosen by the people with power for to join 
 with the Franks in their government. 
 
 “Mr. John Tipton’s party, which is against the party of the new 
 government, seems deep in decline at present, which proves very favour- 
 able to the embassy from Georgia.” 
 
 Gov. Sevier to Gov. Telfair : 
 
 Mount Pleasant, Franklin, 28th Sept., 1786. 
 
 Yours of the 27th August, I am honoured with. I consider myself 
 much obliged with the information your Honour was pleased to give me 
 respecting the manner and form you intend to conduct with the Creek 
 Indians. 
 
 You will please to be informed, that the deliberations of our Assembly 
 have not, as yet, been fully had, respecting the marching a force against 
 that nation of Indians. Our Assembly will be convened in a few days, 
 at which time, I make not the smallest doubt, but they will order out a 
 respectable force to act in conjunction with the army of your state. The 
 determinations of our Legislature I shall immediately communicate to 
 your Honour, as soon as the same can be fully obtained. The move- 
 ments to begin about the first November, I fear will be rather early for 
 our army. Could the time be procrastinated a few days, I hope it would 
 not obstruct the success of the expedition. Shall be much obliged by 
 being informed of the time of marching, should the same be found ne- 
 cessary. Also, as near as may be, of the time and place your army 
 may be expected in the Creek country. 
 
 Gov. Telfair replied, under date of 28tli November, 1786, 
 “That Commissioners appointed to treat with the Creek na- 
 tion have concluded a peace, on account of which every 
 preparation for hostile operations are now suspended.” The 
 governor also expressed a hope that the peace might be 
 lasting. This hope was doomed to be disappointed. 
 
384 
 
 ACTION OF GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL OF GEORGIA. 
 
 The offer of assistance by the people of Franklin, made 
 by Gov. Sevier, and his recommendation of Major Elholm, 
 his ambassador, to the Governor and Council of Georgia, 
 drew forth the following action : 
 
 House of Assembly, 3d Feb., 1787. 
 
 Mr. O’Brien, from the Committee to whom was referred the letter 
 from John Sevier, Esq., brought in a report, which was agreed to, and 
 is as follows : 
 
 That the letters from the said John Sevier, Esq., evince a disposition 
 which ought not to be unregarded by this state, particularly in the in- 
 tention of settlers in Nollichucky, etc., to co-operate with us during the 
 late alarm with the Indians, provided the necessity of the case required 
 it ; they, therefore, recommend to the House, that his Honour, the 
 Governor, inform the Honourable John Sevier, Esq., of the sense 
 this state entertains of their friendly intentions, to aid in the adjustment 
 of all matters in dispute between us and the hostile tribes of Creek In- 
 dians that were opposed to this state. 
 
 That in regard to Major Elholm, who has been so particularly recom- 
 mended, they cannot forbear mentioning him as a person entitled to the 
 thanks and attention of the Legislature, and recommend that his Hon- 
 our, the Governor, draw a warrant on the Treasury, in favour of Major 
 Elholm, for the sum of fifty pounds. 
 
 Subsequently, an act was passed by the Legislature of 
 Georgia, authorizing the Governor and Executive Council to 
 make an engagement with the people of Franklin to sup- 
 press the hostilities of the Creek Indians. 
 
 Gen. Clarke to Gov. Sevier : 
 
 Augusta, Feb. 11th, 1787. 
 
 Dear Sir : — I received your favour by Major Elholm, who informed 
 me of your health. Assure yourself ol my ardent friendship, and that 
 you have the approbation of all our citizens, and their well wishes for 
 your prosperity. We are sensible of what benefit the friendship of 
 yourself and the people of your state will be to Georgia, and we hope 
 you will never join North-Carolina more. Open a Land Office as speed- 
 ily as possible, and it cannot fail but you will prosper as a people ; this 
 is the opinion current among us. 
 
 I have considered greatly on that part of your letter which alludes to 
 politics in the Western country. It made me serious, and as seven 
 states have agreed to give up the navigation, it is my friendly advice that 
 you do watch with every possible attention, for fear that two more states 
 should agree. I only observe to you, that the Southern States will ever 
 be your friends. 
 
 It was reported that East and West Florida were ceded by the Span- 
 iards to France, but it is not so. I know that you must have the navi- 
 gation of the Mississippi. You have spirit and right ; it is almost every 
 man’s opinion that a rumour will rise in that country. I hope to see 
 
SEVIER ELECTED MEMBER OP THE CINCINNATI. 
 
 385 
 
 that part myself yet. Adieu ; Heaven attend you and every friend, with 
 my best respects. 
 
 Governor Telfair also addressed him, under date — 
 
 Augusta, Georgia, 13th February, 1787. 
 
 Sir: .... I took the liberty, in my place, to lay your communica- 
 tions before the legislature, with a few comments thereon. I am happy, 
 sir, to inform you, they were received with that attention and respect 
 due to the friendly manner in which you were pleased to convey the aid 
 you were authorized to afford the state, in case of active operations 
 being found necessary to be carried on against the Creek Nation. 
 
 Governor Sevier, writing to Governor Matthews, says, 
 under date — 
 
 Mount Pleasant, Franklin, 3d March, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — Yours of 12th February, with the resolves of the Honourable 
 the General Assembly therein enclosed, I had the honour to receive 
 from Major Elholm. A principal chief of the Choctaws arrived here, 
 who had come by way of the Creek Nation, and was there informed, 
 that nation intended hostilities against the State of Georgia early this 
 spring; — that they intended last summer to have given Georgia a home 
 stroke, had not a small party, contrary to their councils, committed hos- 
 tilities before the main body of the warriors was ready to go out. 
 
 Permit me, sir, to return you my sincere thanks, and through you the 
 other gentlemen of your state, for the great honour done me on the 
 fifth day of February last. 
 
 The honour alluded to in this last paragraph bjr Gov. Se- 
 vier, was the recommendation of his election as an honorary 
 member of the District Society of the Cincinnati. His cer- 
 tificate of membership is before the writer. In the report of 
 the Committee, appointed to “investigate the merits of the 
 Honourable Brigadier-General John Sevier,” it is mentioned 
 “ That he had a principal merit in the rapid and well con- 
 ducted volunteer expedition, to attack Colonel Ferguson, at 
 King’s Mountain, and a great share in the honour of that 
 day, which is well known gave a favourable turn to our 
 gloomy and distressed situation, and that an opportunity 
 never yet appeared, but what confessed him an ardent friend 
 and real gentleman.” 
 
 He is then recommended for, and received the appointment 
 of a “ Brother Member of the Cincinnati,” at Augusta, 12th 
 of February, 1787. 
 
 Major Elholm had become, not less by his address than by 
 his enthusiasm, a favourite in Georgia. The Executive Coun- 
 25 
 
38G 
 
 LETTERS OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO SEVIER, 
 
 cil received him as a man of distinction, and invited him to 
 a seat with them, while the subject of his mission was under 
 consideration. There and elsewhere, he took every oppor- 
 tunity to descant, in his fervid manner, and in the most glow- 
 ing terms, upon the excellence and beauty of the country 
 from which he came, and dwelt at length upon the prowess 
 of the western people, and their devotion to liberty and in- 
 dependence, and succeeded in creating an interest and enthu- 
 siasm in their behalf. “Success to the State of Franklin, 
 His Excellency Gov. Sevier, and his virtuous citizens,” be- 
 came a common toast. 
 
 Gen. Clarke continued his correspondence, under date — 
 
 Georgia, 22d May, 1787. 
 
 Sir : . Should any further appearance of war be apparent, I 
 
 shall take the earliest opportunity of communicating it to you, with the 
 expectation of acting in confidence and concert with your state, in the 
 operations taken against the Creeks. 
 
 I am very sorry to hear you have not peaceably established your- 
 selves in the State of Franklin, and that the unhappy contention yet 
 prevails between that and the State of North-Carolina, and more parti- 
 cularly when they think of reducing you by force of arms. These ideas 
 have not proceeded from anv assurance from this state, as it is the re- 
 ceived opinion of the sensible part of every rank in Georgia, that you 
 will, and ought to be, as independent as the other states in the Union. 
 
 Other gentlemen of distinction and character in Georgia, 
 in like manner, held out to the Governor of Franklin assu- 
 rances, not of good wishes only,j a but of assistance. One of 
 them writes, under date, 
 
 Wilkes County, State of Georgia, May 21, 1787. 
 Wm. Downs to Gov. Sevier: 
 
 Sir: .... We have various reports respecting the different opi- 
 nions of the politics of your state. I must inform you I have had, within 
 these few months, the different opinions of a number of the greatest poli- 
 ticians in our state respecting yours, who give it as their opinion, that 
 it will support itself without a doubt ; and, from what I can understand, 
 would give every assistance in their power. 
 
 As a further means of adding to the strength of the new 
 state, Governor Sevier and his Council asked the advice of 
 Doctor Franklin. His reply is dated — 
 
 Philadelphia, June 30, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — I am very sensible of the honour your Excellency and your 
 Council have done me. But, being in Europe when your state was 
 formed, I am too little acquainted with the circumstances, to be able to 
 
FROM GEN. CLARKE, COL. DOWNS AND DR. FRANKLIN. 387 
 
 offer you any thing, just now, that may he of importance, since every 
 thing material, that regards your welfare, will, doubtless, have occurred 
 to yourselves. There are two things which humanity induces me to 
 wish you may succeed in : the accommodating your misunderstanding 
 with the government of North -Carolina, and the avoiding an Indian 
 war by preventing encroachments on their lands. Such encroachments 
 are the more unjustifiable, as these people, in the fair way of purchase, 
 usually give very good bargains ; and, in one year’s war with them, you 
 may suffer a loss of property, and be put to an expense vastly exceed- 
 ing in value what would have contented them, in fairly buying 
 the lands they can spare. 
 
 I will endeavour to inform myself more perfectly of your affairs, by 
 inquiry, and searching the records of Congress; and if any thing should 
 occur to me, that I think may be useful to you, you shall hear from me 
 thereupon. I conclude with repeating my wish, that you may amicably 
 settle your difference with North-Carolina. The inconvenience to your 
 people, attending so remote a seat of government, and the difficulty to 
 that government in ruling well so remote a people, would, I think, be 
 powerful inducements to it, to accede to any fair and reasonable propo- 
 sition it may receive from you, if the Cession act had now passed. 
 
 The Doctor continued to address Gov. Sevier, in his official 
 capacity, as late as December of this year. 
 
 Gen. Win. Cocke, a Brigadier of the Franklin militia, and 
 a member of the council of state, addressed Governor 
 Matthews the following, dated — 
 
 State of Frankland,* ) 
 
 Mulberry Grove, 25th June, 1787. j 
 
 Sir : — When I take a view of the local and political situation of this 
 country, I conceive the interests of your state, so far as respects Indian 
 affairs, almost inseparable with the safety and happiness of this country ; 
 and on hearing that the Creek Indians have committed hostilities in 
 Georgia, I have endeavoured to consult with my friends here, on the 
 subject of lending you any assistance in our power, provided you should 
 stand in need of such assistance ; and I am certain every thing to serve 
 your state or its interests, will be done by the people of Franklin , that 
 they could, with reason, be expected to do. I imagine General Kennedy 
 will be able to raise a thousand or fifteen hundred men, as volunteers, 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that this letter is dated, “ State of Frankland.” This 
 is the only instance, as this annalist avers, in the whole list of letters and other 
 papers which he has had such ample opportunity to read and examine in the 
 preparation of these sheets, in which the name of the new state is not spelled 
 "Franklin.” In the Convention, Gen. Cocke had been in favour of the (rejected) 
 “Constitution of the State of Frankland,” and may be supposed to have retained 
 from a feeling of paternity, the name first intended for his bantling. It is ob_’ 
 eervable, however, that in the body of his letter, he gives the proper orthography 
 — Franklin. 
 
388 
 
 THE PROCEEDINGS IN WASHINGTON COUNTY 
 
 and I think I can raise a like number. An army of two or three thou- 
 sand, will be quite sufficient to march through any of the towns that we 
 should have to pass through. I hope the Indians have not been so 
 successful in your state as the Cherokees report ; the accounts from that 
 nation are that the Creeks have killed twenty-five families, without the 
 loss of a man. I have ordered the different colonels under my com- 
 mand, to hold their men in readiness, and on being well assured of the 
 Indians attacking your state, we shall march into their towns, so soon 
 as we shall be requested by you. But lest the United States might 
 think us forward, we shall remain in readiness, until we are called for by 
 the State of Georgia or until hostilities are committed in our state. 
 
 Propositions to assist in the conquest of the Creek nation 
 were also made to Gov. Sevier, by the King, Chiefs and Lead- 
 ers of the Chickasaws. 
 
 The proffered auxiliaries from the Chickasaws, the re- 
 peated assurances of co-operation from Georgia, and the ex- 
 pected assistance from Virginia and Cumberland, stimulated 
 both the authorities and people of Franklin to undertake the 
 subjugation of the Creeks. Another consideration in favour 
 of that policy, exerted at this moment a powerful influence up- 
 on the mind of Governor Sevier, Some of the causes for sepa- 
 rating the western counties from the parent state, had either 
 ceased to exist, or operated now, upon the minds of the peo- 
 ple with less intensity, and it was very evident that a very 
 formidable party in Franklin was now opposed to a further 
 continuance of the new government. 
 
 In Washington county, this opposition had become most 
 apparent. The magistrates appointed by the authorities of 
 North-Carolina, met at the house of William Davis, some dis- 
 tance from the seat of justice, and organized a court, when 
 the following proceedings took place : 
 
 County Proceedings. 
 
 178V. — February Term, met at the house of William Davis. 
 
 Present, John McMahon, James Stuart, and Robert Allison. 
 
 George Mitchell was elected Sheriff pro. tem., and John Tipton was 
 elected Clerk pro. tem., and Thomas Gomly, Deputy Clerk. 
 
 Feb. 0. The gentlemen on the Dedimus, appointed justices of the 
 peace for said county, are as follows : John Tipton, Landon Carter, Ro- 
 bert Love, James Montgomery, John Hamer, John Wyer, John Strain, 
 Andrew Chamberlain, Andrew Taylor, Alex. Moffett, William Pursley, 
 Edmond Williams, and Henry Nelson. 
 
 John Tipton presented commission as Colonel of the county, and 
 Robert Love as Major, and were qualified. 
 
ASSUME A MORE SERIOUS ASPECT. 
 
 389 
 
 The next Quarterly Term of this Court was held at the same place. 
 
 At May Term, Tuesday 8th, the Court elected John Pugh Sheriff, 
 Alexander Moffett, Coroner, and Elijah Cooper, Stray-master. 
 
 Ordered by the Court, That the Sheriff of this county demand the 
 public records from John Sevier, formerly Clerk of this county. 
 
 Ordered, That the Sheriff notify Vm. McNabb to appear before the 
 next County Court, with all the records as former Ranger. 
 
 Ordered, That the Sheriff demand the key of the County Jail at 
 Jonesboro, from the former Sheriff of this county. 
 
 In other counties, the authority of Franklin was so far 
 extinct, that of North-Carolina so fully recognized, that elec- 
 tions were not held for the Greeeneville Assembly, but repre- 
 sentatives were regularly chosen for the legislature of the old 
 state, to meet at Tarborough, on the 18 th November. Of 
 those thus elected, several had been the early and steadfast 
 friends of separation and independence, and had been the 
 principal functionaries of the new commonwealth. Even 
 Greene county, which had refused to allow commissions 
 emanating from the old dynasty, to be accepted and acted 
 under, within its boundaries, had partaken of the general 
 defection, and had elected to the Assembly at Tarborough, 
 David Campbell, the presiding Judge upon the Franklin 
 Bench, as Senator ; and Daniel Kennedy, one of the Frank- 
 lin brigadiers, and James Reese, Esq., once a member of its 
 legislature, to the House of Commons. 
 
 Washington county, in like manner, was represented by 
 John Tipton, James Stuart, and John Blair ; all of whom had 
 been the first to propose, and the most active in carrying 
 into effect, the insurrectionary movement. Sullivan county 
 had chosen Joseph Martin, Joffin Scott, and George Maxwell ; 
 and Hawkins county, Nathaniel Henderson and William 
 Marshall; all original supporters of Franklin, and advocates 
 of separation. Sevier and Caswell counties alone main- 
 tained their allegiance to the new state, and adhered to Gov. 
 Sevier and his fortunes ; and even in these, there were not 
 wanting men whose position was equivocal, and who hesi- 
 tated not to dissuade from further resistance to the current^ 
 which now set so strongly in favour of the mother state. 
 Harassed by the difficulties that surrounded his official posi- 
 tion, and perplexed by the duties and responsibilities devolv- 
 
390 
 
 SEVIER INVITES THE MEDIATION OF GEORGIA, 
 
 mg oil him as a patriot, Governor Sevier instituted a further 
 embassy to the State of Georgia, with the hope of extrica- 
 ting himself and his government from surrounding embarrass- 
 ments. As a dernier resort, he invited the mediation of 
 Georgia between North-Carol ina and Franklin ; and ad- 
 dressed to Governor Matthews the following communi- 
 cation : 
 
 Franklin, 24th June, 178#, 
 
 Sir : — The Honourable Major Elholm waits upon your Assembly, in 
 character of Commissioner from this State, with plenary powers. 
 
 The party in opposition to our new republic, although few and in- 
 considerable, yet, by their contention and disorder, they occasion much 
 uneasiness to peaceable minds. We are friendly citizens of the Ameri- 
 can Union, and the real desire we have for its welfare, opulence, and 
 splendour, makes us unwilling and exceedingly sorry to think, that any 
 violent measures should be made use of, against the adherents of'any of 
 our sister states ; especially the one that gave us existence, though now 
 wishing to annihilate us. And wha't occasions in us excruciating pain is, 
 that perhaps we may be driven to the necessity, unparalleled and unex- 
 ampled, of defending our rights and liberties against those, who not long 
 since, we have fought, bled and toiled together with, in the common 
 cause of American Independence, or otherwise become the ridicule of 
 a whole world. This I hope, however, God will avert ; and that a re- 
 union will take place on honourable, just, and equitable principles, re- 
 ciprocally so to each party, is our sincere and ardent wish. 
 
 When we remember the bloody engagements in which we have 
 fought together against the common enemy, the friendly, timely and 
 mutual supports afforded between the State of Georgia and the people 
 of this country, it emboldens us to solicit you, sir, and through you the 
 different branches of your government, that you will be graciously 
 pleased to afford to the State of Franklin such of your countenance as 
 you may, from your wisdom and uprightness, think, from the nature of 
 our cause, we may deserve, — in promoting the interest of our infant 
 republic, reconciling matters between us and the parent state, in such 
 manner as you, in your magnanimity and justice, may think most expe- 
 dient, and the nature of our cause may deserve. 
 
 Permit us to inform you that it is not the sword that can intimidate 
 us. The rectitude of our cause, our local situation, together with the 
 spirit and enterprise of our countrymen in such a cause, would inflame 
 us with confidence and hopes of success. But when we reflect and call 
 to mind the great number of internal and external enemies to American 
 Independence, it makes^us shudder at the very idea of such an incurable 
 evil, not knowing where the disorder might lead, or what part of the 
 body politic the ulcer might at last infect. 
 
 The nature of our cause we presume your Excellency to be sufficient- 
 ly acquainted with. Only, we beg leave to refer you to the Cession act 
 of North-Carolina, also the constitution of that government, wherein it 
 
AND WRITES TO ITS ASSEMBLY. 
 
 391 
 
 mentions that there may be a state or states erected in the West, when- 
 ever the legislature shall give its consent for the same. 
 
 We cannot forbear mentioning, that we regard the parent state with 
 particular affection, and will always feel an interest in whatever may 
 concern her honour and prosperity, as independent of each other. 
 
 For further information, I beg leave to refer you to Honourable Ma- 
 jor Elholm. 
 
 Accompanying this communication, was one addressed to 
 the Speaker of the Georgia Assembly, dated — 
 
 Franklin, 24th June, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — At the request of a number of respectable inhabitants of Vir- 
 ginia, North-Carolina and Franklin, I am induced to write your honour- 
 able body, respecting the Tennessee lands, informing you that there is a 
 large number of the aforementioned people who, for some time past, 
 have been at considerable expense, in order to equip themselves to be- 
 come residents in that quarter, who have been led to believe, from the 
 tenor of your resolves, and the conduct of the Commissioners appointed 
 for that business, that they, the people, might, with great propriety, ex- 
 pect to become immediate settlers. 
 
 Permit me to inform your honourable body that we have every rea- 
 son to believe, that the making the aforesaid settlements would be of in- 
 finite advantage to your state, and of much utility to the adventurers ; 
 and further, were that place inhabited, from the great advantages it 
 would be to this state, I am confident that Franklin would give every 
 necessary support to the inhabitants, that might be wanting to protect 
 them from the ravages and depredations of any of the hostile tribes of 
 Indians, which will, in a great measure, be effected, by erecting some 
 garrisons on the frontier of our state, which we have lately resolved to 
 do. We submit it to your wiser consideration, and myself, as one of 
 your Commissioners, shall be happy in rendering every exertion that the 
 duty of my office may require, in compliance with your determinations. 
 
 Sevier continued his efforts in behalf of his tottering go- 
 vernment, and under date 6th July, 1787, says to General 
 Kennedy : 
 
 Dear General : — I met with the Old State party on the 27th last 
 month ; few of our side met, not having notice. I found them much more 
 compliable than I could have expected, except a few. I have agreed to 
 a second conference, which is to be held at Jonesboro’, the last day of 
 this month. You will please to give notice, to all those appointed by the 
 convention, that may be within your district, to be punctual in attending 
 at the time and place. I shall earnestly look for you there, and as many 
 other of our friends as can possibly attend, and I flatter myself some- 
 thing for the good of the public may be effected. 
 
 In the “Columbian Magazine,” for November, 1787, is 
 found the following extract of a letter from General Cocke 
 to Major Elholm, at Augusta, Georgia. 
 
392 
 
 GOVERNOR SEVIER TO GOVERNOR MATTHEWS. 
 
 Mulberry Grove, State of Franklin, ) 
 
 August 27, 1787. j 
 
 Col. Tipton the other clay appeared with a party of about fifty men,, 
 of such as he could raise, under a pretence of redressing’ a quarrel that 
 had arisen between our sheriff and the sheriff of North-Carolina, though 
 their principal view was, to put themselves in possession of our records. 
 This conduct produced a rapid report, that they had made a prisoner 
 of his Excellency, to carry him to North-Carolina, which caused two 
 hundred men to repair immediately to the house of Col. Tipton, before 
 they became sensible of the mistake, and it was only through the influence 
 of his Excellency, that the opposite party did not fall a sacrifice to out 
 Franks. During this time, a body of about fifteen hundred veterans, 
 embodied themselves to rescue their governor (as they thought) out of 
 the hands of the North-Carolinians, and bring him back to the moun- 
 tains — an instance that proves our citizens to have too noble a spirit to 
 yield to slavery or to relish a national insult. 
 
 Continuing his correspondence with Governor Matthews, 
 Governor Sevier writes : 
 
 Mount Pleasant, Franklin, 30th August, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — I had the honour to receive your favour of the 9th inst., by 
 the express. You are pleased to mention, that you are of opinion that 
 your Assembly will be favourably disposed towards this state. The 
 measures entered into by your Executive, relating to our business, we 
 are very sensible of, and the honour you thereby do us. 
 
 I have enclosed your Excellency copies of two letters from Colonels 
 Kobertson and Bledsoe, of Cumberland, wherein you will* he informed 
 of the many murders and ravages committed in that country by the 
 Creeks. It is our duty and highly requisite in my opinion, that such 
 lawless tribes be reduced to reason by dint of the sword. 
 
 I am very sensible, that few of our governments are in a fit capacity 
 for such an undertaking, and perhaps ours far less so than any other ; 
 but, nevertheless, be assured, that we will encounter every difficulty to 
 raise a formidable force to act in conjunction with the army of your state 
 in case of a campaign. 
 
 We have lately received accounts from some gentlemen in Virginia, 
 who generously propose to send a number of volunteers to our assistance. 
 We shall cultivate their friendship, and I make no doubt but a consider- 
 able number may be easily raised in that quarter. 
 
 Our Assembly sat but a few days. The only business of importance 
 done, was the making a provision for the defence of our frontier, by 
 raising four hundred men, which is nearly completed. They are to be 
 stationed in the vicinity of Chickamauga, and in case of actual operations 
 against the Creeks this number will be ready. 
 
 Our Assembly is to meet on the 17th of next month, at which time 
 I shall do myself the honour of laying your despatches before that hon- 
 ourable body, who, I am happy to inform you, will be favourably disposed 
 to render your state every assistance in their power, by making such ar 
 rangements as may be judged adequate to the business. Their de 
 
COLONELS ROBERTSON AND BLEDSOE TO SEVIER. 
 
 393 
 
 terminations on this subject will be immediately communicated to your 
 honour, so £0011 as the same can be had and fully obtained. 
 
 The letter above referred to from Col. Robertson, bears 
 date, 
 
 Nashville, Aug. 1st, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — By accounts from the Chickasaws, we are informed that at a 
 Grand Council held by the Creeks, it was determined, by that whole 
 nation, to do their utmost this fall to cut off this country, and we expect 
 the Cherokees have joined them, as they were to have come in, some 
 time ago, to make peace, which they have not done. Every circumstance 
 seems to confirm this. The 5th day of July, a party of Creeks killed 
 Captain Davenport, agent for Georgia, and three men in the Chickasaw 
 nation — wounded three and took one prisoner, which the Chickasaws 
 are not able to resent for want of ammunition. 
 
 The people are drawing together in large stations, and doing every 
 thing necessary for their defence; but, I fear, without some timely as- 
 sistance, we shall chiefly fall a sacrifice. Ammunition is very scarce, 
 and a Chickasaw, now here, tells us, they imagine they will reduce our 
 station by ki! ling all our cattle, etc., and starving us out. We expect, 
 from every account, they are now on their way to this country, to the 
 number of a thousand. I beg of you to use your influence in that 
 country to relieve us, which, I think, might be done by fixing a station 
 near the mouth of Elk, if possible, or by marching a body of men into 
 the Cherokee country, or in any manner you may judge beneficial. We 
 hope our brethren in that country will not suffer us to be massacred by 
 the savages, without giving us any assistance, and I candidly assure you 
 that never was there a time in which I imagined ourselves in more dan- 
 ger. 
 
 Kentucky being nearest, we have applied there for some present 
 assistance, but fear we shall find none in time. Could you now give us 
 any ? I am convinced it would have the greatest tendency to unite our 
 counties, as the people will never forget those who are their friends in a 
 time of such imminent danger. 
 
 I have wrote to General Shelby on this subject, and hope that no di- 
 vision will prevent you from endeavouring to give us relief, which will 
 be ever gratefully remembered by the inhabitants of Cumberland, and 
 your most obedient humble servant. 
 
 That from Col. Bledsoe, bears date, 
 
 Sumner County, Aug. 5th, 1787. 
 
 Dear Sir : — When I had last the pleasure of seeing your Excellency, 
 I think you was kind enough to propose, that in case the perfidious 
 Chickamaugas should infest this country, to notify your Excellency, and 
 you would send a campaign against them without delay. The period 
 has arrived that they, as I have good reason to believe, in combination 
 with the Creeks, have done this country very great spoil by murdering 
 numbers of our peaceful inhabitants, stealing our horses, killing our 
 cattle and hogs, and burning our buildings through wantonness, cutting 
 down our corn, etc. 
 
394 
 
 MAJOR ELHOLm’s PROJET. 
 
 I am well assured that the distress of the Chickamauga tribe is the 
 only way this defenceless country will have quiet. The .militia being 
 very few, and the whole, as it were, a frontier, its inhabitants all shut 
 up in stations, and they, in general, so weakly manned, that in case of 
 an invasion, one is scarcely able to aid another, and the enemy daily in 
 our country committing ravages of one kind or other, and that of the 
 most savage kind. Poor Major Hall and his eldest son, fell a sacrifice 
 to their savage cruelty two days ago, near Bledsoe’s Lick. They have 
 killed about twenty-four persons in this country in a few months, besides 
 numbers of others in settlements near it. Our dependence is much 
 that your Excellency will revenge the blood thus wantonly shed. 
 
 Gov. Sevier to Gov. Matthews : 
 
 Franklin, 28 th Oct., lYSL 
 
 Sir : — I have fortunately met with Mr. William Talbot, who is no\r 
 on his way to your state. I am happy to have it in my power to in- 
 form your Excellency that the Legislature of this State has passed an 
 act, authorizing the Executive to forward an aid to your assistance, con- 
 sisting of nine hundred men, together with several companies, who of- 
 fer their assistance, from Virginia. 
 
 We flatter ourselves this force, with that from your state, will be suf- 
 ficient to answer the wished for purpose. We now wait the determina- 
 tion of your state, and shall endeavour to comply with any reasonable 
 request we may receive from your state towards carrying on a campaign, 
 in conjunction with you, against the Creek Indians. The Creeks, I am 
 told, have, in some measure, abated their hostilities at Cumberland. 
 They have not done us any damage in this quarter as yet. 
 
 These several communications were submitted to the Exe- 
 cutive Council of Georgia. 
 
 While they were under consideration, Major Elholm was 
 invited to a seat in the Council, and was requested to fur- 
 nish a projet of the military preparation necessary for the 
 conquest of the Creek nation, and the settlement of the Great 
 Bend of the Tennessee River. The plan he submitted 
 and advised, was to appropriate the Great Bend as boun- 
 ties, to the officers and soldiers employed in taking and 
 occupying it ; and that while they continued to maintain and 
 protect their settlements, without expense to Georgia or 
 Franklin, the inhabitants should pay no taxes for a term of 
 3 r ears. In support of his plan, Major Elholm added, “I am 
 certain you may expect at least one thousand men from 
 Franklin.” 
 
 Gov. Sevier, desirous of procuring the assent of the parent 
 state to the separation and independence of Franklin, ap- 
 pointed another Commissioner to North-Carolina. One ol 
 
FURTHER FOREIGN EMBASSIES. 
 
 395 
 
 the Council, F. A. Ramsey, was selected for that mission. 
 It is tradition that he proposed to assume, on the part of the 
 new government, the whole Continental debt of North-Caro- 
 lina. At first his embassy met the favourable attention of 
 the Legislature, but the failure to adopt the Federal Consti- 
 tution, then under discussion, produced delay, and the nego- 
 tiation failed. After his project was acted on by the Coun- 
 cil, Major Elholm made*the following address. 
 
 To His Excellency , George Matthews, Esq., 
 
 and the Honourable Council : 
 
 Moved with the liveliest sense of obligation, for your attention paid 
 to the Franks, my constituents, I feel it the most pleasing task to so- 
 licit, for a moment, to give the due thanks to the magnanimity of your 
 government, in the name of my fellow-citizens 
 
 We are prepared to move in concert with the operation of your mili- 
 tary forces, against our common enemy ; and for that purpose, a detach- 
 ment of upwards of a thousand men, weli accoutred, now waits on your 
 Excellency’s chief movements and command, with a reserve on occa- 
 sion, to increase said force, two thousand strong. 
 
 To which it was replied by Governor Matthews: 
 
 In Council, Augusta, Nov. 5, 1187. 
 
 To the Honourable George Elholm, Esq., 
 
 Commissioner from the People of Franklin. 
 
 Sir : — Your obliging and very friendly letter I had the honour to 
 receive, and which was laid before the Executive Council. I have now, 
 sir, to return you, (in behalf of the supreme power of this state,) my 
 warmest thanks for your assiduity, as well as for the close attention you 
 have paid mutually to the State of Georgia and the people of Franklin. 
 Impressed deeply as we are, for the welfare of all those who have had in- 
 dependence enough to free themselves from British usurpation, we cannot 
 but be mindful of the good people of Franklin, and hope, ere long, the 
 interests of both will be securely and lastingly cemented. 
 
 Permit me, now, sir, to wish you a safe return, and a happy sight of 
 the people by whom you were commissioned ; in which I am joined by 
 the honourable the Executive. 
 
 Governor Matthews to Governor Sevier : 
 
 Augusta, Nov. 12tli, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favour of the 30th 
 August. The Assembly of the State are now fully persuaded that they 
 never can have a secure and lasting peace with the Creek Indians, till 
 they are well chastised, and severely feel the effects of war. They have 
 passed a law for raising three thousand men for that purpose, and have 
 empowered the Executive to call for fifteen hundred men from Franklin, 
 in addition to that number ; which united force, I flatter myself, will be 
 more than adequate to chastise their insolence and perfidy. Major 
 Elholm takes with him the acts for raising the men, -which will so fully 
 
39G 
 
 REJOICINGS IN FRANKLIN AT THE 
 
 inform you on that matter, that I need not touch on the subject. I 
 have to request, that you will inform me as soon as possible, if I may de- 
 pend on that number of troops from Franklin ; and what time they will 
 be ready to take the field, as I most ardently wish to have a speedy end 
 put to the war. The Bend of Tennessee being allowed for your men, I 
 flatter myself, will give pleasure, and, as the bounty is given for fighting 
 our common enemy, will be, I am persuaded, thought generous and 
 liberal. 
 
 Governor Telfair to Governor Sevier : 
 
 Augusta, Georgia, 12th Nov. 1787. 
 
 Sir : — It affords me pleasure to congratulate you on the legislature 
 of this state, and government, having taken measures that, in my opin- 
 ion, will prove extremely beneficial to Franklin, inasmuch as to evince 
 to the Cnion that one of the members of it has full confidence in the 
 valour and rectitude of the people and government thereof. 
 
 When a people unite in common danger, and when a certain portion 
 of the blood of each commonwealth engaged therein must be spilt, in 
 the progress and events of a savage war, it will unite friendship, awake 
 the feelings, and even hand to posterity a grateful remembrance of past 
 transactions; permit me, then, as an individual, to suggest the propriety 
 of the intended co-operation having for its basis a well-directed force, 
 suppqrted by energy, and conducted by talents and abilities. It is a 
 crisis by which a young people may rise in estimation, and I flatter my- 
 self, it will give tone to the name of Franks. 
 
 An officer of similar rank and powers, was directed to ac- 
 company Major Elholm, on his return from his Georgia 
 mission. The negotiation, with the management of which that 
 Commissioner had been entrusted, had been conducted with 
 zeal and fidelity, and had resulted to the entire satisfaction 
 of the governor, the council, and those of the people of 
 Franklin, who still adhered to the declining fortunes of 
 that state. Despatches containing the proceedings at Au- 
 gusta, and the alliance between the contracting parties, 
 were forwarded by express to Governor Sevier. The intel- 
 ligence was hailed with acclamations of joy by his adherents, 
 and was not unacceptable to that part of the people who 
 had transferred, or were prepared to transfer, their allegiance 
 to the mother state. The object of the alliance — the con- 
 quest of the Creeks, and the occupancy of the country below 
 them on the Tennessee — accorded exactly with the martial 
 spirit of the western soldiery, and comported well with their 
 character and taste for adventure and enterprise. Small as 
 was their number, remote and inaccessible as was the thea- 
 
ALLIANCE WITH GEORGIA. 
 
 397 
 
 tre for the contemplated campaign, difficulty and danger 
 only stimulated them to the undertaking, and they longed for 
 the opportunity of carrying their victorious arms to the coun- 
 try above Mobile. Rumours had reached them of the occlu- 
 sion of the Mississippi, and they already cherished the design 
 of opening up by their own swords, a channel of commerce 
 with the world, in despite of Federal indifference or foreign 
 diplomacy and injustice. 
 
 If the people of Franklin rejoiced at the successful issue of 
 Elholm’s mission, it may be easily supposed that Governor 
 Sevier received the intelligence with the highest gratifica- 
 tion. He was too sagacious not to have observed, that the new 
 state was at the point of dissolution — the crisis was at hand 
 which it could not probably survive. Elections had not been 
 holden of members for a succeeding session •of the Franklin 
 Assembly. His gubernatorial term would expire in a few 
 short month — she was himself ineligible, and a. successor 
 could be appointed only by a vote of the legislative bodies. 
 The only chance of preserving the integrity of his govern- 
 ment, was that the projected campaign would silence the 
 clamour of the malcontents, and restore harmony and con- 
 cert to the distracted members of his little republic. This 
 hope was fallacious and illusory ; but the governor’s per- 
 severance was indomitable, and he appealed at once to his 
 countrymen, and issued the circular which follows, to the 
 colonel commandant of each county, and through them to the 
 people. 
 
 GOVERNOR SEVIER’S CIRCULAR TO THE MILITARY OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 28tii November, 1787. 
 
 Major Elkolm is just now returned from Georgia with expresses from 
 the governor of that state, requiring an aid of fifteen hundred men from 
 the State of Franklin, to co-operate with them against the Creek In- 
 dians, under the following conditions, to wit : 
 
 All that will serve one campaign, till a peace is made, shall receive 
 as follows : 
 
 A colonel, one thousand two hundred acres ; a lieutenant-colonel, one 
 thousand one hundred ; a major, one thousand ; a captain, nine hun- 
 dred ; first-lieutenant, eight hundred; second-lieutenant, seven hun- 
 dred and fifty ; non-commissioned officers, seven hundred ; privates, well 
 armed and accoutred, six hundred and forty. 
 
398 
 
 sevier’s circular to the 
 
 Any general officer, called into the service, to have the following 
 proportions : — 
 
 A major-general, fifteen hundred acres ; a brigadier general, fourteen 
 hundred acres. 
 
 The Bend of Tennessee is reserved for the troops of Franklin, which 
 is a desirable spot, and will be of great importance to this state. Wo 
 are to have an additional bounty of fifty acres on every one hundred 
 acres, in lieu of rations, and all other claims against the State of Geor- 
 gia, which makes our proportion of lands amount to half as much more 
 as what is above allotted. A private man’s share, if he finds himself, 
 amounts to nine hundred and sixty acres, and officer’s in proportion. 
 
 This great and liberal encouragement will, certainly, induce numbers 
 to turn out on the expedition, which will not only be doing something 
 handsome for themselves, but they will have the honour of assisting 
 a very generous and friendly sister state to conquer and chastise an in- 
 solent and barbarous savage nation of Indians. 
 
 I now request that you will, with the utmost despatch, cause a gene- 
 ral muster to be held in your county, and endeavour to get as many 
 volunteers to enter into and engage in the aforesaid service, and under 
 the above conditions, as is in your power. You may, also, encourage 
 active persons to turn out and recruit ; and both yourself, and those that 
 may recruit, to transmit to me, immediately after the general muster, 
 your numbers of recruited volunteers. If I am spared, I think to take 
 the field once more, and wish we may he able to march about Christ- 
 mas, if possible, for the sooner we march, the sooner the people can 
 return in time to put in their spring crops. 
 
 I congratulate you, and every true friend, on the success of our Com- 
 missioner in the State of Georgia, and am happy to inform you that 
 our situation as a state is now secure and on a permanent footing — 
 much occasioned by one of the members of the Union, through her 
 liberal and sisterly affection, having taken us by the hand, and noticing 
 us as a people, of which you will be convinced by the copies, Ac., 
 accompanying this. The good people in this country are under high 
 obligations to our trusty and worthy Commissioner, Major Elholm, 
 whose acquaintance and abilities have enabled him to accomplish for 
 us most desirable purposes. 
 
 I have not time to transcribe and send, for your’s and the people’s 
 perusal, a copy, in full, of the Georgia act, respecting Franklin, but 
 hope the outlines, herein inserted, will be satisfactory. I also recommend 
 that the recruiting officers might apply and take a copy for the satisfac- 
 tion of those who may be inclined to enter into the service. 
 
 The State of Georgia has appointed Col. George Handley, a respecta- 
 ble character in that state, to attend the State of Franklin in character 
 of Commissioner. I expect him in a few days, and shall be desirous of 
 giving him every information before his return. I recommend the in- 
 formation herein contained, through your patronage, to the people, who, 
 I hope, after seeing the great notice and respect shewn them by the 
 State of Georgia, in her application to us for our assistance, and the high 
 confidence they place in the spirit and bravery of the people here, that 
 they will be animated with the idea, that they are now capable of evin- 
 
MILITIA OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 399 
 
 eing to the world that, like a young officer who first enters the field, they 
 are competent, from their bravery and merit, to make themselves known 
 and respected amongst the nations of the world ; and, though we have 
 not large cities and sea-ports, which generally sink into wealth and 
 luxury, by which means the offspring dwindle into effeminacy and dis- 
 sipation, yet, I hope, we shall always remain as happy, free and inde- 
 pendent as any other people ; if not, sure I am, it will be our own 
 fault, and we ought never to be pitied. 
 
 This appeal by Governor Sevier, to the gallantry of his 
 countrymen, was responded to in their usual warlike spirit. 
 An army of volunteers was at once recruited, and, as early 
 as December 2d, a letter was addressed by the Governor to 
 Colonel Handley, offering the co-operation of his army with 
 the forces of Georgia, in the contemplated invasion of the 
 Creek nation. To this no answer was received till after the 
 governor’s term of office had expired, and he had become a 
 private citizen. 
 
 Colonel Handley to Governor Sevier : 
 
 Augusta, Ga., February 19th, 1*788. 
 
 Sir : — We now inform you, that we have a just sense of the good 
 intentions of the pepple of Franklin towards this state; and we are 
 well-persuaded, the information contained in your letter, when properly 
 directed, is such as will tend to the mutual welfare and prosperity 
 of both. 
 
 We have the satisfaction to assure you, sir, that great progress is 
 made in our recruiting service. The regular troops will be marched into 
 the Indian country, putting to death all who make opposition. Mercy 
 will not be granted on any other terms than a total surrender of their 
 country and themselves. 
 
 All this, we assure you, would have happened, had not Congress, 
 agreeably to their act of the 26th of October, 1787, ordered one Com- 
 missioner to be appointed from each of the states, North-Carolina, 
 South-Carolina, and Georgia, to hold a treaty with the Indians, and we 
 now only suspend our operations till their determinations are known. 
 
 This letter is sufficiently explanatory of the delay in re- 
 plying to Sevier, as well as of the cause of abandoning the 
 expedition. This delay, and the consequent disappointment 
 of the militia of Franklin, baffled the hope which the gov- 
 ernor had cherished of harmonizing his people in support of 
 the new government. The volunteers were restless, impa- 
 tient and disappointed. Employment, suited to their taste — 
 danger, with which habit had made them familiar — victory, 
 which had ever followed them and their leader — conquest, 
 which they never doubted — renown, which they deified — 
 
400 
 
 WESTERN PREJUDICE AGAINST SPAIN. 
 
 achievement which they idolized, and fame for which they 
 sighed, had suddenly vanished and eluded 'their grasp. Not 
 a word of censure was uttered against their gallant comman- 
 der-in-chief, but the soldiery remained in sullen discontent 
 at home. 
 
 During the disturbances in Franklin, and more particularly 
 while Governor Sevier was recruiting an army to co-operate 
 with Georgia in the invasion and subjugation of the Creek 
 Indians, some restles spirits in the country contemplated the 
 seizure of the Spanish posts at Mobile, Natchez and New- 
 Orleans. It was well known, that by the stipulations of the 
 treaty at Pensacola, in 1784, the authorities of Spain consid- 
 ered themselves bound to treat the Creeks as friends and allies, 
 and that they furnished them supplies of ammunition, if they 
 did not excite them to hostilities against the western settle- 
 ments. This engendered a feeling of resentment against 
 Spain, which was exasperated when Congress consented 
 to deliberate upon the proposal of Mr. Jay to surrender, for 
 a term of years, the right of navigating the Mississippi liver. 
 It is not strange that, under these circumstances, the western 
 people should consider the Spaniards and Creeks alike as 
 enemies to them and to their interests ; nor that they should 
 agitate the subject of redressing their grievances and main- 
 taining their rights, b} r their own arms. This subject was 
 agitated in Franklin, and one of the agents of North-Caro- 
 lina, in criminating the new government, took occasion to 
 impute to Governor Sevier designs unfriendly to the Union. 
 At this conjuncture it was, that a letter came into the posses- 
 sion of the Federal authorities, pointing out unequivocal!; 
 machinations and designs against Spain on the part of Frank- 
 lin. The letter alluded to, was written Sept. 24, 1787, from 
 Charleston, South-Carolina, by John Sullivan, and was ad- 
 dressed to Major Brown, late of the Maryland artillery. The 
 writer, speaking of the Tennessee River, said : “ There will be 
 work for you in that country. I want you much. Take my word 
 for it, we will be speedily in possession of New-OrleansT 
 This letter, written about the time the Legislature of Frank- 
 lin contemplated and authorized the erection of garrisons in 
 the Bend of Tennessee, and at the time, too, when the alii- 
 
DECLINE OF THE FRANKLIN GOVERNMENT. 
 
 40 ! 
 
 ance was matured between them and Georgia, alarmed the 
 Federal Government, then negotiating with Spain. The War 
 Office at once directed General Harmar to institute the 
 strictest enquiry into the subject. No formal conspiracy 
 could be detected. Those engaged in it, were probably too 
 few, and the embarrassments nearer home too pressing, to al- 
 low the execution of their plans, which, under other circum- 
 stances, they could have easily effected. Cumberland, Ken- 
 tucky and the whole West, could have co-operated in prevent- 
 ing the occlusion of the Mississippi River against their com- 
 merce. The inhabitants left the subject to the negotiation 
 of the Federal Government, and chose not to disturb its 
 foreign relations. 
 
 Having thus presented in detail the foreign affairs of the 
 State of Franklin, we return to its domestic transactions. 
 Pending the negotiations for obtaining auxiliaries from 
 abroad, the new government was every day losing an ad- 
 herent at home, who, by transferring his allegiance to North- 
 Carolina, sensibly diminished the influence and authority of 
 Sevier. In 1787, there scarcely remained in the Common- 
 wealth of Franklin vitality enough to give it a nominal ex- 
 istence ; its substance and strength were absorbed into the 
 Carolina Regime, and the pangs of political annihilation ha- 
 ving thus come, little more was left of the skeleton of the 
 government, than its head. That still, under all the debility 
 which affected the body, retained its wonted vitality and vi- 
 gour. The Council of State had participated in the general 
 disaffection, and some of its members had accepted office un- 
 der North-Carolina, while others had failed to meet their 
 colleagues in the Board, or had formally withdrawn from it. 
 The judiciary, in its highest department, was annihilated by 
 the election of Judge Campbell to a seat in the Tarborough 
 Legislature, by which he was soon after appointed Judge of 
 the Superior Court for the District of Washington, at Jones- 
 boro’. The Legislature of Franklin suffered also from the 
 prevalent disintegration, and manifested a strong tendency 
 to dismemberment. From some of the old counties there 
 was no representation, while the delegates from others exhi- 
 bited indecision or discordance, vln September, of this year, 
 26 
 
402 
 
 LAST FRANKLIN LEGISLATURE. 
 
 a quorum was got together, and constituted, at Greeneville, 
 the last session of the Legislature of Franklin. Of this body, 
 John Menifee was Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
 and Charles Robinson, Speaker of the Senate. Their legis- 
 lation was chiefly confined to unimportant amendments of 
 the laws of North-Carolina. The Governor was scarcely 
 able to secure the passage of an act, to provide ways and 
 means to carry into effect his negotiation with Georgia, and 
 for descending the Tennessee River with his troops, and ta- 
 king possession of its Great Bend. This bill was passed by 
 a compromise. The quid pro quo given to the dissentients, 
 was the appointment of two delegates, to attend the Legis- 
 lature of North-Carolina, to make such representations of 
 the affairs of Franklin as might be thought proper. Under 
 this final adjustment, Judge Campbell and Landon Carter 
 were elected delegates — the former of whom, as has been 
 already stated, was, at the same time, a member of the Tar- 
 borough Assembly. The Greeneville Legislature also passed 
 an act, creating a land office in Franklin, with a provision, 
 that peltry should be taken by the Entry-taker instead of 
 money. 
 
 It is not known that the State of Franklin issued grants for 
 lands. It had acquired by treaty with the Cherokees, the 
 country south of French Broad, and west of Pigeon. It is 
 probable that only incipient measures were adopted for ap- 
 propriating it to specific purchasers. Each county had its 
 Entry-taker’s office, and its Surveyor. 
 
 A copy follows, of a Franklin Land Warrant: 
 
 State of Franklin, Caswell County, ) 
 
 No. IV, April 20, 1787. j 
 To the Surveyor of said County, Greeting : 
 
 Whereas, James Ruddle hath paid into the Entry-taker’s Office of this 
 County, ten shillings, for one hundred acres of land in said County ; 
 yoii are hereby required to receive his location for the same, and to lay 
 off and survey the above quantity of land, and make return thereof to 
 the Secretary’s Office, agreeable to law. 
 
 Given under my hand, at office, this 20th September, 1787. 
 
 John Sehorn, E. T. 
 
 No grant has been found on record, conveying land from 
 the State of Franklin. Indeed, few of its official papers 
 have survived the ravages^of time, and the accidents to 
 
INCREASING DEBILITY OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 403 
 
 which the partizan and rival conflicts, of the respective offi- 
 cers of the old and new jurisdiction, exposed them. It is 
 tradition, that one of the married daughters of Governor Se- 
 vier concealed them, on one occasion, in a cave. A portion 
 of the Docket of Washington County Court, now before this 
 writer, seems to have undergone such an exposure- From 
 one of its mutilated pages, he is able to decipher : ' 
 
 “ On motion being made by the Attorney for the State, and 
 at the same time exhibited a handbill containing an ‘ Ad- 
 dress to the Inhabitants of Franldand State,’ under the sig- 
 nature of a citizen of the same, the Court, upon the same 
 being read publicly in open Court, adjudged it to contain 
 treasonable insinuations against the United States, and false, 
 ungenerous reflections against persons of distinction in the 
 Ecclesiastic department, fraught with falsehood, calculated 
 to alienate the minds of their citizens from their government, 
 and overturn the same. 
 
 “Upon mature deliberation, the Court condemned said 
 handbill to be publicly burned by the High Sheriff of the 
 County, as a treasonable, wicked, false, and seditious libel.” 
 
 The defection had, in the meantime, extended further, and 
 embraced the State Council. Its members were the last to 
 yield to the force of that current in public affairs, which but 
 too plainly they saw, was now setting against Franklin. Thev 
 all continued the faithful and steadfast friends of Sevier. 
 But the legislature, session after session, became smaller and 
 smaller, and confining its action to subjects of immediate 
 importance and urgency, failed to elect the State Council, 
 and the Governor was left “ alone in his glory.” Some of 
 the old Board, though no longer his constitutional advisers, 
 dissuaded him from further effort to perpetuate the new go- 
 vernment, and advised him to yield to the necessity which 
 portended its fete, and threatened to overwhelm its Execu- 
 tive. Vestige after vestige of Franklin was obliterated; its 
 judiciary was gone ; its legislature reduced to a skeleton ; 
 its council effete, defunct, powerless ; its military disorga- 
 nized, if not discordant ; and its masses confused and dis- 
 tracted, with no concert and unanimity among themselves. 
 
 Distraction extended likewise to the lower judicial tribu- 
 
404 
 
 CIVIL DISTURBANCES ANIMOSITY 
 
 nals of Franklin, Discordant elements were found amongst 
 the magistrates composing its county courts. The Franklin 
 courts elected one set of county officers, while another set 
 were chosen by such of the justices as had accepted commis- 
 sions from North-Carolina. This conflict of jurisdiction was 
 succeeded, in some instances, unpleasant results. The 
 possession of the records was, of course, desired by each in- 
 cumbent. Force and stratagem were resorted to by both 
 parties to obtain them. Courts were held in different places, 
 and an unarmed body of men would suddenly enter the court- 
 house of the adverse party, seize its records, and bear them 
 off in triumph. An effort would then be made to regain, 
 them. A scuffle would ensue, ending sometimes in a gene- 
 ral fight. Scenes of disorder took place, which were gene- 
 rally sources of merriment and pleasurable excitement, 
 rather than causes of settled malice or revenge. The par- 
 ties separated, and soon after were friends. In Washington 
 county, however, the dispute became acrimonious, and at 
 length generated a feeling of inappeasable malignity between 
 the leaders of their respective parties. From the commence- 
 ment of the Franklin revolt, this county had been the seat 
 of a central influence, which, while it remained united, was 
 able to repress any opposition to its authority. That central 
 power was represented by two very numerous and most re- 
 spectable families, the leading members of which were John 
 Sevier and John Tipton — each alike brave, patriotic and 
 ambitious. Each had been distinguished by martial ex- 
 ploits and patriotic services in civil life. They had con- 
 quered together at King’s Mountain, and co-operated to- ' 
 gether, harmoniously, in all the incipient measures of the 
 insurrectionary government. On one occasion, as has been 1 
 mentioned, when Sevier hesitated and dissuaded from sepa- 
 ration, Tipton was decided in support of that measure. Tip- 
 ton became an officer under the new government. Sevier 
 was its Governor. After the repeal of the Cession act, the 
 former returned to his allegiance to the parent state, and 
 was now a member of its legislature; the latter main- 
 tained his opposition to it. They were now implacable ene- 
 mies. Each of them had political adherents and personal 
 
BETWEEN GOVERNOR SEVIER AND COLONEL TIPTON. 
 
 405 
 
 friends. Neither of them had a personal enemy. Each of 
 these leaders, it is reasonable to suppose, felt the ambition to 
 supplant his rival, and prevent his supremacy. 
 
 The Legislature of North-Carolina, at its session of this 
 | year, continued and extended its conciliatory policy 
 ( towards the western people. The former acts of 
 pardon and oblivion to such as had been engaged in the re- 
 volt, were re-enacted, and those who availed themselves of 
 the advantages specified therein, were restored to the privi- 
 leges of citizens. Suits were dismissed, which had been 
 instituted for the recovery of penalties or forfeitures incurred 
 by a non-compliance with the revenue laws, and those who 
 had failed to list their property for taxation, for the current 
 year, were allowed three months longer in which to comply 
 with the law. These pacific and satisfactory measures were 
 suggested and supported by the delegates from the western 
 counties, then members of the North-Carolina Legislature, 
 and went far to remove the remains of discontent and 
 quiet the complaints of the citizens. 
 
 The Governor of Franklin still retained his elastic and 
 sanguine temper. As late in his administration of Frank- 
 lin, as January 24, 1788, Governor Sevier continued to 
 inspire his adherents with hope. Under that date he 
 writes to — 
 
 Hon. General Kennedy : 
 
 Dear Sir : — I have, lately, received some favourable news from Doc- 
 tor Franklin, and other gentlemen; also, am happy to inform you that 
 I find our friends very warm and steady — much more so than hereto- 
 fore. My son can inform you of some late particulars. Any thing 
 material your way, will thank you for a sketch of it by my son. 
 
 I am, sir, your most obdt., 
 
 John Sevier. 
 
 “Very warm and steady” were, indeed, the friends of 
 John Sevier, but not of the Governor’ of Franklin, now totter- 
 ing into ruins. In little more than one month, Franklin had 
 ceased to be. v 
 
 At the return of the members, early in January of this 
 l^gg ^ year, from Tarborough, it was announced that the 
 ( parent state had no intention of acceding to the 
 views ot those who favoured the establishment of the 
 Franklin government? 
 
406 
 
 GOVERNOR SEVIER MARCHES AGAINST TIPTON, 
 
 The County Court of Washington still held its sessions at 
 Davis’s, under the authority of North-Carolina ; that of 
 Franklin, at Jonesboro’. Of this court, James Sevier, a 
 son of the Governor, was clerk. Of the court at Davis’s, 
 John Tipton was clerk. An extract from his docket is here 
 given : 
 
 “ 1788, February Term. — Ordered — That the Sheriff take into cus- 
 tody the County Court docket of said county, supposed to he in posses- 
 sion of John Sevier, Esq., and the same records bring from him or any 
 other person or persons in whose possession they now are or hereafter 
 shall be, and the same return to this or some succeeding court for said 
 county.” 
 
 A fit opportunity soon after occurred, of testing the supre- 
 macy of the new and old dynasty. We copy from Hay- 
 wood : 
 
 A fieri facias had issued in the latter part of the year 
 1787, and had been placed in the hands of the sheriff, to be 
 executed against the estate of Governor Sevier, in the early 
 part of 1788. The sheriff, acting under the authority of 
 North-Carolina, by virtue thereof, seized all or the greater 
 part, of Governor Sevier’s negroes, to satisfy it, and removed 
 them, for safe keeping, from his farm, on Nollichucky River, 
 to the house of Colonel Tipton. Sevier was, at this time, on 
 the frontiers of Greene county, devising means for defending 
 the inhabitants against the incursions of the Indians, whose 
 conduct of late, had given room for the apprehension of a 
 formal renewal of hostilities. Hearing of the seizure of his 
 negroes by virtue of an unlawful precept, as he deemed it, 
 and by an officer not legally constituted, he resolved immt- 
 diately to suppress all opposition to the new government of 
 Franklin, and to punish the actors for their audacity. He 
 raised one hundred and fifty men, principally in Greene 
 county, but partly in Sevier, and what is now called Blount 
 and marched directly to Tipton’s house, near to which he 
 arrived in the afternoon. Not more than fifteen men of Tip- 
 ton’s party were then with him. Sevier halted his troops 
 two or thre hundred yards from the house, on a sunken piece 
 of ground, where they were covered from annoyance by those 
 in the house. Sevier was also incited to action by another 
 incident. Tipton, it was said, in order to get possession of 
 
AND BESIEGES HIM IN HIS OWN HOUSE. 
 
 407 
 
 his person, had collected a party of his adherents, some time 
 before, and had sent them off with orders to make Sevier a 
 prisoner. The latter happened to be on the frontiers, and 
 Tipton’s emissaries missed their aim. When Sevier came 
 home and was informed of this attempt, he burned with 
 indignation at the ingratitude of it, and at the unrelenting 
 temper which he considered to have prompted it. Hence, 
 he received an additional motive to action, and resolved, in 
 turn, to look for the Saul who searched for him in all the 
 dens and hiding places of the country. Tipton had gained 
 some intimation of Sevier’s design, and had but just time to 
 call for the aid of fifteen of his friends, who were with him 
 at the time of Sevier’s arrival. With them he kept posses- 
 sion of his house, and barricaded it against the expected 
 assault, as well as he could, and, with undismayed steadiness, 
 waited the arrival of the Governor. The house of Colonel 
 Tipton was on Sinking Creek, of Watauga River, eight or 
 ten miles east of Jonesboro’. The Governor was not dila- 
 tory in making his appearance. He presented himself and 
 his troops, with a small piece of ordnance, and took post in 
 front of the house. He demanded the unconditional surren- 
 der of Tipton, and of all who were with him in the house. 
 Tipton, with the earnest language which he sometimes em- 
 ployed on emergent occasions, sent word to him “ to fire and 
 be damned.” He sent to Tipton a written summons. This, 
 with a letter calling for assistance, Tipton immediately sent 
 to Colonel Maxwell, of Sullivan, who was commandant of 
 militia in that county, and a representative of the county in 
 the General Assembly of North-Carolina. For some time, 
 Tipton would not permit any communication with Sevier. 
 Early the next day, however, he consented that Robert Love, 
 Esquire, one of the fifteen who had come to his assistance^ 
 might correspond with him. Mr. Love wrote to him through 
 the medium of his own flag, and directed his letter to Colo- 
 onel Sevier. In reply, it was said, that Colonel Sevier was 
 not in camp, alluding to Valentine Sevier, a brother of the 
 Governor, who bore the title of colonel. Mr. Love answered 
 them, and strongly recommended to the troops to withdraw and 
 disband themselves, which, he said, would enable those who 
 
408 
 
 RALIjY of the clans. 
 
 supported the government of North-Carolina to countermand 
 the orders for levying troops in Sullivan county, and other 
 places. The reply made to this recommendation was, that 
 Governor Sevier could countermand the orders for their 
 march. Here the correspondence ended. A few of the 
 most influential persons then with Tipton, were sent out to 
 collect reinforcements from the neighbourhood and from the 
 settlements above. Two or three were adso sent to Sullivan 
 county, for the same purpose. On the next day a few men 
 joined Tipton, and, in the course of the day, a woman, 
 coming to the house on some occasion, in company with 
 another woman, was shot in the shoulder.* Some of Se- 
 vier’s troops occupied an eminence of limestone rocks, with- 
 in shooting distance of the house, and from that quarter the 
 woman was wounded. On the next night Mr. Robert Love 
 went out with one man, for the purpose of getting aid from 
 the quarter of the country where he resided. On his way 
 home, he met his brother Thomas, now General Love, with 
 ten or twelve men, going to join Tipton, whom he informed 
 of the guard, at the eminence of rocks, which lay near the 
 road that led to the house. Mr. Thomas Love, before it was 
 light, approached the rocks on a prancing horse, himself 
 hemming and coughing. Not being hailed, he went to the 
 rocks, at which the guard had been stationed, and found that 
 the whole guard was absent. The weather being exces- 
 sively cold, they had retired to the main body, to warm 
 themselves by their fires. Mr. Thomas Love returned to his 
 companions and informed them of the absence of the guard 
 from their post, whereupon, raising a whoop, they went in 
 full gallop to Tipton’s house, and by their junction with the 
 besieged, infused fresh vigour into their resolutions. 
 
 Elholm, second in command to the Governor, in order to 
 make short work, and to escape from the danger of delay, 
 proposed the erection of a light movable battery, under co- 
 ver of which the troops might safely advance to the walls 
 of the house. In the meantime, those coming in and going 
 out of the house of Tipton, were fired upon, and one, whose 
 
 This was purely accidental. 
 
BESIEGING FORCES RETIRE FROM TIPTOn’s. 
 
 409 
 
 I 
 
 name was Web'b, was killed ; another, whose name was 
 Vaun, was wounded in the arm. Maxwell, with all possi- 
 ble expedition, raised one hundred and eighty men, and 
 marching with them, he had halted at Dungan’s Mill, and 
 had stayed there in the fore part of the night, till they could 
 have just time to reach the camp of Sevier by morning. 
 Whilst they were lying there, Sevier’s scouts came within a 
 mile of them, and not discovering any advancing enemy, 
 returned to their main body. The night was cloudy and 
 dark, and in the morning of the 3d of February,* 1 just after 
 day-break, which was the time of the attack made by Se- 
 vier, the snow poured down as fast as it could fall from the 
 clouds. Sevier had placed, in the road leading from Sulli- 
 van county, by the place of his encampment, sentinels to 
 watch the approach of the reinforcement to Tipton, which 
 was expected from Sullivan. The cold weather was so 
 extreme that it had forced them into camp to warm them- 
 selves for a few minutes. Maxwell and Pemberton advanced 
 cautiously, with their men well formed in a line, within 
 gunshot of Sevier’s camp, having passed the spot where the 
 sentinels were stationed, unobserved. Here they a,waited 
 the approach of daylight. As soon as objects had become 
 visible, the snow falling, and Sevier’s men advancing to the 
 attack on the house, the troops under Maxwell fired a volley 
 and raised a shout which seemed to reach the heavens, and 
 communicated to Tipton and his men in the house, that de- 
 liverance was at hand. From the house they re-echoed the 
 shout, and instantly sallied out upon the besiegers. In the 
 midst of these loud rejoicings, a tremor seized the dismayed 
 troops of Sevier, and they fled in all directions, through 
 every avenue that promised escape from the victors. Tip- 
 ton and Maxwell did not follow them more than two hun- 
 dred yards. Within one hour afterwards, Sevier sent in 
 Robert Young with a flag, proposing terms of accommoda- 
 tion. They left, in their flight, to be taken by the victors, 
 the small piece of ordnance which Sevier had caused to be 
 planted upon a battery. Pugh, the high sheriff of Wash- 
 
 * This date is an error. It was the 28 th of February, 1788. 
 
410 
 
 TIPTON RELEASES HIS PRISONERS. 
 
 ington county, was mortally wounded. Divers persons were 
 made prisoners who belonged to Sevier’s corps, and amongst 
 them two sons of Sevier, James and John. Tipton forth- 
 with determined to hang both of them. Apprised of the 
 rash step he intended to take, the young men sent for Mr. 
 Thomas Love, and others of Tipton’s party, with whom they 
 had a good understanding, and solicited their intercession 
 with Tipton. Those persons went directly to him and rep- 
 resented, in strong terms, the rashness, illegality and impolicy 
 of the intended execution. They urged their arguments so 
 effectually, that, with tears flowing down his cheeks at the 
 mention of his own sons, supposing them to be in the pos- 
 session of Sevier, about to be executed by him for offences 
 imputed to the father, he pronounced himself too womanish 
 for any manly office, and desisted from his purpose. 
 
 This is the account usually given of the affair between 
 Tipton and Sevier. It is believed to be mainly correct. The 
 declaration put into the mouth of Governor Sevier, that he 
 would suppress all opposition to the government of Franklin, 
 needs confirmation, or should be qualified. From the com- 
 mencement of the difficulties between the parent state and her 
 revolted counties, Sevier had determined to avoid and in- 
 tended to prevent violence and bloodshed. His moderation 
 and his good temper, have been attested by the narrative of 
 every pioneer this annalist has had an opportunity to ex- ■ 
 amine. The Governor, in every instance, dissuaded his ad- 
 herents from violence or even tumult. His own letters, 
 official and private, breathe the same spirit. The reader will 
 recollect how much, and how pathetically, he deprecated a 
 resort to force in his letter to Governor Matthews, of June 
 24, in which he also speaks of the mother state with affec- 
 tion and regard — indeed, in a tone of filial piety, which can- 
 not be too much admired. His conduct during the siege of 
 Tipton’s house, and until he withdrew from it, demonstrates, 
 what is intended here to be said, that Governor Sevier did 
 not intend to maintain the authority of Franklin by force. 
 
 It is known, that in undertaking to recover his property, then 
 in the custody of Tipton’s adherents., and confined in his 
 house, the determined spirit of that brave man defied Sevier. 
 
sevier’s demeanour during the siege. 
 
 411 
 
 Major Elholm advised an immediate assault, and offered to 
 lead it. The Governor restrained the ardour of his adjutant, 
 and declared that not a gun should be fired. Elholm re- 
 newed his application for leave to storm the house, when he 
 was silenced by the remark from Sevier, that he came not 
 there to kill his countrymen, and that those who followed 
 him had no such wish or design. Sevier himself, and most 
 of his adherents, were too patriotic not to be dissatisfied with 
 the position which surrounding circumstances had forced 
 him to assume, and which he almost reluctantly now occupied, 
 at the head of insurgents, and prompted to engage them in 
 a fratricidal warfare. His sword had been often drawn for 
 his country — his heart had never quailed before its enemies. 
 Over these he had often triumphed ; but now he refused to 
 imbrue his hands in the blood of patriotic countrymen and 
 friends. The patriot prevailed over the officer — the citizen 
 over the soldier. The sternness of the commander yielded 
 to the claims of duty and a common citizenship. His de- 
 meanour during the siege, and especially on the night before 
 the assault, is represented by those of his party who served 
 under him, before and after this occasion, to have been very 
 different from that which he usually manifested. The men 
 under his command exhibited the same altered behaviour. 
 In all their campaigns, ardour and enthusiasm attended the 
 march — care and vigilance the bivouac — the mirthful song 
 and the merry jest, were heard in every tent. On these 
 occasions, it was the custom of Sevier to visit every mess, 
 and to participate in their hilarity. He spoke of enemies and 
 danger before, and friends and home behind them. He was 
 thus the companion, and friend, and idol of his soldiery. 
 But now the camp of the Governor of Franklin was dreary 
 and cheerless. No merry laugh was heard — nor song. — nor 
 jest. Little care and less vigilance was taken in placing out 
 the sentinels. Sevier was silent, appeared abstracted, 
 thoughtful, and, at this time only in his whole public life, 
 morose and ascetic. Elholm’s vivacity failed to arouse him. 
 He communicated little to that officer ; he said nothing to 
 his men. He took no precaution, suggested no plan, either 
 
412 
 
 BOTH PARTIES INDISPOSED TO BLOODSHED. 
 
 of attack or defence. The enemies of his country were not 
 before him, and the patriot Governor repressed the aspirations 
 of the “ commander-in-chief of the army of the State of 
 Franklin.” In no other instance has he given a livelier ex- 
 hibition of the true moral sublime of patriotism. 
 
 The example of Sevier was contagious. The energy and 
 skill of Elholm effected nothing. They could not convert 
 American citizens into fratricides. 
 
 A similar spirit actuated the adverse party. Their coura- 
 geous leader acted only on the defensive. When the siege 
 was raised, no immediate pursuit was made. The besiegers 
 and the besieged, were soon after friends, and peaceable 
 neighbours. It is still strange, under all the circumstances, 
 that so few of both parties were killed or wounded. This 
 has sometimes been ascribed to and accounted for, by the 
 heavy snovv storm which occurred during the siege. One 
 of the besieged, the late Dr. Taylor, of Carter county, may 
 explain it in his own words. “We did not go there to 
 fight. Neither party intended to uo that. Many on both 
 sides were unarmed, and some who had guns, did not even 
 load them. Most of us went to prevent mischief, and did not 
 intend to let the neighbours kill one another. Our men shot 
 into the air, and Sevier’s men into the corners of the house. 
 As to the storm of snow keeping the men from taking a sure 
 aim, it is all a mistake. Both sides had the best marksmen in 
 the world, who had often killed a deer, and shot it in the head 
 too, when a heavier snow was falling. The men did not try to 
 hit any body. They could easily have done so if they had 
 been enemies.” 
 
 The late Colonel Joseph Hamilton, senior, speaking of this 
 affair, says : 
 
 Col. Pemberton, of Sullivan, to whom an express had been sent by 
 Tipton, soliciting relief, arrived with thirty men. These he stationed 
 in front of Sevier’s camp, unperceived by the latter. Pemberton ordered 
 a general discharge of the rifles of his party. The discharge was made 
 intentionally, to avoid shooting any of Sevier’s men. 
 
 On the approach of Sevier’s troops, Captain John Cowan was sent 
 in with a flag, proposing some terms of compromise. This was refused 
 the first, second and third times. After the reinforcement from Sulli- 
 
ERROR OF THE DATE OF THE SIEGE. 
 
 413 
 
 van, Captain Cowan was taken prisoner ; and refusing to give bail for 
 his appearance before a civil court, was retained in custody of Colonel 
 Tipton several days. Captain Handley, at length, prevailed with Tip- 
 ton, and Cowan was released.* 
 
 The date of the affair before Tipton’s house, as given in 
 the account of it taken from Haywood, is the third of Feb- 
 ruary. This is incorrect. It was, certainly, several days 
 later than the twenty-fifth of February. The writer has in 
 his possession, a military despatch from Governor Sevier, 
 which is here given : 
 
 Major Taylor’s, f 15th February, 1788. 
 
 Dear Captain : — I am informed that the Tipton party have got very 
 insolent, and have been guilty of several cruelties and barbarous ac- 
 tions. I have ordered fifteen men out of each company, to turn out; 
 and I am well satisfied that the men of Sevier county will turn out 
 bravely. I beg you will use your influence to get as many men out of 
 your neighbourhood to turn out, as may be in your power. I shall ex- 
 pect your company up. I am satisfied that a small exertion will settle 
 the matter to our satisfaction. Pray speak to Mr. Allen, and let us raise 
 as many men as in our power. For further particulars, I beg leave to 
 refer you to the bearer. 
 
 I am, dear sir, your most obdt. humble servant, 
 
 John Sevier. 
 
 Captain John Zahaun, Caswell County, Franklin State. 
 
 Favoured per James Sevier. 
 
 It would require two or three days for the Governor’s mes- 
 senger to reach Captain Zahaun’sJ residence ; fully as many to 
 notify to the militia the purport of the despatch, and to assem- 
 ble them together ; and as many more to reach the Governor’s 
 head-quarters, ten miles above Jonesboro’. Sevier county, 
 on whose military ardour the Governor so confidently relied, 
 embraced much of the present county of Blount, a distance 
 offmore than one hundred miles from Jonesboro’. It is known 
 that Colonel Weir and others from that county, were present 
 at the siege, and it is not probable, that from the date of 
 the despatch to the time of the arrival of the troops at head- 
 quarters, less than two weeks had elapsed. It was, cer- 
 tainly, very late in February, or perhaps, early in March, 
 when the engagement took place. The late James Sevier, 
 
 *Manuscripts before me. 
 
 + Near Jonesboro’. 
 
 | Since known as Sehorn’s Ferry, above Dandridge. 
 
414 
 
 SEVIER WRITES TO GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA, 
 
 of Washington county, believed the date was February 28. 
 This accords with the ^following despatches from Colonel 
 Tipton, and with a letter to be hereafter given, from Go- 
 vernor Sevier himself. 
 
 On Monday, February 25th, Colonel Tipton, writing to 
 Colonel Robert Love, says : 
 
 “ The rebels are again rising; Sevier is now making his last effort ; 
 he has given orders to his officers below, to draft fifteen men out of each 
 company, and take property from those that will not serve, and give to 
 those that will. This day they are to meet at Greene ; to-morrow at 
 Jonesboro’; and Wednesday, if not before, make the push here. I 
 therefore request you to give orders to the officers in the Cove, to collect 
 their men with the greatest expedition, and march to my house to-mor- 
 row, fixed in ample manner; as I purpose to defend this quarter, with- 
 out making any excursions, unless I can get further information. 
 
 I am, sir, with respect, yours to serve, 
 
 John Tipton. 
 
 N. B. — Let no time be lost. 
 
 Though now no longer the Governor of Franklin, and in- 
 deed without office and authority, and a mere private citizen, 
 Sevier continued to correspond with his quondam allies in 
 Georgia. He still dates from 
 
 Franklin, 10th April, 1788. 
 
 Sir : — Yours, of the 19 th of February, I had the honour to receive. 
 In our present confused situation of affairs, I am not able to reply with 
 that accuracy and satisfaction to your Excellency I could wish. Our 
 country is, at this time, almost in a state of anarchy, occasioned, as we 
 suggest, by the North-Carolinians stimulating a party to act in a hostile 
 manner against us. 
 
 Agreeable to our Constitution, my duration in office continued no 
 longer than the 1st of March last, and, in our present embarrassed con- 
 dition, our Assembly have, as yet, failed to make any new appointment. 
 
 It is with great pleasure I inform you that a great number of the peo- 
 ple of this country discover a ready disposition to aid your state against 
 your savage enemies ; and let matters occur as they may, if I am spared 
 I purpose joining your army with a considerable number of volunteers, 
 to act in concert with you against the Creeks, though many of 
 our enemies are making use of every diabolical plan in their power, in 
 order to destroy our laudable intention. 
 
 I beg your Excellency will be so obliging as to advise us, from time 
 to time, of your intended operations, and should your campaign be pro- 
 crastinated until the fall season, I am of opinion you will get a much 
 greater number of men from this country. 
 
 During the time Governor Sevier administered the affairs 
 of the Franklin Government, little disturbances existed upon 
 
AND REPAIRS TO THE FRONTIER. 
 
 415 
 
 the frontier. The Cherokees had learned, by past experience, 
 the danger of hostilities with the Franklin people, when 
 commanded by an officer of such vigour and capacity, as in 
 all his campaigns had been manifested by Sevier. The In- 
 dians, until his government was overthrown, stayed, for the 
 most part, quietly in their villages, and permitted the settle- 
 ments to be extended rapidly, and with little interruption, 
 from the lower parts of Greene and Spencer counties, to the 
 western limits of what is now Knox county, north of Hol- 
 ston, and Blount county, south of it. But from the commence- 
 ment of this year, the Cherokees having constant informa- 
 tion of the difficulties existing amongst their white neigh- 
 bours, had manifested evident tokens of dissatisfaction, and 
 a general desire for a renewal of hostilities. During the 
 short absence of such of the gunmen as had gone from the 
 lower settlements to Sevier’s head-quarters, some mischief 
 was done on the frontier, and the traders all reported an ap- 
 proaching Indian invasion. Messengers were immediately 
 despatched to the upper counties after Sevier, carrying with 
 them representations of the impending danger, and urging 
 his immediate return to the exposed border settlements. These 
 he received just after his fruitless siege of Tipton’s house, 
 and when the disasters of the day hung like a pall around 
 him, and ulcerated his wounded spirit. In a moment Sevier 
 was himself again ; elastic, brave, energetic, daring and pa- 
 triotic. At the head of a body of mounted riflemen, he was 
 at once upon the frontier to guard and protect its most de- 
 fenceless points. 
 
 After the departure of Sevier and his adherents, Col. Tip 
 ton, on the 11th March, issued again to Col Robert Love this 
 order : 
 
 “You will cause the men of the Greasy Cove to be notified to appear 
 at my house on Saturday evening next, well equipped, with arms and 
 ammunition, and six days provision. Those that have arms, etc., and 
 do not comply, take and give to those that will serve.” 
 
 Colonel Tipton, with a number of troops, were, on the 16th 
 of March, collected at Abednego Inman’s. From that place, 
 he wrote to General Kennedy, a friend of Sevier’s, that “ my 
 business is not to disturb or molest the inhabitants, but 
 
416 
 
 CONCILIATORY CONDUCT OF GENERAL MARTIN. 
 
 rather to protect them ; and, sir, as I am persuaded that you 
 have the interest of the country at large at heart, if it should 
 coincide with your approbation, that you should bring the 
 Commissions to Greene Court-House to-morrow, for the pur- 
 pose of establishing a court, so that the inhabitants may be 
 exempted of the penalty prescribed by law.” 
 
 General Martin, who now commanded the brigade of 
 North-Carolina militia west of the mountain, also wrote to 
 General Kennedy, March 21, 1788. 
 
 “ I am greatly distressed and alarmed at the late proceedings of our 
 countrymen and friends, and must beg your friendly interposition, in 
 order to bring about a reconciliation, which, you well know, was my 
 object in accepting the brigadier’s commission. I am, perhaps, as little 
 afraid of stepping forth in the field of action as any other man ; but I 
 would be sorry to imbrue my hands in the blood of my countrymen 
 and friends, and will take every method in my power to prevent any 
 thing of that nature. In our present situation, nothing will do but a 
 submission to the laws of North-Carolina, which I most earnestly re- 
 commend to the people. You well know this is the only way to bring 
 about a separation, and also a reconciliation for our worthy friend, whose 
 situation at this time is very disagreeable. I most sensibly feel for him, 
 and will go very great lengths to serve him. Pray see him often, and 
 give him all the comfort you can. 
 
 “ 1 am told that a certain officer says, that if I issue an order for a 
 reconciliation, that it shall not be obeyed ; but I shall let that gentleman 
 know that I am not to be trifled with. Pray write me all what the 
 people will do, and whether you will accept your commission, which I hope 
 you will. Have the militia immediately olfi ered and prepared for 
 action, as I expect a general Indian war shortly. Please give my best 
 respects to the people in general. Tell them my object is reconciliation, 
 not war.” 
 
 There were few — perhaps none — even of the adherents cf 
 the old state, whose feelings and wishes, in reference to Se- 
 vier, were not in exact consonance with those expressed by 
 General Martin in this letter. Its tone, its moderation, its 
 wisdom, its sympathy for a soldier and a patriot, constitute 
 the highest eulogy upon his own good sense, his patriotism 
 and his good feelings. They cannot be too much admired or 
 imitated. They saved the country from further tumult and 
 violence, and all opposition, on the part of Franklin to North- 
 Carolina, ceased. 
 
 At this moment of impending tumult and civil discord, a 
 missionary of the Christian religion appeared, unexpectedly, 
 
BISHOP ASBURY’S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 
 
 417 
 
 in the midst of these conflicting elements of excited passion 
 and social and political disorganization. We extract from 
 Bishop Asbury’s Journal: “April 28,1788. — We reached 
 
 the head of Watauga ; came to Greer’s. The people are in 
 disorder about the Old and New State ; two or three men have 
 been killed. At Nelson’s, I had a less audience than was 
 expected ; the people having been called away on an expe- 
 dition against the new-state-men. Preached on Hebrews, 
 vi. chapter, 11th and 12th verses.” Shortly afterwards, he 
 preached “ at Owens’s, on Psalm 148, verses 17, 18, 19, with 
 some fervour. Came to Huffacre’s and Key wood’s, where we 
 held Conference three days ; and I preached each day. The 
 weather was cold ; the room without lire, and otherwise uncom- 
 fortable. We, nevertheless, made out to keep our seats until 
 we had finished the essential part of our business.” This 
 first Conference west of the mountain — the novelty of such 
 an assemblage in the wilds of Watauga — its mission of be- 
 nignity and peace — the calm dignity and unpretending sim- 
 plicity of the venerable Bishop, all conspired to soothe, quiet 
 and harmonize the excited masses, and to convert partizans 
 and factionists into brothers and friends. 
 
 In the meantime, Governor Caswell’s term of office having 
 expired, Samuel Johnston was elected his successor. His 
 administration, it was hoped, might effect the restoration of 
 harmony in the revolted counties, which the conciliatory 
 policy of Governor Caswell had failed to do. He was kept 
 advised of the state of affairs, west of the mountains, and in 
 the following letter from Colonel Martin, it was recom- 
 mended to send troops from North-Carolina, to quell existing 
 disturbances in Franklin : 
 
 Long Island, 24th March, 1788. 
 
 Sir : — The confusion of this country induces me to lay before your 
 Excellency, by express, our present situation, which is truly alarming. 
 
 I sent, on Saturday last, to Sevier and his party, requiring them to 
 lay down their arms, and submit to the laws of North-Carolina, but 
 can get no answer, only from Colonel Joseph Hardin, which I forward ; 
 though I know, that on Friday last, they met in Convention, to concert 
 some plan. The bearer of my express to them, informs me, that he 
 understood that Sevier had gone towards French Broad, since the 10th 
 instant; that Colonel Kennedy, with several others, had gone the same 
 way, to carry on an expedition against the Cherokee Indians, which, I 
 27 
 
418 GOV. JOHNSTON DIRECTS THE APPREHENSION OF SEVIER. 
 
 am well assured, wish to he at peace ; except the Chickamauga party, 
 which could he easily driven out of that country, if your Excellency 
 should recommend it. I am somewhat doubtful, that Sevier and his 
 party are embodying, under the colour of an Indian expedition, to 
 amuse us, and that their real object is, to make another attack on the 
 citizens of this state ; to prevent which, I have ordered the different 
 colonels to have their men in good order, until I can hear from your Ex- 
 cellency ; at which time, I hope, you will give me directions in what 
 manner to proceed, in this uncommon and critical situation ; for which 
 I shall wait, till the return of the express, before I shall take any deci- 
 sive steps. 
 
 Should the Franks still persist to oppose the laws of this state, 
 would it not be well to order General McDowell to give some assist- 
 ance ? as a few men from there will convince them, that North-Carolina 
 is determined to protect her citizens. 
 
 Representations continued to be made to Governor John- 
 ston unfavourable to Sevier’s conduct and motives, which 
 induced him to issue to Judge Campbell, the instructions 
 following : 
 
 Hillsborough, 29th July, 1788. 
 
 Sir : — It has been represented to the Executive, that John Sevier, 
 who styles himself Captain-General of the State of Franklin, has been 
 guilty of high treason, in levying troops to oppose the laws and govern- 
 ment of this state, and has with an armed force put to death several j 
 good citizens. If these facts shall appear to you by the affidavit of 
 credible persons, you will issue your warrant to apprehend the said I 
 John Sevier, and in case he cannot he sufficiently secured for trial in 
 the District of Washington, order him to be committed to the public 
 gaol. 
 
 At the same time an order was forwarded to General Mar- 
 tin, to assist the sheriff in the apprehension of Sevier. Go- 
 vernor Johnston says further, to General Martin : 
 
 “ Sevier, from the state of his conduct, set forth in your letter, ap- 
 pears to be incorrigible, and I fear we shall have no peace in your 
 quarter, till he is proceeded against to the last extremity.” 
 
 These repeated accusations of Sevier and of those impli- 
 cated with him, in the charges of barbarous and cruel con- 
 duct, are to be ascribed, in some instances, to political ani- 
 mosity — and in others, to exaggeration of his conduct, and a 
 misapprehension of his designs. He was now really a pri- 
 vate citizen, without command or authority, and yet, as will 
 be hereafter seen, he was constantly at the head of troops— 
 volunteers, who selected him as their commander, and 
 
JOHN SEVIER TO THE INHABITANTS. 
 
 419 
 
 who followed his standard and obeyed his orders, as fully 
 and as cheerfully, as if he were yet in power. The 
 frontier people knew that they could not be safe, but by their 
 own exertions and military services. They needed a leader 
 to co mbine their strength, discipline tjie troops, project expe- 
 ditions, secure their exposed stations, expel their Indian ene- 
 mies, and give quiet and safety to a scattered and defenceless 
 people. This responsible duty they imposed upon Sevier 
 He could not decline the position thus assigned him by ac- 
 clamation. He assumed it cheerfully, and executed its du- 
 ties well. 
 
 Sevier was now on the frontier, and though invested with 
 no official power, the Ex-Governor and one of his Franklin 
 officers, issued this address. 
 
 “ Major Houston’s Station, 8th of July, T788. 
 
 “ To the Inhabitants in general : — Yesterday we crossed Tennessee 
 with a small party of men, and destroyed a town called Toquo. On 
 our return we discovered large trails of Indians making their way to- 
 wards this place. We are of the opinion their numbers could not be 
 less than five hundred. We beg leave to recommend, that every 
 Station will be on their guard ; that also, every good man that can be 
 spared, will voluntarily turn out and repair to this place, with the ut- 
 most expedition, in order to tarry for a few days in the neighbourhood 
 and repel tlie enemy, if possible. We intend waiting at this place some 
 days with the few men now with us, as we cannot reconcile it to our 
 own feelings, to leave a people who appear to be in such great distress. 
 
 John Sevier, 
 
 James Hubbert. 
 
 N. B. It will be necessary for those who will be so grateful as to come 
 to the assistance of this place, to furnish themselves with a few days pro- 
 visions, as the inhabitants of this Fort are greatly distressed with the 
 Indians. 
 
 J. S. 
 
 J. H. 
 
 A minute account of Sevier’s further services is given 
 by Haywood, from which we copy or condense : 
 
 “ The Cherokees still burned with a desire for war. It seemed, in- 
 deed, as if nothing could ensure peace but their total extinction. 
 The knowledge of their hostile designs was made public by their massa- 
 cre of Kirk’s family. In the month of May, 1788, Kirk lived with his 
 family on the south-west side of Little River, twelve miles south of 
 Knoxville ; whilst he was absent from home, an Indian by the name 
 of Slim Tom, known to the family, came to them and requested to be 
 supplied with provisions, which they gave him, and he withdrew ; hav- 
 ing seen who were there, and the situation they were in with regard to 
 
420 
 
 SEVIER AT THE HEAD OF VOLUNTEERS, 
 
 defence, lie soon after returned from the woods with a party of Indians, 
 and fell upon the family — massacred the whole of them, eleven in number, 
 and left them dead in the yard. Not long afterwards, Kirk coming 
 home, saw his dead family lying- on the ground ; he gave the alarm to 
 the neighbourhood, and the militia assembled under the command of 
 Colonel Sevier, to the number of several hundred; they met at Hunter’s 
 station, on Nine Mile Creek, which runs into Holston on the south side ; 
 thence they marched under the command of Colonel Sevier to the Ei- 
 wassee River, and early in the morning came upon a town which had 
 been burnt in 17*79 ; the Indians who were in it, fled, and took to the 
 river ; many were killed in the town ; some were made prisoners, and 
 many were fired upon and killed in the river ; they burnt the town, and 
 returned to Hunter’s station. On the next day they went up the Ten- 
 nessee, to the towns on that river, killed several Indians, burnt the towns, 
 and returned to the station. Tallassee, upon the upper part of the Ten- 
 nessee, was one of these towms. The Indians fled from their different 
 towns into the mountains, were pursued by the troops and many of them 
 killed. Abraham, a friendly Indian, with his son, who lived on the north 
 side of the Tennessee, had declared publicly, that if the Indians went to 
 war, he would remain at his own house, and never quit it. When the 
 troops came to the south side, Hubbard sent for Abraham and his son 
 to come over the river to the troops ; they came accordingly ; he di- 
 rected them to return and bring with them the Tassel and another In- 
 dian, that he might hold a Talk with them ; they also held up a flag invi- 
 ting those Indians to come to them ; they did so, and were put into a 
 house. .Sevier was absent for some time on the business of his com- j 
 mand ; in the time of hia sbsence, those who were left behind, permitted 
 young Kirk, the son of him whose family was killed, to go with a toma- 
 hawk into the house where the Indians were enclosed, Hubbard being , 
 with him ; there Kirk stuck his tomahawk into the head of one of j 
 them, who fell dead at his feet, the white people on the outside of- the j 
 house looking in upon them. The other Indians, five or six in number, 
 seeing this, immediately understood the fate intended for them ; each 
 man cast his countenance and eyes to the ground, and one after the other 
 received from the hands of Kirk, upon the upper part of the head, the 11 
 fatal stroke of the tomahawk, and were all killed. Sevier returning, saw 
 the tragical effects of this rash act, and on remonstrating against it, was 
 answered by Kirk, who was supported by some of the troops, that if he | 
 had suffered from the murderous hands of the Indians, as he (Kirk) had, j, 
 that he (Sevier) would have acted in the same way. Sevier, unable to , 
 punish him, was obliged to overlook the flagitious deed, and acquiesced 
 in the reply. 
 
 “ It is much to be regretted, that history, in the pursuit of truth, is 
 obliged to record, to the shame and confusion of ourselves, a deed of : 
 such superlative atrocity, perfidy, cowardice and inhumanity. Surely 
 something is due to wounded feelings, and some allowance is to be made 
 for the conduct of men acting under the smart of great and recent suf- 
 fering. But never should it be forgotten by an American soldier, that 
 his honour must be unspotted ; that a noble generosity must be the regu- 
 lator of his actions ; that inviolable fidelity, in all that is promised an 
 
INVADES AND TUNISHES THE CIIEROKEES. 
 
 421 
 
 enemy, is a duty of sacred obligation, and that a beneficent and delicate 
 behaviour to his captive, is the brightest ornament of his character. 
 
 “Suspicion, ever alive toward the conduct of military commanders, at- 
 tributed to Colonel Sevier a voluntary absence, whilst many of those 
 who were present, acquitted him of all presentiment of the horrid act. 
 Colonel Sevier never acted with cruelty before or since ; he often com- 
 manded ; he was never accused of inhumanity ; he could not have 
 given his consent on this occasion. Considering existing circumstances, 
 he could not maintain as 'much authority now, as at other times ; he 
 was routed, proscribed and driven from his home ; he took shelter 
 amongst the frontier inhabitants, who now composed his little army ; he 
 relied upon them for safety ; they consulted only the exasperated feel- 
 ings of the moment, and had never been instructed in the rules of re- 
 fined warfare. 
 
 “ Captain Gillespie, on arriving at the river, had also gone off with his 
 company in search of the enemy, by order of the commanding officer; 
 he went up the river on the south side, and crossed where the Indians 
 were on the north ; he pursued them several miles and took some pack- 
 horses ; on his return the Indians were everywhere in motion ; he re- 
 crossed the river to the south side, at the place where he had just be- 
 fore crossed. As he ascended the bank on the south side, he saw an 
 Indian named Alexander Mayberry, and hailed him, who stopped and 
 gave up his gun, and surrendered himself a prisoner. Captain Gilles- 
 pie then went towards the army which he had left, and as he proceeded, 
 was met by a company of soldiers who insisted upon killing his prisoner. 
 Captain Gillespie told them that he had taken the Indian a prisoner, and 
 that he should not be killed whilst in his possession - , they, still 
 persisting, and manifesting a determined purpose to put the prisoner to 
 death, Gillespie dismounted from his horse, and placing himself between 
 them and the Indian, cocked his gun, and gave them the most positive 
 assurances that he would instantly pour the contents of it into the heart 
 of that man who dared to fire upon the Indian. The resolute air of his 
 countenance convinced them that he intended what he said ; they de- 
 sisted and went off ; he led his prisoner into camp, and delivered him to 
 Colonel Sevier, who removed him to Hunter’s station, whence he was 
 sent home in safety. 
 
 “ The massacre of Kirk’s family was followed in quick succession by 
 that of many others. A man of the name of English, was killed near 
 Bean’s station, and James Kirkpatrick between Bean’s station and Hol- 
 ston ; some were killed in the neighbourhood of Bull Run, and others at 
 places north of Knoxville, and many others on the roads to West Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky. The people were compelled to live in forts ; they 
 built Houston’s station, sixteen miles south of Knoxville; not far from 
 the place where Maryville now stands. General Martin sent a party to 
 protect the inhabitants of the station, under the command of Major 
 Thomas Stewart, which went to the station and garrisoned it. 
 
 “Captain John Fay ne, with some enlisted men who composed apart of 
 the guard under the command of Captain Stewart, and some of the set- 
 tlers who, turned out with them, were sent out as scouts to reconnoitre 
 the adjacent country ; they crossed the Tennessee River, and entered into 
 
422 
 
 SITICO DEFEAT, 
 
 an apple orchard, where carelessly they began to gather the fruit ; the 
 Indians were lying in wait, and had suffered them to march into the 
 orchard without molestation. Whilst in the act of gathering fruit, the 
 Indians surrounded them, drove them into the river, killed sixteen of the 
 whites dead on the ground, took one prisoner, and wounded four, who, 
 with difficulty, effected their escape. The scene of this tragedy was at 
 a town called Sitico. Captain Evans raised thirty men, who, with him- 
 self, lived a considerable distance from the place, and was at it in the 
 evening of the third day. That night, being on the north bank of the 
 Tennessee, they buried the dead w'hom they found on that side of the 
 river, marched back about one mile and encamped on high ground; 
 Major Stewart came in also with the enlisted men of the station ; these 
 were under his command, but the volunteer company was exclusively 
 under that of Captain Evans. Next morning they crossed the river at 
 the upper end of Chota, and thence to Sitico, where the massacre took 
 place ; there they found one white man lying on his back with his belly 
 ript open ; four men lying on a sand bar with their bellies also ript up, 
 and their bowels floating on the water ; the head of one man was cut 
 off, and his heart and bowels were torn out and strewed about on the 
 ground ; after burying the dead, they returned home. Such of the 
 company in the orchard as survived the massacre, had fled towards 
 Knoxville ; these the Indians had pursued to within five miles of that 
 place, and in the pursuit killed a great part of them. They then deter- 
 mined to attack Houston’s station, and with that view marched to it, but 
 were beaten off by the garrison. Colonel Sevier was at this time within 
 twenty-five miles of the mouth of ITolston, and was marching diligently 
 to the defence of Houston’s station, which he had been informed the In- 
 dians intended to reduce, but he had not yet heard of the attack which 
 they had actually made upon it. He unexpectedly met one hundred of 
 the retreating Indians, fired upon them, compelled them to give way, 
 and continued his march to the station ; thence he immediately went 
 home, and without delay convened Captain John Craig and his company, 
 and one or two other companies, and at the special request of Colonel 
 Sevier, he was joined also by Captain Evans and his company, who was 
 requested to do so by an express sent for the purpose. Captain Evans 
 took post in the rear of the front guard : as the army passed through 
 Sitico, Evans seeing an old Indian slip into a house between daylight 
 and sunrise, took with him John Ish, and rode up to the house, in which 
 he saw sitting an old man, and upon dismounting and going into 
 the house, saw in it two young Indian fellows, both of whom he and Ish 
 killed, and rejoined the army. It marched constantly, and arrived at Chii- 
 howee ; at this place they found Indians, had a skirmish with them, kill- 
 ing thirteen dead on the ground; the whites receiving no damage on 
 their side ; they all returned home in safety. A few weeks after this, 
 Evans raised a volunteer company, and other Captains also raised com- 
 panies to make an expedition into the Indian nation ; at their solicitation 
 Colonel Sevier took the command of them ; they crossed the Tennessee 
 River and went through Big Tellico town ; thence crossing the Unaca 
 mountain, they entered the Valley towns ; whilst the army marched on, 
 Captain Hubbard took ten men with him, and following a small path,. 
 
AND OTHER INDIAN BATTLES. 
 
 423 
 
 they came to a house where were seven or eight Indians, who ran out of 
 the house, when the whites killed five of them, took one small prisoner, 
 and returned to the army. When the army halted at noon, Captain 
 Evans discovered an Indian coming down the ridge ; he mounted his 
 horse, and taking two or three men with him, rode towards the Indian ; 
 he fired upon Evans and his men, the ball passing through the hunting 
 shirt of one of them, and then ran to the foot of the hill, and charging 
 his gun, gave them a second fire ; one of the white men fired at him, 
 and shot off his fore-finger ; the Indian again charged his piece, but 
 when he attempted to prime, the blood ran so fast into the pan of the 
 fire-lock that he could not effect it ; the whites rode up to him and shot 
 him down. Marching four miles further, they encamped in hearing of 
 the crowing of a cock, from a to\yn that was six miles long ; but per- 
 ceiving that the enemy had left it at the approach of the army, Sevier, 
 with the army, in the morning took a different route, which led them to 
 the upper end of another town, where the corn w'as in the silk ; the whole 
 of this the army cut down before them. The Indians kept up a constant 
 fire, but the distance was too great to do it wdth any effect. .After en- 
 camping here all night, Evans, with ten men, was sent to reconnoitre the 
 confihes of the camp ; on the top of a ridge he discovered the signs of 
 Indians ; a large body of them had been there, and had thrown off their 
 old moccasins and put on new ones ; he immediately gave intelligence 
 of this to the Colonel, and was ordered by him to keep the ridge till the 
 main body should be ready to march. About one hundred Indians had 
 turned back, and others went on, to form an ambuscade in a narrow pas- 
 sage ; the army followed upon their trail till it came in view of the place 
 where it was thought they lay concealed ; the passage which the army 
 had to pass through, was one where the path was on the bank of the 
 river, under a large cliff of rocks, for one quarter of a mile, which did 
 not admit of more than one man abreast, followed by the others in In- 
 dian file ; they had placed two hundred men on the south side of the 
 river, ready to receive the whites had they attempted to cross ; one hun- 
 dred in the front, one hundred in the rear, and three hundred amongst 
 the rocks and cliffs ; of the whites, the number was not more than one 
 hundred and forty. The danger of marching through this passage was 
 judiciously considered by Colonel Sevier as too great to be encountered 
 for the advantage to be attained, and he marched for the foot of the 
 mountain, where he crossed as he went out. The army drove before it 
 three head of neat cattle, and proceeded with so much haste that one of 
 the cattle tired and would go no further. Captain Evans marched in 
 the rear, and having passed the summit of the mountain and proceeded 
 about two hundred yards down the other side of it, one of his men said 
 that he had left his knife just before he crossed the top of the mountain, 
 and he ran back for it ; when he got to the mountain top, he heard the 
 Indians ascending on the side of the mountain up which the whites had 
 just before come. Intelligence of their vicinity was immediately given 
 to the Colonel : it was now between sunset and dark, and the army, 
 before it could encamp safely, was obliged to travel ten miles to Big 
 Tellico, where, on the plains, it encamped. Five hundred Indians fol- 
 lowed until they came in view of the camp, and there, their courage fail- 
 
424 
 
 SPENCER ISSUES A WARRANT AGAINST SEVIER, 
 
 ing, they retired. The next day the troops crossed Tennessee, and re- 
 turned home.” 
 
 The order given by Governor Johnston to Judge Camp- 
 bell, to issue a bench warrant against Sevier, was not 
 obeyed by that officer. His past relations with the Governor 
 of Franklin, and his own agency in several transactions of 
 that government, made him unwilling, if he was not other- 
 wise incapacitated, to execute that duty. But Spencer, one 
 of the principal Judges of North-Carolina, held, by author- 
 ity of that state, in conjunction with Campbell, a Superior 
 Court at Jonesboro’, and there issued the warrant against 
 Sevier, for the crime of high treason. Ever since his defeat 
 at Tipton’s, that brave and patriotic citizen had been in the 
 constant performance of the most brilliant actions, of great 
 utility to his countrymen. He was amongst the frontier peo- 
 ple who adored him. He had, by nature, a talent for acqui- 
 ring popular favour. It was natural for him to travel in the 
 paths which led to it. To him it was no secret, that in a 
 republican government, where the democratic principle is a 
 main ingredient in its composition, the love of the people is 
 substantial power. He had a friendly demeanour, a capti- 
 vating address, and, to crown all, he was a- soldier. With 
 such qualities, he could not fail to catch the prepossessions of 
 the people ; to attach them to his interests, and to mould 
 them to the furtherance of his designs. The beloved man 
 of the populace is always distinguished by a nick-name ; 
 Nollickuckij Jack was the one they gave him. Whenever, 
 at future elections, that name was pronounced, it had the 
 effect of electrical power, in prostrating the pretensions of 
 every opposing candidate. Sevier was generous, liberal and 
 hospitable. The people of North-Carolina valued his good 
 qualities, and had no disposition to dwell upon his late errors 
 with any malevolence. As the government of North-Caro- 
 lina was now submitted to universally, they wished not to 
 inflict punishment upon any for the part they had taken in 
 the late troubles. As he easily forgave in others, the 
 offences committed against him, he had not any suspicion 
 that he was not as readily forgiven. He was elevated, by 
 his merits, in the public esteem ; he knew not what it was 
 
WHO IS APPREHENDED. 
 
 425 
 
 to repine at the prosperity of others. But he had not learned 
 that he, who was rendered eminent by his services, is the last 
 to be pardoned for his faults ; and that a repetition of meri- 
 torious actions, like oil thrown upon the fire, so far from ex- 
 tinguishing, actually aggravates the angry passions which 
 are roused against him.* 
 
 Sevier, in the meantime, after his return from the frontier, * 
 appeared openly in all public places, and was present at 
 Jonesboro, where General Martin held a council of the mi- 
 litia officers. During the day, some of the court, and Sevier, 
 had an altercation, which revived past difficulties between 
 sogie of the officers and the ex-governor. They had separated 
 and left town. After SevieV started, Caldwell, with whom he 
 had quarrelled, went to Tipton, and in going and returning, 
 collected eight or ten men, with whom he went in pursuit of 
 Sevier. Arriving at the house where Colonel Love lodged, 
 he went with them to Colonel Robinson’s, where General 
 Martin and Major King were. Tipton there had a close 
 search made for Sevier, supposing that, as there was a good 
 understanding between Robinson and him, the latter might 
 be there. The pursuers then went to the widow Brown’s, 
 where Sevier was. Tipton and the party with him, rushed 
 forward to the door of common entrance. It was about sun- ■ 
 rise. Mrs. Brown had just risen. Seeing a party with arms 
 at that early hour, well acquainted with Colonel Tipton, 
 probably rightly apprehending the cause of this visit, she 
 sat herself down in the front door, to prevent their getting 
 into the house, which caused a considerable bustle between 
 her and Colonel Tipton. Sevier had slept near one end of 
 the house, and on hearing a noise, sprung from his bed, and 
 looking through a hole in the door-side, saw Colonel Love ; 
 upon which, he opened the door and held out his hand, say- 
 ing to Colonel Love, I surrender to you. Colonel Love led 
 him to the place where Tipton and Mrs. Brown were con- 
 tending about a passage into the house. Tipton, upon seeing 
 Sevier, was greatly enraged, and swore that he would hang 
 him. Tipton held a pistol in his hand, sometimes swearing 
 he would shoot him, and Sevier was really afraid that he 
 would put his threat into execution. Tipton at length be- 
 
 *Haywood. 
 
426 
 
 SEVIER TAKEN A PRISONER TO MORGANTON, 
 
 came calm, and ordered Sevier to get his horse, for that he 
 would carry him to Jonesboro’. Sevier pressed Colonel 
 Love to go with him to Jonesboro’, which the latter con- 
 sented to do. On the way, he requested of Colonel Love to 
 use his influence that he might be imprisoned in Jonesbo- 
 ro’, and that he might not be sent over the mountains 
 •into North-Carolina. Colonel Love remonstrated to him 
 against an imprisonment in Jonesboro’, for, said he, Tip- 
 ton will place a strong guard around you there ; your friends 
 will attempt a rescue, and bloodshed will be the result. Se- 
 vier urged that he would persuade his friends to peaceable 
 measures, and expressed great reluctance at the idea of being 
 taken from his family and friends. As soon as they ar- 
 rived at Jonesboro’, Tipton ordered iron hand-cuffs to be 
 put on him, which was accordingly done. He then car- 
 ried the Governor by the residence of Colonel Love, and that 
 of the widow Pugh, whence he went home, leaving Sevier 
 in the custody of the deputy sheriff and two other men, with 
 orders to carry him to Morganton, and lower down, if he 
 thought it necessary. Colonel Love travelled with him til! 
 late in the evening, and was requested by the Governor to 
 send down to his wife, and let her know of his situation, with 
 
 a request to her to send some clothes to him, and some mo- 
 ney. Next morning, James Love, the brother of the colonel, 
 was dispatched with this message to Mrs. Sevier ; she trans- 
 mitted to her husband the necessaries he wanted. A few days 
 afterwards, James and John Sevier, sons of the Governor, to- 
 gether with Mr. Cozby, Major Evans, and some few others, 
 were seen by Colonel Love, following the way the guard had 
 gone. Before Colonel Love had left the guard, they had, at 
 his request, taken off the irons of their prisoner. The next 
 morning he attempted to make his escape, but the guard 
 overtook him, and one of them, George French, shot at him 
 with a pistol as the horses were running, before they stopped 
 him. The friends of Sevier say that French had it in charge 
 to kill him, and intended to execute his commission, and that 
 on the Iron Mountain, on their way to North-Carolina, Gor- 
 ley, another of the guard, informed Sevier of the order and 
 intention of French, upon which he endeavoured to make 
 
AND IS PURSUED AND RESCUED. 
 
 427 
 
 his escape ; that in his flight, he became entangled in 
 trees and brush, thrown down by a hurricane, and 
 could proceed no further, when French came up, and 
 fired a pistol at his face, which fortunately did him 
 no harm, except burning him with the powder. The bullet 
 had slipped out of the pistol unknown to French. The guard 
 proceeded with him to Morganton, where they delivered him 
 to William Morrison, the then high sheriff of Burke county. 
 As the guard passed through the settlement of the McDow- 
 ells, in Burke county, General McDowell and General Jo- 
 seph McDowell, the latter of whom had been in service with 
 him, and fought by his side in several perilous battles, and 
 the former of whom had, a few years since, fled from the 
 enemy in his own neighbourhood, and taken shelter under 
 the roof of Sevier, both followed him immediately to Mor- 
 ganton, and there became his securities for a few days, until 
 he could go down and see a brother-in-law, who lived in that 
 county. Agreeable to his promise, he returned punctually. 
 The sheriff then, upon his own reponsibility, let him have a 
 few days more to visit his friends and acquaintances. By 
 this time, his two sons, with Cozby, Evans, and others, came 
 into Morganton, without any knowledge of the people there, 
 who they were, or what their business was. On striking the 
 settlements on the east side of the mountains, they had sepa- 
 rated, and had come into town singly. Court was, at 
 that time, sitting in Morganton, and they were with the peo- 
 ple, generally, without suspicion. At night, when the court 
 "broke up and the people dispersed, they, with the Governor, 
 pushed forward towards the mountains with the greatest ra- 
 pidity, and before morning arrived at them, and were beyond 
 the reach of any who might think proper to pursue them. 
 
 To this account of the capture and rescue of Sevier, as 
 copied from Haywood, it may be added, that besides James 
 Sevier, John Sevier, Doctor James Cozby, and Major Evans, 
 as above mentioned, Jesse Greene and John Gibson made up 
 the party who pursued and re-captured their old com- 
 mander, and effected his restoration to his incensed country- 
 men. Evans had been one of the Governor’s favourite mili- 
 tary officers ; all the rest had been comrades in arms, and 
 
428 
 
 ROMANTIC RESCUE OF SEVIER. 
 
 were warm personal friends. Cozbv, in all his campaigns, 
 had served with, or under him ; not only as a tried soldier, 
 but as the bold and skilful surgeon. Further particulars in 
 the rescue of Sevier, are derived from one conversant with 
 all the actors : 
 
 “ In a luckless hour, the puissant Governor of the western wilds, whose 
 prowess was known and acknowledged, from Watauga to the Chatta- 
 nooga Mountain, was seized by an armed posse, and conveyed into the 
 ‘ settlements,’ on a charge of high treason against the State of North- 
 Carolina. Had the destroying angel passed through the land, and 
 destroyed the first born in every section, the feelings of the hardy fron- 
 tierraen would not have been more incensed ; had the chiefs and war- 
 riors of the whole Cherokee nation fallen upon, and butchered the de- 
 fenceless settlers, the feeling of retaliation and revenge would not have 
 been more deeply awakened in their bosoms. They had suffered with 
 him ; they had fought under him ; with them, he had shared the dan- 
 gers and and privations of a frontier life, and a savage warfare ; and 
 they were not the spirits to remain inactive, when their friend was iu 
 danger. The chivalry of the country gathered together ; a number of 
 men were selected to fly to the rescue ; armed to the teeth, those daunt- 
 less sons of the woods crossed the mountains, determined to rescue their 
 beloved commander, or leave their bones to bleach upon the sand-hills 
 of North-Carolina, a proud memento of the children of the West. It 
 was ascertained that the trial was to take place at Morganton, and 
 thither this daring band bent their eager steps. Their plan was, to ob- 
 tain his release by stratagem, and if that failed, the next step was, to 
 fire the town, and in the hurry and confusion, burst the prison doors by 
 force, and make their escape. Probably, at no time before, had the 
 quiet town of Morganton assumed such an air of excitement and inter- 
 est, as the present ; for the fame of the unfortunate prisoner had gone 
 before him, and the novelty of the scene had drawn together a large 
 crowd. 
 
 “ The Franks had approached as near to the town as they deemed it 
 prudent, where four of them concealed themselves near the road, while 
 two of their number, James Cozby and Nathaniel Evans, went forward 
 into the town. They rode to a convenient distance from the court 
 house, tied their horses to a limb of a tree, near to which they hid 
 their rifles, and boldly entered the town, their capacious hunting shirts 
 concealing the side-arms they had prepared in case of need. Soon they 
 had mingled with the crowd, and easily passed off for countrymen, at- 
 tracted there by common curiosity. Evans had taken charge of General 
 Sevier’s celebrated race mare, and led her up in front of the court 
 house door, the bridle carelessly thrown over her head ; he was, appa- 
 rently, an unconcerned spectator of passing events. Cosby entered the 
 house, and there, arraigned at the bar, sat the object of their solicitude ; 
 there he sat, as firm and undaunted as when charging the hosts of Wy- 
 uca on the Lookout Mountain. 
 
 Slowly he turned his head, and their eyes met ; Sevier knew the res- 
 
HE ESCAPES WITHOUT PURSUIT. 
 
 429 
 
 cue was at hand, but he was restrained from any outward demonstra- 
 tion, by a significant shake of Cozby’s head ; but it could not prevent the 
 tear of gratitude, for he knew there were daring spirits near, that would 
 peril their life’s blood in his defence. During a pause in the trial, 
 Cozby stepped forward in front of the Judge, and in that quick and en- 
 ergetic tone, so peculiar to him, asked the Judge if he was done with 
 that man ? The question, manner and tone, caused every person to 
 start, to cast their eyes on the speaker, then on the Judge, all in amaze- 
 ment. In the meantime, Sevier had caught ft glimpse of his favourite 
 mare standing at the door ; taking advantage of the confusion, he made - 
 one spring to the door ; the next, he was safely in the saddle, and with 
 the speed of thought, was borne from the wondering crowd. ‘Yes,’ 
 cries a waggish voice, ‘ I’ll be damned if you ain’t done with him.’ 
 His comrades were not slow to follow in his wake, and, although imme- 
 diate pursuit was made, a few minutes brought him to the main body, 
 who, with one wild shout of victory, closed in the rear, and bore him 
 on in triumph. That night they rested at the house of a friend, about 
 twenty miles distant ; from whence they made an easy journey to their 
 homes, content that they had gained a bloodless victory.”* 
 
 Morganton, the place where this rescue of the late Go- 
 vernor of Franklin was so gallantly made, was the seat of 
 justice for Burke county, N. C., and had been selected for 
 the trial of the prisoner, as being the most convenient and 
 accessible court in that state, and beyond the limits of the 
 late Franklin jurisdiction ; the authorities wisely concluding, 
 that at home Sevier could not be successfully prosecuted. 
 The change of venue, however, operated nothing in favour 
 of the prosecution. Burke had been a strong whig county 
 in the revolutionary war, and nowhere were whig princi- 
 ples, whig sacrifices, and whig efforts, held in higher esteem, 
 or more properly appreciated. The McDowell’s, McGimp- 
 sie’s, Alexander’s, and all the whigs of that neighbourhood, 
 had witnessed, and still gratefully recollected, the timely 
 succour and substantial aid rendered to them, a id to their 
 cause, in the hour of trial, by Sevier and his countrymen. 
 He was now a prisoner in their midst, charged with the 
 highest offence known- to the laws ; they knew him to be a 
 patriot, in exile and distress ; they felt for his sufferings, and 
 sympathized in his fallen fortunes. These noble patriots of 
 North-Carolina 1 while sensible that the majesty of law had 
 been offended, were yet unwilling that its penalty should be 
 
 ^Manuscript of William Smith. 
 
430 
 
 CONVENTION MEETS TO FORM 
 
 enforced, or that Sevier should be made its victim. They 
 stood around the court yard in approving silence, witnessed 
 and connived at the rescue, and discountenanced pursuit. 
 
 The capture and brief expatriation of Sevier, served only 
 to awaken in his behalf the higher appreciation of his ser- 
 vices, and a deeper conviction of his claims to the esteem and 
 consideration of his countrymen. His return was every- 
 where greeted with enthusiasm and joy. 
 
 In the meantime, an amendment, or radical alteration of 
 the existing Articles of Confederation, had become obviously 
 necessary, and was demanded by the condition of things in 
 all sections of the country. Apart from the general conside- 
 ration of the ruined commerce and embarrassed revenues of 
 the Confederacy, there were other and more local causes, 
 which convinced Congress, and the American people, of the 
 necessity of this reorganization of their form of government. 
 Of these, none, perhaps, had had greater influence than the 
 formidable insurrection in Massachusetts, which, in 1786, 
 threatened not only the destruction of the government of that 
 state, but of the Union. “The spirit of insurrection was not. 
 confined to Massachusetts alone, but was manifested by par- 
 tial risings in New-Hampshire and Connecticut.” 
 
 The, withdrawal of some of the western counties of North- 
 Carolina, from the jurisdiction of the parent state, had oc- 
 curred previous to these insurrections in New-England. Aris- 
 ing as it did from other and far different causes, and resulting 
 in the formation of a temporary state organization, it scarce- 
 ly deserves to be classed with that of Massachusetts as an 
 insurrection. Occurring, however, at a time when the fo- 
 reign relations of the United States, and the negotiation 
 especially with Spain, had produced a general discontent in 
 the West, it served to render more evident the necessity of 
 remodeling and enlarging the powers of the General Govern- 
 ment. A Convention was held for this purpose, consisting 
 of delegates appointed by the states, who convened at Phila- 
 delphia, May, 1787. Of this body George Washington was 
 elected, unanimously, President. A new system of govern- 
 ment was at length formed, which the Convention recoin- 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF UNITED STATES. 
 
 431 
 
 mended should be submitted for ratification to the respective 
 states. 
 
 The new system encountered opposition formidable and 
 
 persevering, — North-Carolina withholding her assent until 
 
 ( certain amendments could be obtained. This reiec- 
 1787 1 ° 
 
 ( tion of the Constitution was made by the Convention 
 
 of North-Carolina, assembled at Hillsboro’, in which the 
 
 western counties were represented. 
 
 Another Convention was soon after called, to deliberate 
 19 ( upon the proposed constitution of the United States. 
 
 I All now saw the necessity of a radical reform. De- 
 puties were elected favourable to the new constitution, and, 
 on the 21st of November, 1789, it was adopted and ratified 
 by the people of North-Carolina, in convention assembled at 
 Fayetteville. 
 
 The Assembly of North-Carolina, which met at Fayette- 
 ville, extended the act of pardon and oblivion to such of 
 those who had taken part in the Franklin revolt, as chose to 
 avail themselves of its provisions. But, at the same time, it 
 was distinctly provided, “ that the benefit of this act should 
 not entitle John Sevier to the enjoyment of any office of pro- 
 fit, of honour or trust, in the State of North-Carolina, but 
 that he be expressly debarred therefrom.” 
 
 An enactment of this kind may have been due to the 
 supremacy of law. It was in exact conflict, however, with 
 the wishes and voice and decision of the people. Public 
 sentiment, even in high places, demanded its immediate re- 
 peal. Sevier was technically an insurgent. In all respects, 
 he was a lover of his country, and had entitled himself to its 
 highest honours and its richest rewards. His countrymen 
 could not spare him from their military service ; they would 
 not refuse him employment in their civil affairs. At the 
 time of the annual election in August, of the next year, after 
 the legislative infliction of these disabilities, the people of 
 Greene county called upon Sevier to represent them in the 
 Senate of North-Carolina. He was elected, it need not be 
 added, without difficulty. At the appointed time, November 
 2, 1789, he attended at Fayetteville, but waited a few days 
 before he took his seat. During this interval, the Assembly 
 
432 
 
 sevier’s disabilities removed. 
 
 passed an act, repealing the clause of a former act, ex- 
 cluding him from holding any office of honour, profit or trust. 
 During the debate on the resolution, acquitting Sevier of the 
 alleged treason, and restoring him to the rights of citizen- 
 ship, Mr. Amy, the member from Hawkins county, warmly 
 urged the passage of the bill. In doing so, he gave offence 
 to Colonel Tipton, the member from Washington county. A 
 rencounter was prevented with difficulty, and the debate 
 postponed till the following day. The evening was spent in 
 reconciling the disputants, and Mr. Roddy, another member 
 from Greene, reprimanded Amy for using language calcu- 
 lated to irritate Colonel Tipton, and begged him thereafter 
 to pursue a course which would “ soothe his feelings.” It 
 was finally concluded, that on the next day, Colonel Roddy 
 should conduct the debate, as least likely to give offence. 
 Accordingly, when the debate was resumed, Colonel Roddy 
 began his speech, but had not proceeded far, when Colonel 
 Tipton became infuriated, sprang from his seat, and seized 
 Roddy by the throat. At this moment, Mr. Amy cried out 
 to Roddy, “ Soothe him, colonel, soothe him !” The parties 
 were soon separated, but a challenge to mortal combat was 
 the consequence. By the interference of mutual friends, the 
 difficulty was honourably accommodated.* The resolution 
 under debate was adopted, and Sevier took his seat, after 
 having taken the usual oath of allegiance to North-Caro- 
 lina. Some days after, General Davie introduced a resolu- 
 tion to enquire into the conduct of the senator from Greene. 
 It was well known that the proposition would not be favour- 
 ably received, and, to the great satisfaction of the mover, 
 the motion for enquiry was laid upon the table. 
 
 During this session, Sevier was reinstated in the command 
 he had held before the Franklin revolt, of brigadier-general 
 for all the western counties, and laws were passed confirma- 
 tory of administrations granted by the Franklin courts, and 
 legalizing marriages celebrated under the authority of that 
 government. 
 
 The General Assembly, in apportioning the representatives 
 
 * Letter of Isaac Lane. 
 
SEVIER ELECTED TO UNITED STATES CONGRESS. 433 
 
 from North-Carolina to the Congress of the United States, 
 divided the State into four Congressional Districts — the 
 1789 $ westernmost of which, embraced all her territory west 
 ( of the Alleghanies. From this district, John Sevier 
 was elected, and he is thus the first member of Congress 
 from the great Valley of the Mississippi. The election was 
 to be held on the second Monday and Tuesday in March, and 
 certificates of the returning officers were to be brought to 
 the house of James White, in Hawkins county, now Knox- 
 ville, and be there compared by the Clerk of the Superior 
 Court of Washington District, who was, for the convenience 
 of these remote counties, to attend at that place for that pur- 
 pose. His certificate to the candidate having the greatest 
 number of votes, entitled the member to the commission of 
 the Governor ; and on this certificate, Ex-Governor Sevier was 
 commissioned as the representative elect from Washington 
 District, then embracing all the territory of the present 
 State of Tennessee. It is believed that he was elected, 
 without a competitor or rival. Every voter nearly, on Cum- 
 berland and Holston, knew him and voted for him. 
 
 “Wednesday, June 16th, 1790, John Sevier, another mem- 
 ber from North-Carolina, appeared and took his seat.”* 
 
 The government of Franklin had ceased to exist since 
 1788 i March 1st, of this year, and this might appear 
 ( to be the place and point of time in these Annals, to 
 suspend the history of settlements formed under that dynasty. 
 Inasmuch, however, as lands acquired under its treaties and 
 occupied under its laws, never did belong to the jurisdiction 
 of North-Carolina, the incidents connected with their settle- 
 ment, up to the treaty of Holston, may be better detailed here 
 than in any other connection. 
 
 It has been heretofore mentioned, that the General Assem- 
 bly of North-Carolina, at its session of 1783, had designated 
 the boundaries of the Cherokee hunting grounds — making 
 the Holston, the French Broad and Big Pigeon Rivers, a part 
 of these boundaries. The next year, the people of Washing- 
 ton, Greene and Sullivan counties, withdrew from their 
 
 Annals of Congress, by Jos. Gales, yoI. ii,p. 1640. 
 28 
 
434 
 
 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE SOUTH OF FRENCH 
 
 allegiance to North-Carolina, renounced her jurisdiction over 
 them, and formed themselves into a separate and distinct, 
 government. Under that organization, they proceeded to 
 exercise all the functions of a sovereign state, and amongst 
 others, that of negotiating with the Indian tribe adjoining, 
 and of acquiring, by treaty with them, a large addition to 
 their territory. The lands thus obtained by the treaty of 
 Dumplin, and afterwards enlarged and confirmed by subse- 
 quent stipulations made at Coyatee, were soon taken into 
 possession and settled under the authority of Franklin, 
 which proceeded to organize the territory, thus acquired, into 
 the new county of Sevier, with its courts, its military organi- 
 zation, and a representation in the Legislature, upon the same 
 footing of the older counties. We have traced the rise, pro- 
 gress and fall of Franklin. At the period of its dissolution, 
 we are presented with the strange spectacle of a county, 
 settled, organized and governed, suddenly dissociated, and left 
 beyond the jurisdiction and protection of any power known 
 to the laws of North-Carolina — forsaken and disowned. The 
 land embraced within the limits of Sevier county, of Frank- 
 lin, had not been acquired by treaty or otherwise, under the 
 laws of North-Carolina ; the inhabitants, according to her law 
 designating the Indian hunting grounds, were there contrary 
 to her laws and to the provisions of her treaty stipulating 
 the Cherokee boundaries. In a political point of view, 
 Sevier county and its inhabitants were known only as part j 
 of the State of Franklin. That state no longer existed, and 
 they were now considered as trespassers upon Indian lands, 
 in violation of the laws of North-Carolina, beyond the pale 
 of its government, the influence of its judiciary, or the pro- 
 tection of its military power. In this dilemma, the people ! 
 gave another instance of their law-abiding character, and 
 of their capacity to govern themselves. Sensible, that in 
 their peculiar situation, they were exposed to the evils re- 
 sulting from anarchy and violence, they determined to guard 
 against and prevent them. Measures were at once adopted 
 to frame a temporary form of government, suited to the exi- 
 gencies of the occasion. It is not now known who were 
 prominent in giving vitality to this new organization, who 
 
BSOAD AND WEST OF PIGEON. 
 
 435 
 
 was the President of the Board or its Clerk, nor to whom the 
 other principal offices under it were assigned. It is well as- 
 certained, however, that under its provisions, order, law, 
 right and justice, were maintained. Newell’s Station had 
 been theseat of justice for Sevier county, under the Franklin 
 dynasty, and it is believed under the new order of things, be- 
 came the seat of the Committee’s authority, as it was the 
 centre of the territory over which its jurisdiction extended. 
 
 ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION. 
 
 We, the subscribers, inhabiting south of Holston, French Broad and 
 Big Pigeon Rivers, by means of the division and anarchy that has of 
 late prevailed within the chartered limits of North- Carolina, west of the 
 Apalachiau Mountains, being at present destitute of regular government 
 and laws, and being fully sensible that the blessings of nature can only 
 be obtained and rights secured by regular society, and Nortk-Carolina 
 not having extended her government to this quarter, it is rendered ab- 
 solutely necessary, for the preservation of peace and good order, and the 
 security of life, liberty and property to individuals, to enter into the 
 following social compact, as a temporary expedient against greater evils : 
 
 Article I. That the Constitution and Laws of North-Carolina shall 
 he adopted, and that every person within the bounds above mentioned, 
 shall be subject to the penalties inflicted by those laws for the violation 
 thereof. 
 
 Article II. That the officers appointed under the authority of Frank- 
 lin, either civil or military, and who have taken the oaths of office, 
 shall continue to exercise the duties of such office, as far as directed and 
 empowered by these Articles, and no further, and shall be accountable to 
 the people or their deputies for their conduct in office. 
 
 Article III. That militia companies, as now bounded, shall be consid- 
 ered as districts of the above territory, and each district or militia com- 
 pany shall choose two members to represent them in a General Commit- 
 tee, who shall have power to choose their own president and clerk, to 
 meet on their own adjournments, and the president shall have power to 
 convene the Committee at any time when the exigencies of affairs re- 
 quire their meeting, and shall have power to keep order and to cause 
 rules of decorum to be observed, in as full a manner as the president of 
 any other convention whatever. And in all cases of mal-ad ministra- 
 tion, or neglect of duty in any officer, the party grieved shall appeal to 
 the Committee, or a majority of them, who shall be competent to form 
 a board for business. And upon such application, the Committee shall 
 cause the parties to come before them, and after examining carefully 
 into the nature of the offence, shall have power to deprive of office, or 
 publicly reprimand the offender, as the demerit of the crime may de- 
 serve, or otherwise to acquit the party accused, if found not guilty. 
 
 Article IV. Where vacancies happen in the military department, the 
 same shall be filled up by election, as heretofore used, and the officers 
 
436 
 
 SELF-GOVERNMENT EXERCISED. 
 
 thus elected shall be the reputed officers of such regiment or company, 
 as the case may be, and shall be accountable to the Committee for their 
 conduct as other officers. 
 
 Article V. The civil officers shall have power to take cognizance of 
 breaches of the peace or criminal offences, and where any person is 
 convicted of an offence not capital, the officer before whom such offender 
 is convicted, shall immediately inflict the punishment directed by law for 
 such offence. But where the crime is capital, the officer shall send such 
 criminal, together with the evidences for or against him or them, to the 
 nighest justice of the peace for North-Carolina, there to be dealt with 
 according to law ; but no civil officer shall decide upon cases of debt, 
 slander, or the right of property. 
 
 Article VI. Militia officers shall have power to collect their regiments 
 or respective companies, emergencies making it necessary, and in case 
 of invasion by the common enemy, shall call out their companies regu- 
 larly by divisions, and each militia man shall give obedience to the com- 
 mands of his officer, as is required by law, or otherwise be subject to the 
 penalties affixed by law for such neglect or refusal, at the judgment of a 
 court martial. 
 
 Article VII. And, whereas, it is not improbable that many horse 
 thieves and fugitives from justice may come from different parts, ex- 
 pecting an asylum amongst us, as we are destitute of a regular govern- 
 ment and laws by which they may be punished, each and every of us 
 do oblige ourselves to aid and assist the officers of the different state or 
 states, or of the United States, or any description of men sent by them, 
 to apprehend such horse thief or fugitive from justice. And if any 
 of the above characters should now be lurking amongst us, or shall 
 hereafter be discovered to have taken refuge in this quarter, we do seve- 
 rally bind ourselves, by the sacred ties of honour, to give information to 
 that state or government from which they have fled, so that they may 
 be apprehended and brought to justice. 
 
 Article VIII. United application shall be made to the next session of 
 the Assembly of North-Carolina to receive us into their protection, and 
 to bestow upon us the blessings of government. 
 
 Article IX. The captains of the respective militia companies shall 
 each of them procure a copy of these Articles, and after calling the com- 
 pany together for the purpose, shall read them, or cause them to be 
 read, distinctly to said company; and each militia man, or householder, 
 after hearing them read, if he approve of them, shall subscribe his name 
 to the articles, as a proof of his willingness to subject himself to them; 
 and said Articles shall be the temporary form of government until we 
 are received into the protection of North-Carolina, and no longer. 
 
 In several of the provisions of these Articles there may be 
 traced a strong resemblance to those of the Watauga Asso- 
 ciation.. They were, probably, copied mainly from them. 
 North-Carolina never took these people under her protec- 
 tion or jurisdiction, and the Association proved to be a good 
 
VINDICATION OP FRANKLIN. 
 
 437 
 
 substitute for a more formal and perfect system of govern- 
 ment. This regime continued till after the country became 
 the Territory of the United States south of the River Ohio, 
 and was then provided for, as the county of Sevier, in 1794. 
 
 VINDICATION OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 This may be considered as the finale of Franklin, and the 
 ( proper place, therefore, to introduce a closing remark 
 ‘ X upon that anomaly. In speaking of it, terms have 
 been used requiring qualification, which, without interrupt- 
 ing the current narrative, could not be elsewhere given. 
 Insurrection, revolt, dismemberment, defection, as here used, 
 need to be explained, when applied either to those of the 
 western people, who separated from the parent state, or 
 those of them who afterwards renounced the new govern- 
 ment. In either case, the action of the parties need not be 
 * ascribed to fickleness of purpose or bad faith, much less to 
 disloyalty to their proper rulers, or insubordination to regular 
 government and law. In vindication of those who once 
 appeared on the side of Franklin, and now on the side of 
 North-Carolina, it has been well remarked by Haywood : 
 “ That the face of affairs was quite different at the time of 
 the Convention which resolved upon independence, and the 
 Autumn of 1786. Before this juncture there was no govern- 
 mental head to which the people of the western counties 
 could carry their complaints. In 1784, it is true, the Assem- 
 bly which passed the Cession act, retained the sovereignty 
 and jurisdiction of North-Carolina in and over the ceded 
 territory, and all the inhabitants thereof, until the United 
 States, in Congress, should have accepted the cession. Yet, 
 in reality, so long as the Cession act continued unrepealed, 
 North-Carolina felt herself as much estranged from the inhabi- 
 tants of the western counties, as she was to any other state or 
 territory in the Union ; until induced by the bonds of federalism, 
 and a common interest so far as concerned their external rela- 
 tions with the other nations of the globe, but wholly uncon- 
 nected, so far as regarded their internal regulations and en- 
 gagements. And as any one state was not obliged, by the 
 nature of her Federal duties, to advance monies for the main- 
 
438 
 
 INHABITANTS PURSUE A PACIFIC 
 
 tenance of another in the possession of her rights, but through 
 the intervention of all in Congress assembled ; so neither 
 did North-Carolina conceive herself bound to exert her 
 strength and resources for the defence of the western coun- 
 ties, unless in the proportion for which she was liable to 
 other Federal contribution:?. It was in vain, then, to solicit 
 her interference in behalf of the western counties, so long 
 as the Cession act subsisted, but when that was repealed, 
 and the precipitancy of the western people obliterated, it 
 cannot be a matter of surprise that well-meaning and intel- 
 ligent people would, thenceforward, deem it their duty to 
 return to their dependence on North-Carolina.” 
 
 In behalf of those who sustained the separation from 
 North-Carolina until 1788, it may be further added, that in 
 withdrawing from the parent state and establishing a sepa- 
 rate government, the secessionists believed that the course- 
 adopted by them would least imperfectly preserve quiet and 
 order, under the circumstances in which the Cession act had 
 placed them. Their course was pacific and conservative, 
 and at first, united and harmonized all. Nothing destructive 
 or revolutionary, much less belligerent, was intended or con- 
 templated. In 1784, the Confederacy had demonstrated the 
 inadequacy of that organization as a permanent system of 
 General Government. The transfer by North-Carolina of 
 her western counties to Congress, at that time imbecile and 
 powerless, even over the original confederated states, and the 
 novelty of the experiment, had produced alarm, excited ap- 
 prehension and aroused a deep discontent in the new settle- 
 ments. And, perhaps, these could have been quieted and 
 appeased, as effectually, in no other way as the temporary 
 assumption and exercise of the power of separate and dis- 
 tinct self government. 
 
 Again. Heretofore, no instance had presented itself, of 
 the formation of an independent state from the territory em- 
 braced within the boundaries of a political sovereignty. The 
 process of separation, and the mode of accomplishing it, were 
 all new and unattempted, alike by the people, and the State 
 and General Governments. Now, when the creation of these 
 new political organizations has become matter of frequent 
 
AND CONSERVATIVE POLICY. 
 
 439 
 
 occurrence, and plain and easy by its successful trial and 
 repetition, we can see little or no cause, why the subject 
 should have then been viewed as embarrassed with inhe- 
 rent difficulties. But, let it be remembered, that “ in the Ar- 
 ticles of Confederation, no provision was made for the crea- 
 tion or admission of hew states. Canada was to he admitted 
 of right, on her joining in the measures of the United States ; 
 and the other colonies, at the discretion of nine states. The 
 eventual establishment of new states, seems to have been 
 entirely overlooked by the compilers of that instrument.”* 
 The inconvenience of this omission in the Articles of Con- 
 federation, was most apparent, and it maj^ be well ques- 
 tioned whether the Congress of the Confederacy could, without 
 an assumption of power, have given to the people of the 
 territory, ceded in 1784, a form of state government, such as 
 was guaranteed to them by the provisions of the constitution 
 of North-Carolina. 
 
 Under this view of the subject, it is not strange that the 
 Cession Act was followed by dissatisfaction and revolt in 
 the western counties. Their people had been represented in 
 the state convention of 1776, and it had been probably at 
 the instance of their own delegates in that body, that the 
 provision was then made, “ for the establishment of one or 
 more governments westward of this state, by consent of the 
 legislature.” Indeed, it may be well questioned, whether, with 
 this provision in the Bill of Rights, preceding the Constitu- 
 tion itself, the act of Cession was not unauthorized and in- 
 valid. 
 
 Be that as it may, the cession of her western territory by 
 North-Carolina to Congress, as it was, under the Articles of 
 Confederation in 1784, was obviously inexpedient and impolitic. 
 And it was not till the adoption of the Federal Constitution, of 
 1788, that this measure became either wise or practicable. 
 This did not escape the discernment of the malcontent but 
 virtuous and patriotic people of Franklin, when the new state 
 ceased to be ; and they returned to their allegiance to the 
 mother state. This event was not unexpected by its most 
 
 * Mr. MadisoD, in the Federalist. 
 
440 
 
 NO TENDENCY TO RADICALISM, 
 
 steadfast friends and supporters, nor were its effects to be 
 deplored. It resulted from no legislative error or want of 
 executive skill, no fickleness of popular sentiment, no defect 
 of public virtue. 
 
 Every review of the conduct of both parties in the disaf- 
 fected counties, from 1784 to 1788, reflects honour upon their 
 patriotism, their moderation, their love of order and their 
 virtue. No other instance is recollected, in which two an- 
 tagonistic governments existed so long over the same peo- 
 ple, with so little anarchy, so little misrule, so little violence. 
 A period of nearly four years was passed, under two political 
 systems of government, each having its separate Executive, 
 State Council, Legislature and Judiciary; each its own 
 county and military organizations, its own partizans and 
 adherents. And amidst all the rivalry, and faction, and mal- 
 content, and conflict, personal and official, which must have 
 arisen from this unexampled condition of things, the annalist 
 has to record but two deaths, almost no bloodshed, ana 
 little violation of the right of property. Private rights 
 were held sacred and inviolable. If, in the collisions 
 between the officers of the two governments, an occasional 
 feat in pugilism occurred, resulting in a trifling mutilation of 
 one or both of the combatants, there followed less of acri- 
 mony, unmanly revenge and pitiful spite, than is produced by 
 the disreputable squabbles of the aspirants and functionaries 
 of the present day— members of the same government, and 
 united under the same constitution and laws. In all that was 
 done in Franklin, we are unable to detect any tendency to 
 radicalism. In their warmest aspirations for self-govern- 
 ment and independence, there cannot be found one feature 
 of modern agrarianism or the prostration of all law, but only 
 a disposition to protect themselves from violence and aggres- 
 sion, and possible danger to their rights. 
 
 This is not the judgment of a partial annalist. It can be 
 sustained by the testimony of competent tribunals, east and 
 west of the Alleghanies. Their decisions shall be briefly stated. 
 
 The formation of a new state was only a question as to 
 time. In all the letters, manifestos and proclamations of the 
 Governor of the parent state, the separation is spoken of as 
 not only right in itself, but desirable, and, at the proper time, 
 
OR PROSTRATION OF ALL LAW. 
 
 441 
 
 expedient. Governor Martin, in 1785, speaking of the sepa- 
 ration, says : “ Which, in time, no doubt, would have been 
 granted by consent and again : “ when a separation might 
 take place to mutual advantage and satisfaction, on an 
 honourable footing and again : “ until the consent of the 
 legislature be fully and constitutionally had for a separate 
 sovereignty and jurisdiction.” Governor Caswell, in his let- 
 ter to General Shelby, in 1787, says: “ Whenever unanimity 
 prevails among your people, and their strength and numbers 
 will justify an application for a separation, if it is general, I 
 have no doubt of its taking place upon reciprocal and 
 honourable terms.” And again, in his letter to Governor 
 Sevier, of April 24, 1787 : “You may rely upon it, that my 
 sentiments are clearly in favour of a separation, whenever 
 the people to be separated think themselves of sufficient 
 strength and abilities to support a government.” And again, 
 in his proclamation to the people of the seceding counties, in 
 urging them to union amongst themselves, he reminds them 
 that the “ General Assembly have told you, whenever your 
 wealth and numbers so much increase, as to make a sepa- 
 ration necessary, they will be willing the same shall take 
 place upon friendly and reciprocal terms. Is there an indi- 
 vidual in your country who does not look forward, in expec- 
 tation of such a day’s arriving ? If that is the case, must 
 not every thinking man believe that this separation will be 
 soonest and most effectually obtained by unanimity?” And 
 adds : “ I have no doubt the same may be obtained upon the 
 principles held out by the Assembly. Nay, it is my opinion 
 that it may be obtained at an earlier day than some imagine, 
 if unanimity prevailed amongst you.” And again : “ I flat- 
 ter myselt that the Assembly will be disposed to do what is 
 just and right, and what sound policy may dictate.” 
 
 So general was the sentiment, even in North-Carolina, in 
 favour of the separation, and so little inclination there, to 
 prevent it by legislative interference, that the General As- 
 sembly, though convened by the Proclamation of the Go- 
 vernor and Council, “failed to meet.” Such was the decision 
 of the people of North-Carolina, east of the mountain, on 
 the abstract question of a new state west of it. A like 
 
442 
 
 GENERAL PUBLIC SENTIMENT 
 
 opinion was entertained by Dr. Franklin, and other states- 
 men abroad. As to the lime and the mode of a measure of 
 such magnitude, there could not be expected to be entire una- 
 nimity — there never is — there never will be. Those adopted, 
 in 1784, at first as has been seen, gave very general satis- 
 faction, and harmonized the community most directly inter- 
 ested, as being the best time and manner of providing the 
 least objectionable measures to quiet the discontented and 
 aggrieved citizens of the ceded country. Was the revolt of 
 1784 justifiable — was it wise — was it patriotic — did it pre- 
 vent greater evils — would a different policy have secured 
 greater good, or produced better results ? may be questions 
 of difficult solution. However these may be answered, the 
 verdict of the contemporaries of the revolters has ever been 
 in their favour, vindicating their patriotism and asserting the 
 integrity of their motives. Those most active, and deter- 
 mined, and steadfast in the revolt, were, and never ceased to 
 be, the greatest favourites of their countrymen. General 
 public sentiment is seldom wrong — it never condemns the 
 innocent — it rarely vindicates the guilty. While it never 
 screens the wilful offender, it excuses or palliates uninten- 
 tional error. It always sustains good intentions and wise 
 purposes, and rewards the faithful public servant. This was 
 emphatically true as to the Franklin leaders. In 1789, its 
 late Governor, Sevier, now a private citizen, and under trial 
 for offences against North-Carolina — ineligible under her 
 laws to any office — was triumphantly elected a member of 
 her Senate — his disabilities were removed by a special enact- 
 ment in his favour, and he allowed to take his seat. A new 
 Congressional District is formed, embracing Cumberland, 
 with the late revolted counties — the same Franklin leader is 
 elected the member to the Congress of the United States. 
 Her Western Territory is ceded again by North-Carolina to 
 Congress, and the “ Territory south-west of the River Ohio” 
 is organized, and again “ Sevier and his captains” are promi- 
 nent, as will be hereafter seen, amongst its officers. The 
 Territory becomes the State of Tennessee, and the Ex-Go- 
 vernor of Franklin is at once called upon to become its chief 
 magistrate, in which the partiality of his countrymen con- 
 
SUSTAINED THE REVOLTERS. 
 
 443 
 
 tinues him for twelve years, when he is transferred by the 
 people of the Knoxville District to the United States Con- 
 gress. He is then appointed by the President of the United 
 States to establish an Indian boundary in Alabama ; and, du- 
 ring his absence on that service, by the continued confidence 
 of his constituents, he is elected the second time, and with- 
 out his knowledge or consent, to Congress. This testimo- 
 nial of the popularity of the leader of the Franklin revolt, 
 was the last his grateful countrymen could bestow. He died 
 in the Creek nation, during his absence on the public service, 
 and was buried with the honours of war. What further 
 and higher honours awaited him, may be inferred from the 
 flattering vote and manner of his last election. 
 
 The associates of Governor Sevier, in the Franklin Govern- 
 ment, received through life similar attestations of public re- 
 gard and confidence. William Cocke, Esq., who belonged 
 to the Legislature and the State Council of Franklin, and 
 was its Commissioner to North-Carolina and to the United 
 States Congress, a general of its militia, and one of its most 
 enlightened advocates throughout its existence, retained, af- 
 ter the overthrow of Franklin, the uninterrupted confidence 
 of the western people. A member of the first Legislature of 
 Tennessee, he was by that body elected one of the repre- 
 sentatives of her sovereignty in the Senate of the United 
 States, and was afterwards elected the second time to the 
 same position. At the expiration of his second term, he was 
 transferred to a seat in the Judiciary. Although quite an 
 old man, in the war of 1812, he became a volunteer in her 
 militia, and was, to the end of his life, considered a public- 
 spirited citizen and a patriot. James White, the father of 
 the late Senator White, a member of the Franklin Legisla- 
 ture, and remarkable for the constancy of his devotion to 
 its interests, even when forsaken by its earliest friends, re- 
 tained, through along life, the unwavering esteem of his fel- 
 low citizens. The founder of Knoxville is still recollected 
 with fondness and respect. He was a member of the Terri- 
 ntorial House of Representatives — of the Convention which 
 formed the Constitution of Tennessee, and afterwards Speak- 
 er of its Senate, and Presiding Justice of Knox County 
 Court — a general commanding, at an advanced age, a bri- 
 
444 
 
 COLONEL F. A. RAMSEY. 
 
 gade of militia in defence of the Independence, which, in his 
 youth, he had assisted to gain. To extreme old age, he re- 
 tained the esteem and affection of his fellow citizens, and 
 never had a stain upon his unsullied good name. 
 
 In this enumeration of the Franklin leaders, it would be 
 infidelity to historical truth, and, in this writer, it were a filial 
 impiety, not to mention Colonel Francis Alexander Ramsey, 
 the youthful Secretary of the Franklin Convention. Re- 
 sides other civil and military offices held by him under that 
 government, he was a member of its Council ; and in that 
 capacity, was entrusted with the delicate duty of negotiating 
 with the parent state, the terms of separation and indepen- 
 dence. As evidences of his trust-worthiness, capacity and 
 patriotism, he had conferred upon him by the Territorial Go- 
 vernment, as well as that of the State of Tennessee, offices 
 which implied ability, probity, efficiency and zeal in the pub- 
 lic service, and high personal character. One of the pioneers 
 of Tennessee, in all the varied phases of political organiza- 
 tion through which the state has passed, Colonel Ramsey not 
 only held offices of honour and trust, but discharged their 
 duties to the entire satisfaction of the people, and the au- 
 thorities of government. Offices were showered upon him, 
 and he proved himself competent and worthy of them. 
 
 To the names already mentioned, might well be added 
 those of their associates, Doak, Carter, Reese, Houston, New- 
 ell, Weir, Hamilton, Conway and others; each distinguished 
 afterwards for piety, public spirit, unobtrusive private worth, 
 and military and political services to the country. Revolted 
 in 1784, they were, nevertheless, the purest patriots and the 
 best men of their day. It is singular and well worthy of re- 
 mark, that not one of the master-spirits of Franklin, perhaps 
 not one of its officers, in a long life of usefulness or distinc- 
 tion afterwards, ever forfeited the esteem, or lost the confi- 
 dence, of his countrymen. They became the officers under 
 the Territorial Government, and, soon after, the leading 
 spirits of the proud State of Tennessee ; a beautiful com- 
 ment upon the purity of their principles, and the loftiness of 
 their patriotism — a fit tribute of respect for their public ser- 
 vices and their private virtue. 
 
CUMBERLAND AND OLD FRANKLIN COUNTIES. 
 
 445 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CUMBERLAND— THE FRANKLIN COUNTIES. 
 
 A young Brave, at the treaty of Watauga, was overheard 
 by the interpreter, to urge, in support of the Transylvania 
 cession, this argument : that the settlement and occupancy 
 of the ceded territory, by the whites, would interpose an im- 
 pregnable barrier between the Northern and Southern Indians, 
 and that the latter would, in future, have quiet and undis- 
 turbed possession of the choice hunting grounds south of the 
 Cumberland. His argument prevailed against the prophetic 
 warning and eloquent remonstrance of Occonostota. That 
 aged chieftain, covered over with scars, the evidence of 
 many a hard-fought battle for the Dark and Bloody Ground, 
 signed the treaty reluctantly, and taking Daniel Boon by 
 the hand, said, with most significant earnestness: “Brother, 
 we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have 
 much trouble in settling it ; ” words of ominous import, as 
 subsequent events too mournfully proved These events, so 
 far as the pioneers of Tennessee were engaged in them, will 
 now be narrated. “ Much trouble,” indeed, was experienced 
 in settling the ceded country, and that adjoining it. Instead 
 of serving as a barrier between the common claimants, the 
 settlers became a central point of attack — a target at which 
 the surrounding tribes all aimed their deadliest shot. 
 
 We left the colony of Robertson and others, near the 
 i French Lick, at the end of a protracted and severe win- 
 l ter. The opening spring enabled the savages to resume 
 hostilities. The whole line of frontier, from Pennsylvania to 
 Georgia, was simultaneously assailed by marauding parties 
 of Indians, distributed along its entire extent. Terror and 
 consternation were only the precursors of havoc and deso- 
 lation. The leading chiefs of the Shawnees tribe, which 
 had once held possession of the Cumberland Valley, were 
 unremitting in their efforts to bring about a general concert 
 
446 
 
 CHEROKEES AND CREEKS INVADE CUMBERLAND. 
 
 of action among all the northwestern tribes, for a grand 
 exterminating invasion, during the next summer. In this 
 they had the approbation and encouragement of British 
 agents and officers, at Detroii and on the Maumee, who 
 assured them of the powerful aid of their great ally, George 
 III.* Similar influences were constantly at work with the 
 southern tribes ; and in addition to these general causes of 
 dissatisfaction and hostility, Fort Jefferson had been built, 
 the previous year, in the territory of the Chickasaws, without 
 their consent, and the chief, Colbert, prepared to repel the 
 invaders by force. The proximity of this tribe to the Cum- 
 berland settlement, was cause of serious apprehension and 
 alarm. But the first assault upon the Cumberland settlers 
 was made by the southern Indians — the Cherokees and 
 Creeks. They seized the first opportunity after the hard 
 winter was over, to approach the “ improvements ” around 
 the Bluff, and to carry amongst the settlers the work of 
 massacre and devastation. We abridge from Haywood and 
 “ The Museum,” an account of it : 
 
 In the month of April, Keywood and Milliken, two hun- 
 r?80 I ^ers, coming to the fort, stopped on Richland Creek, 
 
 ( five or six miles from the Bluff, and as one of them 
 stepped down to the creek to drink, the Indians fired upon 
 and killed Milliken. Keywood, escaping, brought intelli- 
 gence of the affair to the fort. Mr. Rains then moved to 
 the Bluff, where he continued four years before he could ven- 
 ture again to settle id the country. The Indians soon after 
 killed Joseph Hay on the Lick Branch, and a party of them 
 invested Freeland’s Station, and finding an old man, Bernard, 
 making an improvement, at what was then called Denton’s 
 Lick, killed him, cut off his head, and carried it away. 
 With the old man were two small boys, Joseph and William 
 Dunham, who escaped unhurt and gave the alarm to the 
 people at Freeland’s. A young man, Milliken, between the 
 fort and Denton’s Lick, not having heard the alarm, was 
 surprised by the Indians, killed, and his head, also, wss cut 
 off and carried away. The murderers were either Creeks 
 or Cherokees. 
 
 *Monette. 
 
MANSCO’s STATION BROKEN UP. 
 
 447 
 
 Soon afterwards, in July or August, a party of Indians, be- 
 lieved to be Delawares, killed Jonathan Jennings, at the 
 point of the first island above Nashville. Higher up the 
 Cumberland River, on the north side, on the bluff where 
 William Williams, Esquire, since lived, Ned Carver was 
 killed ; his wife and two children escaped, and came to Nash- 
 ville. The same party, in a day or two after, killed William 
 Neely, at Neely’s Lick, and took his daughter prisoner. 
 
 At Eaton’s Station, they also killed James Ma vfieki ; near 
 the place where, previously, Porter had been shot in the day- 
 time by Indians in the cedars, in view of the station. In 
 November or December, they shot Jacob Stump, and at- 
 tempted to kill the old man, Frederic Stump, but he reached 
 tine station in safety, after being pursued by the Indians 
 three miles. At Mansco’s Lick, Jesse Balestine and John 
 Shockley were killed. In the winter of the same year, Da- 
 vid Coin and Risby Kennedy were killed at the same place, 
 and Mansco’s Station was broken up ; some of its inhabi- 
 tants went to Nashville, and others to Kentucky. At Bled- 
 soe’s Lick, or on the creek near it, two persons were killed : 
 W. Johnston and Daniel Mungle, hunting together on Bar- 
 ren River, the former was killed, and the latter escaped by 
 flight. 
 
 Late in this year, a company of Indians tried to intercept 
 Thomas Sharp Spencer, returning to the Bluff with several 
 horses loaded with meat, after a successful hunt. They 
 fired at, but missed him. The horses were captured, and 
 with their cargo, were taken up the river. 
 
 At Station-Camp Creek, the same Indians took other 
 horses, that had strayed from a camp of white men near at 
 hand, but which had not been discovered by the enemy. 
 
 At Asher’s Station, two miles and a half from where Gal- 
 latin now stands, some white men were sleeping in a cabin ; 
 the Indians crept up at break of day, and fired, killing one 
 man, whom they scalped. They also wounded another, 
 Philips, and captured several horses. With these, they went 
 off in the direction of Bledsoe’s Lick, when they were unex- 
 pectedly met by Alexander Buchanan, James Manifee, Wil- 
 liam Ellis, Alexander Thompson, and other hunters, return- 
 
448 BUCHANAN FOLLOWS THE INDIANS TO DUCK RIVER. 
 
 ing to the Bluff. Buchanan killed one Indian ; another was 
 wounded, and the whole party dispersed, leaving, in their 
 flight, the horses taken from Spencer and Philips. 
 
 In May of this year, Freeland’s Station was visited by the 
 Indians; one man, D. Lariman,was killed, and his head cut 
 off. The whites pursued the retreating savages to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Duck River, near the place since known as 
 Gordon’s Ferry, where they came in hearing of them prepar- 
 ing their camp-fires. The party of white men immediately 
 dismounted, and marched upon the Indian camp, which was 
 found deserted ; the enemy escaped. Of the pursuers, who 
 numbered about twenty, the names only of four are known: 
 Alexander Buchanan, John Brock, William Mann, and Capt. 
 James Robertson. This was the first military excursion in 
 that direction, and reflects great credit upon the adventure 
 and gallantry of those who made it. As it was bloodless, 
 the enemy was not deterred from repeating their inroads 
 and aggressions upon the feeble settlements on the Cumber- 
 land, and, in a short time after, Isaac Lefevre was killed 
 near the fort on the Bluff, at the spot where Nathan Ewing, 
 Esq., since lived. Solomon Philips went out, about the 
 same time, to the place since called Cross’s Old Field, and 
 was shot at, and wounded, by the Indians. He survived till 
 he reached the fort, but soon died. Samuel Murray, who 
 was with him in the field, was shot dead. Near the mound, 
 south of where the steam-mill since stood, Bartlett Renfroe 
 was killed, and John Maxwell and John Kendrick were ta- 
 ken prisoners. 
 
 It has been already mentioned, that some of the emigrants 
 that had come in boats down the Tennessee, had stopped at 
 Red River, with the intention of there forming a settlement. 
 Amongst these, were several families of the name of Ren- 
 froe, and their connexions, Nathan and Solomon Turpin. 
 In June or July, their settlement was attacked by a party of 
 Choctaws and Chickasaw Indians ; Nathan Turpin and 
 another man were killed at the station. The residue were 
 forced to withdraw to the stronger settlement at the Bluff. 
 The Renfroes took charge of the women and children, and 
 conducted them in safely. They afterwards, in company 
 
ROBERTSON MAKES PEACE WITH THE CHICKASAWS. 
 
 449 
 
 with others from the Bluff, went to the station on Red River, 
 got quiet possession of some property they had left there, and 
 were upon their return march. At night they encamped 
 about two miles north of Sycamore, at a creek, since called 
 Battle Creek. In the morning, Joseph Renfroe going to ther 
 spring, was fired at and instantly killed by the Indians, wha 
 lay concealed in the bushes. They then broke in upon the 
 camp, and killed old Mr. Johns and his wife, and all his 
 family. Only one woman, Mrs. Jones, escaped ; Henry Ram- 
 sey, a bold and intrepid man, who had gone from the Bluff, 
 took her off, and brought her in safety to the station. 
 Eleven or twelve others, there at the time of the attack, were 
 all killed ; the Indians, taking possession of the horses and 
 other property, went off towards the south. 
 
 The ostensible ground of these hostilities by the Chicka- 
 saws, was the erection, by General George Rogers Clarke, of 
 Fort Jefferson, eighteen miles below the mouth of the Ohio, 
 and on the east side of the Mississippi. All the territory 
 west of the Tennessee, the Chickasaws pretended to hold 
 by an undisputed claim. Offended at Clarke’s intrusion upon 
 their lands, these savages, till then neutral, became the allies 
 of the British nation, and were so at the time this mischief 
 was perpetrated. In 1782, Captain Robertson made peace 
 with them. 
 
 In the summer of this year, Philip Catron, riding 
 1780 $ Rom Freeland’s Station to the Bluff, was fired on by 
 t the Indians, at the place since occupied by Ephraim 
 Foster, Esquire. He was wounded in the breast, so that he 
 spit blood, but he recovered. About the same time, as Cap- 
 tain John Caffrey and Daniel Williams were rising the bank, 
 in going towards the Bluff, they were fired upon and 
 wounded. They reached the station. 
 
 In the fall of this year, the Indians depredated further 
 upon the settlers, by stealing horses from the Bluff. Leiper, 
 with fifteen men, pursued and overtook them on the south 
 side of Harper, near where Ellison formerly lived. They were 
 encamped at night, and the evening was wet. Leiper and 
 his men fired upon them, wounded one, regained their horses 
 and all their baggage, and returned. 
 
 29 
 
450 
 
 doneeson’s boats attacked. 
 
 Nearly at the same time, Col. John Donelson had gone 
 up the Cumberland to the Clover Bottom, with two boats, 
 for the purpose of bringing to the Bluff the corn which he 
 and others had raised there the preceding summer. They 
 had laden the boats with the corn, and had proceeded a small 
 distance down the river, when the Colonel, recollecting that 
 he had forgotten to gather some cotton which had been 
 planted at the lower end of the field, asked the men in the 
 other boat to put to bank, for the purpose of picking out a 
 part of it. They urged that it was growing late, and that 
 they ought to go on. He waived the exercise of his au- 
 thority, and had scarcely landed his own boat, when his 
 companions in the other were suddenly attacked by a party 
 of Indians, who lay in ambush to intercept the boats on their 
 return. The fire of the Indians was fatal. All were killed 
 except a free negro and one white man, who swam to shore, 
 and wandered many days in the woods before he reached 
 the Bluff. The next morning after the defeat, the people at 
 the Station found the boat floating in the river. It wa: 
 brought to the shore, and a dead man was in it. In this affair, 
 Abel Gower, Senr., and Abel Gower, Junr., and John Ro- 
 bertson, son of Captain Robertson, were killed. Some others 
 were wounded and taken prisoners. Col. Donelson escaped 
 to Mansco’s Station. 
 
 The only one of the settlers who died, the ' first year, a 
 natural death, was Robert Gilkey. 
 
 Michael Stoner, this year, discovered Stoner’s Lick and 
 Stoner’s Creek. 
 
 The woods abounded in game, and the hunters procured 
 a full supply of meat for the inhabitants by killing bears, 
 buffalo and deer. A party of twenty men went up the 
 Cany Fork as high as Flinn’s Creek, and returned in ca- 
 noes with their meat, during the winter. In their hunting 
 excursion they killed one hundred and five bears, seventy- 
 five buffalo, and more than eighty deer. This source of 
 supply furnished most of the families at-the Bluff with meat 
 A freshet, in July, had destroyed most of the corn on the low- 
 lands and islands, and many suffered the want of bread 
 The scarcity of this article, and the multiplied disasters and 
 
NIGHT ATTACK ON FREELANIl’s STATION. 
 
 451 
 
 dangers which every moment threatened the settlements 
 with destruction, at length disheartened some of the inhabi- 
 tants. A considerable part of them moved to Kentucky and 
 Illinois. The severity of the winter and the want of horses, 
 put a stop to this emigration, and all the remaining inhabi- 
 tants collected themselves together into two stations — the 
 Bluff and Freeland’s. 
 
 Forty or fifty Indians, at the still hour of midnight, January 
 1*781 5 fifteenth, of this year, made an attack on Freeland’s 
 l Station. Captain James Robertson had, the evening 
 before, returned from the Kentucky settlements. Whilst on 
 his journey through the intervening wilderness, he had accus- 
 tomed himself to more vigilance than the residents of the 
 fort felt it necessary, in their fancied security, to exercise. He 
 was the first to hear the noise which the cautious savages 
 made in opening the gate. He arose and alarmed the men 
 in the station. But the Indians had effected an entrance. 
 The cry of Indians , brought Major Lucas out of bed ; he was 
 shot. The alarm having become genera], the Indians re- 
 treated through the gate, but fired in the port-holes through 
 the house in which Major Lucas lived. In this house a ne- 
 gro of Captain Robertson was shot. These were the only 
 fatal shots, though not less than five hundred were fired into 
 that house ; it was the only one in which the port-holes were 
 not filled up with mud. The whites numbered only eleven, 
 but they made good use of the advantage they possessed in 
 the other houses in the fort. Captain Robertson shot an In- 
 dian. The whole body of them soon after retreated. The 
 moon shone bright, otherwise this attack would probably 
 have succeeded, as the fort was once in possession of the 
 Indians. They had found means to loosen the chain on the 
 inside, which confined the gate, and they were also superior 
 in numbers. 
 
 After this repulse, the Indians received reinforcements 
 from the Cherokee nation. They burnt up every thing be- 
 fore them, immense quantities of corn and other produce, 
 as well as the houses and fences, and the unoccupied stations 
 o'i the whites. The alarm became general. All who could 
 get to the Bluff or Eaton’s Station, did so, but many never 
 
452 
 
 MRS. DUNHAM RESCUES HER DAUGHTER. 
 
 saw their comrades in those places ; some were killed sleep- 
 ing ; some were awakened only to be apprised that their 
 last moment was come ; some were killed in the noon-day, 
 when not suspecting danger ; death seemed ready to em- 
 brace the whole of the adventurers. In the morning, when 
 Mansco’s Lick Station was broken up, two men who had 
 slept a little later than their companions, were shot by two 
 guns pointed through a port hole by the Indians. These were 
 David Goin and Patrick Quigley. Many of the terrified 
 settlers moved to Kentucky, or went down the river. It is 
 strange that all did not go out of the way of impending dan- 
 ger Heroism was then an attribute even with the gentler sex. 
 Mrs. Dunham sent a small girl out of the fort, to bring in 
 something she wanted, and the Indians being there, took hold 
 of the child and scalped, without killing her. The mother 
 hearing the cries of the child, advanced towards the place 
 where she was, and was shot by the Indians and wounded 
 dangerously. She and the daughter lived many years after- 
 wards. 
 
 Late in March, of this year, Colonel Samuel Barton, pass- 
 ing near the head of the branch which extends from the 
 stone bridge, was fired upon by Indians in ambush, and 
 wounded in the wrist. He ran with the blood streaming 
 from the wound, followed by a warrior in close pursuit. 
 They were seen from the fort, and Martin, one of the soldiers 
 in it, ran out to meet and assist his comrade. The pursuing 
 Indian retreated. 
 
 On the second day of April, in this year, a desperate at- 
 tempt was made by the Indians to take the fort and station 
 at the Bluff. A numerous body of Cherokee warriors came 
 there in the night and lay around in ambush. Next morn- 
 ing three of them came in sight, and fired at the fort on the 
 Bluff and immediately retreated. Nineteen horsemen in the 
 fort, at once mounted their horses and followed them. When 
 they came to the branch, over which the stone bridge has 
 since been built, they discovered Indians in the creek and in 
 the thickets near it. These arose from their places of con- 
 cealment and fired upon the horsemen. The latter dismount- 
 ed to give them battle, and returned their fire with great 
 
BLUFF VIGOROUSLY ATTACKED AND BRAVELY DEFENDED. 453 
 
 alacrity. Another party of the enemy lay concealed in 
 the wild brush and cedars, near the place where Mr. De 
 Mumbrune’s house stood in 1821, ready to rush into the 
 fort, in rear of the combatants. The horses ran back 
 to the fort — the horsemen being left on foot. To guard 
 against the expected assault from the Indians against those 
 in the fort, its gates were closed, and preparations made for 
 defence. In the meantime, the battle raged without. Pe- 
 ter Gill, Alexander Buchanan, George Kennedy, Zachariah 
 White and Captain Leiper, were killed on the spot. James 
 Manifee and Joseph Moonshaw, and others, were wounded 
 before they could reach the fort. At the place where the 
 stone house of Cross was afterwards built, Isaac Lucas had 
 his thigh broken by a ball. His comrades had gotten within 
 the fort, and the Indians rushed upon him to take his scalp. 
 One of them running towards him, and being at a short dis- 
 tance from the supposed victim of his barbarous revenge, 
 was fired upon and shot through the body by Lucas, who, 
 with his rifle well charged, was lying unable to rise from the 
 ground. The Indian died instantly. The people in the fort, 
 in order to save Lucas, kept up a brisk and warm fire upon 
 those parties of the assailants who attempted to get to him, 
 and finally succeeded in driving them off. Lucas was taken 
 and brought into the fort by his own people. 
 
 Amongst those who escaped towards the fort, was Edward 
 Swanson, who was so closely pursued by an Indian warrior 
 as to be overtaken by him. The Indian punched him with 
 the muzzle of his gun, and pulled trigger, when the gun 
 snapped. Swanson laid hold of the muzzle, and wringing the 
 lock to one side, spilled the priming from the pan. The In- 
 dian looked into the pan, and finding no powder in it, struck 
 him with the gun barrel, the muzzle foremost ; the stroke not 
 bringing him to the ground, the Indian clubbed his gun, and 
 striking Swanson with it near the lock, knocked him down. 
 At this moment John Buchanan, Sen., father of the late Ma- 
 jor Buchanan, seeing the certain death that impended his 
 comrade, gallantly rushed from the fort to the rescue of 
 Swanson. Coming near enough to fire, he discharged his 
 
454 
 
 BUCHANAN BRINGS OFF SWANSON. 
 
 rifle at the Indian, who, gritting his teeth on receiving its 
 contents, retired to a stump near at hand. Buchanan brought 
 off Swanson, and they both got into the fort without further 
 injury. From the stump to which the wounded warrior re- 
 tired, was found, after the Indian forces had withdrawn, a 
 trail, made by a body dragged along upon the ground, much 
 marked with blood. 
 
 When the Indians fired upon the horsemen at the branch, 
 the party of them lying in ambush at DeMumbrune’s, rose 
 and marched towards the river, forming a line between the 
 combatants arid the fort. In the meantime, when the firing 
 between the dismounted horsemen and the enemy had com- 
 menced, the horses took fright, and ran in full speed on the 
 south side of the Indian line towards the French Lick, passing 
 by the fort on the Bluff. Seeing this, a number of Indians 
 in the line, eager to get possession of the horses, left their 
 ranks and went in pursuit of them. At this instant the dogs 
 in the fort, seeing the confusion, and hearing the firing, ran 
 towards the branch, and came to that part of the Indian line 
 that remained yet unbroken, and having been trained to hos- 
 tilities against Indians, made a most furious onset upon them, 
 and disabled them from doing any thing more than defending 
 themselves. Whilst thus engaged, the whites passed near 
 them, through the interval in the Indian line made by those 
 who had gone from it in pursuit of the horses. Had it not 
 been for these fortunate circumstances, the white men could 
 never have succeeded in reaching the fort through the In- 
 dian line which had taken post between it and them. Such 
 of the nineteen as survived, would have had to break through 
 the line, their own guns being empty, whilst those of the In- 
 dians were well charged. 
 
 This attack was well planned by the Indians, and was 
 carried on with some spirit. At length they retired, leaving 
 upon the field the dead Indian killed by Lucas ; another was 
 found buried on the east side of the creek, in a hollow, north 
 of the place since occupied by Mr. Hume. Many of the 
 Indians were seen hopping with lame feet or legs, and other- 
 wise wounded. Their loss could never be ascertained. It 
 
REMARKABLE RECOVERY OF DAVID HOOD. 
 
 455 
 
 must have been considerable. They got nineteen horses, 
 saddles, bridles and blankets, and could easily remove their 
 dead and wounded. 
 
 On the night of the same day in which this affair took 
 place, another party of Indians, who had not come up in 
 time to be present at the battle, marched to the ground since 
 occupied by Poyzer’s and Condon’s houses and lots, and fired 
 some time upon the fort. A swivel, charged with small rocks 
 and pieces of pots, was discharged at them. They immedi- 
 ately withdrew. 
 
 In the summer of this year, William Hood was killed by 
 a party of Indians, on the outside of the fort, at Freeland’s 
 Station. They did not, at that time, attack the station. 
 Between that place and the French Lick, about the same 
 time, they killed old Peter Renfroe, and withdrew. In the 
 fall, Timothy Terri], from North-Carolina-, was killed. 
 
 As Jacob Freeland was hunting on Stoner’s Lick Creek, at 
 
 the place wher-e John Castleman since lived, he was killed 
 
 / 
 
 by the Indians. There, also, at another time, they killed 
 Joseph Castleman. Jacob Castleman soon after, going in 
 the woods to hunt, was surprised and killed. 
 
 Like atrocities marked the spring of this year. At the 
 1782 i French Lick, three persons were fired upon by a party 
 l of Indians. John Tucker and Joseph Hendricks were 
 wounded, and being pursued till in sight of the fort, they 
 were rescued and their pursuers repulsed. The third, David 
 Hood, the Indians shot down, scalped and trampled upon 
 him, and believing him dead, they left him and gave chase 
 to his wounded comrades. Hood, supposing the Indians 
 were gone, wounded and scalped as he was, got up softly, 
 and began to walk towards the fort at the Bluff. To his 
 mortification and surprise, he saw, standing upon the bank 
 of the creek before him, the same Indians who had wounded 
 him, making sport of his misfortunes and mistake. They 
 then fell on him again, and inflicting other apparently mor- 
 tal wounds, left him. He fell into a brush heap in the snow, 
 and next morning, search being made by the whites, he was 
 found by his blood, and being taken home, was placed in an 
 
456 
 
 FIRST MILLS ERECTED ON CUMBERLAND. 
 
 out-house as a dead man. To the surprise of all, he revived, 
 and after some time recovered, and lived many years. 
 
 The first mill erected was near Eaton’s Station, on the 
 farm since occupied by Mr. Talbot. It was the property of 
 James Wells, Esq.; the next, by Colonel George Mansco ; 
 the third, by Captain Frederick Stump, on White’s Creek ; 
 the fourth, by David Ronfifer, on the same creek ; and the 
 next, by Major J. Buchanan. 
 
 After their unsuccessful attempt against the Bluff, in 1781, 
 the Indians continued occasional irruptions and depredations 
 throughout the forming settlements on Cumberland. In that 
 3 r ear little corn was raised. The scarcity of grain compelled 
 the settlers to plant more largely, and raise more, grain in 
 1782, and to procure subsistence by hunting. In both these 
 pursuits, many became victims to the stratagem and cruelty 
 of their savage enemy. 
 
 A settlement had been begun at Kilgore’s Station, on the 
 north side of Cumberland, on Red River. At this place 
 Samuel Martin and Isaac Johnston, returning to the Bluff, 
 were fired upon by the Indians. They took Martin prisoner, 
 and carried him into the Creek nation. He remained there 
 nearly a year, and came home elegantly dressed, with two 
 valuable horses and silver spurs. It was said, afterwards, 
 that he had concerted with the Indians the time and place 
 of the attack made by them, and that he was a sharer in the 
 plunder. Isaac Johnston escaped and came home. 
 
 Of the other settlers at Kilgore’s, were two young men 
 named Mason, Moses Maiding, Ambrose Maiding, Josiah 
 Hoskins, Jesse Simons, and others. The two young men, 
 Mason, had gone to Clay Lick, and had posted themselves 
 in a secret place to watch for deer. Whilst they were thus 
 situated, seven Indians came to the Lick ; the lads took good 
 aim, fired upon and killed two Indians, and then ran with 
 all speed to the fort, where, being joined by three of the 
 garrison, they returned to the Lick, found and scalped the 
 dead Indians, and returned. That night John and Ephraim 
 Peyton, on their way to Kentucky, called in and remained 
 all night at the fort. During the night all the horses that 
 
457 
 
 kilgore’s station abandoned. 
 
 . • •' / 
 were there were stolen. In the morning pursuit was made, 
 and the Indians were overtaken in the evening, at a creek, 
 since called Peyton’s Creek. They were fired upon. One 
 was killed and the rest of them fled, leaving the stolen 
 horses to the owners. The pursuers returned that night, in 
 the direction of the fort, and encamped, and were progressing, 
 next morning, on their way. In the meantime, the Indians, 
 by a circuitous route, had got between them and the station, 
 and when the whites came near enough, fired upon them, 
 killing one of the Mason, and Josiah Hoskins, and taking 
 some spoil. The Indians then retreated. Discouraged by 
 these daring depredations, the people at Kilgore’s Station 
 broke up their establistiment and joined those at the Bluff. 
 
 In this year, also, George Aspie was killed, on Drake’s 
 Creek, by the Indians, and Thomas Spencer, wounded. In 
 the fall William McMurray was killed near Winchester’s 
 Mill, on Bledsoe’s Creek, and General Smith was wounded. 
 Noah Trammel was killed on Goose Creek. Malden’s Sta- 
 tion, on Red River, was broken up and abandoned. 
 
 Such were the difficulties and dangers that accompanied 
 the infancy of the Cumberland settlements, that, from ne- 
 cessity, it became a custom of the country for one or two 
 persons to stand as watchmen or sentinels, whilst others la- 
 boured in the field ; and even whilst one went to a spring to 
 drink, another stood on the watch, with his rifle ready to pro- 
 tect him, by shooting a creeping Indian, or one rising from 
 the thickets of canes and brush that covered him from view; 
 and wherever four or five were assembled together at a 
 spring, or other place, where business required them to be, 
 they held their guns in their hands, and with their backs 
 turned to each other, one faced the north, another the south, 
 another the west — watching, in all directions, for a lurking 
 or creeping enemy. Whilst the people at the Bluff were so 
 much harassed and galled by the Indians that they could not 
 plant nor cultivate their corn-fields, a proposition was made, 
 in a council of the inhabitants, to break up the settlements 
 and go off. Captain Robertson pertinaciously resisted this 
 proposition. It was then impossible to reach Kentucky ; the In- 
 
458 ROBERTSON DISSUADES FROM BREAKING UP THE STATIONS. 
 
 dians were in force upon all the roads and passages which led 
 to it ; for the same reason, it was also impossible, and equally 
 impracticable, to remove to the settlements on Holston. No 
 other means of escape remained, but that of going down the 
 river in boats, and making good their retreat to the Illinois. 
 And even to this plan, great obstacles were opposed ; for how 
 was the wood to be obtained, with which to make the boats ? 
 The Indians were, every day, in the skirts of the Bluff, 
 lying concealed among the shrubs and cedar trees, ready 
 to inflict death upon whoever should attempt to go to the 
 woods. These difficulties were all stated by Captain Ro- 
 bertson. He held out the dangers attendant upon the at- 
 tempt, on the one hand ; the fine country they were on the 
 point of possessing, on the other. To these he added, the 
 probability of new acquisitions of numbers from the older 
 settlements, and the certainty of being able, by careful at- 
 tention to circumstances, to defend and support themselves 
 till succour could arrive. At length, the parental advice and 
 authority of Robertson prevailed. He finally succeeded in 
 quieting the apprehensions of his co-colonists; and they 
 gradually relinquished the design of evacuating the posi- 
 tions they occupied, now somewhat hallowed to them by the 
 recollection of past dangers, endured toils, difficulties over- 
 come, and triumphs achieved. 
 
 The expectations of Captain Robertson were, in part, soon 
 realized. The revolutionary war was ended ; an abatement 
 of Indian hostility soon followed ; and additional emigrants 
 from North-Carolina and other states, gave renewed strength 
 and animation and permanence to his settlement. 
 
 But, notwithstanding these favourable circumstances, offer- 
 | ing, as they did, some alleviation of the suffering en- 
 t dured on Cumberland, still, in 1783, the offensive ope- 
 rations of the Indians were occasionally continued. One of 
 the guard who came to the Bluff with the Commissioners 
 from North-Carolina, Roger Top, was killed at the place 
 where Mr. Deaderick has since lived. At the same time 
 and place, Roger Glass was wounded. Within two days 
 after these acts of hostility, a settler, passing the place where 
 
ROBERTSON OBTAINS A CESSION FROM CHICKASAWS. 459 
 
 the stone bridge now is, was shot at and wounded by the 
 Indians. He succeeded in reaching the fort, but died soon 
 afterwards. 
 
 The Chickasaws, early in 1783, assembled in the vicinity 
 of Nashville, at Robertson’s Station, where a treaty was con- 
 cluded, ceding and relinquishing to North-Carolina a region 
 of country extending nearly forty miles south of Cumber- 
 land River, to the ridge dividing the tributaries of that stream 
 from those of Duck and Elk.* 
 
 The policy of Spain, at this time, was, to secure the good 
 feelings, if not the aid, of the southern Indians. The agents 
 of that Power invited those tribes to meet and hold confer- 
 ences with them, at the Walnut Hills. From these confer- 
 ences they returned, as was believed, with dispositions less 
 amicable to the new settlements on the Cumberland. No 
 large body of them invaded that country, but small parties of 
 Indians were constantly waylaying the paths and surround- 
 ing the corn-fields of the emigrants. Such of them as were 
 exploring the country, and making locations, were closely 
 watched, and some of them killed. Ireson and Barnett, on 
 a surveying excursion, were shot down and killed. On Rich- 
 land Creek, near what has since been the plantation of Mr. 
 Irwin, William Daniel, Joseph Dunham, Joshua Norrington, 
 and Joel Mills, were all killed ; and in a path leading from 
 Dunham’s Fort to Armstrong’s, at the head of the same 
 creek, where Castleman since lived, a soldier was killed as 
 he passed from one fort to the other. 
 
 At Armstrong’s Fort, as Patsy, the daughter of Mr. Rains, 
 was riding on horseback, with a young woman, Betsey Wil- 
 liams, behind her, they were fired upon by the Indians, and 
 the latter killed ; the former escaped. A short time after- 
 wards, near the same place, Joseph Noland was killed ; and 
 during the same summer, a son of Thomas Noland ; and du- 
 ring the fall, the old man, himself, were also killed near this 
 same place. About the same time, the Indians killed the 
 father of Betsey Williams, above mentioned. 
 
 Buchanan’s Station was upon Mill Creek, five miles from 
 
 *Monette, ii., 268. 
 
460 
 
 CAPTAIN PRUETT PURSUES THE INDIANS. 
 
 the Bluff, not far from the farm at the present time owned by 
 A. R. Crozier, Esq., on the Turnpike leading fron Nashville 
 to Lebanon. There the Indians, in this year, killed Samuel 
 Buchanan, William Mulherrin and three others, who were 
 guarding the station. Going from the Bluff to Kentucky, 
 William Overall was killed, and Joshua Thomas mortally 
 wounded. The Indians having stolen horses from the 
 Bluff, Captain William Pruett raised twenty men and pur- 
 sued them to Richland Creek of Elk River, overtook them, 
 and recaptured the horses on the waters of Big Creek. They 
 fired upon, but did not kill any of the Indians. As they re- 
 turned, they encamped near a creek on the north side of 
 Duck River. As they began their march next morning, they 
 were fired upon by the Indians in their rear. Moses Brown 
 was killed in a cane-brake, and the ground being unfavour- 
 able, the whites retreated a mile and a half to more open 
 ground, and there halted and formed. The Indians came 
 up and an engagement ensued. Captain Pruett and Daniel 
 Johnson were shot down, and Morris Shine was wounded. 
 Being overpowered, the survivors of the party made good 
 their escape to the Bluff, with the loss of their recaptured 
 horses. 
 
 These repeated aggressions and depredations upon the 
 lives and property of the settlers, were the more pertina- 
 ciously renewed and persisted in, from the fact, that North- 
 Carolina had, in April of this year, appropriated the lands 
 hitherto claimed by the Chickasaws and Cherokees, except 
 those which, by the same act, were allowed to them for 
 their hunting grounds. This unceremonious intrusion upon 
 their supposd rights, together with the machinations of the 
 agents of Spain, had the. effect to exasperate their hostility 
 to the settlements of the whites now beginning to expand 
 and acquire permanence, by the additional strength of other 
 emigrants from a different direction. Turnbull, a trader, 
 came from Natchez with horses and skins procured in the 
 Chickasaw nation. From the same place, Absalom Hooper, 
 Thomas James, Philip Alston, James Drumgold, James 
 Cole, James Donelson and others, also arrived. A station, 
 was this year established by Samuel Ha) r s on Stone’s River. 
 
GALLANTRY OF MASON AND TRAMMEL. 
 
 461 
 
 Constantly harassed and alarmed by the continued re- 
 1( j g4 ( currence of Indian hostility against his colony, Col. 
 
 I Robertson could no longer resist the conviction, that 
 hissavage neighbours on the south were instigated in their un- 
 friendly conduct to the people on Cumberland by some foreign 
 influence, and he suspected that influence might be from the 
 agents of Spain. He entered into correspondence with one 
 of them, Mr. Ported, assuring him of a disposition on the part 
 of his countrymen to maintain with the Spanish colonists 
 the most friendly relations. Mr. Ported, in reply, expressed 
 his gratitude for the amicable behaviour of the Cumberland 
 people, and promised to maintain the best relations on his 
 side, and expressed a wish to be useful to the Colonel and 
 his countrymen. Still, incursions for the purpose of murder 
 and plunder, continued to be made by the Indians. Early 
 in this year, Philip Trammel and Philip Mason were killed. 
 As one amongst a thousand instances of the unequalled for- 
 titude and gallantry of the first settlers, a recitation is here 
 given of the conflict in which they ended their existence. 
 These two men had killed a deer at the head of White’s 
 Creek, and were skinning it. The Indians stole up to the 
 place and fired upon them. They wounded Mason and 
 carried off the venison. Trammel got assistance from 
 Eaton’s Station, and followed the Indians. He came up with 
 them ; they fought, and he killed two of them. The Indians 
 being reinforced, and Mason having received a second and 
 mortal wound, the whites were once more obliged to retreat. 
 Trammel found some other white men in the woods, and 
 induced them to go back with him to the place where the 
 Indians were. They found the latter, and immediately re- 
 newed the fight. They killed three Indians, and fought till 
 both parties were tired. Trammel and Josiah Hoskins, 
 enthusiastically courageous, and determined to make the 
 enemy yield the palm of victory, gallantly precipitated them- 
 selves into the midst of the retreating Indians, where they 
 fell by the hands of the foe. The rest of the white men main- 
 tained their ground until both parties were exhausted and 
 willing to rest from their martial labours. 
 
 Another spirited affair, scarcely less heroic, deserves also 
 
/ 
 
 462 COURAGEOUS DEFENCE BY ASPIE AND OTHERS. 
 
 to be specially mentioned. Aspie, Andrew Lucas, Thomas 
 S. Spencer and Johnston, had left the Bluff on horseback on a 
 hunting tour. They had reached the head waters of Drake’s 
 Creek, where their horses had stopped to drink. At this 
 moment a party of Indians fired upon them. Lucas was 
 shot through the neck and through the mouth. Lie, however, 
 dismounted with the rest, but in attemping to fire, the blood 
 gushed from his mouth and wet his priming ; perceiving this, 
 he crawled into a bunch of briers. Aspie, as he alighted 
 from his horse, received a bullet which broke his thigh ; but 
 he still fought heroically. Johnston and Spencer acquitted 
 themselves with incomparable gallantry, but were obliged 
 to give way, and to leave Aspie to his fate, though he en- 
 treated them earnestly not to forsake him. The Indians 
 killed and scalped Aspie, but did not find Lucas, who shortly 
 afterwards returned to his friends. Spencer, in the heat of 
 the engagement, was shot, but the ball split on the bone and 
 his life was spared. The whole Aspie family were super- 
 latively brave. A brother had been previously killed in the 
 battle at the Bluff. When he first fell, he placed himself in a 
 position to reach a loaded gun, with which he shot an Indian 
 running up to scalp him. 
 
 In this year also, Cornelius Riddle was shot by the Indians, 
 near Buchanan’s Station. He had killed two turkeys, and 
 hanging them upon a bush, had gone off into the woods to 
 hunt for more. The Indians hearing the report of his gun, 
 came to the place, and finding the turkeys, lay in ambush 
 where they were, and on Riddle’s coming to take them away, 
 they fired upon and killed him. 
 
 In the year 1785, Moses Brown was killed, near the place 
 1785 $ on Richland Creek afterwards occupied by Jesse 
 ( Wharton, Esq., and then known as Brown’s Station. 
 Col. Robertson and Col. Weakly had gone, with Edmond Hick- 
 man, a Surveyor, to survey entered lands on Piny River. The 
 Indians came upon them suddenly, and killed Hickman. The 
 same year they killed a man living with William Stuart, on 
 the plantation where Judge Llaywood afterwards lived. 
 
 Notwithstanding these daring acts of hostility, the number 
 of inhabitants steadily increased. James Harrison, William 
 
CHICKASAW BOUNDARY. 
 
 463 
 
 Hall and W. Gibson, settled this year above Bledsoe’s Lick, 
 ' and Charles Morgan established a station on the west side 
 of Bledsoe’s Creek, five miles from the Lick. The Indians 
 killed Peter Barnett and David Steele, below Clarkesville, 
 on the waters of Blooming Grove. They also wounded TVil- 
 liam Crutcher and went off, leaving a knife sticking in him ; 
 he recovered. 
 
 On the second day of March, John Peyton, a Surveyor, 
 Ephraim Peyton, Thomas Pugh and John Frazier, had com- 
 menced their survey upon a creek, since called Defeated 
 Creek, on the north side of Cumberland, in what is. now 
 Smith county, and had made a camp. While they were 
 sleeping around the camp about midnight, a great number of 
 Cherokee Indians surrounded and fired upon them. All but 
 one of them were wounded, but they ran through the Indian 
 line, made their escape and got home, losing their horses, 
 compass, chain, blankets, saddles and bridles. The Indians 
 retreated immediately to their towns, and were not over- 
 taken. 
 
 The Commissioners of the United States, Benjamin ITaw- 
 1786 i k' ns ’ Andrew Pickens, and Joseph Martin, concluded 
 l a treaty with the Chickasaw Commissioners, Piomingo, 
 head warrior and first minister, Mingatushka, one of the 
 leading chiefs, and Latopoia, first beloved man of that na- 
 tion, at Hopewell, January 10th, i786. The boundary of the 
 lands allotted to the Chickasaw nation to live and hunt on, 
 
 “Begau on the ridge that divides the waters running into the Cum- 
 berland from those running into the Tennessee, at a point in a line to 
 be run north-east, which shall strike the Tennessee at the mouth of Duck 
 River; thence running westerly along the said ridge till it shall strike 
 the Ohio ; thence down the southern bank thereof to the Mississippi ; 
 thence down the same to the Choctaw line of Natchez District; thence 
 along the said line, or the line of the district, eastwardly as far as the 
 Chickasaws claimed, and lived and hunted on, the twenty-ninth of No- 
 vember, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two. Thence the said 
 boundary eastwardly shall be the lands allotted to the Choctaws and 
 Cherokees, to live and hunt on, and the lands at present in possession of 
 the Creeks, saving and reserving for the establishment of a trading post, 
 a tract of land, to be laid out at the lower point of the Muscle Shoals, at 
 the mouth of Ocochappo.” 
 
 Monette says, that the Chickasaws, by this Treaty, ratified 
 
404 
 
 PURSUIT MADE BY CAPTAIN MARTIN. 
 
 and confirmed that made in 1783, with Donelson and Martin, 
 Commissioners of North-Carolina. This Treaty encouraged * 
 emigration to Cumberland. 
 
 The settlements were now becoming stronger by annual ar- 
 1787 \ r ‘ va -l s emigrants, but had not expanded much, except, 
 t in the direction towards Red River. There the new 
 settlers underwent the usual initiation from Indian outrage 
 and aggression. Hendrick’s Station, on Station-Camp Creek, 
 was assaulted in the night; the house, in which were Mr. and 
 Mrs. Price and their children, was broken into, the parents 
 were killed and their children badly wounded. A boy named 
 Baird, w r as killed in the day time, and several horses were 
 stolen. Near the Locust-land, where General Hall now lives, 
 above Bledsoe’s Lick, the Indians killed William Hall and 
 his son Richard, and another man. In May, the Indians came 
 to Richland Creek, and in daylight killed Mark Robertson, 
 near the place where Robertson’s Mill was since erected. He 
 was a brother of Col. Robertson, and was returning from his 
 house. 
 
 During the summer, the Indians came to Drake’s Creek, 
 where William Montgomery lived, shot down and scalped 
 his son, and wounded John Allen. In the same neighbour- 
 hood they killed Mr. Morgan, Sen., and were pursued by a 
 party of white men under the command of George Winches- 
 ter, who followed on their trail. Another party, commanded 
 by Captain William Martin, also followed them by a nearer 
 route, and not having found their trail, encamped near it. 
 The other party, on the same night, came on the trail, and 
 seeing the camp of Martin, fired into it and killed William 
 Ridley, the son of George Ridley, late of Davidson county. 
 
 Considerable delay occurred before Evans’s battalion could 
 be recruited, equipped, provided with supplies, and sent for- 
 ward to Cumberland, as provided for by the Assembly of 
 North-Carolina. Impatient of this delay, Colonel Bledsoe 
 asks permission of Governor Caswell to carry an expedition 
 against the Chickamaugas. His letter is dated from Ken- 
 tucky, whither he and Colonel Robertson had gone, to pro- 
 cure additional forces, with which to chastise the enemy. 
 
COLS. BLEDSOE AND ROBERTSON TO GOVERNOR CASWELL. 465 
 
 Kentucky, June 1st, 1787. 
 
 Bear Sir : — At this place I received accounts from Cumberland, that 
 since I last did myself the pleasure of addressing you, three persons 
 have been killed at that place, within about seven miles of Nashville; 
 and there is scarcely a day, that the Indians do not steal horses in either 
 Sumner or Davidson counties ; and I am informed, the people are exceed- 
 ingly dispirited, having had accounts that several northern tribes, in 
 conjunction with the Creek nation, have determined the destruction of 
 that defenceless country, this summer ; and their hopes seem blasted, as 
 to Major Evans’s assistance. Colonel Robertson has lately been to this 
 country to get some assistance to carry on a campaign against the 
 Chickamauga towns, and got some assurance from the several officers. 
 The time appointed for the rendezvous, was fixed to the 15th instant, 
 but, finding the men cannot be drawn out at that season of the year, I 
 have thought it my duty to ask your advice in the matter : whether, or 
 not, we shall have leave of government to carry on such a campaign, if 
 we can make ourselves able, with the assistance of our friends, the Vir- 
 gianians, as they promised us, immediately after harvest. 
 
 Soon after the date of Colonel Bledsoe’s letter, that officer 
 and Colonel Robertson addressed Governor Caswell, jointly, 
 under date : 
 
 Cumberland, June 12th, 1787. 
 
 Bear Sir : — Nothing but the distress of a bleeding country could in- 
 duce us to trouble you on so disagreeable a subject. We enclose you a 
 list of the killed in this quarter, since our departure from this country to 
 the Assembly ; this, with the numbers wounded, the vast numbers of 
 horses stolen from the inhabitants, has, in a degree, flagged the spirits 
 of the people. A report is now here, and has prevailed throughout this 
 country, and we are induced to believe it is true, that the Spaniards are 
 doing all they can to encourage the several savage tribes to war against 
 the Americans. It is certain, the Chickasaws inform us, that Spanish 
 traders offer a reward for scalps of the Americans. A disorderly set of 
 French and Spanish traders are continually on the Tennessee, that, we 
 actually fear, are a great means of encouraging the Indians to do us 
 much mischief. We should wish to take some measures to remove 
 these disorderly traders from the Tennessee, and wish your Excellency’s 
 advice in the matter. 
 
 At length, the Indian atrocities becoming so bold and fre- 
 quent, it appeared necessary, for the protection and defence 
 of the settlements, that offensive operations should be carried 
 on against the Indians in their own towns. One hundred 
 and thirty men, from the different settlements on Cumber- 
 land, volunteered for that purpose, and assembled at the 
 house of Colonel Robertson. Of this force he took the com- 
 mand, assisted by Colonel Robert Hays and Colonel James 
 30 
 
466 
 
 Robertson’s march to Tennessee river, 
 
 Ford, and marched for the Indian village, Coldwater, with 
 two Chickasaws as pilots. They crossed at the mouth of 
 South Harper ; thence they went a direct course to the 
 mouth of Turnbull’s Creek, and up that stream to its head; 
 thence to Lick Creek, of Duck River; thence down that 
 creek seven or eight miles, leaving the creek to the right 
 hand ; thence to an old and very large Lick; thence to Duck 
 River, where the old Chickasaw trace crossed it ; thence, 
 leaving the trace to the right hand, they went to the head of 
 Swan Creek; thence to a creek then called Blue Water, 
 running into the Tennessee River, about a mile and a half 
 above the lower end of the Muscle Shoals. When within 
 ten miles of these rapids, they heard the roaring of the falls. 
 One of the Indian guides, with several of the most active 
 soldiers, was ordered to go to the river. These, about mid- 
 night, returned, saying the river was too distant for them to 
 reach that night and return to camp. In the morning, they 
 pursued the same course they had done the day before. At 
 12 o’clock, they struck the river at the lower end of the Mus- 
 cle Shoals, where it is said the road now crosses, and con- 
 cealed themselves in the woods till night. On the north 
 side of the river they discovered, on a bluff, a plain path 
 leading along the river, which seemed to be much travelled; 
 and on the south side, opposite to them, were seen several 
 Indian cabins or lodges. Several of the soldiers went down 
 secretly, took their station under the bank, and concealed 
 themselves under the cane, to observe what could be seen on 
 the other side. They had not long remained in their place 
 of concealment, when they saw some Indians reconnoitering 
 and evidently looking out for the troops of Col. Robertson. 
 In doing this, they passed into an island near the south bank 
 of the river, where they entered a canoe, and came half way 
 over the stream. Not being able to see any of the inva- 
 ders, the Indians returned to the island where they had 
 started from, and fastened the canoe. When they left the 
 river, Captain Rains was sent with fifteen men up the path, 
 along the north bank, with orders from Col. Robertson to cap- 
 ture an Indian, if possible, alive. He executed the order, but 
 did not see an Indian. He went nearly to the mouth of 
 
AND ATTACK ON COLDWATER. 
 
 467 
 
 Bluewater Creek, when about sunset he was recalled, having 
 made no discoveries. It was determined to cross the river 
 that night, and the soldiers, who had watched the move- 
 ments of the Indians, swam over the river and went up to the 
 cabins, but they found not a single living being in the village. 
 They then untied the canoe and returned in it to the north 
 bank. It was found to be a very large one, but old and 
 having a hole in its bottom. This the men contrived to stop 
 with their shirts. Into this frail and leaky barque, forty men, 
 with their fire-arms, entered. They started from the shore, 
 and the canoe sprang aleak and began to sink. Jumping 
 into the water, the men swam back with the canoe to the 
 northern bank. In these operations, some noise was neces- 
 sarily made, and considerable time consumed, and the em- 
 barkation of the troops was delayed till daylight. With a 
 piece of linn bark, the hole in the canoe was at length cov- 
 ered, and forty or fifty men crossed over in it, and took pos- 
 session of the bank on the south side. The remainder of the 
 troops swam over with the horses. Having all crossed the 
 river in safety, attention was paid to drying their clothes and 
 equipments. A rain came on and forced the men into the 
 cabins. After the clouds cleared away, the troops mounted, 
 and seeing a well beaten path, leading from the river out 
 into the barrens, in a western direction, they dashed into it 
 and followed it briskly. At the distance of five or six miles 
 they came to corn fields, and a mile or two further they came 
 to Coldwater Creek. This most of the troops crossed by a 
 path so narrow that a single horse could only pass it up the 
 bank. On the other side of the creek was a number of 
 cabins, built upon the low grounds, which extended to the 
 river about three hundred yards below. The people of the 
 town were surprised by its sudden and unexpected invasion, 
 and fled precipitately to their boats at the river, and were 
 closely pursued by such of the men as had crossed the 
 creek. Captain Rains had remained on its other side, with 
 Benjamin Castleman, William Loggins, William Steele and 
 Martin Duncan, and seeing the retreat and flight of the 
 enemy, went down the east side of the creek to intercept 
 them. The retreating Indians, as they ran down on the 
 
4G8 
 
 INDIANS AND FRENCH TRADERS ROUTED. 
 
 other side, and had their attention drawn to those who pur- 
 sued them on the same side of the creek, crossed over and 
 came to the spot where Captain Rains and his men were, 
 and were fired upon, while looking back at their pursuers, 
 and not perceiving the snare into which they had fallen. 
 Three of them dropped down dead. Three French traders 
 and a white woman, who had got into a boat and would not 
 surrender, but mixed with the Indians and seemed determined 
 to partake of their fate, whatever it might be, were killed by 
 the troops. They wounded and took prisoner the principal tra- 
 der and owner of the goods, and five or six other Frenchmen, 
 who lived there as traders. These had in the town, stores of 
 taffia, sugar, coffee, cloths, blankets, Indian wares of all 
 sorts, salt, shot, Indian paints, knives, powder, tomahawks, 
 tobacco and other articles, suitable for Indian commerce. 
 The troops killed many of the Indians after they had got 
 into the boats, and gave them so hot and deadly a fire from 
 the bank of the river, that they were forced to jump into the 
 water, and were shot whilst in it, until, as the Chickasaws 
 afterwards informed them, twenty-six of the Creek warriors 
 were killed in the river. The troops immediately afterwards 
 collected all the boats that were upon the river, and brought 
 them up the creek, opposite to the town, and placed a guard 
 over them. Each of the Indian guides was, next morning, 
 presented with a horse, a gun, and as many blankets and 
 clothes as the horses could carry, as their portion of the 
 spoils, and despatched to their homes. The name of one of 
 them was Toka, a chief. 
 
 After the departure of the Chickasaw guides, the troops 
 buried the white men and the woman killed in the engage- 
 ment of the day before, set fire to and burned up the town, 
 and destroyed the domestic animals that were found in and 
 around it. The goods of the traders had been removed from 
 the stores, and with the prisoners, were now put into three or 
 four boats, under the charge of Jonathan Denton, Benjamin 
 Drake, and John and Moses Eskridge, to navigate them. 
 They were directed to descend the Tennessee to some con- 
 venient point on its southern shore, where they were to meet 
 the mounted troops, and assist them in crossing. At the time 
 
ARMY RECROSSED AT COLBERT S. 
 
 469 
 
 the boats started down the river, the horsemen began their 
 march by land, bat being without pilots, and entirely unac- 
 quainted with the windings of the stream, they took a course 
 that led them further from it than they intended, into the 
 piny woods, where they encamped. The next day they 
 went to the river, where they saw several persons at a dis- 
 tance on the islands, who proved to be their own boatmen. 
 Neither knew the other till some of the boatmen, nearing 
 the shore, made the agreeable discovery, that the horsemen 
 on the land were their friends. The troops then moved down 
 the river a few miles, and came to a place just above the 
 point of an island, where the descent to the river was easy 
 and convenient for embarkation, and where the bank on the 
 opposite side afforded a safe landing. Here, with the as- 
 sistance of the boats, they crossed over. The whole com- 
 mand encamped together on the north shore, and found they 
 had not lost a single man, and that not one was wounded. 
 The place at which the crossing was made, is near what has 
 since been known as Colbert’s Ferry. 
 
 The horsemen, after leaving camp on the Tennessee, march- 
 ed nearly a north course, till they struck the path leading to 
 the Chickasaw Old Crossing, on Duck River, where they had 
 crossed going out, and pursuing their own trace, returned 
 unmolested to the Bluff. 
 
 At the encampment on the Tennessee, the French prisoners 
 were allowed to take all their trunks and wearing apparel, 
 and an equal division was made of the sugar and coffee 
 amongst the troops and prisoners. To the latter was also 
 given a canoe, in which, after bidding farewell, they ascend- 
 ed the river. 
 
 The dry goods were ordered, under the care of the same 
 boatmen, to Nashville. Sailing down the river some days, 
 they met other French boats laden with goods, and having 
 on board French traders, who, being greatly rejoiced at see- 
 ing their countrymen, as they supposed the Cumberland 
 boatmen to be, returning home, saluted them by firing their 
 guns. The latter, descen ling the river with their guns 
 charged, came alongside of the French boats, boarded them 
 and captured the boats and crews, and conducted them to a 
 
470 
 
 CAPTURE OF THE FRENCH TRADERS. 
 
 place a few miles below Nashville. There the captors gave 
 the Frenchmen a canoe, and dismissed them with permission 
 to go down the river, which they did. 
 
 The spoils taken at Coldwater, were brought to Eaton’s 
 Station and sold, and the proceeds divided amongst the 
 troops. They returned to Col. Robertson’s on the nineteenth 
 day after the commencement of the expedition at his house. 
 From this place, Col. Robertson wrote Gov. Caswell under 
 date — 
 
 “Nashville, July 2d, 1787. 
 
 Sir : — I had tko pleasure of receiving your Excellency’s letter to 
 Col. Bledsoe and myself, in which you were so obliging as to mention 
 you would render every aid in your power to our country. Never was 
 there a time in which your Excellency’s assistance and attention were 
 more necessary than the present. The war being exceedingly hot in 
 the spring, I marched some men near the Chickamaugas ; but wishing 
 to avoid an open war, returned without doing them any mischief, leav- 
 ing a letter containing every offer of peace that could be made on hon- 
 ourable terms; in consequence of which, they sent a flag to treat, though 
 I have every reason to doubt their sincerity, as several persons were 
 killed during their stay, and one man at my house, in their sight. They 
 impute the mischief we suffer to the Creeks. A few days after their 
 departure, my brother, Mark Robertson, being killed near my house, I, by 
 the advice of the officers, civil and military, raised about one hun- 
 dred and thirty men, and followed their tracks, near the lower end of 
 the Muscle Shoals, where some Indians discovered us, fired on our back 
 picket, and alarmed a small town of Cherokees. We found, where we 
 crossed Tennessee, pictures of two scalps, made a few days before ; 
 which scalps, we were afterwards informed, were carried into said town 
 by seven Cherokees, who were there when we attacked them. Though 
 they constantly kept out spies, we had the good fortune to cross Ten- 
 nessee, and go eighteen miles down the river, till in sight of the town, 
 before the Indians discovered us. We made a rapid charge and entirely 
 defeated them. The attack began at the mouth of a large creek ; we 
 forced them into the creek and river, and what escaped, either got off 
 in boats or swam the river. About twenty were killed, and several 
 wounded. The whole town, as we were afterwards informed by a 
 Frenchman, whom we found there, had been councilling three days, at 
 the instigation of a principal Creek chief, and had unanimously agreed 
 to fight us, if we crossed Tennessee. From what passed at this con- 
 sultation, I have every reason to believe the Creeks totally averse to 
 peace, notwithstanding they have had no cause of offence. We have 
 been exceedingly particular in giving them no reason to complain. Jj 
 Their force consisted of ten Creeks and thirty-five Cherokee warriors, 
 together with nine Frenchmen, chiefly from Detroit, who had joined 
 the Indians against us. Among the dead was the Creek chief before 
 mentioned, a mischievous Cherokee chief, three Frenchmen and a 
 
colonel eobeetson’s official report. 
 
 471 
 
 Frenchwoman, who was hilled by accident, in one of the boats. In 
 this action we lost not a single man ; bat a party of fifty men, who 
 was sent to the mouth of Duck River, was there attacked by a largo 
 number of Indians, and we had one man killed and eight wounded. 
 We were piloted by two Chickasaws, in this expedition ; their nation 
 seem, on every occasion, our friends, and if it were possible to supply 
 them with trade, at the Chickasaw Bluff, there is no doubt but they 
 and the Choctaws would find full employment for our enemies. 
 
 From the constant incursions of the Indians, I have been obliged to 
 keep the militia very much in service on scouts, guards, &c., and have 
 been under the necessity of promising them pay, without which, I am 
 persuaded, the army would have totally broken up, as many have already 
 done. I hope you will approve the promise I have made to the inhabi- 
 tants. Sumner county seems to he in peace, compared with this, 
 being more out of the range of the Indians. I have not an opportunity 
 of seeing Col. Bledsoe, or I make no doubt he would join me in 
 informing your Excellency that our situation, at present, is deplorable — 
 deprived of raising subsistence, and constantly harassed with perform- 
 ing military duty, our only hope is in the troops promised us by the 
 General Assembly ; but, as yet, we have no news of them. I earnestly 
 beg your Excellency to forward them with all possible expedition. I 
 hope that your Excellency will, by express or otherwise, favour me with 
 an answer. 
 
 This spirited invasion of the heart of the Indian country, 
 and the success that had attended the assault against Cold- 
 water, were followed by a short respite from savage aggres- 
 sion. Heretofore, there had not been an hour of safety to 
 any settler on the waters of Cumberland, and offensive mea- 
 sures were adopted and energetically executed. The ven- 
 geance so long delayed, had, at length, fallen with most fatal 
 effect upon those who had so frequently provoked it. At 
 Coldwater, Colonel Robertson discovered the sources from 
 which the Indians were supplied with the materials which 
 enabled them to make inroads upon the new settlements ; 
 the means by which, and the channels through which, they 
 received them ; and the practicable modes of cutting them 
 off, as well as the facility of seizing upon the stores, when 
 deposited in villages near the place of disembarkation. The 
 advantages acquired by his expedition were various and im- 
 portant, and by putting the Indians in danger at home, and 
 making it necessary for them to act on the defensive, near 
 their own villages, had greatly diminished the vigour of 
 their enterprises against the feeble settlements. 
 
472 
 
 DISASTER TO THE BOATMEN OF CAPTAIN HAY. 
 
 These advantages, however, were somewhat counteracted 
 by the unfortunate issue of another expedition, connected, in 
 part, with that so gallantly carried on by Colonel Robertson, 
 and undertaken about the same time, with the view of se- 
 curing its success. 
 
 When the troops started on the campaign to Coldwater, ! ! 
 David Hay, of Nashville, had the command of a company 
 there, and determined to carry them, simultaneously, against 
 the enemy, by water ; not only to assist their countrymen in 
 the assault upon the Indian villages, but to carry to them 
 provisions and supplies, which, it was apprehended, they 
 might need on their arrival at the Tennessee River, and, par- 
 ticularly, in case of the detention of the horsemen in that 
 neighbourhood, for a longer time than was anticipated. 
 Captain Hay and his men descended the river in three boats, 
 and passing around into the Tennessee, had proceeded unmo- 
 lested up that stream to the mouth of Duck River. When 
 they had reached that stream, the boat commanded by Moses 
 Shelby, entered into it a small distance, for the purpose of 
 examining a canoe, which he observed there, fastened 
 to the bank. A party of Indians had concealed themselves 
 in the cane and behind the trees, not more than ten or 
 twelve feet from the canoe, and from the boat itself, and 
 poured in a most unexpected fire into the boat. John Top 
 and Hugh Roquering were shot through the body ; Edward 
 Hogan, through the arm, the ball fracturing the bone ; Jo- 
 siah Renfroe was shot through the head, and killed on the 
 spot. The survivors made great haste to get the boat off, 
 but, having the prow up the small river, and several of the 
 crew being wholly disabled, and some of them greatly dis- 
 mayed by the sudden fire and destruction which had come 
 upon them, acted in disorder, and with great difficulty got the 
 boat again into the Tennessee, beyond the reach of the Indian 
 guns, before they could reload and fire a second time. Had 
 this movement been executed with less alacrity and despatch, 
 the rash and unadvised act of going to the canoe, would 
 have caused the whole crew to become victims to the strata- 
 gem of the Indians. As it was, their artful plot had too well 
 succeeded, and the expedition, which promised so much, and 
 
Robertson’s explanation. 
 
 473 
 
 thus far had been prosecuted without interruption, was 
 abandoned. Captain Hay returned, with his wounded men, 
 to Nashville, where, alone, surgical and medical assistance 
 could be procured. 
 
 The affair at Coldwater, and the capture of the French 
 traders and their goods on the Tennessee, had involved Col. 
 Robertson in a difficulty with a nation then at peace '‘with 
 the United States. That officer deemed it necessary, there- 
 fore, to make a written exposition of the causes and motives 
 which led to the campaign which he had conducted, and in 
 which citizens of France had been made to suffer. This 
 communication he addressed to a functionary at the Illinois. 
 He stated in it, 
 
 “That for some years past a trade had been carried on by Frenchmen 
 from the Wabash, with the Indians on Tennessee. The trade had been 
 formerly managed by a Mr. Veiz, and while he carried it on the In- 
 dians were peaceable towards us ; but for two or three years past, these 
 Indians had been extremely inimical, at all seasons killing our men, wo- 
 men and children, and stealing our horses. He had sufficient evidence 
 of the fact also, that these Indians were excited to war against us by 
 the suggestions of these traders, who both advised them to war, and 
 gave them goods for carrying it on. The Chickasaws had told him 
 that they had been offered goods by those traders if they would go to 
 war against us. And one John Rogers declared, that he had seen a 
 Creek fellow have on a pair of arm-bands, which he said were given to 
 him by the French traders, for going to war against our people. Their 
 incursions upon us this spring have been more severe than usual, and I 
 determined to distress them. For this purpose, he stated that he had 
 taken a part of the militia of Davidson county, followed the tracks of 
 one of their scalping parties, who had just been doing murder here, 
 and pursuing them to a town on Tennessee, at the mouth of Coldwater, 
 had destroyed the town, and killed, as he supposed, about twenty of the 
 Indians. The scalps of two of our people whom they had lately mur- 
 dered, were found in the town. Some of the French imprudently put 
 themselves in the action, and some of them fell. From that place he 
 sent a party around to the River Cumberland by water. On the Ten- 
 nessee they found five Frenchmen, with two boats, having on board 
 goods to trade with those very Indians. The commander of the party 
 captured the boats with the traders, and brought them round to the 
 Cumberland, and gave them their choice, either to come up to the set- 
 tlement and stand their trial for what they had done, thereby to try 
 and regain their goods, or else they might go home at once without 
 their goods ; they chose the latter. The taking of these boats, said Col. 
 Robertson, was without my knowledge or approbation. I am now en- 
 deavouring to collect the property which was in them, and I desire the 
 
474 
 
 ANOTHER CAMPAIGN BY CAPTAIN SHANNON. 
 
 owners to be notified, that if they could make it appear that they wera 
 not guilty of a breach of the laws, and did not intend to furnish our 
 enemies with powder, lead and other goods, for our destruction, on ap- 
 plying here at Nashville, they can have their property again. He de- ! 
 dared that if those Indians would be peaceable, we should never attempt 
 to deprive them of any trade the'y could procure. But whilst they con- 
 tinue at war, said he, any traders who furnish them with arms and am- 
 munition, will render themselves very insecure.” 
 
 The fearless irruption of the troops under Robertson, was 
 followed by a temporary relaxation of Indian hostility. But 
 soon after their route and discomfiture at Coldwater, they 
 collected in small bodies, crossed the Tennessee, and com- 
 menced an undistinguishing carnage upon the settlers, of all 
 ages and sexes. One of these was pursued by a small body 
 of white men under Captain Shannon. The Indians had 
 reached the bank of Tennessee River ; some were in their 
 camp, eating, others making preparations to cross to the op- 
 posite shore. The former were discovered by Shannon’s 
 men, who fired and rushed impetuously upon them. Castle- 
 man killed one. Another, proving too strong, took Luke An- 
 derson’s gun from him, but before he could discharge her, 
 William Pillow, since a colonel, of Maury county, and the 
 uncle of Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, of the United States Army, 
 shot the Indian and recovered the gun. The remaining In- 
 dians, who were without the camp, were commanded by Big 
 Foot, a leading warrior of determined bravery. Believing, 
 from the report of the guns. which had been fired, that the 
 number of the assailants was inconsiderable, these resolved 
 to attack the whites, and did so. A terrible conflict ensued. 
 Victory, for some time wavering, at length declared against 
 the Indians. Their leader and five of his followers were 
 killed, the rest raised the yell and disappeared in the bushes. 
 
 Late in July, of this year, two hundred Creek warriors, cm- 
 ( bodied for the purpose, as they said, of taking satisfac- 
 l tion for three Indians killed in an affair eighteen miles 
 below Chota. Mr. Perrault met and delivered, and expounded 
 to them a letter, written by Col. Robertson, and addressed 
 to their nation. Perrault endeavoured to dissuade them 
 from hostilities and to get them to turn back, but his mission 
 was fruitless. They persevered in their march, adding to their 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN RAINS. 
 
 475 
 
 rejection of the overtures for peace, a threat, that if their 
 territory should be again invaded, or another Creek should 
 be killed after their present incursion, the whites might ex- 
 pect a merciless war. 
 
 Of the battalion ordered to be raised for the protection of 
 Davidson county, Major Evans was appointed to take the 
 command. These troops arrived on Cumberland in succes- 
 sive detachments, accompanying parties of emigrants, that 
 were constantly augmenting the resources and defences of 
 the country. Col. Robertson, to add further to the efficiency 
 of Evans’s battalion, was enabled, from the increased strength 
 of the population, to select and detach a certain portion of 
 it to act as patrols or spies. It was their business to go 
 through the woods from the borders of the settlements — in 
 every direction, and to every place where there was an In- 
 dian or a buffalo trace — to the crossing places on rivers and 
 creeks, to look after the Indians, and to notice the trails they 
 had made in their marches. At that time canes and weeds 
 grew up so luxuriantly, in all parts of the country, that two 
 or three men, even without horses, could not pass through 
 without leaving a discernible trace, which might be fol- 
 lowed with no risk of mistake. Amongst the patrols selected 
 for the performance of this service, w r as Captain John Rains. 
 Col. Robertson was led to this choice by the experience he 
 had had in his prowess and diligence. His orders to him 
 had always been executed punctually, promptly, and with a 
 degree of bravery that was never exceeded. An occasion 
 soon offered for the exercise of these eminent qualities. 
 The Indians killed Randal Gentry, not far from the Bluff, at 
 the place wffiere Mr. Foster since lived. About the same 
 time, Curtis Williams and Thomas Fletcher, with his son, 
 were also killed near the mouth of Harper. Captain Rains 
 was ordered to pursue the perpetrators of this mischief. He 
 soon raised sixty men and followed them. Their trace was 
 found and pursuit made ; he passed Mill Creek, Big Harper, 
 the Fishing Ford of Duck River, Elk River, at the mouth of 
 Swan Creek, and Flint River. Not being able to overtake 
 the enemy, he left their trace and went w'estwardlv, and 
 struck McCutchin’s trace. Before he reached Elk River, he 
 
476 
 
 KAINS DISCOVERS INDIAN CAMP. 
 
 discovered tracks of Indians going in the direction of Nash- 
 ville. At the crossing of the river, he came to the camp 
 which they had left the morning before. He went forward 
 six miles and halted, sending forward a few of his men to see 
 that the enemy was not so near as to hear his men forming 
 their encampment. These returned without having seen 
 any of the Indians. Next morning Captain Rains continued 
 the pursuit, and in the afternoon found the place they had 
 encamped the preceding night. The ground had been cleared 
 of leaves and brush, and upon this the war dance had been 
 celebrated. There were, moreover, evidences of a, wary and 
 deliberate invasion for hostile purposes, and of very cau- 
 tious and watchful progress. The troops, after crossing Duck 
 River, at the mouth of Globe and Fountain Creek, encamped 
 at night on its north side. Renewing their march next morn- 
 ing, they came, at the distance of six miles on the waters 
 of Rutherford’s Creek, near where Solomon Herring has since 
 lived, upon the camp of the Indians. It was fired upon, when 
 the Indians immediately fled, leaving one of their number 
 dead. Captain Rains, with his company, then returned to 
 Nashville. 
 
 The same vigilant officer soon after received the orders of 
 Colonel Robertson to raise another company, and scour the 
 woods southwardly from Nashville, and destroy any Indians 
 that might be found, east of the line dividing the Cherokee 
 and Chickasaw nations. Sixty men constituted the com- 
 mand. They took the Chickasaw trace, crossing Duck 
 River and Swan Creek, pursuing the Chickasaw path, which 
 was recognized as the boundary. They then left the path, 
 going south and east up the Tennessee River. After two 
 days, they came upon an Indian trail, and made pursuit. 
 They overtook them, killed four men, and captured a boy. 
 Seven horses, guns, blankets, skins, and all the Indians had, 
 were taken. The troop then returned to Nashville. 
 
 The boy, who had been taken prisoner in this engage- 
 ment, was the son of a Chickasaw woman. His father was 
 a Creek warrior. Mountain Leader, a distinguished chief of 
 her nation, wrote, in behalf of the mother, to Captain Rains, 
 and proposed to exchange, for his prisoner, the son of a Mrs. 
 
THIRD CAMPAIGN OF RAINS. 
 
 477 
 
 Naine, who had been stolen by the Creeks from her, on 
 White’s Creek, and taken to the interior of their nation. 
 Batterboo, a son of the Mountain Leader, had re-captured 
 him from the Creeks. The exchange, as proposed, was 
 agreed to and made. 
 
 In September, of this year. Captain Rains, being reinforced 
 by a like number of men, commanded by Captain Shannon, 
 made his third expedition. The troop passed Greene’s Lick 
 and Pond Spring, towards the head of Elk, scouring the 
 woods in various directions. They came upon a fresh Indian 
 trail, which they followed, and soon overtook the enemy. 
 Captain Rains, and one of his men, Beverly Ridley, pursued 
 one of them and killed him. John Rains, Jun., and Robert 
 Evans, outran another, and made him prisoner. All the rest 
 escaped by flight. In the camp of this party were found 
 large quantities of skins and other plunder, which, with fif- 
 teen horses, fell into the hands of the whites. 
 
 Besides these excursions of Captain Rains, other compa- 
 nies made similar expeditions in every direction throughout 
 the country. Of the troops sent over Cumberland Mountain, 
 to protect the infant settlements, was a company of rangers, 
 commanded by Captain William Martin. He remained in 
 that frontier nearly two years ; sometimes stationed in a fort, 
 sometimes pursuing marauding parties of Indians, sometimes 
 opening up channels of travel, by which emigrants could 
 more easily reach the forming settlements.* The Indians 
 soon became more wary in their invasions of the settle- 
 ments, as the woods through which they had to pass were 
 constantly traversed by armed bodies of men, endeavouring 
 to find their trails and prevent their inroads. In addition to 
 these companies raised from the settlers, a part of Major 
 Evans’s battalion was distributed over the country, and 
 placed at the different stations, in such proportions as emer- 
 gencies required. The command of Captain Hadley re- 
 mained for nearly two years, and added alike to the popu- 
 lation and security of the country. Scouts were sent out 
 
 * At the Talladega battle, after Colonel Pillow was wounded, his Lieutenant- 
 Colonel William Martin, took command, and was conspicuous for his good con- 
 duct. 
 
478 
 
 CONTINUED INDIAN AGGRESSIONS. 
 
 from Bledsoe’s Lick to the Cany Fork, under the command 
 of Colonel Winchester. They frequently fell upon Indian 
 trails, and met war parties in the woods, with great variety 
 of fortune, sometimes disastrous and sometimes successful. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all these measures of defence and 
 precaution, the Indians occasionally succeeded in penetra- 
 ting to the more exposed frontier stations, and murdering 
 the inhabitants. In this way Samuel Buchanan was killed. 
 The Indians came upon him, ploughing in the field, and fired 
 upon him. He ran, and was pursued by twelve Indians, 
 taking, in their pursuit, the form of a half-moon. When he 
 came to the bluff of the creek, below the field, he jumped 
 down a steep bank into the creek, where he was overtaken, 
 killed and scalped. But the frontier, generally, was so vigi- 
 lantly guarded by brave men, experienced in Indian fighting, 
 that little success followed the incursions of the enemy — 
 now more unfrequent, and conducted with timidity and 
 caution. 
 
 The settlements had received considerable addition of 
 ^gg ( emigrants. Agricultural pursuits were rewarded by 
 ( bountiful crops, and the implacable enmity of the 
 savages was the only interruption to general prosperity. In 
 February, the Indians came to Bledsoe’s Station, in the night 
 time, and wounded George Hamilton, and went off. Near 
 Asher’s Station, on the north side of Cumberland, they 
 wounded Jesse Maxey ; he fell, and they scalped him and 
 stuck a knife into his body. Contrary to expectation, he 
 recovered. 
 
 The Indians came to the house of William Montgomery, 
 on Drake’s Creek, in daylight, and killed, at the spring, not 
 a hundred yards from the house, his three sons. In March, 
 of the same year, a party of Creeks killed Peyton, the son 
 of Col. James Robertson, at his plantation on Richland 
 Creek, and captured a lad, John Johnston, and retained him 
 in captivity several years. Robert Jones was killed, some 
 time afterwards, at Wilson’s Station, and Benjamin Williams, 
 near the head of Station-Camp Creek. Mrs. Neely was 
 killed, and Robert Edmondson wounded, in Neely’s Bend, 
 and in October following, Dunham and Astill were killed. 
 
MISSION OF HOGGATT AND EWING. 
 
 479 
 
 These repeated acts of hostility on the part of the Creek 
 nation, were generally ascribed to Spanish influence. That 
 tribe had no real cause of displeasure against the people of 
 Cumberland. They claimed no territory upon which settle- 
 ments had been formed ; no encroachments upon their pos- 
 sessions had been made ; no acts of offensive war been 
 perpetrated by Robertson and his colonists, except in defence 
 of themselves and their families. Under these circumstan- 
 ces, it was determined to inquire, in a formal manner, from 
 the Chief of the Creek nation, what were the grounds of 
 their offensive deportment towards the settlers. Colonel 
 Robertson and Colonel Anthony Bledsoe, therefore, addressed 
 a joint letter to the celebrated McGillevray, which was 
 transmitted to him by special messengers, Mr. Hoggatt and 
 Mr. Ewing. To this communication, the chief replied from 
 Little Tallassee, April 4, 1788. In his reply, he mentioned 
 that, in common with other southern tribes, the Creeks had 
 adhered to the British interest during the late war. That 
 after peace was made, he had accepted proposals for friend- 
 ship between their people, but that while that accommoda- 
 tion was pending, six of his nation were killed in the affair 
 at Coldwater ; and these warriors belonging to different 
 towns, in each of which they had connexions of the first 
 consequence, a violent clamour followed, which had given 
 rise to the expeditions that afterwards took place against 
 Cumberland. The affair at Coldwater, he continued, has since 
 been amply retaliated, and I will now use my best endea- 
 vours to bring about a peace between us. This friendly 
 overture was scarcely received on Cumberland, when, on 
 the twentieth of July, hostilities were again renewed. 
 
 Unfortunately for the country, the first victim was an 
 individual prominent for his private virtues and for his pub- 
 lic services, civil and military, rendered to the people on the 
 frontier from the first settlement of Holston and Cumber- 
 land. Col. Anthony Bledsoe, having broken up his own fort, 
 on what was known as the Greenfield Grant, had moved 
 into the fort of his brother, Isaac Bledsoe, at Bledsoe’s Lick, 
 and occupied one end of his house. About midnight, of 
 July 20th, after the families living in the fort had retired to 
 
480 
 
 ROBERTSON TEMPORIZES. 
 
 bed, James Clendening announced that the Indians were 
 approaching near the houses. A party of them had formed 
 an ambuscade about forty yards in front of the passage 
 separating the houses of the two brothers, and, with the 
 view of drawing out the inmates, a few of the Indians rode 
 rapidly through a lane near the fort. Col. Anthony Bledsoe, 
 hearing the alarm, immediately arose, and, with his servant, 
 Campbell, went boldly into the passage. The night was 
 clear and the moon shone brightly. The Indians fired; 
 Campbell was killed, and the colonel received a mortal 
 wound, being shot directly through the body. He died at 
 sunrise next morning. 
 
 The fire of the Indians aroused William Hall, who was 
 also at Bledsoe’s Lick, and he made immediate preparation 
 to resist a further anticipated attack. With some other 
 gunmen, he went to the port-holes, and there remained till 
 daylight. The Indians, seeing the fort was upon its guard, 
 made no further assault, and withdrew. 
 
 At this period, it will be recollected, that the Union was in 
 disorder, and on the point of dissolution from the imbecility 
 of its own structure, and that North-Carolina betrayed both 
 inability and disinclination to furnish her trans-montane 
 counties any assistance. Col. Robertson adopted the policy 
 of temporizing and amusing, for the time being, both the 
 Creek chieftain and the agents of Spain, and to dissemble the 
 deep resentment their conduct had excited. With this view, he 
 replied to McGillevray on the 3d of August, and though the re- 
 cent death of his friend Col. Bledsoe, must have greatty irritated 
 him, he suppressed every feeling of resentment and asperity. 
 He acknowledged the satisfaction McGillevray’s letter had 
 given to his countrymen, and even seemed to extenuate the 
 recent aggressions of the Creeks upon the settlers. He men- 
 tioned, without comment, the death of Col. Bledsoe, and as 
 a means of further conciliation, added, that he had caused a 
 deed fora lot in Nashville to be recorded in his name, and 
 begged to know whether he would accept a tract or two of 
 land in our young country. “I would say much to you,” he 
 continued, “respecting this fine country, but am fully sensi- 
 ble you are better able to judge what may take place a few 
 
robertson’s skilful negotiation. 
 
 481 
 
 years hence, than myself. In all probability, we cannot long 
 remain in our present state, and if the British or any com- 
 mercial nation, who may possess the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi River, would furnish us with trade, and receive our 
 produce, there cannot be a doubt, but that the people 
 west of the Apalachian Mountains will open their eyes to 
 their true interests. I shall be very happy to have your 
 sentiments on these matters.” This piece of diplomacy was 
 not, as will be seen hereafter, without its effect upon those 
 for whose use it was specially intended. 
 
 Thus skilfully did the young diplomatist at the Bluff, con- 
 duct the negotiation for its safety. To a further complaint 
 made by McGillevray, of encroachments by settlers upon 
 Creek territory, Col. Robertson again replied : “ He regretted 
 the circumstances, and excused both himself and the people 
 of Cumberland from blame, by remarking, that they were 
 not a part of the state* whose people made the encroach- 
 ments. The people of Cumberland, he avowed, only claimed 
 the lands which the Cherokees had sold in 1775, to Col. Hen- 
 derson, and for which they were paid. He had not expected to 
 be blamed for his late expedition against the Indians below 
 the Muscle Shoals, who were known to be a lawless banditti, 
 and subject to the regulations of no nation. He had been 
 subjected, recently, to the mortification of seeing one of his 
 own children inhumanly massacred, a shock that almost 
 conquered the fortitude which he had been endeavouring, 
 from his earliest youth, to provide as a shield against the 
 calamitous evils of this life. At the same time a neighbour’s 
 child was made prisoner, whom he requested the good offices 
 of McGillevray to have restored.. He had, last fall, stopped an 
 excursion against the Cherokees, on hearing from Doct. White 
 their friendly professions. He importuned McGillevray to 
 punish the refractory part of his nation, as the only means of 
 preserving peace.” Here grief imperceptibly stole upon his 
 mind, and poured forth itself in nature’s simple strains. “It 
 is a matter of no reflection,” said he, “ to a brave man, to see 
 a father, a son, or a brother, fall in the field of action. But 
 
 * Alluding to Franklin. 
 
 31 
 
482 
 
 , DAVIDSON MILITIA GUARD EMIGRANTS. 
 
 it is a serious and melancholy incident to see a helpless wo- 
 man or an innocent child tomahawked in their own houses.” 
 
 To these strong and pathetic appeals of Col. Robertson, 
 McGillevray replied, that he had endeavoured to get the Lit- 
 tle Turkey and Bloody Fellow to refrain future hostilities 
 against the whites, and that he would persist in measures 
 most proper to keep the Creeks from further hostilities 
 against Cumberland. 
 
 The people of Tennessee have reason to venerate the 
 memory of James Robertson, alike for his military and civil 
 services, and the earnest and successful manner in which he 
 conducted his negotiations for peace and commerce. His 
 probity and weight of character, secured to his remonstran- 
 ces with Indian and Spanish agents, respectful attention and 
 consideration. His earnest and truthful manner was rarely 
 disregarded by either. 
 
 One hundred men, raised in Davidson and Sumner, and 
 178 b I commanded by Col. M^nsco and Major Kirkpatrick, 
 f escorted twenty-two families, who came this year by 
 the way of the future Knoxville to Cumberland. These 
 guards, to escort emigrant families through the wilderness, 
 were continued several years, and afforded them almost per- 
 fect security from Indian disturbance. But wherever a house 
 or a station was allowed to remain defenceless, murder and 
 depredation followed. The Indians, after they killed Bled- 
 soe, murdered one Walters, near Winchester’s Mill. They 
 attacked the station of Southerland M ayfield, upon the head 
 of the west fork of Mill" Creek, four miles above its junction 
 with the east fork. The party consisted of ten or twelve 
 Creek warriors In the evening, they came to a place near 
 the station where Mayfield, his two sons, Col. Jocelyn, and 
 another person, were making a wolf pen. The Indians, un- 
 perceived, got between them and their guns. They fired 
 upon and killed Mayfield, one of his sons, and another per- 
 son, a guard at that station. The'y fired upon the guard and 
 the son, as they went in the direction of the guns to bring 
 to the pen something that was there, and jumped over a log, 
 from where they had lain behind it, to scalp them, in the 
 presence of Mayfield and Jocelyn. The latter ran for his 
 
INDIANS ATTACK BROWn’s STATION. 
 
 483 
 
 gun and got amongst the Indians, who fired upon him and 
 drove him hack, pursuing him in the form of a half moon. 
 At length they drove him to a very large log, over which, if 
 he could not have jumped, he was completely penned. Be- 
 yond his own expectation, Jocelyn leaped over the log and 
 fell upon his back. Despairing of overtaking a man of so 
 much activity, the Indians desisted from any further pursuit 
 and left him. By a circuitous route he reached the station. 
 Mayfield was wounded. He was not seen or pursued by 
 the Indians, but was found next day dead. Georg e M ayfield. 
 was taken prisoner, and held in captivity many years. Sat- 
 isfied with the guns and the prisoner they had taken, the In- 
 dians made no assault upon the station, but made a hasty 
 retreat. The people in the station then removed to Captain 
 Rains, near Nashville. A mile below Mayfield’s, the In- 
 dians attacked Brown’s Station, and killed four boys — two 
 the sons of Stowball, one a son of Joseph Denton, and the 
 other a son of John Brown. Not long after, at tlje. same 
 station, James Haggard and his wife, John Haggard, and a 
 man named Adams, were all killed. The people in this sta- 
 tion then removed to Captain Rains. 
 
 On the 20th January, of this year, the Indians killed Capt. 
 Hunter, and dangerously wounded Hugh F. Bell. A party 
 of white men pursued, and, at the distance of two and a half 
 miles, came upon them ambuscaded. They fired upon their 
 pursuers, killed Major Kirkpatrick, and wounded J. Foster 
 and William Brown. At Dunham’s Station, in the spring, 
 they killed Mills; in May, Dunham ; and, in the sum- 
 
 mer, Joseph Norrington, and another Dunham, near the place 
 where Joseph Trvin’s house has since been built. J. Cock- 
 rill was fired at and his horse was killed. Besides these al- 
 ready mentioned, there were several others killed, whose 
 names are not recollected. Hostilities continued throughout 
 the summer, and Miss McGaughy, at Hickman’s Sta- 
 
 tion, and Hugh Webb, on the Kentucky trace, near Barren 
 River, were killed by the Indians. Henry Ramsey was.shot 
 through the body, near Bledsoe’s Creek, between Greenfield 
 and Morgan’s Station, three or four miles from Bledsoe’s 
 Lick. 
 
484 
 
 robertson’s station attacked. 
 
 1789 
 
 In May, Judge McNairy, with several others, on their way 
 from Cumberland to what was then called the settle- 
 ments, encamped for the night in the wilderness west of 
 Clinch River. Next morning a large company of Indians fell 
 upon them, killing one white man named Stanley, a Chicka- 
 saw chief called Longhair, and his son. The whites were 
 entirely routed, and escaped only by swimming across the 
 river. They lost all their horses, and the most of their 
 clothing. 
 
 In June, the Indians made a bold attack on Robertson’s 
 Station. It was made in the day time, while the hands were 
 at work in the field. In their escape to the fort, Gen. Robert- 
 son was wounded. He gave orders to Col. Elijah Robertson 
 to send a force immediately against the Indians who had re- 
 treated. To Captain Sampson Williams was this service 
 assigned, who, with sixty or seventy men, convened at Gen. 
 Robertson’s, marched at once, pursuing the enemy along 
 McCut^hin’s trace, up West Harper, to the ridge of Duck 
 River. Here they discovered that the Indians out-travelled 
 them. Twenty men were ordered to the front, to leave their 
 horses, and to make forced marches upon the trail. Captain 
 Williams and the twenty men, one of whom was Andrew 
 Jackson, pushed forward and soon came in view of the In- 
 dian camp, on the south side of Duck River. They then 
 went up the river a mile and a half, crossed over it in the 
 night, and went down its bank to the place the Indian camp 
 was supposed to be. The cane was so thick that they could 
 not find the camp, and they lay on their arms all night. In 
 the morning, Captain Williams advancing about fifty yards, 
 descried the Indians repairing their fires, at the distance of 
 one hundred yards from him. He and his men rushed to- 
 wards them, fired at sixty yards distance, killed one, wounded 
 five or six, and drove the whole party across the river to the 
 north side. The Indians carried off their wounded and es- 
 caped, not taking time even to return the fire. In their flight 
 they left to the victors sixteen guns, nineteen shot-pouches, 
 and all their baggage, consisting of blankets, moccasins and 
 leggins. They were not again overtaken. 
 
 Near the mouth of the Sulphur Fork of Red River, the In- 
 
ARRIVAL OP COLONEL PILLOW. 
 
 485 
 
 dians fell upon the families of Isaac and John Titsworth, 
 moving .to the country. They, their wives and children, 
 were all killed. 
 
 Evan Shelby, Abednego Lewellen, Hugh F. Bell, and 
 Colonel Tenen, were in the woods hunting. The two for- 
 mer were killed ; the two last escaped. 
 
 In September, the Indians came to Buchanan’s Station. 
 John Blackburn, standing on the bank of the creek near the 
 spring, was fired upon by ten or twelve of them at the 
 same time. He was killed, scalped, and left with a spear 
 sticking in his body. 
 
 Among other emigrants from North-Carolina to Cumber- 
 land, was the father of Colonel William Pillow. He came 
 through the wilderness with the guard commanded by 
 Captain Elijah Robertson, and settled four miles south of 
 Nashville, at Brown’s Station. The son, William Pillow, 
 was in most of the expeditions carried on against the In- 
 dians, from the time of his arrival in the country to the close 
 of the Indian war. He was under Captain Rains in the 
 tour to Elk River, already mentioned. He also accompa- 
 nied Captain John Gordon in .pursuit of the Indians who 
 had killed a woman near Buchanan’s Station. Only one of 
 the savages was killed ; the rest effected their escape in the 
 cane, and at night. He was also one of Captain Murray’s 
 company, who gave pursuit to the Indians, who, in Febru- 
 ary, killed John Helin at Jonathan Robertson’s Station, six 
 or seven miles below Nashville, and had also stolen several 
 horses in that neighbourhood. Murray’s company crossed 
 Duck River, five miles below the place where Columbia now 
 stands, and continued a rapid march, day and night. The 
 smoke from the enemy’s camp was discovered, and four or 
 five spies were sent forward. Captain Murray charged 
 obliquely to the right of the camp, which was on the bank 
 of Tennessee River. His left charged obliquely to the left, 
 and struck the river above the Indian camp. The spies fired 
 and killed one ; the other Indians ran down the river into Capt. 
 Murray’s line, when, finding their flight intercepted in that 
 direction, they jumped into the river, and were shot. Mr. 
 Maclin shot one before he got into the water. William Pil- 
 
486 
 
 SIGNAL VALOUR, INTREPIDITY AND SUFFERINGS 
 
 low, hearing a gun fire at a place which he had just passed, 
 pushed his horse up the steep second river bank, and dis- 
 covered Davis running towards him, pursued by four Indians. 
 Pillow dashed forward, and the Indians, discontinuing the 
 pursuit of Davis, ran off in the opposite direction. Pillow, 
 pressing the pursuit too eagerly, fell from his horse ; but re- 
 covered, sprang to his feet, gained upon the Indian, and dis- 
 charged the contents of his musket into his body. At that 
 moment, Captain Murray, Thomas Cox, Robert Evans, Luke 
 Anderson and William Ewing rode up, and Pillow pointed 
 out to them the direction one of the Indians had gone. They 
 immediately gave pursuit, and saw the Indian attempting to 
 mount Pillow’s horse, which he succeeded in doing. Cox 
 ran up and shot him through the shoulder. The Indian, 
 nevertheless, held on to Pillow’s horse, and kept him in a 
 gallop till the whole company came up with him He now 
 slipped off the horse, and, as he came to the ground, scared 
 Anderson’s mule, which run under a low tree, whose limbs 
 caught his gun and jerked it out of his hand. The brave 
 Indian caught it up, snapped it three or four times at them, 
 before Evans shot him down. Pursuit was then made by 
 Andrew Castleman and others, after the two other Indians 
 whom Pillow had driven from Davis. They were found hid 
 in the water, under a bluff of rocks ; both were killed. 
 Others were found concealing themselves under the bank, 
 and suffered the same fate. Eleven warriors were killed ; 
 the whole party, as w T as ascertained from the squaws who 
 were taken prisoners.* 
 
 Such were the accumulated difficulties from savage hos- 
 tility, undergone by the Cumberland settlements, in the first 
 nine years after the arrival of Robertson at the Bluff. The 
 prophecy of the sagacious Cherokee chief had been already 
 fulfilled to the letter, and, still later, received further and 
 stronger realization. “ Much trouble ” attended each step 
 in the growth of the gallant community, of which the 
 French Lick was the nucleus. And it may be safely said, 
 that as the co-pioneers and compatriots of Robertson under- 
 
 # Manuscript' Narratives. 
 
OF THE CUMBERLAND PEOPLE. 
 
 487 
 
 went trials, hardships, dangers, invasion, assault, massacre 
 and death from Indian warfare, unsurpassed, in degree and 
 duration, in the history of any people ; so they were endured 
 with a fortitude, borne with a perseverance, encountered 
 with a determination, resisted with a courage, and signal- 
 ized with a valour, unequalled and unrecorded. The Bluff, 
 the stations in its environs, the forts in the adjoining neigh- 
 bourhoods, each hunting excusion, the settlement of each 
 farm around the flourishing metropolis of Tennessee, fur- 
 nishes its tale of desperate adventure and romantic heroism, 
 upon which this writer dare not here linger. A volume 
 would be insufficient for that desirable and necessary pur- 
 pose ; and leaving that duty to some admiring and grateful 
 citizen of Nashville, he hastens, for the present, from the 
 account of the military, to the civil affairs of Cumberland. 
 
 The General Assembly of North-Carolina, in May of this 
 1780 i y ear > en g a o e d by a public act, in the form of a reso- 
 l lution, to give to the officers and soldiers, in its line of 
 the Continental establishment, a bounty in lands in propor- 
 tion to their respective grades. These lands were to be laid 
 off in what is known as Middle Tennessee. To all such as 
 were then in the military service, and should continue to the 
 end of the war, or such as, from wounds or bodily infirmity, 
 have been, or shall be, rendered unfit for service ; and to the 
 heirs of such as shall have fallen, or shall fall, in defence of 
 the country. There never was a bounty more richly de- 
 served, or more ungrudgingly promised. It furnished to the 
 war-worn soldier, or to his children, a home in the new and 
 fertile lands of the West, where a competency, at least, per- 
 haps wealth or even affluence, might follow, after the storm 
 of war was past; and where the serene evening of life might 
 be spent in the contemplation of the eventful scenes of his 
 earlier years, devoted to the service of his country, and to 
 the cause of freedom and independence. In search of this 
 bounty, thus provided by North-Carolina for her whig sol- 
 diery, a vast emigration from that state came soon after to 
 what is now Tennessee ; and, owing to this cause, it was at 
 onetime estimated, that nine-tenths of the Tennessee popu- 
 
488 
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT AT THE BLUFF. 
 
 lation came from the mother state. It is still, essentially, jj 
 North-Carol ini an. 
 
 As on Watauga at its first settlement, so, also now, on 
 Cumberland, the colonists of Robertson were without any 
 regularly organized government. The country was within 
 the boundaries of Washington county, which extended to 
 the Mississippi River, perhaps the largest extent of territory 
 ever embraced in a single county. But, even here, in the 
 wilds of Cumberland, removed more than six hundred miles 
 from their seat of government, the people demonstrated 
 again their adequacy to self-government. Soon after their 
 arrival at the Bluff, the settlers appointed trustees, and signed 
 a covenant, obliging themselves to conform to the judgments 
 and decisions of these officers, in whom they had vested the 
 powers of government. Those who signed the covenant 
 had considerable advantages over those who did not ; they 
 were respectively allowed a tract of land, the quiet posses- 
 sion of which was guaranteed by the colony. Those who 
 did not sign the covenant, were considered as having no right 
 to their lands, and could be dispossessed by a signer with- 
 out any recourse. To the trustees were allowed, in these 
 times of primitive honesty and old-fashioned public spirit, 
 neither fees nor salaries. But, to the clerk appointed by the 
 trustees, were given small perquisites, as compensation for 
 the expense of paper and stationery. The trustees were the 
 Executive of the colony, and had the whole government in 
 their own hands ; acting as the judiciary, their decisions 
 gave general satisfaction. To them were also committed 
 the functions of the sacerdotal office, in the celebration of 
 the rites of matrimony. The founder of the colony, Captain. 
 James Robertson, as might have been expected, was one of 
 the trustees, and was the first who married a couple. These 
 were Captain Leiper and his wife. Mr. James Shaw was 
 also a trustee, aud married Edward Swanson to Mrs. Gar- 
 vin, James Freeland to Mrs. Maxwell, Cornelius Riddle to 
 Miss Jane Mulherrin, and John Tucker to Jenny Herod, all 
 in one day. The first child born in the country, was John 
 Saunders, since the sheriff of Montgomery county, and after- 
 
FIRST CHILD BORN IN NASHVILLE. 
 
 489 
 
 wards killed on White River by the Indians. The second 
 born in the country, was Anna Wells. The first child born 
 in Nashville, was the son of Captain Robertson— the present 
 venerable relict of another age — Doctor Felix Robertson. 
 
 Under this patriarchal form of government, by trustees se- 
 lected, on account of their experience, probity and firmness, 
 the colony was planted, defended, governed and provided for, 
 several years ; and the administration of justice, and the pro- 
 tection of rights, though simple and a little irregular, it is 
 believed, were as perfect and satisfactory as at any subse- 
 quent period in its history. 
 
 The right to the lands on the Lower Cumberland, at the 
 time the Revolutionary War commenced, lay in the Chicka 
 saws, rather than in the Cherokees. The former, prior to 
 that time, lived north of the Tennessee River, and at least 
 fifty miles lower down that stream, than the lowest Cherokee 
 towns. The greatest contiguity to hunting grounds, and the 
 prior use of them, seems to be the best claim Indians can 
 establish to them. The Chickasaws claimed, and ceded, the 
 Cumberland lands, at the treaty held by Donelson and Martin 
 in 1782 or 1783.* It was, probably, never reported to Con- 
 gress. Where this treaty was held, its exact date, the boun- 
 daries agreed upon, &c., &c., this writer has not been able 
 to ascertain. It is referred to, as above, in a letter from 
 Governor William Blount to the Secretary of War, dated 
 Knoxville, January 14th, 1793. 
 
 But North-Carolina owned the territory, and began to ex- 
 ercise further guardianship over her distant possessions. In 
 April of seventeen hundred and eighty-two, her legislature, 
 by an act passed for that purpose, allowed to the settlers on 
 the Cumberland rights of pre-emption. Six hundred -and 
 forty acres were allowed to each family or head of a family. 
 A similar provision was made for each single man, of the 
 age of twenty-one years and upward, who had settled the 
 lands before the first of June, 1780. Such tracts were to in- 
 clude the improvement each settler had made. No right of 
 pre-emption, however, was extended, so as to include any 
 
 "American State Papers, vol. y., pp. 432 and 326. 
 
490 
 
 LANDS GRANTED TO SOLDIERS. 
 
 saltlick or salt spring; these were reserved by the same 
 act as public property, together with six hundred and forty 
 acres of adjoining lands ; the rest of the country was all de- lj 
 dared to be subject to partition. 
 
 The act for the relief of the officers and soldiers in her Conti- 
 nental line, made good all depreciation of pay and subsist- 
 ence and clothing, of each officer and soldier, and provided 
 for the widow and heirs of such as were killed in the public 
 service. It made a princely allowance in lands “ as an ef- 
 fectual and permanent reward for their signal bravery and 
 persevering zeal,” to the officers and soldiers of the Conti- 
 nental line; to a Brigadier-General, twelve thousand acres ; 
 and to all intermediate ranks, in that proportion. To General 
 Nathaniel Greene, twent}^-five thousand acres were given, 
 
 “ as a mark of the high sense this state entertains of the ex- 
 traordinary services of that brave and gallant officer.” 
 Absalom Tatom, Isaac Shelby and Anthony Bledsoe, were 
 appointed Commissioners to lay off the lands thus allotted. 
 The Commissioners were to be accompanied by a guard of 
 one hundred men. 
 
 Courts of Equity were, at the same session of the legisla- 
 ture, established in all the districts of the state. What is 
 now Tennessee, was embraced in the District of Morgan. 
 
 The war of the Revolution was coming to an eild, and 
 2 ( from this event, as had been anticipated by Captain 
 l Robertson, an abatement of Indian hostility followed. 
 The prospect of peace and security to emigrants and their 
 property, induced the removal of great numbers from the 
 Atlantic sections, which gave new strength and increased 
 animation to the Cumberland settlements. 
 
 At the commencement of this year, Commissioners who 
 ( had been appointed to lay off the bounty lands to the 
 X officers and soldiers in the North-Carolina line, came 
 to Cumberland. They were accompanied by a numerous 
 guard, for whose services, compensation was provided, in 
 lands, afterwards known as guard rights. Many sought to 
 be enlisted in the service, and the guard soon became for- 
 midable for its numbers. The Indians offered them no mo- 
 lestation, while they were executing the duties of their ap- 
 
COMMISSION TO LAY OFF BOUNTY LANDS. 
 
 491 
 
 pointment. The settlers were much encouraged by their 
 presence, and, as such an accession of armed men gave great 
 additional strength to the defence of the country, all idea of 
 leaving it was, at once, abandoned, and the settlements be- 
 gan to wear the aspect of permanence and stability', and a 
 flood of new emigrants soon followed. 
 
 The Commissioners, accompanied by the guard and a few 
 of the inhabitants, went to the place since known as Lati- 
 tude Hill, on Elk River, to ascertain the thirty-fifth degree 
 of north latitude. Here they made their observation. They 
 then proceeded to lay off, for General Greene, the twenty- 
 five thousand acres of land presented by North-Carolina to 
 him. The present had been richly deserved, and, on the part of 
 the state, was munificent. It embraced some of the best, 
 lands on Duck River — perhaps the best in Tennessee. 
 
 The Commissioners then, fifty-five miles from the south- 
 ern boundary and parallel thereto, ran the Continental line. 
 But the Assembly, at the request of the officers, during their 
 session of this year, directed it to be laid oft' from the north- 
 ern boundary, fifty-five miles to the south : “ beginning on 
 the Virginia line, where Cumberland River intersects the 
 same ; thence south, fifty-five miles ; thence west, to the Ten- 
 nessee River ; thence down the Tennessee to the Virginia 
 line ; thence with the said Virginia line, east, to the begin- 
 ning.” 
 
 A further duty of the Commissioners was to examine into 
 the claims of those persons who considered themselves enti- 
 tled to the pre-emption rights granted to those who settled on 
 Cumberland previous to June 1st, 1780. This was done by 
 the Commission sitting at the Bluff, and the necessary cer- 
 tificates for the pre-emption rights were issued. 
 
 Its duties performed, the Commission was dissolved, and 
 Isaac Shelby ceased to be a citizen of what is now Tennes- 
 see, and removed to Kentucky. These annals have testified 
 to the energy, fidelity and success of his services in the mili- 
 tary, civil- and political affairs of the country, from the com- 
 mencement of its settlement to the present time. Of his 
 subsequent history, Tennessee may well be proud. His no- 
 vitiate in the public service was passed, and his character 
 
492 
 
 CHARACTER OF ISAAC SHELBY AND 
 
 formed within her borders and amongst her pioneers. There 
 he laid, with his own sword, the basis of his reputation, and 
 there he acquired the materials out of which to erect the 
 column of renown which has since adorned his name. A 
 fellow-soldier and co-patriot of Sevier, these youthful vol- 
 unteers fired the first guns on the Ivenhawa — conquered to- 
 gether at King’s Mountain, and together captured the British 
 post at Wapetaw. With their joint assistance, the founda- 
 tion of society in the West was laid by Robertson. These 
 three are the real artificers of Western character, and their 
 co-operation moulded into form the elements which consti- 
 tute its beauty and its strength. The Volunteer State is 
 much indebted to Isaac Shelby. But the details of his fu- 
 ture life cannot be here given. It is proper, however, to add 
 that he became the first Governor of the State of his adop- 
 tion, and that, in the war of eighten hundred and twelve, 
 having again been elected G overnor of Kentucky, he marched, 
 at the head of four thousand Kentucky troops, across the 
 State of Ohio, to General Harrison’s head-quarters, and there 
 exhibited the same cool and determined courage that had 
 signalized his youth. The last public service he performed 
 for Tennessee was, as one of the Commissioners at the 
 treaty with the Chickasaw Indians, at which that tribe re- 
 linquished all their lands north of the southern boundary of 
 the state, and between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. 
 His death occurred suddenly, July 18, 1826, in the 76th year 
 of his age. The memory of this brave officer and patriotic 
 man, is perpetuated by the state, in the name of her south- 
 western county, where he negotiated with the Chickasaws, 
 and in the name of the beautiful county seat, Shelbyville, in 
 Bedford county. 
 
 Amongst the enactments by the Assembly of this year, 
 178 " 1 WaS 0116 the county of Davidson, and ap- 
 
 l pointing for it civil and military officers as in other 
 counties, and establishing a court of pleas and quarter ses- 
 sions. 
 
 Davidson county, like the other three already established 
 west of the Apalachian chain, received its name from an 
 officer of the army of the Revolution, General William 
 
OP GENERAL DAVIDSON. 
 
 493 
 
 Davidson, of Mecklenburg county, North-Carolina. A na- 
 tive of that part of the state which had early exhibited an 
 enthusiastic devotion to independence and freedom, he 
 sought and obtained a command, though of inferior grade, 
 in the Continental army. In that service he was considered 
 a gallant officer, and acquired reputation. When the enemy 
 overran South-Carolina, he left the regular service, and was 
 immediately appointed General in the North-Carolina mili- 
 tia. In his new sphere of duty, he manifested great zeal 
 and public spirit. It was he whom Col. McDowell sought, 
 to invite him to take the chief command of the troops at 
 King’s Mountain. He was constantly on the alert to dis- 
 perse the tories and annoy Lord Cornwallis, while his head- 
 quarters were at Charlotte. After the battle of the Cow- 
 pens, Morgan, in removing the prisoners, for safe keeping, 
 to Virginia, was pursued by the British army. General 
 Davidson, having under his command some active militia- 
 men, hastily collected in his neighbourhood, endeavoured to 
 retard the pursuers, and at every river and creek caused 
 them some delay, and thus contributed, essentially, to the 
 escape of the American army and the prisoners which 
 encumbered its march. In this service General Davidson 
 lost his life. On the first of February, 1781, the British 
 army, accompanied by loyalists, who knew the roads and 
 crossing places, came to the Catawba River, at Cowan’s 
 Ford, and began to cross at that place. Davidson rode to 
 the river, to reconnoitre the enemy on the other side, with 
 the hope of devising some plan to keep them back awhile. 
 A tory, who knew him, and who was in advance, piloting 
 the enemy, had nearly crossed the river, and, unperceived by 
 the General, was near the bank on which he rode, and shot 
 him. Knowing that the wou id was mortal, he rode briskly 
 back to a place where he had left part of his troops, gave 
 them some necessary directions what to do, and soon after 
 expired. “ Never was there a more intrepid soldier ; never 
 a greater patriot ; never did any man love his country with 
 a more ardent affection. His name should be ever dear to 
 the people of North-Carolina and Tennessee.”* 
 
 *Haywood. 
 
494 
 
 NASHVILLE ESTABLISHED. 
 
 His grave is pointed out, and may be seen, not far from 
 where lie fell, in Hopewell Church-yard. Congress voted him 
 a monument, but his grave is yet without an inscription. 
 The metropolitan county of Tennessee perpetuates his 
 name. His virtue, patriotism and valour, can never be for- 
 gotten. 
 
 The Legislature also established a town at the Bluff. It was 
 1 named Nashville, in honour of Col. Francis Nash. He 
 ( was an early advocate for resistance against arbitrary 
 power — being a captain in the Regulation war in 1771, and 
 appointed as early as the 24th August, 1775, by the Congress 
 of North-Carolina, as one of a Committee to prepare a plan 
 for the regulation, internal peace, order and safety of the 
 province. To this important Committee was entrusted the 
 duty of proposing a system of government, which would 
 supply the want of an executive officer, arising from the ab- 
 sence of Governor Martin, who had fled from his palace, 
 and of submitting other subordinate plans of government, 
 such as the institution of Committees of Safety, the qualifi- 
 cations of electors, “ and every other civil power necessary 
 to be formed, in order to relieve the province in the present 
 unhappy state to which the administration had reduced it.’ 1 * 
 
 September 1st, 1775, the North-Carolina Congress ap- 
 pointed Mr. Nash, Lieutenant-Colonel of the first regiment 
 in the Continental service. At the battle of Germantown 
 he commanded as Brigadier-General, and at the head of his 
 brigade, fell bravely fighting for the Independence of his 
 country. Davidson and Nash were from the same state- 
 bore the same rank in her armies — both fell in engagements 
 that were unsuccessful to the American arms, but their names 
 will be gratefully remembered, while the metropolitan coun- 
 ty, and the metropolis itself of Tennessee, shall continue. 
 
 The curious may wish to see the initiative proceedings of 
 the first Court held in Davidson county. 
 
 1783 — Oct. 6 — County Court of Davidson instituted. 
 
 Whereas, an act was made at Hillsborough, the April session last 
 past, etc., appointing and commissioning the following gentlemen, viz: — 
 Anthony Bledsoe, Daniel Smith, Jas. Robertson, Isaac Bledsoe, Samuel 
 
 * Jones. 
 
DAVIDSON COUNTV COURT. 
 
 495 
 
 Barton, Thos Molloy, Francis Prince, and Isaac Lindsay, Esqs., mem- 
 bers of said Court; Isaac Bledsoe, Samuel Barton, Francis Prince, and 
 Isaac Lindsay, met and were qualified in the following manner : — the 
 next junior to the senior member present, mentioned in the Commission, 
 administered the oaths of office prescribed for the qualifications of pub- 
 lic officers, to the senior member present, and then he to the others pre- 
 sent. 
 
 (Signed,) Isaac Bledsoe. 
 
 Test — Andrew Ewing, C. D. C. 
 
 The Court then proceeded to elect a Clerk, and made choice of Mat- 
 thew Talbot, Jun., Esq. 
 
 Daniel Williams, elected Sheriff. 
 
 Oct. 7 — Talbot not being able to give security give up, the place was 
 declared vacant, and the Court proceeded to elect Andrew Ewing, Clerk. 
 
 Samuel Barton, elected Entry-taker. 
 
 Francis Prince, Register. 
 
 The Court then nominated constables in the several stations, viz : — 
 Samuel Mason, at Maulding’s ; James McCain, at Mansco’s; Stephen 
 Ray, at Heatonsburg, John McAdams, at Nash borough ; and Edward 
 Swanson, at Freeland’s Station. 
 
 The Court then proceeded to fix on a place for the building of a 
 court-house and prison, and agreed that in the present situation of the 
 settlement that it be at Nashborough — size of court-house to be eigh- 
 teen feet square, with a shade of twelve feet on the one side of the 
 length of the house ; said house to be furnished with the necessary- 
 benches, bar, table, etc., fit for the reception of the -Court; also, a pri- 
 son, fourteen feet square, of hewed logs, of a foot square ; both walls, 
 loft and floor, except the same, shall be built upon a rock. To be done 
 on the best and most reasonable terms, and that the same be vendued 
 at the lowest price that can be had. 
 
 First Mill. 
 
 The Court give leave to Headon Wells, to build a water grist mill on 
 Thomas Creek, about a quarter and half a quarter up said creek from 
 the mouth. 
 
 First Road laid off. 
 
 Ordered that the road leading from Nashville to Mansco’s Station, as 
 laid off heretofore by an order of Committee, be cleared out. 
 
 Appointed grand jurors, and adjourned to first Monday in January. 
 
 1184 — January 5 — Court met. Members present — the Worshipful 
 Isaac Bledsoe, Samuel Barton, and Isaac Lindsay, Esqs. 
 
 January 6 — On motion made to the Court concerning allegations 
 against John Montgomery, as an aider and abettor in the treasonable 
 piratical proceeding, carried on in the Mississippi, against the Spaniards, 
 it is the opinion of the Court that the said M. be holden in security in 
 the sum of 150 pounds, for his appearance at our next Court, on which 
 Elijah Robertson and Stephen Ray became securities for his appear- 
 ance. 
 
 Wm. Cocke and John Sevier, were offered as securities on the bond 
 of Matthew Talbot, elected as Clerk. ' It is the opinion of the Court 
 
49G 
 
 SUPERIOR COURT ESTABLISHED. 
 
 that he is not entitled thereto. The following military officers • were 
 sworn: — Anthony Bledsoe, 1st Colonel; Isaac Bledsoe, 1st Major; 
 Samuel Barton, 2d Major : Jasper Mansco, 1st Captain; George Free- 
 land, 2d; John Buchanan, 3d; Jas. Ford, 4th; Wm, Ramsey, Jona- 
 than Drake, Ambrose Maulding, and Peter Sides, Lieutenants; William 
 Collins and Elmore Douglass, Ensigns. 
 
 Daniel Smith, appointed Surveyor. 
 
 1784 — April 5 — Court met at the house where Jouathan Drake lately 
 lived — adjourns to meet immediately in the house in Nashburgh, where 
 Israel Harman lately lived. 
 
 July 8, 1784 — Records call it Nashville. 
 
 The Assembly of this year legislated farther for the Cum- 
 
 5 $ berland settlements.' The members were received 
 ( and treated with great consideration and regard. Re- 
 lations of a new character began to spring up between North- 
 Carolina and her ultra-montane citizens. Many inhabitants 
 of the mother state needed the good offices and assistance 
 of her pioneer citizens in the West, in locating to the best 
 advantage, and attending to, their land warrants. The west- 
 ern interest , as it was called, was becoming of such value 
 in legislation and appointments to office, that the representa- 
 tives from the four westernmost counties, who, from the iden- 
 tity of their local interests, always acted as a unit in the Le- 
 gislature, were much courted and caressed. They dexte- 
 rously used the advantages these considerations placed in 
 their power for the benefit of their suffering constituencies. 
 Every thing not involving the expenditure of money by the 
 Treasury of North-Carolina, was cheerfully granted to them. 
 An inspection of tobacco in Davidson county was estab- 
 lished. Davidson Academy was" incorporated and endowed 
 with lands, which were exempted from taxation for ninety- 
 nine years. 
 
 A Superior Court of Law and Equity, was also established 
 at Nashville, the first session of which was to commence on 
 the first Monday of May, 1786. The act creating this Court, 
 provided that no person in Davidson county should be sub- 
 ject to any action in the Courts east of the Apalachian Moun- 
 tains, and that no person on that side of the mountain should 
 be subjected to any action in Davidson county. The salary 
 allowed to the Judge was fifty pounds for each Court he 
 held, and it was expressly enacted that that should be paid 
 
ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT OF THE PIONEERS. 
 
 497 
 
 from the Treasury of Davidson county, so careful were the 
 Legislature of the parent state that her western possessions 
 should cost North-Carolina nothing. 
 
 Commissioners, in the meantime, had been appointed by 
 Congress, to treat with the Cherokees and other southern 
 Indians. Col. William Blount attended, also, as the Agent of 
 North-Carolina, and protested against some of the provisions 
 of the treaty, which “ infringe upon and violate the legisla- 
 tive rights” of the state he represented. The Commissioners, 
 in their report to the President of Congress, Richard Henry 
 Lee, remark : 
 
 “That there are some few people settled on the Indian lands whom 
 we are to remove, and those in the fork of French Broad and Holston 
 being numerous, the Indians agreed to refer their particular situation to 
 Congress, and abide their decision. We told them there were too many 
 for us to engage positively to order off, although they had settled ex- 
 pressly against the treaty entered into by Virginia and North-Carolina, 
 with the Cherokees, in 1777 .” 
 
 By an estimate furnished by the same report, the Indians 
 then residing south of Tennessee, and in reach of her infant 
 settlements, are computed to be — 
 
 “ Gunmen of the Cherokees, 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 2,000 
 
 “ “ Creeks, 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 5,400 
 
 “ “ Chickasaws, 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 800 
 
 “ “ Choctaws, 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 6,000 
 
 Warriors, - - - - 14,200 
 
 There are, also, some remains of tribes settled among these, as Shaw- 
 neese, Euchees, etc.” 
 
 Fifteen thousand southern Indian warriors, and, perhaps, 
 double that number from the northern tribes, for more than 
 ten years, retarded the growth and prevented the enlarge- 
 ment of the early settlements of Tennessee. That they 
 were not able wholly to exterminate the pioneers, as they 
 successively arrived in the West, ceases now to be a subject 
 of wonder. A like spirit of daring enterprise and chival- 
 rous adventure, continues to be a characteristic of Tennes- 
 see. Wherever danger is to be encountered, a difficulty to be 
 overcome, or an achievement to be wrought, her young men 
 are there to brave, encounter and achieve". The same enter- 
 prising spirit is yet sending out her young men from home in 
 32 
 
498 
 
 A VICTIM OF WESTERN ADVENTURE. 
 
 search of adventure across the Sierra Mad re, the Sierra Ne- 
 vada, and to the coast of the Pacific. That spirit has sub- 
 dued the wilderness, and made it, teeming with life and fer- 
 tility, the abode of civilized man. That spirit will not be 
 quelled while there is a new country to be gained, or an in- 
 ferior race to be conquered. Anglo-American enterprise 
 and Anglo-American valour, are destined to subdue and oc- 
 cupy all North America.* 
 
 * At the moment this eulogy, well deserved — not overwrought — nordictated by 
 partiality, is being written, a parents heart is pierced with an immedicable wound, 
 and still bleeds from the recent intelligence, that he is himself a principal victim of 
 the fearless enterprise and hardihood, which the province of an annalist has so of- 
 ten required him to mention. He may not here portray the bitterness of a privato ! 
 grief. This is not the place to inflict upon others the poignancy of a heavy domes- J 
 tic bereavement. Many of bis readers, perhaps most of those in the West, know 
 too well the high expectation, the flattering promise and the gilded hope, held out 
 to their fond view, by kindred and friends, going in voluntary exile to the far, the 
 remotest West. Talents, virtue, genius, admitted probity, envied efficiency, learn- 
 ing, patriotism, courage, promise for a moment, success, distinction, usefulness and ; 
 glory. The shaft of death reaches the generous adventurer, and in a land of stran- 
 gers he finds a grave. Blighted promise, blasted expectation and ruined hope — these, 
 these belong, these belong to the survivors — only to the survivors ; to whom, in their j 
 affectionate grief, another’s sympathy and condolence have said kindly, and with 
 the soothing voice of comfort — “ Friends of the sleeper ! the gentle breeze is sigh- j 
 ing a soft sweet dirge over the low resting place of your loved and lost son, Wil- 
 berforce — the stars look nightly down upon his grave in the wilds of California — 
 the green turf is wet with the dews of the night, as if tendering their sympa- 
 thies to the bereaved.” 
 
 “ Rest here in peace 1 in the dark hour of danger 
 No sight of the loved ones to thy dim eye arose. 
 
 Yet sweet be thy sleep, tho’ the land of the stranger 
 Doth cradle thy form in its dreamless repose. 
 
 Green plains are around, and the blue skies are free, 
 
 Where the earth-wearied spirit is chainless and blest. 
 
 Then sleep ! till a voice from above shall restore thee 
 To thine own kindred friends in the mansions of rest.” 
 
 “No GRAVES ARE THERE 
 
 Father 1 we thank thee that there is a clime, 
 
 Guarded alike from death, and grief, and care, 
 
 Untouched by time. 
 
 We praise thy name. 
 
 That from the darkness of the tomb 
 We can look up in faith, and humbly claim 
 Our future home. 
 
 Hasten the day, 
 
 When passing death’s dark vale v\ithout a fear, 
 
 We, as we reach that heavenly home, may say 
 No graves are here.” 
 
TREATY STIPULATIONS. 
 
 499 
 
 By the boundaries, as stipulated in the treaty of Hope- 
 
 ( well, much of the lands that had been entered in the 
 1785 ) 7 
 
 ( offices opened by the Act of 1733, for receiving en- 
 tries of vacant lands, was made to be within the Indian ter- 
 ritory. The intruders were to be punished by the Indians as 
 they might think proper. An exception was made in favour 
 of the inhabitants south of French Broad and Holston, who, 
 as well as the Cherokee's, were to abide by the decision of 
 Congress ‘on their case. The subject of boundaries gave 
 great offence — not to the. settlers only, but to all the South- 
 ern States. It was considered, that too much had been given 
 up for the purpose of conciliating the Cherokees. The boun- 
 daries of the settlements were greatly contracted, and a 
 large extent of country surrendered, which had heretofore 
 been included in the treaty of Fort Stanwix, and in the pur- 
 chase of Transylvania by Henderson and Company. The 
 treaty encountered opposition for other reasons. William 
 Blount, who, as has been shewed, entered his protest on the 
 treaty-ground, as agent of the State of North-Carolina, was 
 at that time a member of Congress, and determined to carry 
 his opposition to the treaty into the Federal Legislature. He 
 contended against it, as violative of the sovereignty of his 
 state, as he considered it beyond the legitimate power of 
 Congress, to make a treaty in contravention of the Laws and 
 Constitution of North-Carolina, concerning lands and boun- 
 daries within her ancient and acknowledged limits. The 
 Articles of Confederation, as he contended, had not given 
 such power to Congress. The, occupants of the lands thus 
 retroceded, paid no regard to the boundaries thus circum- 
 scribed. But the appearance of a treaty concession may 
 have appeased Cherokee hostility in some degree. Aggres- 
 sions from that tribe, during the succeeding year, were less 
 frequent and less aggravated, especially on the east of the 
 Cumberland Mountains. West of them some mischief was 
 done to the white settlements, but principally under the in- 
 stigation of the Creeks, who for five or six years had been 
 waging a cruel war against the Georgians. Their most 
 northern towns were in close proximity with the Cherokee 
 villages, on the Tennessee River, and they occasionally se> 
 
500 
 
 ROAD LAID OFF TO CUMBERLAND 
 
 ducecl the disaffected of the latter tribe, to join their ma- 
 rauding parties against the Cumberland settlements. 
 
 The General Assembly of North-Carolina, at its Novem- 
 ber session of this year, taking notice of the exposed condi- 
 tion of the inhabitants of Davidson county, adopted mea- 
 sures for their protection and defence. At the instance of 
 Captain Robertson, then a representative of the county, it 
 was enacted that three hundred men should be embodied for 
 the protection of the Cumberland settlements. That when 
 assembled at the lower end of Clinch Mountain, the troops 
 should cut and clear a road from that point by the most eli- 
 gible route to Nashville, making the same at least ten feet 
 wide, and fit for the passage of wagons and carts. The 
 troops were to be marched from time to time to the Cumber- 
 land frontier, and were to be stationed at such places, and 
 disposed of and proportioned in such numbers, as the field 
 officers of Davidson county might direct, or consider most 
 conducive to the intimidation of the Indians, and the pre- 
 vention of their hostile incursions. The commanding officer 
 of these troops was, moreover, invested with the power, when 
 the emergency rendered it necessary, to make such other dis- 
 position of them as the safety of the inhabitants might de- 
 mand. 
 
 The same act also provided that four hundred acres of 
 land should be laid off for each private, in full satisfaction of 
 the half of his first year’s pay, and in the same proportion 
 for his further service. To the officers of this troop, a propor- 
 tionate allowance in land was also made, for the pay to 
 which they were entitled. Such lands to be located west of 
 Cumberland Mountain. 
 
 In strict accordance with the policy invariably pursued, 
 when disbursements were to be made by North-Carolina for 
 the benefit of her western possessions, this indispensable 
 clause was inserted, “ that the monies arising from the tax 
 of lands west of the Apalachian Mountains, should be ap- 
 propriated to the purpose of discharging the expense of rais- 
 ing, clothing, arming and supporting the troops to be em- 
 bodied in pursuance of this act.” And, as a clear intimation 
 of the future policy of the Legislature upon all similar sub- 
 
BY CRAB-ORCHARD AND FLAT ROCK. 
 
 501 
 
 jects, the General Assembly further enacted, “that in all re- 
 turns of taxable property, made by receivers of lists and 
 clerks of courts, these officers should particularly specify the 
 lands situated west of the Cumberland Mountain, that the 
 nett produce of the revenue arising therefrom may be as- 
 certained.” Thus leaving the frontier people to infer, that 
 beyond that amount, the treasury of the parent state should 
 not be held liable, for the satisfaction of debts incurred in 
 maintaining and defending her remote settlements. 
 
 During this year, the road, as directed in the act, was 
 opened, from Clinch River to Nashville. Emigrants had 
 heretofore reached Cumberland, by the original route 
 through the wilderness of Kentucky. Hereafter the route 
 was more direct — for not only horsemen, but wagons, 
 and immense numbers of the more wealthy people of the 
 Atlantic sections, sought the Cumberland through the new 
 road, which ran nearly over the same track still pursued as the 
 stage road, by the way of the Crab-Orchard, the Flat Rock, 
 &c. The top of the mountain is described as being then, 
 a vast upland prairie, covered with a most luxuriant 
 growth of native grasses, pastured over as far as the eye 
 could see, with numerous herds of deer, elk and buffalo, 
 gamboling in playful security over these secluded plains, 
 scarcely disturbed in their desert wilds at the approach of 
 man, and exhibiting little alarm at the explosion of his 
 rifle or fright at the victim falling before its deadly aim. 
 The frowning cliffs and precipices, that every where surroun- 
 ded the mountain, and the dark laurel thickets, that ob- 
 structed the entrances and ascent to its summit level, had 
 hitherto, excluded even the hunter and Indian from an easy 
 access to it in pursuit of game ; and the boundless natural 
 meadow, with its lofty enclosures of granite, erected by Om- 
 nipotent masonry, presented to the first intruders, the aspect 
 of primeval solitude, quiet and security. This aspect it wore 
 no longer. The mural escarpment and the mountain water- 
 fall, yielded to the energy of the troop and the guard. Na- 
 ture doffed her power, her beauty, and her dominion, and 
 succumbed to the reign of art and civilization. 
 
 At the same session of the North- Carolina Legislature, 
 
502 
 
 SUMNER COUNTY LAID OFF. 
 
 Davidson county was divided, and a new county established. 
 As further evidence of the martial spirit of the time, and in 
 testimony of the respect and gratitude of his countrymen, the 
 name Sumner was given to the new county, in honour of 
 the military services of General Jethro Sumner, of the North- 
 Carolina line. During the whole of the Revolutionary war, 
 he had continued in the service of the country; acted a dis- 
 tinguished part in the greater number of the hottest actions 
 which had taken place in that struggle, and was as eminent 
 for personal valour, as for equanimity and suavity of manners. 
 His name is precious in the estimation of his countrymen ; 
 it is engraven on their hearts in characters of imperishable 
 duration.* 
 
 Records of Sumner Court — April Term, 1 787. 
 
 Agreeable to an act of Assembly, for the establishment of Sumner 
 County Court, at the house of John Hamilton, on the second Monday 
 in April, 1787, Daniel Smith, Isaac Lindsey, David Wilson, John 
 Harden, Joseph Keyhandall, William Hale and George Winchester, 
 Esqrs., -who each of them took the oath for their qualification of office, 
 and also the oath of office of Justices of the Peace, for said county, and 
 proceeded to business. 
 
 David Shelby, is appointed Clerk of the Court of said county. John 
 Harden, Jun., is appointed Sheriff. Isaac Lindsey, is appointed Ran- 
 ger. 
 
 The General Assembly of North-Carolina met, this year, 
 
 ^ at Tarborough. The members of that body from Da- 
 ( vidson county, were James Robertson and David 
 Hays. The delegation from the two counties made a solemn 
 statement, in writing, of the sufferings of their constituents. 
 In its preparation, they received the assistance of Col. Wil- 
 liam Blount, who became, afterwards, more closely identified 
 with the people and fortunes of Tennessee. In the paper 
 thus prepared and submitted to the Assembly, it was repre- 
 sented : 
 
 “ That the inhabitants of the western country were greatly distressed 
 by a constant war that was carried on against them, by parties of the 
 Creeks and Cherokees, and some of the western Indians ; that some of 
 their horses were daily carried off secretly or by force, and that the.ir 
 own lives were in danger whenever they lost sight of a station or stock- 
 ade ; that in the course of the present year, thirty-three of their fellow 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
PETITION TO ASSEMBLY. 
 
 503 
 
 citizens had been killed by those Indians, a list of whose names they 
 annexed, and as many more had been wounded ; that by original letters 
 or Talks, from the Chickasaw nation, which they submitted to the in- 
 spection of the Assembly, it appeared that they were jealous or uneasy, 
 lest encroachments should be made on their hunting grounds ; and that 
 unless some assurances were given them, that their lands should not be 
 located, there was reason to apprehend, that they shortly would be as 
 hostile as the Creeks and Cherokees ; that these counties have been 
 settled at great expense and personal danger to the memorialists and their 
 constituents, and that, by such settlements, the adjacent lands had 
 greatly increased in value, by which means the public has been enabled to 
 sink a considerable part of the domestic debt. They and their constituents, 
 they say, have cheerfully endured the almost unconquerable difficulties 
 in settling the western country, in full confidence that they should be 
 enabled to send their produce to market through the rivers which water 
 the country ; but they now have the mortification, not only to be exclu- 
 ded from that channel of commerce by a foreign nation, but the Indians are 
 rendered more hostile through the influence of that very nation, probably 
 with a view to drive them from the country, as they claim the whole of the 
 soil. They call upon the humanity and justice of the state, to prevent any 
 further massacres and depredations of themselves and their constituents, 
 and claim from the Legislature, that protection of life and property, which 
 is due to every citizen ; and they recommend, as the most safe and con- 
 venient means of relief, the adoption of the resolves of Congress, of the 
 26th of October last.* This relief, they trust, will not be refused, espe- 
 cially as the United States are pleased to interest themselves on this oc- 
 casion, and are willing to bear the expense.” 
 
 At the same session of the Assembly, at the representation 
 of the members from Davidson and Sumner, the militia offi- 
 cers of these counties were authorized to appoint two or 
 more persons to examine, survey and mark out the best and 
 most convenient way from the lower end of Clinch Mountain, 
 to the settlements of Cumberland, and to order out the mili- 
 tia of these counties to cut and clear the road so marked. 
 The regiments of these counties were ordered to be divided 
 into classes and parts of classes, beginning with the 
 first, and so on, in rotation, till the road should be cut. A 
 tax was also to be assessed upon these counties, to defray 
 the expense of opening the road. The military duties of 
 guarding the settlements, as imposed by a prior act, upon 
 the troop of three hundred men as heretofore provided for, 
 had been too incessant and burthensome to allow them to 
 
 * That body had recommended the cession of their western lands by states 
 which owned them, to the United States. 
 
504 
 
 CURRENCY OF CUMBERLAND. 
 
 make a road sufficient for the purposes of the vast emigra- 
 tion which was now pouring into the country beyond the 
 wilderness. One wider and more level was demanded by 
 the exigencies of the times. Under the provisions of this act, 
 a road was soon afterwards cut from Bledsoe’s Lick into the 
 Nashville road leading to Clinch River ; and the last men- 
 tioned road was also widened and cleared. 
 
 It was further provided, that, no person be permitted to go 
 through Davidson or Sumner county to any Indian town, 
 without a pass from some officer duly authorized under the 
 United States, the Executive of North-Carolina or the field 
 officers of one of said counties. The field officers were fur- 
 ther directed to raise militia guards, not exceeding fifty men 
 each, when it should be made known to such officers that a 
 number of families were at Cumberland Mountain, waiting 
 for an escort to conduct them to the Cumberland settlements ; 
 the expense to be paid by a poll tax, which the county 
 courts were authorized to levy upon those counties respec- 
 tively. 
 
 The currency of Franklin was, at this time, peltries, flax 
 linen, &c. — something that could be worn — that of Cum- 
 berland was different — something that could be eaten. 
 
 UfSA — O ctober Term — Davidson County Records. 
 
 “ Resolved , That for the better furnishing of the troops now coining 
 into the country under command of Major Evans, with provisions, <fcc., 
 that one-fourth of the tax of this county be paid in corn, two fourths in 
 beef, pork, bear meat and venison ; one-eighth in salt, and one-eighth in 
 money, to defray the expenses of removing the provisions from the 
 place of collection to the troops ; and that the following places bo 
 appointed in each captain’s company for the inhabitants to deliver in, 
 each, his proportion of the above tax, viz : [Here follow the several 
 
 stations.] And Daniel Rowan is hereby appointed to superintend the 
 collecting and removing the provisions aforesaid, and that he be allowed 
 twenty dollars per month for his services, and he is hereby directed to 
 hire hands and horses at as low a rate as possible, for the purpose of 
 removing the specifics, as aforesaid ; and it is hereby resolved, that the 
 following species of provisions be received at the undermentioned prices, 
 viz : Corn, at four shillings per bushel; beef, at five dollars per hun- 
 dred ; pork, at eight dollars per hundred ; good bear meat, without 
 bones, eight dollars per hundred wt.; and venison at ten shillings per 
 hundred wt.; and salt at sixteen dollars per bushel. And the Superin- 
 tendent is hereby directed to call for such proportions of the aforesaid 
 tax, as the commanding officer of the troops shall direct, and on any 
 person failing to deliver his or their quotas, at the time and place di- 
 
MANUFACTURE OF SALT ENCOURAGED. 
 
 505 
 
 rected, to give notice thereof to the sheriff, who is hereby directed to 
 distrain immediately, 
 
 1788 — April Term. The Court appointed Robert Hays, Anthony 
 Hart and John Hunter, to inspect the currency now in circulation in 
 this county, and such of the bills as they shall believe to be counterfeit 
 to deface, so as to prevent its further circulation.” 
 
 By the improvements of the roads through which the new 
 country was reached, and the security and protection thus 
 given to the lives and property of the emigrants, great ac- 
 cessions to the strength of the Cumberland community were 
 constantly made thoughout the next succeeding years. 
 Large numbers of families would concentrate on the banks 
 of the Clinch — encamp there a few days, waiting the arri- 
 val of the guard — accompanied by them, they would pass 
 through the wilderness with little apprehension of Indian 
 aggression. The emigrants being well armed, would, with 
 the guard of fifty practiced woodsmen and Indian-fighters, 
 constitute a formidable corps. 'With a population thus con- 
 stantly enlarged ; their agricultural labour amply remunera- 
 ted by bountiful crops, from a most prolific soil ; with an 
 abatement of the envenomed hostility from the nearest 
 Indian tribes ; with increased confidence in themselves, and 
 with the sure prospect of augmented numbers and means of 
 defence, the settlers had a foretaste of a final triumph, over 
 the discouragements and disasters that had so long depressed 
 and enfeebled them. They became still more vigorous and 
 elastic, and better prepared to repel future savage aggres- 
 sion, and, in a short time after, to carry on offensive war- 
 fare against their enemies. The legislature passed an act 
 for the encouragement of the making of salt in Davidson 
 county. 
 
 Such was the rapid increase of the population of David- 
 son county, that for the convenience of the inhabitants resi- 
 ding most remote from Nashville, its seat of justice, it was 
 found necessary again to divide it, and form a new county, 
 called Tennessee. 
 
 Col. Robertson gave notice, of this date, by a publi- 
 
 ( cation in the State Gazette of North-Carolina, Nov. 
 1788 < J 
 
 ( 28th, that “ the new road from Campbell’s Sta- 
 tion to Nashville, was opened on the 25th September, and 
 
50(5 
 
 adair’s provision house. 
 
 the guard had attended at that time, to escort sucli persons 
 as were ready to proceed to Nashville; that about sixty 
 families had gone on, amongst whom were the widow and 
 family of the late General Davidson, and John McNairy, 
 Judge of the Superior Court, and that on the first day of 
 October next, the guard would attend at the same place for 
 the same purpose.” 
 
 The General Assembly of this year made further enact- 
 1789 $ rnents, of a local character, for her western counties. 
 
 ( They established a provision store on the frontier of 
 Hawkins county, at the house of John Adair, for the recep- 
 tion of corn, flour, pork and beef, for the use of the Cumber- 
 land guard, when called on to escort and conduct emigrating 
 families through the wilderness to the Cumberland settle- 
 ments. John Adair was appointed a Commissioner for the 
 purchase of these provisions. In payment of these, it was 
 made his duty to- give certificates, which should be received 
 by the different sheriffs in the District of Washington, in 
 part payment of the public taxes in the counties of that 
 district, and from them by the State Treasurer. A tobacco 
 inspection was also established at Clarkesville, upon the 
 Cumberland River, below Nashville. 
 
 Provision was also made for such persons as had been 
 wounded in the formation and defence of the Cumberland 
 settlements. The county courts were authorized, when per- 
 sons thus wounded, were unable to pay the expenses of their 
 treatment and cure, to pass the accounts of the physician, 
 surgeon and nurse ; and the accounts so passed, were to be 
 received in payment of any of the public taxes. In a like 
 manner, accounts were passed for provisions furnished to the 
 Indians, by any of the inhabitants on Cumberland. The 
 courts were also authorized to sell the several licks in the 
 country, at which salt could be manufactured ; and all 
 deemed unfit for that purpose, they were to declare vacant 
 and liable to location and entry. Two of the licks of the 
 first description, with the adjoining land, were to be retained 
 for the use of Davidson Academy. Thus early, was provi- 
 sion made for the the endowment of a Literary Institution 
 upon the remote frontier. The Assembly also enlarged the 
 
HERO DISTRICT ESTABLISHED. 
 
 507 
 
 powers and increased the salary of the Judge of the Superior 
 Court of the district. This district had been laid off the 
 previous year, and embraced the three Cumberland counties, 
 Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee. It was named in the act, 
 Mero District, in honour of Don Estephan Mero, Colonel in 
 the service of Spain and Governor of New-Orleans. The 
 Legislature had, in this case, departed from the usage that 
 had hitherto governed, in giving names to the civil subdi- 
 visions of her western possessions. This innovation was 
 made at the instance of the members from the Cumberland 
 counties, and no doubt, was in consonance with the feelings 
 of their constituents, who ragarded Gov. Mero as their friend 
 and benefactor. He had extended, on several occasions, to 
 the western traders, commercial facilities, and maintained 
 towards the western people, generally, a mild and concilia- 
 tory official intercourse with them, — thus reconciling 
 them to the Spanish authorities, and securing to himself 
 their affectionate regard. 
 
 An act was passed, empowering the commanding officers 
 of Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Hawkins coun- 
 ties, to erect a station on the north side of Tennessee 
 River, to be garrisoned for one year, with a guard consisting 
 of a captain, lieutenant and ensign, and thirty-three non-com- 
 missioned officers and privates ; the men to be raised by a 
 voluntary enlistment, or an indiscriminate draft from these 
 counties. The pay and rations of the said guard to be “pay- 
 able out of the funds arising from the taxes of the said four 
 counties, and out of no other fund whatever, provided the 
 price of the ration shall not exceed one shilling per day.” 
 The right of disbanding the guard, is reserved to the Go- 
 vernor, whenever he and his Council should think proper. 
 This act was repealed at the next session. 
 
 To promote the growth and encourage the settlements 
 upon Cumberland, and facilitate and protect emigration to 
 it, the legislature authorized a contract to be made for ex- 
 ploring the route, and making a wagon road through the 
 wilderness waste lying between those settlements and the 
 Holston counties. After this was done, the legislature pro- 
 vided a guard, whose duty it was to escort emigrants, and 
 
 1788 
 
508 
 
 REMARKABLE ADVENTURE 
 
 protect them from Indian attacks, while in the wilderness. 
 A public provision store was also continued at the house of 
 John Adair, then residing a few miles north of Knoxville. 
 
 As a further protection for the Cumberland settlements, a 
 battalion of soldiers was authorized to be raised and marched 
 for the purpose of repelling the marauding parties of Indians, 
 which were constantly making inroads upon that frontier 
 A further duty of these troops, was to complete a road 
 suitable for wagons, on the nearest route from the end of 
 Clinch Mountain, through the wilderness, to Nashville. 
 
 Further attempts were made to reach Cumberland. This 
 year was signalized by an adventure of Col. James Brown, 
 a Revolutionary officer in the North-Carolina line, who was 
 now emigrating to Cumberland, to enter into possession of 
 the lands allotted to him for military services. Taking with 
 him to the distant wilderness, his family, consisting of his 
 wife, five sons, two of whom were grown, and three younger, 
 four small daughters, together with several negroes, he was 
 unwilling to expose them to the dangers of the route through 
 Cumberland Gap, or the more direct, but no less unsafe pas- 
 sage, over the mountain ; and, therefore, determined to de- 
 scend the Tennessee River, and reach Nashville, by ascend- 
 ing the Ohio and Cumberland, to that place. The boat was 
 built on Ilolston, a short distance below Long Island. He 
 took the precaution to fortify it, by placing oak plank, two 
 inches thick, all around above its gunwales. These were 
 perforated with port-holes, at suitable distances. To these 
 measures of defence was added a swivel, placed in the stern. 
 Besides his two grown sons, James and John, Colonel Brown 
 had five other young men, viz : J. Bays, John Flood, John 
 Gentry, Wm. Gentry and John Griffin. These were all good 
 marksmen. The emigrants, adventurers rather, embarked 
 on the fourth of May. On the ninth, the boat passed the 
 Chickamauga towns, about daybreak, and the Tuskigagee 
 Island Town, a little after sunrise. The head man, Cutley 
 Otoy, and three other warriors, came on board there, and 
 were kindly treated. They then returned to their town, from 
 which they immediately dispatched runners across the moun- 
 tain to Running Water Town and Nickajack, to raise all the 
 
AND DISASTER OF COLONEL BROWN. 
 
 509 
 
 warriors they could get, to ascend the river and meet the 
 boat. The narrative of the capture of the boat, the massa- 
 cre of most of the passengers, and the captivity of such as 
 survived, will be given in the words of the narrator — the 
 youngest son— -the late Colonel Joseph Brown, of Murray 
 county, Tennessee.* It contains such a horrid recital of In- 
 dian cruelty and barbarism by the savage banditti, that so 
 long lay concealed in the fastnesses of Nickajack and Run- 
 ning Water Towns — is withal, so truthful and minute in its 
 details of the captivity and sufferings of one of the prison- 
 ers, who himself piloted the expedition in 1794, which pene- 
 trated these mountain recesses, and extirpated the miscreant 
 land pirates and murderers that infested them — and is, besides, 
 now for the first time published, that no apology is needed 
 for giving it entire without condensation or abridgment : 
 
 “ Only four canoes came, meeting us in the current of the river, which 
 at the time was very high. Seven or eight came up through the bot- 
 toms, in some ponds, and after the Indians in the four first got on board, 
 the other canoes came out through the cane, and the Indians in them 
 also came aboard. The first four came two and two, side by side, hold- 
 ing up white flags, but had their guns and tomahawks covered in the 
 bottom of their canoes. But as there were forty men in the four ca- 
 noes, my father ordered them not to come nigh, as there were too many 
 of them. We then wheeled our boat, levelled our swivel, and had our 
 match ready to sink their canoes, when they claimed protection under 
 the treaty, and said, by a man named John Vann, whom they had got 
 to come and talk for them, that it was a peaceable time, and they only 
 wished to see where we were going to, and to trade with us, if we had 
 anything to trade on. My father ordered the young men not to fire, as 
 he was coming to an Indian country, and did not wish to break any 
 treaty. 
 
 “ After they came to us, they appeared friendly, until the other canoes 
 came around ; and then they began to gather our property, and put it 
 into their canoes. My father begged Vann not to let them behave so, 
 and he replied, that the head man of the town was gone from home, but 
 that he would be at home that night, and would make them give up 
 everything. He also promised that one of them should go with us over 
 the Muscle Shoals, and pilot us, as the passage w'as dangerous for boats. 
 
 “Before they had finishedyobbing the boats, however, a dirty black- 
 looking Indian, with a sword in his hand, caught me by the arm, and 
 was about to kill me, when my father, seeing what he was attempting, 
 took hold of him, and said, that I was one of his little boys, and that 
 he must not interrupt me. The Indian then let me go, but as soon as 
 
 *For this narrative, I am indebted to the kindness and politeness of General 
 Zollicoffer, of Nashville. 
 
510 
 
 TRAGIC MURDER OP BROWN, 
 
 V 
 
 my father’s back was turned, struck him with the sword, and cut his 
 head nearly half off. Another Indian then caught him, and threw him j 
 overboard. I saw him go overboard, but did not know that he was 
 struck with the sword ; it, .therefore, astonished me to see him sink 
 down, as I knew him to be a good swimmer. As this took place in the 
 stern, and my brothers and the other young men were with Vann in the 
 bow, I went to them, and told them that ‘ an Indian had thrown our 
 father overboard, and he was drowned.’ 
 
 “ Our boat was landed at the upper end of the town of Necojack, but 
 before it reached shore, an Indian wanted me to go out of the boat into I 
 a canoe, which I refused, not dreaming that I was a prisoner. As soon 
 as we landed, the same Indian brought an old white man and his wife 
 to me, who said to me, ‘ My boy, I want you to go home with me.’ I 
 enquired where he lived, and he said his house was about a mile out of 
 town. I told him that I supposed I could go home with him that night, 
 but that we would continue our journey in the morning. On his say- 
 ing that he was ready to start, and wished me to go with him, I men- 
 tioned to one of my brothers the old man’s wish that I should go with “ 
 him, and told him that I would return early in the morning, to which he 
 replied, ‘Very well.’ 
 
 “ Before I went, however, the Indians were telling my brothers and 
 the other young men of a certain house, in which they could stay till 
 morning ; after I had left them, they were told that there was a better 
 house down toward the lower end of the town, and that a young man 
 would pilot them that far. Now the town of Necojack was on a higher 
 bank than common, and had only been settled about three years ; thus 
 the banks were still full of cane. When the boat was about to drop 
 down to the lower end of the town, the Indians placed themselves behind 
 stumps and in the cane, and as she floated down, they picked off the 
 men with their rifles. Three of them fell, the others ran, but were all 
 butchered, some with knives and some with tomahawks and guns. 
 
 “ I had not got half way to the old man’s house, before I heard the 
 report of the guns which were killing my brothers and the other young 
 men ; but thought it was the noise of our guns, probably taken out of 
 the boat to see how they would shoot. I had been at the old man’s 
 only fifteen or twenty minutes, when a very large corpulent old woman 
 came in, the sweat falling in big drops from her face, who appeared 
 very angry, and told the old white people that they had done very 
 wrong in taking me away, that I ought to be killed, that, I would see 
 everything, and that I would soon be grown and would guide an army 
 there and have them all cut off ; in short, that I must be killed. This 
 was said in Indian, so that I did not understand it, nor what she 
 went on to say, viz : that all the rest were killed, and that her son would 
 be there directly and would kill me, she knew. 
 
 “ The old Irishman, however, informed me that my people were all 
 slain, but added that I should not be hurt, though the squaw bad just 
 told him that her son would kill me immediately. He then directed 
 me to sit on the side of the bed, and getting up stood in the door with 
 his face outward, talking all the time to his wife and the old squaw in In- 
 dian, which of course 1 did not understand. In about ten or fifteen 
 
AND PILLAGE OF THE BOATS. 
 
 511 
 
 minutes, the old squaw’s son arrived, sure enough, but had not come up 
 the road, so that the old man did not see him till he reached the corner 
 of the house. He asked at once if there was a white man within. The 
 old man answered ‘No,’ that there was a ‘bit’ of a white boy in there ; 
 to which the Indian replied, that he knew how big I was, and that I 
 must be killed. The old white man plead for my life, saying it was 
 a pity to kill women and children ; but the Indian used the same argu- 
 ment that his mother had employed, i. e. that I would get aw'ay, when 
 I grew up, and pilot an army there and have them all killed, and that I 
 must be killed. This old fellow was a British deserter, who had come 
 to America before the Revolutionary war, and had deserted several times, 
 and had at length got into the Cherokee nation, having been there about 
 eighteen years. His name was Thomas Tunbridge ; he had lived with 
 his wife about sixteen years. She w T as a French woman, who had been 
 taken by the Indiaus when a small girl, and grew up and had children 
 to them, before she had an opportunity of returning to her people. Her 
 name, she said, was Polly Mallett. She had no children by Tunbridge, 
 but it was an Indian son of hers that took me prisoner ; he gave me to 
 his mother, telling her that I was large enough to help her hoe corn. 
 He had also said that they would kill the rest directly, and that I w y as 
 so large that when they got in a frolic killing the others, some of them 
 would knock me over. When, therefore, Cutleotoy insisted on killing 
 me, old Tunbridge told him that I was his son’s prisoner, and he was 
 still in town, and that I must not be killed. No greater insult could be 
 offered him, for he was a great man and did as he pleased usually ; 
 while Tunbridge’s son was only twenty -two years old, and a perfect ' boy 
 in Cutleotoy’s estimation. Incensed at this insult, he came to Tun- 
 bridge, with his knife drawn and tomahawk raised, and asked him if 
 he was going to be the Virginian’s friend ; in fact, he would have killed 
 him instantly, had he admitted it, but Tunbridge said ‘ no,’ and step 
 ping back from the door-sill into the house, spoke for the first time in 
 English : ‘ Take him along.’ Cutleotoy, who was a very large strong 
 Indian, followed in a rage, and came to me with his knife and tomahawk 
 both drawn ; but the old woman begged him not to kill me in her 
 house, to which he agreed, and catching me by the hand, jerked me up 
 and out of the house. Outside were ten of his men surrounding the 
 house door, and one had in his hand the scalp of one of my brothers, 
 and another that of the other men, on a stick. Some had their guns 
 cocked, and others their knives and tomahawks drawn, ready to put me 
 to death. I requested Tunbridge to beg them to let me have one half 
 hour to pray, to which he replied that it was not worth while ; but they 
 concluded to strip my clothes off. so as not to bloody them, and while 
 they were doing so, the old French woman begged them not to kill me 
 there, nor in the road that she carried water along, for the road passed 
 by her spring. They answered that they would take me to Running- 
 Water Town, as there were no white people there, and would have a 
 frolic knocking me over. All this was said in Indian, however, and I 
 knew nothing of what they discussed ; and as soon as my clothes were 
 off, I fell on my knees, and cried, like the dying Stephen, ‘Lord Jesus, 
 into thy hand I commend my spirit,’ expecting every moment to be 
 
512 
 
 CAIT1V1TY OP BROWN’S FAMILY. 
 
 my last. But I had not been on my knees more than one minute, 
 when Tunbridge said, ‘My boy, you must get up and go with them ; 
 they will not kill you here,’ but told me nothing of what they said of 
 having a frolic at Running Water Town. 
 
 “ We had not gone more than seventy or eighty yards, when Cut- 
 leotoy stopped his men, and said to them, that he could not, and they 
 must not kill me, as they were his men, and it would be as bad for him, 
 as though he himself had done it ; for that I was the prisoner of poor 
 Job, (the French woman’s son,) who was a man of war. 
 
 “ ‘Now,’ said he, ‘ I have taken a negro woman out of the boat, and 
 sent her by water to where I live, and if we kill this fellow, poor Job 
 will go and kill my negro, and I don’t want to lose her ; nor could all 
 ■ the Indians in the nation keep him from putting her to death.’ Well 
 might he fear poor Job, for, although he was only twenty-two years 
 old, and it had been a time of peace since he was a small boy, he had 
 taken the lives of six white men. The Hopewell and Holston treaties 
 bound them to peace, but their young men were away with the Creeks 
 and Shawnees at war ; the Chickasaws and Choctaws were exceptions 
 to the rule, however. 
 
 “ Now, when Cutleotoy spoke thus, the thought of my being one 
 day a man, and leading an army there, and having them killed, had 
 given way to avarice, for the old woman, as well as her son, wanted the 
 service of the negro. As I knew nothing of what they were saying, I 
 was on my knees, trying to give my soul to God, through the merits of 
 the Saviour, and expecting the tomahawk to sink into my skull every 
 moment. At length, the favour given to Stephen in his dying mo- 
 ments, came to my mind ; how he saw the heavens opened, and the 
 blessed Saviour sitting at the right hand of God. I opened my eyes, 
 and looking up, saw one of the Indians, as they stood all round me, 
 smile ; then, glancing my eyes round on them, saw that all their coun- 
 tenances were changed from vengeance and anger, to mildness. 
 
 “ This gave me the first gleam of hope. Cutleotoy then called to 
 old Tunbridge to come after me, that he loved me, and would not kill 
 me then, but that he would not make peace with me then ; but if I 
 lived three weeks, he would be back again to make peace with me. The 
 other Indians, however, explained the reason of this sudden love for me ; 
 that it was the negro he loved so much. The old squaw said, she would 
 have some of my hair any how, and coming behind me, loosed my hair, 
 (it was customary for young people, then, to wear their hair long,) and 
 gathering a lock from the crown of my head, with an old dull knife, 
 cut off a parcel, and kicked me in the side, and called me a poor Vir- 
 ginian. That day the old head-man of the town had gone to a beloved 
 town sixteen miles off, called Stecoyee, south-east from Nicojack Town. 
 I understood that he was much displeased with their conduct, for he 
 was a man of fine mind, and boasted that he had never stained his 
 knife in the blood of a white man ; but he had killed a Shawnee, when 
 that nation was at war with the Cherokees; his name was the Breath; 
 he sent for me the second day after I was taken, and warned me that 
 some of them would kill me, if I was not put into a family, with my 
 hair trimmed like an Indian’s, and my face painted. He also said that 
 
BROWN IS DENUDED HIS EARS BORED, ETC. 
 
 513 
 
 as his was one of the strongest families in the nation, he would receive 
 me into it, directing me to call him uncle, and poor Job, brother. On 
 the same day, the 11th of May, 1788, he bored holes in my ears, cut 
 off my hair, on,y leaving a scalp-lock on the top of my head, and ta- 
 king off my pantaloons, gave me a flap and short shirt, pulling open 
 the collar and putting a small broach in my bosom. On the 12th, 
 which was next day, I was turned out to hoe corn, in the broiling sun ; 
 by noon, all my forehead and ears, and the back of my head, aud my neck 
 and thighs, were all blistered with the heat; but the Lord was good, and 
 when I was sick with sun-burns, sent a good thunder cloud, and drove us 
 all out of the field. The next day it rained all day, and the third day I 
 was able to go to the field again ; after that there came a skin on me 
 that stood everything. A grand-son of the French woman went every 
 where with me, to let me know who were Creeks, for they said that if 
 the Creeks caught me out by myself, they might kill me ; I was also 
 cautioned not to look at a Cherokee, because it made an Indian angry 
 to look at him. I had never seen any Indians before, so that every 
 movement they made was strange to me. About three weeks after I 
 was taken, I was going to the spring for water, and saw several Indians 
 sitting about there. The little boy seemed alarmed, and I knew that 
 it was on my account, for he said they were Creeks ; but after looking 
 again he pronounced them Cherokees, saying he knew some of them. 
 My fears being removed, I went on, and his being a small tin bucket, I 
 dipped it full first, and handed it up the bank to him, and, never look- 
 ing at the Indians, dipped up my bucket full. Just as I climbed up 
 the bank, two of them jumped on their horses and came galloping 
 across the branch which ran from the spring. As they came along, I 
 stole a glance at one of them ; he had one side of his head painted 
 red and the other black, and a scalp on his breast. Jumping off his 
 horse, he struck me with the butt-end of a white-oak stick, about an 
 inch in diameter and four feet long, on the side of the head. He was 
 so near me that he did not hurt me much, but the second time, he was 
 farther off, and that staggered me very much. He and his party con- 
 sisting of five others, had been away with the Shawnees and northern 
 Indians, at war, and they had heard that war had broken out at home, 
 and as they were coming home they determined to come by the Hol- 
 ston settlements and steal some horses ; they found two little boys, one 
 morning, feeding some cows, and having killed the little fellows, were 
 pursued by the whites, who killed three of them, while they were cross- 
 ing the Tennessee River. The anger excited by this occurrence, caused 
 him, on seeing me, to strike me, thinking, as he said, that he would 
 knock me down and beat me as long as he thought he could without 
 killing me. I do not suppose he would have cared if I had died. 
 
 “During that whole summer there was war, with frequent alarms of 
 white people coming, and at one time a Col. Martin got to Chattanooga, 
 within twenty miles of where I lived ; but the Indians killed three of 
 his captains, and he only killed one Shawnee and one negro. No Che- 
 rokees were killed, but they raised an army of three thousand men, bor- 
 rowed one thousand Creeks, to go with fifteen hundred Cherokees on 
 33 
 
514 
 
 MEETING OF BROWN WITH HIS CAPTIVE SISTER. 
 
 foot, ancl five hundred mounted Cherokees, many of whom were lialf- 
 hreeds, and dressed like white men ; they kept them ahead of the army, 
 and white men who met them thought them a scouting party of whites, 
 and were by this scheme readily taken prisoner's, when they would be 
 kept until it was convenient to kill them without giving alarm. Several 
 men were taken in this way the day they got to Gillespie’s Fort. Their 
 object in raising the army was to drive all the whites from the south 
 side of French Broad, on the pretext that the Indians who sold land on 
 the south side of that river, were not authorized to do so by the nation; 
 but finding only one man in the fort, Captain William Gillespie, they 
 plundered it, and got so much booty from it and the surrounding farms, 
 as sufficed, together with their twenty-seven prisoners, taken without 
 the loss of a single man, to induce them to return home, and that with 
 great triumph. 
 
 “Most of us at Necojack Town, now moved off for the winter; old 
 Tunbridge went down to Crow Town, thirty miles below Necojack Town ; 
 and one of the prisoners, Major Glass’s wife, was purchased from the 
 Indians who owned her, by Moses Price, who lived about half a mile 
 from us, opposite the head of Crow Island, at an old crossing place of 
 the Creeks, where the river could be forded nearly across. 
 
 “ Price went to Pensacola for goods, and left Richard Findelston and 
 two negro men with Mrs. Glass, to take care of his stock. One day, while 
 Findelston was away from home, a large Creek Indian came by and 
 seized Mrs. Glass’s sucking child ; the negro dared not interfere, for the 
 Indian would have killed him instantly. He ran to our house to give 
 the alarm, and said that he had left them at the door. Old Tunbridge 
 went at once, but only in a walk, and when he got there, they were 
 about eighty yards from the house, on the Creek path, the Indian hold- 
 ing the child, and its mother still hanging to it. The old man made 
 him release the child, and brought it and its mother home with him, 
 and kept them there some time. It was but a few weeks, however, that 
 we got information that Gov. Sevier had taken a town on the waters of 
 the Coosa River, and there would be an exchange of prisoners shortly. 
 
 In a few weeks more, sure enough, there was a runner sent after us to 
 come to Running Water Town ; and when we reached Necojack Town, I 
 found there the Indian who had my little sister, having just returned 
 from his winter’s hunt, bringing his wife and my little sister. The old 
 squaw seemed to think as much of her as though she had been her own 
 child. The little girl was stripped of all her finery, it is true, but she 
 was only five years old, and when I told her I was going to take her to 
 her own mother, she ran to the old Indian woman and caught her round I 
 the neck, so that I had to take her by force and carry her twenty or ! 
 
 thirty yards; then telling her she should go to see her own mother, I 
 set her down and led her by the hand. My eldest sister was at another 1 
 place, a child of ten years old. 
 
 “ We got to Running Water about three o’clock, and found that the 
 Head-man from the Upper Towns had come after us. The old Head- 
 man of Necojack grumbled at giving us up, as we, who were taken out 
 of the boat, had come from North-Carolina, and did not belong to Hol- 
 ston settlement. The old Indian who had come for us, said that was 
 
THEY ARE EXCHANGED AND RESTORED. 
 
 515 
 
 all true, but that Littlejohn (their name for Gov. Sevier) was so mean 
 and ugly that he could do nothing with him. This word ugly is their 
 hardest term of abuse. He went on to say that “Little John” declared 
 he would not let one of their people free, unless he got all the whites 
 who were in the nation, naming those taken from the boat particularly. 
 The next morning they spoke of starting, but I told them I could not 
 go without my sister ; a young man was immediately started after her. 
 She was thirty miles off, and the third day the messenger returned 
 about ten o’clock in the morning without her, and announced that the 
 man who had her, would not let her come without pay. There was an 
 old warrior sitting by, his sword hanging on the wall, and his horse 
 standing at a tree in the yard. He rose, and putting on his sword, made 
 this short speech : ‘I will go and bring her, or his head.’ Sure enough, 
 the next morning, here he came with her ; when asked what the Indian 
 said, he replied, ‘nothing.’ The next morning we started, and in a few 
 days were at Coosawatee, where an exchange of prisoners was made 
 instead of at Swannanoa, as at first proposed. This was about the 20th 
 of April, 1789. At this time my weight was only eighty pounds, 
 though I was in my seventeenth year.” 
 
 After the capture and plunder of the boat and the mas- 
 ( sacre of the men, the Creek banditti started to their 
 l towns, having two of the daughters of the unfortu- 
 nate Colonel Brown — Jane, aged ten, and Polly, five — pri- 
 soners. These were pursued by the Cherokee braves, re- 
 captured, and brought back to Nickajack. The trader’s wife 
 had the humanit} r to allow their brother Joseph to go there 
 and see his sisters. From these, he learned that the Creek 
 confederates had gone with his mother, his brother George, 
 a lad ten years old, and his three small sisters, and much of 
 the booty taken in the boat, in the direction of their distant 
 homes on the Tallapoosa River, and that two of the children 
 had been recaptured by the Cherokees, as already mentioned. 
 The negroes were despatched by water to the Upper Chero- 
 kee towns. The children remained in the town where they 
 were captured, and being adopted into several Indian fami- 
 lies, were generally well treated. The usual menial offices 
 of savage life were imposed upon them, during their captivity 
 of nearly twelve months. They had the melancholy plea- 
 sure of seeing one another. Occasionally they were threa- 
 tened, and often had to listen to accounts brought by war- 
 riors, returning from their hostile excursions, of horrid bar- 
 barities and cruel murders inflicted upon the distant frontier 
 These atrocities, at length, invited further invasion and 
 
51G 
 
 NOBLE CONDUCT OF m’gILLEVRAY. 
 
 retaliation, by the aggrieved frontier men ; war was brought 
 to the immediate vicinity of the banditti Indians themselves, 
 which resulted in a Peace Talk from General Sevier, and a 
 proposal of an exchange of prisoners followed, and the young 
 prisoners were restored. 
 
 Mrs. Brown, when hurried off by her captors, heard the 
 savage yells, that she but too well knew, announced the 
 hard fate of her sons and their comrades. To increase the 
 poignancy of her bereavement, two of her daughters were 
 snatched from her side, and carried back to the scene of the 
 calamity which had overwhelmed her family. A single 
 source of consolation was left to her — her two children — the 
 son, aged nine, and the daughter, seven. These were after- 
 wards separated from her, and sent to two neighbouring vil- 
 lages, whilst she continued the prisoner and slave of a Creek 
 warrior, and remained for some time in the condition of hope- 
 less bondage and exile. By the influence and assistance of 
 the wife of Durant, a French trader, Mrs. Brown contrived 
 to escape to the residence of McGillevray, the Head-man of 
 the Creek nation, who generously ransomed her from her 
 savage owner. The daughter was, some time after, also 
 ransomed, and with Mrs. Brown, was taken by Col. McGillev- 
 ray, in November, 1789, to Rock Landing, in Georgia, and 
 restored to her surviving friends. McGillevray was offered 
 compensation for the kind offices he had performed in ransom- 
 ing and restoring the captives. This was nobly declined, 
 with the further assurance, that he would endeavour to re- 
 cover the son, still in captivity in his nation. This was at 
 length effected. We will see more of Joseph Brown hereafter, 
 when, in 1794, the prophecy was fulfilled of one of his cap- 
 tors, who said, “ he will soon be grown, and will pilot an 
 army here, and have us all cut off.” 
 
 Few families suffered greater losses and misfortunes, than 
 the family of Mr. Brown. The father, two sons, three sons- 
 in-law, were killed by the Indians — one other shot in his right 
 hand and cut above his wrist — another son, Joseph, and 
 his two sisters, prisoners and in captivity nearly a year — the 
 mother and another daughter, prisoners, seventeen months — 
 the former driven on foot by the Creeks two hundred miles, 
 
GENERAL MARTIN’S CAMPAIGN. 
 
 517 
 
 and not permitted to stop long enough to take the gravel 
 from her shoes, and her feet blistered and suppurating — a 
 younger son, a prisoner five years. 
 
 During the summer after this remarkable disaster to 
 Brown and his family, Sevier invaded and chastised the 
 Cherokees, as has been already narrated. 
 
 The Indians continued their attacks on the stations. In rapid 
 17g8 ( succession, expresses were sent from the frontier to 
 ( General Martin and Col. Kennedy, representing 
 their exposed condition, and soliciting succour. An army was 
 raised from the upper counties, which rendezvoused at 
 White’s Fort, where Knoxville now stands. Their number 
 was about four hundred and fifty men. 
 
 Col. Robert Love commanded the regiment from Wash- 
 ington county, Col. Kennedy from Greene, and Col. Doherty 
 from below. The army crossed Hiwassee near the present 
 Calhoun, and reached the point where the Tennessee River 
 breaks through the Cumberland Mountain, and encamped in 
 an old Indian field. It was supposed the Indians had taken 
 off their property to a town six miles below. After dark, 
 Col. Doherty, at the head of fifty men, started with the view 
 of surprising it. As soon as this party reached the spur of 
 the mountain, they were fired upon, and retreated to camp. 
 The troops remained all night with their bridles in their 
 hands. Next morning the spies, who had gone forward to 
 reconnoitre, were fired upon, and William Cunningham, late 
 of Knox county, was wounded. The troops were immedi- 
 ately paraded, and riding to the foot of the mountain, tied 
 their horses, and engaged with the Indians at a point be- 
 tween the bluff and the river. Captains Hardin, Fuller and 
 Gibson, were killed. These were buried in a large town 
 house, standing near where the path entered the mountain. 
 After burying their dead with all the precaution possible, 
 they set fire to the town house and burned it down over 
 them. One of Col. Love’s captains, Vincent, was badly 
 wounded, but was put upon a horse litter and brought home, 
 and recovered. 
 
 General Martin then proposed to pursue the Indians, but 
 his men rebelled and refused to follow him, except about 
 
518 
 
 gillespie’s station taken. 
 
 sixty. These, he thought, were inadequate to the undertak- 
 ing, and the troops started home. 
 
 General Martin’s troops had scarcely reached home, when 
 a party of Cherokees and Creeks, two or three hundred 
 strong, came to Gillespie’s Station on Little River, within 
 eight or ten miles from Knoxville. They captured several 
 prisoners, and retreated. General Sevier made a vigorous 
 pursuit, overtook and re-captured the prisoners. Some In- 
 dians, also, were taken, who were afterwards exchanged for 
 such white captives as had been carried into the nation. 
 
 “ On the 21st of September, a large body of the enemy, not less than 
 two hundred, attacked Sherrell’s Station, late in the evening. Sevier 
 that day, with forty horsemen, was out ranging, and came on the In- 
 dians’ trail, making towards the inhabitants ; he immediately advanced 
 after them, and opportunely arrived before the fort, when the Indians 
 were carrying on a furious attack. On coming in view of the place, 
 he drew up his troop in close order, made known his intention in a short 
 speech, that he would relieve the garrison, or fall in the attempt ; and 
 asked who was willing to follow him. All gave an unanimous consent, 
 and, at a given signal, made a charge on the enemy, as they were busily 
 employed in setting fire to a barn and other out-buildings. The Indians 
 gave way, and immediately retired from the place, and the gallant little 
 band of heroes reached the fort, to the great joy of the besieged. This 
 exploit was performed under cover of the night, and, conformably to the 
 Governor of Frankland’s usual good fortune, not a man of his party 
 was hurt. 
 
 “ On the ] Yth of October, Gillespie’s Fort, (below the mouth of Little 
 River,) on Holston, a little after sunrise, was attacked by about three 
 hundred Indians, under the command of John Watts. The few men in 
 the fort made a gallant resistance; but, being overpowered by numbers, 
 and their ammunition being expended, the Indians rushed over the walls, 
 or rather, the roofs of the cabins which made a part of the fort. Great 
 was the horror of the scene that then ensued. The best accounts say 
 our loss is twenty-eight persons, mostly women and children, as several 
 of the men belonging to the fort, were abroad at the time. 
 
 “ I am just now informed, that one thousand Indians have crossed the 
 Tennessee in two divisions, and that one of them had attacked Major 
 Houston’s Fort, and the other was near Captain White’s, on the north 
 side of Holston. The whole of our militia are under marching orders, 
 and Colonel Kennedy has already set out with those that were first 
 ready.”* 
 
 At the attack on Gillespie’s Station, October 15th, a letter 
 of that date was left, signed by the Indian chiefs, and ad- 
 dressed to 
 
 *F. C. State Gazette. 
 
HAWKINS COUNTY RECORDS. 
 
 519 
 
 Mr. John Sevier, and Joseph Martin, and to you, the Inhabitants of 
 
 the New State : 
 
 We would wish to inform you of the accident that happened at Gil- 
 lespie’s Fort, concerning the women and children that were killed in the 
 battle. The Bloody Fellow’s talk is, that he is here now upon his own 
 ground. He is not like you are, for you kill women and children, and 
 he does not. He had orders to do it, and to order them off the land, 
 and he came and ordered them to surrender and that they should not be 
 hurt, and they would not, and he stormed it and took it. For you be- 
 guiled the head-man* that was your friend, and wanted to keep peace, 
 but you began it, ami this is what you get for it. When you move off 
 the land, then we will make peace, and give up the women and chil- 
 dren ; and you must march off in thirty days. Five thousand men is 
 our number. 
 
 Bloody Fellow. 
 
 Categiskey. 
 
 John Watts. 
 
 Glass. 
 
 In Sullivan county, there appears to be an interregnum 
 from 1784 to March, 1787. The records were, probably, 
 mislaid or lost during the Franklin revolt. At that last date, 
 a Commission, appointing justices of the peace, was present- 
 ed. The magistrates, thereby appointed, met at the house 
 of Joseph Cole. They resolved, “that it is the opinion and 
 judgment of the Court, that John Rhea, formerly Clerk of 
 the Court, has not forfeited his office by his absence, and 
 therefore has a right to continue Clerk. In 1788, John Vance 
 was Clerk.” 
 
 Among the last legislative acts of North-Carolina, for 
 1189 $ her western counties, was one establishing a town in 
 ( the county of Hawkins. Kogersville is the last town 
 in Tennessee established under the dynasty of the mother 
 state. 
 
 After the fall of the Franklin Government, early in 1788, 
 the people gradually gave in their adhesion to that of the 
 parent state. On the part of some, it may have been done 
 reluctantly. The transition, however, from a separate and 
 independent state, to their former position of a colonial ap- 
 pendage to North-Carolina, was so gradual as to be almost 
 imperceptible. It certainly produced no convulsion, and was 
 followed by no commotion. It was accompanied by no 
 
 * The Old Tassel. 
 
520 
 
 INHABITANTS RETURN TO THEIR ALLEGIANCE. 
 
 triumphs, and attended with scarcely a single regret. No 
 one on the frontier has to eat the bitter bread of political or 
 official dependence. Office, under either the one regime or 
 the other, brought with it little distinction, and conferred al- 
 most no emolument. Its possession was seldom sought after. 
 Its loss produced neither disappointment nor mortification. 
 Under both systems of government the people recognized 
 the same constitution, and were ruled almost by the same 
 laws. The change of officers was hardly known. In mili- 
 tary affairs it was essentially so. Upon the frontier the vo- 
 lunteering system had always obtained. If an enemy was 
 to be repelled, or a campaign to be carried on, the volunteers 
 exercised the right of selecting their leader. Did he hold a 
 commission ? If he had the confidence of his troops, he com- 
 manded. Without this he entered the ranks cheerfully, and 
 yielded the command to a subaltern, preferred over him and 
 chosen by the men. Many who, after the first of March, 
 1788, became functi officiis, were soon after that date, rein- 
 vested with authority by the people themselves, and often 
 by the aid of the strongest zealots for North-Carolina. In 
 one section of Franklin — that south of French Broad and 
 west of Big Pigeon — the functionaries of that government 
 continued in power, under no other regulation than the popu- 
 lar will, which was sovereign, supreme, omnipotent. Else- 
 where, in all her western counties, the jurisdiction of North- 
 Carolina was acknowledged and her authority obeyed. Un- 
 der her laws, elections of members to her Legislature were 
 held. 
 
 The Assembly met at Fayetteville in -November. Amongst 
 the laws passed at this session, was one for paying the mili- 
 tia officers and soldiers for their services in the campaign, 
 carried on, as has been heretofore narrated, by Gen. Martin^ 
 against the Chickamaugas, in the preceding year. By the 
 provisions of this law, the pay rolls of the expedition were 
 to be exhibited under oath to the Comptroller, with the 
 names of the officers. These were to be examined by the 
 Comptroller, who was then to issue his certificate to each 
 officer and soldier. The certificate was made receivable in 
 payment of the public lax due in the District of Washington. 
 
DISCONTENTS OP THE PEOPLE REVIVED. 
 
 521 
 
 and no other, until all such certificates were paid. A like 
 provision was made to liquidate the accounts of the Commis- 
 sary on this expedition, making certificates issued to him re- 
 ceivable in payment of public dues. The frugality of the 
 parent state was further exhibited at the same session, by 
 repealing the law for erecting a garrison on the north side 
 of the Tennessee River. These several enactments served 
 to revive the complaints and discontents of the western peo- 
 ple, and especially of those of them in the late Franklin 
 counties. 
 
 “They found themselves suddenly re-attached to a country in which 
 a considerable portion of them could perceive no affection for them- 
 selves, nor any disposition to give them protection, nor otherwise actua- 
 ted, as many believed, but by a desire to get from the sale of their lands 
 more certificates of public debt; and the opinion was entertained that 
 North-Carolina could expose them to the tomahawk and scalping knife, 
 without feeling in tSe least for their sufferings, and without having the 
 least inclination to prevent them. Past experience, in their judgment, 
 had fully demonstrated the advantages which were to be expected from 
 the renewal of their connexions with North-Carolina ; they were to fight 
 for themselves, protect their own possessions and pay taxes ; which, if 
 not sufficient for the expenses incurred in defending themselves, were to 
 be applied as far as they would go, and the surplus of expenses was to 
 be left unsatisfied. On the other hand, the members of the Atlantic 
 counties had the near prospect, as they supposed, of becoming subject 
 to a still greater aggravation of burthen, and this anticipation never 
 failed to recall a desire for separation ; indeed, it seemed as if, at this 
 moment, there was a presentation to the Assembly of more western 
 claims than had ever before come forward at one time. The Atlantic 
 members laboured to find ways and means; and, still more, to avoid 
 making contributions from the counties east of the Alleghanies. They 
 had, in the late revolt, been furnished with the hint, that for very small 
 provocations as they deemed them, the western counties would set up 
 for independence, which it was not in their power to control. Ope- 
 rated upon by these and other motives, the Atlantic counties came to 
 the conclusion to let them separate, stipulating for themselves, as the 
 price of emancipation, such terms as were necessary and convenient for 
 their own people.” 
 
 It soon became evident that her western counties were an 
 inconvenient, and expensive, and troublesome appendage to 
 North-Carolina, and many on both sides of the Alleghanies, 
 who had more recently opposed the Franklin separation, or 
 any dismemberment of the distant and disjoined sections of 
 the parent state, were the first now to make the frank avowal 
 
522 HER WESTERN TERRITORY CEDED BY NORTH-CAROLINA. 
 
 that it was the policy of each, and the interest of both, that 
 the two communities should no longer remain united, but 
 should at once become separate and distinct political organi- 
 zations. The Assembly proceeded to mature a plan to sever 
 them forever asunder, and passed an “Act for the purpose of 
 ceding to the United States of America, certain western lands 
 therein described.” 
 
 In conformity with one of the provisions of the Act of 
 Cession, Samuel Johnston and Benjamin Hawkins, Senators 
 in Congress from North-Carolina, executed, on the 25th of 
 February, 1790, a Deed to the United States, in the words of 
 the Cession Act. 
 
 On the second of April, of the same year, the United States, 
 in Congress assembled, by an act made for that special pur- 
 pose, accepted the Deed, and what is now Tennessee, ceased 
 to be a part of North-Carolina. The separation, though once 
 resisted as unfilial, disobedient and revolutionary, was now 
 in accordance with the judgment and wishes of all — peacea- 
 ble, dutiful, affectionate. The Old North State is yet held in 
 grateful remembrance by every emigrant she has sent to 
 Tennessee. And there and elsewhere, to the farthest West, 
 in all their wanderings and migrations, the succeeding gene- 
 ration still cherish, with ancestral pride, the name, and cha- 
 racter, and worth of North-Carolina, their mother state. 
 
NEGOTIATION WITH SPAIN. 
 
 523 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NEGOTIATION WITH SPAIN. 
 
 As early as 1780, Spain had indicated a determination to 
 claim the country west of the following boundary: “A 
 right line should he drawn from the eastern angle of the 
 Gulf of Mexico to Fort Toulouse, situated in the country of 
 the Alibamas ; from thence the River Louishatchi should be 
 ascended, from the mouth of which a right line should be 
 drawn to the fort or factory of Quesnassie ; from this last 
 place, the course of the River Euphasee* is to be followed 
 till it joins the Cherokee ;f the course of this last river is to 
 be pursued to the place where it receives the Pelissippi ;J 
 this last to be followed to its source ; from whence a right 
 line is to be drawn to Cumberland River, whose course is to 
 be followed untill it falls into the Ohio.” 
 
 And, on other questions then arising between her and the 
 United States, Spain declared : “ The savages to the west of 
 the line described should be free and under the protection of 
 Spain ; those to the eastward should be free and under the 
 protection of the United States.” — “The trade should be free 
 to both parties.” — “ As to the course and navigation of the 
 Mississippi, they follow with the property, and they will 
 belong, therefore, to the nation to which the two banks 
 belong.” — “ Spain alone will be the proprietor of the course 
 of the Mississippi, from the thirty-first degree of latitude to 
 the mouth of this river.” 
 
 This line, designated by Rayneval, in his negotiation with 
 Mr. Jay, left, not only the lands north of the Ohio without 
 the limits of the United States, but a part of the country 
 now constituting the State of Kentucky, all of Tennessee 
 west of Hiwassee, Tennessee and Clinch Rivers, as above 
 delineated, and nearly the whole of Alabama and Missis- 
 
 * Hiwassee. 
 
 f Tennessee. 
 
 f Clinch. 
 
524 PROPOSAL TO FORBEAR THE USE OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 sippi. To this extraordinary territorial pretension, on the 
 part of Spain, was added that of the exclusive navigation of 
 the Mississippi River. 
 
 Soon after the ratification of the definitive Treaty of 
 $ Peace, in 178.3, Congress turned their attention to 
 
 1784 j . 
 
 ( commercial intercourse with foreign nations, and in- 
 
 structed the American Ministers particularly, in any nego- 
 tiation with Spain, not to relinquish or cede, in any event 
 whatever, the right of freely navigating the River Missis- 
 sippi, from its source to the ocean.* Spain, still persisting 
 in her extensive claims east of that river and to its exclusive 
 navigation, appointed, in 1785, Don Diego Gardoqui her 
 Minister, to adjust the interfering claims of the two nations. 
 Mr. Jay, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs, was appointed 
 to treat with him on the part of the United States. The 
 Spanish Minister declared that the king, his master, would 
 not permit any nation to navigate any part of the Missis- 
 sippi between the banks claimed by him. The American 
 Minister, on the other hand, insisted on the right of the 
 United States to its free navigation. On a previous occa- 
 sion, while representing his country in Europe, Mr. Jay had 
 strenuously contended for that right, and urged the impor- 
 tance of retaining it. Now, the negotiation being renewed 
 at home, he reminded the Spanish Minister “ that the adja- 
 cent country was filling fast with people, and that the time 
 must soon come when they would not submit to seeing a fine 
 river flow before their doors, without using it as a highway 
 to the sea, for the transportation of their productions,” and 
 pointed out the wisdom of such a treaty being now formed, 
 as would not contain in its stipulations the seeds of future 
 discord. These appeals were resisted by the Don, and he 
 still insisted that the Mississippi must be shut against the 
 commerce of the western people and of the United States. 
 
 At a later period in the negotiation, Mr. Jay, in a comma- 
 ^ ( nication to Congress, adds : “ Circumstanced as we 
 
 ( are, I think it would be expedient to agree that the 
 treaty should be limited to twenty-five or thirty years, and 
 that one of its articles should stipulate that the United States 
 
 * Pitkin. 
 
EXCITES INDIGNATION IN THE WEST. 
 
 525 
 
 would forbear to use the navigation of that river below their 
 territories to the ocean.” 
 
 In support of this concession, Mr. Jay stated : “ That the 
 navigation of the Mississippi was not at that time very 
 important, and wotild not probably become so in less than 
 twenty-five or thirty years, and that a forbearance to use it, 
 while it was not wanted, was no great sacrifice ; that Spain 
 then excluded the people of the United States from that 
 navigation, and that it could only be acquired by war, for 
 which we were not then prepared ; and that in case of war, 
 France would no doubt join Spain.” A resolution was sub- 
 mitted to Congress, repealing Mr. Jay’s instructions of Au- 
 gust 25, 1785, and directing him to consent to an article, 
 stipulating a forbearance, on the part of the United States, 
 to use the Mississippi River for twenty years. In support of 
 these resolutions, the members from New Hampshire, Mas- 
 sachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New-York, New Jer- 
 sey and Pennsylvania, voted unanimously ; while those from 
 Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina and 
 Georgia, with equal unanimity, voted against them. 
 
 These proceedings of Congress, though with closed doors, 
 soon became partially known, and excited great indignation 
 and alarm in Virginia, and in all the western settlements. 
 In November, 1786, in consequence of a memorial from the 
 western inhabitants, the Virginia Assembly declared unani- 
 mously “that the common right of navigating the Mississippi, 
 was considered as the bountiful gift of nature to the United 
 States ; that the Confederacy, having been formed on the broad 
 basis of equal rights in every part thereof, and confided to the 
 protection and guardianship of the whole, a sacrifice of the 
 rights of any one part, would be a flagrant violation of jus- 
 tice, and a direct contravention of the end for which the 
 Federal Government was instituted, and an alarming inno- 
 vation on the system of the Union.” They, therefore, in- 
 structed their delegates “ to oppose any attempt that may be 
 made in Congress to barter or surrender to any nation what- 
 ever, the right of the United States to the free and common 
 use of the Mississippi ; and to protest against the same as a 
 dishonourable departure from the comprehensive and bene- 
 
526 
 
 THE NEGOTIATION CONTINUED. 
 
 volent feeling, which constitutes the vital principle of the 
 Confederation ; as provoking the just resentment and re- 
 proaches of our western brethren, whose essential rights and 
 interests would be thereby sacrificed and sold ; and as tend- 
 ing to undermine our repose, our prosperity, and our Union 
 itself.” 
 
 After the instructions of Mr. Jay, as already mentioned, 
 were rescinded by the seven Northern States, negotiations 
 were renewed, but without effect. The Spanish Minister 
 still refused to admit the United States to any share in the 
 navigation of the river, below the boundaries claimed by his 
 monarch, on any terms and conditions whatever. 
 
 All further negotiation with Spain was referred to the new 
 Federal Government. 
 
 By the eighth article of the treaty between Great Britain 
 and the- United States, it was provided, that the navigation 
 of the River Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, shall 
 forever remain free and open to the subjects and citizens of 
 the two powers, respectively. The boundaries of Spanish 
 Louisiana, after the dismemberment, comprised all the region 
 west of the Mississippi. It included, also, the island of New- 
 Orleans, on the east side of that river, and south of the Ba- 
 you Iberville ; thus including, necessarily, the mouth and 
 the river itself, with the eastern bank above the Iberville, 
 and both banks from the Iberville to the Balize. With 
 France, Spain had also become involved in the war in fa- 
 vour of the American Colonies, and against Great Britain. 
 By the treaty of September, 1783, on the part of all the bel- 
 ligerents, Great Britain confirmed to Spain, the whole of the 
 Floridas, south of the thirty-first degree of latitude. The 
 Provinces of Louisiana and Florida returned to a state of 
 peace and prosperity, under the wise administration of Go- 
 vernor Mero. The river trade with Upper Louisiana and 
 the settlements upon the Ohio and its tributaries, had become 
 active, and the Spanish dominion upon the Mississippi ap- 
 peared to be increasing continually, in importance and 
 powea*. 
 
 In the meantime, the serious attention of the Spanish au- 
 thorities was directed to the growing influence of the west- 
 
WESTERN PEOPLE PROJECT AN INVASION OF LOUISIANA. 527 
 
 ern settlements of the United States, which were coming in 
 collision with their own. Georgia claimed much of the ter- 
 ritory from Loftus’ Heights, northwardly, several hundred 
 miles. But this whole region was in the possession of Spain, 
 with a population of nearly ten thousand souls. An active 
 trade from the people on Holston, Cumberland, and other 
 branches of the Ohio, had forced itself down the Mississippi, 
 and they claimed the natural right of the use of this stream, 
 throughout the Province of Louisiana, and to the ocean. On 
 the other hand, it had become a matter of great interest to 
 the Spanish authorities to derive a large revenue from this 
 trade, by the imposition of transit and port duties. For this 
 purpose, a revenue office, with a suitable guard, and a mili- 
 tary post, was established at New-Madrid and other points, 
 at which all boats were required to land, and comply with 
 the revenue laws. These were enforced with great rigour, even 
 to seizure and confiscation of the cargo. It requires but little 
 knowledge ofthe characterof the western people to knowwhat 
 effect these exactions and restrictions upon their trade would 
 produce. They believed they had a right to navigate the 
 river, free from all these impositions ; that the duties were 
 exorbitant, oppressive and unjust. Under these impressions, 
 it is not strange, that many of them should resist the laws, 
 and disregard the attempts of the revenue officers to enforce 
 them. In this manner, it frequently happened, that the west- 
 ern traders were seized, fined and imprisoned, their cargoes 
 confiscated as contraband or forfeited, and the owners or 
 supercargoes discharged, penniless, to find their way home.* 
 Occurrences of this kind had greatly incensed the western 
 people, and disseminated a general discontent and opposi- 
 tion. To such an extent had this vindictive feeling been car- 
 ried in Kentucky, and upon the Cumberland, that a milita- 
 ry invasion of Louisiana was devised, for redressing the 
 wrongs of the western people, and seizing the port of New- 
 Orleans, should the Federal Government, then negotiating 
 on the subject, fail to obtain from Spain the free navigation 
 of the Mississippi. So general had become this excitement, 
 
 *Martin, as quoted by Monette. 
 
528 GENERAL WILKINSON^ MISSION TO NEW-ORLEANS. 
 
 that the Spanish Governor became exceedingly apprehensive 
 of an invasion, to be carried against Louisiana, in defiance 
 of the Federal authority. And the western people themselves, 
 indignant at the failure of Congress to secure them the free use 
 of their only outlet to market, were strongly tempted to sepa- 
 rate from the Atlantic States, and to form for themselves an 
 independent form of government, which would enable them 
 to obtain from Spain, under one form or another, those com- 
 mercial advantages which they were determined to possess.* 
 Under this condition of things, Col. Wilkinson made 
 an arrangement with the Spanish authorities, by which he 
 secured permission for himself and a few others to trade 
 with the city of New-Orleans, and to introduce, free of du- 
 ties, many articles of western production. Some concession 
 was made in favour of western commerce, and a slight 
 relaxation of the rigour of the revenue laws followed. 
 
 During Col. Wilkinson’s stay at New-Orleans, he was 
 requested, by Governor Mero, to give his sentiments, freely, 
 in writing, upon the political interests of Spain and the 
 western people. This he did in a document of great length, 
 which the Governor considered to be of such importance 
 that it was transmitted to Madrid to be laid before the King 
 of Spain. In this document, as copied from Butler, he urges 
 “the natural right of the western people, to follow the cur- 
 rent of rivers flowing through their country, to the sea. He 
 states the extent of the country ; the richness of the soil — 
 abounding in and producing everything suited to foreign 
 markets, to which they have no means of conveyance, should 
 the Mississippi be shut against them. He sets forth, also, 
 the advantages which Spain might derive from allowing 
 them the free use of the river. He mentioned the rapid 
 increase of population in the West, and the eagerness with 
 which every individual looked forward to the navigation of 
 that river, and described the general abhorrence with which 
 the intelligence had been received, that Congress was about 
 to sacrifice their dearest interests, by ceding to Spain, 
 for twenty years, the navigation of the Mississippi ; and 
 
 *Monette. 
 
MR. JAY’S ADVICE TO CONGRESS. 
 
 529 
 
 represents it as a fact, that they were then on the point of 
 separating, on that account, from the Union. He addressed 
 himself to the fears of the Governor, by an ominous dis- 
 play of their strength ; and argues the impolicy of Spain in 
 being so blind to her own interest as to refuse them an ami- 
 cable participation in the navigation of the river, and there- 
 by forcing them into violent measures. He assures the 
 Spanish Governor that, in case of such an alternative, Great 
 Britain stands ready, with expanded arms, to receive them 
 and to assist their efforts to accomplish that object, and 
 quotes a conversation of a member of the British Parlia- 
 ment to that effect. He states the facility with which the 
 province of Louisiana might be invaded by the united forces 
 of the English and Americans — the former advancing from 
 Canada, by the way of the Illinois, and the latter from the 
 Ohio; and, also, the practicability of proceeding from Louisi- 
 ana to Mexico, in a march of twenty days, and that, in case 
 of such an invasion, Great Britain will aim at the possession 
 of Louisiana and New-Orleans, and leave the navigation of 
 the river free to the Americans ; and urged, forcibly, the 
 danger to the Spanish interests in North America, with Great 
 Britain in possession of the Mississippi, as she was already 
 in possession of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes.” 
 
 Mr. Jay, on being called upon by Congress, to communi- 
 cate his views on the subject, said that his own opinion of 
 the justice and importance of the claims advanced by the 
 United States, had undergone no change, but that, under 
 present circumstances, he thought it would be expedient to 
 conclude a treaty with Spain, limited to twenty or thirty 
 years, and for the Lfnited States to stipulate that during the 
 term of the treaty, they would forbear to navigate the Mis- 
 sissippi below their southern boundary. Sagacious as were, 
 generally, the views of Mr. Jay, they have been outstripped, 
 in this instance, by the growth of the Western country, 
 beyond the anticipation of our wisest statesmen. Our pro- 
 gress has been a race scarcely checked by an accident on 
 the course.* Had the commercial limitation taken place 
 
 34 
 
 * Butler. 
 
530 
 
 RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS. 
 
 but for a few years, as then proposed by him, a flame would 
 have been kindled, that must have consumed the feeble ties 
 that bound the eastern to the western country. As it was, the 
 bare rumour of what had been proposed, and the exaggerated 
 statements of the contemplated surrender of a navigation of 
 such vital importance to the West, naturally aroused the 
 sensibilities of its citizens. Meetings were held at different 
 places. One of these represented “ a commercial treaty 
 with Spain to be cruel, oppressive and unjust.” “ The pro- 
 hibition of the navigation of the Mississippi, has astonished 
 the whole western country. To sell us, and to make us vas- 
 sals to the merciless Spaniards, is a grievance not to be 
 borne.” A copy of these, and of similar proceedings, was 
 laid before Congress, and in September of 1788, that body 
 contradicted the rumour, and resolved : “ That the free 
 navigation of the Mississippi, is a clear and an essential 
 right of the United States, and that the same ought to be 
 considered and supported as such.” 
 
 To quiet the apprehensions of her western inhabitants, now 
 upon the point of carrying into effect the dismemberment of 
 the parent state, and the formation of the State of Franklin, 
 the delegates from North-Carolina, in September of 1788, 
 submitted to Congress a resolution, declaring that, 
 
 “ Whereas, many citizens of the United States, who possess lands 
 on the western waters, have expressed much uneasiness from a report 
 that Congress are disposed to treat with Spain for the surrender of their 
 claim to the navigation of the Mississippi River: In order, therefore, to 
 quiet the minds of our fellow-citizens, by removing such ill-founded ap- 
 prehensions, 
 
 “ Resolved, That the United States have a clear, absolute and unalien- 
 able claim to the free navigation of the Mississippi ; which claim is not 
 only supported by the express stipulations of treaties, but by the great 
 law of nature.” 
 
 Virginia, too, had adopted similar resolutions. These de- 
 cided measures tranquillized, for a time, the growing discon- 
 tents of the western settlements, and prevented that aliena- 
 tion of feeling which, at one time, led them to repudiate their 
 dependence upon their Atlantic countrymen, and to look for- 
 ward to a connexion of some kind with their Spanish neigh- 
 bours. 
 
MERO’S POLICY PARTLY SUCCESSFUL. 
 
 531 
 
 Colonel Wilkinson, in his statement to the Spanish Go- 
 vernor, had artfully interwoven appeals, both to the interests 
 and the fears of Spain. His diplomacy and address had 
 succeeded in convincing Governor Mero of the policy of con- 
 ciliating the western people, and of attaching them to the 
 Spanish Government. For this purpose, he invited, by libe- 
 ral grants of land, the citizens of Kentucky and Cumberland 
 to emigrate to West Florida. To such as did not wish to emi- 
 grate, he relaxed the exactions required by the revenue laws. 
 While these conciliatory measures were exerting a salutary 
 influence, he adopted others, intended to promote a polit- 
 ical union between the western people and Upper Lou- 
 isiana. A large American settlement was projected, west of 
 the Mississippi, and between the mouth of the Ohio and the 
 St. Francis River. To General Morgan, who was to settle 
 this colony, a large grant of land was made. Here, soon 
 after his arrival, was laid off the plan of a. magnificent city, 
 which, in honour of the Spanish capital, was called New- 
 Madrid. This policy of gaining over the western people to 
 an adherence to the Spanish interests, was not wholly unsuc- 
 cessful. Many of them had been highly dissatisfied with the 
 Federal Government, which had failed to secure them their 
 right of free navigation ; and some were even favourably 
 impressed with a future union with Louisiana. Butthisfeel- 
 ing was of short duration. The repeated infractions of his 
 revenue laws, were followed by an order from Governor 
 Mero to the Intendant, for a more rigorous enforcement of 
 them. Seizures, confiscations, delays and imprisonments, be- 
 came frequent and embarrassing to the traders upon the river, 
 and Louisiana was again threatened with invasion from the 
 Ohio. Hundreds of fiery spirits, in Kentucky and on the 
 Cumberland, were anxious to embark in the enterprise.* 
 The western people had long known, that notwithstanding 
 her alliance with the United States in the war against Great 
 Britain, Spain desired to weaken that Power by separating 
 her American Colonies from her, more than to assist the 
 new states in their struggle for independence. So soon as 
 
 *Monette. 
 
532 
 
 DIPLOMACY AND INTRIGUE OF SPAIN 
 
 that object had been obtained, the Spanish Government, 
 alarmed at the approach of the western settlements, and the 
 consequent dissemination of republican principles among the 
 colonists upon their border, adopted measures to restrain 
 their expansion, and counteract their growth and influence ; 
 to check their commerce, to prevent the nearer approach of 
 a population that had already manifested, both a martial 
 spirit, and a capacity to govern themselves. 
 
 In the meantime, the Anglo-American settlements had ex- 
 tended far within the line claimed by Spain ; the emigrants 
 on Holston, Cumberland and Kentucky, were already form- 
 ing themselves into organized communities, and the jurisdic- 
 tion of the United States was, by the ordinance of 1787, ex- 
 tended over the North-western Territory. It was clearly seen 
 that as Spain had not hitherto been able to prevent the occu- 
 pancy of the extensive possessions she claimed in the West, 
 so no means within her control, could secure the monopoly 
 of navigating the Mississippi River. What could not be 
 done by legitimate means, was hereafter to be effected by 
 intrigue. “From the year 1788, we may date the settled 
 policy of Spain, through her diplomatic and colonial author- 
 ities, to endeavour, by diplomacy and intrigue, to acquire the 
 western portion of the United States. The King approved 
 the judicious policy of Governor Mero, relative to the indul- 
 gences extended to the western people. The Court of 
 Madrid was warned of the danger to be apprehended from 
 the increasing power of the United States. Navarro por- 
 trayed, in strong colours, the ambition of the Federal Go- 
 vernment on the subject of western territory, and the thirst 
 for conquest, which, he asserted, would be gratified only by 
 the extension of their dominion to the Pacific Ocean. And 
 as the only true policy for Spain to pursue, he recommended 
 the necessity of dismembering the Federal Union, by pro- 
 curing the separation of the western country from the At- 
 lantic States. This accomplished, the danger to the Spanish 
 provinces, from the encroachments of the Federal power, 
 would immediately cease, and Spain would be at liberty to 
 enter into negotiations, mutually advantageous to Louisiana 
 and the western people, who were already impatient of the 
 
AND HER COLONIAL AUTHORITIES. 
 
 533 
 
 failures and delays of the Federal Government, to promote 
 their interests. 
 
 These suggestions of Navarro were well received at Court, 
 and formed the basis of the subsequent policy of Spain and 
 Louisiana towards the Federal Government and the western 
 people respectively, and were the commencement of that 
 series of intrigues and vexatious court delays, which after- 
 wards characterized the political relations of that Power 
 towards the United States.* 
 
 The policy of Spain invited emigrants into her provinces, 
 1790 $ and restored an amicable and mutually advantageous 
 l trade between New-Orleans and the western settle- 
 ments. Still, jealous}- of the Federal Power was not allayed, 
 and, indeed, it was much increased, by other occurrences 
 which, about this time, took place, and greatly disquieted the 
 Spanish authorities. The difficulties between North-Caro- 
 lina and the State of Franklin had been adjusted, the parent 
 state had ceded her western lands to Congress, and after her 
 relinquishment of sovereignty over them, the extension of 
 Federal jurisdiction over the “South-western Territory” took 
 place. In further support of the claim to the boundaries 
 stipulated for in the treaty of 1783, Commissioners on the 
 part of the United States, had concluded a treaty of peace 
 and limits with the chiefs of the Creek nation, which had 
 been fully ratified by them in New-York. With the view of 
 counteracting the effects of this treaty, especially as to boun- 
 daries stipulated in it, another negotiation was made between 
 the same nation and the Spanish authorities, prohibiting the 
 opening of the boundary as agreed upon and ratified in 
 New-York. For more than a year, the Creeks refused to 
 run the line, and under the influence of Spanish emissaries, 
 many of them were induced to assume a hostile attitude to 
 the southern and south-western settlements. 
 
 Another intrigue to increase the disaffection of the west- 
 ern people, and alienate them from the Atlantic portion of 
 the Union, manifested itself in this year. The inexecution 
 by England, of the treaty of 1783, left in the possession of 
 
 * Monette. 
 
534 
 
 BARON DB CARONDELET SUCCEEDS MERO. 
 
 that Power the posts of Detroit, Maumee and other points 
 south of the lakes, and thus gave to her the. virtual control 
 of the North-western Territory. These forts had not been 
 given up, according to the stipulations of the treaty, and 
 were still held, probably with the vain hope of availing 
 herself of a future contingency, to inflict some serious injury 
 upon her late enemy, the United States. Engaged at this 
 time in a war with Spain, England contemplated an invasion 
 of Louisiana, through the Ohio River. Doctor Conolly, an 
 emissary of the Earl of Dorchester, was despatched to the 
 West, to sound the leading men of the country, and was au- 
 thorized to give assurances of aid from Canada, in case of 
 an invasion of the Spanish possessions by the Western 
 people. A rumor was carefully circulated, “ that four thou- 
 sand British troops were in readiness to march from Ca- 
 nada at a moment’s warning.” These disclosures awakened 
 suspicion that Conolly was a British spy, and he was con- 
 veyed, with the utmost secrecy, out of the country. This 
 treasonable conspiracy had a few advocatesin the West, but 
 with the people generally it found no favour. 
 
 Baron de Carondelet, who succeeded Mero, this year, 
 1 f 792 ( as Governor and Intendant of Louisiana, continued 
 ( the commercial privileges extended by his predeces- 
 sor to the western people. New-Orleans, and indeed the 
 whole Province, derived such advantage from this policy, 
 that a partial infraction of the revenue laws was not only 
 tolerated by the Minister of Finance, but was even justified 
 by the King. To this propitiatory course, Spain was in- 
 duced, not less by the suggestions of an enlarged and pro- 
 found diplomatic policy, than the considerations of pecuniary 
 ■^gg ( and local interest. “France and Spain were now 
 ( at war ; and French emissaries sought, through the 
 prejudice that had been roused against the Spaniards rela- 
 tive to the navigation of the Mississippi, to instigate an in- 
 vasion of Louisiana and Florida by the people of the United 
 States, and if practicable, even a separation of the Western 
 States, and an alliance with Louisiana under the dominion 
 and protection of France.”* To carry into effect these pur* 
 
 * Monette. 
 
M. GENET ISSUES COMMISSIONS. 
 
 535 
 
 poses, M. Genet, the Minister of Republican France to the 
 United States, issued commissions to several individuals, as 
 officers in the French armies, with authority to raise troops 
 in the western country, for the contemplated invasion and 
 revolution of Lousiana. The settlements upon the Cumber- 
 land and Ohio, were the theatre of their principal operations. 
 Here, it cannot be concealed, existed elements favourable 
 to the machinations of the indiscreet and impulsive Minis- 
 ter. Apart from the occlusion of the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi, and the restrictions imposed upon their commerce by 
 the policy of Spain, there was a spirit of undisguised dissatis- 
 faction with the delay and failure of the Federal Govern- 
 ment to secure, by negotiation, those rights, which now the 
 West was able to extort by force. Besides — a fraternal sym- 
 pathy united them to the people of France, and the recol- 
 lection of the past, enlisted their co-operation with the French 
 Republic. It is known that many of the best patriots on the 
 frontier, contiguous to the possessions claimed by Spain, 
 yielded for a time to the seductive influence of these feelings 
 and prejudices, and it required all the vigilance and decision 
 of Washington to arrest the expedition, and restrain the 
 impulsive western soldiery from an invasion of Louisiana, an 
 alliance with France and a possible separation from and dis- 
 memberment of the Union. 
 
 Apprehensive of the success of Genet and his emissaries 
 upon the Cumberland and Ohio, the Baron de Carondelet 
 adopted every measure to defend his province from the 
 threatened danger. His forts, as high up the river as New- 
 Madrid, were reinforced. As another method of precau- 
 ^ | tion, a treaty was concluded with the Chickasaws, 
 
 l securing the alliance of that nation, and permission 
 for the establishment of a military post within the present 
 boundaries of Tennessee, near the mouth of Margot (Wolf) 
 River. For this purpose, the Chickasaws ceded the fourth 
 Bluff, with the view of erecting thereon a fort, which was to 
 be kept in good repair, for the purpose of protecting Louisi- 
 ana from any invasion from the United States. The fort 
 was called “Fort San Ferdinando de Barancas,” and stood 
 
53G 
 
 CARONDELET RENEWS THE INTRIGUE 
 
 upon the peninsula formed by the junction of the Margot 
 and the Mississippi.* 
 
 So successful had been the intrigue of M. Genet, in pro- 
 ^ ( ducing — rather in unveiling — a spirit of serious dis- 
 
 I affection on the part of the people of the West with 
 the Federal Administration, that Governor Carondelet took 
 measures to secure the favour of the Western people to an 
 alliance with Louisiana under the Spanish monarchy. He 
 went so far as to authorize his emissary, Power, to promise 
 every thing desired by the people, and to give them assurances 
 of the readiness of the colonial government to furnish arms, 
 ammunition and money, to sustain them in the attempt to throw 
 off the authority of the Federal Government. 
 
 At a period somewhat later, promise was made of grants 
 of land, to such as would submit to the Spanish dominion ; 
 while intimations were secretly disseminated among the un- 
 suspecting people, that Spain would extend to them, as a 
 community, every commercial advantage and privilege which 
 could be desired, provided they were disconnected from the 
 Federal Government. The Spanish Minister, resident in the 
 United States, had declared unequivocally to his confidential 
 correspondents, that unless the Western people would declare 
 themselves independent of the Federal Power, and establish 
 for themselves an independent form of government, Spain 
 never would allow them the free navigation of the Missis- 
 sippi ; “ but upon these terms, he was authorized and would 
 engage to open the navigation of the river , ” c|-c. j 
 
 The first settlers of Tennessee and Kentucky received, 
 through the courtesy of the Spanish authorities, many com- 
 mercial privileges, but they were unwilling to submit to the 
 species of vassalage, implied by the manner in which the 
 river commerce was enjoyed. They could not receive as 
 special favours, what they claimed as common and indefeasi- 
 ble rights. 
 
 At length, Spain, embarrassed in European wars, and still 
 
 * Monette. This fort was also called Echore Margot, and was defended by 
 eight pieces of eight pounder cannon, 
 f Butler, as quoted by Monette. 
 
TO SEPARATE THE WEST FROM THE ATLANTIC. 
 
 537 
 
 apprehensive of invasion of her American possessions by 
 the pioneers of the West — whom all her intrigues had been 
 unable to seduce from their allegiance to the Union — inti- 
 mated her willingness to negotiate on the points in contro- 
 versy. Mr. Pinckney was appointed as Minister Plenipo- 
 tentiary to the Court of Madrid, and a treaty was con- 
 cluded and signed, on the 20th of October, 1705, covering 
 the whole ground of controversy which, for more than ten 
 years, had engaged the attention of both countries. 
 
 In accordance with the provisions of that treaty, Mr. Elli- 
 1>7 97 \ cott, the United States Commissioner, was in this year 
 ( on the Mississippi, in order to run the boundary line 
 and to receive the posts east of it. Here, most unex- 
 pectedly, the territorial authorities of Spain interposed ob- 
 jections. During the delay consequent upon these, another, 
 and the last Spanish intrigue, was detected, the object of 
 which was to continue, to Spain, the possession of the verj r 
 territories she had bound herself to relinquish to the United 
 States. A former emissary, Mr. Power, was despatched b} r 
 the Baron de Carondelet, with proposals to the people of 
 Kentucky and the inhabitants of the Western country gene- 
 rally, to withdraw and separate themselves from the Fede- 
 ral Union, and to form an independent government, wholly 
 unconnected with the Atlantic States. The danger of per- 
 mitting the Federal troops to take possession of the posts on 
 the Mississippi River, was pointed out, and an offer of pecu- 
 niary assistance, from the royal treasury at New-Orleans, to 
 the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, was made by 
 the Baron, for the purpose of organizing the new govern- 
 ment ; and the same amount was to be furnished by his 
 Catholic Majesty, for the purpose of raising and maintaining 
 the troops which, immediately after the declaration of inde- 
 pendence, were to take possession of Fort Massac. Twenty 
 field pieces, ammunition and small arms, and every neces- 
 sary appendage to an efficient army, were also to be placed 
 within the fort. His Catholic Majesty engaged, also, to 
 assist the new government in subduing the Indian nations 
 south of the Ohio, and agreed to be bound, by future treaty, 
 to defend and support it, in preserving its independence, and 
 
538 
 
 TREATY MADE AND BOUNDARY RUN. 
 
 to grant them a decided preference, on commercial subjects, 
 over his Atlantic connexions.* 
 
 Some individuals on Cumberland and in Kentucky, had con- 
 nived at the expedition, as proposed by Genet, against Lou- 
 isiana, but the Western people, having now obtained the 
 navigation of the Mississippi River, all their wishes were 
 gratified, and Mr. Power received from them little encour- 
 agement, and no promise of co-operation. 
 
 The boundary was soon after run, and the posts surren- 
 dered, as provided for in the treaty, and the angry contro- 
 versy which had, for ten years, convulsed the Western 
 country, was at an end. 
 
 During that whole period of political excitement, it is 
 worthy of remark, and highly creditable to the good sense 
 and patriotism of the people of Tennessee, that they were, 
 in no case, seduced into an abandonment of their rights and 
 duty, nor of allegiance to their own country, and fidelity to 
 their republican principles. The masses of them remained 
 true and incorruptible. Isolated instances of individual de- 
 fection, did occur. Prominent and ambitious men were found 
 in different sections, sustained it may be, by here and there 
 a partizan, not unwilling to elevate themselves at the immi- 
 nent hazard of the welfare and permanent interest of the 
 country. Among these there was little unanimity, and no 
 well-digested concert of action. They gave rise, however, 
 for the time being, to the following parties, as enumerated 
 by Monette : 
 
 I. In favour of forming a separate and independent re- 
 public, under no special obligation of union, except as might 
 be most advantageous. 
 
 II. In favour of entering into commercial arrangements 
 with Spain, and of annexing themselves to Louisiana, with 
 all the advantages offered. 
 
 III. Opposed to any Spanish connexion, and in favour of 
 forcing the free navigation of the Mississippi by the arms of 
 the United States, with the invasion of Louisiana and West 
 Florida. 
 
 IY. In favour of soliciting Republican France to claim a 
 
 * Marshall. 
 
INTEGRITY OF WESTERN SETTLERS. 
 
 539 
 
 retrocession, or make a reconquest of Louisiana, and to ex- 
 tend her protection to the western settlements. 
 
 Y. The strongest party, however, was in favour of new 
 independent state organizations in the West, leaving it with 
 the Federal Government to regulate the Mississippi and 
 boundary questions with Spain. 
 
 To estimate properly the virtue, the patriotism, the loyalty 
 and the republicanism of the western people, when, with a 
 noble disinterestedness and self-sacrificing devotion to the 
 Union, they resisted these artful and powerful appeals to 
 their sectional and local interests, let it be remembered, that 
 the several communities to whom these appeals were made, 
 had penetrated through a vast wilderness of desert and 
 mountain — that their own courage had expelled a savage 
 enemy — their own rifles had achieved their conquest — their 
 own enterprise had planted and defended their settlements — 
 their own efforts had made their fortunes, provided them 
 a home, and the benefit of a simple, but stable government — 
 that with little assistance from the old states, almost none 
 from the General Government, the wilderness, under their 
 own industry and culture, “ blossomed as the rose and that 
 the fertile banks of the navigable streams in the distant 
 vallies, in whose bosoms they dwelt, were rewarding with a 
 luxuriant harvest of rich fruits, their own labour, upon their 
 own fields ; that the intervention of hundreds of miles and 
 great mountain ranges, insulated them from the commerce 
 of their Atlantic countrymen, and that for the products of 
 the whole West, there was but one great outlet to the ocean 
 and to the markets of the world — the Mississippi River ; and 
 that the right of freely navigating that stream, though gua- 
 ranteed to them as a result of that Revolution which they 
 had assisted to effect, and of those victories achieved in part 
 by their valour, was still withheld from them, under the 
 vexatious delay of Federal negotiation. Under such cir- 
 cumstances of admitted neglect, disappointed expectation, 
 deferred hope and accumulated wrong, to remain constant, 
 and faithful, and loyal to the Union, is alike a rare instance, 
 and evidence, of all that is heroic in forbearance, lofty in 
 patriotism, and majestic in national virtue. Western purity 
 
540 
 
 THE WEST REMAINED UNSEDUCED. 
 
 remained unseduced by the coquetry of monarchical intrigue, 
 and the stern virtue and primitive integrity of the simple- 
 hearted pioneer and hunter, resisted the art and baffled the 
 designs of the diplomatist and the emissary. 
 
 The negotiation on the subject of boundaries, and of the 
 right of navigating the Mississippi, extending, as it did, 
 through ten years, has been thus presented in one general 
 view. It will serve to explain and illustrate some smaller 
 incidents, detailed on other pages, as they took place, con- 
 nected with the early settlements of Tennessee. 
 
TERRITORY OF UNITED STATES SOUTH OF OHIO RIVER. 541 
 
 CHAPTER YII 
 
 TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES SOUTH OF OHIO RIVER. 
 
 Having accepted the deed of cession from North-Carolina,. 
 1190 I Congress soon after passed a law for the government 
 l ol the “ territory south-west of the River Ohio.” The 
 ordinance itself, and the act of Congress amendatory of it, 
 passed August 7, 1789. 
 
 Provision being thus made for the government of the ter- 
 ritory, it remained for the President to nominate suitable 
 officers to carry the Territorial Government into operation. 
 Several gentlemen, of acknowledged capacity and worth, 
 were presented to President Washington, for the appoint- 
 ment of Governor. Patrick Henry recommended to him Mr. 
 Mason of Virginia. But there was an obvious. propriety in 
 selecting, for this station, a citizen of the state which had 
 ceded the territory, and who was presumed, on that account, 
 to be familiar with the circumstances and interests con- 
 nected with and involved in the cession. William Blount, 
 of North-Carolina, received the appointment of Governor. 
 He has been heretofore mentioned in these pages, as the 
 vigilant agent of his state, and the faithful guardian of the 
 interests of North-Carolina, at the treaty of Hopewell. He 
 was of an ancient English family, of wealth and rank, 
 which, at an early day, emigrated to Carolina. The name 
 is often mentioned in the annals of that state during the 
 Revolution. Charles, James and Benjamin Blount, were all 
 civil or military officers during that period. William Blount 
 was one of the deputies from North-Carolina to the Conven- 
 tion which formed the Constitution of the United States. It 
 was on this occasion, probably, that General Washington, 
 the President of the Convention, first became acquainted 
 with him, and, appreciating his qualifications for the public 
 service, his discernment selected him for the important posi- 
 tion of Governor of the new Territory. He was remarkable 
 
542 
 
 GOVERNOR BLOUNT ARRIVES IN THE TERRITORY, 
 
 for great address, courtly manners, benignant feelings, and a 
 most commanding presence. His urbanity — his personal in- 
 fluence over men of all conditions and ages — his hospitality, 
 unostentatiously, but yet elegantly and gracefully extended 
 to all, won upon the affections and regard of the populace, 
 and made him a universal favourite. He was at once the 
 social companion, the well-bred gentleman and the capable 
 officer. He received his commission as Governor of the 
 Territory, August 7, 1790. On the 10th of October, he 
 reached the theatre of his new and important public duty on j 
 the frontier, amidst a people unacquainted as yet with the 
 forms and usages of old and refined society, but unsurpassed 
 any where in all the strong traits of character which form 
 the man, the patriot and the citizen. At first, he made his 
 residence at the house of William Cobb, in the fork of Hol- 
 ston and Watauga Rivers, not far from the Watauga Old 
 Fields, where was planted, twenty years before, the germ of 
 the future Tennessee.* Mr. Cobb was a wealthy farmer, an 
 emigrant from North-Carolina, no stranger to comfort and 
 taste, nor unaccustomed to what, in that day, was called 
 style. Like the old Carolina and Virginia gentlemen, he 
 entertained elegantly, with profusion rather than with plenty, 
 without ceremony and without grudging. Like theirs, his 
 house was plain, convenient, without pretension or show. 
 
 His equipage was simple and unpretending. He kept his 
 horses, his dogs, his rifles, even his traps, for the use, comfort 
 and entertainment of his guests. His servants, his rooms, 
 his grounds, were all at their bidding. They felt themselves 
 at home, and never said adieu to him or his family, without 
 the parting regret and the tenderness of an old friendship. 
 
 It was here, and under such circumstances, that Governor 
 Blount opened and held his court in the ancient woods of 
 old Sullivan. The President had associated with him, in the 
 administration of the Territorial Government, as Judges, 
 David Campbell and Joseph Anderson. The former had 
 held a like position under the State of Franklin, and subse- 
 quently, under the authority of North-Carolina. The latter 
 
 Mss. famished by General Deery, then of Blountsville. 
 
AND ASSUMES ITS GOVERNMENT. 
 
 54S 
 
 had been an officer in the Continental service during the 
 war of the Revolution. 
 
 Governor Blount proceeded to appoint and commission the 
 officers, civil and military, for the counties forming the 
 District of Washington. Those holding office under North- 
 Carolina, generally continued to serve in the same capacity 
 under the Territorial Government ; a new commission and 
 a new oath of office were required. The oath was admin- 
 istered by Judge Campbell, in the presence of the Governor. 
 The names of some of those commissioned by him are here, 
 given. 
 
 Washington County, Nov. Term, 1790. — Charles Robertson, John 
 Campbell, Edmond Williams, John Chisholm, Magistrates. James 
 Sevier, was appointed Clerk — a position he occupied under the 
 Franklin organization, under the authority of North-Carolina, during 
 the Territorial Government, and under the State of Tennessee up to the 
 time of his death in 1842. 
 
 Sullivan County. — The first Court was held December, 1790, when 
 the magistrates commissioned by the Governor were sworn into office by 
 Judge Campbell. 
 
 Greene County, February Session, 1791. — Present, Joseph Har- 
 din, John Newman, William Wilson, John McNabb and David Ran- 
 kin. Daniel Kennedy was appointed Clerk — an office he had also held 
 under each of the preceding governments, and which he retained many 
 years afterwards. At this session, David Allison and Wm. Cocke were 
 admitted Attorneys. 
 
 Hawkins County, Dec. Term, 1790. — Richard Mitchell received the 
 appointment of Clerk from Governor Blount. 
 
 The same gentleman also became, for a time, the Private 
 Secretary of the Governor. He yet (1852) survives, in a 
 green old age, an intelligent chronicle of past events. To 
 him is this writer indebted for’some of the incidents detailed 
 in these pages. 
 
 Having commissioned the necessary officers in Washing- 
 ton District, Governor Blount, on the 27th of November, set 
 out for the District of Mero, then composed of Davidson, 
 Sumner and Tennessee counties, to make similar appoint- 
 ments there. 
 
 The Governor had, in all the counties, appointed military 
 officers below the grade of brigadier-generals. These he 
 could not appoint, but recommended to the President, Col. 
 John Sevier, as the brigadier for Washington, and Col. 
 
544 
 
 MAJOR KING VISITS CHEROKEES. 
 
 James Robertson, for Mero District. These appointments 
 were afterwards confirmed accordingly. 
 
 In his tour, passing through the Territory from one extreme 
 settlement to the other, Governor Blount endeavoured to 
 make himself familiar with its condition and wants, so as to 
 enable him the better to discharge his official duties, to the 
 satisfaction of the Government, and with benefit to the people 
 His instructions from the Executive, were to restore and 
 maintain peaceful relations with the Indians. To effect this, 
 he had sent Major King to the Cherokee nation, with an in- 
 vitation to meet and hold a treaty with the whites the suc- 
 ceeding May. This proposition was now more likely to be 
 accepted, as the Creeks had entered into terms o! peace in 
 August of the last year, at New- York. Major King found 
 the Cherokees divided into two parties, of which Hanging 
 Maw was the leader of the northern, as the Little Turkey 
 was of the southern party. At the time of his mission, Ma- 
 jor King found each of them disposed to negotiate. 
 
 The settlements formed in the Territory, at the time Go- 
 vernor Blount assumed the government of it, extended from 
 the Virginia line on the east, in a peninsular shape, southwest 
 to the waters of Little Tennessee, a distance of about one 
 hundred and fifty miles in length, by a width no where 
 more than fifty, and in some places less than twenty-five 
 miles. This narrow strip of inhabited country, was bounded 
 on the south by a constant succession of mountains, claimed, 
 if not occupied, by the Indians. On the west, by the Indian 
 territory then in their occupancy : and on the north and 
 northwest, by the Clinch and Cumberland Mountains. In- 
 deed, the settled country was confined to the valleys of the 
 Holston, the Nollichucky, and the French Broad and Little 
 Rivers below the mountains. All the rest of what is now 
 East Tennessee, was either covered over with Cherokee 
 villages, or frequented by the Indians in their hunting and 
 predatory excursions. The white population thus insulated, 
 was quite small. It was estimated that Washington District 
 contained less than thirty thousand inhabitants. Besides 
 these, there were, along the Cumberland Valley and its 
 lower tributaries, settlements still more feeble and more ex- 
 
blount’s familiarity with Indian affairs. 
 
 545 
 
 posed to Indian assault and aggression — entirely insulated by 
 desert wilds, and dissociated from all contact with civil- 
 ized neighbours. Mero District contained about seven 
 thousand inhabitants ; while the four southern Indian tribes 
 numbered above twenty thousand warriors alone. 
 
 Between those two remote sections of the Territory, there 
 i^ 9 0 y was no direct communication, either by land or water. 
 
 ( The rapids and shoals in the Tennessee, and the 
 ascent of the Ohio and Cumberland, was an obstacle to the 
 latter ; and the intervention of a wilderness|and a mountain 
 made the other difficult, if not impracticable, to any but In- 
 dian marches. 
 
 At the commencement of Governor Blount’s administra- 
 tion, the Cherokees resided upon, and many of them within, 
 the boundaries of the Territory, upon lands which they 
 claimed, but much of which had been granted by North-Ca- 
 rolina to her citizens, and a whole section of which had been 
 occupied and settled under the laws and treaties of Franklin. 
 The Chickasaws claimed also, but did not reside upon, the 
 country between the Tennessee and Mississippi. Much of 
 their claim was covered by grants from North-Carolina, but 
 none of it was settled. It furnished a hidden retreat, and a 
 thoroughfare, inaccessible to the whites, through which con- 
 stant intercommunication was had, between the southern and 
 northern tribes, and foreign emissaries, who sought to incite 
 them against the intervening American settlements. The 
 Choctaws and Creeks had no valid claim to any part of the 
 Territory, but each of them had settled, and permitted Span- 
 iards to reside in, their towns, near the Great Bend of Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 With the local condition of these tribes, Governor Blount 
 had been long familiar, as well as with all the circumstances 
 by which they were surrounded, and would continue to be 
 affected. He had been often a member of the Legislature of 
 his native state, North-Carolina, and was well acquainted 
 with the exposed condition of the West, and had been active, 
 as a member, in meliorating that condition. Having been a 
 member of the old Congress, of the Convention that formed 
 the Constitution of the United States, and likewise of the 
 35 
 
546 
 
 BLOUNT APPOINTED SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 State Convention that ratified and adopted it, on the part of 
 North-Carolina, and also a member of its legislature in 1789, 
 when the Cession was made, and of which he was a zealous 
 advocate, his appointment gave general satisfaction. 
 
 Mr. Blount also received the appointment of Superinten- 
 dent of Indian Affairs. To his selection for the joint duties 
 thus assigned him, President Washington was led by the ur- 
 gent solicitation, and at the unanimous recommendation of 
 the members of the legislature of 1789, who were present as 
 representatives from the western counties. It is believed 
 that no one was better qualified than he, to reconcile the con- 
 flicting elements that had estranged, to some extent, the 
 western citizens, after the dissolution of the Franklin Go- 
 vernment ; none, with more ability and fidelity, to regulate 
 Indian affairs between the Government of the United States, 
 the people of the Territory, the Indian tribes, and the frontier 
 population generally. 
 
 The superintendency of Indian affairs embraced the four 
 southern tribes — the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws and Chick- 
 asaws. Some judgment may be formed of the difficult, re- 
 sponsible and delicate duties these two offices devolved on 
 the Governor, by a brief reference to the posture of affairs 
 when he received his appointments. The Territory over 
 which Governor Blount was called to preside, bordered upon 
 the frontiers of Virginia, North and South-Carolina, Georgia 
 and Kentucky, within the boundaries of which, as well as 
 his own Territory, all the southern tribes either resided or 
 claimed hunting grounds. The interests and pursuits of this 
 entire frontier, constantly produced collision, if not hostility, 
 between the whites and the several Indian tribes. All com- 
 plaints on whatsoever subject, between these parties, were 
 cognizable by, and made to Mr. Blount, for redress or palli- 
 ation. This duty was arduous in the extreme, and delicate. 
 There were in all of the tribes, several distinct parties, 
 swayed by opposite influences, some adhering to the United 
 States, some to the Spanish authorities south and west of 
 them, who held a number of trading and military posts, not 
 only in Florida, but within the limits of the United States, 
 east of the Mississippi. The British still held possession of 
 
OF SOUTHERN INDIAN AFFAIRS. 
 
 547 
 
 a number of posts of like character on the lakes, and in the 
 northwest, within the boundaries of the treaty of 1783, and 
 from these emanated counsel? unfriendly to the peace and 
 extension of the territorial settlements. On account of ex- 
 isting foreign negotiation, Governor Blount was restricted by 
 his instructions from the Federal Government, to defensive 
 measures only ; offensive measures against the southern tribes , 
 being forbidden by the delicate and unsettled posture of af- 
 fairs between the United States and England, and the 
 United States and Spain. Foreign intrigue had been suc- 
 cessful in fomenting quarrels in portions of each tribe, and 
 in stimulating invasions and strifes between some of the seve- 
 ral Indian nations within the superintendency. To reconcile 
 all these animosities between savages, and to protect his Ter- 
 ritory from their injurious effects, required frequent confer- 
 ences and correspondence, imposing a Herculean labour upon 
 Mr. Blount. His correspondence with the Governors of ad- 
 joining States, with the Secretary of War, and with the au- 
 thorities of Spain, is extensive and minute. Being well pre- 
 served in the printed archives of state, at Washington, but 
 a small portion of them need be transferred to these pages. 
 To keep the Indian tribes quiet — to conciliate their friend- 
 ship to the United States — to save the Territory from inva- 
 sion, and to neutralize and prevent foreign influence, and, at 
 the same time, not to jeopardize negotiations then pending^ 
 required a high degree of administrative capacity and diplo- 
 matic talent. In the discharge of these arduous duties, Go- 
 vernor Blount was aided by his two private secretaries, his 
 brother, the late Governor Willie Blount, and the late Hon. 
 Hugh Lawson White, whose lives, as will be hereafter seen 
 in the prosecution of these Annals, were spent in the service, 
 and identified with the interest, and character, and honour of 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Along the frontiers of the four eastern counties, were seve- 
 ral forts and stations, rudely constructed by the inhabitants 
 in times of imminent danger, but furnishing no adequate pro- 
 tection. These were manned, generally, by the militia of 
 the neighbourhood, under no permanent organization. 
 
 About one thousand men, capable of bearing arms, resi- 
 
548 
 
 DUTIES OF GOVERNOR BLOUNT 
 
 dec! west of the Cumberland Mountains — confined, princi- 
 pally, to a circle embraced by a radius of less than forty 
 miles, of which Nashville was the centre. Beyond that 
 circle was an unsettled wilderness of almost indefinite ex- 
 tent, used only as Indian hunting grounds. Whilst, on the 
 other hand, the Indian population of the tribes surrounding, 
 furnished not less than from thirty to fifty thousand* fight- 
 ing men, in alliance with more distant tribes in the north- 
 west, and in friendly intercourse with military posts occupied 
 by British and Spanish garrisons, the commanders of which 
 were in the habit of issuing trading licenses, alike to native 
 and foreign companies, who resided among the Indians. 
 Such were the posts of Mobile, Pensacola, St. Marks, St. 
 Augustine, Baton Rouge, New-Madrid, Cape Gerardeau, St. 
 Genevie and St. Louis, where supplies were kept, and am- 
 munition and arms furnished, to the Indians, to excite them 
 to commit murder and depredation upon the citizens of the 
 Territory, then, except on its eastern extremity, an exposed 
 and defenceless frontier — extending, with the meanders of 
 the several treaty lines, nearly a thousand miles. A border, 
 thus extensive and thus exposed, invited attack. Several 
 invasions, as will be hereafter more specially detailed, were 
 carried on by the Indians, in large bodies, not only against 
 the border settlements, but extending to the interior and 
 better settled neighbourhoods. Instructed, as he was, to 
 refrain from offensive war, and to act purely on the defen- 
 sive, Governor Blount was, of course, often and severely 
 censured, for affording so inefficient protection to the people of 
 the Territory. The aggressions upon them were frequent, nu- 
 merous, and of several years continuance. They gave rise to 
 many complaints, not only by his own people, but by those of 
 other states contiguous to his superintendency. The people 
 complained that offensive measures were not vigorously adopt- 
 ed — the Indians, that they were adopted — and the Executive 
 and Congress of the United States, that the expenses of pro- 
 tecting the frontier were so great, and accumulated so 
 rapidly. These complaints the Governor bore with equa- 
 nimity. The people, at length, ascertaining that the fault 
 * Blount Papers. 
 
WERE LABORIOUS, DELICATE AND RESPONSIBLE. 
 
 549 
 
 was not with him, withheld their censures, and generally- 
 sustained his authority. 
 
 Some of the duties assigned to the Governor were com- 
 plex, delicate and difficult. Much of the land in Greene and 
 Hawkins counties, entered and held by the inhabitants, 
 according to the provisions of the laws of North-Carolina, 
 were south and west of the line described as the line of 
 allotment in the fourth Article of the Treaty of Hopewell. 
 Some settlers had crossed Clinch River in violation of the 
 same treaty ; and the entire population south of French 
 Broad and Holston, were upon lands reserved to the Chero- 
 kees, as hunting grounds, by the legislation of the mother 
 state, but yet relinquished by the Indians at the treaties held 
 under the authority of Franklin — an authority denied by 
 North-Carolina, and not recognized by the United States. 
 These were only a part of the embarrassments which Go- 
 vernor Blount had to encounter. The provisions of the 
 treaty of Hopewell, for the delivery of property stolen by 
 the Indians, during the Revolution, were not only disregarded 
 by them, but additional thefts were constantly practiced, 
 both by Cherokees and Creeks, upon the citizens of the Ter- 
 ritory. This disregard of treaty stipulations by one party, 
 led to a like disregard and violation of treaties by all. A 
 proclamation from the Federal Executive, warning intruders 
 upon Indian territory to withdraw within the treaty limits, 
 and others to observe and comply with treaty stipulations, 
 were issued, but, as the Indians broke the treaty, the whites 
 refused to perform its requirements on their part, and the 
 proclamation was disregarded. 
 
 Another serious difficulty presented itself. By an act of 
 the State of Georgia, disposing of certain vacant lands, 
 three million and a half acres of land, lying south of Ten- 
 nessee River, were conveyed to the Tennessee Company, con- 
 sisting of Zachariah Cox, Thomas Gilbert and John Strother, 
 Esquires, and their associates. The proprietors took mea- 
 sures, soon after, to effect a settlement of their purchase. 
 Zachariah Cox and Thomas Carr, as agents of the Company, 
 repaired to the Territory, and there, Sept. 2d, 1790, issued 
 
550 
 
 cox’s EXPEDITION DESCENDS 
 
 an advertisement that it would embark a large armed force 
 at the mouth of French Broad. The fleet was to start Jan. 
 10, 1791, carrying, in the boats, such emigrants as desired to 
 settle near the Muscle Shoals. A bounty of five hundred 
 acres was offered to each family, and half of that quantity 
 to each single man. A land office was opened for the dis- 
 position of these lands, which was to be kept at the conflu- 
 ence of Holston and French Broad till the company embarked, 
 and was then to be opened at the Great Bend. Undoubted 
 fee simple titles were promised to the adventurers. 
 
 Against this projected settlement, and two others, known 
 as the South-Carolina Yazoo Company, and the Virginia 
 Yazoo Company, the Secretary of War earnestly remonstra- 
 ted, and the President issued a proclamation, forbidding the 
 intended settlement, and declaring that those who made them 
 would be considered, to all intents and purposes, entirely 
 without the protection of the United States. 
 
 A copy of this proclamation the Governor communicated 
 to such agents and employees of the Company, as were 
 then in the Territory and preparing to embark on the pro- 
 jected expedition ; with the declaration, that if the expedition 
 should go forward to the Muscle Shoals, he would at once 
 acquaint the Indians of its movements, who should be at 
 liberty to act towards the Company as they might think right 
 without offence to the United States. 
 
 Not deterred by the Federal prohibitions, Col. Hubbardt, 
 ( Peter Bryant, and fifteen others, embarked at the 
 I mouth of Dumplin, and went with Zachariah Cox to 
 take possession of the Tennessee Grant, near the Muscle 
 Shoals. In a small boat and two canoes, and with so few 
 men, the enterprise was hazardous in the extreme. The 
 “ Narrows” were still in the occupancy of the same sa- 
 vage hordes, who, in 1788, had butchered and captured 
 Colonel Brown’s company. His sad fate was a warning, 
 which Hubbardt and his comrades could not disregard. They 
 proceeded with the utmost caution and circumspection. Be- 
 low the Suck, at the Indian Old Fields, a small party of In- 
 dians came out in their canoes and hailed them. The same 
 
THE RIVER TO MUSCLE SHOALS. 
 
 551 
 
 number of white men were sent out to meet them, advancing 
 firmly with their rifles in their hands, but with orders not to 
 fire till the last extremity. Their canoe floated down to- 
 wards the Indians, who observing their preparation for at- 
 tack, withdrew and disappeared. A little further down, 
 night overtook the voyagers, and when, from the dangers of 
 the navigation at night, it was proposed to steer to the shore, 
 they saw upon the bank a row of fires, extending along the 
 bottoms as far as they could see, and standing around them 
 armed Indian warriors. They silenced their oars by pouring 
 water upon the oar pins — spake not a word, but glided by 
 as silently as possible. The dogs barked from the bank. 
 The Indians rekindled their fires and appeared to listen. 
 The boat escaped. Several times next day the Indians tried, 
 by various artifices, to decoy them to land. On one occasion 
 three of them insisted, in English, to come and trade with 
 them. After they refused and had passed by, three hundred 
 warriors rose out of ambush. They were then beyond the 
 reach of their guns, and escaped. For three days and nights 
 they did not land, but doubled on their oars — beating to the 
 south side at night, and in the middle of the river through 
 the day. 
 
 Cox and his party built a block-house, and erected other 
 works of defence, on an island, at the Muscle Shoals. The 
 Glass, with about sixty Indians, appeared shortly afterwards, 
 and informed them, if they did not peaceably withdraw, he 
 would put them to death. After some further conference, 
 the works were abandoned. The Indians immediately re- 
 duced the works to ashes. 
 
 A bill of indictment was twice sent to the Grand Jury 
 against Cox and his associates, at the next term of the Su- 
 perior Court of Washington District, but the indictment was 
 not sustained as a true bill. 
 
 Another source of embarrassment to Governor Blount, was 
 the immature negotiation with Spain concerning bounda- 
 ries, the navigation of the Mississippi, and the treaties of 
 that Power with the Indians. The delicate posture of that 
 negotiation required caution and forbearance on the part of 
 the western people, and subjected the Government and its 
 
552 
 
 REPULSE AT HOUSTON’S STATION. 
 
 1790 
 
 agents, at that time, and for years after, to very serious com- 
 plaints, censure and opposition. 
 
 A fort, about ten miles from Maryville, had in it several 
 families, but only seven gunmen. It consisted of a 
 rudely constructed cabin, one story high, provided, 
 though, with the usual defences, port-holes, etc.§ A large 
 party of two or three hundred Indians approached it, with 
 the evident design to attack and destroy it. This they could 
 have undoubtedly effected with suitable resolution, but 
 were deterred by the method adopted for its defence. The 
 besieged, of whom James Houston, the narrator, was one, 
 reserved their fire till the assailants were near enough for 
 very decisive and certain aim. The discharge at that mo- 
 ment, of the seven rifles, was calculated to impress the enemy 
 with the belief that a more formidable force was lodged 
 within. The firing was repeated with great vigour. The 
 savages picked up their dead and wounded, and retired. The 
 fort did not lose a man. 
 
 Indian aggression had become so frequent and general, 
 on every part of the extensive frontiers of the United 
 States, that Congress passed an act for their defence, 
 authorizing the President to call mounted militia into the 
 field, and to increase the defences of the country by new le- 
 vies. These were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Washing- 
 ton, to be placed under the command of General St. Clair, to 
 be employed in an expedition meditated against the Indian 
 villages on the Miamis. A requisition for that purpose was 
 made upon the forces of the Territory. 
 
 The President required three hundred and thirty-two men 
 from the District of Washington, to be enrolled at the ear- 
 liest moment, and ready to march to the head-quarters of 
 Gen. St. Clair, at Fort Washington. For once, the militia of 
 the country did not turn out with their usual alacrity. The 
 term of service was longer than they had been accustomed 
 to, and they were required to take an oath to obey command 
 of officers whom they did not know, and in whose selection 
 their voice was not heard. A draft was had, and many hired 
 substitutes. 
 
 1791 
 
LEVIES SENT TO GENERAL ST. CLAIR. 
 
 553 
 
 Most of the civil, and nearly all of the military, appoint- 
 ments made for the Territory by Governor Blount, were 
 conferred upon the former officers of the State of Franklin. 
 Considerable dissatisfaction was excited, and a petition was 
 got up, remonstrating against the acts of the Governor. 
 
 The opposition thus raised against the administration 
 of Governor Blount, was occasioned principally by his efforts, 
 and those of General Sevier, to raise the United States levies, 
 then wanted for the reinforcement of the north-western army. 
 The terms, especially as to the period of the enlistment for 
 the quotas to be sent from the Territory, were very formal, 
 and different from the volunteering system which had so 
 long obtained with the western militia. The period of ser- 
 vice with them had always been short, and they never parted 
 with the right of choosing their own officers. 
 
 A further reason for the hesitancy of the Territorial mili- 
 tia to join St. Clair, was the inadequacy of the defensive 
 measures nearer home. Still, there was no relaxation, on 
 the part of the Governor, to send forward the levies from 
 the Territory. He was himself engrossed with pressing 
 duties, growing out of his superintendency, and found it 
 necessary to devolve on General Sevier the task of organi- 
 zing the battalion. Writing to him, under date May 24, 
 1791, Governor Blount says : “ The necessity I am under to 
 meet the Cherokees, in treaty, on the last day of this month, 
 will not permit me, after Thursday next, to pay but very 
 little attention to these troops.” 
 
 Major Rhea was appointed to the command — the battalion 
 was organized and ordered to march, and, before July 15, 
 had started with two hundred men to Fort Washington. 
 Such of the troops as reached the scene of action did their 
 duty, and fully sustained the character of their countrymen 
 for conduct and courage. 
 
 Among the troops sent to the army of St. Clair, raised in 
 the South-western Territory, was the company commanded 
 by Captain Jacob Tipton. About to leave on that distant 
 and perilous service, he had taken his farewell of his family, 
 and had mounted his horse. He hallooed back to his wife, 
 requesting her, that if he should be killed, to alter the name 
 
554 
 
 HEROISM OF THE TIPTONS. 
 
 of their son William, and call him, for himself, Jacob. The 
 presentiment which suggested the request, was unhappily 
 realized. At the battle of the fourth November, 1791, the 
 brave captain was killed. His last injunction to his wife 
 was complied with. William became Jacob Tipton, late 
 General Jacob Tipton, of Tipton county, Tennessee, which 
 was thus named, in 1821, by the Tennessee Legislature, in 
 honour of the patriotic captain.* 
 
 In the meantime, Governor Blount was directing attention 
 to the great subject of procuring a lasting peace between 
 the Cherokees and the people of the United States. He had, 
 during the last year, sent, through Major King and others, 
 invitations to their chiefs, to meet him for that purpose in 
 treaty. Some mischievous men on the frontier and in the 
 nation, had circulated a report that it was the intention of 
 the Governor to draw them to the treaty ground, and there 
 have them all cut off'. To counteract such reports, which 
 were keeping back some of the more influential leaders, in 
 the more interior towns, General Robertson, who always 
 had their entire confidence as an honest and frank man, 
 went to their nation early in June. He succeeded in quiet- 
 ing their apprehensions and removing the unfavourable 
 impressions they entertained towards the United States, and 
 in disposing them to treat. At first, they proposed to meet 
 at the confluence of Holston and French Broad, and to this 
 General Robertson assented. But they were at length in- 
 duced to yield to the preferences of Governor Blount, who 
 designated a point four miles below, on the north bank of 
 Holston River, as the most convenient and suitable place for 
 holding the treaty. There, was a denser settlement, of which 
 
 * Another Tennessean, of the same name and family, was distinguished after- 
 wards at Tippecanoe. He left his native state with an axe and a rifle for his 
 patrimony. He subsequently became Senator in Congress, and one of the most 
 prominent men in Indiana. Of him the anecdote is narrated, which we have seen 
 in the public journals, where General Harrison is represented as riding up in the 
 heat of the battle, inquiring of the young Tipton — “ Where is your captain 
 “ Dead ! sir.” “ Tour lieutenant ?” “ Dead ! sir.” “ Tour second lieutenant ?” 
 “ Dead ! sir.” “ Tour ensign ?” “ He stands before you I” where Tipton then 
 stood, holding and defending the flag, but so covered with dirt and so besmeared 
 with blood, that General Harrison scarcely knew him. 
 
INDIAN TEEATY AT KNOXVILLE. 
 
 555 
 
 White’s Fort was the centre, and where, indeed, there was 
 already the nucleus of the future Knoxville and the seat of 
 the Territorial Government. 
 
 It would be desirable to present here, a full and minute 
 account of this negotiation with the Cherokee chiefs and the 
 Superintendent of the Southern District. This, together with 
 the treaty itself, were laid before the Senate, in October fol- 
 lowing, by President Washington, for its advice and ratifi- 
 cation. The proceedings are not on record or on file in the 
 War Department, and cannot be procured elsewhere. Tra- 
 dition says that Governor Blount received and entertained 
 the chieftains and head warriors with signal attentions and 
 marked ceremonials. The treaty ground was at the foot of 
 Water-street, where the Governor appeared in full dress. 
 He wore a sword and military hat, and acted throughout 
 the occasion the polite and accomplished gentleman, the dig- 
 nified officer and courteous negotiator, tie remained seated 
 near his marquee, under and surrounded by the tall trees 
 which then shaded the banks of the Ilolston. His officers, 
 civil and military, stood near him, uncovered and respectful. 
 On this occasion, James Armstrong was arbiter elegantia- 
 rum.* Behind the officials, in clusters and disorderly groups, 
 stood strangers, attracted by the occasion, and the citizens 
 of the immediate neighbourhood. The soldiery were not 
 present. 
 
 One of the interpreters, in Indian costume, introduced each 
 chief to Armstrong, and he presented him to the Governor, 
 announcing him by his aboriginal name. The delegation 
 was large ; forty-one of them being thus presented, in order 
 according to their age, and not their rank. Twelve hundred 
 other Indians w r ere upon the ground, among whom were 
 some women and children. The Braves were decorated 
 with eagle feathers on their heads, and other insignia of their 
 
 * James Armstrong, alias Trooper Armstrong, the ancestor of General Robert 
 Armstrong, the hero of Emuekfaw and other battles in the Creek war, and at 
 present the editor of the Washington Union. The father had seen service in 
 Europe, and was familiar with foreign etiquette and manners, and acquitted him- 
 self on this occasion much to the satisfaction, both of the Governor and the In- 
 dians. The latter are aiways pleased with ceremony and forms. 
 
556 
 
 CHEROKEE BOUNDARIES. 
 
 rank, but were unarmed. The older chiefs and wise men, 
 wore only the common Indian dress. 
 
 After the presentation was over, Governor Blount, speak- 
 ing through the interpreter, opened the conference. During 
 its continuance, the chiefs observed strictly the Indian Coun- 
 cil House tactics — the speaker alone standing, while his 
 colleagues sat upon the ground, in a circle around him, in 
 respectful silence and with fixed attention. Squollecuttah, 
 Kunoskeskie, Auquotague andNenetooyah, are said to have 
 been the principal speakers. Chuquilatague seemed sullen, 
 and, it is believed, signed the treaty reluctantly. 
 
 On the second of July, the conference was ended, and the 
 treaty agreed to and signed. 
 
 By its provisions, perpetual peace and friendship were re- 
 stored and established between all the citizens of the United 
 States, and the whole Cherokee nation of Indians, who ac- 
 knowledged themselves to be under the protection of the 
 United States, and of no other sovereign whatsoever. They 
 agreed to deliver to Governor Blount all prisoners then in 
 their nation, the boundaries of which were declared to be — 
 
 “ Beginning at the top of the Currakee Mountain, where the Creek 
 line passes it ; thence in a direct line to Tugelo River ; thence northeast 
 to the Ocunna Mountain, and over the same along the South-Carolina 
 Indian boundary to the North-Carolina boundary; thence north to a 
 point from which a line is to be extended to the River Clinch, that shall 
 pass the Holston at the ridge which divides the waters running into Lit- 
 tle River from those running into the Tennessee; thence up the River 
 Clinch to Campbell’s line, and along the same to the top of Cumberland 
 Mountain; thence a direct line to the Cumberland River where the 
 Kentucky road crosses it ; thence down the Cumberland River to a point 
 from which a southwest line will strike the ridge which divides the wa- 
 ters of Cumberland from those of Duck River, forty miles above Nash- 
 ville ; thence down the said ridge to a point from whence a southwest 
 line will strike the mouth of Duck River. 
 
 For the country thus ceded, the United States were to pay 
 and deliver to the Cherokees certain valuable goods, besides 
 an annuity of one thousand dollars. It was farther stipula- 
 ted, that the citizens of the United States should have the 
 free and unmolested use of a road, from Washington to Mere 
 District, and the navigation of the Tennessee River. The 
 right of regulating their trade, was also reserved to the 
 
FIRST PRINTING PRESS IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 557 
 
 United States. Other provisions were made for the preser- 
 vation of friendly relations between the contracting parties. 
 
 This treaty was ratified in November following, when the 
 President issued his proclamation commanding its observ- 
 ance. 
 
 During the inception and progress, and even after the 
 1791 j signing and execution of the Treaty of Holston, In- 
 l dian hostility continued. In May, John Farris was 
 wounded, and Mr. Miller and five of his family killed, and 
 his house robbed, on the Roiling Fork of Cumberland. In 
 Russell county, Virginia, near Moccasin Gap, Mrs. Mc- 
 Dowell and Frances Pendleton were killed and scalped. 
 
 A few days after the signing of the treaty, a party of 
 Creeks were seen on the Lookout Mountain, with fresh 
 scalps, which they acknowledged had been taken on Cum- 
 berland. It was generally conjectured, that most of the mis- 
 chief mentioned here, was perpetrated by the Creeks and 
 the banditti at the five Lower Towns. Whether by the 
 Creeks or Cherokees, murders continued with little abate- 
 ment. James Patrick was killed in the Poor Valley, seven- 
 teen miles from Rogersville, early in September. The peo- 
 ple began to complain of the inefficiency of treaty stipula- 
 tions in preserving peace, and Governor Blount felt it ne- 
 cessary to urge upon General Robertson the , necessity of 
 preventing an infraction of the treaty on the part of the 
 whites, and to maintain, if possible, friendly relations with 
 the Indians. 
 
 The fifth of November, 1791, is signalized in the annals 
 of Tennessee, as the day on which the first newspaper was 
 issued within the borders of that state. The pioneer printer, 
 publisher and editor, in Tennessee, was George Roulstone. 
 He established his press first at Rogersville, in Hawkins 
 county, which thus claims the credit and distinction of the 
 nativity of the newspaper press, which sent forth, through a 
 domestic medium, the first ray of light for the information 
 and improvement of the new community, in whose limits it 
 was founded. 
 
 Though at first published at Rogersville, Mr. Roulstone’s 
 paper was called “ The Knoxville Gazette,” as it was intend 
 
558 
 
 KNOXVILLE ESTABLISHED. 
 
 ed to be issued at Knoxville, where Governor Blount had 
 determined to fix the seat of his government. In February, 
 of the next year, Knoxville was laid off by Col White, and 
 the Gazette removed to it soon after. It was issued from a 
 cabin, erected on the lot lately owned by Mr. Samuel Bell, 
 on Gay-street. 
 
 The columns of the Gazette will, hereafter, furnish some of 
 the matter of these Annals. It was a small sheet, but “ re- 
 garded as the pioneer newspaper in the country, the Gazette 
 engages an interest, to which its intrinsic merits would not 
 entitle it. Solitary and alone, in the midst of an extensive 
 Territory, its adventitious importance was necessarily con- 
 siderable. The publisher was a man of rather more than 
 ordinary capacity, but seldom ventured opinions, confining 
 himself to the more easy and ordinary duty of chronicling 
 passing events.”* 
 
 In this year, Mr. White’s neighbourhood had become larg- 
 er, and invited, by its position and strength, the location near 
 it of the seat of the Territorial Government. Governor 
 Blount so determined, and the proprietor, James White, laid 
 off a town, consisting of the necessary streets and sixty-four 
 lots. In honour of Major-General Henry Knox, the then Sec- 
 retary of War, under President Washington, the new town 
 was called Knoxville. Some of the lots w*ere sold, in 1791, 
 but no considerable improvement wms commenced till Feb- 
 ruary, of 1792, when several small buildings were erected. 
 
 Being still Hawkins county, no county buildings were at 
 first erected, but in June that county was circumscribed and 
 subdivided, by an Ordinance of Governor Blount, and Knox 
 county established. Lots had been, however, designated for 
 county purposes, by the proprietor, and temporary buildings 
 for a court house and jail, were, soon after the establishment 
 of the county, put up. The first court house was on the lot 
 adjoining and west of the residence ofS. R. Rogers, Esq. The 
 jail was made of squared logs, let down close together, and 
 the floor and loft of like materials. It was enclosed w r it.h 
 long palisades, deeply entrenched and sharpened at the upper 
 
 * Semi-centennial address of Rev. T. W. Humes. 
 
FIRST INHABITANTS OF KNOXVILLE. 
 
 559 
 
 end. It was a small building, not more than fourteen feet 
 square, and stood near the spot now occupied as the vault 
 of the Bank of East Tennessee, corner of Main and Gay- 
 streets. The lot for the barrack, extended from Gay to Prince 
 streets, embracing the entire front of that square on Main 
 street. The barrack was an entensive, but not costly struc- 
 ture. It stood upon the ground now the L of the Mansion 
 House, but extended more than twice its length, towards the 
 river ; the building was made of logs notched closely to- 
 gether. It was thus secure against attacks with small arms. 
 The second story projected two feet on every side beyond the 
 walls of the first, so as thus to prevent the application of fire 
 to them in case of a siege. In both stories and in the floor of the 
 second, port-holes were left, at suitable distances. The entire 
 area around it, as far as a rifle would reach, was cleared — 
 even a stump large enough to protect the body of an as- 
 sailant, was eradicated. The site was well selected, and well 
 adapted to its purposes. The structure itself was designed 
 with military skill. 
 
 With pious regard and consideration for the church and 
 religion of his fathers, the proprietor of Knoxville designated 
 a lot for the erection of a place of public worship. The 
 barrack, and the court house, and the grove, above the mouth 
 of White’s Creek, on the river bank, were at first substituted 
 for this purpose, and it was not till 1810 that a church edi- 
 fice was erected on the church lot. An adjoining square 
 was, afterwards, designated to a purpose scarcely less im- 
 portant — the instruction and education of youth. The entire 
 square between Gay and Church-streets, and State and 
 Boundary-streets, was appropriated to Blount College. 
 
 Amongst the first settlers of Knoxville, were James White, 
 James King, Mr. McLemee, Governor Blount, Hugh Dunlap, 
 Samuel and Nathaniel Cowan, Joseph Greer, John Chisolm, 
 Mr. Stone, Captain John Crozier, and Major Arthur Crozier. 
 
 The first white child born in Knoxville, was the late Gen. 
 Richard G. Dunlap. 
 
 The first lots improved were those nearest the river, and 
 in the south-east quarter of the town. It was not till 1794, 
 that the trees were cut from the lots since owned by Captain 
 
560 
 
 FIRST HOUSES IN KNOXVILLE. 
 
 Crozier, south of Gay and north of Cumberland. When he 
 built his first store-house, at what is still called Crozier’s 
 Corner, it was shaded by the trees of the ancient forest, and 
 considered out of town. 
 
 The cabin of the Governor was on the knoll, between the 
 University and the river. Afterwards, a more suitable resi- 
 dence was erected by him on the lot now owned by Judge 
 Boyd. The mansion stood near the centre of the lot — was 
 finished with some taste, and the grounds were better im- 
 proved than any in town. His office was immediately be- 
 tween his house and Chisolm’s Tavern, south of it. It is 
 still standing. Chisolm’s was the pioneer tavern in Knox- 
 ville. Col. McClung’s clerk’s office was on the corner, now 
 known as Craighead’s. Nathaniel Cowan’s house was on 
 the corner of Water and River-streets. Stone’s Tavern was 
 on the property known as Park’s Corner. Joseph Greer re- 
 sided upon the lot now owned by S. R. Rogers, Esq. The 
 approach to Knoxville, on the east, was at first along the 
 deep hollow or ravine, which extends from a little below 
 Kennedy’s saw-mill, and reaches Cumberland-street before, 
 its junction with Main, in front of the residence of Major 
 Swan. 
 
 The annuity of one thousand dollars to the Cherokees, as 
 provided by the Treaty of IJolston, was considered by some 
 of the chiefs as insufficient. A deputation, consisting of 
 Nenetooyah or Bloody Fellow, Chutloh or King Fisher, Non- 
 tuaka or the Northward, Teesteke or the Disturber, Kutha- 
 gusta or the Prince, Suaka or George Miller, and James 
 Cary, Interpreter, arrived at Philadelphia, Dec. 28th, 1791. 
 A long conference ensued and continued to the 11th. In this 
 conference, Nenetooyah gave a minute and interesting ac- 
 count of all that had transpired at the Treaty of Holston, 
 and, with the rest of the delegation, made a full expose of the 
 affairs of his nation. 
 
 On the 18th, the President proposed an addition of five 
 hundred dollars to the Cherokee annuity, to which the Se- 
 nate gave its advice and consent. 
 
 On the 3 1 st, the Secretary of War wrote to Governor 
 Blount, directing him not to call out the militia of the Terri 
 
SCALP DANCE IN CHEROKEE TOWNS. 
 
 561 
 
 tory, excepting in cases of real danger, and pointing out the 
 importance of having the boundary line run. 
 
 In February, of this year, Col. E. Robertson informed Go- 
 vernor Blount of aggressions by the Indians, and that on the 
 27th, in the evening, they killed Mr. Thompson in his own 
 yard, and jumped into his house and killed all the women 
 and children except two. The Governor also received infor- 
 mation from Captain Craig, whom he had despatched on a 
 mission to the Lookout Towns, that some prisoners and 
 scalps had been brought in by the Turtle-at-Home, and that 
 at night a scalp dance was there held, at which Richard Jus- 
 tice and the Glass took the scalps, and tore them with their 
 hands and teeth with great ferocity, as did also the warriors 
 generally, with all the forms, gestures, exultation and decla- 
 ration of a war dance ; and that the warriors from Running 
 Water coming in afterwards, renewed the war dance, and 
 gave other indications of hostile intentions ; that the Shaw- 
 nees, in their invitation to the Cherokees to join them against 
 the United States, after St. Clair’s defeat, had added the de- 
 claration, that they would consider all Indians as enemies 
 who did not assist them, and that General McGillevray 
 wished to form a general confederacy of all the Indian tribes 
 against the Americans, and that eighty Creek warriors had 
 crossed the Tennessee, on their way to attack Cumberland, 
 and were expecting reinforcements to make a formidable in- 
 vasion of that country. Captain Craig felt a deep convic- 
 tion that both the Creeks and the Cherokees of the five 
 Lower Towns would join the Shawnees. 
 
 Gov. Blount was also Superintendent of Indian Affairs for 
 the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws and Chickasaws. In each 
 tribe he had a deputy resident, and also interpreters. To 
 these he gave instructions, and from them received reports 
 of the condition, disposition and views of the Indians where 
 they resided. 
 
 The instructions of the Government restricted Governor 
 Blount to the adoption of defensive measures only, by which 
 to give protection and safety to the Territory. Thus re- 
 stricted. he stationed detachments of militia at the more 
 36 
 
562 
 
 INTREPIDITY OF MRS. CAMPBELL. 
 
 exposed points, with orders to patrol from one station to 
 another. 
 
 April 21. — General Pickens, of South-Carolina, was re- 
 quested, by the Secretary of War, to attend at Nashville, 
 where Governor Blount would hold a conference, in June, 
 with the Chickasaws and Choctaws, to which some of the 
 Cherokee chiefs would be invited. At that time and place, 
 a proposition would be made to these tribes to join the 
 United States army, and it was proposed, by the President, if 
 they accepted, that General Pickens should command them 
 combinedly, on the contemplated expedition north-west of 
 the Ohio. 
 
 One of the guards came express to Campbell’s Station, 
 with the news that the Indians had just killed two boys at 
 Mr. Wells’s, in Hind’s Valley. On this occasion it was, that 
 the Indians came to Col. Campbell’s and fired at himself 
 and another man, ploughing by his side. The report of their 
 guns being heard by Mrs. Campbell, she, very coolly, barri- 
 caded the door of the house, took the rifles from the rack, 
 and waited, at the port-holes, for the approach of the Indians. 
 In that position she was found by the men escaping from the 
 field. She handed out the rifles— the Indians were pursued, 
 but were not overtaken. 
 
 Governor Blount had been invited, by the Chiefs, to meet 
 them, in conference, at Coyatee. As he approached that 
 place, the standard of the United States was erected. Two 
 thousand Indians were marshalled into two lines, between 
 which the Governor and his honourary escort passed. A 
 firing, in the manner of a feu de joi, was commenced and 
 kept up, handsome^, for some time. The object of the 
 meeting, was the distribution of the goods, and the payment 
 of the annuity, according to the treaty, and to bring to the 
 attention of the Chiefs the repeated infractions, by their 
 warriors, of the provisions stipulated for in treaty. To his 
 remarks on that subject, the Breath, of Nickajack, the 
 Hanging-Maw and John Watts, renewed their declarations 
 that their people were for peace. 
 
 After the conference at Coyatee, Governor Blount, attend- 
 ed by a sufficient guard, crossed the mountain, and, at Nash- 
 
zeigler’s station attacked. 
 
 563 
 
 ville, held a conference with the Chickasaws and Choc- 
 taws. In conjunction with General Pickens, he met there 
 a large delegation of their chiefs, distributed the goods, and 
 renewed assurances of peace with them.* Returned to 
 Knoxville, he writes to the Secretary of War, under date — 
 
 Knoxville, August 31, 1792. 
 
 On the 10th instant, the conference with the Chickasaws and Choc- 
 taws ended ; there was a very full representation of the former, hut not 
 of the latter, owing, there is reason to believe, to the Spanish influence. 
 
 During the conference, General Pickens and myself received the 
 strongest assurances of peace and friendship for the United States, from 
 both nations, and I believe they were made with great sincerity. 
 
 June 26. — Zeigler’s Station, about two miles from Bled- 
 soe’s Lick, was attacked by a large party of Creek Indians — ■ 
 first in the afternoon, and then at night. This station was 
 picketed and was defended by thirteen men, including the 
 son of Mr. Joseph Wilson, a lad not fully grown. Four 
 were killed, four wounded, who escaped, three escaped 
 unhurt, and eighteen were made prisoners. Of the prison- 
 ers, nine were regained by purchase, made by their parents 
 and friends. One, Miss Wilson, and four negroes, were 
 carried into captivity. 
 
 July 15 — Isaac Pennington and Milligen were killed, and 
 McFarland was wounded, on the Kentucky Road. 
 
 July 31. — At Greenfield’s, near Bledsoe’s Lick, John Berk- 
 ley, Jun., was killed and scalped, and John Berkley, Sen., 
 was wounded. He killed the Indian while scalping the son. 
 
 Mr. Cochrane lived on the farm afterwards occupied by 
 Doctor M’Gee. His son, returning from Pistol Creek, was 
 met by a white man, a stranger, who detained him a minute 
 in conversation ; Indians lying in ambush, fired on him, their 
 bullets passing through his hat and clothes without inflicting 
 a wound. He, with his father’s family, escaped down the 
 creek, and alarmed the neighbourhood, who began to build 
 a fort. A few days after, Gillespie and two boys went home 
 after some corn. The Indians killed Gillespie and the eldest 
 boy, but the youngest they took prisoner. A white man 
 
 * The full proceedings of tliis conference, are in American State Papers, pp. 
 284 — 5 - 6 . 
 
5G4 
 
 MILITIA CALLED OUT. 
 
 in the company of the Indians, excused the murder of the 
 oldest brother, by stating that they had fired at and missed a 
 pale-face, (Cochrane,) and killed his brother for satisfaction 
 for their lost powder. 
 
 The forts in what is now Blount county, were reinforced 
 and guarded by men from Knox county. Captain John 
 Crawford took troops from Tuckahoe, and other places, and 
 left some of them at Henry’s, Craig’s and Ish’s Stations, and 
 afterwards at Tellico Block-house. This was a strong work, 
 of considerable size, with a projection on each square, fur- 
 nished with port-holes, and calculated to stand a siege by 
 an enemy provided with small arms only. Colonel James 
 Scott commanded the troops of this frontier in the absence 
 of Sevier. 
 
 Governor Blount, by express, informed the Secretary of 
 War, that the five Lower Cherokee towns on the Tennessee, 
 headed by John Watts, had formally declared war against 
 the United States, and that the warriors had set out on some 
 expedition against the frontiers, probably against the Cum- 
 berland settlements. Their number was variously estima- 
 ted at from three to six hundred, including one hundred ban- 
 ditti Creeks. The Governor ordered out one regiment of the 
 militia of Washington District, and sent orders to General 
 Ptobertson of Mero District, to put his brigade in the best 
 possible state of defence. The military strength of the coun- 
 try was immediately called out. The colonel of Knox county 
 at once issued orders to his captains, bearing date — 
 
 Knoxville, September 11, 1792. 
 
 Sir : — You are hereby commanded to repair with your company to 
 Knoxville, equipped, to protect the frontiers; there. is imminent danger. 
 Bring with you two day’s provision, if possible ; but you are not to de- 
 lay an hour on that head. 
 
 I am, sir, yours, 
 
 James White. 
 
 Captain Thomas Gillespie. 
 
 The militia paraded at the points designated, and were 
 distributed to the most exposed stations on the frontiers. It 
 was, in the meantime, ascertained that the expedition of the 
 hostile confederates was directed against the settlements on 
 the other side of the mountain, and Governor Blount dis- 
 
INADEQUATE FORCE IN THE STATIONS. 
 
 565 
 
 banded most of the troops. One of the captains, with his 
 company, was retained in service. 
 
 The execution of this order by Captain Gillespie, restrained 
 further annoyance for some time on the frontier. This was 
 most inadequately protected, as appears from a list of the 
 stations and strength of the frontiers of Knox county, Dec. 
 22 , 1792 : 
 
 Gambel's Station.- — -William Reagan, Lieutenant ; men, thirteen ; on 
 furlough, five ; at station, on duty, eight. 
 
 Black's Station. — Joel Wallice, Ensign; men, four. 
 
 Henry's Station. — George 1 lu fiacre, Corporal; men, six. 
 
 Wells’s Station. — Richard Dearmond, Corporal ; men, six. 
 
 Ish's Station. — Matthew Karr, Sergeant ; men, eight. 
 
 Campbell's Station. — None. 
 
 Lowe's Station. — None. 
 
 Manifee’s Station. — Capt. Sampels ; men, fourteen. 
 
 Raccoon Valley Station. — Sergeant Finley and one man. 
 
 Total at stations, forty-seven. 
 
 For the protection of Cumberland against the threatened 
 invasion, Governor Blount issued this order to Major Sharpe : 
 
 “ Major Sharpe, of Sumner county, who commands all the troops in 
 service, for the protection of the frontiers, is to be considered as subject 
 to the orders of no superior militia officer, notin actual service. Butin 
 case of any militia being turned out from either of the counties, by the 
 commanding officer, to chastise Indians for recent depredations, he will 
 cordially co-operate with such part of his command as may be in that 
 particular county. No pursuit to be continued beyond the ridge di- 
 viding the waters of Cumberland and Duck Rivers. Patrols and recon- 
 noitring parties to be kept out from the stations, in search of, and to prevent 
 any further depredations by the Indians ; and in case any Indians should 
 be found skulking or lurking about to the northward of the ridge afore- 
 said, in the woods, off any path, or fleeing, to be considered and 
 treated as enemies, save only, Chickasaws and Choctaws, women and 
 children. 
 
 “Annexed are the names of the stations, and the number of men at 
 each ; but in case Major Sharpe should conceive it essential for the bet- 
 ter protection of the frontiers, he will increase the number at any or 
 either, and lessen them at any other, either the cavalry or infantry, or 
 both, but erect no new ones, until his command shall receive an augmen- 
 tation of troops ; and on that event, he will either augment the numbers 
 at the present stations, or erect new ones, so as best to effect the object of 
 protection. Such men of Tennessee county on duty, as are draughts, to be 
 discharged on the arrival of the men under the command of Captain 
 Lusk, and their places to be supplied by a part of his men. Major 
 Sharpe will call militia officers, not in actual service, into court martial 
 for the trial of offenders, in cases where he cannot collect a sufficient 
 number who are in actual service. 
 
5G6 
 
 blount’s report of attack on 
 
 No. 1. Cavalry- 
 Infantry- 
 
 2. Cavalry 
 Infantry 
 
 3. Cavalry- 
 Infantry- 
 
 4. Cavalry 
 
 5. Cavalry 
 
 6. Cavalry 
 
 7. Cavalry 
 
 8. Infantry, 
 
 9. Infantry. 
 
 Stations and Numbers on 
 a Sergeant and 13 
 — an Ensign and 15, 
 
 — Sergeant and 13, 
 
 — Lieutenant, Ensign, and 15, 
 Lieutenant and 13, 
 
 — Sergeant and 15, 
 and infantry, officers inclusive, 
 and infantry, officers inclusive, 
 and infantry, officers inclusive, 
 and infantry, officers inclusive, 
 
 , officers inclusive, 
 
 , officers inclusive. 
 
 Total, 
 
 Cumberland. 
 
 14 ) Taylor’s Spring, 
 
 16 j near Bledsoe’s. 
 
 14 ) Spencer’s 
 
 17 j Lick. 
 
 14 ) Sconer’s 
 16 J Lick, 
 
 15 Brown’s Spring. 
 
 21 Kilpatrick’s. 
 
 13 Gower’s Cabin. 
 
 20 Edmondson’s. 
 
 18 Near the — of Sycamore. 
 12 Cave Spring, near the 
 
 mouth of Red River. 
 
 190 
 
 “On the 30th September, about midnight, John Buchanan’s Station, 
 four miles south of Nashville, (at which sundry families had collected, 
 and fifteen gun-men,) was attacked by a party of Creeks and Lower 
 Cherokees, supposed to consist of three or four hundred. Their ap- 
 proach was suspected by the running of cattle, that had taken fright 
 at them, and, upon examination, they were found rapidly advancing 
 within ten yards of the gate ; from this place and distance they received 
 the first fire from the man who discovered them (John McRory). They 
 immediately returned the fire, and continued a very heavy and constant 
 firing upon the' station, (block-houses, surrounded with a stockade,) for 
 an hour, and were repulsed with considerable loss, without injuring man, 
 woman, or child, in the station. 
 
 “ During the whole time of attack, the Indians were not more distant 
 than ten yards from the block-house, and often in large numbers round 
 the lower walls, attempting to put fire to it. One ascended the roof 
 with a torch, where he was shot, and, falling to the ground, renewed his 
 attempts to fire the bottom logs, and was killed. The Indians fired 
 thirty balls through a port-hole of the overjutting, which lodged in the 
 roof in the circumference of' a hat, and those sticking in the walls, on 
 the outside, were very numerous. 
 
 “ Upon viewing the ground next morning, it appeared that the fellow 
 who was shot from the roof, was a Cherokee half-breed of the Running- 
 Water, known by tbe whites by tbe name of Tom Tunbridge’s step-son, 
 the son of a French woman by an Indian, and there was much blood, 
 and signs that many dead had been dragged off, and litters having been 
 made to carry their wounded to their horses, which they had left a mile 
 from the station. Near the block-house were found several swords, 
 hatchets, pipes, kettles, and budgets of different Indian articles ; one of 
 the swords was a fine Spanish blade, and richly mounted in the Spanish 
 fashion. In the morning previous to the attack, Jonathan Gee and 
 
 Clayton were sent out as spies, and on the ground, among 
 
 other articles left by the Indians, were found a handkerchief and a moc- 
 casin, known one to belong to Gee, and the other to Clayton, hence it 
 is supposed they are killed.”* 
 
 The repulse of so large a body of warriors by the small 
 
 * Blount’s Correspondence. 
 
buchanan’s station. 
 
 567 
 
 party of fifteen gun-men at Buchanan’s, is a feat of bravery 
 
 ^ { which has scarcely been surpassed in all the annals of 
 l border warfare. The number of the assailants, Creeks, 
 Cherokees and Shawnees, was afterwards ascertained to be 
 above seven hundred, some of them well mounted, and all 
 well armed, and led by distinguished Braves of their several 
 tribes. According to the Indian version of the affair, the as- 
 sault was led by Kiachatalee, a daring half-breed warrior of 
 Running Water Town. When it was found impracticable to 
 carry the fort by other means, he “ attempted to fire the block- 
 house, and was actually blowing it into a flame, when he 
 was mortally wounded. He continued, after receiving his 
 mortal wound, to blow the fire and to cheer his followers to 
 the assault, calling upon them to fight like brave men, and 
 never give up till they had taken the fort.” # Amongst the 
 numerous wounded, was the Cherokee chief, John Watts. 
 
 Communicating with the Secretary of War, Governor 
 Blount says : 
 
 “ That you may perfectly understand the situation of Hero District, I 
 •will give you a description of it. 
 
 “ The settlements of Mero District extend up and down the Cumber- 
 land River, from east to west, about eighty-five miles, and the extreme 
 width, from north to south, does not exceed twenty-five miles, and its 
 general width does not exceed half that distance, and, not only the 
 country surrounding the extreme frontier, but the interior part (which is 
 to be found only by comparison with the more exposed part) is covered 
 generally with thick and high cane, and a heavy growth of large tim- 
 ber, and wdrere there happens to be no cane, with thick underwood, 
 which afford the Indians an opportunity of laying days and weeks in 
 any and every part of the district, in -wait near the houses, and of 
 doing injuries to the inhabitants, when they themselves are so hid or 
 secured that they have no apprehensions of injuries being done in re- 
 turn, and they escape from pursuit, even though it is immediate. This 
 district has an extreme frontier of at least two hundred miles.” 
 
 By the Governor of the Territory, an ordinance was passed, 
 at Knoxville, the 11th of June, circumscribing the counties 
 of Greene and Hawkins, and laying off two new counties, 
 Knox and Jeffei-son. 
 
 Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, were ordained to be 
 held in the two counties thus laid off ; — for the county of 
 
 * M. A. H., in Whig Review, of March, 1852. 
 
568 
 
 KNOX COUNTY RECORDS. 
 
 Knox, at Knoxville, and for the county of Jefferson, at the 
 house of Jeremiah Matthews. 
 
 Knox County Court. 
 
 1792, June 16.- — James White, John Sawyers, Hugh Beard, John 
 Adair, George McNutt, Jeremiah Jack, John Kearns, James Cozby, John 
 Evans, Samuel Newell, William Wallace, Thomas McCulloch, William 
 Hamilton, David Craig and William Lowry, presented a Commission 
 from Governor Blount, appointing them Justices of the Peace for Knox 
 county, and appeared before the Honourable David Campbell, Esq., 
 who, in the presence of Governor Blount, administered to each of them, 
 an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and also an 
 oath of office. 
 
 Charles McClung also produced a Commission from the Governor, 
 appointing him Clerk of Knox county, and he was in like manner 
 qualified. 
 
 Thomas Chapman, also, as Register. 
 
 June 25. — Robert Houston, in like manner, was commissioned and 
 qualified as Sheriff. 
 
 It was ordered by the Court, that the Sheriff make proclamation for 
 the opening of a County Court, at the house of John Stone, in the town 
 of Knoxville, and that Charles McClung be admitted Clerk to record 
 the same. 
 
 Whereupon, the said Robert Houston, having solemnly proclaimed 
 for that purpose, it is ordered, that the said Court be considered open 
 for the purpose of dispatching public business, and be ordered of record 
 accordingly. 
 
 The first Court held, was on the 16th of July, 1792. Present — Jamei 
 White, Samuel Newell, David Craig and Jeremiah Jack. James Whits 
 was appointed chairman. 
 
 June 16. — Luke Bowyer, Alexander Outlaw, Joseph Hamilton, Ar- 
 chibald Roane, Hopkins Lacy, John Rhea and James Reese, Esquires, 
 were qualified and admitted to practice law in this Court. 
 
 Wm. Henry obtained leave to build a mill on Rosebury’s Creek. 
 
 Ordered, that Alexander Cunningham have leave to keep a public 
 ferry at his landing opposite Knoxville. 
 
 Roads were also ordered to be laid out, from Knoxville to Col. Alex- 
 ander Kelley’s Mill, and to David Craig’s, on Nine Mile Creek. 
 
 June 17. — John Rhea was commissioned by the Governor, Solicitor 
 for Knox county. 
 
 A public road was ordered to be laid off from Knoxville to the Ford 
 on Clinch, and from Knoxville to Campbell’s Station. 
 
 Oct. 23. — A public road was ordered to be laid out from Knoxville 
 to the mouth of French Broad. 
 
 The Sheriff appeared and protested against the Jail of Knox county. 
 
 1793, January 26. — Commissioners were appointed to contract for 
 the building of a Jail. Its dimensions were, sixteen feet square ; the 
 logs to be one foot square, the lower floor to be laid of logs of that size, 
 to be laid double and crosswise ; the loft to be laid also with logs, and 
 
SCOUTS ON FRENCH BROAD. 
 
 569 
 
 covered crosswise with oak plank, one and a half inches thick, and well 
 spiked down. 
 
 The same Commissioners were also authorized to contract for build- 
 ing a Court House. 
 
 1793, May 6. — John Sevier produced a license from Governor 
 Blount to practice law, and was admitted. 
 
 By the Governor and Judges of the Territory, an act was 
 passed, authorizing the courts of the several counties to 
 levy a tax for repairing and building court houses, prisons 
 and stocks, to pay jurors of the Superior Courts, and defray 
 the contingent charges of the counties. This act provided, 
 that the poll tax, for any one year, should not exceed fifty 
 cents, nor the tax on land more than seventeen cents on each 
 hundred acres. 
 
 On the 30th November, Sevier informed Gov. Blount that 
 the Block-house, at South-West Point, near the present 
 Kingston, was finished, and advises the erection of a post 
 between that place and Campbell’s Station, and that a strong 
 detachment should be sent forward, to a point near which 
 Captain Handley was defeated — assigning, as reasons for 
 this policy, that a large body of Indians were in that vicinity, 
 and that the greater part of all the Lower Cherokee families 
 is on the north side of Tennessee River, about and near the 
 Cumberland Mountains. 
 
 Gov. Blount, having received authentic information of the 
 hostile disposition of the Creeks and Lower Cherokees, 
 issued orders to the colonels of the several counties of 
 Washington District, to raise two regiments of troops to 
 operate against them, on the defensive. On the 27th of 
 September, he ordered General Sevier to repair to Knoxville 
 to take the command of the brigade. The colonels were 
 Carter and Christian ; lieutenant-colonels, Blair and McNabb ; 
 majors, Sawyers. McFarland, Conway and Rutledge. 
 
 Indians were seen at the Warm Springs, and at the plan- 
 tation of Charles Robertson, on Meadow Creek, probably 
 watching the motions of the guards who were stationed for 
 the protection of the frontier on French Broad. These 
 guards were stationed in four block-houses — at Hough's, at 
 the Burnt Cane-brake, at the Painted Rock and at the Warm 
 Springs, and scouted, regularly, between these block-houses, 
 
570 
 
 blount’s letters to war department. 
 
 and up to Big Laurel, where they met the Buncombe scout. 
 Six was the number usually stationed at one post. 
 
 The official letters of Gov. Blount to the War Department, 
 and letters addressed to him by his subordinates, contain the 
 best, and certainly the most authentic, account of the trans- 
 actions in the Territory. They are voluminous, and being 
 well preserved in the archives at Washington, need not be 
 transferred to these pages. A few extracts, however, are 
 considered essential to these Annals, and are here given. 
 
 The Governor, writing to the Secretary of War, Nov. 8, 
 says : 
 
 “ The Creeks having never had the colour of claim to land on the 
 north side of Tennessee, it is not necessary to say anything to show 
 that their conduct must have been occasioned by other motives than a 
 claim relating to boundaries. And if the Cherokees ever had a claim, 
 it has been extinguished by two public treaties — that of Hopewell and 
 Holston; at the last of which, a valuable consideration was paid in hand, 
 and since, the first annual payment has been made, and principally re- 
 ceived by the inhabitants of the five Lower towns, who have declared 
 war against the United States. Thus, if the Cherokees ever had a 
 claim, it has been twice extinguished, and by two public treaties. But, 
 by the best information I can collect, the claim of the Cherokees to the 
 lands lying on Cumberland, is a recent thing ; there are many very 
 respectable people now living who were present at the time. Richard 
 Henderson and Company purchased from them their claim to the lands 
 lying on Cumberland, as well as nearly all those included within what 
 is now the limits of Kentucky. 
 
 “ General Sevier, with the troops mentioned in my letter of the 27th 
 September, as ordered into service, is in the field, advanced about thirty- 
 five miles southwest of Knoxville, that is, at the mouth of Clinch, with 
 his main force ; the other parts of his brigade are detached to different 
 parts of the frontiers of Washington District, for the protection thereof, 
 with my orders to act on the defensive, under the limitations mentioned 
 in your letter of the 9th of October. 
 
 “ The advantages of the troops at the mouth of Clinch are, they will 
 cut off all communication, by water, between the Upper and Lower 
 Cherokees ; they will deter, in a greater degree, and can more easily 
 intercept, incursive parties from it, than in any other situation ; they will 
 impress the Lower towns with apprehensions of sudden attacks by wa- 
 ter, as well as by horsemen. The distance by water can be passed in 
 from forty to forty-eight hours. 
 
 “ On Monday night last, five Creeks, headed by young Lashley, the son 
 of a Scotchman in the Creek nation, the same that headed the party 
 that killed and captured Gillespie’s son, on the 13th September, came 
 in upon the waters of Little River, about twenty miles from this place, 
 and stole and carried off eight horses ; they were traced towards Chil- 
 
captain handley’s defeat. 
 
 571 
 
 howee, the nearest Cherokee town. This gave reason to suspect the 
 Chilhowee Indians of the theft, whereupon, as many as fifty-two of the 
 neighbouring people, including the sufferers, assembled together in 
 arms, and determined to go and destroy Chilhowee and Tallassee too, 
 a little adjacent town, and actually did march ; but General Sevier re- 
 ceived information of their intentions, and despatched orders to them to 
 disperse and return home, which they obeyed, and thus the matter 
 happily ended.” 
 
 Captain Handley, when marching with his company of 
 forty-two men, two hundred miles, for the protection of the 
 stations on Cumberland, was attacked near the Crab-Orchard 
 by a party of Indians, fifty-six in number, commanded by the 
 Middle Striker. The party consisted of Cherokees, Creeks 
 and Shawnees. When the attack was made upon his com- 
 pany, a panic seized most of them, and they fell back. 
 Handley laboured in vain to rally them. He believed that 
 if this could have been done, the Indians would have been 
 defeated. He saw one of his men, named Leiper, in a most 
 hazardous position, at a little distance from the Indians, and 
 unhorsed. Handley conceived the design of rescuing him 
 instantly, by seizing the horse’s bridle and running him to 
 the place where he was, to give the soldier an opportunity 
 to re-mount. In doing this, he ran too near the enemy, and his 
 own horse fell under him, pierced with wounds. Handley 
 was immediately surrounded by Indians, furiously brandish- 
 ing their uplifted tomahawks, the signal of death or submis- 
 sion. He jumped behind a tree, and was met by a warrior, 
 who held over him a tomahawk, in the act of striking. He 
 arrested the stroke, by seizing the weapon, with the cry 
 “ Canawlla” — friendship. “Canawlla” was responded by the 
 Indian, who instantly began to seek his rescue. This he at 
 length effected, by hurrying the captain around, till he 
 brought him to the principal chief, where, for a short time, 
 he was free from danger. While the Indian was thus draw- 
 ing him off, Handley received numerous licks from other 
 Indians, some of which seemed to be inoffensive, being made 
 with the flat side of the hatchet. One was made by his own 
 sword, from which he narrowly escaped. In another in- 
 stance, a gun was fired at him, the muzzle not ten feet 
 distant, which was only escaped, by some other Indians 
 
572 
 
 handley’s captivity at wills town, 
 
 striking the gun upwards at the moment of its discharge. 
 The efforts of Handley to rally his men, and in labouring 
 for the escape of Leiper, seem to have drawn off the atten- 
 tion of the enemy from his men, and to have concentrated it 
 nearly on himself. Only three of them were killed. The 
 rest all escaped. Poor Leiper was seen by Handley lying 
 scalped and lacerated with wounds. He exclaimed, “dear 
 captain,” to one who could no longer command nor protect, 
 who was hurried away by his Indian captor, and never saw 
 him more. Captain McClelland was, at this time, at South- 
 West Point, and, with his company of light horse, was de- 
 spatched to the scene of the discomfiture, to bury the dead, 
 and to rescue the survivors, if possible, from their captivity, 
 and cut oft’ the enemies’ retreat. The first report was, that 
 Captain Handley was killed, as the last time he was seen by 
 his men, he was fighting hand to hand, surrounded by a 
 crowd of warriors. But the fight horse, in pursuing the 
 Indian trail, found that wherever they had encamped, there 
 were left the fixtures used by the Indians in securing a pri- 
 soner. Along the trail, too, at different places, they found 
 slips of torn paper, which, on being put together, were 
 found to be parts of Handley’s muster-roll, which he had 
 considerately torn and dropped along the path, hoping there- 
 by to furnish those who might attempt his rescue the means 
 of ascertaining the route his captors had taken. The pur- 
 suit was, however, unsuccessful, and the fight horse returned 
 to South-West Point. Captain Handley was taken to Wills 
 Town. On his way, he was confined carefully at night, and 
 watched closely by his captors through the day. Arriving 
 at the end of their journey, the Indians debated three days 
 whether he should be killed or permitted to five. At length, 
 he was adopted into the Wolf Tribe of the Cherokees, and 
 treated like one of them, from November till March. Before 
 his adoption into the tribe, he received repeated insults and 
 injuries. He was made to run the gauntlet. Another mode 
 of torture, was that of tying his hands and feet fast, and 
 then hurling him over their heads, at the imminent hazard of 
 dashing his nose and face against the ground. During his 
 captivity, the Cherokees became tired of war, and requested 
 
AND HIS RESTORATION. 
 
 573 
 
 their prisoner to write a letter for them to Governor Blount, 
 at Knoxville, proposing conditions or preliminaries of peace. 
 He obtained libert}’, at the same time, to write a letter in his 
 own behalf, to his brother-in-law, Colonel James Scott, which 
 is preserved and is here given : 
 
 Wills Town, Dec. 10, 1792. 
 
 Dear Sir : — I am a captive in this town, in great distress, and the 
 bearer hereof is a runner from the Upper Towns, from the Hanging 
 Maw, and is now going up with a Talk from Col. John Watts, with the 
 Governor, on terms of peace. These people are much for peace, and if 
 Governor Blount sends a good answer back to the Talk they have sent 
 up by the runner, I am confident their Talk is true and sincere ; and, 
 upon the whole, we are not ripe for war with these people, for they are 
 properly fixed for war ; but Watts is entirely for peace, at this time, 
 and wishes for a good answer to their Talks. Dear Sir, I have been 
 much abused, and am in great distress. I beg that you and John Cowan, 
 and every good friend, would go to the Governor, and try all you can to 
 get him to send a good answer, so that I can get away — for if an army 
 comes before, I am sure to die. Send word to mv wife, and send me 
 a horse down by the Hanging Maw’s runner, for I am not able to come 
 without. Dear friends, do what you can, for I am in a distressed way. 
 No more, but — 
 
 Samuel Handley. 
 
 N. B. — John Watts sends to the Hanging Maw to send Calaka, the 
 Hanging Maw’s nephew, and another young fellow, down with the Go- 
 vernor’s Talk and the horse for me, for he is a safe fellow, and if they 
 come I am sure to get home, but if not, I expect never to get home ; and 
 I once more beg you to do your possibles for me, and do them soon as 
 you cau. 
 
 To James Scott, Nine Mile, Henry’s Station. These. 
 
 The letter was favourably received by Gov. Blount, and 
 though the Cherokees did not come to an adjustment till af- 
 ter another bloody struggle and ruinous defeat at Etowah, 
 they commissioned eight of their Braves to escort Captain 
 Handley in safety to his friends, in Blount county, with no 
 other raifcom than a keg of whiskey given them as a pre- 
 sent. 
 
 Capt. H. resided some time after nearTellico Block-house, 
 where the Indians frequently came for the purpose of traffic. 
 When any of his Indian acquaintances from Wills Town 
 came there, they crossed over to see him, share his hospi- 
 tality, and repose upon his premises, as with a genuine 
 brother of their own order. He afterwards moved to Win- 
 chester, Tenn., where he died. 
 
574 
 
 THE TEOrLE INCENSED. 
 
 I he Cherokees were understood to be embodied in such 
 1793 $ force as to threaten an attack upon South-West Point, 
 ( and other places upon the frontier, where the several 
 corps under the command of Sevier had been stationed. 
 But acting under the orders of the Secretary of War, Gov. 
 Blount gave orders, Nov. 29th, that all the troops of Sevier’s 
 brigade, except two companies, should be marched to Knox- 
 ville, and mustered out of service. This was accordingly 
 done early in January of 1793. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 22d of January, the Indians killed and 
 scalped John Pates, on Crooked Creek, about sixteen miles 
 from Knoxville. 
 
 On the 29th, the Cherokees stole three of William David- 
 son’s horses from Gamble’s Station, on Little River ; and, on 
 the 26th of February, they stole ten horses from Cozby’s 
 Creek. These aggressions prompted the spontaneous assem- 
 blage of the militia at Gamble’s Station, for the purpose of 
 marching to the nearest Indian towns, and retaliating upon 
 them the injuries they were suffering. 
 
 The Governor immediately ordered Col. Kelly to go to the 
 dissatisfied and incensed citizens on the frontier, and en- 
 deavour to restrain them from going with arms across the 
 Tennessee River, or entering any of the Indian towns. The 
 Governor found it necessary also to issue his proclamation, 
 requiring the citizens to desist from an invasion of the In- 
 dian territory, which was now contemplated by a party of 
 eighty men, who had assembled at Gamble’s for that pur- 
 pose. Pie attended there himself in person, to aid, by his per- 
 sonal and official influence, in the preservation of peace. In 
 this he was assisted by Col. White and others. contri- 
 
 bute still more in allaying the impending storm of retalia- 
 tion, a company of cavalry was ordered to range from Hoi- 
 ston to Little River. Quiet was restored, and the people 
 were tranquillized. 
 
 While these measures were being adopted to restrain the 
 just indignation of the settlers, new causes of offence were 
 of constant occurrence. 
 
 On the 9th of March, a party of Indians, led by Towakka, 
 formed an ambuscade near the house of Mr. Nelson, living 
 
INDIANS CONTINUE HOSTILITIES. 
 
 575 
 
 on Little Pigeon, twenty-five miles from Knoxville. Two of 
 his sous, James and Thomas, were killed and scalped. 
 
 On the 16th, fourteen horses were stolen from Flat Creek, 
 within sixteen miles from Knoxville. 
 
 In March, Joseph Brown, whose capture, in 1788, has al- 
 ready been mentioned, accompanied Thomas Ross, the mail 
 carrier, and Col. Caleb Friley, from the Holston settlements, 
 by the way of Kentucky, to Cumberland. They were fired 
 upon the third evening after they started, on the east side of 
 Little Laurel, but sustained no damage. They went in full 
 speed, crossed the river, and in about a quarter of a mile ran 
 into a large body of Indians ; Ross was killed, Brown and 
 Friley escaped, severely wounded. 
 
 On the 18th of March, two young men, named Clements, 
 were killed and scalped sixteen miles below Knoxville. 
 
 On the 20th of March, a party of Indians killed and scalped 
 William Massey and Adam Greene, at the gap of Powell’s 
 Mountain, on Clinch, about twenty miles from Rogersville. 
 
 A party of Creeks, led by young Lashley, burned, on the 
 8th of April, the house of Mr. Gallaher, on the south side of 
 Holston, and within twenty miles of Knoxville. A detach- 
 ment of mounted infantry pursued, but did not overtake 
 them. The same party hovered about the settlements till 
 the 15th, when a party of Lieutenant Tedford’s rangers fired 
 upon and killed one of the Indians, who proved to be a Che- 
 rokee — Noon-Day of Toquo. 
 
 A report was received from James Carey, one the inter- 
 preters of the United States in the Cherokee nation, in which 
 he confirms the intelligence Governor Blount had received 
 of Indian hostilities — “ of large parties of Creeks and C'hero- 
 kees, meditating invasion of Mero and Washington Districts, 
 and of the impression generally prevalent with the Indians, 
 that the reason why the Americans did not retaliate, but 
 patiently bore the injuries they had received from them, was 
 the posture of their negotiation with foreign Powers, and 
 their fear of offending them. And that if it was not for this, 
 the Americans, certainly, would not be offering and begging- 
 peace in return for murders, robberies and bloodshed, daily 
 committed on their citizens.” Other intelligence of the 
 
576 
 
 JEFFERSON COUNTY RECORDS. 
 
 same purport was received, through Mr. Gilliland, who had 
 just returned from the nation. j 
 
 April 12. — The people on the frontier generally collected 
 in stations. At Craig’s, there were two hundred and eighty 
 men, women and children, living in great discomfort in small 
 huts. 
 
 At this moment, Governor Blount was informed, that Gen- 
 eral Logan was raising a party of Kentucky Volunteers, for 
 the purpose of making war upon the Lower Cherokee 
 towns. 
 
 On the 12th of April, Gov. Blount wrote to Gov. Shelby, 
 suggesting to him the propriety of restraining Logan from the 
 expedition he contemplated against the enemy. 
 
 The Governor ordained that Knox and Jefferson counties 
 should constitute a Judicial District, to be known by the name 
 of the District of Hamilton, in which two Superior Courts 
 should beheld, at Knoxville, in April and October of each 
 year. Of this court, Col. F. A. Ramsey was, by the Go- 
 vernor, appointed clerk. 
 
 March 21. — It was ordained by the Governor, that courts 
 should be in future held for Jefferson county, on the north 
 side of French Broad, on the lands of Francis Dean, near the 
 Rev. Mr. Henderson’s Lower Meeting House. 
 
 July 22. — Jefferson County Court first held. — It met at the 
 house of Jeremiah Mathews, (now Reuben Zirkle’s, four and a half 
 miles west of Dandridge, near the river.) The magistrates had been 
 commissioned and qualified. 
 
 June 11. — The following gentlemen appeared and took their seats, 
 viz : Alexander Outlaw, George Doherty, James Eoddye, John Black- 
 burn, James Lea, Josiah Wilson, Josiah Jackson, Andrew Henderson, 
 Amos Balch and Wm. Cox. 
 
 Joseph Hamilton was commissioned Clerk. 
 
 Robert McFarland, Sheriff. James Roddye, Register. 
 
 Luke Bowyer, Wm. Cocke, John Rhea, Alexander Outlaw, James 
 Reese, Archibald Roane and Hopkins Lacy, were admitted as Attornies. 
 
 John Morris, a Chickasaw warrior, being at Knoxville, 
 and a guest of the Governor, was shot and killed by some one 
 unknown. To soothe the feelings of the Indians, Morris was 
 buried with the military honours due to a warrior of a 
 friendly nation. In the procession, to the usual burial 
 ground of the white people, Governor Blount and the brother 
 
beard’s attack on hanging maw. 
 
 577 
 
 of the murdered Indian, walked together as chief mourn- 
 ers. 
 
 May 25. — Thomas Gillam and his son James, were killed 
 and scalped by the Indians, in the Raccoon Valley, eighteen 
 miles from Knoxville. Captain Beard, with fifty mounted 
 infantry, made immediate pursuit. 
 
 June 13. — General Sevier was at this time at Jonesboro’, 
 and Captain Chisholm, by letter of this date, forwarded by ex- 
 press from Knoxville, informs him, “That on yesterday 
 morning, Capt. John Beard, with a party of forty men, at- 
 tacked the Indians at the Hanging Maw’s, and killed twelve 
 or fifteen on the spot, among whom were a number of the 
 principal chiefs, called there by the express order of the 
 President. Major Robert King, Daniel Carmichael, Joseph 
 Sevier and James Ore, were acting for the United States. 
 This will bring on inevitable war ; the Indians are making 
 vigorous prepai'ation for an assault on us. The frontier is 
 in a most lamentable situation. Pray, sir, let us have your 
 immediate presence, for our all depends upon your exertion. 
 
 “ The Hanging Maw is wounded, his wife is killed, also 
 Scantee, a Chickasaw chief, that was at the Maw’s, Kitti- 
 geskie’s daughter and other principal Indians. Two hundred 
 Indians were in arms in thirty minutes. Beard and his 
 party have fled, leaving the frontier unprotected. My dear 
 sir, much depends on you — for your presence itself will be a 
 balm to the suffering frontier.” 
 
 Governor Blount, was at this moment absent, and the sec- 
 retary, General Smith, on whom that duty now devolved, 
 wrote immediately to the Hanging Maw and other chiefs, 
 in explanation of the atrocious conduct of Beard’s party, 
 and begged them not to retaliate the outrage. “Be not 
 rash and inconsiderate,” said he ; “ hear what your and our 
 Great Father, the President, will say. Go and see him as 
 he has requested. I assure you, I believe he will give you 
 satisfaction, if you forbear to take it yourselves.” 
 
 The Secretary, communicating the state of things to the 
 War Department, adds, “ to my great pain, I find, to punish 
 Beard by law, just now, is out of the question.” 
 
 The affair was deemed of such consequence, as to demand 
 37 
 
578 
 
 ANDREW CRESWELL’s STATION. 
 
 the arrest and trial of that officer. The court martial, 
 however, before which he was arraigned, inflicted no punish- 
 ment. 
 
 The forbearance, as hoped for, from the Cherokees, by 
 General Smith, did not continue long. At daylight, August 
 29, a large party of Indians attacked Henry’s Station. Lieu- 
 tenant Tedford was taken prisoner, and horribly butchered. 
 
 Andrew Creswell was living in the neighbourhood of Me- 
 Gaughey’s Station ; two other men constituted the force in his 
 house. William Cunningham, passing near, was way- 
 laid by the Indians and shot. He escaped to Creswell’s 
 house. One of the men proposed to Creswell, to break 
 up and go to the station. The latter replied that, from 
 his knowledge of the Indian character, he believed they 
 would not strike a second blow in the same place. Mr. 
 Creswell then enquired from his wife, whether she would 
 rather go to the station than to stay at home ? She replied, 
 it seemed like death at either place, and she would rather 
 risk her life there, than any place else. “ That’s my sort,” 
 said Creswell ; “I will keep this house till the Indians take 
 me out of it.” The house was a new log cabin, with a sin- 
 gle door, fastened by a shutter of hewed puncheons, too 
 thick to be penetrated by a bullet. His stable was so placed, 
 immediately in rear of his house, that Mr. Creswell himself 
 could not open the door of it, without first entering his dwel- 
 ling-house, and going to the head of his bed, and raising a 
 large bolt, with a long lever. Near this lever, was a port- 
 hole, through which he defended his stable ; and on each 
 side of his house, were others through which he defended his 
 family. Indians came in sight, but never attacked him. Mr. 
 Cunningham recovered ; he died afewyears, since in Monroe 
 county. 
 
 August 30.— This da} r , two Indians came to the house of 
 Philip Hotter, in Washington county, about eleven o’clock, 
 and tomahawked and scalped his wife, and left her for dead; 
 cut the head off his daughter, and carried it away with them, 
 and plundered the house. 
 
 Colonel Doherty and Colonel McFarland, indirect disregard 
 of the orders of the Territorial authorities, raised one hundred 
 nd eighty mounted riflemen, with whom they invaded the 
 
DOHERTY INVADES THE CHEROKEES. 
 
 579 
 
 Indian country. Crossing the Tennessee, they penetrated 
 the mountains at a place called the Unaca Pass. It was af- 
 terwards ascertained, that three hundred Indians lay here in 
 ambuscade, awaiting their return. Fortunately, they de- 
 flected eastwardly, south of Tennessee and Pigeon Rivers. 
 In this march, they destroyed six Indian towns, and killed 
 fifteen Indians, whom they scalped. They also took sixteen 
 women and children prisoners. Two or three times, our men 
 were attacked by night. On such occasions, they would re- 
 tire a few paces from the lights of their camp-fires, into the 
 nearest thicket, and stand with their rifles at a present, ready 
 to fire at the flash of the enemies’ guns. By the sudden ces- 
 sation of the Indian arms, it was believed that the aim of 
 the whites, although in the dark, was effectual. In these 
 night attacks, four of the riflemen were wounded, one of 
 whom died soon after their return. They were out on this 
 campaign four weeks, and reached the white settlements, 
 twelve miles above the War Ford on French Broad, now 
 New-Port. 
 
 Captain Nathaniel Evans, from Boyd’s Creek, took forward 
 a large detachment of troops for the protection of Cumberland. 
 One hundred and eighty men rendezvoused at Knoxville. Be- 
 ing mounted, they carried their own provisions — passed 
 South-west Point, Post Oak Springs and the Crab-Orchard, 
 James Capshaw, Samuel Martin and George Telford, acted 
 as spies through the wilderness. On Obey’s River the signs of 
 Indians multiplied. They, however, came upon none— pass- 
 ing the Rolling Fork and the head of Stone’s River, they 
 reached Nashville without molestation from the enemy. 
 Here they remained fifteen days, and returned nearly the 
 same route. It was in their absence, that the Indians in- 
 vaded the country, and took Cavet’s Station. 
 
 Captain Michael Harrison, with his company of eighty 
 ^ 1 light-horse from Washington county, was in service 
 
 ( early in September, and visited the several stations 
 on Pigeon, before coming to Sevier’s head-quarters at Ish’s 
 Station, south of Holston. From this point, scouts were 
 sent out to guard the approaches to Knoxville, which it was 
 apprehended would be the object of Indian attack, on ac" 
 
580 
 
 ONE THOUSAND CHEROKEES MARCH AGAINST 
 
 count of the public stores that were known to be there. On 
 the 24th September, Captain Harrison’s light-horse had 
 scoured the country in every direction, but made no dis- 
 covery of the enemy. But the same evening, a body of a 
 thousand warriors, under the lead of John Watts and Double 
 Head, crossed the Tennessee River, below the mouth of Hol- 
 ston, and marched all night in the direction of Knoxville. 
 Of this large force, seven hundred were Creeks — the rest 
 were Cherokees. Of the former, were one hundred well 
 mounted horsemen. The Indians had expected to reach 
 Knoxville before day, on the morning of the twenty-fifth, 
 but some detention at the river had prevented. The horse- 
 men had out-marched the main body, and some altercation 
 between the leaders occurred, and produced confusion. 
 Knoxville being the principal object of attack and plunder, 
 orders were given by some of the Creeks to press forward 
 at once, and not delay their march, by stopping to disturb 
 and plunder the smaller settlements. Double Head advised 
 a different policy, and insisted on taking every cabin as they 
 passed. A further cause of delay was the rivalry between 
 this chief and Van, each of whom aspired to the leadership 
 of the expedition. Upon the question, “shall we massacre 
 all the inhabitants of Knoxville, or the men only ?” these 
 savage warriors differed in opinion ; Van advising lenity to 
 the women and children. Before the plan of procedure was 
 adjusted, the night was so far spent as not to allow the 
 invaders time to reach Knoxville before daylight. That 
 town was, however, in the opinion of all, the primary object 
 of attack, and, with that purpose in view, Campbell’s Sta- 
 tion — one of the chief forts of the country, and in which, at 
 this time, twenty families were there stationed for mutual 
 protection — was carefully passed, undisturbed. At daylight 
 they had reached the head of Sinking Creek, in the Grassy 
 Valley, and were in a rapid march for Knoxville. The 
 United States troops at that place, as usual, fired off a can- 
 non at sunrise, which the Indians heard, and understood to 
 be an evidence that their attack was expected. This dis- 
 concerted their plans, and led to the abandonment of their 
 meditated assault. The Indian force was halted immedi- 
 
KNOXVILLE, AND TAKE CAVEt’s STATION. 
 
 581 
 
 ately. In sight of them, was the house or station of Alex- 
 ander Cavet, in which were only three gun-men and his 
 family, thirteen in number. This house stood on the plan- 
 tation now owned by Mr. Walker, about eight miles west of 
 Knoxville, and about six hundred yards north of the present 
 stage-road, where its foundation can yet be seen. 
 
 Disappointed in their hopes of plunder, and too cowardly 
 to run the risk of obtaining it by attacking Knoxville, the 
 Indians determined to wreak their vengeance upon a de- 
 fenceless family, and marched at once to and invested Cavet’s 
 house. It was put in the best state of defence which three 
 men could do against a thousand savage assailants. The 
 fire from the house killed one Creek, one Cherokee, and 
 wounded three more. This held back the Indians for a time, 
 and they sent in Bob Benge, a half Creek, who spoke En- 
 glish, proposing that if the station were surrendered, the 
 lives of the besieged should be spared, and that they should 
 be exchanged for a like number of Indian prisoners. These 
 terms were accepted, and the house surrendered. Its unfor- 
 nate inmates had scarcely left the door, when Double Head 
 and his party fell upon the prisoners and put them to death, 
 mutilating and abusing the bodies of the women and chil- 
 dren especially, in the most barbarous and indelicate man- 
 ner possible. Cavet himself was found in the garden bar- 
 barously murdered, and having seven bullets in his mouth, 
 put there by himself, for the greater convenience of speedily 
 loading his rifle. John Watts interposed, and saved the life 
 of Alexander Cavet, Jun., a lad. Benge also interceded for 
 the prisoners, who had capitulated with him, but Double 
 Head was inexorable, and all efforts were unavailing to 
 save the poor victims. The house and stables were plun- 
 dered and burnt, and the Indians went off, carrying with 
 them into captivity the only survivor of a large family. He 
 was afterwards killed in the Indian towns. 
 
 The firing at Cavet’s Station was heard, and notice of the 
 invasion of the country was communicated, at once, to Gen. 
 Sevief, then lying, with some troops, across the river, at 
 Ish’s, and to the people at Knoxville. 
 
582 
 
 COLONEL WHITE TAKES MEASURES OF DEFENCE. 
 
 “This intelligence gave to the minds of its citizens that impulse- 
 which is only to be looked for on great occasions, when the dignity of a 
 simple heroic conception is enough to consecrate danger and death. 
 The number of fighting men in Knoxville was forty. But it wa. 
 thought preferable to combine this force, and to risk every life in a well 
 concerted effort to strike a deadly and terrific blow on the advancing 
 enemy, at the outskirts of the town, rather than stand to be hewed 
 down, in its centre, by the Indian tomahawk. 
 
 “ Col. James White was then advanced a little beyond the prime of 
 manhood, of a muscular body, a vigorous constitution, and of that cool 
 and determinate courage which arises from a principle of original bra- 
 very, confirmed and ennobled by the- faith of the Bible. He was the 
 projector and leader of the enterprise. Robert Houston, Esq., from 
 whose verbal statements the substance of much of this narrative is 
 copied, was of the age of twenty-eight, and was a personal actor in the 
 scene. 
 
 “ It was viewed to be manifest, by those who were acquainted with 
 Indian movements, that the party would come up the back way, near 
 the present plantations of Mrs. Luttrell and Henry Lonas, rather than 
 the straighter way, now travelled by the stage. The company from 
 Knoxville accordingly repaired to a ridge on that road, which now may- 
 be inspected, about a mile and a quarter from Knoxville. 
 
 “ On the side of this ridge next to Knoxville, our company was sta- 
 tioned, at the distance of twenty steps from each other, with orders to 
 reserve their fire till the most forward of the Indian party was advanced 
 far enough to present a mark for the most eastern man of our own 
 party. He was then to fire. This fire was to be the signal for every 
 man of our own to take aim with precision. This would be favoured 
 by the halt thus occasioned in the ranks of the Indians. And these 
 latter, it was hoped, astonished at the sudden and fatal discharge of 
 rifles, extended over so long a line, would apprehend a most formidable 
 ambuscade, would quit all thoughts of further aggression, and betake 
 themselves to the readiest and safest retreat. 
 
 “ But to provide for the worst, it was settled beforehand, that each 
 man, on discharging his piece, without stopping to watch the flight of 
 the Indians, should make the best of his way to Knoxville, lodge him- 
 self in the block-house, where three hundred muskets had been depo- 
 sited by the United States, and where the two oldest citizens of the 
 forty, John McFarland and Robert Williams, were left behind to run 
 bullets and load. 
 
 “ Here it was proposed to make a last and desperate struggle ; that, 
 by possessing every port-hole in the building, and by dealing,lead and 
 powder through it to the best advantage, they might extort from an 
 enemy of nearly forty times their number, a high price for the hazard 
 of all they had on earth that was dear and precious. There were then 
 two stores in Knoxville, Nathaniel Cowan’s and James Miller’s. Though 
 the practical heroism of the well-concerted, and thus far, ably conducted 
 stratagem, in consequence of the sudden retreat of the enemy, was not 
 put to the test of actual experiment, yet an incident fraught with so / 
 
VOLUNTEERS CONCENTRATE AT ISh’s. 
 
 583 
 
 much magnanimity in the early fortunes of Knoxville, should not he 
 blotted from the records of her fame. It is an incident on which the 
 memory of her sons will linger without tiring, when the din of party 
 shall be hushed and it 0 strife forgotten. These men of a former day, 
 were ‘made of sterner stuff’ than to shrink from danger at the call of 
 duty. And it will be left to the pen of a future historian to do justice 
 to that little band of thirty-eight citizens, who flinched not from the 
 deliberate exposure of their persons in the open field, within the calcu- 
 lated gunshot of fifteen hundred of the fleetest running and boldest 
 savages.”— Foster's Essay before E. T. Historical and Antiquarian 
 Society. 
 
 At Ish’s, preparations were made for an immediate pur- 
 suit, and an invasion of the Indian country. The troops in 
 the less remote settlements were ordered into service. Not 
 knowing the number of the invaders, the extent of the mis- 
 chief they had done, nor the point of the next attack, Gen- 
 eral Sevier detached Captain Harrison, to cross the Holston 
 and make discoveries ; and, if necessary, give pursuit. That 
 officer, with his company oflight-horse, set out for the trail of 
 the Indians, and, from the smoking ruins of the station, he traced 
 it to a place where they had stopped to feed, in the direction 
 of Clinch River. Finding that the enemy had abandoned 
 the attack on Knoxville, the light-horse returned to Sevier’s 
 camp, and expresses were dispatched to Washington District 
 for reinforcements, to intercept and pursue the enemy. 
 Another company of light-horse, commanded by Captain 
 James Richardson, joined the camp at Ish’s ; and, in a short 
 time, Sevier’s command was augmented by the arrival of 
 troops under Colonel Kelly and others, in numbers sufficient 
 to authorize him to invade the enemy’s country. 
 
 The daring inroad of almost the entire available force of 
 the Creeks and Cherokees under John Watts, one of the most 
 resolute and enterprising of their chiefs, though abortive, 
 and, in its main object, entirely unsuccessful, went far to con- 
 vince the authorities of the Territory, and the Executive of 
 the Federal Government, that it was no longer wise or safe 
 to insist upon and continue their past policy of limiting the 
 action of the country to defensive warfare only, against the 
 Indians. Of this, the people on the frontier had, long since, 
 been fully satisfied ; and against it, had frequently uttered 
 their earnest remonstrance. A sudden and destructive blow 
 
584 
 
 ARMY MARCHES UNDER SEVIER, 
 
 against the heart of the Indian nation, was loudly called for, 
 and was immediately authorized by Secretary Smith, then 
 acting as Governor, in the absence of Blount. The army 
 already at Ish's, under General Sevier, was reinforced by ad- 
 ditional troops from Washington District, commanded by 
 Colonel John Blair, and from Hamilton District, under Col. 
 Christian. Major Elholm acted as Adjutant on this cam- 
 paign. Thus reinforced, the army under Sevier amounted 
 to six or seven hundred mounted men. They crossed Little 
 Tennessee River at a ford above Lowry’s Ferry, and con- 
 tinued a rapid march across Hiwassee and Amoyah, till they 
 reached Estinaula, an Indian village. Here they found 
 abundant supplies of grain and meat, and remained there 
 two or three days. Having burned the town, which they 
 found deserted, their encampment was formed in its imme- 
 diate vicinity, and upon the banks of Estinaula River, in 
 two parallel lines — Christian’s regiment nearest to the river, 
 and Blair’s a little south of it, with sentries around it in all 
 directions. The flower of the enemies’ warriors were 
 around the camp, and would, doubtless, make a night attack. 
 Noises were heard at the approach of evening, from the sur- 
 rounding woods, which indicated that mischief was medita- 
 ted. Tlie horses were tethered at a point where they were 
 least likely to be stolen ; sentinels were doubled, and the 
 whole army laid upon their arms Late at night, the Indians 
 were heard by the sentries, some hundred yards distant, ap- 
 proaching in a stealthy, slow, uniform movement, creeping 
 abreast over the high sedge grass. They were allowed to 
 come so near, that the sentries heard the Indians cock their 
 guns. At that instant, their own guns were fired, and they 
 then retired, in a sidewise direction, to the camp. The In- 
 dians discharged their guns, and, at once, set up the war- 
 whoop and yells of defiance. The sidewise movement of 
 the retiring sentries saved most of them from the aim of the 
 Indians. Gaut, by pursuing a straight course, was danger- 
 ously, but not mortally, wounded. 
 
 The Indian fire produced some confusion in the camp, du- 
 ring which, some captive squaws and children escaped. But 
 the warriors kept at such a distance, that the fire from the 
 
AND ENCOUNTERS THE INDIANS AT ETOWAH. 
 
 585 
 
 camp could not reach them ; and the darkness prevented an 
 outward movement against them. The Indians, soon after, 
 withdrew — having inflicted not a single wound, with the ex- 
 ception of that received by Gaut. 
 
 The next night, the camp-fires were kept burning at the 
 same place, but the army decamped to the west The In- 
 dians, during the night, made another attack ; but, firing 
 only at the vacated camp and finding their mistake, suddenly 
 withdrew. 
 
 Finding no Indians to attack at Estinaula, Sevier took up 
 the line of march in the direction of Etowah, with the Coosa 
 on the right. Near the confluence of these streams, and 
 immediately below, was the Indian town, Etowah. The 
 river of the same name had to be crossed before the town 
 could be attacked. Firing was heard in the direction of the 
 town, and apprehending a general attack, Sevier judiciously 
 ordered a halt, and sent forward a detachment from the main 
 body against the town. By mistake of Carey and Findleston, 
 the guides, the party was led to a ferry half a mile below 
 the fording place, and immediately opposite the town. A 
 few of the foremost plunged into the stream and were soon 
 in swimming water, and pushing their way to the opposite 
 bank. The main body, however, discovering the mistake, 
 wheeled to the left and rode rapidly up the river to the ford, 
 where they crossed with the design of riding down to the 
 town, and attacking: it without delay. 
 
 The Indians, having previously obtained information of 
 Sevier’s approach, had made excavations in the bank of the 
 river nearest their town, each of them large enough for one 
 man to lie with his gun poised, and with a leisurely aim to 
 shoot our men as soon as they came in sight. In these, the 
 warriors were safely entrenched. But perceiving the move- 
 ment of horsemen down the river, and suspecting some other 
 project 'was devised against their town, they quitted, precipi- 
 tately, their places of ambush, crossed the river, and hurried 
 down on its other side to defend it. 
 
 A fortunate mistake of the pilots, thus drew this formidable 
 party out of its entrenchments, exposed it in the open field, 
 and left to the invaders a safe passage through that bank of 
 
586 
 
 DECISIVE BATTLE AT ROME. 
 
 the river so recently lined with armed men. But for this 
 mistake, the horsemen could not have escaped a most deadly 
 fire, and, in all probability, a summary defeat. But the 
 method of fighting was now entirely changed. The crossing 
 by the horsemen was too quickly done, to allow the Indians 
 to regain their hiding places ; their ranks were scattered, 
 and the main body of them, hemmed in between the assail- 
 ants and the river. This done, the men dismounted, betook 
 themselves to trees, and poured in a deadly fire upon the 
 enemy. They resisted bravely, under the lead of the King 
 Fisher, one of their most distinguished Braves. He made a 
 daring sally within a few yards of where one of the party j 
 Hugh L. White, was standing, and the action was becoming 
 sharp and spirited, when White and a few comrades near 
 him, levelling their rifles, this formidable champion fell, and 
 his warriors immediately fled. Three brave men lost their 
 lives in this engagement. Pruett and Weir died on the spot — 
 Wallace, the next day. 
 
 The town was set on fire late in the evening, and the 
 troops encamped near it. During the night they were attacked 
 by the Indians. Benjamin McNutt, Esq., and William Gaut, 
 were standing as sentinels in an exposed point of the en- 
 campment. The Indians approached stealthily upon them, 
 and each of them fired. Gaut was shot through the body } 
 was carried several days’ march on a litter, but ultimately 
 recovered. 
 
 The beautiful town of Rome, in Georgia, is near the place 
 where the battle of Etowah was fought. 
 
 After the engagement, the Indians made good their escape 
 into the secret passes of the adjoining country. The army, 
 after the town was burned, rescued from the places in which 
 they were obliged to conceal themselves, Col. Kelly and the 
 five horsemen, who had swam their horses at the lower 
 crossing. 
 
 Sevier having accomplished thus much of the object of the 
 expedition, desired to extend his conquests to Indian towns 
 still lower down the country. The guides informed him that 
 there was but one accessible path by which the army could 
 reach these distant, villages, and that it could be passed only 
 
sevier’s official report. 
 
 587 
 
 under disadvantageous circumstances. Little hope remained 
 of meeting the enemy in such numbers as to inflict upon the 
 perpetrators of the mischief at Cavet’s, suitable punishment 
 for their atrocities. They had been expelled from the fron- 
 tier — the heart of their country had been penetrated — their 
 warriors defeated and baffled, and their towns and crops 
 burned up and destroyed. Orders for the return march were 
 given, and the aitmy soon after reached their homes in safety.* 
 
 Sevier took command again at Ish’s, from which place 
 he made to Gov. Blount his official report : 
 
 Ish’s Mill, 25th October, llOS. 
 
 Sir : — In obedience to an order from Secretary Smith, I marched in 
 pureuit of the large body of Indians, who, on the 25th of last month, 
 did the mischief in Knox county, near the Grassy Valley. For the safety 
 and security of our army, I crossed at one of the upper fords, on the 
 Tennessee River, below the mountains. We then bent our course for 
 Hiwassee, with expectations of striking the trail, and before we reached 
 that river, we discovered four large ones, making directly into the 
 mountains. We proceeded across the Hiwassee, and directed our march 
 for Estanaula, on the Coosa River, at which place we arrived on the 
 14th instant, discovering on our way further trails leading to the afore- 
 said place. We there made some Cherokee prisoners, who informed 
 us that John Watts headed the army lately out on our frontiers ; that 
 the same was composed of Indians, more or less, from every town in 
 the Cherokee nation ; that from the Turkey’s town, Sallyquoah, Coosa- 
 waytah, and several other principal ones, almost to a man was out, 
 joined by a large number of the Upper Creeks, who had passed that 
 place on their return, only a few days since, and had made for a town 
 at the mouth of Hightower River. We, after refreshing the troops, 
 marched for that place, taking the path that leads to that town, along 
 which the Creeks had marched, in five large trails. On the llth inst., 
 in the afternoon, we arrived at the forks of Coosa and Hightower Rivers. 
 Colonel Kelly was ordered, with a part of the Knox regiment, to endea- 
 vour to cross the Hightower. The Creeks, and a number of Cherokees, 
 had entrenched themselves to obstruct the passage. Colonel Kelly and 
 his party passed down the river, half a mile below the ford, and began 
 to cross at a private place, where there was no ford. Himself and a 
 few others swam over the river; the Indians discovering this movement, 
 immediately left their entrenchments, and ran down the river to oppose 
 their passage, expecting, as I suppose, the whole intended crossing at the 
 lower place. Capt. Evans, immediately, with his company of mounted 
 
 * Narratives of the late James Rogers and of Benjamin M’Nutt, Esq., of Knox 
 county, each of whom was on this expedition, and participated largely in military 
 and civil services during the infancy of the country. Squire McNutt still survives, 
 and has furnished other details of early times in Tennessee. 
 
588 
 
 ETOWAH CAMPAIGN CLOSES 
 
 infantry, strained their horses back to the upper ford, and began to cross 
 the river. Very few had got to the south bank, before the Indians, who 
 had discovered their mistake, returned and received them furiously at 
 the rising of the bank. An engagement instantly took place, and be- 
 came very warm, and, notwithstanding the enemy were at least four to 
 one in numbers, besides the advantage of situation, Captain Evans, with 
 his heroic company, put them in a short time entirely to flight. They 
 left several dead on the ground, and were seen to carry others off both 
 on foot and horse. Bark and trails of blood from the wounded, were 
 to be seen in every quarter. Their encampment fell into our hands, 
 with a number of their guns, many of which were of the Spanish sort, 
 with their budgets, blankets and match coats, together with some horses. 
 We lost three men in this engagement, which is all that have fell during 
 the time of our route, although this last attack was the fourth the enemy 
 had made upon us, but in the others, repulsed without loss. After the 
 last engagement, we crossed the main Coosa, where they had thrown up 
 some works and evacuated ; they suffered us to pass unmolested. We 
 then proceeded on our way down the main river, near the Turnip Moun- 
 tain, destroying, in our way, several Creek and Cherokee towns, which 
 they had settled together on each side of the river, and from which they 
 have all fled, with apparent precipitation, leaving almost every thing be- 
 hind them. Neither did they, after the last engagement, attempt to 
 annoy or interrupt us on our march, in any manner whatever. I have 
 great reason to believer their ardour and spirit were well checked. The 
 party flogged at Hightower, were those which had been out with Watts. 
 There are three of our men slightly wounded, and two or three horses 
 killed ; but the Indians did not, as I h ave heard of, get a single horse 
 from us the time we were out. We took and destroyed near three hun- 
 dred beeves, many of which were of the best and largest kind. Of 
 course, their losing so much provision must distress them very much. 
 Many women and children might have been taken ; but, from motives 
 of humanity, I did not encourage it to be done, and several taken were 
 suffered to make their escape. Your Excellency knows the disposition 
 of many that were out on this expedition, and can readily account for 
 this conduct. 
 
 The Etowah campaign was the last military service ren- 
 dered by Sevier, and the only one for which he ever received 
 compensation from the Government. For nearly twenty 
 years he had been constantly engaged in incessant and un- 
 remitted service. He was in thirty-five battles, some of 
 them hardly contested and decisive. He was never wounded, 
 and in all his campaigns and battles, was successful and 
 the victor. He was careful of the lives of his soldiery, and, 
 although he always led them to the victory, he lost, in all 
 his engagements with the enemy, but fifty-six men. The 
 secret of his invariable success, was the impetuosity and 
 
THE MILITARY LIFE OF SEVIER. 
 
 5S9 
 
 vigour of his charge. Himself an accomplished horseman, 
 a graceful rider, passionately fond of a spirited charger, 
 always well mounted at the head of his dragoons, he was at 
 once in the midst of the fight. His rapid movement, always 
 unexpected and sudden, disconcerted the enemy, and at the 
 first onset decided the victory. He was the first to introduce 
 the Indian w’ar- whoop in his battles with the savages, the 
 tories, or the British. More harmless than the leaden missile, 
 it was not less efficient, and was always the precursor and 
 attendant of victory. The prisoners at King’s Mountain 
 said, “ We could stand your fighting, but your cursed hal- 
 looing confused us; we thought the mountains had regiments 
 instead of companies.” Sevier’s enthusiasm was contagious ; 
 he imparted it to his men. He was the idol of the soldiery, 
 and his orders were obeyed cheerfully and executed with 
 precision. In a military service of twenty years, one in- 
 stance is not known of insubordination on the part of the 
 soldier or of discipline by the commander. 
 
 Sevier’s troops were generally his neighbours, and the 
 members of his own family. Often no public provision was 
 made for their pay, equipments or subsistence. These were 
 furnished by himself, being at once Commander, Commis- 
 sariat and Paymaster. The soldiery rendezvoused at his 
 house, which often became a cantonment — his fields, ripe or 
 unripe, were given up to his horsemen ; powder and lead, 
 provisions, clothing, even all he had, belonged to his men. 
 
 The Etowah campaign terminated the military services 
 of General Sevier. Hereafter, we will have to record his 
 not less important agency in the civil affairs of Tennessee. 
 
 The notice of the Paymaster, as published in the Gazette, 
 1 ^ of the payment of the troops in the service of the 
 
 ? Territory, furnishes the only list that can now be pro- 
 cured, of the captains who served in 1792 and 1793. They 
 are here given : Captains Hugh Beard, Lusk, Brown, Rains, 
 Doherty, Briant, Henley, Tate, Christian, Gillespie, Samples, 
 Crawford, Cooper, Grier, Milliken, Childers, White, Gregg, 
 Allison, King, Marshall, Bunch, Chisum, Richardson, Evans, 
 Copeland, Cantrell, Murray, Shannon, Cordery, Nash, Parker, 
 Edmonson, Frazier, Wm. Blackmore, Johnston, Hoggat, G. 
 
500 
 
 FUNERAL PROCESSION ATTACKED. 
 
 D. Blackmore, Walker; Lieutenant G. L. Davidson; Cornet 
 Milligan. For services in 1793, Captain Cox, Lieutenants 
 Birds, Hubbard and Henderson, Sergeant McClellan. 
 
 While Sevier was absent with so many men, on the Eto- 
 wah campaign, the Indians came in suddenly and killed, on 
 the south of the river, above Dandridge, a lad and a woman. 
 They were found, stuck in the throat like hogs, the skin ta- 
 ken entirely off their heads, and the bodies le/t naked. A 
 party of friends accompanied their remains to a burying- 
 ground three miles off. Two of these, Cunningham and Ja- 
 cob Jenkins, incautiously went on some distance before the 
 rest. A body of fifty Indians fired upon them. The former 
 was killed, scalped, and bruised with war-clubs. He was 
 found, directly after, by the company, carried to the burial 
 place, and interred with the other two in the same grave. 
 Jenkins received several bullets shot through his clothes, and 
 a blow from a war-club ; but his horse being struck with a 
 ball, dashed down a precipice, and brought off the rider in 
 safety. 
 
 Hearing of this massacre ol his friends, W. 1J. Cunning- 
 ham went from his home on Boyd’s Creek, for the purpose of 
 advising them to remove to the stronger station at Mc- 
 Gaughey’s ; and to bring home with him his son Jesse, (then 
 a little boy,) who was staying at the Buffalo Lick. He car- 
 ried his little son before him, the distance of thirty miles; 
 leaving the main road, and pursuing by-paths, he escaped the 
 attack of the Indians till he got within about half a mile of 
 the fort, when he passed through a party of them, thirty in 
 number. It was now night, and he escaped unhurt.* The 
 Indians prowled around the station, but finding it too well 
 defended to justify an assault, they broke open the stable 
 doors, stole the horses of the besieged, and withdrew. The 
 condition of the country did not allow of pursuit. 
 
 Two weeks after, Mr. Cunningham was going out from the 
 fort alone. At the distance of two hundred yards from the 
 fort gate, he was fired upon by a party of ten Indians, lying 
 
 -The son, whom he also carried in safety through this imminent exposure, is 
 the Rev. Jesse Cunningham, of Monroe county, Tennessee. 
 
SPENCER KILLED AT SPENCEr’s HILL. 
 
 591 
 
 in ambush fifteen steps from him. He escaped every ball, 
 but the Indians having intercepted his return to the gate, 
 chased him in the opposite direction. The fire from one of 
 their guns proved effectual, and wounded him. He turned 
 the corner of a fence, and would have been soon overtaken, 
 but that the men in the fort sallied out and made pursuit of 
 the Indians ; upon discovering which, the Indians withdrew 
 . to their retreats in the mountains. 
 
 Information reached Knoxville that, since the expedition 
 
 ( carried on against the Cherokees by General Sevier, 
 1794 j J ’ 
 
 ( and which terminated with the battle of Etowah, the 
 
 Indians had, in a great measure, ceased their hostilities 
 against the Cumberland settlements ; and some of the peo- 
 ple there solicited, through Col. Ford, one of the members 
 of the Territorial Legislature, that General Sevier would 
 undertake a future campaign in the same direction, as the 
 most effectual means of procuring a permanent peace. 
 
 From the same source the information was communicated, 
 that “ a campaign was going against the Spanish posses- 
 sions by French troops, now at the mouth of Cumberland, 
 and garrisoned at that place. Gen. George Rogers Clarke 
 has the command of this expedition, and they are to embark 
 at the mouth of Cumberland.” 
 
 It may be here remarked, that the disposition to engage in 
 the projected campaign never became general in the Terri- 
 tory, and, meeting with little s}’ mpathy from the masses, was 
 soon after abandoned. 
 
 # 
 
 1794, April 1. — A party of Indians, thirty or forty in num- 
 ber, ambuscaded a path near Calvin’s Block-house, on 
 Crooked Creek, and fired upon Samuel Wear, his two sons 
 and William McMurray. They escaped unhurt. 
 
 A more tragical issue attended an attack made the same 
 day by a party of forty Indians, near the Crab-Orchard, upon 
 a companv of travellers. Thomas Sharp Spencer was killed, 
 and James Walker was wounded. The rest of the party 
 escaped to the Point Block-house. The hill down which the 
 whites were descending, and on which Spencer was killed, 
 is still known as Spencer’s Hill. 
 
 April 2. — Twenty-five Indians secreted themselves at 
 
592 
 
 DREADFUL MASSACRE OF MR. CASTEEL. 
 
 night, near the Block-house, at the mouth of Town Creek, 
 and, next morning, fired upon and killed William Green. 
 Attempting to storm the block-house, the Indians were re- 
 pulsed, and several of their warriors wounded. 
 
 On the 15th, the Indians stole ten horses from Mr. Gibbs. 
 More than fifty horses had been stolen in that neighbour- 
 hood within a few days. 
 
 Amongst other acts of Indian hostility perpetrated in 
 Knox county, was one which occurred on the 22d April, 
 1794. William Casteel lived south of French Broad, about 
 nine miles above Knoxville, and two miles from the then 
 residence of Doctor Cozby. The latter had been an old In- 
 dian fighter, from the first settlement of the country, and 
 was, of course, held in deadly hatred by the Indians, and had 
 often been selected as the victim of their vengeance. He 
 had his house always well prepared for defence, and never 
 allowed himself to be taken by surprise. At evening, of the 
 22d, his domestic animals gave the usual tokens of the 
 presence of Indians, when, observing from his house, he 
 could discern, obscurely, the stealthy march, in Indian file, 
 of twenty warriors passing across the end of a short lane, 
 and concealing themselves in the fence corners and the 
 adjoining woods. The door was at once barricaded, the fire 
 extinguished, two guns primed afresh, and with these he 
 prepared to defend his castle and his family, consisting of 
 his wife and several children, one of whom only could shoot. 
 A space of more than one hundred yards had been cleared 
 around his building, and there was light enough to see the 
 approach of an assailant within that distance. From the 
 port-holes, in each angle of the house, a constant watch 
 was kept, and orders were given by Cozby, in a loud voice, 
 to the members of his family, as if commanding a platoon 
 of soldiers. The stratagem succeeded. An hour before 
 day the Indians withdrew, and went off in the direction of 
 Casteel’s cabin. Early next morning Anthony Ragan came 
 to Casteel’s, and found him dead, from a lick received on 
 his head from a war club ; he was scalped, and lying near 
 the fire, dressed, and with leggins on, having arose early for 
 the purpose, as was supposed, of accompanying Reagan to a 
 
MASSACRE OF A WHOLE FAMILY. 
 
 593 
 
 hunt, which had been agreed on the preceding day. Mrs. 
 Casteel was found on the floor, scalped in two places — a 
 proof that it required two warriors to conquer her — her night- 
 cap with several holes cut through it, a butcher knife stuck 
 into her side, one arm broken, and a part of the hand of the 
 other arm cut off. She seemed to have made resistance with 
 an axe, found near her, stained with blood. One of the 
 daughters received a stab, which, piercing through the body, 
 went into the bed-clothes. She and two brothers were 
 scalped. The youngest child, two years old, having the 
 cranium entirely denuded of the scalp, was thrown into the 
 chimney corner. Elizabeth, the oldest daughter, ten years 
 old, now Mrs. Dunlap, still living near the scene of the hor- 
 rid massacre of her father’s whole family, was found welter- 
 ing in her blood, flowing from six wounds inflicted with a 
 tomahawk. Besides these, she was also scalped. Reagan 
 gave the alarm to the settlement ; urgent pursuit was im- 
 mediately made, but the savages escaped. While prepa- 
 rations were made for the interment of the massacred fami- 
 ly, Elizabeth showed signs of life, moaning when an attempt 
 was made, by Cob Ramsey, who was present, to close one 
 of the gashes upon her head. She was taken to Mr. Shook’s, 
 who then owned Major Swan’s mills, where Doctor Cozby 
 dressed her wounds. She did not recover for two years. 
 The rest of the family, six in number, were buried in one 
 grave, under a black-oak tree, still standing. Mr. Casteel 
 was a soldier of the Revolution, from Green Brier county, 
 Va., and had never received any thing for his services. Of 
 the heroic wife and mother, nothing more is known. An 
 effort has been made to procure a pension for the surviving 
 daughter. Thus far it has been fruitless. 
 
 Governor Blount found it almost impossible to restrain the 
 inhabitants south of French Broad, where this massacre 
 took place, from an immediate invasion of the Indian terri- 
 tory. His efforts in this would not have succeeded, but for 
 the timely assistance and advice of the civil officers of Knox 
 county, south of the river. These met in committee, June 
 20, at the house of James Beard : Present — James White, 
 
 Samuel Newell, William Wallace, William Hambleton, 
 38 
 
594 
 
 scott’s boat captured and his crew killed. 
 
 William Lowry, David Craig and Thomas McCulloch. An 
 address to their fellow citizens was agreed upon, printed and 
 circulated. It is an ably written document, and had great 
 influence in tranquillizing the people and pursuading them to 
 acquiesce in the design of the Government, to obtain peace 
 by negotiation, rather than by arms. 
 
 May 8. — Post-offices were not, at this date, extended so far 
 in the interior as Knoxville. It was expected by Mr. Muh- 
 lenberg, Postmaster General, that against October, this facil- 
 ity would be afforded to the people of the Territory. 
 
 We copy or condense from Haywood : 
 
 “In June, Scott’s boat left Knoxville for Natchez, on board of which 
 were William Scott, John Pettegrew, William Pettegrew, Mr. Tate, Mr. 
 Young, John Harkins, three women, four children, and twenty negroes. 
 As this boat passed down the Tennessee, it was tired upon by the Lower 
 Cherokees of the Running Water, and at the Long Island village, with- 
 out receiving any injury. On the other hand, the fire was returned, and 
 two Indians were wounded. A large party of a hundred and fifty 
 Indians then collected, headed by Unacala, the same who was wounded 
 at the attack upon Buchanan’s Station, in September, - 1792, and they 
 pursued the boat to the Muscle Shoals, where they overtook it. They 
 killed all the white people who were in it, made prisoners of the ne- 
 groes, and plundered the boat of its lading. The white people, in 
 making resistance, killed three Indians and wounded a fourth. 
 
 “On the 24th of July, a party of Indians killed John Ish at his 
 plough, in his field, within one hundred and eighty yards of his own 
 block-house, and scalped him. Ish lived eighteen miles below Knox- 
 ville. He left a wife and eleven children, the eldest not more than 
 eleven years of age. Major King and Lieutenant Cunningham, with 
 John Boggs and ten other Cherokees, sent by the Hanging Maw in 
 pursuit of the offenders, returned a few days afterwards with a Creek 
 fellow, whom the Hanging Maw wished to scalp, but was dissuaded 
 from his purpose, and took only the war-lock, with which they danced 
 the scalp dance all night. But the Cherokees apprehended for this act 
 the resentment of the Creek nation. Major King, in the pursuit, camo 
 upon the trail of the murderers, leading into the path that was travelled 
 from Coyatee to Hiwassee, which he kept to a point within two miles of 
 Hiwassee. He there received information that those he was in pursuit 
 of, passed with a fresh scalp about the middle of the afternoon, and 
 would, it was supposed, tarry all night at Wococee, eight miles ahead. 
 The pursuers went to Wococee, and, finding the murderers still ahead, 
 they continued the pursuit till they were overtaken, by a runner from 
 Hiwassee, with information that one of Ish’s murderers was behind, 
 stopped at a little village two miles from Hiwassee. Despairing to over- 
 take the main body, they turned back and found the Creek, as the run- 
 ner had reported, in the house of a Cherokee. After some consultation 
 
m’clelland’s repulse ok the creeks. 
 
 595 
 
 whether the Cherokees or white people should kill or take him, the 
 Maw’s son, Willioe, with three others, seized and tied him. Having' 
 tied him, four warriors took him in charge, who were particularly care- 
 ful that he should not escape until he was delivered, confined in cords, 
 to the agent of the United States, Mr. McKee, at the Tellico Block- 
 house, on the evening of the 28th of July. The Governor issued a 
 commission of Oyer and Terminer for the trial of this Indian, pursuant- 
 to the stipulations contained in the treaty of New- York. A court was 
 held by Judge Anderson, and an indictment was found by the grand 
 jury against Obongpohego,'" of Toccaucaugee, on Oakfuskee. When 
 charged, he confessed the fact. But the court permitted him to with- 
 draw his plea and to plead not guilty ; which being done, the trial pro- 
 ceeded, and the petit jury found him guilty of the murder of John Ish, 
 as charged in the bill of indictment. 
 
 “ On the 13th, Lieutenant McClelland, who had with him thirty-seven 
 of Captain Evans’s company, was attacked on the Cumberland path, 
 near the Crab-Orchard, eighteen miles from South-West Point, by a 
 body of Creeks, consisting of upwards of one hundred warriors ; he 
 made a brave and soldierly defence, twice repelling the Creeks, but was 
 finally compelled to retreat, with the loss of four men killed, one 
 wounded, four missing, thirty-one horses, thirty-eight saddles and bridles, 
 blankets, great-coats and provisions. On the side of the Creeks the 
 loss was not ascertained, but from the obstinacy and bravery of the 
 defence, and the report of Lieutenant McClelland and others, there was 
 reason to believe they lost from twelve to sixteen ; the Creek commander 
 was conspicuously bold, and was numbered amongst the slain. The 
 white men who were killed, were Paul Cunningham, Daniel Hitchcock, 
 William Flennegan, Stephen Renfroe; Abraham Byrd was wounded; 
 the four men who were missing from the detachment after the action, 
 afterwards reached South-West Point. William Lea, one of that num- 
 ber, arrived on the 18th, and reported that he had been made prisoner 
 by the Indians, and had escaped from them. 
 
 “On the 20th of December, a party of Indians, about two hours after 
 dark, secreted themselves within twenty feet of the door of Thomas 
 Cowan, and fired upon his wife and son as they stepped into the yard, 
 and pierced the clothes of the latter with eight balls, but he escaped, 
 under cover of the night, into the woods, and Mrs. Cowan returned into 
 the house unhurt. The firing alarmed the neighbourhood, and Captain 
 Baird was at Cowan’s with twenty men, within an hour and a half, and 
 patroled the woods the whole night in search of the Indians, hoping 
 they would strike up a fire by which he could discover them ; on the 
 next day, by order of Governor Blount, he went in pursuit of them.” 
 
 Hanging Maw declared that his nation would no longer 
 listen to Spanish emissaries and agents, and that the Upper 
 and Lower Towns were now disposed for peace. His over- 
 tures had scarcely reached the Governor, when a party of 
 
 * Angli.ee — “ Dance upon nothing.” His name was thus significant of his fate- 
 He was hung. 
 
596 
 
 MURDER OF VALENTINE SEVIER’S SONS. 
 
 Indians — principally Creeks — nearly one thousand strong, 
 marched through the country towards the white settlements. 
 Governor Blount ordered cut Colonel White, with. half of the 
 military force of Knox county'', to oppose them. The Chero- 
 kee women and children were brought to the north side of 
 the Tennessee, and placed under the protection of the block- 
 houses, and the warriors of the Upper Towns agreed to co- 
 operate with Colonel White in resisting the advancing Creek 
 army. That formidable party advanced no further than 
 Wills Town, and there dispersed in various directions. In- 
 telligence of the victories of Wayne over the North-Western 
 Indians had reached the Cherokees, who, apprehensive that 
 the arms of the conquerors of their northern allies would be 
 turned against themselves, sued for peace through Tuca- 
 latague or Double Head, a principal chief. Governor Blount 
 assented to a conference, to be held at Tellico, and there 
 accepted the proposed friendship with the Cherokees, and 
 arranged a general exchange of prisoners and of all the 
 property taken during the war. 
 
 We have already mentioned, as given in Governor Blount’s 
 official report to the War Department, the names of some 
 who fell victims to Indian massacre. To these are here 
 added others, as detailed by Haywood, or furnished from 
 other sources. 
 
 1791, June 2. — “The Indians killed John Thompson in his own com 
 field, within five miles of Nashville; on the 14th of June they killed 
 John Gibson and wounded McMoon, in Gibson’s field, within eight 
 miles of Nashville; they killed Benjamin Kirkendall in his own house, 
 within two miles of Colonel Winchester’s, in Sumner county, and plun- 
 dered his house of everything the Indians could use. In June, three 
 travellers from Natchez to Nashville, were found dead on the trace near 
 the mouth of Duck River; there were eight in company and only two 
 come in ; on the 3d of July, Thomas Fletcher and two other men, were 
 killed on the north side of Cumberland, near the mouth of Red River — 
 their heads were entirely skinned ; and in the same month, a man was 
 killed within a hundred and fifty yards of Major Wilson’s, on the pub- 
 lic road, as he was riding up to the house ; on the 12th, Thomas White 
 was killed on the Cumberland Mountain and on the Cumberland trace. 
 
 “ On Monday, the 19th of January, 1792, the Indians killed Robert 
 Sevier and William Sevier, sons of Valentine Sevier, who lived at the 
 mouth of Red River, near the present site of Clarkesville : they had 
 gone to the relief of the distressed families on the Cumberland River, 
 who had sent an express for assistance ; the officers of Tennessee county 
 
GENERAL ROBERTSON WOUNDED. 
 
 597 
 
 could give none. A part of the crew was on shore getting provisions 
 to be carried in boats to the sufferers ; the boats were ahead of them 
 when these young men discovered the enemy, whom they mistook for 
 their own party, the Indians having been seen late in the evening at 
 a considerable distance from that place. Robert Sevier hailed them, 
 who answered they were friends, with which answer being satisfied, he 
 sailed on, and the Indians carelessly began to chop with their hatchets, 
 till the young men in the boats got very near them. Robert said to 
 the man who was with him in the boats, ‘ these are not our friends, 
 steer off.’ The Indians then fired upon them ; the man leaped out of 
 the boat, and left them in it about three rods distant from the shore. 
 Before the 25th, William was found and buried, but Robert met a party 
 of twelve white men, pursued, but did not overtake the Indians. On 
 the 16th of the same month, Valentine, a third son of this unfortunate 
 parent, also fell by the hands of the savages ; he was in a boat ascend- 
 ing the river, and was fired upon and kihed dead in it; two others 
 were wounded, one of them, John Rice, died, and both he and Valen- 
 tine were buried about sixty miles below the mouth of Red River. 
 Until Valentine fell, he and two others kept up so brisk a fire, that they 
 intimidated the Indians and saved the crew. Deprived of all his sons 
 who had come with him to Cumberland in so short a time, the afflicted 
 parent wrote to his brother, General Sevier, to send to him his son John 
 to come and see him ; as, said he, in the moving language of suffering 
 innocence, I have no other sons but small ones. On the 28th of Janu- 
 ary, 1792, Oliver Williams and Jason Thompson, at night encamped 
 on the road leading from Bledsoe’s Station to the ford on Cumberland 
 River, on the north side of the river, where they were tired upon by In- 
 dians and both wounded, and their horses and other articles were taken 
 from them. About the beginning of March, 1792. the Indians attacked 
 the house of Mr. Thompson, within seven miles of Nashville, killed and 
 scalped the old man, his wife, his son and a daughter, and made pri- 
 soners Mrs. Caffrey, her son, a small boy, and Miss Thompson. On 
 the 5th of March, 1792, twenty-five Indians attacked Brown’s Station, 
 eight miles from Nashville, and killed four boys ; on the 6th they burnt 
 Dunham’s Station; on the 12th they killed McMurray on his own 
 plantation, at the mouth of Stone’s River ; on the 5th of April, they 
 killed Mrs. Radcliff and three children; on the 8th they killed Benja- 
 min Williams and party, consisting of eight men, in the heart of the 
 Cumberland settlements ; on Station-Camp Creek a boy was wounded 
 in three places ; at the same place two boys, sons of Robert Desha, 
 were killed in the field in the daytime, near their father’s house, and 
 also Kirkendall, on the 16th of May, 1792, and a man on the 1 7 th. On 
 the 24th of May, 1792, General Robertson and his son Jonathan Rob- 
 ertson, were at or near Robertson’s Lick, half a mile from his station, 
 where they were fired upon by a party of Indians ; the General was 
 wotinded in the arm, and thrown by his horse amongst the Indians; his 
 son was wounded through the hip, but seeing the dangerous situation 
 in which his father was, he dismounted, though so badly wounded, and 
 fired on them as they rushed towards his father ; this checked them for 
 
598 
 
 INDIAN HOSTILITIES RENEWED. 
 
 a moment, and gave time to the General to get off, and both got safely 
 into the station. On the 25th, a boy was wounded near the General’s, 
 and died of his wounds on the 6th of June ; on Sunday, the 13th of 
 May, a. man and two girls were fired on by the Indians within four miles 
 of Nashville ; the man and one girl escaped, the other was tomahawked 
 by the Indians. On the 26th of June, 1792, Zigler’s Station, within 
 two miles of .Bledsoe’s Lick, was attacked by a party of Indians, first in 
 the afternoon and again by night; they killed five persons, burnt one iu 
 the station and wounded four others ; three escaped unhurt. 
 
 “On the 31st of August, an attack was made on John Birkley and 
 his son, in his peach orchard near Bledsoe’s Lick ; the former was 
 wounded, but bravely returned the fire and killed an Indian in the act 
 of scalping his son. On the night of the 27th of August, a party of 
 fifteen Creeks put fire to Captain Morgan’s house near the same place; 
 the tire was extinguished and the party repulsed by the aid of Captain 
 Lusk’s company, stationed for the protection of the frontiers. On the 
 preceding night, the same party opened the stables of James Douglass, 
 and took his horses ; the next day Samuel Wilson fell in with them, 
 wounded one, put the party to flight and regained the horses, a gun 
 and a bloody blanket. Shortly before the 11th of August, 1792, the 
 Indians killed a boy and wounded a man near Bledsoe’s Lick. 
 
 “ On Monday, the 8th of October, William Stuart was killed about 
 six miles from Nashville, on the north side of Cumberland. On the 
 night of the same day, the Indian’s burnt Stump’s distillery, on White’* 
 Creek, on the north side of Cumberland; On the 9th of October, a 
 party of Indians went to Sycamore Creek, eighteen miles from Nash- 
 ville, and burnt the house of James Frazier, Mr. Riley and of Major 
 Coffield, a large quantity of corn, and shot down a number of hogs. 
 They then proceeded to Bushy Creek of Red River, where they burnt 
 the house of Obadiah Roberts, and took off a number of horses : they 
 were followed by a party of whites, who killed one of the Indians and 
 regained the horses. 
 
 “ On the 7th of December, 1792, a party of cavalry, in service for the 
 protection of the District of Mero, about eight miles from Nashville, 
 was fired upon by about twenty Indians, who put them to flight, killed 
 John Hankins, who was scalped and his body much mangled. The 
 Indians stole horses in this district without intermission, through all the 
 month of December, 1792. 
 
 “ On the 29th of December, John Haggard was killed and scalped, 
 about six miles from Nashville ; twelve balls were shot into him. His 
 wife was killed by the Indians in the summer’, and he left five small 
 children in poverty and wretchedness.” 
 
 Through James A. Robertson and Anthony Foster, Go 
 
 i vernor Blount procured the attendance, at Nashville, 
 
 1792 < 1 
 
 ( of the principal chiefs and warriors of the Choctaw 
 and Chickasaw tribes. The conference with them began on 
 the 7th, and continued to the 10th of August. By Governor 
 Blount and General Pickens, valuable goods were presented 
 
CONFERENCE AT NASHVILLE WITH INDIANS. 
 
 599 
 
 to the Indians, as evidences of the friendship of the United 
 States. To each of the chie s, a rifle was also given, and the 
 thanks of the Government were tendered to such of them as 
 had assisted Wayne’s operations against the northern In- 
 dians. It was also promised, that a trading post should be 
 established, for the benefit of the Indians, at the mouth of 
 Bear Creek. 
 
 A few Cherokees were present during the conference at 
 Nashville, and, it was afterwards believed, were secretly try- 
 ing to discover the strength and situation of the country) 
 with a view to the expedition they were then plotting against 
 Cumberland. 
 
 “ General Robertson immediately raised the militia, leaving a few to 
 keep up the different stations ; he collected five hundred men and placed 
 them under the command of Col. Elijah Robertson, Col. Mansco and Col. 
 Winchester, and Captain John Rains, two miles from Nashville. A 
 troop of horse, commanded by Colonel Hays, was ordered to discover, if 
 possible, at what point the Indians intended to make the meditated 
 attack. 
 
 “Abraham Castleman, one of the militia soldiers, had withdrawn him- 
 self from the army for some days, and at length returned and stated, 
 that he had been as far as the Black Fox’s camp, where he had seen 
 the signs of a numerous army of Indians, and that they might shortly 
 be expected in the neighbourhood of Nashville. The General sent off 
 Captain Rains to ascertain the reality of the facts detailed by Castle- 
 man ; Rains took with him a young man, Abraham Kennedy, and 
 went to the place where Murfreesborough now stands, and halted in the 
 woods, and retnainingon the ground all night, he next day made a cir- 
 cuit around the spring where the Black Fox’s camp was. The Black 
 Fox was an Indian chief, who formerly hunted and encamped at the 
 spring not far from the spot where now is the site of Murfreesborough. 
 In this circuit, he examined all the paths which led to the camp from 
 the direction of the Cherokee country ; finding no traces of Indians, he 
 ventured to the spring ; he then returned home by way of Buchanan’s 
 Station, and informed the people that the traces of an Indian army were 
 nowhere to be seen. Soon after the return of Captain Rains, the troops 
 were marched back to Nashville. 
 
 “Two other men, however, were sent off to reconnoitre the country 
 through which the Indians were necessarily to pass in coming to Nash- 
 ville. These were Jonathan Gee and Seward Clayton, who went on 
 the Indian trace leading through the place where Murfreesborough 
 now stands, to Nashville, eight or ten miles from Buchanan’s Station ; 
 as they travelled along the path talking loudly, they saw meeting them 
 the advance of the Indian army, who called to them in English to know 
 who they were, to which question, without disguise, they answered. Up- 
 on being asked in return, who they were, they said they were spies from 
 
600 
 
 DETAILS OF THE BRAVE DEFENCE AT BUCHANAn’s, 
 
 General Robertson’s Station, and were returning home ; both parties 
 advanced till they came within a few steps of each other, when the In- 
 dians fired and killed Gee dead in the road. They broke the arm of the 
 other, who ran into the woods, but being’ pursued by a great number 
 of them, they overtook and killed him also. Thence they marched 
 rank and file, in three lines abreast, with quick step till they arrived at 
 Buchanan’s Station, where the people were wholly unapprised of their 
 coming, and did not expect it. This was on Sunday next after the dis- 
 charge of the troops, being the 30th of September.” 
 
 In addition to the account, as given in Governor Blount’s 
 letter to the Secretary of War, of the attack on Buchanan’s 
 Station, we extract further details of that invasion, and of 
 the remarkable and successful defence by the brave men 
 within the fort. 
 
 “ McRory rose and looked towards the place whence they ran, and 
 saw sixty Indians not more than a few feet from the gate of the fort ; ho 
 instantly fired through the port-hole, and killed the chief leader of the In- 
 dians, who on receiving the wound, immediately expired. He was a Shaw- 
 nee, and had quarrelled with Watts, who insisted upon deferring the attack 
 uutil day, and until after the. garrison had dispersed to their various avoca- 
 tions. The whole garrison, consisting of nineteen men, flew to arms, and 
 fired upon the Indians through the port-holes ; the Indians, in turn, fired 
 upon the fort. Captain Rains was sent for ; he and five other men went off 
 in full gallop to Buchanan’s Station, and arrived just in time to see the 
 Indians leaving the plantation at the fort; they had lost some of their 
 men ; some were found on the ground near the outside wall of the fort; 
 others were carried off and buried in different places, and were after- 
 wards found by the white people. Of the wounded, were John Watts, 
 with a ball through one thigh, which lodged in the other, supposed to 
 be dangerous ; the White Man Killer, the Dragging Canoe’s brother, 
 the Owl’s son, a young man of the Lookout Mountain, a Creek war- 
 rior, who died, and a young warrior of the Running Water, who died. 
 
 “ There were also sundry young Cherokee warriors with Watts, besides 
 those who lived in the five Lower Towns, particularly John Walker and 
 George Fields, two young half-breeds who had been raised amongst the 
 white people, and in whom, every one who knew them, had the utmost 
 confidence. The former was quite a stripling, and, apparently, the most 
 good-natured youth the Governor ever saw ; for so he thought him. 
 They acted as the advanced spies of Watts’s party, and decoyed and 
 killed Gee and Clayton. The Cherokees said that many of the Creeks 
 kept at such a distance from the station, that they could hardly shoot a 
 bullet to it. With Watts, there were sixteen Cherokees from Hiwas- 
 see ; one from Keuka ; five from Connasauga, and one from Strington’s. 
 
 “When the Indians retired, General Robertson hastily collected what 
 troops he could, and pursued them to Hart’s big spring, near Stewart's 
 Creek. It was discovered that they marched out as well as in, in three 
 columns. The general’s force, not being more than a hundred and 
 
AND HEROIC REPULSE AT GREENFIELD. 
 
 001 
 
 eighty men, and that of the enemy being 'greatly superior, and they 
 having got far ahead, he deemed it most advisable to return home, 
 ■which he did.” 
 
 Indian aggressions were repeated almost daily, and evi- 
 „ i denced that a numerous bodv of Indians was in the 
 l neighbourhood, as a small party would not have been 
 so daring as to continue their repeated attacks, and still 
 remain near the scenes of their atrocious cruelties, ready to 
 renew and extend them. An opportunity was soon found by 
 the Indians to attack the station near Greenfield. This was 
 a position of some strength, and guarded by a few men. A 
 number of negroes had left the station early in the morning 
 of April 27, to work in the adjoining fields. As was the 
 general custom, a sentinel, John Jarvis, accompanied them. 
 About two hundred and sixty Indians had, the previous night, 
 formed an ambuscade, not far from the field, and when the 
 horses were attached to the ploughs by the negroes, and 
 their attention was directed to their work, they were sud- 
 denly fired upon by the Indians, who formed a line between 
 them and the fort across a field, so as to cut off their retreat, 
 and intercept them, should they attempt it in the direction of 
 the station. As soon as the firing and the war whoop reach- 
 ed the men in the fort, four of them — William Hall, William 
 Neely, William Wilson and another — snatched up their guns 
 and ran to the gate of the station, from which point they 
 could see over the entire field, where the enemy was pur- 
 suing the sentinel and the negroes. It was evident that 
 without a bold and immediate rescue, their comrades would 
 ail be killed. Hall and the other soldiers dashed impetuous- 
 ly forward, and met the advancing Indian column at a cross 
 fence in the field, received their fire, took the fence from 
 them, killing three or four of the warriors, and keeping the 
 whole of them in check, until all but one of the unarmed 
 negroes reached the fort. This one was shot on his retreat, 
 and after he had got fifty yards within the fence, from which 
 the whites were firing. Poor Jarvis was unfortunately killed. 
 It is remarkable, that though nearly a hundred guns were 
 fired at the gallant men who were bravely repulsing the 
 Indians, distant not more than thirty yards, not one of them 
 
602 
 
 GENERAL IIALl’s GALLANTRY. 
 
 
 was seriously hurt. Mr. Hall was without his hat — a ball 
 passed through his hair, cutting it off close to the skin, and 
 abrading it about three or four inches long, but doing slight 
 damage. The little party gained the fort, under a heavy 
 fire from the Indians. This they kept up for a considerable 
 time, but at such a distance that the guns from the station 
 could not reach the enemy. During their firing, the Indians 
 caught all the horses and took them off, carrying upon them 
 a number of their dead and wounded, raising the war whoop 
 as they marched off'. 
 
 This repulse, at Greenfield, of two hundred and sixty war- 
 riors, well armed and flushed with late successes, made by four 
 men, exposed to the constant fire of the Indians during the 
 whole attack, is almost without a parallel. One of the brave 
 men who participated in it, General William Hall, of Sum- 
 ner county, still survives, venerated and esteemed by his 
 countrymen for his gallantry, his patriotism and private 
 worth. He has since occupied the highest stations in the 
 civil and military service of his state, and presents a proud 
 specimen of the heroic age and of the early times of Ten- 
 nessee. The three comrades of Hall exhibited also signal 
 bravery, which, in the case of Neely and Hall, was stimu- 
 lated by the spirit of revenge each of them felt for the loss, 
 by the savages, of a father and two brothers, on previous 
 occasions. Such intrepidity awed the assailants from fur- 
 ther attempts upon the station, and they withdrew from that 
 place. But, upon the next day, Francis Ransom was killed 
 on the Kentucky Trace, near the Dripping Spring. 
 
 In the spring of this year, more than six hundred Creek 
 warriors crossed the Tennessee, at the Lower Chero- 
 kee Towns, on a war excursion against the Cumber- 
 land settlements. Small detachments of this body scattered 
 themselves in every direction, and perpetrated mischief where* 
 ever it could be effected with safety, or wherever the stations 
 were defenceless. The people were incensed that the Gov- 
 ernment left them thus without protection, and was so tardy 
 in making provision for their defence. Their complaints, on 
 account of this neglect, induced Governor Blount to dosome- 
 for their relief. On the 29th of April, he sent one 
 
 1793 
 
 
 thing 
 
MAJOR BEARD’S ROUTE. 
 
 603 
 
 hundred and twenty men from South-West Point, under the 
 command of Major Hugh Beard, to assist the people of Mero 
 District against the Creek invasion. In going to and return- 
 ing from Nashville, on this expedition, that officer passed 
 by the head of the southern confluents of the Cumberland, 
 and altogether south of the settlements formed on that 
 stream. In that route, he would pass through the midst of 
 the main Creek camps, from which their small parties so 
 repeatedly issued in their murderous excursions against the 
 frontiers. He hoped thus to intercept or to intimidate them. 
 He found many of their camps abandoned, and was able to 
 meet only three small parties ; of these, he killed only a few 
 and wounded several. His troops escaped unhurt, except in 
 an attack on Smith’s River, where Mr. Alexander received a 
 slight flesh wound. Beard returned to Knoxville in June. 
 The enemy had escaped him. The main body of them 
 having eluded his search, had re-crossed the Tennessee, on 
 their return from Cumberland and Kentucky, with numerous 
 scalps and horses, the trophies of their successful invasion. 
 One good result, it was believed, would follow Beard’s cam- 
 paign. The new practice of searching for the Indians in 
 the thickets and at their camping places, would, when it 
 became known to them, inspire no small apprehension of 
 danger in crossing the Tennessee, or making an invasion so 
 distant from their homes. 
 
 Notwithstanding this expedition of Major Beard, and the 
 vigilance of the people on Cumberland, the Indians suc- 
 ceeded occasionally in their attacks. At Johnson’s Station, 
 near Nashville, a party of them, on the 9th of May, flred 
 upon and wounded three boys, one of whom they scalped. 
 A fourth they caught by the jacket, but he stripped it off, 
 and escaped unhurt. 
 
 Early in May, Nathaniel Teal, the carrier of the mail, had 
 arrived in Nashville from Natchez. After delivering the 
 mail, he went out in the evening and. spent the night with 
 General Robertson, five miles from town. Next morning- 
 within a mile of the General’s house, the Indians fired upon 
 and killed him. Two companies of horsemen were instantly 
 paraded — one, commanded by old Captain John Rains ; the 
 
i793 
 
 604 
 
 CAPTAINS GORDON AND RAINS 
 
 other, by Captain John Gordon, the same who afterwards, in 
 1813, commanded the spy company in the Creek war. To 
 the latter, Joseph Brown attached himself. He was still 
 suffering from the wound he had received in the ambuscade 
 on Laurel River, in March, but he had made the heroic re- 
 solve, to obtain redress for the injuries inflicted on his family, 
 and was among the first to volunteer on this occasion. The 
 force of the two companies united, was one hundred. They 
 were instructed by General Robertson, to scour the woods, 
 and paths and crossing places, of creeks and rivers, and to 
 discover the trails of the enemy coming against Cumberland. 
 They set out on the 12th of May. Teal was killed by a 
 party of Indians who had made a hunt on Cathey’s Creek, 
 about twenty miles west of where Columbia now stands. 
 Needing horses to carry the results of their hunt home, they 
 had come into the settlements and stole a number, and killed 
 Teal. The horsemen soon found their trail, and on the fifth 
 day overtook them, on the second creek that runs into Ten- 
 nessee, below the mouth of Elk. The Indians had stopped to 
 noon, and twenty men were sent forward to fire upon them. 
 The hills were open woods, but the creek bottom was a 
 close cane-brake. Rains’ men advanced on the right of the 
 Indians, while Gordon’s went to their left. When the ad- 
 vance of twenty fired, the two companies dashed forward 
 with all speed. Gordon’s company came to a high bluff 
 of the creek, which horses could not descend, when the Cap- 
 tain and Joseph Brown dismounted, and took down the pre- 
 cipice, and each of them killed an Indian. The horsemen 
 had to ride around the bluff, and the most of the Indians es- 
 caped into the cane-brake before they were seen. Six of 
 them were killed and a boy captured. The companies then 
 returned home. 
 
 But the Indians continued to prowl around and infest the 
 settlements, and, as early as the 20th of May, killed John 
 Hacker, on Drake’s Creek, and on the 4th of June, Adarn 
 Fleener, Richard Robertson and William Bartlett, were also 
 killed, and Abraham Young and John Mayfield were wound- 
 ed. On the 20th, James Steele and his daughter were killed 
 and his son wounded. July 1st, the Indians attacked Hay’s 
 
OVERTAKE AND DEFEAT THE INDIANS. 
 
 605 
 
 Station and killed Jacob and Joseph Castleman, and wound- 
 ed Hans Castleman. On the 18th, William Campbell was 
 wounded, near Nashville. On the 15th, Mr. Joslin was 
 wounded at his own house, and on the 19th, Mr. Smith was 
 killed at Johnson’s Lick. 
 
 Under these repeated sufferings, it is not strange that the 
 people cried aloud for revenge, and demanded permission to 
 retaliate, upon the savages, the injuries^nd cruel treatment 
 they had received from them. But the cautious policy of 
 Government still inculcated lessons of resignation and for- 
 bearance. The state of the negotiation with Spain was 
 plead as an excuse lor repressing, for the time being, the 
 pent-up indignation of the Western people under the wan- 
 ton provocations and murders they daily endured. But law- 
 abiding as they were, and loyal to the authority of Congress 
 as they afterwards proved themselves to be, the spirit to 
 avenge their wrongs and redress themselves could no longer 
 be suppressed. 
 
 “About the first of August, 1793, Abraham Castleman raised a 
 company of volunteers to assist him in retaliating upon the Indians a 
 great number of injuries which he “had received from them, particularly 
 those of killing several of his near relations. On arriving near the 
 Tennessee, ten of his company turned back, because General Robertson’s 
 orders prohibited all scouting parties from crossing that river. But 
 Castleman, whom the Indians called the Fool Warrior, with Zachariah 
 Maclin, John Camp, Eli Hammond, Ezekiel Caruthers and Frederick 
 Stull, all dressed like Indians, and painted in the same manner, so as 
 not to be distinguished, crossed the river, as is generally believed, below 
 Nickajack, and took the trace towards the Indian nation, which led, as 
 they supposed, to Will’s Town. After travelling about ten miles on the 
 south side of the river, they came in view of a camp of forty or fifty 
 Creeks, who were on their way to kill and plunder the whites in the 
 Cumberland settlements. They were eating two and two, and betrayed 
 no alarm at the approach of their supposed friends, but continued eat- 
 ing until the small squad of white men came within a few paces of 
 them, and suddenly raised their guns and fired on them; Castleman 
 killed two Indians, and each of the others one. The shock being so 
 sudden and unexpected, dismayed and confounded the Indians, and 
 before they could recover from it and resume the possession of them- 
 selves, the whites had retreated so far as to render pursuit unavailing ; 
 this happened on the 15th of August, 1793. On the 21st they all got 
 hack safe to Nashville. 
 
 “ About the 5th of August, Captains Rains and Cordon pursued a 
 party of Indians who had killed one Samuel Miller, near Joslin’s Sta- 
 
006 
 
 ROBERTSON CONCEIVES THE DESIGN OF 
 
 tion ; after crossing Dnck River their signs were very fresh ; on pursu- 
 ing them seven miles further, they were overtaken ; the pursuers killed 
 some of them on the ground, and took prisoner a boy of twelve years 
 of age. One of them called out that he was a Chickasaw, and by that 
 finesse made his escape. On examining the prisoner, they proved to 
 be all of them Creeks from the Upper Uphalie towns. 
 
 “Some short time before the 9th of November, 1 793, some horses 
 having been stolen, and Indians seen near Croft’s mill, in Sumner coun- 
 ty, Colonel James Winchester ordered out Lieutenant Snoddy with 
 thirty men, to scour the woods about the Cany Fork, and, if possible, 
 to discover the main encampment. On the 4th of November he met ' 
 two Indians, who fled, and lie pursued them to a large camp near' the 
 Rock Island ford of the Cany Fork, where he took much spoils. Eve- 
 ning coming on, he withdrew from the camp, about a mile, to an emi- 
 nence, where he halted his men, and they lay on their arms all night. 
 About the dawn of day they appeared advancing with trailed arms, 1 
 and at the distance of about thirty yards a firing commenced and was 
 kept up from three to four rounds, when the Indians retreated, leaving 
 one fellow on the ground, and were seen to bear off several wounded. 
 Lieutenant Snoddy had two men killed and three wounded. He de- 
 served and received much commendation for his gallantry. 
 
 “ In this year, 1793, the Indians fired on Thomas Sharpe Spencer, 
 near where Major David Wilson since lived, in Sumner county ; Mrs. A. 
 Bledsoe, in company, was thrown from her horse, but Spencer bravely 
 rescued her from the hands of the Indians, and conducted her to a place 
 of safety. About this time several persons were killed in the county of jj 
 Sumner, whose names are not recollected. In this year James McCuno 
 was killed, by the Indians, at Hays’s Station, on Stone’s River; 
 one of the Castleman’s was also killed and another wounded. About 
 the 1st of December, 1 7 9 3, James Randal Robertson, son of General 
 Robertson, and John Grimes, were killed by the Cherokees of the Low- 
 er towns, on the waters of the Cany Fork, where they had gone to trap 
 for beavers. 
 
 “At this time, many of our people were in slavery with the Creek 
 Indians, and were treated by them, in all respects, as slaves. In the 
 Cavelegies, Mrs. Williams and child, Alice Thompson, of Nashviiie, 
 Mrs. Caffrey and child, of Nashville. In the Hog villages, Mr. Brown, 
 of the District of Mero. In the Clewatly town, Miss Scarlet. In the 
 White Grounds, Miss Wilson, of the District of Mero, and a boy and 
 girl. In the Colummies, a boy five years of age. At the Big Tallas- 
 see, a boy, eight or ten years of age, and a girl, seven or eight years of 
 age. In the Pocontala-hassee, a boy, twelve or thirteen years of age. 
 
 In the Oakfuskee, a lad fifteen years of age. In the Red Ground, a 
 man called John. In Casauders, a boy whose age and name were not 
 known. 
 
 “As early as the 13th of November, 1793, General Robertson had 
 conceived, and secretly harboured, the design of destroying the five 
 Lower towns of the Cherokees ; he expressed a decided disapprobation 
 of all negotiation with them, as it would but lull the people of the 
 Territory into security, and make them the surer victims of Cherokee 
 
INVADING THE LOWER TOWNS. 
 
 G07 
 
 perfidy. He, by way of introducing the subject to notice, asked, of 
 General Sevier, in a familiar way, when the Lower towns would get their 
 deserts ? It was hinted by the Governor, said he, that it will be in the 
 spring ; I suspect before that time. But it may be immaterial to us, 
 considering our exposed situation and the little protection we have. He 
 pressed General Sevier to carry an expedition of fifteen hundred men 
 into the Cherokee country before the ensuing spring. We shall see that 
 the former idea, with whomsoever it may have originated, came to ma- 
 turity in the following year ; though at this time, no one, for fear of the 
 displeasure of Government, would either be the author, advocate, pro- 
 moter or even connive at the design. 
 
 “On the 20th of February, 1794, numerous small divisions of In- 
 dians appeared in all parts of the frontiers of Mero District, marking 
 every path and plantation with the fatal signs of their visitation. They 
 stole nearly all the horses that belonged to the district, and butchered a 
 number of the citizens. In many instances they left the divided limbs 
 of the slain scattered over the ground. Jonathan Robertson, from 
 whom upon all occasions the Indians had received as good as they sent, 
 was, about this time, with three lads of the name of Cowan, fired upon 
 by five Indiaus ; one of the lads was slightly wounded, and a ball passed 
 through Robertson’s hat; he and the lads returned the fire and drove 
 off the Indians, having wounded two of them mortally, as was supposed. 
 On the death of Helen, Captain Murray followed the Indians, and at 
 the distance of one hundred and twenty miles came up with them on 
 the banks of the Tennessee, and destroyed the whole party to the num- 
 ber of eleven ; two women of the party were captured and treated with 
 humanity. 
 
 “On the 20th of March, 1794, James Bryan was fired upon by the 
 Indians from an ambuscade near a path, within four miles of Nashville ; 
 and, on the same day, Charles Bratton was killed and scalped near the 
 house of Major White, in Sumner county. 
 
 “ On the 21st of April, 1794, Anthony Bledsoe, son of Colonel An- 
 thony Bledsoe, and Anthony Bledsoe, son of Colonel Isaac Bledsoe, 
 were killed and scalped by Indians near a stone quarry, near the bouse 
 of -Searcy Smith, in Sumner county ; at the same time, two horses and a 
 negro fellow were taken from Mr. Smith’s wagon. 
 
 “On the 29th of May, 1794, in the absence of General Robertson, 
 Colonel Winchester was ordered to keep up the allowed number of 
 troops on the frontiers. On the 11th of June, they killed Mrs. Gear 
 within four miles of Nashville. Captain Gordon followed the Indians 
 on their retreat upwards of ninety miles, killed one of them and lost 
 one of his party, Robert McRory. He overtook them at the foot of 
 Cumberland Mountain, near the place where Caldwell’s bridge now is. 
 Captain Gordon was a brave and active officer, distinguished through 
 life for a never failing presence of mind, as well as for the purest integ- 
 rity and independence of principle ; he had much energy both of mind 
 and body, and was in all, or nearly all the expeditions from Tennessee, 
 which were carried on against the Indians or other enemies of the coun- 
 try, and in all of them was conspicuous for these qualities. He now 
 
608 
 
 ROUTE TO N1CKAJACK DISCOVERED. 
 
 sleeps with the men of other times, but his repose is guarded by the 
 affectionate recollections of all who knew him. 
 
 “On the 6th of July. 1794, Isaac Mayfield was killed by Indians 
 within five miles of Nashville. He was standing sentinel for his son-in- 
 law while he hoed his corn, and got the first tire at the Indians; but 
 there being from twelve to fifteen of them, and very near to him, ho 
 could not escape. Eight balls penetrated his body; lie was scalped, a 
 new English bayonet was thrust through his face, and two bloody toma- 
 hawks left near his mangled body. He was the sixth person of his 
 name who had been killed or captured by the Creeks and Cherokees. j 
 Major George Winchester was killed and scalped, by the Indians, near 
 Major Wilson’s, in the District of' Mero, on the public road leading from 
 his own house to Sumner Court House; he was a Justice of the Peace, 
 and was on his way to Court; he was a valuable citizen, and a good 
 civil and military officer.” 
 
 Joseph Brown, during the summer of this year, accompa- 
 1794 i nied a detachment that went on a scout to the head 
 l of Elk. While there, Col. Roberts expressed a wish 
 to cross the mountain, to ascertain whether a road could be 
 found by which to reach the Tennessee at Nickajack. Brown 
 believed it possible ; and he, Joshua Thomas, and Big Elisha 
 Green, volunteered to go with Roberts on the hazardous en- 
 terprise. They found no difficulty in crossing the mountain, 
 and went on down Battle Creek to the river bottom, and up 
 by Lowry’s Island, and nearly opposite to Nickajack, and re- 
 turned ; after walking nearly all night, they were ascending 
 the mountain by sunrise next morning, and crossed it that 
 evening on their homeward march.* 
 
 This discovery of a practicable route to Nickajack for 
 horsemen, had its influence, a short time afterwards, when 
 the romantic expedition to that place was undertaken. 
 
 By the renewed attacks from the banditti Indians, in the 
 five Lower Towns on the Tennessee, upon both extremes 
 of the Territory, the minds of the people became ulcerated 
 in the highest degree against the Government. They com- 
 plained to Governor Blount, who, although sympathizing in 
 their sufferings, felt himself restricted by the orders of the 
 Secretary of War, from authorizing an invasion of the In- 
 dian villages from which the mischief proceeded. One of 
 these orders, considered as prohibitory of any offensive mea- 
 
 * Brown’s Letters. 
 
VOLUNTEERS RENDEZVOUS NEAR NASHVILLE. 
 
 609 
 
 sures, was in these words: — “With respect to destroying the 
 Lower Towns, however vigorous such a measure might be, 
 or whatever good consequences might result from it, I am 
 instructed specially, by the President, to say that he does not 
 consider himself authorized to direct any such measure, more 
 especially as the whole subject was before the last session of 
 Congress, who did not think proper to authorize or direct 
 offensive operations.” This order,- dated the 29th of July, 
 1794, reached the Governor, and its contents were commu- 
 nicated to the people in the midst of the frequent attacks 
 made upon their lives and property in August. Patience, 
 under such provocations ? had ceased to be a virtue, and long- 
 er forbearance was considered only as a license for re- 
 newed outrage and cruelty. The people determined to pro- 
 tect themselves, and to adopt the only measures which would 
 render their protection permanent and effectual. They re- 
 solved to invade the towns, and retaliate upon their savage 
 inhabitants the injuries they had so long suffered from them. 
 
 Some concert was necessary to bring to the proposed expe- 
 dition a sufficient force to make it at once short and success- 
 ful. An appeal was, therefore, made to the martial spirit of 
 Kentucky, to aid the people of the Territory in punishing an 
 enemy, from whom, they too, had been common sufferers. 
 Colonel Whitley, of that state, was prevailed upon, through 
 Sampson Williams, to enter into the scheme. He agreed to 
 bring to the Cumberland settlements, against a day designa- 
 ted, such troops as he could raise.. Colonel Ford levied 
 troops in that part of the country between Nashville and 
 Clarkesville. These constituted a company, which was 
 commanded by Captain Miles, and marched to the ap- 
 pointed rendezvous at the block-house, two miles east of 
 Buchanan’s. Colonel John Montgomery brought a compa- 
 ny from Clarkesville to the place of meeting, and General 
 Robertson, who had long before advised the expedition, raised 
 volunteers for it from Nashville and its neighbourhood. 
 
 In the meantime. Major Ore, of Hamilton District, had 
 been detached, by Governor Blount, with a command of men 
 for the protection of the frontiers of Mero District, and op- 
 portunely came with them to Nashville, at the moment the 
 39 
 
610 
 
 GENERAL ROBERTSON’S ORDER TO MAJOR ORE. 
 
 other troops were concentrating there. Learning the object 
 of the meditated expedition, he entered heartily into the pro- 
 ject, and marched his command to the rendezvous. His 
 troops, alone, had been levied by public authority, and to 
 give pretext for the expedition, and a colour of a claim for 
 pay of the men, and the outfit and equipments furnished from 
 the public stores of the General Government, Major Ore as- 
 sumed the command, and it was generally called “Ore’s Ex- 
 pedition.” Colonel Whitley, soon after, arrived at the ren- 
 dezvous, when it was agreed that he should have the chief 
 command of the whole. Colonel Montgomery was elected 
 commander of the troops raised in the Territory. The order 
 for the march was, however, given to Major Ore, as com- 
 mander of the expedition, to whom General Robertson gave 
 the following : 
 
 Nashville, September 6th, 1*794. 
 
 Major Ore : — The object of your command is, to defend the District 
 of Mero against the Creeks and Cherokees of the Lower Towns, which 
 I have received information, is about to invade it, as also to punish such 
 Indians as have committed recent depredations. 
 
 For these objects, you will march, with the men under your command, 
 from Brown’s Block-house, on the eighth instant, and proceed along Tay- 
 lor’s Race, towards the Tennessee ; and if you do not meet this party be- 
 fore you arrive at the Tennessee, you will pass it, and destroy the Lower |j 
 Cherokee Towns, which must serve as a check to the expected invaders ; 
 taking care to spare women and children, and to treat all prisoners who 
 may fall into your hands, with humanity, and thereby teach those sava- 
 ges to spare the citizens of the United States, under similar circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Should you, in your march, discover the trails of Indians return- 
 ing from the commission of recent depredations on the frontiers, 
 which can generally be distinguished by the horses stolen being 
 shod, you are to give pursuit to such parties, even to the towns from 
 whence they come, and punish them for their aggressions in an exemplary 
 manner, to the terror of others from the commission of similar offences, 
 provided this can be consistent with the main object of your command, 
 as above expressed, the defence of the District of Mero against the ex- 
 pected party of Creeks and Cherokees. 
 
 I have the utmost confidence in your patriotism and bravery, and with 
 my warmest wishes for your success, lam, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 James Robertson, B. G. 
 
 On the next day, Sunday, the 7th, the army marched to the 
 Black Fox’s camp, and there remained that night ; they then 
 crossed the Barren Fork of Duck River, near the Stone Fort 
 where Irwin’s Store stood in 1823; thence to Fennison’s 
 
ARMY CROSSES THE TENNESSEE. 
 
 611 
 
 Spring; thence, crossing Elk, at Caldwell’s Bridge and 
 Cumberland Mountain, they reached the Tennessee, about 
 three miles below the mouth of Sequachee. It was night 
 when the troops arrived at the river, and most of them re- 
 mained upon its bank till daylight ; though, in their eager- 
 ness for retaliation, a few went across before it was light. 
 The river there is nearly three-quarters of a mile wide. The 
 horses were left, with a part of the men, on the north side. 
 Some troops formed rafts of dry cane and other light mate- 
 rial, at hand, and went over dry, while others crossed over 
 without any such assistance. Of these, were Joseph Brown 
 and William Trousdale, since Governor of Tennessee, and 
 a United States General in the Mexican War. The former 
 was then a grown man, and had fulfilled, to the letter, the 
 prediction of the old Indian woman, who had, five years be- 
 fore, warned the confederates, “that if he was not killed 
 then, he would soon be grown, and would get away and 
 pilot an army there, and have them all cut off.” He had 
 been the pilot, and with Fendlestone, did conduct the troops 
 along the route, unknown to any of them, and though disa- 
 bled, from a wound through his shoulder, which was still dis- 
 charging pieces of exfoliated bone, he, with one hand, swam 
 across the river, and was among the first to reach its south- 
 ern bank. 
 
 As soon as the troops had crossed, and were collected to- 
 gether, they marched up the mountain, between the point of 
 which and the river, stood the town of Nickajack. A mile 
 higher up the river, after passing through a very narrow 
 strait formed by the river on one side, and the mountain 
 jutting into and projecting over it on the other, they came 
 to a spacious plain of low lands, on which stood another town 
 called Running Water. They penetrated into the heart of 
 Nickajack before they were discovered, and first alarmed the 
 Indians by the report of their guns. 
 
 Nickajack was a small town, inhabited by two or three 
 hundred men and their families. The army killed in their 
 town a considerable number of warriors. Some of the In- 
 dians endeavoured to make their escape in canoes, to the 
 other side of the river, but were fired upon, and men, women 
 and children perished in the deathful havoc. Some were 
 
012 
 
 REINFORCEMENT FROM RUNNING WATER. 
 
 killed in the canoes, some jumped into the water and at- 
 tempted to swim off ; but before they could get to a secure 
 distance, were killed by the firing of the troops, who fol- 
 lowed after them so closely, as to be at the river nearly as 
 soon as the Indians themselves. Eighteen were taken 
 prisoners — two boys, fifteen girls and one woman. A great 
 number of the enemy were killed, amongst whom were 
 fifty-five warriors. Both towns were reduced to ashes. 
 
 When the Indians in the other town, called Running Wa- 
 ter, heard the firing below, they repaired instantly to the 
 place of action, and met their terrified brethren retreating to 
 their town. From the place of meeting they began to return, 
 but made a stand at the narrow pass before described, 
 placing themselves behind the rocks, and upon the sides of 
 the mountain ; here they kept up a running fire, when the 
 Cumberland troops came up. 
 
 “ The troops were landed a little before day. At daylight 
 they fell into ranks, and were counted by Captain John Gor- 
 don, and the exact number who had crossed over was ascer- 
 tained to be two hundred and sixty-five.” At the back of 
 Nickajack field, the men were formed into line of battle 
 among the cane. Col. Whitley was on the right, and struck 
 above the mouth of the creek that rose in the field. Col. 
 Montgomery was on the right of the troops from the Ter- 
 ritory. Orders were given for the two wings to march, so as to 
 strike the river above and below-the towns. On the march, two 
 houses were found, standing out in the field, and about two 
 hundred and fifty yards from the town. Expecting that from 
 these houses their approach would be discovered by the In- 
 dians, the troops were here directed to push with all speed 
 to the town. The corn was growing close up to and around 
 the houses. Near the house on the left the firing com- 
 menced, and was returned by the Indians, one of whom was 
 here killed. From one of the houses already mentioned, a 
 plain path was seen, leading to the town. William Pillow 
 got into it, and ran rapidly along it till he reached the com- 
 mons. Perceiving that he had got in advance of such of the 
 troops as had come through the corn field, Pillow halted till 
 others had come up. The march or run was then continued 
 
THE HEROINE OF NICKAJACK. 
 
 613 
 
 by the doors of the houses, which were all open. The In- 
 dians, at the report of the first gun, had run off to the bank 
 of the river. The troops pursued the leading way to the 
 landing. Here they saw five or six large canoes, stored with 
 goods and Indians, and twenty-five or thirty warriors stand- 
 ing on the shore, near the edge of the water. At these Pil- 
 low' fired, and soon after him a whole platoon sent a volley 
 of rifle balls, from the effect of which scarce a single In- 
 dian escaped alive. A few by diving, and others by cover- 
 ing themselves over in the canoes with goods, escaped and 
 got out of reach of the rifles. 
 
 About the same time the havoc took place at the landing 
 below, Col. Whitley attacked the Indians above the mouth 
 of the Creek. They were not more than a gun-shot apart. 
 
 Fifteen men had been directed to stop near the two houses, 
 in the corn field, and way-lay them until the firing had taken 
 place in the town. When the report of the rifles was heard, 
 this detachment attacked the houses. A squaw had re- 
 mained outside to listen. A fellow came to the door and 
 was shot dowm. Those within drew him inside and closed 
 the door, leaving the squaw on the outside. She attempted 
 to escape by flight, but after a hard chase, she was taken 
 prisoner. The warriors within, made holes through the 
 wall, and made a desperate defence. The squaw taken 
 prisoner was carried up to the town, and placed among the 
 other prisoners in canoes. As they were taking them down 
 the river, to the crossing place, the squaw loosed her clothes, 
 sprang head foremost into the river, disengaging herself 
 artfully from her clothes and leaving them floating upon the 
 water. She swam with great agility, and was rapidly ma- 
 king her escape. Some hallooed shoot her — shoot her. But 
 others, admiring her energy, her activity, and her boldness, 
 replied, “ she is too smart to kill,” and allowed the heroine to 
 to escape. 
 
 After the troops got on the mountain, on the other side of 
 the town, Joseph Brown was sent back with twenty men to 
 head and intercept the Indians, at the mouth of the creek 
 below the town, when the main body of the assailants should 
 have driven the enemy to that point. This he effected sue- 
 
G14 
 
 SURPRISE OF THE INDIANS WHEN INVADED. 
 
 cessfully, though his return was resisted the whole way down, 
 about a quarter of a mile, by the constant fire of the In- 
 dians. Brown and his men guarded the mouth of the creek, 
 while the troops above were killing and capturing those be- 
 tween the two parties. When Brown met the main body, he 
 inquired if they had taken any prisoners, and was immedi- 
 ately conducted to a house in which a number of them had 
 been fastened up. When he came to its door he was at 
 once recognized by the captives, who appeared to be horror 
 stricken — remembering, no doubt, that they had murdered 
 his people in the same town, five years before. At length, 
 one of them ventured te speak to him, reminding Brown 
 that his life had been spared by them, and importuning him 
 now to plead in their behalf. He quieted her apprehension, 
 by remarking that these were white people, who did not kill 
 women and children. Her answer was, “ O see skinney Co- 
 tanconey !” “Oh, that is good news for the wretched !” 
 These land pirates had supposed their towns to be inac- 
 cessible, and were reposing at their ease, in conscious secu- 
 rity, up to the moment when, under the guidance of Brown, 
 the riflemen burst in upon them and dispelled the illusion. 
 “ Where did you come from ?” said one of the astonished pri- 
 soners to Brown ; “ did you come from the clouds ? or did you 
 sprout out of the ground ?” “ We have not come from the 
 clouds,” answered Brown, “ but we can go any where we 
 please. We did not wish to kill the Indians, but you have 
 forced that sad necessity upon us.” 
 
 The number of the killed was greater than that given by 
 Haywood, from which this account is principally copied. 
 Many of the Indians who escaped to the river, would dive 
 and swim under the water, but when the} r would rise again 
 above it, the unerring aim of the rifles from the shore would 
 reach their head, neck and shoulders, and thus they were 
 destroyed, though they were not taken into the estimate of 
 the slain at the battle. Brown conversed with a chief af- 
 terwards at Tellico Block-house, who informed him, their 
 loss on that occasion was seventy. 
 
 Andrew Jackson, then a private, was one of Ore’s men, 
 who then shewed his love of country and his fitness for com- 
 
col. whitley’s new mode of warfare. 615 
 
 mand. His judgment in planning the attack on Nickajack, 
 and his good conduct generally on the campaign, impressed 
 those who witnessed it favourably.* 
 
 Col. Whitley adopted a new mode of warfare. “ He 
 mounted a swivel upon his own riding horse, so that he could 
 wheel and fire in what direction he pleased. The balls pro- 
 vided were wrought iron.f Some of the men crossed the 
 river on rafts, made of dry cane, which had been found and 
 gathered by torch light. William and Gideon Pillow, being 
 excellent swimmers, were selected to carry the raft of their 
 mess across the river. The former held a rope attached to 
 the raft in his teeth, and swam and pulled his craft, and its 
 cargo of guns, shot-bags and clothes, after him, while Gideon 
 and another comrade swam behind and pushed it.” 
 
 Jasper Pillow, the ancestor of the family, emigrated from 
 England and settled in the colony of Virginia, about 1740. 
 He had three sons, John, Jasper and William, all of whom 
 were soldiers in the Revolutionary war, and continued in the 
 service to its glorious termination, at Yorktown. 
 
 John Pillow emigrated to Cumberland in 1784. His wife 
 was Miss Johnston, whose five brothers were soldiers of 
 1776. John Pillow settled near Nashville, where, with his 
 two sons, William and Gideon, he encountered all the hard- 
 ships, and perils, and privations of frontier life, and of con- 
 stant conflict with the various Indian tribes, which, to the 
 close of his life, infested and devastated the country. 
 
 Gideon Pillow, the father of Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, late of 
 the United States Army, in Mexico, was an active soldier in 
 the expedition against Nickajack, and swam the Tennessee 
 River in the celebrated capture of that Indian fortress. 
 
 In the further Annals of Tennessee, Col. William Pillow 
 will be frequently mentioned as a gallant officer under Gen. 
 Jackson, at Taladega, and as a quiet, unobtrusive citizen, as 
 amiable in private life as he was vigilant in camp and cou- 
 rageous in battle. 
 
 Nickajack and Running Water Towns, were the principal 
 crossing places for the Creeks in their war excursions over 
 
 * Willie Blount’s Papers. 
 
 t Marshall’s Kentucky. 
 
616 
 
 MAJOR ORE’S OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE 
 
 the Tennessee, and in which they, with the warriors of Look- 
 out Mountain and Will’s Town, had heartily co-operated for 
 years past; boasting of their perfect security, not less from 
 their situation, protected as it was by mountains on three 
 sides and the river on the north, than from the number and 
 desperate character of their warriors. 
 
 This battle was fought on the thirteenth of September. 
 On the evening of the same day, the victorious troops re- 
 crossed the Tennessee, and joined such of their comrades as 
 had remained with the horses on the northern bank. Next 
 morning they took up the line of march homeward, and 
 camped that night on the mountain, the next night at the 
 crossing of Elk, near the place where Caldwell’s Bridge now 
 is. The next day they came by Fennison’s Spring, and to a 
 place since known as Purdie’s Garrison. The next day to 
 Hart’s Spring, on the north side of Steele’s Creek, and the 
 next day to Nashville, where the volunteers were dis- 
 banded. Major Ore returned immediately to Knoxville, and 
 made to the Governor the following report : 
 
 Knoxville, September 24th, 1794. 
 
 Sir : — On the seventh instant, by order of General Robertson. of Meio 
 District, I marched from Nashville, with five hundred and fifty mounted 
 infantry under my command, and pursued the trace of the Indians who 
 had committed the latest murders in the District of Mero, and of the 
 party that captured Peter Turney’s negro woman, to the Tennessee. I 
 crossed it on the night of the twelfth, about four miles below Nickajack, 
 and, in the morning of the thirteenth, destroyed Nickajack and the Run- 
 ning Water, towns of the Cherokees. The first being entirely sur- 
 rounded, and attacked by surprise, the slaughter was great, but cannot 
 be accurately reported, as many were killed in the Tennessee. Nine- 
 teen women and children were made prisoners at this town. The Run- 
 ning Water town being only four miles above Nickajack, the news of 
 the attack upon the latter reached the former before the troops under 
 my command, and resistance was made to save it at a place called the 
 Narrows ; but, after the exchange of a few rounds, the Indians posted' 
 at that place gave way, and the town was burnt without ful'ther oppo- 
 sition, with all the effects found therein, and the troops under my com- 
 mand recrossed the Tennessee the same day. From the best judg- 
 ment that could be formed, the number of Indians killed at the two 
 towns must have been upwards of fifty, and the loss sustained by the 
 troops under my command, was one lieutenant and two privates 
 wounded. 
 
 The Running Water was counted the largest, and among the most 
 
NICKAJACK EXPEDITION. 
 
 617 
 
 hostile towns of the Cherokees. Nickajack was not less hostile, hut in- 
 ferior in point cf numbers. At Nickajack were found two fresh scalps, 
 which had lately been taken at Cumberland, and several that were old 
 were hanging in the houses of the warriors, as trophies of war ; a quan- 
 tity of ammunition, powder and lead, lately arrived there from the Span- 
 ish Government, and a commission for the Breath, the head man of 
 the. town, who was killed, and sundry horses, and other articles of pro- 
 perty, were found, both at Nickajack and the Running Water, which 
 were known by one or other of the militia to have belonged to dif- 
 ferent people, killed by Indians, in the course of the last twelve months. 
 
 The prisoners taken, among whom was the wife and child of Richard 
 Finnelson, my pilot, informed me, that, on the fourth instant, sixty 
 Creeks and Lower Cherokees passed the Tennessee, for war against the 
 frontiers. They also informed, that two nights before the destruction 
 of Running Water, a scalp dance had been held in it, over the scalps 
 lately taken from Cumberland, at which were present, John Watts, the 
 Bloody Fellow, and the other chiefs of the Lower Towns, and at which they 
 determined to continue the war, in conjunction with the Creeks, with 
 more' activity than heretofore, against the frontiers of the United States; 
 and to erect block-houses at each of the Lower Towns, for their defence, 
 as advised by the Spanish Government. 
 
 The prisoners also informed, that a scalp dance was to be held in two 
 nights, at Red-headed Will’s town, a new town, about thirty miles lower 
 down the Tennessee. 
 
 The troops under my command, generally, behaved well. 
 
 I have the honour to be, your Excellency’s most obedient humble 
 servant, James Ore. 
 
 Governor Blount. 
 
 The invasion and destruction of the Lower Towns, was 
 not only not authorized by the Federal authorities, but, as has 
 been seen, was prohibited by the instructions of the Secre- 
 tary of War to Gov. Blount. The latter felt it, therefore, 
 his duty to enquire of General Robertson, the reasons for 
 which he had issued the order under which Major Ore acted. 
 General Robertson, soon after, explained to Gov. Blount the 
 reasons which had induced him to order Ore to pursue the 
 Indians. He writes under date — 
 
 Nashville, October 8th, 1794. 
 
 Sir : — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency’s letter 
 of the second instant. Enclosed you have a copy of my order to Major 
 Ore, of the sixth of September ; my reasons for giving it, were, that I 
 had receieved two expresses from the Chickasaws, one by Thomas Brown, 
 a man of as much veracity as any in the nation, the other by a common 
 runner, giving information, that a large body of Creeks, with the Che- 
 rokees of the Lower Towns, were embodying, with a determination to 
 invade the District of Mero ; and not doubting my information, I con- 
 
618 
 
 ROBERTSON VINDICATES THE INVASION. 
 
 ceived, if Major Ore did not meet this invading army of Creeks and 
 Cherokees, as I expected, that it could not be considered otherwise than 
 defensive to strike the first blow on the Lower Towns, and thereby check 
 them in their advance ; nor could I suppose that the pursuing of parties 
 of Indians, who had recently committed murders and thefts, to the 
 towns from whence they came, and there striking them, could be con- 
 sidered as an offensive measure, unauthorized by the usage of nations in 
 such cases. It cannot be necessary to add as a justification, the long re- 
 peated, and, I might say, almost daily sufferings of the people of the 
 District of Mero, by the hands of the Creeks and Cherokees of the Lower 
 Towns. The destruction of the towns by Major Ore, was on the thir- 
 teenth of September. On the twelfth, in Tennessee county, Miss Roberts 
 was killed on Red River, forty miles below Nashville; and on the four- 
 teenth, Thomas Reasons and wife were killed, and their house plun- 
 dered, near the same place, by the Indians. On the sixteenth, in Da- 
 vidson county, twelve miles above Nashville, another party killed 
 
 Chambers, wounded John Bosley and Joseph Davis, burned John 
 
 Donnelson’s Station, and carried ©ff sundry horses ; and in Sumner 
 county, on the same day, a third party of Indians killed a woman on 
 Red River, near Major Sharp’s, about forty miles northeast of Nashville, 
 and carried off several horses. This proves that three separate and dis- 
 tinct parties of Indians were out for war against the District of Mero, 
 before the march of Major Ore from Nashville. 
 
 If I have erred, I shall ever regret it; to be a good citizen, obedient to 
 the law, is my greatest pride ; and to execute the duties of the commission 
 with which the President has been pleased to honour me, in such a 
 manner as to meet his approbation, and that of my superiors in rank, has 
 ever been my most fervent wish. Previous to the march of Major Ore 
 from Nashville, Col. Whitley, with about one hundred men, arrived 
 there, from Kentucky, saying they had followed a party of Indians who 
 had committed depredations on the southern frontier of that country ; 
 that, in the pursuit, they had had a man killed by the Indians, and seve- 
 ral horses taken, and that they were determined to pursue to the Lower 
 Town. They were attached to Major Ore’s command, which augmented 
 the number to upwards of five hundred and fifty men. Enclosed is a 
 copy of a letter to John Watts ; and, from my experience in Indian 
 affairs, I have my hopes, that, from the scourging Major Ore has given 
 the Lower Cherokees, we shall receive less injury from them than here- 
 tofore. 
 
 Conscious that he had pursued the best policy, in invading 
 the hostile villages on the Tennessee, General Robertson, 
 soon after their destruction, wrote to John Watts, Chief of 
 the Cherokees, and intimated pretty plainly that another 
 expedition might soon become necessary, if prisoners among 
 the Cherokees were not surrendered and assurances of peace 
 given. 
 
 Intelligence reached Knoxville of the intention of another 
 
ORIGINAL LETTER OF VALENTINE SEVIER. 
 
 619 
 
 volunteer expedition going through and from the Territory, 
 against the Indians on its southern border. Governor Blount 
 communicated that information to the Secretary of War, and 
 also an account of the measures he deemed it necessary to 
 adopt on that subject. 
 
 “ On the 24th of October, 1794. a party of Indians fired upon John 
 Leiper and another man, near the house of the former, on the east fork 
 of Red River, in Tennessee county. On the 5th of November, 1794, a 
 party of fifty Indians, on the waters of Red River, in Tennessee county, fell 
 upon the families of Colonel Isaac Titsworth and of his brother, John 
 Titsworth, and killed and scalped seven white persons, wounded a negro 
 woman, and took prisoners a white man, three children and a negro 
 fellow, and also a daughter of Colonel Titsworth. Pursuit was given 
 by the neighbouring militia, and the Indians, discovering their approach, 
 tomahawked the three children and scalped them, taking off the whole 
 skins of their heads. The white man and the negro fellow they either 
 killed or carried off, together with the daughter. These murders were 
 imputed to the Creeks.”* 
 
 Colonel Valentine Sevier had removed west of Cumber- 
 land Mountain, and built a station near Clarkesville. This 
 the Indians attacked. An account of the assault is copied 
 from his letter to his brother, General Sevier, dated — 
 
 Clarkesville, Dec. 18, 1794. 
 
 Dear Brother : — The news from this place is desperate with me. On 
 Tuesday, 11th of November last, about twelve o’clock, my station was 
 attacked by about forty Indians. On so sudden a surprise, they were in 
 almost every house before they were discovered. All the men belong- 
 ing to the station were out, only Mr. Snider and myself. Mr. Snider, 
 Betsy his wife, his son John and my son Joseph, were killed in Snider’s 
 house. I saved Snider, so the Indians did not get his scalp, but shot 
 and tomahawked him in a barbarous manner. They also killed Ann 
 King and her son James, and scalped my daughter Rebecca. I hope 
 she will still recover. The Indians have killed whole families about 
 here this fall. You may hear the cries of some persons for their friends 
 daily. 
 
 “ The engagement, commenced by the Indians at my house, conti- 
 nued about an hour, as the neighbours say. Such a scene no man ever 
 witnessed before. Nothing but screams and roaring of guns, and no 
 man to assist me for some time. The Indians have robbed all the goods 
 out of every house, and have destroyed all my stock. You will write 
 our ancient father this horrid news ; also my son Johnny. My health 
 is much impaired. The remains of my family are in good health. I 
 am so distressed in my mind, that I can scarcely write. Your affection- 
 ate brother, till death. 
 
 Haywood. 
 
 Valentine Sevier. 
 
620 RESULTS OF THE ETOWAH AND NICKAJACK CAMPAIGNS. 
 
 “On the 27tli of November, 1794, a party of Indians killed and 
 scalped Colonel John Montgomery, and wounded Julius Saunders with 
 four balls, and Charles Beatty through the arm, on the north-western 
 frontier of Tennessee county. And on the 29th, another party of In- 
 dians, on the northern frontiers of Sumner county, killed and scalped 
 John Lawrence, William Hains, and Michael Hampton, and wounded a 
 fourth, whose name was not reported. On the 20th of December, were 
 killed and scalped by Indians, on Harpeth River, Hugh Tenin, of Sum- 
 ner county, then late colonel of Orange county in North-Carolina, and 
 John Brown and William Grimes. 
 
 “ On the 5th of January, 1795, Elijah Walker, one of the mounted 
 infantry on duty for the defence of Mero District, acting as a spy on the 
 frontiers, was killed by Indians, twelve miles south of Nashville. On 
 the 5th of March, a party of Indians, supposed to be Creeks, at Joslin’s 
 Station, seven miles from Nashville, fired upon Thomas Fletcher, Eze- 
 kiel Balding, and his brother, a lad, who were at work in their field ; 
 wounded the two first with balls through their bodies, knocked down 
 the third with a war club, broke his skull bone, and skinned the whole 
 of his head. On the 14th, a man was killed by the Indians, within five 
 miles of Nashville. On the 5th of June, old Mr. Peyton was killed, 
 and a negro, belonging to Mr. Parker, wounded dangerously in a field 
 of Mrs. Bledsoe, near Bledsoe’s Lick, by Indians.”* 
 
 The exceedingly long catalogue of Indian outrages and 
 aggressions upon the frontier of Mero and Hamilton Dis- 
 tricts, and the account of the spirited manner in which the 
 inhabitants so successfully repelled them, could have been 
 indefinitely extended. A volume could be filled with these 
 already detailed, and those which have been necessarily 
 omitted. For fourteen years, constant warfare existed on 
 Cumberland, without even a temporary abatement. On the 
 other side of the mountain, the condition of the inhabitants 
 was little better, for the same period. In each section of 
 the country there were unremitted offences on the part of 
 the Indians, and persevering vigilance, enterprise and intre- 
 pidity by the frontier people. No part of the West — no 
 part of the world — suffered more, or resisted more bravely 
 or more successfully, than the frontiers of Tennessee. 
 
 The Etowah campaign, penetrating, as it did, to the most 
 southern towns of the Cherokees, and the splendid victory 
 of the Cumberland troops at Nickajack and Running Water 
 Town, broke the spirit of the Indians and disposed them to 
 peace. 
 
 * Haywood. 
 
TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE MEETS. 
 
 621 
 
 Little mischief was afterwards done till the approaching 
 war with England, in 1812, again stimulated into life their 
 passion for war, and revived their almost extinguished hope 
 of even yet resisting the wave of civilization which threat- 
 ened their expulsion from the land of their fathers or the 
 extinction of their tribes. 
 
 While these events were taking place, the number of in- 
 
 ( habitants in the Territory had so far augmented as 
 1793 1 J 
 
 ( to entitle, them to a Territorial Assembly and Legis- 
 lative Council, as provided for in the Ordinance of 1787. 
 Satisfactory evidence had been presented to Governor 
 Blount, that more than five thousand free males resided in 
 his Territory, and he, therefore, authorized an election to be 
 held for representatives of the people on the third Friday 
 and Saturday of December, 1793. 
 
 “ Two from each of the counties of Washington, Hawkins, Jefferson 
 and Knox ; and one from each of the counties of Sullivan, Greene, Ten- 
 nessee, Davidson and Sumner ; the elections to be conducted under the 
 regulations prescribed by the election laws of North-Cavolina ; and the 
 returning officers were directed to certify the names of the elected to 
 the Secretary’s office, at Knoxville, as soon as mighCbe. On the 22d 
 and 23d of December, elections were held accordingly in all the coun- 
 ties of the Territory, and the people elected Alexander Kelly and John 
 Baird, for the county of Knox ; George Doherty and Samuel Weir, for 
 Jefferson ; Joseph Hardin, for Greene ; Leeroy Taylor and John Tipton 
 for Washington ; George Rutledge, for Sullivan, and William Cocke 
 and Joseph McMinn, for Hawkins ; James White, for Davidson ; David 
 Wilson for Sumner, and James Ford for Tennessee. 
 
 “ No sooner were the elections over, than, by a proclamation, issued on 
 the 1st of January, 1794, the Governor appointed the Assembly to meet 
 at Knoxville, on the 4th Monday of Feb. 1794. The Assembly, on the 
 day appointed, convened at Knoxville, and appointed David Wilson, Esq., 
 their Speaker, and Hopkins Lacy, Esq., their Clerk. And it is to be con- 
 sidered as an auspicious omen of the future prosperity of their young 
 empire, that they laid its foundations in piety to God. On the next day 
 the members, preceded by the Governor and the Speaker, went in pro- 
 cession to the place of worship, where the Reverend Mr. Carrick, after 
 offering up an appropriate prayer, preached to them from these words in 
 the epistle of Paul to Titus : ‘ In hope of eternal life, which God that 
 
 cannot lie, promised before the world began : but hath in due time mani- 
 fested his word through preaching; which is committed untome accord- 
 ing to the commandment of God our Saviour.’ 
 
 “ They elected ten persons, out of whom five were to he chosen by 
 Congress, as the Legislative Council ; they appointed a committee to 
 draft an address to the Governor, which was drawn accordingly and 
 approved of, in which they strongly recommend some offensive mea- 
 
622 
 
 MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. 
 
 sures, could they be resorted to, otherwise that defensive ones might at 
 least be adopted, and block-houses erected on the frontiers at all proper 
 places, many of which they named ; and they stated that, until the 
 frontier people should be better protected, it would be impossible for 
 them to raise their crops, and that they would-be forced to evacuate their 
 plantations, and to leave others ip the same desolate circumstances. 
 They recommended a guard for the protection of the Cumberland 
 members on their return, adverting to the recent fact of an express 
 having been severely wounded in the wilderness, as he came from Nash- 
 ville to Knoxville. 
 
 “ The committee also, who were appointed for the purpose, Mr. White, 
 Mr. Cocke, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Weir and Mr. Taylor, drew an address to 
 Congress, which was approved of by the House, and was signed by the 
 Speaker. In it they demand a declaration of war against the Creeks 
 and Cherokees ; and stated that, since the treaty of Holston, they had 
 killed, in a most barbarous and inhuman manner, upwards of two hun- 
 dred citizens of the United States, residents in this Territory, without 
 regard to age or sex, and carried others into captivity and slavery; had 
 robbed the citizens of their slaves, stolen, at least, two thousand horses, 
 which, at a moderate calculation, were worth one hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 “ Besides the just causes of war daily given by these two faithless 
 nations, we conceive it essential to call to your recollection their two 
 powerful invasions of this country; the first in September, 1792, con- 
 sisting of one thousand Creeks and Cherokees, who, on the 30th of that 
 month, attacked Buchanan’s Station, within five miles of Nashville, and 
 were repulsed. The second, in September, 1793, consisting of nine 
 hundred, who, on the 25th of that month, attacked Cavet’s Station, 
 within eight miles of Knoxville, and, in a manner too shocking to re- 
 late, murdered Cavet and his family, thirteen in number. 
 
 “ Scarcely, they said, is there a man of this body, but can recount a 
 dear wife or child, an aged parent or near relation, massacred by the 
 hands of these blood-thirsty nations, in their houses or fields ; nor are 
 our neighbours and friends less miserable. They, too, can enumerate 
 the suffering of equal calamities. Such have been, they say, the suf- 
 ferings of your fellow citizens resident in this Territory, more than ought 
 to be imposed on men, who, by their joint exertions with the citizens of 
 the United States at large, have acquired freedom and independence. 
 
 “ They rejoiced in the vigorous measures which Congress were about 
 to take against the rapacious and enslaving Algerines, and concluded 
 with reminding Congress that the citizens who live in poverty on the 
 extreme frontiers, were as much entitled to be protected in their lives, 
 their families and little property, as those who were in luxury, ease and 
 affluence in the great and opulent Atlantic cities. The Governor then 
 prorogued the Assembly to the fourth Monday in August.”* 
 
 This memorial from the representatives of the people 
 was referred to a. committee of the United States Congress, 
 which, through their chairman, Mr. Carnes, reported : “ That 
 
 Haywood. 
 
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. 
 
 623 
 
 from the representations made to them, the condition of the 
 Territory called for the most energetic measures, and they 
 recommended that the President should be authorized to call 
 out an adequate military force to carry on offensive opera- 
 tions against any hostile tribe, and to establish such posts 
 and defences as would be necessary for the permanent secu- 
 rity of the frontier settlers.” 
 
 Hitherto, the Governor and Judges had exercised not only 
 1794 i execut i'* e and judicial, but legislative powers. The 
 l Ordinance, by the United States in Congress assem- 
 bled, for the government of the Territory south of the Ohio, 
 provided that the Governor and Judges, or a majority of 
 them, shall adopt and publish in the District, such laws of 
 the original states, criminal and civil, as may be necessary 
 and best suited to the circumstances of the district, “ and 
 report them to Congress from time to time, which laws shall 
 be in force in the district until the organization of the Gene- 
 ral Assembly therein, unless disapproved of by Congress : 
 but afterwards, the Legislature shall have authority to alter 
 them as they shall think fit.” The Ordinance further de- 
 clared that the Legislature should consist of the Governor, 
 Legislative Council, and a House of Representatives, and 
 specified how the latter bodies should be selected. This 
 having been done, on Monday, the twenty-fifth day of Au- 
 gust, 1794, the General Assembly of the Territory of the 
 United States of America, south of the Ohio, met at Knox- 
 ville. 
 
 Legislative Council. — The members nominated by the Represen- 
 tatives of the people, and commissioned by the President of the United 
 States as Legislative Councillors for said Territory, appeared, produced 
 their credentials, and took their seats, to-wit : 
 
 The Honourable Griffith Rutherford, 
 
 “ “ John Sevier, 
 
 “ “ James Winchester, 
 
 “ “ Stockley Donelson, 
 
 “ “ Parmenas Taylor. 
 
 Adjourned till to-morrow, 10 o’clock. 
 
 Honourable Griffith Rutherford was unanimously elected President, 
 and conducted to the Chair. 
 
 George Roulstone was, by ballot, elected Clerk, and qualified accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 Christopher Shoat was chosen Door-keeper. 
 
 A message from the House of Representatives : 
 
624 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Council: — This House is now 
 formed and ready to proceed on the public business, and wish to know 
 if you are met and prepared to receive communications from the House 
 of Representatives. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Winchester, Mr. Sevier was appointed to confer 
 with such member or members of the House of Representatives as they 
 may join, and report what rules are necessary to be observed in doing 
 business, between the Council and House of Representatives. 
 
 House of Representatives. — Monday, the twenty-fifth day of Au- 
 gust, 1794, being the day appointed for the meeting of the Representa- 
 tives of the people of this Territory, the following members appeared 
 and took their seats, viz: David Wilson, James White, James Ford, 
 William Cocke, Joseph McMinn, George Rutledge, Joseph Hardin, 
 George Doherty, Samuel Wear, Alexander Kelly and John Baird. 
 
 The session commenced by a suitable and well-adapted prayer, by the 
 Rev. Mr. Carrick. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Hardin, seconded by Mr. Doherty, 
 
 Ordered , That the following message be sent to his Excellency, Wil- 
 liam Blount, Esq. : 
 
 Sir : — The House of Representatives are now met agreeably to your 
 prorogation, and ready to proceed to business. 
 
 Ordered , That Messrs. Hardin and Wear wait on his Excellency with 
 the above message. 
 
 At its next meeting, on the following day, the House 
 adopted “ rules of decorum,” to he observed by its members. 
 The curious in such matters may wish to know what these 
 rules were, in the infancy of legislation in the country, and 
 for their gratification, some of them are here given : 
 
 1st. When the Speaker is in the Chair, every member may sit in his 
 place with his head covered. 
 
 2d. That every member shall come into the house uncovered, and 
 shall continue so at all times, but when he sits in his place. 
 
 3d. No member, in coming into the house, or removing from his 
 place, shall pass between the Speaker and a member speaking, nor shall 
 any member go across the house, or from one part thereof, to the other, 
 whilst another is speaking. 
 
 4th. When any member stands to speak, he shall stand in his place 
 uncovered, and address himself to the Speaker ; but shall not proceed to 
 speak until permitted so to do by the Speaker, which permission shall 
 be signified by naming the member. 
 
 5th. When any member is speaking, no other shall stand or inter- 
 rupt him ; but when he is done speaking, and taken his seat, any other 
 member may rise, observing the rules. 
 
 6th. When the Speaker desires to address himself to the house, he 
 shall rise, and be heard without interruption, and the member then speak- 
 ing, shall take his seat. 
 
 7th. When any motion shall be before the house, and not perfectly 
 understood, the Speaker may explain, but shall not attempt to sway the 
 house by arguments or debate. 
 
BILLS SUBMITTED TO LEGISLATURE. 
 
 625 
 
 8th. He that digresseth from the subject, to fall on the person of any 
 member, shall be suppressed by the Speaker. 
 
 10th. Exceptions taken to offensive words, to be taken the same day 
 they shall be spoken, and before the member who spoke them shall go 
 out of the house. 
 
 16th. If there shall be an equality of votes for, and against any ques- 
 tion, the Speaker shall declare whether he be a yea or nay ; but shall, 
 in no other case, give his vote. 
 
 18th. Upon adjournment, no member shall presume to move, until 
 the Speaker arises and goes before.” 
 
 The House of Representatives having thus adopted rules 
 1794 ^ ^ 0l ^ le § overnmen ^ °f own members, proceeded, at 
 l once, on motion of Mr. Cocke, to appoint a committee 
 “ to consider and report as soon as possible, what bills of a pub- 
 lic and general nature are necessary to be passed into laws, the 
 present Assembly.” Mr. White, Mr. Cocke, Mr. Hardin, Mr. 
 Wear and Mr. Doherty, were the committee. Mr. Sevier had 
 been appointed on the part of Council, “to act with such 
 member or members of the House, as a committee, to report 
 the rules necessary to be observed in doing business” be- 
 tween that body and the House. Mr. White and Mr. Rut- 
 ledge were appointed to confer with him. This joint com- 
 mittee afterwards made the following report : 
 
 “ That it is proper for this House to send any message by a 
 member of this House, to the Council or the Clerk, to be deli- 
 vered to the President of the Council or the Chairman. That 
 when a bill is to be sent to the Council, it shall be taken by 
 two of the Representatives, to be delivered in the same man- 
 ner. That no bill shall be debated or rejected on its first 
 reading. That no bill being once rejected, shall be again ta- 
 ken up the same session.” 
 
 Rules regulating the intercourse of' the two Houses being 
 thus provided, Mr. Sevier and Mr. Winchester were ap- 
 pointed on the part of the Council, to join the House Com- 
 mittee, to prepare business for the Assembly. It was at once 
 in medias res, and on the 28 th, through its Chairman, Mr 
 Hardin reported, “ An act to regulate the militia of this Ter- 
 ritory ; an act to establish the judicial courts, and to regu- 
 late the proceedings thereof; an act making provision for 
 the poor ; an act to enable executors and administrators to 
 make rights for lands due upon bonds of persons deceased ; 
 
 40 
 
02 G 
 
 MEMBERS FROM KNOX COUNTY ABSENT, 
 
 an act declaring what property is to be taxable, and the 
 mode of collecting the tax thereon ; an act to levy a tax for 
 the support of Government for the year 1794 ; and an act to 
 provide for the relief of such of the militia as have been 
 wounded by the Indians in the late invasions.” 
 
 This brief catalogue of enactments necessary for the peo- 
 ple of the Territory, presented to the consideration of its 
 Legislature, and, perhaps, in the exact order and degree of 
 the importance of each, the several subjects that were 
 deemed of primary moment, and demanded prompt and im- 
 mediate action. 
 
 The instincts, the sagacity and discernment of the consti- 
 tuents, had not been at fault in the selection of their public 
 servants. Perhaps no other deliberative body, was ever more 
 distinguished for identity and familiarity with the interests, 
 the wishes and the wants of those for whom they acted, and 
 none could have surpassed them in honesty, promptness and 
 zeal. 
 
 Committees were at once raised in each House, to whom 
 was referred one of the subjects already enumerated. They 
 seem to have been constituted with a wise and patriotic 
 reference to the qualifications, experience and past pursuits 
 of the members. On the bill to regulate the militia of the 
 Territory, the House appointed, on the fourth day of the ses- 
 sion, Wear, Taylor and Doherty, each of whom had been 
 actively engaged as officers in the service of the country, 
 and with them the Council associated Colonel Winchester. 
 On the Committee on the Judiciary, Mr. White and Mr. 
 Cocke. To make provision for the poor, Mr. Hardin and Mr. 
 Tipton To levy a tax for 1794, Mr. Rutledge and Mr. Mc- 
 Minn. To declare what property is taxable, Mr. Hardin and 
 Mr. Ford ; and to provide relief for wounded militia, Mr. 
 Doherty and Mr. Wear. 
 
 In justice to the members of Knox county, whose names 
 do not appear upon any of these committees, it ought to be 
 mentioned that, on Wednesday, the third day of the session, 
 “ on motion of Mr. Kelly, seconded by Mr. Hardin, ordered, 
 that Mr. Kelly and Mr. Beard have leave of absence, to go on 
 a scout against the Indians.” These gentlemen held commis- 
 sions in the militia of Knox county, and, on account of their 
 
ON A SCOUT AGAINST THE INDIANS. 
 
 627 
 
 gallantry and public spirit, had been honoured with seats in 
 the House of Representatives. A threatened incursion of 
 hostile Cherokees, made it necessary for them to lay down 
 their legislative and resume their military functions. And, 
 upon the motion of one of them, Mr. Kelly, his colleague 
 and himself had leave of absence. In a week from that 
 time, “ Mr. Kelly returned and took his seat.” Mr. Beard 
 had returned the day before. 
 
 To General Sevier, of the Council, is due the paternity of 
 a bill, “ for the relief of such persons as have been disabled 
 by wounds, or rendered incapable of procuring, for them- 
 selves and families, subsistence, in the militia of this Terri- 
 tory ; and providing for the widows and orphans of such as 
 have died.” He had been, as we have already narrated, 
 actively employed in the military service, and knew well the 
 sacrifice of treasure and of blood which the martial spirit of 
 his countrymen had occasioned, and the havoc which, by the 
 gallantry of his fellow-soldiers, had been made upon the com- 
 fort, and property, and lives, of those he represented. 
 
 To an enlightened Representative from Davidson county, 
 is due the immortal honour of having made the first legisla- 
 tive effort, in the Territorial Assembly, in behalf of Learning. 
 On the 29th of August, “ Mr. White moved for leave, and 
 presented a bill to establish a University in Greene county ; 
 read for the first time, passed, and sent to the Council.” 
 Four days after, the bill became a law, creating a Literary 
 Institution, though under a less imposing name, Greeneville 
 College. The preamble to the act of incorporation follows ; 
 
 “ Whereas , in all well-regulated governments, it is the incumbent 
 duty of the Legislature to consult the happiness of the rising genera- 
 tion, and endeavour to fit them for an honourable discharge of the social 
 duties of life, by paying the strictest attention to their education, Be it 
 enacted by the Governor,” <fcc. 
 
 The act appoints the Rev. Hezeltiah Balch, President of 
 the College, and locates it upon his farm. The Trustees 
 are — “ Hezekiah Balch, Samuel Doak, James Balch, Samuel 
 Garrick, Robert Henderson, Gideon Blackburn, Archibald 
 Roane, Joseph Hamilton, William Cocke, Daniel Kennedy, 
 Landon Carter, Joseph Hardin, Sen., John Rhea and John 
 Sevier.” The law invests these Trustees with the usual 
 
628 DOCTOR WHITE ELECTED THE TERRITORIAL DELEGATE. 
 
 powers of such corporations, and authorizes them to make 
 such laws for its government, as “ to them may appear 
 necessary for the promotion of learning and virtue ; pro- 
 vided the same be not contrary to the unalienable rights of 
 human nature, or the laws of the Territory.” 
 
 On the same day, Mr. Doherty presented a petition from 
 the inhabitants south of French Broad River, setting forth 
 their right of occupancy to their lands, and praying that 
 their case may be laid before Congress.” This subject after- 
 wards became a fruitful source of complaint and tedious 
 legislation, the details of which will be elsewhere given. 
 
 On Saturday, the 30th, the House adjourned to Monday, 
 seven o’clock. A working Legislature, truly ! 
 
 In the Ordinance for the government of the Territory, it 
 was provided “ That as soon as a Legislature shall be 
 formed in the District, the Council and House, assembled in 
 one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a 
 Delegate to Congress.” The details of that transaction are 
 here extracted from the Journals. 
 
 Resolved , That the balloting for the Delegate to Congress take place 
 to morrow, at ten o’clock, and that the following message be sent to the 
 Council : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Council : — We propose to bal- 
 lot to-morrow, at ten o’clock, at the Court House, for a Delegate to 
 Congress, and on our part appoint Messrs. Taylor and Doherty to su- 
 perintend the balloting. The Council concurring, Mr. Taylor was ap- 
 pointed to conduct the balloting on their part. On the 3d, Mr. James 
 White, of Davidson county, was elected by a majority of both Houses, 
 Delegate to Congress. 
 
 On the petition of the inhabitants south of French Broad, your Com- 
 mittee report that the said inhabitants ought to have all the assistance 
 in the power of this House to give towards securing them in their im- 
 provements. That as the disposal of the soil rests in Congress, it will 
 be proper for this Assembly to draw up a memorial to that body, stating 
 the facts as may induce them to secure the said inhabitants in a right 
 of pre-emption, and pray that an Act of Congress may be passed for 
 that purpose. 
 
 Both Houses adjourned to-day, to meet to-morrow at 7 o’clock. 
 
 Sept. 4. — Mr. Cocke moved for leave, and presented a Bill for the 
 establishment of College in the vicinity of Knoxville. 
 
 The blank was afterwards filled with Blount, and on the 
 tenth of September, the bill establishing Blount College be- 
 came a law. Next to Mr. White, the friends of learning are 
 indebted to one of the representatives from Hawkins, Mr 
 
MEMBERS FINED ONE SHILLING FOR ABSENCE. 
 
 629 
 
 Cocke, for his ear-ly care and prudent foresight in laying 
 broad and deep a foundation for the intellectual improve- 
 ment of the young men of the Territory. Blount College 
 has since become the University of East Tennessee, and the 
 laudable curiosity to see the incipient efforts of the first pa- 
 trons of literature and science in the West, shall be gratified 
 with some extracts from 
 
 An Act for the establishment of Blount College , in the vicinity of 
 Knoxville : 
 
 Whereas , the Legislature of this Territory are disposed to promote 
 the happiness of the people at large, and especially of the rising genera- 
 tion, by instituting seminaries of education, where youth may be habi- 
 tuated to an amiable, moral and virtuous conduct, and accurately in- 
 structed in the various branches of useful science, and in the principles 
 of the ancient and modern languages. 
 
 Section 1. Be it enacted by the Governor, Legislative Council and 
 House of Representatives of the Territory of the United States of Ame- 
 rica, south of the River Ohio, That the Reverend Samuel Carrick, Presi- 
 dent, and his Excellency Wiiliam Blount, the Honourable Daniel Smith, 
 Secretary of the Territory, the Honourable David Campbell, the Hon- 
 ourable Joseph Anderson, General John Sevier, Col. James White, Col. 
 Alexander Kelly, Col. William Cocke, Willie Blount, Joseph Hamil- 
 ton, Archibald Roane, Francis A. Ramsey, Charles McClung, George 
 Roulstone, George McNutt, John Adair and Robert Houston, Esquires 
 shall be, and they are hereby declared to be a body politic and corporate,, 
 by the name of the President and Trustees of Blount College, in the 
 vicinity of Knoxville. 
 
 On account, probably, of some unknown infraction of par- 
 liamentary law, the House, on the 8th, 
 
 Resolved , That whenever this House shall render a list of absent 
 members to the door keeper, to warn them to attend, that each member 
 so mentioned and warned, shall pay one shilling to the door-keeper for 
 his trouble. 
 
 This fine would appear inadequate for either of the pur- 
 poses intended by it, if we fail to consider the difference 
 between the per diem of members and door-keeper in the 
 Assembly of 1794, and their pay in 1850. 
 
 As further evidence of the diligence and application of 
 members to their legislative duties, it may be mentioned that 
 on the 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th, the House adjourned to 
 meet the succeeding days at 7 o’clock, A. SI., and the Coun- 
 cil regularly at 9 o’clock. 
 
 On the 5th, the House concurred with the Council in “ their 
 
630 
 
 PRIMITIVE TIMES IN KNOXVILLE. 
 
 proposition in the two Houses meeting, and to take into 
 their consideration whether the laws of North-Carolina are 
 now in force and use in this Territory,"’ and proposed that 
 the conference be at the Court House at four o’clock.” Ano- 
 ther proof of the fidelity with which these servants of the 
 people despatched their public duties. The Court House 
 where this conference was proposed, and where the two 
 Houses had met together for the election of a Delegate to 
 Congress, was a small one-story building, about thirty feet 
 long and twenty-four broad. The Council met in the bar- 
 rack. The house in which the Assembly held its sessions 
 was sometimes in another room of the barrack, and occa- 
 sionally the large room of Carmichael’s Tavern, on Cumber- 
 land-street, and now owned by Major Swan. Neither of 
 the buildings was sufficiently spacious to allow a joint bal- 
 lot or joint conference of the two bodies, and on these occa- 
 sions each left its own chamber and repaired to the Court 
 House. These were primitive times in Knoxville. Less 
 than fifty families lived there then. Mr. Stone kept tavern 
 on what is now known as Park’s Corner, and his was the 
 very northern boundary of the town. Nathaniel Cowan 
 lived at the corner of Water-street, not far from what is now 
 Churchwell’s Mill, and most of the buildings were in that 
 part of the place near the river. Many members boarded 
 in the country, and walked morning and night to and from 
 their quarters. A carriage was unknown in that day upon 
 the frontier, and would have attracted more attention, and 
 occasioned more remark, than a steam-car would in 1850 
 upon the top of Chilhowee. 
 
 In the Council, “ Mr. Donelson, from the Committee ap- 
 pointed to make an estimate of the expenses for the year 
 1794, reported that the probable expenditures for said year, 
 will amount to two thousand three hundred and ninety dol- 
 lars.” This financial estimate was for the whole Territory, 
 and fiftv-six years afterwards, the estimate would be consid- 
 ered small for a single county in Tennessee. So true is it, 
 with regard to communities as with individuals — the natural 
 wants of man are few and easily supplied, while those that 
 are artificial, are at once numberless and insatiable. 
 
H. L. WHITE, PRIVATE SECRETARY OF BLOUNT. 
 
 631 
 
 Sept. 10, 1794. — Received from his Excellency, the Governor, the 
 following message : 
 
 Knoxville, Sept. 1, 1794. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Legislative Council , and Mr. 
 
 Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : 
 
 Herewith, by the hands of Mr. Hugh White, my Private Secretary, you 
 will receive an act entitled an act, &c., &c., to which I have given my as- 
 sent. My Private Secretary being now officially made known to you, I 
 shall, in future, cause the acts to which I give my assent, to be delivered 
 by him to you, without any written message, and having obtained your 
 signatures, to deliver the same to the Secretary of the Territory. 
 
 Wm. Blount. 
 
 Sept. 12. — Mr. White, from the Committee appointed to draw up a 
 memorial to Congress in favour of the people south of French Broad, 
 presented the following memorial : 
 
 To the Honourable , the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 
 United States, in Congress: 
 
 The memorial and petition of the inhabitants living south of French 
 Broad River, sheweth, That your memorialists have settled on va- 
 cant lands, lying on the south side of French Broad River, and which 
 was granted to the people of this country, by the Indians, at different 
 times. 
 
 First. At the treaty of Dumplin Creek, held with John Sevier, Esq., 
 at which time, the Indians received a compensation in clothing and other 
 articles, for said land ; and in the year following, the same Indians did, 
 in a fresh treaty, held with them at Coyatee, confirm the grant afore- 
 mentioned. That, in consequence of these treaties, made under a then 
 existing authority, your petitioners were induced to settle on the land 
 so granted, which they cultivated with great labour and expense, and es- 
 tablished within the bounds thereof, large and improved possessions. 
 This memorial further sheweth, That the country aforesaid has been 
 ceded to the United States, partly, at the treaty of Senaca, and finally, 
 at the succeeding treaty of Holston. Your memorialists, therefore, peti- 
 tion Congress to make them secure in their labour and improvements, 
 whenever Congress may think it expedient to open a Land-office, by 
 granting them a right of pre-emption to their hard-earned improve- 
 ments and possessions. 
 
 And whereas, numbers of these petitioners have been induced to be- 
 lieve, that Congress would confirm such warrants or grants as had issued 
 from the - State of North-Carolina, and, therefore, have purchased the 
 same, and laid them on their lands ; they pray that Congress may per- 
 mit them to hold their lands by such warrants, but that the justice and 
 goodness of your honourable body will provide, that no stranger may, by 
 such warrants, take from the holder and improver of the land, his pos- 
 sessions, the right of which ought to be derived through Congress. 
 
 The Assembly adopted and sent forward to Congress, a 
 long memorial on the subject of the existing Indian war. 
 
 To this memorial was appended “ a list of the names of 
 
632 
 
 WAGES OF MEMBERS OF LEGISLATURE. 
 
 persons killed, wounded and captured, and horses stolen, 
 since the 26th day of February, 1794.” The list comprises: 
 killed, 67 ; wounded, 10 ; prisoners, 25 ; and horses stolen, 
 376, estimated at $18,700. 
 
 On the 18th, 19th, 20th, 26th and 27th, the House ad- 
 journed to meet at seven o’clock the succeeding morning. 
 Such an economical devotion of its time to public business, 
 and such indefatigable attention to legislative duty, would 
 seem to require some corresponding pecuniary compensation. 
 As their session approached its termination, it was 
 
 Resolved , That the wages of the members, clerks and door-keepers 
 
 both houses, be estimated as follows : 
 
 For each member per day, - - $2 50 
 
 “ each clerk “ “ - - - 2 50 
 
 “ each clerk for stationery, - - - 25 00 
 
 “ door-keeper per day, - - - 1 75 
 
 Each member, clerk and door-keeper to be allowed 
 for ferriages. 
 
 Every twenty-live miles, riding to and from the As- 
 sembly, - - - - - 2 50 
 
 Sept. 23. — Mr. Sevier moved for leave, and presented a bill for 
 establishing Knoxville, on the north bank of the Holston, which was 
 read the first time, passed and sent to the House of Representatives. 
 
 As the adjournment of the Territorial Legislature ap- 
 proached, its members were unwilling to separate, without 
 making another effort to awaken the attention of the Fede- 
 ral Government to the necessity and importance of more am- 
 ple and effective means of defence and protection for their 
 suffering and bleeding constituents. Since the last meeting 
 of the Assembly, many of them had lost members of their 
 own families — killed by savage ferocity or stratagem — many 
 of their neighbours had been wounded or taken prisoners ; 
 much valuable property had been stolen or destroyed ; and 
 during the present sitting of the Legislature, two members 
 of it from the Metropolitan county, had been compelled, 
 from the threatened aggressions of the enemy, to leave the 
 halls of legislation and resume the sword, to prevent an at- 
 tack upon the seat of Government. Under this condition of 
 things, on the twenty-fourth of September, the House 
 
 Resolved , That James White, Esq., the Representative of this Terri- 
 tory in Congress, be instructed to take an early opportunity of exhibit- 
 
FIRST PUBLIC PRINTER APPOINTED. 
 
 633 
 
 ing to the President of Congress, the additional list of one hundred and 
 five of our fellow-citizens, who have suffered by the Creeks and Chero- 
 kees, since our memorial to Congress in the spring, in addition to the 
 former innumerable and cruel acts of hostility with which this Territory 
 has been insulted by those Indians ; and to assure his Excellency that if 
 the people of this Territory have borne with outrage's which stretch hu- 
 man patience to its utmost, it has been through our veneration for the 
 head of the Federal Government, and through the hopes we entertain 
 that his influence will finally extend, to procure for this injured part of 
 the Union, that justice, which nothing but retaliating on an unrelenting 
 enemy, can afford. 
 
 The patience of the people was well-nigh exhausted, and 
 it required all the authority and weight of character of Go- 
 vernor Blount to restrain the impetuous temper of the sol- 
 diery of the Territory, which everywhere manifested itself — 
 exacerbations of feeling and resentment, which, indeed, in 
 every instance, his authority was unable to repress. 
 
 Sept. 25. — In the Council, “ Mr. Sevier moved for leave, 
 and presented a bill appointing a public printer.” Another 
 era in the early legislation and improvement of an infant 
 community, second only to the founding of institutions of 
 learning and the creation of tribunals of justice. 
 
 At the request of the members from Mero District, Go- 
 vernor Blount ordered a sufficient guard of soldiers to ac- 
 company them on their return home. 
 
 Great difficulty arose in arranging the details of the Tax 
 Bill, and the last days of the session, amendments were con- 
 stantly proposed to the bill of the one House and as uni- 
 formly rejected by the other. Several days were consumed 
 in modeling and adjusting the Tax Bill. 
 
 A Sabbath intervened, but on Monday the House con- 
 tinued inflexible ; other messages were interchanged with a 
 like result. The Council at length agreed to make the tax 
 on a hundred acres of land, eighteen cents. To which the 
 House again objected, and insisted upon “ a tax of twenty-five 
 cents per hundred, as it stood in the bill when it went from 
 this House.” 
 
 The Council yielded, at length, to the more immediate 
 representatives of the people, and sent them the following 
 message — 
 
 “ The Council accede to your proposition in taxing land at twenty- 
 
634 
 
 DIFFICULTY IN ADJUSTING TAXES. 
 
 five cents per hundred acres ; you will, therefore, send two of your 
 members to see the amendments made accordingly.” 
 
 At this length of time since these transactions took place, 
 it is difficult to account for the discordant views entertained 
 by the two Houses of the Territorial Assembly upon the land 
 tax. A tariff is always a subject of troublesome adjust- 
 ment, and then, as now, the proper arrangment of its details, 
 was the most perplexing duty of the Legislature. It has 
 been conjectured, that the conflict of sentiment between the 
 Council and the House, may be legitimately traced to the 
 organism — the mode by which each body was created. The 
 five members of the Council were not elected by the people, 
 but appointed by the Congress, and commissioned by the 
 President of the United States, from ten citizens of the Ter- 
 ritory at large, selected and nominated for that purpose by 
 the House. Their term of office was for five years. The 
 members of the House, on the other hand, were really the 
 representatives of the people, were elected directly by them, 
 and holding their office for but two years, were dependant 
 upon popular suffrage for a renewal of their trust. 
 
 The constituent body — the people — were generally small 
 landholders, while most of the appropriated lands of the 
 Territory, was held by large grantees, and they — many of 
 them— non-residents. The toil of subduing the wilderness, 
 the danger of reclaiming it from its savage occupants, the 
 sacrifice of ease, of property and of life, in opening and de- 
 fending it, the responsibility of founding its government 
 and maintaining its rights, had all been undergone by actual 
 settlers. Their adventure had planted the infant settle- 
 ments, their valour had defended them, and to their services, 
 were non-resident landholders indebted for the present and 
 prospective enhancement of the value of their property. The 
 tenacity, therefore, with which the immediate representa- 
 tive body adhered to its policy of raising the revenue prin- 
 cipally by a tax upon real estate, cannot be considered either 
 strange or unwise. 
 
 Sept. 30. — The morning of the last day of its session, the 
 House exhibited a further instance of its restraint upon the 
 action of the Council, by refusing its assent to a bill excusing 
 
RESOLUTION PREPARATORY TO A STATE ORGANIZATION. 635 
 
 workmen employed at iron foundries, from military du- 
 ties. 
 
 Before their adjournment, the two Houses did concur in 
 resolutions, requesting “ the Governor to direct, that when 
 the census is taken next June, the sense of the people may 
 at that time be enquired into, how far it may be their wish, 
 for admission into the Union as a State,” — also directing, 
 “ that John Stone be allowed ten dollars, for the use of the 
 house now occupied by the Legislative Council.” — “ That 
 James White be allowed five dollars for the use of the court 
 house during the session of the Assembly.” — “That George 
 Roulstone & Co. be allowed the sum of ten dollars, if in ten 
 days they print fifty copies of the act, ” respecting the levy- 
 ing and collecting the taxes. “ That John Chisholm be al- 
 lowed the sum of two dollars, for his monies expended for 
 the public service of this Territory, during the recess of the 
 Assembly,” and, “ that the thanks of this General Assembly 
 be presented to Governor Blount, for the application of his 
 abilities and attention, in forwarding their business as rep- 
 resentatives ; more especially, in compiling and arranging 
 the system of court law ; and that as there appears to be 
 no more business before this Assembly, his Excellency be 
 requested to prorogue the same to the first Monday in Octo- 
 ber, 1795.” 
 
 To the last resolution, the Governor sent in reply, the fol- 
 lowing message — 
 
 “ Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and Mr. 
 Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives ; — While 
 your vote of thanks, of this day, affords a proof of your liberality, 
 it offers me the highest reward for such attention as I have had in my 
 power to pay to the court and other laws. I should feel myself want- 
 ing to the Council and House of Representatives, were I not to ac- 
 knowledge, that the laws which have been offered for my assent, have 
 been such as are essential to the promotion of the public happiness, and 
 that no law of importance at this time is omitted. Herewith you will 
 receive the prorogation to the day as by you requested. 
 
 “ Knoxville, September 30, 1794. 
 
 Wh. Blount.” 
 
 PROROGATION. 
 
 “William Blount, Governor in and over the Territory of the United 
 States of America, south of the River Ohio : 
 
636 
 
 PROROGATION OF TERRITORIAL ASSEMBLY. 
 
 “ To the President and Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and the 
 Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : — The session 
 of the General Assembly is prorogued, until the first Monday in the 
 month of October, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, then 
 to commence at this place. 
 
 “ Given under my hand at Knoxville, September 30, 1794. 
 
 Wm. Blount. 
 
 “ By the Governor — D aniel Smith.” 
 
 1794 
 
 The per diem of the members of House of Representatives, 
 and of the Clerk and Door-keeper, for the February session, 
 and other incidental expenses, amounted to $473,58-J. 
 
 That of the Legislative Council, for the August and Sep- 
 tember session, amounted to $970,7 If. 
 
 And that of the House of Representatives, for the same 
 session, 1.700,1 6f. 
 
 These proceedings of the Territorial Legislature will ac- 
 quaint the reader with the mode of transacting its 
 business, and, to some extent, with the amount and 
 importance of its labours. It may be safely asserted that, 
 in so short a session, the same number of law makers, under 
 like difficulties and embarrassments, never had achieved 
 more. Their session was one of only thirty-seven days. 
 The number of members was small — in the Council, five — 
 in the House — thirteen, and some of these, for various rea- 
 sons, allowed leave of absence, at different periods of the 
 session. Most of them too, though men of strong intellect 
 and great good sense, were entirely inexperienced in legisla- 
 tion, and uninformed upon some of the subjects the emer- 
 gency of the times brought up for their action and decision. 
 But all of them were identified with the interests of the 
 people, and had been honoured with their confidence 
 on account of their patriotism and public virtue. They 
 were assiduous in the discharge of their new duties, and 
 they were faithful to the trust confided to them. Of their 
 competency, the work executed by them is an undying me- 
 morial. They had become suddenljq and, with many of them, 
 unexpectedly, the guardians of weighty interests in an im- 
 mense Territory. The foundations of society were to be 
 laid in different isolated communities, extending from the 
 Alleghanies to the westernmost settlement. Invasion from 
 
SEVIER COUNTY. 
 
 637 
 
 hostile Indian tribes had to be repelled ; an exposed frontier 
 had to be guarded ; aggression had to be resisted ; stations 
 protected ; forts defended ; emigrants encouraged ; and roads 
 had to be opened through a trackless wilderness ; towns and 
 counties were to be laid out ; a police to be established, and 
 public buildings to be erected. A system of jurisprudence 
 had to be, if not enacted de novo, amended, enlarged and 
 remodeled, in adaptation to the circumstances and wants of 
 a new community. These — these all were to be done. Nay, 
 more — the fostering care of a new government had to be 
 directed to the improvement and refinement of the “rising 
 generation,” and, to its other labours, the Legislature added 
 the crowning honour of founding, at its first session, two 
 Institutions of Learning. 
 
 “ An act was passed to divide Jefferson county into two 
 distinct counties.” Joseph Wilson, Robert Polk, Samuel 
 Magahee, Samuel Newell and Thomas Buckingham, are 
 made Commissioners to locate the court house in the new 
 county, which is called Sevier ; courts to be holden, for the 
 first time, at the house of Isaac Thomas. 
 
 Sevier county was attached to Hamilton District. The 
 house of Isaac Thomas, where the first court for Sevier 
 county was holden, stood on the west bank of Pigeon, nearly 
 opposite the confluence of its east and west branches, be- 
 tween which, and near their junction, was, October, 1795, 
 laid out, and afterwards erected, the present Sevierville. It 
 is a beautiful spot — surrounded by, and embosomed among, 
 lofty and almost inaccessible heights, through which the 
 confluents glide in placid quiet or rush with boisterous vio- 
 lence through their narrow and tortuous channels. The 
 bottoms below Sevierville are remarkable for their fertility. 
 The county has been the land of hunters, soldiers and patri- 
 ots. It has its stations, forts and battle grounds. It was 
 one of the counties of Franklin. Dumplin Treaty was ‘held 
 on its soil. 
 
 The magistrates who held the first court, Nov. 8, 1794, 
 were — “The Worshipful Samuel Newell, Joseph Wilson, 
 Joshua Gist, Peter Bryant, Joseph Vance and Andrew Ev- 
 ans.” Besides these, there were magistrates not present — 
 
638 EXTENSIVE JURISDICTION OF SEVIER COUNTY. 
 
 M. Lewis and Robert Pollock. The county officers were — 
 “Samuel Newell, first chairman ; Joshua Gist, 2d ; and Jo- 
 seph Wilson, 3d ;” Samuel Wear, clerk; John Lowry, coun- 
 ty solicitor ; Ambrose Arthur, deputy sheriff ; Jesse Byrd, 
 Register ; Thomas Buckingham, collector ; Mordecai Lewis, 
 coroner ; Alexander Montgomery, ranger.” 
 
 In the early minutes of the County Court of Sevier, may 
 be seen something of the summary proceedings which char- 
 acterized the courts of Franklin or the Temporary form of 
 Government which, south of French Broad, followed the 
 dissolution of that State. At April Term, 1795, it was — 
 “ Ordered — That a bill of sale from J. R. to , bear- 
 
 ing date December 17, 1794, shall not be admitted to record, 
 and that the word Fraudulent be wrote, by the clerk, on the 
 face of said bill of sale.” 
 
 The jurisdiction of the court was exercised beneficently, 
 not only within the limits of Sevier county and of the Ter- 
 ritory, but embraced, in its benevolent plenitude of power, 
 the contiguous State of Virginia also. October sessions, 
 1795, it was — “Ordered that an idiot, produced by John 
 Craig, to this court, is to be delivered to a constable of this 
 county, to be conveyed to the next constable, and so from 
 officer to officer, until she is conveyed to the proper owner, 
 in the State of Virginia, which is, by information, M. M. in 
 Powell’s Valley.” 
 
 The legislature exhibited no indifference to the pleasant 
 charities of life. Ample provision was made by law, for 
 persons disabled by wounds, and for the widows and or- 
 phans of such as had died in the military service of the 
 country. 
 
 Among other acts of a local character, was one for estab- 
 lishing Knoxville. It was, at that time, the seat of the Ter- 
 ritorial Government, and so continued to be, during the exist- 
 ence of that organization. It became the seat of Govern- 
 ment of the State of Tennessee, and so continued to be for 
 many years after. Kingston, Murfreesborough and Nashville, 
 were its successors for several years, when, in 1817, Knox- 
 ville again became the seat of Government, but for the last 
 
KNOXVILLE, FIRST CAPITAL OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 639 
 
 time. The strong flood of emigration to the West, had car- 
 ried with it the centre of population beyond the Cumberland 
 Mountains, and with it, the seat of Government. The scep- 
 tre has departed from her ; but time, and change, and progress, 
 cannot deprive her of her ancient honours, nor make her less 
 venerable for the proud associations that cluster around 
 her early history. Here Squollecuttah, Kunoskeskie, Nem- 
 tooyah, Chuquilatague, Enolchi, Talohtuski, and other chief- 
 tains of the Cherokee nation, met Governor Blount in Coun- 
 cil, smoked the pipe of peace, and formed the Treat} r of Hol- 
 ston ; — here the pious White pitched histent in the wilderness, 
 lived his life in patriarchal simplicitjr and unostentatious 
 usefulness : — here died the founder of Knoxville, and his 
 memory is here embalmed in the affectionate remembrance 
 of a succeeding generation. Here the infant Government of 
 the Territory was cradled, and nurtured in its youth by the 
 paternal care of Blount, of Anderson and Campbell. Here, 
 too, the sages and patriots of 1794, met and deliberated, and 
 made laws. Here, too, was born the infant Hercules — since 
 become a giant — Tennessee. Tennessee looks back to Knox- 
 ville, and recognizes her as the home of her youth, and the 
 fond centre of her hallowed recollections. 
 
 Speaking of the question of State or no State, -which, at 
 this time, began to be agitated by the people of the Territory, 
 Governor Blount writes to General Sevier, December 4th : 
 “I frankly say to you, lam for the Territory becoming a 
 State as early as possible ; and I think this change can be 
 effected so as to have a Constitution formed, and a represen- 
 tation in the next Congress. I have already written to my 
 friends in Congress, requesting them to have an act passed, 
 authorizing this Territory to become a State, whenever the 
 people shall express their wishes to this effect. 
 
 “ On the night of the twenty-fifth of May, Mr. George Mann, 
 ( living twelve miles above Knoxville, hearing a noise 
 ( at his stable, and leaving his house to discover the 
 cause, his return was intercepted by Indians, who fired upon 
 and dangerously wounded him. He fled for concealment to 
 a cave at a short distance, but was followed by the savages, 
 dragged from his hiding place and slain. The wife had 
 
640 
 
 HEROISM OF MRS. MANN. 
 
 heard the retreating footsteps of the Indians as. they pursued 
 her husband, and having locked the door, sat in silent expecta- 
 tion, with her sleeping children around her. Soon she hears 
 the tramp of approaching feet. Perhaps it is the neighbours, 
 alarmed at the firing, and coming to the rescue ? She is 
 about to rush out and meet them, but she hears their voices 
 in a strange tongue. The horrible conviction seizes her, that 
 the savages are returning to the slaughter. The rifle is in- 
 stantly in her hands ; that morning she had learned the use 
 of its triggers, and levelling it carefully at the crevice ot the 
 door, near the lock, she awaits the result. Stealthy steps 
 are moving along the walls ; the door is pressed against — it 
 yields— is partly open — a savage is on his hands and knees 
 at the entrance ; another behind, and still another ; her fin- 
 ger is upon the trigger ; she thinks of her children, and fires ! 
 The first Indian falls heavily to the ground — the second 
 screams with pain — the others gather up the wounded 
 and fly ! 
 
 That lone woman, by her courage and presence of mind, 
 had repulsed twenty-five savage warriors. Had a word es- 
 caped her lips after the explosion of the rifle, the lives of 
 herself and children would have been lost. The perfect si- 
 lence impressed the Indians, and believing armed men to be 
 in the house, they fled.* 
 
 The Indians set fire to the barns and out-buildings, but did 
 not venture to approach the house, from which a defence so 
 heroic and successful had been made. Mann, himself, was 
 found next morning, cruelly scalped and mutilated. Pursuit 
 was made after the body of Indians, but they could not be 
 overtaken. 
 
 Dr. White regrets, in a letter to General Sevier, the unwil- 
 lingness of Congress to pay the men of his brigade, and its 
 ungratelul neglect to pay the Chickasaws, and adds, “the 
 Spaniards will not neglect the opportunity to detach those 
 Indians from us. The Government of Louisiana is already 
 fortifying at the Chickasaw Bluffs.” 
 
 The Spanish authorities still retained possession of the 
 
 *Rev. T. W. HumeV-Semi-centennial Address. 
 
governor blount’s message. 
 
 641 
 
 fort at the Chickasaw Bluff, and it was not surrendered till a 
 special demand was made for its surrender under the instruc- 
 tions of the Federal Government to Governor Blount. An- 
 ticipating that still further obstacles would be thrown in the 
 way of surrendering Louisiana, Mr. Jefferson called for a 
 regiment of volunteers from Tennessee, to be present at the 
 surrender.* 
 
 As has been elsewhere shewn, the Territorial Assembly 
 had been prorogued by Gov. Blount until the first Monday 
 of October, 1795. For reasons mentioned in his Message, he 
 had called them together by proclamation, at an earlier pe- 
 riod, June 29, 1795. Upon that day, the Legislative Council 
 and the House of Representatives again assembled at Knox- 
 ville, and there held the second session. 
 
 In the Message of the Governor, he said : 
 
 “ The principal object for which I have called you together, at an 
 earlier period than that to which the General Assembly stood pro- 
 rogued, is to afford an opportunity to inquire whether it is, as I have 
 been taught to believe!, the wish of the majority of the people, that this 
 Territory should become a State, when by taking the enumeration there 
 should prove to be sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, or at such 
 earlier period as Congress shall pass an act for its admission ; and if it 
 is, to take such measures as may be proper to effect the desired change 
 of the form of government as early as practicable. 
 
 “ Upon the head of Indian Affairs, I have the pleasure to inform you, 
 that the prospect of peace between the United States and all the In- 
 dian tribes or nations, are more pleasing than in any other period since 
 the commencement of the war between Great Britain and the United 
 States. I would not, however, in thus expressing myself, be understood 
 that it is my opinion, that no more murders and thefts will be commit- 
 ted by Indians upon the frontier citizens ; on the contrary, I believe, 
 that while there is a tribe of Indians remaining on this side of the Mis- 
 sissippi,! uncircumscribed by the citizens of the United States, that a 
 description of them by the chiefs, denominated bad young men, will 
 continue, more or less, frequently to commit murders and thefts upon 
 the frontier inhabitants ; but against that description of Indians, as well 
 as all others, should an alteration of disposition take place, Congress, 
 at the last session, by the augmentation of the military establishment, 
 have enabled the President to give more effectual protection to the fron- 
 tier citizens than they have hitherto experienced.” 
 
 * Blount Papers. 
 
 t This is believed to be the first intimation of the wise policy, long afterwards 
 recommended by General Jackson, and adopted by the Government, of removing 
 the Indian tribes to the west of the Mississippi. 
 
 41 
 
642 
 
 FLATTERING STATE OF THE FINANCES. 
 
 “ Mr. Sevier moved for leave and presented a bill to estab- 
 lish a College at Salem, in Washington county.” 
 
 The bill establishing “Washington College, in honour of 
 the illustrious President of the United States,” was passed 
 and ordered to be engrossed. 
 
 “ An Act, etc. Whereas, the Legislature of North-Carolina estab- 
 lished an academy in Washington county, by the name of Martin Aca- 
 demy, which has continued for ten or twelve years past, under the pre- 
 sidency of the Rev. Samuel Doak, and has been of considerable utility 
 to the public, and affords a prospect of future usefulness, if invested with 
 powers and privileges appertaining to Colleges.” 
 
 The corporators were the Rev. Samuel Doak, President • 
 the Rev. Charles Cummins, Edward Crawford, John Coson, 
 James Balch, Robert Henderson and Gideon Blackburn; 
 Judge Joseph Anderson; General John Sevier; Colonels 
 Landon Carter and Daniel Kennedy; Majors Leeroy Taylor 
 and John Sevier; John Tipton, William Cocke, Archibald 
 Roane, Joseph Hamilton, John Rhea, Samuel Mitchell, Jesse 
 Payne, James Aiken and William Charles Cole Claiborne, 
 Esquires ; Drs. William Holt and William Chester; Messrs. 
 David Deaderick, John Waddle, Jun., Alexander Matthews, 
 John Nelson and John McAllister. 
 
 July 7. — In Council. Mr. Sevier, from the Joint Commit- 
 tee appointed for that purpose, offered the following address 
 to the Governor : 
 
 “ Sir : — The members of the Legislative Council, and of the House 
 of Representatives, beg leave to express to your Excellency their appro- 
 bation of the object for which they were principally called together; 
 and feeling convinced that the great body of our constituents are sensi- 
 ble of the many defects of our present mode of government, and of the 
 great and permanent advantages to be derived from a change and speedy 
 representation in Congress, the Genera' Assembly of this Territory will, 
 during the present session, endeavour to devise such means as may have 
 a tendency to effect that desirable object ; and, in doing so, we shall be 
 happy in meeting with your Excellency’s concurrence.” 
 
 The Joint Committee, to whom was referred the report of 
 ( the Treasurer of Washington and Hamilton Districts 
 
 1^95 1 ° > 
 
 ( give, in the conclusion of their report, a flattering view 
 of the condition of the finances : 
 
 “ Your Committee beg leave to observe, that the monies, arising from 
 the tax levied by the last General Assembly, very much exceeds their 
 most sanguine expectations ; and that such will be the state of the 
 Treasury Department, that the next tax to be levied may be very much 
 
BLOUNT COUNTY ESTABLISHED. 
 
 643 
 
 lessened, and then be fully commensurate and adequate to defray every 
 expenditure and necessary contingency of our government.” 
 
 The condition of the Treasury, thus favourably indicated 
 through official sources, doubtless had its influence, in deter- 
 mining public sentiment in the Territory to aspire to and 
 assume the higher position of an independent State. The 
 great increase of population, the preference of the inhabi- 
 tants for a state form of government, and the importance of 
 having an immediate representation of this large section of 
 country in Congress, induced the Assembly to have a census 
 of the people made, so as to ascertain whether the Territory 
 contained sixty thousand people. Upon that question, there 
 was little conflict of opinion. Non progredi est regre.di , is 
 the Western maxim, and it was apparent that the Territo- 
 rial Government was approaching its end — a single dissen- 
 tient was found in the Assembly. 
 
 The general sentiment, however, was otherwise, and the 
 Legislature, reflecting the opinion of the people at large, 
 passed an act for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the 
 Territory, in which it was provided, that “ if it shall appear 
 that there are sixty thousand inhabitants therein, the Gov- 
 ernor be authorized and requested to recommend to the peo- 
 ple of the respective counties, to elect five persons of each 
 county to represent them in Convention, to meet at Knoxville 
 at such time as he shall judge proper, for the purpose of 
 forming a constitution or form of government, for the per- 
 manent government for the people who are or shall become 
 residents upon the lands by the State of North-Carolina 
 ceded to the United States.” The act provides also, “ That 
 each member of Convention shall be entitled to receive the 
 same wages as a member of this present session of As- 
 sembly.” 
 
 By an act passed by the Governor, Legislative Council 
 and House of Representatives of the Territory, Knox county 
 was divided and Blount county established. William Wal- 
 lace, Joseph Black, Samuel Glass, David Craig, John Trim- 
 ble, Alexander Kelly and Samuel Henry, were appointed 
 Commissioners, to select the place for the county seat and 
 erect county buildings. The act names the seat of jus- 
 
644 GOV. VANDERHORST SUGGESTS ROAD FROM SO. CAROLINA. 
 
 tice, Maryville. This was out of respect to Mrs. Mary 
 Blount, the wife of the Governor. The county was thus 
 named for Governor Blount. The first Court was held at 
 the house of Abraham Weaver. Blount county was attached 
 to Hamilton District. 
 
 In September, of this year, Blount county Court first met 
 at the house of Abraham Weaver. William Wallace, Wil- 
 liam Lowry, Oliver Alexander, James Scott, David Craig 
 and George Ewing, produced commissions from Governor 
 Blount, appointing them magistrates for the county. Wil- 
 liam Wallace was elected Chairman ; John McKee, Clerk ; 
 Littlepage Simms, Sheriff; William Wallace, Register; 
 Robert Rhea, Coroner. 
 
 July 8. — Up to this period, emigrants from North and South- 
 Carolina had continued to reach the Territory, by the then 
 usual channels of travel over the Yellow and Stone Moun- 
 tains, and sometimes by the Good Spur route through Western 
 Virginia and the valley of the Holston. On the 8th of July, 
 Governor Blount submitted to the Council “ several papers, 
 respecting the opening of a wagon road from Buncombe 
 Court-House, in North-Carolina, to this Territory,” and re- 
 commended this important measure to their consideration. 
 The Council appointed a special committee, Messrs. Sevier 
 and Taylor, with whom the House associated Messrs. Wear, 
 Cocke, Doherty and Taylor, to whom that subject was re- 
 ferred. They report : 
 
 “ Your Committee, to whom was referred the resolution of the As- 
 sembly of South-Carolina, together with Governor Vanderhorst’s and 
 Blount’s letters, on the subject of cutting and opening a road through 
 the eastern mountains, report the following resolution : 
 
 Resolved , That his Excellency, Governor Blount, be authorized and 
 directed to appoint three Commissioners, to meet the three Commission- 
 ers appointed by the State of South-Carolina, to deliberate and consult 
 on measures, for the purpose of cutting and opening a road through the 
 eastern mountains, and report unto our next General Assembly the 
 result of their conference ; also, the practicability and probable expense 
 of cutting and opening the said road the nearest and best route through 
 the mountains.” 
 
 The Governor was also authorized to draw “ a sum out of 
 the Treasury, not exceeding one hundred dollars,” to defray 
 the expense of the Commissioners. 
 
TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT TERMINATES. 
 
 645 
 
 The consideration of other subjects before the Legisla- 
 ture, was postponed. The conviction had become general, 
 that the Territorial would soon be superseded by a State 
 Government, and to its counsels and authority, the pre- 
 sent Assembly chose to confide whatever was defective 
 or immature in their own legislation. The session was a 
 short one — but of thirteen days continuance. 
 
 The Council informed the House by message, “ The bu- 
 siness being about to be brought to a close, this evening, we 
 propose that a message be sent to the Governor, informing 
 him of the same, and request to be prorogued,” — which 
 being concurred in by the House, the Governor sent the fol- 
 lowing message — 
 
 “ William Blount, Governor in and over the Territory of the 
 United States of America, south of the River Ohio. 
 
 “ To the President and Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and 
 the Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : — The 
 business of this session being completed, the General Assembly is pro- 
 rogued, sine die. 
 
 “ Given under my hand and seal, at Knoxville, July 11, 1 TQS. 
 
 Wm. Blount. 
 
 By the Gov. — Thomas H. Williams, Pro Secy” 
 
 Governor Blount, in the reception of a liberal salary from 
 the United States Treasury, and from the resources of an 
 ample private fortune, had been able to indulge his disposi- 
 tion to entertain freely and even elegantly. The style of his 
 receptions was, necessarily, below that of Philadelphia and 
 Wilmington, but it was from the condition of things, scarcely 
 less expensive to the liberal host, who, in the infancy of 
 society around and in Knoxville, left no means unemployed 
 to manifest a hospitality at once worthy of the chief magis- 
 trate, and creditable to the gentleman. The older citizens 
 still refer to the last years of the Territorial Government, as 
 furnishing models of refinement and etiquette, of gentility 
 and polish, seldom seen in a new community. Not the up- 
 start consequence, and assumed superiority of suddenly ac- 
 quired wealth and unexpected promotion ; but the genuine 
 politeness, ease, grace and cordiality, the result and accom- 
 paniment of innate good feelings, sterling worth, and ad- 
 mitted respectability. The court of Governor Blount was 
 
646 
 
 COURT OF GOVERNOR BLOUNT. 
 
 thronged by strangers and gentlemen, visiting the seat of 
 Government from all parts of the Union on business, or for 
 curiosity and pleasure. Levees and entertainments became 
 frequent and crowded. There was wanting, of course, the 
 Parisian saloon, the servants in livery, and all of the exterior 
 of a princely munificent entertainment. But then, there was 
 what is far better — the cordiality and the absence of cere- 
 mony, and the warm-hearted and brotherly greeting, without 
 which, all the attraction of conviviality are empty and 
 valueless. 
 
 At such assemblages, each guest felt himself the Go- 
 vernor’s favourite. Conscious private worth and capacity, 
 and fidelity in the public service, were assured of his regard 
 and his civility, though clad in the plainest garb, or presented 
 in the Hunting shirt or seen in a less imposing exterior. Then 
 
 “ ’Twas worth that made the man, 
 
 And want of it the fellow.” 
 
THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 647 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 More than a quarter of a century had now passed, since 
 T 796 i the g erm °f civilization had been planted by the pio- 
 l neers of Tennessee upon the banks of the Watauga. 
 Their progress westward has been given in the preced- 
 ing pages, with such account of their civil and military 
 annals, and their social advancement, as the limited supply 
 of material within the writer’s command, has enabled him to 
 furnish. Under the simplest form of government, the patri- 
 archal system of Robertson and Carter, and their associates 
 on Watauga, we have seen the infancy of Tennessee — au- 
 guring bright hope and brilliant expectation for its future. 
 That hope and expectation we have seen gloriously realized 
 in the active participation of the western volunteers in the 
 American Revolution. With the establishment of their Na- 
 tional Independence, we have noticed the origin and growth 
 of empire in the West — the wish to govern themselves under 
 a sovereignty purely western. We have traced the rise, 
 progress and fall oftthe ancient Commonwealth of Franklin. 
 We have given the history of the Territory of the United 
 States south of the River Ohio. In all these varied periods 
 of her grftwth, A ve have seen much to admire, little to cen- 
 sure or condemn, in the Annals of our proud State. Here 
 and there a youthful indiscretion or a wrong-doing, which 
 time, reflection and experience, have promptly corrected. 
 Now and then, an act of disobedience, or a feeling of insub- 
 ordination, soon after atoned for, by dutiful affection and filial 
 regard ; always a manly assertion of the rights and privile- 
 ges of grown-up sons, without a perverse and stubborn dis- 
 position to cast off or rebel against rightful authority. .An 
 impatience, sometimes, to set up for and govern themselves, 
 rather than wilful disobedience, filial impiety or unfraternal 
 feeling. Her infancy, youth, boyhood, had been well passed, 
 
648 
 
 CENSUS OF THE TERRITORY. 
 
 and Tennessee had now attained the growth, and vigour, and 
 strength, and stately proportions of a full grown manhood. 
 Hereafter she will be noticed as a State, free, independent 
 and sovereign, and a member of the American Union. 
 
 In accordance with the provisions of the act of the Terri- 
 torial Government, of July ] 1, 1795, an enumeration of the 
 inhabitants of the Territory was made. The results of that 
 enumeration are found in the following schedule, as fur- 
 nished by Governor Blount, and afterwards forwarded by 
 him to George Washington, President of the United States. 
 
 Territory of the U. States of America south of the River Ohio. 
 
 Schedule of the aggregate amount of each description of persons , taken 
 agreeably to “ An act providing for the enumeration of the inhabi- 
 tants of the Territory of the United States of America south of the 
 River Ohio passed July 11, 1795. 
 
 
 Free white 
 males, 16 
 years and 
 upwards, 
 including 
 heads of 
 families. 
 
 Free white 
 males under 
 16 years. 
 
 Free white 
 females, in- 
 cluding 
 heads of 
 families. 
 
 All 
 
 other 
 
 free 
 
 persons. 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 Total 
 
 amount 
 
 Yeas. 
 
 Nays*. 
 
 Jefferson CoTinty, - 
 
 1,706 
 
 2,225 
 
 3,021 
 
 112 
 
 776 
 
 7,840 
 
 714 
 
 316 
 
 Hawkins County, - 
 
 2,666 
 
 3,279 
 
 4,767 
 
 147 
 
 2,472 
 
 13,331 
 
 1.651 
 
 634 
 
 Greene County, 
 
 1,567 
 
 2,203 
 
 3,350 
 
 52 
 
 466 
 
 7,638 
 
 560 
 
 495 
 
 Knox County, 
 
 2,721 
 
 2,723 
 
 3,664 
 
 100 
 
 2,365 
 
 11,573 
 
 1.100 
 
 128 
 
 Washington County, 
 
 2,013 
 
 2,578 
 
 4,311 
 
 225 
 
 978 
 
 10,105 
 
 873 
 
 145 
 
 Sullivan County 
 
 1,803 
 
 2,340 
 
 3,499 
 
 38 
 
 777 
 
 8,457 
 
 715 
 
 125 
 
 Sevier County, 
 
 628 
 
 1,045 
 
 1,503 
 
 273 
 
 129 
 
 3,578 
 
 £61 
 
 55 
 
 Blount County, 
 
 585 
 
 817 
 
 1,231 
 
 00 
 
 183 
 
 2,816 
 
 476 
 
 16 
 
 Davidson County, - 
 
 728 
 
 695 
 
 1,192 
 
 6 
 
 992 
 
 3,613 
 
 96 
 
 517 
 
 Sumner County, 
 
 1,382 
 
 1,595 
 
 2,316 
 
 1 
 
 1,076 
 
 6,370 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 Tennessee County, - 
 
 380 
 
 444 
 
 700 
 
 19 
 
 398 
 
 1,941 
 
 58 
 
 231 
 
 
 16,179 
 
 19,944 
 
 29,554 
 
 §13 
 
 10,613 
 
 77,262 
 
 6.504 
 
 2,562 
 
 I, William Blount, Governor in and over the Territory of the United 
 States of America south of the River Ohio, do certify that this schedule 
 is made in conformity with the schedules of the sheriffs of the respec- 
 tive counties in the said Territory, and that the schedules of the said- 
 sheriffs are lodged in my office. 
 
 Given under my hand, at Knoxville, November 28, 1795. 
 
 William Blount. 
 
 From this enumeration it appears, that more than one- 
 third of the voters in the Territory, were opposed to the 
 formation of the State Government. This opposition was 
 strongest in the Cumberland counties : only ninety-six in 
 Davidson, and fifty-eight in Tennessee county, voting in its 
 favour ; while east of Cumberland Mountain, the majority 
 for the new State was large, approaching, in Blount and 
 
governor blount’s proclamation. 
 
 G49 
 
 Sevier, almost to unanimity, occasioned probably by the 
 peculiar situation of their land titles. Governor Blount and 
 the officers of his government, were understood to be 
 decidedly in favour of the State organization, and General 
 Sevier and his adherents zealously so. “ Sevier and his Cap- 
 tains” were still omnipotent. 
 
 The Territory was found to contain cnore than the num- 
 ber of inhabitants, requisite by the Ordinance creating it, 
 to authorize the formation of a State Government, and Go- 
 vernor Blount issued his proclamation. 
 
 William Blount, Governor in and over the Territory of the United 
 
 States of America south of the River Ohio, to the people thereof; 
 
 Whereas, by an act passed on the 11th day of July last, entitled 
 “ An act providing for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the Terri- 
 tory of the United States of America south of the River Ohio,” it is 
 enacted, “ that if upon taking the enumeration of the people in the said 
 Territory as by that directed, it shall appear that there are sixty thou- 
 sand inhabitants therein, counting the whole of the free persons, inclu- 
 ding those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians 
 not taxed, and adding three-fifths of all other persons, the Governor 
 be authorized and requested to recommend to the people of the re- 
 spective counties to elect five persons for each county, to represent them 
 in convention, to meet at Knoxville, at such time as he shall judge 
 proper, for the purpose of forming a constitution or permanent form of 
 government.” 
 
 And whereas, upon taking the enumeration of the inhabitants of the 
 said Territory, as by the act directed, it does appear that there are sixty 
 thousand free inhabitants therein, and more, besides other persons : 
 Now I, the said William Blount, Governor, &c., do recommend to the 
 people of the respective counties to elect five persons for each county, 
 on the 18th and 19th days of December next, to represent them in a 
 convention to meet at Knoxville, on the 11th day of January next, for 
 the purpose of forming a constitution or permanent form of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 And to the end that a perfect uniformity in the election of the mem- 
 bers of convention may take place in the respective counties, I, the said 
 William Blount, Governor, &c., do further recommend to the sheriffs or 
 their deputies, respectively, to open and hold polls of election for mem- 
 bers of convention, on the 18th and 19th days of December, as afore- 
 said, in the same manner as polls of election have heretofore been held 
 for members of the General Assembly ; and that all free males, twenty- 
 one years of age and upwards, be considered entitled to vote by ballot 
 for five persons for members of convention ; and that the sheriffs or 
 their deputies, holding such polls of election, give certificates to the five 
 persons in each county, having the greatest number of votes, of their 
 being duly elected members of convention. 
 
650 
 
 CONVENTION OF TENNESSEE 
 
 And I, the said William Blount, Governor, &c., think proper here to 
 declare, that this recommendation is not intended to have, nor ought 
 to have, any effect whatever upon the present temporary form of 
 government; and that the present temporary form will continue to be 
 exercised in the same manner as if it had never been issued, until the 
 convention shall have formed and published a constitution or permanent 
 form of government. 
 
 Done at Knoxville, November twenty -eight, one thousand seven hun- 
 dred and ninety-five. • 
 
 Wm. Blount. 
 
 By the Gov. — Willie Blount, Pro Secretary. 
 
 In accordance with this proclamation, elections were held 
 for five members of Convention, from each of the eleven 
 counties in the Territory. These assembled on the day ap- 
 pointed, Jan. 11, at Knoxville. 
 
 Besides the members, there was an immense gathering 
 of the more enlightened, patriotic and influential citizens, 
 from all parts of the Territory, and some from other states. 
 Knoxville had never before contained more intelligence 
 and weight of character. The occasion demanded wisdom 
 and moderation, public spirit and public virtue — and these 
 were there. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION OF 1796. 
 
 The following members appeared at Knoxville, produced 
 their credentials, and took their seats, to wit : 
 
 From the County of Blount — David Craig, James Greena- 
 way, Joseph Black, Samuel Glass, James Houston. 
 
 From the County of Davidson — John McNairy, Andrew 
 Jackson, James Robertson, Thomas Hardeman, Joel Lewis. 
 
 From the County of Greene — : Samuel Frazier, Stephen 
 Brooks, William Rankin, John Galbreath, Elisha Baker. 
 
 From the County of Hawkins — James Berry, Thomas 
 Henderson, Joseph McMinn, William Cocke, Richard Mitch- 
 ell.* 
 
 From the County of Jefferson — Alexander Outlaw, Joseph 
 Anderson, George Doherty, William Roddye, Archibald 
 Roane. 
 
 * Mr. Mitcliell still survives, and is believed to be tbe only living member of 
 the Convention of 1796. 
 
MEETS AT KNOXVILLE. 
 
 651 
 
 From the County of Knox — William Blount, James White, 
 Charles McCkmg, John Adair, John Crawford. 
 
 From the County of Sullivan — George Rutledge, William 
 C. C. Claiborne, John Shelby, Jun., John Rhea, Richard 
 Gammon. 
 
 From the County of Sevier — Peter Bryan, Samuel Wear, 
 Spencer Clack, John Clack, Thomas Buckenham. 
 
 From the County of Tennessee—' Thomas Johnston, James 
 Ford, William Fort, Robert Prince, William Prince. 
 
 From the County of Washington — Landon Carter, John 
 Tipton, Leeroy Taylor, James Stuart, Samuel Handley. 
 
 From the County of Sumner — D. Shelby, Isaac Walton, 
 W. Douglass, Edward Douglass, Daniel Smith. 
 
 The Convention proceeded to the choice of a President, 
 when William Blount was unanimously elected and conduct- 
 ed to the chair. William Maclin was chosen secretary, and 
 John Sevier, Jun., reading and engrossing clerk. John 
 Rhea was appointed door-keeper. 
 
 On motion of Mr. White, seconded by Mr. Roddye, — Or- 
 dered — That the session commence to-morrow with prayer, 
 and a sermon to be delivered by Rev. Mr. Garrick. 
 
 The rules for the government of the Convention were, 
 with slight modifications, the same that had been adopted 
 by the House of Representatives of the Territorial Assem- 
 bly, Aug. 6, 1794. 
 
 The per diem of the members of the Convention had been 
 fixed by the Territorial Legislature, at two dollars and a 
 half ; no provision, however, had been made for the pay of 
 its secretary , printer, and other officers. 
 
 The Convention, on the second day of its session, exhib- 
 ited a singular instance of disinterestedness and economy. 
 
 “ On motion of Mr. Claiborne, seconded by Mr. Rut- 
 ledge : 
 
 Resolved , That economy is an amiable trait in any government, and 
 that in fixing the salaries of the officers thereof, the situation and re- 
 sources of the country should he attended to. 
 
 Resolved , That ten shillings and sixpence, Virginia currency, per day 
 to every member, is a sufficient compensation for his services in the 
 Convention, and one dollar for every thirty miles they travel in coming 
 to and returning from the Convention ; and that the members pledge 
 
652 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF TENNESSEE ADOPTED. 
 
 themselves, each one to the other, that they will not draw a greater sum 
 out of the public treasury.” 
 
 The second resolution was amended by substituting one 
 dollar and fifty cents for ten shillings and sixpence, Virginia 
 currency, and, thus amended, was unanimously adopted. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Robertson, seconded by Mr. Ford, 
 
 “ Resolved, That the House proceed to appoint two mem- 
 bers from each county, to draft a constitution, and that each 
 county name their members.” 
 
 Messrs. Craig and Black were nominated for Blount. 
 
 a 
 
 McNairy and Jackson 
 
 ££ 
 
 Davidson. 
 
 
 Frazier and Rankin 
 
 
 Greene. 
 
 u 
 
 Cocke and Henderson 
 
 a 
 
 Hawkins. 
 
 u 
 
 Anderson and Roddye 
 
 ££ 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 ££ 
 
 Blount and McClung 
 
 ££ 
 
 Knox. 
 
 a 
 
 Claiborne and Rhea 
 
 ££ 
 
 Sullivan. 
 
 ££ 
 
 Shelby and Smith 
 
 ££ 
 
 Sumner. 
 
 u 
 
 Wear and John Clack, 
 
 ££ 
 
 Sevier. 
 
 a 
 
 Johnston and Fort 
 
 ££ 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 u 
 
 Tipton and Stuart 
 
 ££ 
 
 Washington. 
 
 “ On motion of Mr. McMinn, the opinion of the House 
 was taken, whether a Bill of Rights be prefixed to the Con- 
 stitution ; and having decided that in the affirmative, the 
 House directed the Committee to present as early as possi- 
 ble a Declaration or Bill of Rights, to be prefixed to the Con- 
 stitution.” 
 
 Mr. Smith, Chairman, presented to the Convention a draft 
 of the Bill of Rights. It was considered in Committee of 
 the Whole, Mr. Robertson in the chair. In like manner, a 
 draft of the Constitution was, on the 27th of January, “ de- 
 livered in at the Secretary’s table and read.” The next day 
 it was taken up, referred to the Committee of the Whole, 
 and considered and amended until the 6th of February, 
 when “ the engrossed copy of the Constitution was read and 
 passed unanimously.” 
 
 The debates of the Convention are not given in the Jour- 
 nal. They are not to be found elsewhere. A single mem- 
 ber of that patriotic body survives. Accounts, therefore, of 
 its more minute transactions are meagre, and the details of 
 
DEBATES OF THE CONVENTION. 
 
 653 
 
 the views of members, and their position upon subjects about 
 which a conflict of sentiment had arisen, can be gathered 
 only from the ayes and noes — as occasionally called for du- 
 ring the session — and from the recollections of the few sur- 
 viving contemporaries of these sages of 1796. 
 
 The session of the Convention was short, extending to 
 only twenty-seven days. Its deliberations are said to have 
 been marked by great moderation and unusual harmony, 
 and to have been conducted throughout with singular cour- 
 tesy, good feeling and liberality. The speeches of members 
 were, therefore, probably few and short. They had met 
 more with the purpose of deliberating for the public good, 
 than for the exhibition of talents and eloquence. 
 
 Early in the session, Mr. Outlaw presented a grave ques- 
 tion to the Convention, viz : “ whether the Legislature con- 
 sist of two Houses.” In Committee of the Whole, it was 
 decided in the affirmative. On motion of Mr. McNairy, 
 seconded by Mr. Cocke, a question of equal gravity was next 
 considered, viz : “ whether the two branches in the Legisla- 
 ture shall consist of equal numbers and of equal powers, 
 and if the whole number elected should be odd, then by bal- 
 lot to determine to which House the odd member belongs.” 
 In Committee of the Whole, it was determined “ that the 
 legislative power be vested in two Houses, of equal num- 
 bers and of equal powers ;” and so reported to the Conven- 
 tion. This report was, however, re-considered the next day, 
 on motion of Mr. McNairy, and seconded by Mr. Rhea, and 
 “ amended so as to read as follows : in lieu of the words, 
 two Houses, insert one House of Representatives, and that 
 no bill or resolution shall be passed, unless by two-thirds of 
 the whole number of members present.” This amendment 
 was concurred in by the Convention, but the next morning a 
 re-consideration was again ordered, on motion of Mr. Rod- 
 dye, seconded by Mr. Fort, and “two branches, a Senate 
 and House of Representatives,” again inserted. This amend- 
 ment, too, was adopted by the Committee, on motion of Mr. 
 Cocke, seconded by Mr. Jackson. “ Mr. Anderson moved 
 that the report of the Committee be amended, by striking 
 out the word Senate, which passed in the negative.” 
 
 “ It was then moved by Mr. Claiborne, and seconded by 
 
654 
 
 DECISION ON SEVERAL QUESTIONS. 
 
 Mr. Carter, that the report be amended as follows : that the 
 Senate have only a qualified negative, and that a bill, not- 
 withstanding their dissent, shall become a law, provided 
 two-thirds of the House of Representatives concur in its 
 passage, which passed in the negative.” 
 
 Later in the session, “ it was moved by Mr. Outlaw, and 
 seconded by Mr. Anderson, whether it is the sense of this 
 House, that if we should not be admitted by Congress as a 
 member State of the General Government, that we should 
 continue to exist as an independent State.” “ Mr. Cocke 
 moved the postponement of the question, which was objected 
 to ; the question was then put, and carried in the affirmative.” 
 An ineffectual attempt was made by Mr. Henderson, to 
 extend the right of suffrage to “all persons who have done 
 duty in the militia;” and by Mr. Outlaw, “to all persons 
 liable by law to do militia duty ;” and by Mr. Anderson, to 
 change the system of voting by ballot to the viva voce plan. 
 The original draft of the Constitution, provided, in 
 
 “Article VIII, Sec. 1. — Whereas , the ministers of the Gospel are, by 
 their professions, dedicated to God and the care of souls, and ought not 
 to be diverted from the great duties of their functions ; therefore, no 
 minister of the Gospel, orpriestof any denomination whatever, shall, un- 
 der any pretence or description, be eligible to or capable of holding any 
 civil or military office, or place of trust, within this state.” On motion 
 of Mr. Carter, seconded by Mr. Jackson, this was amended, so as to read 
 after the word “eligible, to a seat in either branch of the Legislature.”. 
 
 It was through the efforts of William Blount, that the 
 Convention adopted the 20th section of the Bill of Rights — 
 “ That an equal participation of the free navigation of the 
 Mississippi, is one of the inherent rights of the citizens of 
 this State ; it cannot, therefore, be conceded to any prince, 
 potentate, power, person or persons whatever.* 
 
 In section 31st of the Bill of Rights, adopted with the 
 Constitution, it is provided — “ That the people residing south 
 of French Broad and Holston, between the Rivers Tennessee 
 and Big Pigeon, are entitled to the right of pre-emption and 
 occupancy in that tract.” This right was secured to them 
 by the framers of the Constitution, in consideration of the 
 value to the country of these settlements. These brave 
 pioneers had extended themselves as a barrier between the 
 
 * Blount Papers. 
 
JACKSON SUGGESTS THE NAME TENNESSEE. 
 
 655 
 
 older settlements and the Indians — maintaining their ground, 
 without titles to their lands, from 1783 to 1790 ; living 
 there, part of this interim, without the benefit of law, en- 
 during trouble, encountering danger, and exposed to pillage, 
 massacre and death. The privilege of pre-emption was 
 richly deserved. 
 
 A further privilege was granted to these inhabitants. 
 “ Until a Land Office shall be opened, so as to enable the 
 citizens south of French Broad and Holston, between the 
 Rivers Tennessee and Big Pigeon, to obtain titles upon their 
 claims of occupancy and pre-emption, those who hold land, 
 by virtue of such claims, shall be eligible to serve in all 
 capacities where a freehold is, by this Constitution, made a 
 requisite qualification.” 
 
 It is tradition, that the beautiful name given to our State, 
 in the Convention, was suggested by General Jackson. The 
 members from the county of Tennessee consented to the loss 
 of that name, if it should be transferred to the whole State. 
 Its principal river still retained its aboriginal name, and the 
 Convention adopted it, in preference to others that were 
 spoken of. In euphony and smoothness, it compares well 
 with those of her sister coterminous states, Alabama, Missis- 
 sippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky ; and. at the same 
 time, is more American, less European, than her venerable 
 mother, Carolina, or Virginia and Georgia. 
 
 The Convention had approached nearly to the end of its 
 labours, Saturday, February 6, 1796. 
 
 “ Mr. McClung, Chairman of the Committee appointed to draw up an 
 estimate of the expenses of the Convention, reported the following esti- 
 mate of the wages of the Convention, clerks and door-keeper, began 
 and held at Knoxville on the 11th day of January, and ending the 6th 
 day of February, 1796, allowing one dollar and fifty cents per day for 
 each member, and one dollar for every thirty miles’ travelling to and 
 returning from the same, agreeably to a unanimous resolution of the 
 Convention of the 12th January ; two dollars and fifty cents per day to 
 the clerks, and two dollars to the door-keeper.” 
 
 In addition to the per diem of the members and officers of 
 the Convention, an estimate was made 
 
 For seats for the Convention. - - - $10 00 
 
 Three and a half yards of oil cloth, 
 
 2 62 
 
656 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF TENNESSEE FORWARDED 
 
 So small was the expenditure of a primitive people for 
 the furniture of the Convention Chamber, and the covering 
 of the President’s and Secretary’s tables. They were in ex- 
 act correspondence with the room in which the session was 
 held. It was the office of David Henley, Esq., Agent of the 
 Department of War, a small building then in the outer part 
 of Knoxville, and still surrounded by standing trees of the 
 ancient forest. It was afterwards used as a school house. 
 The older citizens can point out to the curious where the old 
 Convention-house stood, but no vestige of it has been pre- 
 served. The vandalism of modern times has razed its foun- 
 dation, and consigned it to oblivion. 
 
 The Convention had generously relinquished a large pro- 
 portion of the daily pay of its own members, and they re- 
 commended the application of that amount to the following 
 purposes : 
 
 “ Resolved , That it is the unanimous wish of the members of this 
 Convention, that, the monies appropriated to their use by law, and not 
 by them received, may be appropiated by the General Assembly to the 
 payment of the secretary, clerk, printer and door-keeper, or so much 
 thereof as will be sufficient to pay them for their services ; and that the 
 printer be directed to print fifty copies of the Constitution, and ten copies 
 of the Journal for each county, to be delivered to the members of this 
 Convention, and by them to be distributed for the information and bene- 
 fit of the citizens.”*' 
 
 The President of the Convention was instructed “to take 
 the Constitution into his safe keeping, until a Secretary shall 
 be appointed and qualified to office under it, and then to de- 
 liver it to him,” and also to “ forward, as early as practica- 
 ble, by an express, a copy to the Secretary of State for the 
 United States.” The President was further “ authorized and 
 directed to issue writs of election to Sheriffs of the several 
 counties, for holding the first election of members of the 
 General Assembly, and a Governor, under the authority of 
 the Constitution of the State of Tennessee, to bear test of 
 this date.” 
 
 * This small edition was, of course, soon exhausted, and at the time of this wri- 
 ting, a copy can scarcely be found. The writer is indebted, for the copy now before 
 him, to the politeness and research of the Hon. Chancellor Reese, President of the 
 East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society. 
 
TO SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 657 
 
 Agreeably to these instructions of the Convention, the 
 President promptly forwarded, on the 9th of February, a copy 
 of the Constitution to Mr. Pickering, as Secretary of State. 
 It was sent by one of the members from Hawkins county, 
 Joseph McMinn, Esq., who was instructed to remain long 
 enough at the seat of the Federal Government, to ascertain 
 whether the members of Congress from Tennessee would 
 be allowed to take their seats in the National Legislature. 
 Mr. White, the Territorial delegate in that body, was urged 
 by Mr. McMinn, to apply for the admission of the State of 
 Tennessee into the Union. 
 
 The Constitution of the State of Tennessee, as formed by 
 the Convention of 1796, need not be here given, as it is to 
 be found at large in several political compilations. It is ad- 
 mitted to be one of the very best — Mr. Jefferson said, “ the 
 least imperfect and most republican” — of the systems of go- 
 vernment adopted by any of the American States. For 
 about forty years it was considered so unobjectionable, and 
 so satisfactory to the people of Tennessee, that all efforts to 
 amend it failed to receive their sanction till 1835, when it 
 was changed, and the present Constitution substituted in its 
 stead. 
 
 FIRST LEGISLATURE OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 Writs of election, bearing date the 6th of February, were 
 issued by the President of the Convention to the Sheriffs of 
 the several counties, requiring them to hold the first election 
 of members of the General Assembly, and Governor of the 
 State of Tennessee, and designating the 28th of March, as 
 the day on which the new Legislature of the new State 
 should assemble. The election was held accordingly, and 
 the members elect were furnished by the returning officers 
 of their respective counties with the necessary credentials. 
 Upon the day appointed, the Legislature met at Knoxville. 
 The following members constituted the 
 
 Senate. 
 
 James Ford, from the county of Tennessee. 
 
 James Winchester, “ Sumner. 
 
 42 
 
658 
 
 FIRST LEGISLATURE OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 James White, 
 
 from the county of Knox. 
 
 George Doherty, 
 
 66 
 
 Jefferson 
 
 Samuel Frazier, 
 
 66 
 
 Greene. 
 
 John Tipton, 
 
 66 
 
 Washington. 
 
 George Rutledge, 
 
 66 
 
 Sullivan. 
 
 John Clack, 
 
 66 
 
 Sevier. 
 
 Alexander Kelly, 
 
 66 
 
 Blount. 
 
 Joel Lewis, 
 
 66 
 
 Davidson. 
 
 Joseph McMinn, 
 
 66 
 
 Hawkins. 
 
 Mr. White proposed for Speaker, James Winchester, Esq., 
 who was unanimously chosen and conducted to the chair. 
 
 March 29. — Francis A. Ramsey was appointed Clerk ; 
 Nathaniel Buckingham, Assistant Clerk ; Thomas Bounds, 
 Door-keeper. 
 
 The House of Representatives. 
 
 James Houston and Joseph Black, from the county of 
 Blount. 
 
 Robert Weakley and Seth Lewis, from the county of Da- 
 vidson. 
 
 Joseph Conway and John Gass, from the county of Greene. 
 
 John Cocke and Thomas Henderson, from the county of 
 Hawkins. 
 
 Alexander Outlaw and Adam Peck, from the county of 
 Jefferson. 
 
 John Menefee and John Crawford, - from the county of Knox. 
 
 John Rhea and David Looney, from the county of Sullivan. 
 
 Spencer Clack and Samuel Newell, from the county of 
 Sevier. 
 
 Stephen Cantrell and William Montgomery, from the 
 county of Sumner. 
 
 Thomas Johnston and William Ford, from the county of 
 Tennessee. 
 
 John Blair and James Stuart, from the county of Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 James Stuart was unanimously chosen Speaker ; Thomas 
 H. Williams, Clerk ; John Sevier, Jun., Assistant Clerk ; 
 John Rhea, Door-keeper. 
 
 The organization of the two Houses being thus com- 
 
JOHN SEVIER INAUGURATED GOVERNOR. 
 
 659 
 
 pleted, communications were exchanged between them, that 
 each was ready to proceed to business. 
 
 The two Houses met in the Representative Chamber, for 
 the purpose of opening and publishing the returns of the 
 elections in the several counties for Governor. From these, 
 “ it appears that citizen John Sevier is duly and constitu- 
 tionally elected Governor of this State, which was accord- 
 ingly announced by the Speaker of the Senate, in presence of 
 both Houses of the General Assembly.” 
 
 The same day, a Joint Committee, viz: Lewis, Ford and 
 Kelly, of the Senate, and Outlaw, Blair, Cocke, Johnston, 
 Newell and Fort, of the House, was raised, “ to wait on his 
 Excellency John Sevier, and request his attendance in the 
 House of Representatives, to-morrow, at 12 o’clock, to be 
 qualified agreeably to the Constitution of the State of Ten- 
 nessee.” 
 
 Another Joint Committee was directed also to wait upon 
 Governor Blount, to inform him of the time and place ap- 
 pointed for the qualification of his successor in office, and to 
 request his attendance there. By another Committee an 
 oath of office was prescribed, to be administered to the Go- 
 vernor elect. Some conflict of opinion existed between the 
 two Houses, respecting the qualification of the Governor by 
 the Judges, the Senate insisting that that duty devolved upon 
 their Clerk. Upon a reconsideration, however, the Senate 
 concurred in appointing a Committee “ to wait upon the 
 Judges, and 1 'equest their attendance to qualify the Governoi\’» 
 March 30th. — “ Both Houses having convened in the Re- 
 presentative Chamber, the several oaths prescribed were 
 duly administered by the Honourable Joseph Anderson.” 
 After his inauguration, Governor Sevier presented the fol- 
 lowing address : 
 
 '■'‘Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives /—The high 
 and honourable appointment conferred upon me by the free suffrage of 
 my countrymen, fills my breast with gratitude, which, I trust, my future 
 life will manifest. I take this early opportunity to express, through you, 
 my thanks in the strongest terms of acknowledgment. I shall labour 
 to discharge with fidelity the trust reposed in me ; and if such my exer- 
 tions should prove satisfactory, the first wish of my heart will be grati- 
 fied. 
 
660 
 
 ELECTION OF SENATORS FROM TENNESSEE. 
 
 “ Gentlemen — accept of my best wishes for your individual and public 
 happiness; and, relying - upon your wisdom and patriotism, I have no 
 doubt but the result of your deliberations will give permanency and 
 success to our new system of government, so wisely calculated to secure 
 the liberty, and advance the happiness and prosperity of our fellow citi- 
 zens. John Sevier.” 
 
 The machinery of the new State was not yet fully in mo- 
 tion. Its Legislature was organized and in session — its Go- 
 vernor had just been inaugurated according to the forms 
 prescribed by the Constitution — but its sovereignty was not 
 represented in the councils of the Union. The duty remained 
 unperformed, of electing Senators for the State of Tennessee 
 to the Congress of the United States. The mode adopted, in 
 i796, was somewhat different from that which obtains in the 
 present day. 
 
 “ Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Senate : — This House propose 
 to proceed to the election of the two Senators to represent this State in 
 the Congress of the United States, and that the Senate and House of 
 Representatives do convene in the House of Representatives for that 
 purpose to-morrow, at 10 o’clock, and do propose Mr. William Blount, 
 Mr. William Cocke and Mr. Joseph Anderson, as candidates for the Se- 
 nate.” 
 
 The Senate replied: 
 
 “ Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen : — We concur with your message as 
 to the time and place of the election by you proposed, and propose 
 Dr. James White'* to be added to the nomination, as a candidate for 
 the Senate. 
 
 “ The Senate and House of Representatives having convened in the 
 Representative Chamber, William Blount and William Cocke were 
 duly and constitutionally elected.” 
 
 A Joint Committee was then appointed “to prepare an 
 address to Messrs. William Blount and William Cocke, in- 
 forming them of their being elected to represent this State 
 in the Congress of the United States.” Mr. White, Chair- 
 man of that Committee, reported the following address : 
 
 Citizen William Blount, late Governor of the Territory of the United 
 
 States of America, south of the River Ohio : 
 
 Sir: — Impressed with the grateful remembrance of your conduct du- 
 ring the time you was Governor of the Territory south of the River 
 Ohio, now the State of Tennessee, the General Assembly of the said 
 
 * Judge Anderson and Dr. White were subsequently withdrawn by messages 
 duly interchanged between the two Houses. 
 
ADDRESS OF THE LEGISLATURE TO THE SENATORS. 
 
 661 
 
 State, in the name of the people thereof, over whom you formerly pre- 
 sided, embrace the earliest moment to testify to you their entire appro- 
 bation of your conduct and attention to promote their happiness during 
 your continuance in that office, the exercise of which was rendered more 
 difficult and arduous, by the frequent inroads of the neighbouring na- 
 tions of Indians. We recollect, with pleasure, that under your admin- 
 istration, we, as a people, have experienced growing energy and in- 
 creasing power. That your exertions, in subordination to the Federal 
 Government, have been the cause of the present peace, which for some 
 time past, has existed between us and the adjoining Indian tribes, and 
 which, we hope, will long exist, on the principles you have established. 
 
 The Territorial Government now being ended, we will only say, in 
 respect thereof, that if the exercise, alone, of a Government, constituted 
 on the principles it was, could render a people happy under it, we should 
 have been so. We rejoice that while the Territorial Government has 
 closed with honour to you, it has left us in a state of prosperity and 
 peace. 
 
 You are now, sir, called by the unanimous voice of a free people, to 
 represent them in the Senate of the United States of America — the 
 highest proof in their power to offer, of their confidence in your integ- 
 rity and ability to serve them. 
 
 James White, Chairman. 
 
 To the other Senator elect, the committee presented the 
 following address : 
 
 Citizen William Cocke : — Your fellow-citizens have called you to 
 represent them in the Senate of the United States of America. Im- 
 pressed with recollections of your past conduct, from an early period of 
 the settlement of our common country, they have given you this testi- 
 mony of the confidence they repose in your integrity and abilities to 
 serve them. 
 
 James White, Chairman. 
 
 To these addresses, citizen Blount and citizen Cocke re- 
 plied. Mr. Blount says : 
 
 Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Senate , and Mr. Speaker and Gen- 
 tlemen of the House of Representatives : 
 
 The entire approbation of the people, of my conduct in office, by you 
 testified, is the highest reward I could receive. Accept, gentlemen, my 
 thanks for the prompt and warm manner in which you have been pleased 
 to convey it to me. 
 
 With you I hope that the peace which exists between the citizens of the 
 United States and the Indian tribes will long continue ; as in peace con- 
 sists the happiness and prosperity of both parties ; and thus impressed, 
 it shall be my duty, in whatever situation I may be placed, to use my 
 efforts to its preservation. 
 
 I feel, as I ought, the unanimous call of my fellow-citizens, to repre- 
 sent them in the Senate of the United States, and shall devote myself 
 
602 
 
 ELECTION OF JUDGES AND OTHER OFFICERS. 
 
 to the promotion of their interests, as far as is consistent with that of the 
 whole body politic, of which they are a part. 
 
 Accept, gentlemen, my best wishes for your individual happiness, 
 
 Wm. Blount. 
 
 Mr. Cocke’s reply : 
 
 Gentlemen : — I accept of the appointment conferred upon me by the 
 General Assembly. It will be my first, my greatest wish, to promote 
 the interests of our common country. The honour of serving a free and 
 enlightened people, is truly flattering, and my highest reward will con- 
 sist in my conduct continuing to meet their approbation. 
 
 Accept, gentlemen, my respects. 
 
 William Cocke. 
 
 James Winchester, S. S., 
 
 James Stuart, S. II. R. 
 
 William Maclin was elected Secretary of State ; John 
 McNairy, Willie Blount* and Archibald Roane were elected 
 Judges of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity. 
 
 Landon Carter was elected Treasurer of the Districts of 
 Washington and Hamilton, and William Black, Treasurer 
 of the District of Mero. 
 
 The condition of the citizens of Tennessee inhabiting the 
 section of the State south of French Broad and Holston, was 
 peculiar. It had been settled partly under treaties with the 
 Indians, held under the authority of the State of Franklin. 
 The inhabitants were yet without perfect titles to their lands, 
 and holding them only by the right of occupancy, were ap- 
 prehensive of future disturbance. Governor Sevier early 
 brought the subject before the Legislature by the following 
 message : 
 
 Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Legislature : 
 
 Permit me to remark to your honourable body, that, as our Senators 
 are about to proceed to the Federal Legislature, it may not he inexpe- 
 dient to remind them of the necessity of taking under consideration, 
 the embarrassed situation, claimants of land are under, to those south of 
 the line concluded on in the treaty of Holston, and now within the In- 
 dian boundary. 
 
 In my humble opinion, it is a matter of great public importance, and 
 particularly interesting to the State and to individuals, to either have the 
 
 *Jolm McNairy declined this appointment, and Howell Tatum, Esq., of David- 
 son, was commissioned in his place, May 12th, 1797. Willie Blount also declined’ 
 and his place was filled by W. C. C. Claiborne, of Sullivan county, commissioned 
 September 28th, 1796. April 9th, 1796. — John C. Hamilton, Esq., was appoint- 
 ed Attorney for the State, vice Howell Tatum, appointed Judge. 
 
INSTRUCTION TO SENATORS. 
 
 663 
 
 Indian claims extinguished, or the adventurers compensated for their 
 lands. 
 
 I have no doubt but you will take the premises under due delibera- 
 tion, and give your Senators such instructions as you, in your wisdom, 
 may deem necessary and advisable. 
 
 John Sevier. 
 
 The subject was at once referred to a Select Committee, 
 who reported the following resolution — 
 
 Resolved, That it be an instruction to the Senators and Representa- 
 tives of this State in the Congress of the United States, to state to that 
 body, that it is essential to the preservation of peace, between the In- 
 dian Tribes and the United States, that measures be by them taken to 
 relieve and quiet the grantees of lands under the State of North-Caro- 
 lina, the possession of which is guaranteed to the Indians by treaty, 
 which claim we wish extinguished, and the claimants put in peaceable 
 possession of their lands. 
 
 Thomas Johnson, Ch. 
 
 The bill to preclude persons of a certain description, from being admit- 
 ted as witnesses, &c., was then taken up, to which Mr. Gass proposed 
 the following amendment : Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of 
 
 the State of Tennessee — That from and after the passing of this Act, if 
 any person in this State shall publicly deny the being of a God, and a 
 future state of rewards and punishments, or shall publicly deny the 
 divine authority of the Old and New Testaments, on being convicted 
 thereof, by the testimony of two witnesses, shall forfeit and pay the sum 
 of dollars for every such offence, etc. 
 
 The foregoing amendment being received, the question was taken on 
 the passage of the amended bill, which was carried. Whereupon the 
 yeas and nays were called for — 
 
 Yeas. — Blair, Black, Conway, Clack, Crawford, Gass, Houston, 
 Johnson, Looney, Montgomery, Newell, Outlaw, Peck and Weakley. 
 
 Nays. — Cantrell, Cocke, Fort, Henderson, Lewis, Menefee and Rhea. 
 
 Mr. Lewis entered the following protest — 
 
 To this question we enter our dissent, as we conceived the law to be 
 an inferior species of persecution, which is always a violation of the law of 
 nature ; and also that it is a violation of our constitution. 
 
 Seth Lewis, 
 
 John Cocke, 
 
 William Fort, 
 
 John Rhea, 
 
 Stephen Cantrell, 
 
 John Menefee, 
 
 Thomas Henderson. 
 
 The bill, with the amendment, was, upon its first reading in the Senate, 
 rejected. 
 
 Electors of President and Vice-President of the United 
 States, were elected by joint ballot of the two Houses, and 
 
664 
 
 ROBERTSON AND MONTGOMERY LAID OFF 
 
 not by the people, as now provided for in Tennessee and 
 most of the other States. Joseph Greer, Daniel Smith, Hugh 
 Neilson and Joseph Anderson, were elected. 
 
 Upon the same day, Hopkins Lacy was elected Attorney- 
 General for Washington District ; John Lowry for Hamil- 
 ton, and Howell Tatum, for Mero District. 
 
 The day preceding the adjournment of the Legislature, Go- 
 vernor Sevier, by message, brought to the attention of the 
 Legislature, the condition of the frontier, and recommended 
 friendship with the Indians, as the principal mode of security 
 and defence. He notices the large emigration to the State, 
 and that the soldiers of the late campaigns were still un- 
 paid for their services ; he proposes, with the leave of the Leg- 
 islature, to attend in person at the next session of Congress, 
 to urge upon that body the payment to the troops for their 
 hazardous and toilsome services.” 
 
 To which a Joint Committee, appointed for that purpose, 
 replied — That while they were sensible of the necessity of 
 preserving the existing peace, and were most solicitous that 
 Congress should not only provide for the defence of the fron- 
 tier, but also make full compensation for the payment of the 
 troops heretofore employed in that service, yet they did not 
 advise the visit of the Governor to Congress, and suggested 
 that the duty he proposed to assume in that behalf, should be 
 devolved on the members of Congress from Tennessee. 
 
 At this session, Tennessee county was divided, and the 
 counties of Robertson and Montgomery established out of 
 its territory. The former was so named in honour of Gen- 
 eral James Robertson, the patriarch of Watauga and the 
 founder of the Cumberland settlements. He was a native 
 of North-Carolina, and emigrated to Watauga in 1769. 
 These Annals have abounded with incidents ofhis life, per- 
 formed in the civil, political and military service ofhis coun- 
 try, in every period of difficulty, embarrassment and danger. 
 His efforts, in a more private capacity, to benefit his fellow- 
 citizens were disinterested, great and unremitted. “ He 
 treated the Indians, when known enemies, as the enemies of 
 his country ; when known friends of peace, as its friends. 
 His fellow men he treated as such, according to known 
 
OUT OF TENNESSEE COUNTY. 
 
 665 
 
 merit — for the errors of the misguided, he exercised charity 
 to a proper extent — those hardened in vice, he let the law 
 punish. He practised virtue, and encouraged it mothers; 
 vice he discountenanced, by precept and by example. His 
 house, and all he had, were opened freely to the distressed of 
 every condition. He loved his friends, and he held his 
 enemies at defiance. To his wife he was indebted for a 
 knowledge of the alphabet, and for instruction how to read 
 and write. To his Creator he was indebted for rich mental 
 endowments — to himself, for mental improvement. To his 
 God was he indebted for that firmness and indomitable 
 courage, which the circumstances that surrounded him, called 
 so constantly into exercise,”* Besides the civil and politi- 
 cal positions which General Robertson occupied, as already 
 mentioned, in the Watauga Association, in the Legislature 
 and Convention of Nort.h-Carolina, the Territory, and the 
 State of Tennessee, he was Deputy Superintendent on the part 
 f the United States, for the Chickasaw and Choctaw Tribes ; 
 and was several times appointed to treat with the southern 
 Indians, for a relinquishment of their claims to land in the 
 South-west. Previous to and at the time of his death, Gen. 
 Robertson was the United States Agent to the Chickasaw 
 nation. A detail of his acts in behalf of his country, and an 
 enumeration of his sufferings, by personal exposure, in the 
 wilderness, in the field of battle, in the besieged fort and the 
 assaulted station, in losses of relatives and of private pro 
 perty, would fill a volume. He was faithful to his God, his 
 country and his fellow men. The memory of no one is held 
 in greater esteem and veneration, than that of James Robert- 
 son. 
 
 William Johnston, Sen., James Norflet, John Young, John 
 Donelson and Samuel Crocket, were Commisioners to lay 
 off the county seat for Robertson County. The first court 
 was held at the house of Jacob McCarty. The county was 
 attached to Mcro District. On the 20th of April, Springfield 
 was established as the seat of justice for Robertson county. 
 
 Montgomery embraced the remainder of Tennessee county. 
 
 * Blount’s Papers. 
 
666 
 
 CARTER COUNTY LAID OFF. 
 
 and was called after Col. John Montgomery, a native of 
 Virginia. He emigrated early to the West, and became a 
 member of the North-Carolina Legislature, and also of the 
 Convention of that State, which ratified the Constitution of 
 the United States. Besides the civil appointments which 
 he filled, he was colonel of the militia of his county, and led 
 more than two hundred of his fellow soldiers in the Nicka- 
 jack campaign. He was a patriot and a hero, and lost his 
 life in giving protection to the frontier. Clarkesville, the 
 county seat, was so called in honour of Gen. George Rogers 
 Clarke. George Neville, Sen., Francis Prince, Heyden Wells, 
 Robert Edmonson and Robert Dunning, were appointed by 
 the Legislature, to erect public buildings in Clarkesville. 
 
 April 9. — The Legislature divided, again, the mother 
 county, Washington, and established Carter county. Lan- 
 don Carter, Reuben Thornton, Andrew Greer, Sen., Zacha- 
 riah Campbell and David McNabb, were Commissioners to se- 
 lect the site for the court-house, and to erect county buildings, 
 The first court was held at the house of Samuel Tipton. Carter 
 county was attached to Washington District. Carter county 
 was thus named, in honour of General Landon Carter ; he 
 was a native of Virginia, emigrated at an parly day, with 
 his father, Col. John Carter, to the wilds of Watauga. He 
 was educated at Liberty Hall, Mecklenburg county, North- 
 Carolina, and became qualified for the wide range of duties 
 afterwards assigned him by his countrymen. He was brave, 
 prompt and useful, in repelling Indian invasion and attack. 
 He was a member of the Franklin Convention and Leg- 
 islature, its Secretary of State, and Treasurer of Washington 
 District under the Territorial Government Fie was a member 
 of the Convention of 1796, and afterwards Treasurer of 
 Washington District for the State of Tennessee. 
 
 The seat of justice for Carter county, was named Eliza- 
 bethton, in honour of Elizabeth, the wife of General Car- 
 ter. 
 
 April 23. — Additional Commissioners, for the regulation 
 and management of the town of Jonesboro’, were appointed, 
 viz : David Deaderick, Sen., John Sevier, Jun., Christopher 
 Taylor, John Tipton, Adam Reader, John Blair, John Adams, 
 
GRAINGER COUNTY LAID OFF. 
 
 667 
 
 William Chester, Allen Gillespie, Thomas Embree and Ro- 
 bert Allison. 
 
 Grainger county was laid off April 22, 1796. David Hay- 
 ley, Major Lea, Benjamin McCarty, Bartley Marshall and 
 James Blair, Jun., were appointed Commissioners, to lay off 
 a town and erect county buildings. First court was held at 
 the house of Benjamin McCarty. John Cocke and William 
 Payne were appointed to run the boundary line. October 
 28, 1797, the county seat was established, and called Rut- 
 ledge, in honour of George Rutledge, Esq., of Sullivan county. 
 
 Grainger county, was so called, for Mary Grainger, the 
 wife of Governor William Blount. She was a native of 
 North-Carolina, and arrived on Watauga at the commence- 
 ment of the Territorial Government. After Knoxville be- 
 came the residence of the Governor, many of the friendly 
 chiefs paid frequent visits to the new capital ; and Mrs. 
 Blount became much interested in them, and used her ad- 
 dress and persuasion, to induce them to restrain their young 
 warriors from further aggression upon the frontier people. 
 With these she was a deserved favourite. Fort Grainger, 
 at the mouth of Tennessee, was also called for Mrs. Blount. 
 She was an accomplished lady, and she did much to soften 
 and refine the manners of the first inhabitants of Knoxville. 
 Under her administration, a grace and a charm was given to 
 the society of the place — the more remarkable and attrac- 
 tive from the external circumstances under which they were, 
 from the necessity of the case, exhibited in the new town 
 upon a distant frontier. 
 
 George Rutledge was elected Brigadier-General, in place 
 of General Sevier, and James Winchester, Brigadier-Gene- 
 ral, in place of General Robertson ; and George Conway, 
 Major-General. He was succeeded by Andrew Jackson. 
 
 The Committee of Finance reported the following state- 
 ment of the public funds : 
 
 Amount received by the Treasurer of Washington ) 
 
 $6,380 63 
 5,838 03 
 
 and Hamilton Districts, - 
 Amount disbursed, 
 
 Leaving balance in the Treasury of 
 
 542 60 
 
6G8 
 
 THE FINANCES OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 Amount brought forward, 
 
 Amount received by the Treasurer of 
 
 $4,000 37 
 
 542 60 
 
 Mero District, 
 Disbursements, 
 
 2,297 33 
 
 Leaving in the Treasury of Mero District, 
 Unexpended and on hand, 
 
 $3,145 64 
 
 2,603 04 
 
 Subjoined will be found the captions of some of the Acts, 
 passed at this first session of the Tennessee Legislature. 
 
 I. An Act, ascertaining the number of Judges of the Superior Courts 
 of Law and Equity, fixing their salaries, &c. 
 
 4. Amending an Act for the promotion of Learning in Davidson 
 County. 
 
 6. Establishing a Treasury Department. 
 
 10. Directing the mode of electing members to Congress. This Act 
 divides the State into two divisions, to be called the Holston and the 
 Cumberland divisions ; each of which is entitled to one Representative 
 to Congress. 
 
 II. Providing for the appointment, by the Legislature, of Electors of 
 President and Vice-President of the Pnited States. 
 
 17. Providing for the payment of the Governor, (gives him, annually, 
 seven hundred and fifty dollars,) and directing the place of his residence. 
 
 18. Making compensation of one dollar and seventy-five cents, for each 
 day, to every member of the Legislature, and a like sum for every 
 twenty-five miles travel, in going and returning ; and to the clerks and 
 other officers, a corresponding amount. 
 
 29. Amendatory of an Act for the establishment of Nashville. The 
 ninth section of this act authorizes the Trustees of said town to execute 
 a deed to a religious society, for a site for a meeting-house, “ with the 
 express limitations following, viz : said meeting-house shall be and re- 
 main to the use of the said society, so far only as to give a right to their 
 ministers to preach therein ; but shall not extend to authorize them to 
 debar or deny to any other denomination of Christians the liberty of 
 preaching therein, unless when immediately occupied by the said 
 society.” 
 
 Governor Sevier, after the establishment of the State 
 Government, proceeded to issue commissions to all the civil 
 and military officers in all the counties of the State. The 
 names of the magistrates, in Washington county, at the 
 first court after the State Constitution was formed, are James 
 Stuart, John Tipton, John Weir, John Adams, John Strain, 
 Henry Nelson, Joseph Young, Joseph Crouch, William 
 Nelson, Robert Blair, Jesse Payne, Isaac Depreve, Charles 
 
ACTION OP CONGRESS RELATIVE TO TENNESSEE. 
 
 669 
 
 McCray, Samuel Wood, Jacob Brown, John Alexander, 
 Joseph Brittain, John Norwood and John Hammer. 
 
 The first court held for Sevier county, under the Constitu- 
 tion of the State of Tennessee, was begun and held at the 
 Court House in Sevierville, July 4. 
 
 17 96. — The Justices were Samuel Newell, Joshua Gist, Joseph Wil- 
 son, Joseph Vance, Robert Pollock, Peter Bryant, Mordecai Lewis, John 
 Clack, Robert Calvert, Andrew Cowan, Adam Wilson, James Riggin, 
 Alexander Montgomery, Jesse Griffin and Isam Green. Samuel Wear 
 was appointed Clerk ; Thomas Buckingham Sheriff ; James McMahon, 
 Register; James D. Puckett, Coroner ; Alexander Montgomery, Ranger. 
 
 Tavern Rates. — Rum per half pint, 25 cents ; Wine do. ; French 
 Brandy and Gin, do. ; Peach Brandy, 12-J; Whiskey, 8-1- ; Beer per 
 quart, 8-g- ; Cider, 12-£; Metheglin, 12-|. 
 
 Diets. — Breakfast, 16-| ; dinner, 21 ; supper, 16|- ; lodging, 5 ; horse 
 per night, fodder or hay, 12^-; oats or corn, per gallon, 8-J ; pasturage, 
 twenty-four hours, 8^-. 
 
 May, 1796. — Governor Sevier commissioned justices in Jefferson 
 county, viz : George Doherty, James Roddye, Josiah Jackson, Thos. 
 Snoddy, Garret Fitzgerald^ Parmenas Taylor, John Blackburn, A. Hen- 
 derson, Abednego Inman, John McNabb, Abraham McCay, Adam Peck, 
 Wm. Con, James Wilson, Wm. Lillard, David Stuart, Ebenezer Lith, 
 Joseph McCollah, Samuel Jacks, Adam Meek, George Evans, James 
 Lea, Alexander Outlaw, John Gore. Jos. Hamilton, Clerk ; Robert 
 McFarland, Sheriff ; Samuel Lyle, Register. 
 
 Second Monday, May, 1796. — Court of Greene county met. Daniel 
 Kennedy was elected Clerk; George Conway, Sheriff; and James 
 Dun woody, Register. 
 
 Action of the Federal Government on the admission of the 
 State of Tennessee, as one of the United States. 
 
 Soon after the rise of the Convention of 1796, its Presi- 
 dent, Governor Blount, communicated a copy of the Consti- 
 tution, to the Secretary of State, Mr. Pickering. His letter 
 is dated 
 
 Knoxville, February 9th, 1796. 
 
 Sir: — As Governor, it is my duty, and as President of the Conven- 
 tion, I am instructed, by a resolution of that body, to forward to you, ex- 
 press, a copy of the constitution formed for the permanent government 
 of the State of Tennessee, which you will herewith receive by the hands 
 of Major Joseph McMinn, of Hawkins county, who was himself a mem- 
 ber of the Convention. 
 
 The sixth section of the first article will inform you that the first Gen- 
 eral Assembly to be held under this constitution is to commerce on the 
 last Monday in March next. The object of the Convention, in deter- 
 mining on this early day, is a representation in the Congress of the Uni- 
 
670 
 
 president Washington’s message, 
 
 ted States before the termination of the present session. And the third 
 section of the schedule will inform you how long it is contemplated, the 
 temporary form of Government shall continue. 
 
 I have the honour to be, very respectfully, 
 
 Your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 William Blount. 
 
 Timothy Pickering, Esq., Secretary of State , Philadelphia. 
 
 On the eighth of April, the President communicated this 
 letter, with its enclosures, to Congress — accompanying them 
 with the following message : 
 
 United States, April 8th, 1796. 
 Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: 
 
 By an Act of Congress passed on the 26th of May, 1790, it was de- 
 clared that the inhabitants of the Territory of the United States south 
 of the River Ohio, should enjoy all the privileges, benefits and advantages 
 set forth in the ordinance of Congress for the government of the Terri- 
 tory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio, and that the Go- 
 vernment of the said Territory south of the Ohio, should be similar to 
 that which was then exercised in the Territory northwest of the Ohio, 
 except so far as was otherwise provided in the conditions expressed in an 
 Act of Congress, passed the 2d of April, 1790, entitled “ An Act to accept 
 a cession of the claim of the State of North-Carolina to a certain dis- 
 trict of Western Territory.” 
 
 Among the privileges, benefits and advantages thus secured to the in- 
 habitants of the Territory south of the River Ohio, appear to be the right 
 of forming a permanent Constitution and State Government, and of ad- 
 mission, as a State, by its ^delegates, in the Congress of the United 
 States, on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects what- 
 ever, when it should have therein sixty thousand free inhabitants : provi- 
 ded, the Constitution and Government so to be formed, should be repub- 
 lican, and in conformity to the principles contained in the articles of the 
 said ordinance. 
 
 As proofs of the several requisites to entitle the Territory south of the 
 River Ohio, to be admitted, as a State, into the Union, Governor Blount 
 has transmitted a return of the enumeration of its inhabitants, and a 
 printed copy of the Constitution and form of Government, on which they 
 have agreed, which, with his letters accompanying the same, are here- 
 with laid before Congress. 
 
 Geo. Washington. 
 
 The subject was referred to appropriate Committees. On 
 the ] 2th of April, the House Committee, through its Chair- 
 man, Mr. Dearborn, reported the following : 
 
 Resolved , That by the authenticated documents accompanying the 
 message from the President of the United States to this House, on the 
 8th da} r of the present month, and by the ordinance of Congress, bear- 
 ing date the 13th of July, 1787, and by a law of the United States, 
 passed on the 26th of May, 1790, it appears that the citizens of that 
 
AND REPORTS OF CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES. 
 
 671 
 
 part of the United States, which has been called the Territory of the 
 United States, south of the River Ohio, and which is now formed into a 
 State under a republican form of Government, by the name of Tennes- 
 see, are entitled to all the rights and privileges to which the citizens of 
 the other States in the Union are entitled under the Constitution of the 
 United States ; and that the State of Tennessee is hereby declared to be 
 one of the sixteen United States of America. 
 
 Mr. King, from the Senate Committee, to whom the same 
 subject had been referred, made a long report against the 
 admission of the State of Tennessee into the Union, but re- 
 commending “ that leave be given to bring in a bill laying 
 out the whole of said Territory, ceded by North-Carolina, into 
 one State.” The report results in this conclusion — “That 
 Congress must have, previously, enacted that the whole of 
 the Territory ceded by North-Carolina, and which is only a 
 part of the Territory of the United States, south of the Ohio, 
 should be laid out into one State, before the inhabitants 
 thereof, (admitting them to amount to sixty thousand free 
 persons.) could claim to be admitted as a new State into the 
 Union.” The Senate report objects that the enumeration of 
 the inhabitants of the Territory had not been made by the 
 authority of Congress, and that the guards against error had 
 been omitted by the Territorial law ; and that, “instead of 
 confining the enumeration to the free inhabitants of the Ter- 
 ritory, that law authorizes and requires the enumeration of 
 all the people within the said Territory, etc.”* 
 
 Notwithstanding this unfavourable report of the Senate 
 Committee, the Congress of the United States passed an Act 
 in June, admitting Tennessee into the Union. 
 
 In the meantime, the Senators elect from the State of Ten- 
 nessee, had repaired to the seat of the General Government; 
 but having been elected before Tennessee was admitted into 
 the Union, they did not take their seats in the Senate. The 
 Act X, laying off two Congressional Districts in the State, 
 when but one member of Congress was allowed for Tennes- 
 see ; and Act XI, providing for the election of four Electors 
 of President and Vice-President, when the State was enti- 
 tled to but three Electors, created unforeseen difficulties, which 
 
 State Papers, Yol. XX, page 150. 
 
672 
 
 GOVERNOR SEVIER CONVENES THE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 could be obviated only by repealing these acts, electing the 
 Senators anew, and remodeling the legislation that had ta- 
 ken place, so far as the Federal relations of Tennessee were 
 concerned. 
 
 Such was the political condition of the State of Tennessee 
 in the summer of 1798. Governor Sevier acted promptly, 
 and adopted at once the cnly measure that could extricate 
 the new State from the embarrassments by which her Fede- 
 ral relations had become unavoidably involved. 
 
 On the 4th of July, he issued from the seat of Government, 
 at Knoxville, his proclamation : 
 
 “ Whereas , I have lately received authentic information, that an Act 
 of the Congress of the United States, passed at their last session, in- 
 volved several Acts of this State in difficulty, and renders the same in- 
 complete ; to answer the purposes and salutary uses and effects intended 
 to be obtained therefrom, by the Honourable the Legislature of this 
 State : 
 
 “ I have thought it necessary and highly expedient, to summon the 
 members of the General Assembly, to convene on the last Saturday in 
 the present month : And do strictly request and enjoin them, and each 
 of them, to be punctual and particular in giving their attendance ac- 
 cordingly, in order to take under their due deliberation such matters as 
 may be laid before them. 
 
 “ Given under my hand and seal, at Knoxville, this fourth day of 
 July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, and in the twenty-first 
 year of American Independence. 
 
 Signed, John Sevier.” 
 
 Accordingly, on the day appointed, the General Assembly 
 met and the Governor sent in the following Message : 
 
 “ Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives : — • 
 The short time in which I conceived it was necessary to convene the 
 Legislature, compelled me to call you together on so short a notice. In 
 the first instance, it was necessary to give all the time the emergency of 
 the occasion would admit of; and, in the second, from a circumstance 
 that the election to be held for Representatives was approaching so near 
 at hand, made it necessary, as I conceived, for the Assembly to have it in 
 their power, by a timely meeting, (should they in their wisdom deem it 
 proper) to make an alteration in the Act, directing the mode of electing 
 Representatives to represent this State in the Congress of the United 
 States, before the day of election should arrive, as directed in the afore- 
 said Act, otherwise it might be attended with disputes and contentions 
 of a disagreeable nature ; for, by a late Act of Congress, the intended 
 number of our Representatives is diminished, of course it proportionably 
 lessens our number of Electors for President and Vice-President of the 
 United States. 
 
REPLY OF THE ASSEMBLY. 
 
 673 
 
 “ Thus such a derangement will necessarily require an alteration in 
 our Acts passed for such purposes. 
 
 “Our Senators not being recognized in the Senate of the United 
 States, is another matter for your consideration and attention ; and for 
 your more ample information, the several Acts and communications ac- 
 companying this address, will elucidate unto you the propriety of my 
 calling the Assembly together at this time. 
 
 “ I hope I may be permitted to observe, that it is of importance, and 
 conducive to public happiness, to arrange your Acts eomformably with 
 those of Congress, so far as they shall respect this State. 
 
 “ The foregoing are the reasons why I have thought proper to con- 
 vene the Assembly, in session on the present day ; and I make no doubt 
 you will, through your paternal care, wisdom and patriotic deliberations, 
 adopt such measures as will tend to promote the public interest and 
 general utility of the State. 
 
 “ I have the pleasure of announcing to you, gentlemen, the admission 
 of the State of Tennessee into the Federal Union, a circumstance preg- 
 nant with every prospect of peace, happiness and opulence to our in- 
 fant State. 
 
 “ The period has at length arrived, when the people of the South- 
 Western Territory may enjoy all the blessings and liberties of a free and 
 independent republic. 
 
 “Permit me to wish you public, domestic and individual happiness, 
 while I have the honour to be, very respectfully, 
 
 “ .Your devoted and obedient servant, 
 
 John Sevier.” 
 
 The usage at that day required a reply from the General 
 Assembly, to every communication made to it by the Go- 
 vernor ; and on the 8th, Mr. Rhea, as the organ of the two 
 Houses, reported the following address : 
 
 Sir : — AVe are fully sensible, that the important objects by you laid 
 before this General Assembly, made it necessary for you to convene the 
 Legislature at this time. 
 
 We rejoice with you, in the event of this. State being formally admitted 
 into the Federal Union ; and our minds are filled with the most pleasing 
 sensations, when we reflect on the prosperity and political happiness to 
 which we view it, as a certain prelude. Be assured, sir, it will be our first 
 and greatest care, to adopt such measures as will promote the true inter- 
 ests of this State, as connected with the American Union. 
 
 With respect to our representation, in the Senate of the United 
 States, in particular, we flatter ourselves, such steps have been taken, 
 that no reason now remains, sufficient to justify that body in refusing 
 any longer to recognize our Senators . 
 
 The measures here alluded to, as having been adopted by 
 the Legislature, were, the election, again, lof the Senators 
 from Tennessee to the United States Congress — the repeal of 
 43 
 
674 
 
 ACT PROVIDING FOR THE ELECTION OF ELECTORS 
 
 the act of its last session, providing for the election of two 
 Representatives, and the enactment of a law for the election 
 of a single member from the State — and lastly, the annul- 
 ment ol the legislative election, April 21, of four Electors 
 of President and Vice-President, and provision for the elec- 
 tion of three. 
 
 William Blount and William Cocke were again elected 
 Senators. To the address of the Legislature, informing Mr. 
 Cocke that he was again elected to represent the State of 
 Tennessee in the United States Senate, and re-assuring him, 
 on behalf of the citizens of the State, of the entire confi- 
 dence reposed in his fidelity and integrity, that Senator re- 
 plied in terms, and with a spirit, that probably reflected 
 truly, the feelings and temper of the people. He said : 
 
 Gentlemen -. — Nothing can be a higher reward for faithful services, 
 than the approbation of a free people— I call my country free, because 
 by their Constitution, they are so. 
 
 I cannot help mentioning to you, I feel the deepest concern to see our 
 dearest rights invaded by the supreme legislature of the nation. We 
 are by them made subject to the payment of taxes, while we have been 
 unjustly deprived of representation. 
 
 We have been deprived of the use of our property for public conve- 
 nience, without any compensation being made ; and acts in the style of 
 laws have passed, declaring it highly penal to enjoy the free use thereof; 
 such rude attacks on our constitutional rights should be remonstrated 
 against with freedom and firmness. 
 
 I hope our opponents in the Senate of the United States, will be una- 
 ble to find another quibble whereby to deprive us of an equal share of 
 the representation that shall make the laws by which we are to be go- 
 verned. I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 William Cocke. 
 
 August 3. — An act was passed providing for the election 
 of one Representative to Congress, and repealing the act of 
 28th March, authorizing the election of two. 
 
 Aug. 8th. — An act was passed, providing for the election of 
 three Electors of President and Vice-President. At the previ- 
 ous session, four electors had been elected by joint ballot of the 
 two Houses. The mode of electing, in this instance, is still 
 more anomalous. The State is divided into three — Washing- 
 ton, Hamilton and Mero Districts ; and in the words of the 
 act, “that the said electors maybe elected with as little 
 trouble to the citizens as possible — Be it enacted, That John 
 
OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 675 
 
 Carter, John Adams and John McAllister, of Washington, 
 John Scott, Richard Gammon and James Gains, of Sullivan 
 county,” and three others for each of the remaining counties 
 of Washington District, and, in like manner, three others, for 
 each of the counties in Hamilton and Mero Districts, “ are 
 appointed electors to elect an elector for their respective 
 Districts.” The electors named in the act were to meet at 
 Jonesboro’, Knoxville and Nashville, and elect an elector 
 for each District. The three electors thus elected, were to 
 convene on the first Wednesday of December, at Knoxville, 
 and “ proceed to elect a President and Vice-President of the 
 United States, pursuant to an act of Congress.” 
 
 August 9. — Mr. White, from the Committee appointed to 
 draw up a remonstrance to Congress, presented, for the con- 
 sideration of the Assembly, an address and remonstrance to 
 the Congress of the United States. In this document, which 
 is of great length, the remonstrants recapitulate : That 
 
 Tennessee is admitted into the Federal Union, on an equal 
 footing with any of the original States ; that the United 
 States, at the beginning of the Revolution, guaranteed to 
 each State its sovereignty, according to its chartered limits, 
 and that that sovereignty was acknowledged by Great Bri- 
 tain, by the treaty of Paris ; that, acting on these principles, 
 North-Carolina had opened land offices, for the sale of land 
 within her chartered limits; and in agreement with her 
 laws, entries had been made, warrants issued, and grants 
 had been made for lands in her territory ; that North-Caro- 
 lina had ceded her western territory to Congress, under cer- 
 tain express conditions — one of which, as provided for in her 
 Deed of Cession, was, that the Governor of North-Carolina, 
 for the time being, shall be, and is required, to perfect land 
 titles in such manner as if the Cession had not been made ; 
 that, as the Constitution of the United States confirms all 
 engagements made by Congress, previous to its adoption, the 
 enterers and grantees of lands thus ceded, expected that 
 they were secure, as to their right in fee, and of possession 
 of the land by them purchased and paid for; that, at the 
 treaty of Hopewell, William Blount, as Agent of North- 
 Carolina, had protested against one of its articles, respecting 
 the boundary of the Cherokees ; that, by an act of the last 
 
670 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON ELECTED TO CONGRESS, 
 
 Congress, fines, forfeitures and imprisonment are enacted 
 against claimants and grantees of lands lying beyond said 
 boundary ; by which, they are much injured — being prohi- 
 bited from any act of ownership of lands, long since bona 
 fide contracted and paid for, and for which, in part, grants 
 have already issued by North-Carolina, under the good faith 
 of the United States ; and that 
 
 “ This Legislature, ever willing to support the Constitution and Law's 
 of the United States, made pursuant thereto, being impressed with a 
 sense of the injury and grievances sustained by the citizens in conse- 
 quence of the line of the treaty of Holston, and the act before men- 
 tioned, do earnestly request, that the prohibitions preventing them to 
 possess the lands before alluded to, may be removed ; that provision, by 
 law, be made, for extinguishing the Indian claim to said lands ; that the 
 owners and grantees of said lands may enter upon, occupy and possess 
 the same in a full and ample manner, and have every right, privilege 
 and advantage, which they are entitled to by constitutional law's ; which 
 justice being done to the citizens of this State, the officers of Govern- 
 ment will be enabled to execute the constitutional laws of the United 
 States with ease and convenience.” 
 
 It was afterwards further resolved, by both Houses, “ that 
 it shall be a duty of the Senators and Representatives of 
 this State, in the Congress of the United States, to lay the 
 remonstrance of the Legislature before Congress, and endea- 
 vour that the object thereof be obtained.” 
 
 At the election held under the act of this called session, 
 Andrew Jackson, of Davidson county, was elected Repre- 
 sentative from the State of Tennessee in the Congress of the 
 United States. That body assembled December 5th, 1796, 
 at Philadelphia, when Air. Jackson was qualified and took 
 his seat. 
 
 In accordance with the law passed for that purpose, Gov. 
 Sevier wrote, April 25, to the Tennessee Senators, request- 
 ing them to have a suitable seal of the State made by “ inge- 
 nious mechanics in Philadelphia — such an one as will be ele- 
 gant, comprehensive, and sufficiently expressive of the pur- 
 poses and uses intended. Under their direction, the present 
 Great Seal of the State of Tennessee was engraven. It has 
 upon it : the cotton plant, the sheaf of wheat, and, as “ com- 
 prehensive,” the plough, to represent agriculture ; and a sail- 
 vessel, there then being no steamboats in the West, nor 
 
AND SUPPORTS THE CLAIMS OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 677 
 
 elsewhere, to represent commerce. The XVI at the head 
 of the seal, designated Tennessee as, numerically, the six- 
 teenth at the date of its admission into the Union. 
 
 The Senators and Representatives in Congress from Ten- 
 nessee, brought to the attention of the Secretary of War, 
 the claims of the militia of that State for their services 
 against the Indians, on the Etowah campaign. The Secre- 
 tary made an unfavourable report to the House. General 
 Cocke, in a letter to the Gazette, says : “ Your representa- 
 
 tive, Mr. Jackson, has distinguished himself by the spirited 
 manner in which he opposed the report. Notwithstanding 
 the misrepresentation of the Secretary, I hope the claim 
 will be allowed ; if it is, a principle will be established for 
 the payment of all services done b} r the militia of the Ter- 
 ritory.” 
 
 In support of the resolution to pay for the military servi- 
 ces against the Indians, Mr. Jackson said — 
 
 “ The rations found for the troops on this expedition had been paid 
 for by the Secretary of War, and he could see no objection to the pay- 
 ment of the whole expense. As the troops were called out by a supe- 
 rior officer, they had no right to doubt his authority. Were a contrary 
 doctrine admitted, it would strike at the very root of subordination. It 
 would be saying to soldiers — Before you obey the command of your 
 superior officer, you have a right to inquire into the legality of the ser- 
 vice upon which you are about to be employed, and until you are satis- 
 fied, you may refuse to take the field.’ This, he believed, was a princi- 
 ple which could not be acted on. General Sevier, said Mr. Jackson, 
 was bound to obey the orders he received to undertake the expedition. 
 The officers under him were bound to obey him. They went with full 
 confidence that the United States would pay them, believing they had 
 appointed such officers as would not call them into the field without 
 proper authority. If, eveu, the expedition had been unconstitutional, 
 (which he was far from believing,) it ought not to aftect the soldier, 
 since he had no choice in the business, being obliged to obey his superior. 
 Indeed, as the provision had been paid for, and as the ration and pay- 
 rolls were always considered as checks upon each other, he hoped no 
 objection would be made to the resolution which he moved.” 
 
 The winter of 1796-7 is chronicled as the coldest ever 
 experienced by the oldest inhabitant. On the evening of the 
 22d December, the river was entirely free from ice. On the 
 morning of the 23d, the ice was moving down the river in 
 great quantities ; on the 24th, the river was frozen over, and 
 
678 
 
 BEAR BARBECUED UPON THE FROZEN BIVF.R. 
 
 was crossed by horsemen upon the ice. On the 25th, a 
 Christmas dinner was given upon the ice, by the Federal 
 officers, at Tellico Block-house, to a large company of gen- 
 tlemen and ladies. “ Contiguous to the place of entertain- 
 ment, two quarters of a bear were barbecued, where the 
 ice was found to be, in thickness, sufficient to bare fire 
 enough to have roasted an ox, without being materially 
 weakened by the heat.”* 
 
 Early in this year, disturbances of a serious nature pre- 
 vailed among the Upper Cherokees. Edward Mitchell and 
 William Livingston went to the camp of some Indian hunt- 
 ers, where they were informed, by Lame Will, that Red Bird 
 had gone to the camp of some white people. On his return 
 he was met by Mitchell and Livingston, who fired upon and 
 killed him. They then returned to the Indian camp, when 
 Mitchell fired at, but missed, Lame Will, who, with a knife 
 in one hand and a crutch in the other, made towards Mitch- 
 ell, who ran off. Livingston then coming up, encountered 
 Will, and, after several unsuccessful attempts to shoot him, 
 drew his tomahawk and killed liim.f 
 
 Jan. 31. — An Act was passed by Congress giving effect 
 to the laws of the United States within the State of 
 Tennessee. By the second section of this Act, the State 
 was made to embrace one District, to be denominated the 
 Tennessee District. A District Court was established, four 
 sessions of which should be holden alternately at Knoxville 
 and Nashville. By the fourth section of this Act, the State 
 was made one Collector’s District, whose office should be 
 held at Palmyra, which was the only port of entry, or de- 
 livery of any goods, wares or merchandize, not the growth 
 or manufacture of the United States. The salary of the col- 
 lector at Palmyra was one hundred dollars. 
 
 1797 
 
 * Knoxville Gazette, January 9, 1797. 
 
 tFor many of the incidents occurring in Blount county, I am indebted to 
 Samuel Bogle, Esq. one of its worthiest pioneers, now nearly one hundred years old, 
 but still vigorous and clear-minded. He was, himself, an active participator in 
 most of the difficulties with the Indians. Mr. Bogle is, in every respect, an ex- 
 cellent specimen of the frontier citizen and soldier, and is one of the few survi- 
 ving pioneers of Tennessee, living, in patriarchal simplicity and rural quiet, on 
 Elijah, near the old Indian War Trace. ' 
 
FEDERAL TROOTS AT KNOXVILLE. 
 
 679 
 
 Two companies of United States troops, commanded by 
 Captain Richard Sparks and Captain John Wade, were sta- 
 tioned at Knoxville. The object of the Secretary of War, 
 in placing them there, was to enforce an “ Act of Congress 
 to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian Tribes, and 
 to preserve peace on the Frontier.” South of Holston, some 
 settlements had been formed on lands ceded by the Chero- 
 kees, under the Dumplin and Coyatee Treaties; but across 
 the Indian boundary, as fixed by the Treaty of Holston, 
 and in Powell’s Valley, settlers were opening their farms 
 under grants from North-Carolina, but upon lands to which 
 the Cherokee title was not yet extinguished. To these set- 
 tlers Captains Sparks and Wade issued their manifesto, in- 
 forming the intruders of their powers, and of the extent of the 
 provisions of the Act of Congress which it was made their 
 duty to enforce. 
 
 “ It is not our wish, said they, to enter rashly upon the duty assigned 
 us, nor do we conceive there will be a necessity for it ; and, in order, there- 
 fore, to give you full time to prepare your minds for the event, we have 
 deemed it proper to notify you that on or about the 20th instant, we 
 shall meet you at Yocum’s Station, where we hope your numbers will 
 be full and respectable, and your tempers calmly disposed to argue on 
 a subject which involves in itself consequences of material magnitude to 
 the Union at large, and to you in particular. We are assured that the 
 reflection of a moment will evince to you how much better it is to ob- 
 serve a strict obedience to the laws, than by a refractory disposition to 
 involve your fellow-citizens in the tumults of anarchy, and probably in 
 the horrors of war, and create in your own minds a self-reproach which 
 will be forever felt. 
 
 “ Fellow-Citizens : — At our meeting we will not scruple to read to 
 you the instructions we have received, and by which we are to be go- 
 verned ; and after your hearing them, we cannot admit of a doubt, but 
 that in a given time you will remove to that side of the line to which 
 we have a just claim, and save the necessity of any unnecessary alterca- 
 tion.” 
 
 The influence of the authorities of Tennessee assisted in 
 promoting obedience to the law of Congress. The Gazette, 
 already an organ of admitted potency in the new State, also 
 contributed its weight, in support of the Federal enactment. 
 Commenting upon the circular addressed by the two United 
 States captains to the intruders, and published in its co- 
 lumns, the Gazette says : — “It is so replete with mildness and 
 
680 
 
 VINDICATION OF STATIC EIGHTS 
 
 moderation, that the most obstinate disposition cannot but 
 concur with them in opinion, that it is better to meet the 
 wishes of these gentlemen, than by a perverse conduct com- 
 pel them to measures which may terminate in unhappy con- 
 sequences,” etc. 
 
 A communication to the same purport from “Many,” dated 
 Jefferson county, also appeared in the Gazette. In this the 
 writer earnestly dissuades the intruders from rushing, “with- 
 out consideration, into the horrors of civil confusion, and 
 thereby involve the innocent with the guilty.” 
 
 But there were not wanting, on this occasion, writers, who, 
 while they did not advise resistance to, or disobedience of the 
 Federal authority, stated emphatically the argument on be- 
 half of the settlers. One of these, in a reply to Capts. Sparks 
 and Wade, remarks : 
 
 “ It was not from refractory or disorderly dispositions we were influ- 
 enced to take possession of the lands we now occupy. We had regard 
 to the laws of nature, of nations, the statutes of North-Carolina, and to 
 our own civil code. The Constitution of the State of Tennessee, in the 
 31st Article of the Bill of Rights, guarantees to the people residing 
 south of French Broad and Holston, between the Rivers Tennessee and 
 Big Pigeon, the right of pre-emption and occupancy in that tract. Con- 
 gress recognized that Constitution in all its parts by receiving the State 
 into the Federal Union. Many of us hold grants for our lands, legally 
 obtained from North-Carolina whilst under her jurisdiction. Under 
 these plausible claims we settled ourselves on the lands from which you 
 command us to remove.” . “ Legislators of the great American 
 
 Republic ! is it nothing to you to see our wives and children, who by 
 their industry have hitherto lived in affluence on their own farms, beg- 
 gared by your unconstitutional laws? We say your laws are unconsti- 
 tutional, because they deprive us of property, for which we had a legal 
 right before the Treaty of Holston. Do you feel no remorse at our 
 impending ruin ? Are you callous to our sufferings ? Accustomed to 
 wallow in luxury, you cannot feel for the distresses of the poor.” . . . . 
 “ We have now, gentlemen, delineated to you the outlines of our claims. 
 We have also stated in miniature, the wrongs we are about to sustain 
 from the operations of the General Government. A volume would not 
 contain the reasonings we could advance on the justice of our claims. 
 The earth was created for the use of man. We could plead purchase, 
 occupancy, conquest and relinquishment by the Aborigines ; but all 
 these reasonings, we suppose, would be in vaitfT Power is in the hands 
 of the General Government, and we are disposed to obey her will for 
 the present .” 
 
 Another communication, signed “ The Frontier People of 
 
681 
 
 BY A CONTRIBUTOR TO “THE GAZETTE.” 
 
 Tennessee appeared soon after. In this the writer pre- 
 mises that redress for the grievances inflicted on them by 
 the act of Congress, concerning the intruders upon Indian 
 territory, should be sought only in the mode which the Con- 
 stitution and the genius of the Government point out. Speak- 
 ing of the act of May, 1796, the writer says — 
 
 “ We conceive that law to be an invasion of our natural rights ; we 
 claim it as a power inherent in us, and derived from the author of our 
 existence, to cultivate and to convert to our use, any unappropriated 
 part of the habitable globe, and to make it bring forth the fruits of the 
 earth. This general position we assert to be of divine right, and ac- 
 knowledged from age to age, by all the nations of the Christian world, 
 and recognized by the laws, customs and usages of the people of Ame- 
 rica, from its discovery to the present day.” .... “We submit 
 the justice of our claims to the laws and constitution of our country — we 
 ask from whence does the Federal Government derive the power, to 
 exercise legal jurisdiction over the land on which we are settled ? We 
 claim the right to settle these lands under the laws of North-Carolina, 
 made previous to ceding this country to the United States, and the laws 
 made subsequent thereto.” . . . . “ If we are not now permitted 
 
 to take possession of these lands, the consideration paid for them is vio- 
 lated ; and it is a distinction new and incomprehensible to us, that a 
 grant from a sovereign and independent State, can convey a right with- 
 out the power to enjoy it. We then assert, that our claims are founded 
 on the act of that very body, whose successors, at the expiration of less 
 than five years, have thought proper to deprive us of those lights pro- 
 perly vested in us.” . ... u Why has a law been made to oblige 
 
 us to the observance of this bargain, (the treaty of Holston,) which has 
 been cancelled with the blood of our fellow-citizens ? We acknowledge 
 to feel the force in all its various powers, which binds the members of 
 a community to respect its laws, and pay to them a necessary submis- 
 sion; but we hope, that we or our posterity, to the latest generation, will 
 never lose sight of the point to which these obligations ought to go, 
 and beyond which it is our province, as men, to restrain their progress. 
 It is, therefore, with pain we contemplate the infractions of our unaliena- 
 ble rights, made by the law of 1796 — a law which we protest against, 
 as unconstitutional, because it invades the rights of our property.”' . . 
 
 “ Is this the tribunal before which we are to argue ? and can a law be 
 binding which places the scales of justice in the hands of a troop of sol- 
 diers ? However virtuous that soldiery may be, the original principles 
 of our national compact forbid it. Let it not be said we wish to fan the 
 coals of sedition in our country. As men, we are bound to assert our 
 rights ; as citizens of a free and enlightened State, we c.aim attention 
 to our grievances. Instead of meeting at our doors the soldier, who is 
 ordered to sound the din of war in our ears, we would call on the guar- 
 dians of our country to defend us in the possession of our rights. We 
 rely on the justice of Congress, and we assure our fellow-citizens of the 
 
682 
 
 CAMPBELL ADDS TO THE ARGUMENT, 
 
 Union, that general order and universal acquiesence, under the just 
 laws of government, are the first wishes of our hearts.” 
 
 Another writer, over the signature of “Campbell,” addresses 
 “ The citizens of Tennessee, who are about to be alienated 
 and dismembered by the acts and proceedings of the Federal 
 Government.” In this address he examines the question, 
 whether Congress has a right to alienate any part of the 
 State of Tennessee, and what are the rights of those who 
 may be dismembered from it. Establishing the principle 
 that North-Carolina had the right to open a land office within 
 her chartered limits, he argues that the State of Tennessee, 
 in consequence of that right, may guarantee to her citizens, 
 the settlement and occupancy of the lands on which it is al- 
 leged they are intruders. That the parent State, previous 
 to the act of Cession, possessing then, as she did, sovereign 
 power over them, had granted these lands, and that Ten- 
 nessee and Congress itself, by accepting its constitution, had 
 recognized the validity of the grants ; and that, of course, 
 the occupants cannot be considered to be in a state of re- 
 bellion against their own, or intruders on any other nation. 
 He advises deliberation, deprecates hasty action, and urges 
 the intruders to depend upon the legality of their claims. 
 “ They are founded on facts, principles and laws which 
 cannot be controverted. That as the lands in dispute are held 
 by legal titles, Congress has no right to declare war or re- 
 sort to force for the purpose of expelling the occupants. The 
 civil law ought to decide the contest in the District or Fe- 
 deral Courts.” Enlarging upon these and similar topics, 
 “ Campbell ” closes his second number with these patriotic and 
 wise remarks : “ Let us pursue order and acquiesce in the 
 laws, until we can make a constitutional appeal to Congress. 
 Let us act as if we were only one entire harmonious family, 
 and let the spirit of concord be kept up in the State of Ten- 
 nessee forever. Friendly, true and pathetic applications to 
 Congress, through our representatives, will have greater 
 weight with them, than hostile threats and preparations.” 
 
 In his third number, addressed to the United States Commis- 
 sioners, Hawkins, Pickens and Winchester, about to hold fur- 
 ther negotiations with the Cherokees, “ Campbell” says: “Let 
 
WHICH IS CONTINUED BY ANOTHER WRITER. 
 
 683 
 
 us hope then, that you will not, by a strained construction of 
 the words of the treaty, in favour of the Indian claim, force 
 those citizens who have the right of property and the right of 
 possession, to engage in a litigious controversy with the 
 military who may be ordered to dispossess them. Justifiable 
 opposition to the illegal orders of the Executive, might ex- 
 tend its influence to that which would not be legal, and those 
 whose claims are not fully sanctioned by law, follow the 
 example — an evil which we deprecate or pray may not hap- 
 pen. But we should think it treason against the govern- 
 ment we live under, and which we admire — treason against 
 ourselves, and high treason against posterity — were we to 
 suffer ourselves to be tamely deprived of our lawful pro- 
 perty, by military force or diplomatic authority.” 
 
 Col. Arthur Campbell is thought to be the writer of these 
 pieces. These extracts from them are meagre, and do not 
 present, in their full force, the weight of his argument and 
 the legitimacy of his reasoning. The subject, soon after, re- 
 ceived attention in every part of the Union, and “ Campbell ” 
 may be considered as a pioneer writer in the backwoods of 
 Tennessee, investigating a subject that, soon after, was em- 
 braced in the “ Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions,” of 1798 
 and 1799. 
 
 Another correspondent, “ Andrew Rights ,” continues the 
 same subject : 
 
 “ We are here, settled on our own lands, granted to us by our mother 
 State, Nortli-Carolina ; the rights are, in fee simple, ratified by a solemn 
 
 act of Congress The Executive of the United States 
 
 has paid little attention to our rights, by the manner in which it has 
 communicated its will to us, or otherwise it has adopted the method of 
 reasoning made use of by Louis XIV., of France, who inscribed on 
 the muzzles of his cannon — “ This is the logic of Kings and with 
 the same propriety may say — “ This is the logic of the United States." 
 
 Then, referring to “ Many," published in the Gazette — 
 
 “I would have him to know that we not only call on the State of 
 Tennessee, but upon every State in the Union, to assist us in obtaining 
 our rights and privileges as secured to us by law, and doubt not of their 
 assistance, if necessary ; and I would refer him to this clause in the 
 Constitution, that government being instituted for the common benefit, 
 the doctrine of non-resistance to arbitrary power and oppression is ab- 
 surd, slavish, and destructive to the good and happiness of mankind. 
 
684 
 
 ACTION OF CONGRESS ON TIIE 
 
 “ One of the usual methods of arbitrary governments, is to include 
 forfeiture of estate, under the pretence of a punishment of some crime. 
 Our Constitution has wisely guarded against such, that even for treason, 
 it has forbidden corruption of blood or confiscation of property , and 
 yet, in sec. five of this law, ‘ That if any citizen shall make a settlement 
 on any lands granted, by treaty, to any Indian tribe, such offender shall 
 forfeit all his right, title and claim, if any he hath, of whatsoever nature 
 or kind the same shall be, to the lands aforesaid whereupon he shall 
 make settlement or otherwise.’ Such a law is cruel, tyrannical and 
 oppressive. The punishments inflicted by it do not stop here. ‘ He 
 shall also forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, 
 and suffer imprisonment not exceeding twelve months.’ . . . The 
 
 Constitution of Tennessee is admitted into the Union, by Congress, and 
 it prohibits the courts here from inflicting a fine exceeding fifty dollars, 
 
 except by a jury, and leaves the same to the courts I 
 
 address the members of Congress from this State to use their industry 
 to have this act repealed. Such an act might look tolerably well in a 
 proclamation from Britain, but I beg you to erase it out of the records 
 and existing laws of a republican government. Let it be wiped away, 
 and never one more of the sort be seen — an enemy to liberty, nature, 
 good policy and humanity.” 
 
 Mr. Blount and Mr. Cocke, Senators, and General Jack- 
 son, the Representative, of Tennessee, were, in the meantime, 
 active in relation to the affairs of the State they represented, 
 and with whose interests they were so familiar. On the 
 third day of March, this resolution was introduced in the 
 Senate : 
 
 “ Resolved , That the President of the United States be requested to 
 cause a treaty or treaties to be held, as speedily as may be, with such of 
 the Indian tribes as may have claims to certain western lands, ceded by 
 North-Carolina to the United States, for the purpose of obtaining an 
 extinguishment of their claim to so much thereof as lie to the north 
 and east of the River Tennessee, within the State of Tennessee.” 
 
 The resolution was rejected, only eight Senators voting 
 in the affirmative. 
 
 Previous to the introduction of this resolution, to wit, on 
 the 1st of March, it had been, in the same body, 
 
 “ Resolved , That provision ought, by law, to be made for opening a 
 land office for the sale of lands lying within the limits of the State of 
 Tennessee, belonging to the United States, to which the Indian title has 
 been extinguished, providing that the occupants shall have a priority in 
 the location of such of the said lands as are now in their actual possession 
 and improvement, upon such reasonable terms as may be fixed by 
 law.” 
 
 This had been introduced into the Senate by Mr. Hill- 
 
LAND CLAIMS OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 685 
 
 house, chairman of a committee to whom the whole subject 
 had been referred, and to whom the Tennessee Senators had 
 fully explained the situation of the people to be affected by 
 it. The session of Congress terminated on the third, and 
 there was not time to act upon it. It was, therefore, laid 
 over till the next session. 
 
 On the same day, Mr. Hillhouse, from the committee to 
 whom was referred the letter and enclosures from the Go- 
 vernor of North-Carolina, relative to the extinguishment of 
 the Indian title to lands granted to T. Glasgow & Co., by 
 the State of North-Carolina — the address of the Legislature 
 of the State of Tennessee on the same subject, and also the 
 petition of J. Glasgow and others, relative to the land en- 
 tered in the office of John Armstrong, and since ceded to the 
 United States, made an elaborate report, and recommended 
 the following resolution : 
 
 “ Resolved , That as soon as the title to the said lands shall be extin- 
 guished, under the authority of the United States, by purchase, or oth- 
 erwise, provision ought, by law, to be made, to secure to such of said 
 claimants, as by conforming to the laws of North-Carolina, have secured 
 to themselves a title to the right of pre-emption under such laws, the oc- 
 cupancy and possession of such lands.” 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that in a contest of this kind, in- 
 volving, as it did, State pride, State sovereignty — the right 
 of property — in which, many of the citizens of Tennessee 
 felt a direct personal interest, not a single appeal is made to 
 the passions of the occupants, nor one exhortation made to 
 insubordination or resistance. Most of the writers advise a 
 contrary course. In his last number, “ Campbell ” examines the 
 question involved, at great length. He closes thus : “I have 
 not hesitated to speak the truth, even when it compelled me 
 to charge the Executive of the United States with a viola- 
 tion of the rights of the individual States, and of the people. 
 You have heard my reasonings as a citizen; hear my ad- 
 vice as a friend. Acquiesce in the operations of Govern- 
 ment ; submit to the legal transactions of her ministers ; pe- 
 tition Congress for negotiations, to be set on foot with the 
 Indians, to secure your settlements ; countenance no irregu- 
 larities ; commit no outrages. I have announced you to the 
 
686 
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE IN KNOXVILLE. 
 
 world as regular and orderly citizens. Let your conduct 
 prove, to the latest ages of posterity, that I have pronounced 
 the truth. Let us attribute our misfortunes to the true 
 sources whence they originated ; to the misunderstanding of 
 the words of the treaty, and to the narrow and contracted 
 policy of the General Government.” 
 
 No outbreak followed — no conflict between the military 
 and the citizens. A rash and imprudent procedure on the part 
 of the United States troops, like a spark in a powder maga- 
 zine, would have ended in their annihilation. But the con- 
 ciliatory tone of the circular — the good temper and wise dis- 
 cretion of the officers — the force of general public sentiment 
 and the disposition of the State authorities, prevented a colli- 
 sion. Legislative action and negotiations followed, and 
 the difficulty was settled without violence. 
 
 Feb. 27. — Commerce, by means of the river, began to 
 reach Knoxville. On that day, the Gazette notices the arri- 
 val of two boats, carrying five tons each, from the South 
 Fork of Holston, in Virginia — the distance estimated to be, 
 by water, above three hundred miles. The pioneers in this 
 navigation were Messrs. Russell and Barry, the owners. 
 The cargo consisted of flour, salt and whiskey. 
 
 March 4. — Thomas Shields was killed by the- Indians in 
 Sevier county. They cut his bead nearly off, ripped open 
 his body, took out his bowels, and otherwise shockingly cut 
 and mangled him. 
 
 Louis Philippe and his brothers in Knoxville. 
 
 April 30. — “Arrived in Knoxville, three sons of the Duke 
 of Orleans ; and on the next day, set out on their journey to 
 the westward, by 'Tellico, Fort Grainger, Nashville, &c. At 
 the age of fourteen, the eldest of those gentlemen commanded 
 one of the wings of Dumourier’s army at the famous battle 
 of Jenappe ; and the two younger were imprisoned forty- 
 three months, by the French Government, at Marseilles.”* 
 Mail facilities were necessarily small and exceedingly in- 
 adequate, at this time, in Tennessee. There was a post- 
 office at Knoxville, of which George Roulstone was the 
 
 ^Gazette, May 1, 1797. 
 
MAIL FACILITIES IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 687 
 
 Postmaster. To this office, letters were sent, for much of 
 the country east, and for all the country west of it. In the 
 list of letters published, as remaining on hand, January 1, 
 1797, are letters sent to Nollichucky, to Sumner county, to 
 Buncombe, to Jonesboro’, to Blount, to Davidson, to Jeffer- 
 son, to North Fork, to Bledsoe’s Lick, to Nashville, to Hays- 
 boro’, to Powell’s Valley, to Palmyra and to Dixon’s Creek. 
 The mail to Knoxville was at first bi-monthly. To remedy 
 this infrequency and. consequent inadequacy of mail facili- 
 ties, different expedients were adopted. The publisher of 
 the Gazette, wishing to extend the circulation of that jour- 
 nal, engaged Mr. Munford Smith to ride post for him. Mr. 
 Roulstone advertised in the Gazette — 
 
 “ His route will be as follows, provided a sufficient number of sub- 
 scribers can be obtained. He will set out every other Monday, and go 
 by Maryville to Sevierville ; from thence, by Dandridge, to Hugh Neil- 
 son’s, Esq., on Lick Creek ; from thence to Hawkins’ Court-House ; and 
 from thence, by Haine’s Iron Works, crossing at McBee’s Ferry, to 
 Knoxville. The route will be extended, as subscribers may enable him ; 
 and as soon as a sufficient number of subscribers are obtained, he will 
 start the post once a week. Each subscriber is to pay one cent a paper, 
 in addition to the subscription, which is three dollars per annum.” 
 
 Besides this private post of Mr. Roulstone, every emigrant 
 and traveller, who came to the country, was a self-consti- 
 tuted letter-carrier. Every horseman had, in his saddle-bags 
 or portmanteau, a small wallet, in which he carried letters 
 from citizens of the old States to the settlers in the new. 
 This was carefully opened and examined at the several sta- 
 tions or places where he lodged ; the letters were then deli- 
 vered, distributed or re-mailed, as the case required. The 
 inhabitants conscientiously and cheerfully performed, gratui- 
 tously, the duty of forwarding, sometimes to distant points, 
 letters thus brought into their care and possession. Official 
 despatches were sometimes received and forwarded in the 
 same way. An endorsement, “ on the public service,” se- 
 cured the transmission of a letter by a volunteer express, if 
 not with the celerity and despatch of the present United States 
 mail, certainly with as much certainty and fidelity. 
 
 According to the provisions of the Constitution, elections 
 were held in August, of this year. John Sevier was again 
 
688 
 
 LEGISLATURE MEETS AT KNOXVILLE. 
 
 elected Governor, and William Charles Cole Claiborne, Re- 
 presentative to Congress. 
 
 “ On Monday, September 18, the General Assembly convened at 
 Knoxville. The Senators were, from — 
 
 Washington — John Tipton. 
 
 Greene — Samuel Frazier. 
 
 Sullivan — George Rutledge. 
 
 Hawkins and Grainger— Joseph McMinn. 
 
 Knox — James White. 
 
 Jefferson — James Roddy. 
 
 Blount — Alexander Kelly. 
 
 Sevier — John Clack. 
 
 Davidson — Thomas Hardeman. 
 
 Sumner — Edward Douglass. 
 
 Robertson and Montgomery — James Ford. 
 
 James White was elected Speaker; George Roulstone, Principal 
 Clerk ; and N. Buckingham, Assistant Clerk. 
 
 The Representatives were, from — 
 
 Washington — James Stuart and Leeroy Taylor. 
 
 Greene — Joseph Conway and John Gass. 
 
 Sullivan — John Rhea and John Scott. 
 
 Hawkins — John Cocke and James Ore. 
 
 Knox — John Manifee and John Sawyers. 
 
 Jefferson — Adam Peck and William Lillard. 
 
 Sevier — Spencer Clack and Peter Bryan. 
 
 Blount — James Scott and James Greenway. 
 
 Davidson — Robert Weakly and Isaac Roberts. 
 
 Sumner — Stephen Cantrell and William Hall. 
 
 Tennessee — William Fort and James Norfleet. 
 
 James Stuart was elected Speaker; Thomas H. Williams, 1st Clerk; 
 Jesse Wharton, 2d Clerk ; and John Rhea, Door-keeper.” 
 
 September 22. — In his message to the Legislature, Gov- 
 ernor Sevier begged the members to express to the people, 
 in the liveliest terms of sensibility, his gratitude for the 
 honour they had again conferred upon him. ITe noticed the 
 rapid increase of the population of Tennessee and the pros- 
 perous condition of its agriculture. “ But this bright pros- 
 pect of affairs,” he continues, “ is considerably darkened by 
 the extension of the Indian boundary.”- — -“A large tract of 
 settled and well improved land is said to be within the boun- 
 dary guaranteed to the Cherokees by treaty and “ that if 
 the people are compelled to abandon their possessions, great 
 injury must result to individuals and to the public.” He in- 
 vites the early attention of the Legislature to this subject, 
 
COCKE COUNTY ESTABLISHED. 
 
 689 
 
 and suggests the necessity of memorializing Congress, “from 
 whose authority adequate relief can only be obtained.” He 
 congratulates the country on the continued peace with the 
 Indians. Referring to the threatening aspect of European 
 affairs, he urges early “ provision for holding in readiness 
 the quota of troops assigned to this State,” and recommends 
 further improvement in its militia laws. 
 
 William Maclin was elected Secretary of State. 
 
 Hon. Joseph Anderson was commissioned Senator from 
 State of Tennessee, for remainder of the term for which the 
 late Senator, William Blount, had drawn. 
 
 Oct. 28. — Howell Tatum, Esq., was commissioned Judge 
 of the Superior Court of Law and Equity. 
 
 At this session, Jefferson county was divided and the 
 county of Cocke laid off. Henry Ragan, William Job, John 
 Caffee, Peter Fine, John Keeney, Reps. Jones and John Mc- 
 Glocklen, were appointed to select a place for the court-house 
 and erect the county buildings. The first court was held at 
 the house of Daniel Adams. 
 
 Cocke county was named for Gen. William Cocke, a native 
 of Virginia, and an emigrant to Holston. He has been re- 
 peatedly mentioned as having participated in the military, 
 civil, legislative and judiciary services of Virginia, North- 
 Carolina, Franklin and Tennessee, where he was known as 
 an efficient and zealous officer, from his debut at Long- 
 Island, to his seat in the United States Senate, which he held 
 for twelve years. He will be seen, thereafter, as one of the 
 Circuit Judges for Tennessee. A member of her Legislature 
 at the commencement of the Creek war in September, 1813, 
 after assisting to pass an act to authorize an augmentation 
 of the forces to march against the Creeks, and to protect 
 the defenceless settlers in the most exposed part of the Mis- 
 sissippi Territory, and repel invasion, he, at the rise of the 
 Legislature, though above sixty years of age, and before visit- 
 ing his home in East Tennessee, volunteered his services as 
 a private in that war, and acted therein most bravely and 
 usefully. He was afterwards appointed United States Agent 
 to the Chickasaws. He afterwards settled in Mississippi, 
 44 
 
690 
 
 coxe’s expedition to muscle shoals, 
 
 and represented his county in its legislature. In private 
 life, he was most hospitable and benevolent. 
 
 To encourage commerce, promote industry, and advance 
 the agriculture of the country, the legislature established a 
 public inspection of tobacco in Waynesboro’, Davidson 
 county. 
 
 Coxe still entertained the design of occupying the Muscle 
 Shoals purchase. The boat to transport the troops, guns and 
 provision necessary to carry into effect the settlement at 
 the Muscle Shoals, was built at the mouth of Chucky. It 
 was of immense dimensions, and was, at that day, from its 
 size and structure, called a ship — having, on all sides, such 
 barricades as would make it impregnable to small arms. It 
 was well provided with howitzers and small ordnance, and 
 constituted a good floating battery. 
 
 To prevent the descent of this boat down the river, Col. 
 Thomas Butler, of the United States Army, issued orders to 
 the troops under his command at South-West Point and Bell 
 Canton, to exercise the utmost vigilance, and to fire upon and 
 sink it. It was believed that the most suitable plan for de- 
 feating the expedition, was to allow it to pass unmolested, as 
 far as Bell Canton.* There the Ilolston was narrow, and 
 the position otherwise favourable. Standing orders were is- 
 sued on the 2nd November, 1797, to the officer in charge of 
 the battery, to “have his ordnance in perfect order, and the 
 implements judiciously arranged, to prevent confusion, when 
 it may be necessary to man the works.” A look-out boat was 
 to be detached at proper intervals, to make discovery of the 
 approach of Coxe’s party, and signals were arranged, to pre- 
 pare for the attack. Should any boat belonging to the expe- 
 dition, approach within one mile of tf^e battery, the com- 
 mander was directed to fire one shot wide of it. Should this 
 notice be disregarded, he was directed to fire on it, and, “if 
 possible, sink all boats that may dare to pass your works.’’ 
 
 At the time of its date, Governor Sevier found it necessary 
 to address to Zachariah Coxe the following letter : 
 
 *This fort was above the former residence of tlie late Major L: n i ■, and its 
 ruins are yet to be seen on the farm heretofore occupied by Colonel R. A. Ram- 
 sey, now of Georgia. 
 
PREVENTED BY COLONEL BUTLER. 
 
 G91 
 
 Knoxville, 20th August, 1*797. 
 
 Since your arrival in this State, various reports are in circulation, re- 
 specting an intended expedition you are about to make. 
 
 It appears to be a matter of importance to this Government, to be in- 
 formed of your intentions and place of destination. I flatter myself 
 you will have no objections to communicate, and lay before the Execu- 
 tive of this State, the plan of your intended operations and movements; 
 at what place you intend making a stand or settlement ; and by what 
 authority you conceive yourselves at liberty to prosecute the same. 
 
 No answer to this communication has been preserved in 
 the Executive Journal. By a special message, September 
 23d, 1797, the Governor’s letter and Coxe’s reply 7 were com- 
 municated to the legislature, and referred to a committee, 
 who, on the 10th of October, reported, that from “the 
 papers they have had before them, it appears that no expe- 
 dition of a hostile nature, or plan inimical to the Govern- 
 ment, is intended or contemplated.” 
 
 The execution of the Act of Congress of 1796, heretofore 
 mentioned, had produced uneasiness among the people. The 
 legislature sympathizing in that feeling, adopted the follow- 
 ing preamble and resolution : 
 
 Whereas, oflicial information has been laid before the General As - 
 sembly of this State, contained in an order from Colonel Butler, ad- 
 dressed to the people who are within the Indian boundary, and, foras- 
 much, as it is conceived, great and irremediable injury would arise, 
 should the inhabitants be reduced to the necessity of a compliance with 
 that mandate, at a season when their crops are not fit for transportation, 
 or storing up ; also, putting it entirely out of their power to secure their 
 forage. These evils will be rendered doubly distressing, by the gloomy 
 horrors of famine, which threaten to pervade a great part of the country. 
 
 Seeing, then, the favours of heaven have, in some degree, been with- 
 held, humanity and justice cry aloud for the legislative interposition, in 
 behalf of those of our fellow-citizens, with the executive power. 
 
 It is therefore Resolved , That the Governor of the State of Tennes- 
 see be requested to lay before the President of the United States, by the 
 earliest opportunity, the true state and condition of those citizens resi- 
 dent within the Indian boundary, agreeable to the line lately run, set- 
 ting forth, that their request for the present is, that the execution of the 
 order to Colonel Butler, for their removal, be suspended until the next 
 session of Congress. 
 
 A copy of these was sent to the Governor, accompanied 
 by a communication to him, urging his official application to 
 the President, to obtain a suspension of the order for the re- 
 moval of the intruders. 
 
692 
 
 UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS 
 
 Governor Sevier found it necessary, to appease popular 
 
 g ( clamour on the frontier, to give, through the press, 
 
 ( the prospect of further negotiations, by the Federal 
 Government, with the Cherokees. On this subject he says, 
 in a circular : 
 
 Knoxville, 23d April, 1798. 
 
 % ^ '/* '!• ~ft -/* & 
 
 George Walton, Alfred Moore, and John Steele, Esqs., are appointed 
 Commissioners to hold a treaty with the Indians. Walton is from 
 Georgia, Moore from North-Carolina, and Steele from Virginia; gentle- 
 men of high respectability, and from their known patriotism and abili- 
 ties, I have every reason to believe that the interest of the western 
 country will be deliberately and duly considered. 
 
 The Federal Legislature has appropriated twenty-five thousand eight 
 hundred and eighty dollars for the purpose of the negotiation — a sum, I 
 hope, that will be fully commensurate and adequate to the object, and 
 evince to our fellow-citizens the good disposition of the Federal Execu- 
 tive and Legislature towards the interest and welfare of this State, and 
 particularly in the relief of our unhappy fellow-citizens, who have been 
 compelled to remove from their homes and plantations. It is expected 
 the treaty will commence about the middle of next month ; the Com- 
 missioners have not, as yet, arrived, but are expected in a few days. 
 With respect to the intended treaty, I presume it will be readily con- 
 ceded that the State of Tennessee is very much interested in the event, 
 and, perhaps, more so than may happen in any future period. On this 
 important occasion, it will be particularly useful and beneficial to the 
 Executive, to have the aid and instructions of the legislature; but as 
 that body cannot, with conveniency, be convened, and it is at all times 
 attended with considerable expense, and, at the present, would be em- 
 barrassing to the local circumstances of many of the members, and also 
 our public funds, the Executive will, therefore, be under the necessity 
 of resorting to such measures as to him may appear most likely to pro- 
 mote the public interest, assuring his countrymen that nothing shall be 
 lacking that may tend and lead to their present and future advantages, 
 so far as he may be enabled under existing circumstances. 
 
 The boundary between the Cherokees and the whites had 
 not been run and marked ; some of the settlers had crossed 
 what has been known as the experimental line, and to pre- 
 vent further difficulties, the Federal Government ordered a 
 removal of these trespassers, and proposed a further treaty 
 of limits, &c. The Commissioners appointed for that pur- 
 pose, were George Walton, Alfred Moore and John Steele. 
 The Agent of the United States, Silas Dinsmore, was direct- 
 ed to convene the Indians at the shortest notice, and the 
 commandant of the Federal troops in Tennessee was directed 
 
HOLD A TREATY AT TELLICO. 
 
 693 
 
 to hold in readiness a detachment to cover and protect the 
 parties. 
 
 Soon after their arrival in Tennessee, the Commissioners 
 issued the following : 
 
 Bell Canton, 21st May, 1*798. 
 
 Sir : — Being arrived at this place, with powers to hold a treaty with 
 the Cherokee Indians, on behalf of the United States, and being in- 
 formed, by divers persons, since our arrival in the State of Tennessee, 
 that the persons who were removed from the settlements on the Indian 
 lands, do frequently cross the line, and cultivate the soil, in violation of 
 the law and the orders to Colonel Butler, and much against the will 
 and consent of the Indians — we, therefore, have thought it our indis- 
 pensable duty to interfere, and admonish the persons so trespassing, of 
 the bad effects a perseverance in such conduct may produce ; assuring 
 the people so concerned, that we very sensibly feel for their condition, 
 and that we will do everything in our power for their most speedy re- 
 lief; but, at the same time, we warn them that they, by persisting in 
 the conduct so complained of, may put such relief entirely out of our 
 power. 
 
 We wish you to make this communication as extensively known as 
 possible, and that you will impress the importance of our advice upon 
 the minds of the people as much as possible. 
 
 We are, sir, your ob’d’t serv’ts. 
 
 June 21. — Preparatory to the treaty, the Agent of the 
 United States, Mr. Dinsmore, was instructed to request the 
 Indians to convene at such place as he might think most 
 convenient for them to assemble, and which, at the same 
 time, would most facilitate the obtaining the necessary sup- 
 plies of provisions. With these objects in view, he was 
 desired, by the Commissioners, to remonstrate against meet- 
 ing the Indians at Oostinahli, on the 14th, as they had pro- 
 posed, and to invite them to assemble at their beloved town, 
 Chota, or any other place on the banks of the Tennessee con- 
 venient for them. They abandoned the idea of meeting at 
 Oostinahli, and determined to assemble at Tuskeegee, on the 
 25th. The place of meeting was afterwards changed to 
 Tellico, where they met the Commissioners. 
 
 June 20. — Governor Sevier having named General Robert- 
 son, James Stuart and Lachlan McIntosh, as Agents to 
 represent the interest of Tennessee, at the treaty about to 
 be held at Tellico, proceeded to give them minute instruc- 
 tions on some points of special importance to the State, 
 These were — 
 
694 
 
 STATE AGENTS APPOINTED BY SEVIER, 
 
 1st. — To obtain as wide an extinguishment of the Che- 
 rokee claim, north of the Tennessee, as was attainable. 
 
 2d. — An unimpeded communication of Holston and Clinch 
 Rivers with the Tennessee, and the surrender of the west 
 bank of the Clinch, opposite South-West Point. 
 
 3d. — To secure from future molestation, the settlements 
 as far as they have progressed on the northern and western 
 borders of the State, and the connection of Hamilton and 
 Mero Districts, then separated by a space of unextinguished 
 hunting ground, eighty miles wide. 
 
 4th. — To examine into the nature and validity of the claim 
 recently set up by the Cherokees, to lands north of the Ten- 
 nessee River. Does it rest upon original right ? Is it de- 
 rived from treaties ? Is it founded only upon a temporary 
 use or occupancy ? 
 
 He further advises that, acting as they were with Com- 
 missioners of the United States, they might yield, for the sake 
 of harmony, everything but the interest and dignity of Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 The gentlemen thus appointed and instructed, met July 
 2d, at Knoxville, and having appointed John Smith, Esq., 
 their Secretary, and Joseph Sevier, Interpreter, repaired to 
 the treaty ground, near Tellico Block-house. On the seventh, 
 they made known to the United States Commissioners the 
 object of their appointment, and theirdesire of forwarding, by 
 all the means in their power, the object of the mission, and 
 “ occasionally to state the ground on which Tennessee rests 
 her expectation of such effectual interference on the part of 
 the Union, as shall consolidate her detached settlements, and 
 afford toiler inhabitants the uninterrupted use of streams 
 destined by nature for their accommodation.” 
 
 Col. Butler, the commandant of the post, treated the 
 Agents with marked attention, and offered to convey them, 
 from time to time, during their negotiation, in his barge, 
 from their place of encampment to the Council House. The 
 Commissioners informed them, “ that a seat in the Council 
 would be provided for their accommodation, but any pro- 
 posals you may have to make or information to give, will be 
 
WHO ATTEND AT THE TREATY. 
 
 695 
 
 received by us, at such time as may be convenient, at this 
 place.” 
 
 “ The Council opened. The Bloody Fellow having pre- 
 faced the subject, delivered a paper which he stated to con- 
 tain their final resolutions, which were a peremptory refusal to 
 sell, and an absolute denial to permit the inhabitants to re- 
 turn to their homes.” 
 
 Monday, July 9. — The State Agents feeling considerable 
 doubt of the favourable result of pending negotiations, in 
 the manner they had been and were likely to continue to be 
 conducted, transmitted to the Commissioners a communica- 
 tion in writing, prepared with great care and exhibiting 
 much research and familiarity with all the principles in- 
 volved in the matter of their agency. It covers eight closely 
 written pages of the Journal of the Agents now before this 
 writer. It is worthy of a careful reading, and should be 
 preserved, but its great length forbids its insertion on these 
 pages. 
 
 To this elaborate communication, the Commissioners re- 
 plied verbally, that though an able paper, much of its con- 
 tents was irrelevant to the subject of present negotiations, 
 and that it would be their duty to forward it to the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The chiefs manifesting the same determined opposition to 
 a relinquishment of territory, the Agents of Tennessee made 
 an effort to secure from them and the Commissioners, leave 
 to the inhabitants who were beyond the experimental 
 boundary, to harvest and remove the crops of small grain, 
 then ripe and liable to injury and loss. The Commissioners 
 considered thi§ application to be “wholly without .the 
 objects of their mission.” 
 
 Further negotiation was postponed untjl the ensuing 
 fall. James Stuart, Esq., having resigned, his place was 
 filled by Gen. James White, of Knoxville, gnd the negotia- 
 tions were resumed at Tellico, on the 20th of September. 
 The commission to Gen White, is thus expressed on the Exe- 
 cutive Journal — 
 
 James White, Brigadier-General of the District of Hamilton, com- 
 missioned as ^ Agent on the part of the State of Tennessee, with full 
 
696 
 
 CHEROKEE BOUNDARY. 
 
 power to attend the treaty which the President of the United States has 
 authorized to be held with the Cherokees, and there to state the obli- 
 gations of the United States to extinguish the Cherokee claim to such 
 lands as have been granted to individuals by the State of North-Caro- 
 lina, and in all things to represent the interests of the State of Ten- 
 nessee.” 
 
 The United States Commissioners were Col. Thomas Butler 
 and George Walton, Esq. 
 
 During the progress of the treaty, it was found impracticable 
 to effect the primary objects had in view, in the appointment 
 of the State agents. Gen. Robertson failed to attend, and Mr. 
 McIntosh resigned. It became necessary for the Governor, 
 himself, to attend. He did so. The Commissioners suc- 
 ceeded, at length, in effecting a treaty. It was signed by 
 Thomas Butler, George Walton, and a long list of Cherokee 
 chiefs. 
 
 By this treaty, the boundary was stipulated to be : Begin- 
 
 g | ning at a point on the Tennessee River, below Tellico 
 l Block-house, called Wildcat Rock, in a directline to the 
 Militia Spring, near the Maryville road ; from the said spring 
 to the Chilhowee Mountain, by a line so to be run, as will 
 leave all the farms on Nine Mile Creek to the northward and 
 eastward of it ; and to be continued along Chilhowee Moun- 
 tain, until it strikes Hawkins’s line ; thence along the said 
 line, to the great Iron Mountain ; and from the top of which, a 
 line to be continued, in a south easterly course, to where the 
 most southwardly branch of Little River crosses the divi- 
 sional line to Tugalo River. From the place of beginning, 
 the Wildcat Rock, down the north-east margin river, (not 
 including islands,) to a point or place, one mile above the 
 junction of that river with the Clinch ; and from thence, by 
 a line to be drawn in a right angle, until it intersects Haw- 
 kins’s line, leading from Clinch ; thence down the said line 
 to the River Clinch ; thence up the said river to its junction 
 with Emmery’s River ; thence up Emmery’s River to the 
 foot of Cumberland Mountain; from thence a line to be 
 drawn north-eastwardly along the foot of the mountain,, 
 until it intersects with Campbell’s line.* 
 
 * State Papers, vol. v., page 638. 
 
ORIGINAL LETTER FROM GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 697 
 
 The treaty provides for the running and marking of the 
 boundary, and the payment to the Cherokees, for this cession 
 of territory, of five thousand dollars, and an annuity of one 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 The people of Greene county participated in the sentiment 
 of the nation, in reference to the difficulties with France. 
 The following proceedings were had : 
 
 At a meeting of the citizens of Greene county, held at 
 Greeneviile, Tenn., Colonel Daniel Kennedy was called to 
 the chair, and George Duffield appointed secretary. A com- 
 mittee was appointed to “ draw up and transmit to General 
 Washington an address, expressive of the grateful sensibili- 
 ties of the people, at his acceptance of the appointment of 
 Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Ameri- 
 can Armies at the present eventful crisis.” The committee 
 discharged the duty assigned, and received from General 
 Washington this reply : 
 
 To THE INHABITANTS OF GrEENE COUNTY, IN THE STATE OF TENNESSEE : 
 
 Gentlemen : — Having once more engaged in the arduous duties of 
 public life, (after I had retired therefrom, with the most ardent wishes and 
 pleasing hopes, that no circumstances would occur to call me from my 
 peaceful abode, during the few remaining yearn of my life,) I cannot be 
 insensible to the approbation of my fellow-citizens ; and while I thank 
 you, gentlemen, for your warm and friendly address, permit me to ob- 
 serve, that I can take no merit to myself for my personal sacrifices I may 
 
 make , in accepting the important trust with which I have been 
 
 honoured ; for when the property of our citizens has been spoiled, our 
 sovereignty encroached upon, our constituted authorities threatened, can 
 that man be deserving the appellation of an American citizen, who 
 would suffer any motives of personal consideration, to withhold his exer- 
 tions at such an eventful crisis? It certainly appears, gentlemen, as you 
 observe, that the mild and pacific policy of America has been mistaken 
 for cowardice and a base desertion of our rights. But I trust that the 
 injured spirit of our country will now be roused, and that we shall show 
 to the world, that we can and will support our rights and the govern- 
 ment of our choice, against all aggressions, and that we will yield our 
 independence only with our lives. To do this, requires a spirit of unani- 
 mity, which, I presume, will shortly prevail in every part of the United 
 States, and that every virtuous citizen will see the necessity of his exer- 
 tions, to preserve the invaluable blessings which we have yet in our 
 power. 
 
 George Washington. 
 
 Mount Vernon, Sept. 8th, 1798. 
 
698 
 
 SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 Agreeably to the proclamation of Governor Sevier, the 
 second session of the second General Assembly of the 
 State of Tennessee began at Knoxville, December 3, 
 
 1708 
 
 1798. 
 
 Thomas Hardeman, Senator from Davidson, had resigned, 
 and James Robertson was elected in his place. William 
 Blount was elected Senator from Knox, in place of James 
 White, resigned. Governor Blount was elected Speaker of 
 the Senate ; George Roulstone, Clerk ; and N. B. Bucking- 
 ham, Assistant Clerk. 
 
 Edward Scott was elected Principal Clerk, and Stephen 
 Hurd, Assistant Clerk, of the House of Representatives. 
 
 In the message to the Legislature, transmitted by Governor 
 Sevier, he suggests an amendment of the militia law, “ at 
 this moment, when the United States are menaced with 
 foreign aggression and also “ an appropriation to prevent 
 deficiency in arms and ammunition.” He calls attention to 
 the “ recent proceeding of North-Carolina, militating with 
 the Act of Cession and closing her offices, by which that 
 State prevents the inhabitants of Tennessee from perfecting 
 their land titles.” He directs legislative attention to the 
 lands recently acquired from the Cherokees, and congratu- 
 lates the country on the return to their homes, of such of the 
 citizens as had been excluded temporarily from their quiet 
 possession. 
 
 SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES IN THE CONGRESS OF THE 
 UNITED STATES FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 Fourth Congress — Second Session — Began 5th December, 1796, ended 
 3d March, 1797. 
 
 Senators — William Cocke, 
 
 William Blount. 
 
 Representative — Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Special Session of the Senate for one day, being 4th March, 1797. 
 
 Senator present — William Blount. 
 
 Fifth Congress — First Session — Began 15th May, 1797, ended 10th 
 July, 1797. 
 
 Senators — William Cocke, 
 
 Wm. Blount, attended 16 May, 1797. ) 
 Expelled, 8 July, 1797. j 
 
 (It does not appear that any Representative from Tennessee attended at 
 this session.) 
 
IN CONGRESS FROM TENNESSEE. 
 
 G99 
 
 Fifth Congress — Second Session — Began 13th Nov., 1 '79'7, ended 16th 
 July, 1798. 
 
 Senators — Andrew Jackson, 
 
 Joseph Anderson. 
 
 Representative — William Chas. Cole Claibourne. 
 Special Session of the Senate, began 17th July, and ending 19th July, 
 
 1798. 
 
 Senator— J osepii Anderson — (one seat vacant.) 
 Fifth Congress — Third Session — Began 3d Dec., 1798, ended 3d March, 
 
 1799. 
 
 Senators— Daniel Smith, 
 
 Joseph Anderson. 
 
 Representative — William C. C. Claibourne. 
 
 Sixth Congress — First Session — Began 2d December, 1799, ended 14th 
 May, 1800. 
 
 Senators — Joseph Anderson, 
 
 William Cocke. 
 
 Representative — William C. C. Claibourne. 
 
 July 8th. — William Blount, Senator from Tennessee, was, 
 on this clay, expelled from his seat in the Senate of the 
 United States. Three days before that time, he wrote the 
 following letter : 
 
 Philadelphia, July 5th, ’97. 
 
 In a few davs, you will see published by order of Congress, a letter 
 said to have been written by me to James Carey. It makes quite a fuss 
 here. I hope, however, the people upon the Western waters, will see 
 nothing but good in it, for so I intended it, especially for Tennessee. 
 
 The letter to Carey became the platform of proceedings 
 against Senator Blount. The Sergeant-at-arms of the Uni- 
 ted States Senate, James Matthers, soon after repaired to 
 Knoxville, with the purpose of arresting the ex-senator, and 
 of taking him in custody, to the seat of Government. After 
 the service of process upon Blount, the Sergeant-at-arms 
 found it impossible to execute that part of his official duty, 
 which required him to take the accused to Philadelphia. He 
 refused to go. Matthers was treated by the citizens of Knox- 
 ville with marked attention and civility. He became, for 
 several days, the guest of Governor Blount, and was hospita- 
 bly entertained by the State authorities. After some days, 
 wishing to return with his prisoner to Philadelphia, he sum- 
 moned a posse to his assistance. But not a man could be 
 found willing to accompany him. Whatever foundation 
 there may have been for the impeachment of William 
 Blount, and whatever truth there may have been in the 
 
700 
 
 BLOUNT S IMPEACHMENT, 
 
 charge preferred against him. there was no one in Tennessee 
 who viewed his conduct as criminal, unpatriotic, or un- 
 friendly to the true interests of the State, or the West ; and 
 all refused to sanction the proceedings against him. The in- 
 fluence of the Marshal of the District was either withheld, 
 or was impotent amongst the countrymen of Blount. The 
 Sergeant-at-arms, convinced of the fruitlessness of further 
 attempt, to execute one part of his mission, started home- 
 ward. Some of the citizens accompanied him a few miles 
 from town, where, assuring him that William Blount could 
 not be taken from Tennessee as a prisoner, bade him a po- 
 lite adieu. 
 
 Next to Sevier, Blount was the most popular man in Ten- 
 nessee. He had been identified with her people from the 
 earliest settlement of the country, and his public services 
 had been particularly advantageous to their interests, and 
 had secured their approbation, and were rewarded by their 
 esteem and their gratitude. Whatever may have been pub- 
 lic sentiment elsewhere, at home he never lost the confidence, 
 nor forfeited the good opinion of his countrymen. An op- 
 portunity occurred, soon after the impeachment of Mr. 
 Blount, in which the people of Knox county and the Senate 
 of Tennessee demonstrated their appreciation of his fidelity to 
 their interest, and of his capacity to serve them. General 
 James White, the Senator from Knox county, sympathizing 
 in the general feeling, resigned his seat in the Senate of 
 Tennessee. With this resignation, the Speaker’s chair, to 
 which he had been elected, became also vacant. The voters 
 of Knox county seized the opportunity, and elected William 
 Blount their Senator ; and upon its meeting at the called 
 session of Dec. 3, 1797, the Senate unanimously elected 
 him its Speaker. And it is a circumstance somewhat re- 
 markable, that while that body was acting as a Court of Im- 
 peachment, of which Speaker Blount was the President, the 
 United States Senate was, at the same time, engaged in try- 
 ing the impeachment against him. 
 
 In the meantime, the trial of Mr. Blount progressed. 
 
 “Monday, Dec. 17, 1798. 
 
 “The process issued on the first day of March last, against William 
 Blount, together with the return made thereon, were read.” 
 
AND HIS ACQUITTAL. 
 
 701 
 
 The Articles of Impeachment, in substance, charged that 
 William Blount did conspire to set on foot a military hos- 
 tile expedition against the territory of his Catholic Majesty 
 in the Floridas and Louisiana, for the purpose of wresting 
 them from his Catholic Majesty, and of conquering the same 
 for the King of Great Britain. “ William Blount did not 
 appear.” Tuesday, Dec. 18, 1798. — Jared Ingersoll and A. J. 
 Dallas asked and obtained leave to appear as Counsel for Wil- 
 liam Blount, and on the 24th, filed their plea, objecting to the 
 jurisdiction of the Court, as William Blount was not now a 
 Senator of the United States, and because, by the eighth ar- 
 ticle of the Constitution, it is declared and provided “ that 
 in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right 
 to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State 
 or District wherein the crime shall have been committed,” 
 &c., &c. 
 
 January 3, 1799. — Mr. Bayard, in behalf of the managers, 
 filed a replication. To this Mr. Ingersoll filed a rejoinder. 
 
 January 10. — Court proceeded in the debate on the mo- 
 tion, “That William Blount was a civil officer of the United 
 States within the meaning of the Constitution of the United 
 States, and, therefore, liable to be impeached by the House 
 of Representatives, and that as the Articles of Impeach- 
 ment charge him with high crimes and misdemeanours, sup- 
 posed to have been committed while a Senator of the United 
 States, his plea ought to be overruled.” It was determined 
 in the negative. Yeas, 11 ; Nays, 14. 
 
 January 14, 1799. — Judgment was pronounced by the Vice 
 1799 i President, that “ The Court is of opinion that the 
 l matter alleged in the plea of the defendant, is suffi- 
 cient, in law, to show that this Court ought not to hold 
 jurisdiction of the said impeachment, and that the said im- 
 peachment be dismissed.” 
 
 The failure to sustain the prosecution against Mr. Blount, 
 and his elevation by his fellow-citizens and the Senate of 
 Tennessee to the dignified position assigned him after his 
 impeachment, testify sufficiently, that in their judgment, he 
 had perpetrated no wrong — inflicted no injury, and purposed 
 
702 
 
 VINDICATION OF BLOUNT 
 
 no evil — especially against his own State. Had he lived 
 longer, that State would still have confided in and rewarded 
 him further. His services and his abilities were never 
 more highly appreciated than at the time of his death, which 
 occurred soon afterwards, at Knoxville, March 21, 1800, in 
 the 53d year of his age. The several offices he had held, 
 have been enumerated elsewhere in these Annals, and need 
 not be here repeated. In all of them he had acquitted him- 
 self with signal ability, zeal and faithfulness. “He mortuis 
 nil nisi bonum .” If he erred in the whole course of a pa- 
 triotic life, let the error be ascribed to an overwrought devo- 
 tion to North-Carolina and to Tennessee. To the special 
 interests of the mother and the daughter he devoted his life, 
 his energies and his character. In the latter, especially, his 
 memory is still revered, and the name of Blount is gratefully 
 remembered, even at the present day. Here, he was never 
 censured for the conduct which was made the occasion of 
 the Senate’s proceedings against him ; and his friends, con- 
 scious of his good intentions, never found it necessary to 
 make a public vindication of his conduct. There is, how- 
 ever, in the hands of this Annalist, a vindication of William 
 Blount, made in 1835, by Willie Blount, his younger brother, 
 who was associated with him in most of the transactions of 
 his public and private life, and who succeeded him in the 
 administration of the duties of Governor of Tennessee for 
 many years. His character for candour, truth and impar- 
 tiality, will be nowhere questioned, and the position of no 
 one could have been more favourable for the ascertainment 
 of all the facts he mentions, or the purposes to which he 
 alludes, in the vindication of William Blount. It is addressed 
 to Richard B. Blount, and the other orphan children and the 
 relatives of the deceased. This document covers several 
 closely written sheets, and, on account of its length, cannot 
 be here given. 
 
 This vindication was never necessary for the good name 
 of the subject of it in Tennessee. Had he lived longer, 
 other positions would have been assigned him in the public 
 service; but he was cut ofF in the prime of life. A plain 
 marble slab covers his remains, and points out his grave, 
 
DECEASE OF GOVERNOR BLOUNT. 
 
 703 
 
 near the entrance of the burying-ground of the First Pres- 
 byterian Church in Knoxville. upon which there is only the 
 simple inscription : “William Blount, died March 21, 1800, 
 aged 53 years.”* 
 
 During an early period of Governor Sevier’s administra- 
 tion, he was mainly instrumental in procuring the passageof 
 an Act by Congress compromising the land interest, or Ten- 
 nessee claim to her soil, by securing the appropriation of two 
 hundred thousand acres north and east of the Congressional 
 reservation line, for the use of two colleges ; and also, fur- 
 ther appropriations for county academies and common 
 schools, f 
 
 His administration was also signalized by efforts to con- 
 nect Tennessee with her sister States, viz : through the Che- 
 rokee nation, from Tellico Block-house to Georgia; also, 
 from Winchester to Georgia, by Lowry’s Ferry ; and still 
 another, leading from Nashville to Natchez, through the 
 Chickasaw and Choctaw country. 
 
 On the last day of the called session of 1798, viz : January 
 5th, 1799, the presiding officers of the two Houses thus ad- 
 dressed the Governor : 
 
 To John Sevier, Governor of the State of Tennessee: 
 
 The communication you have thought proper to make to both Houses 
 of the General Assembly, at the commencement, and during the present 
 session, afford additional proofs of the care which hath always marked 
 your official character, since the first appointment to your present station. 
 
 In the course of the present session, the Legislature have taken into 
 consideration, the object of your several communications, and acted upon 
 the same consistent with the exigency. 
 
 The General Assembly, having finished the business before them, pro- 
 pose to adjourn this evening, without day. 
 
 James Stuart, S. H. R. 
 
 Wm. Blount, S. S. 
 
 *For some of these details, the writer acknowledges himself indebted to the last 
 survivor of the pioneers of Knoxville, James Park, Esq., of that city, who, at an 
 advanced age of a life of piety, usefulness and public spirit, has kindly contribu- 
 ted, from the rich stores of a well-informed mind and tenacious memory, his recol- 
 lections of the past. 
 
 He is, also, in like manner indebted for letters from Hugh Dunlap, Esq., de- 
 ceased, late of Paris, Tenn., who assisted in laying the foundation of Knoxville, 
 and of civilization in Tennessee, from its eastern to its western section He was 
 the ancestor of the family of that name, already distinguished in their native State, 
 and in Mississippi and Texas. 
 fBlount Papers. 
 
704 
 
 MEETING OF THE TENNESSEE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 Elections were held agreeably to law, and resulted again 
 in the election of John Sevier as Governor of Tennessee, and 
 W. C. C. Claibourne, Representative to Congress. 
 
 Sept. 16. — The first session of the third General Assembly, 
 met at Knoxville on Monday, the sixteenth day of Septem- 
 ber, 1799, when Alexander Outlaw was elected Speaker of 
 the Senate, and John Kennedy, principal Clerk. 
 
 William Dickson was elected Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, and Edward Scott, Clerk. 
 
 Members of the Senate. 
 
 Blount and Sevier counties — Samuel Glass. 
 
 Cocke and Jefferson. — Alexander Outlaw. 
 
 Carter and Washington. — David Deaderick. 
 
 Davidson. — Joel Lewis and Robert Weakly. 
 
 Grainger.- — John Cocke. 
 
 Greene. — Samuel Frazier. 
 
 Hawkins. — George Maxwell. 
 
 Knox. — John Crawford. 
 
 Montgomery and Robertson. — James Norfleet. 
 
 Sullivan. — George Rutledge. 
 
 Sumner. — Sampson Williams. 
 
 Members of House of Representatives. 
 
 Blount. — James Scott. 
 
 Carter. — Samuel Williams. 
 
 Cocke. — William Lillard. 
 
 Davidson. — Wm. DicksoD, Geo. Deaderick andWm. Nealy. 
 Grainger. — Major Lea and Elijah Chishum. 
 
 Greene. — John Gass. 
 
 Hawkins. — William Hord. 
 
 Jefferson. — George Doherty. 
 
 Knox.— John Menifee and John Sawyers. 
 
 Montgomery. — William Bell. 
 
 Robertson. — John Young. 
 
 Sumner. — Wm. Hall, Isaac Walker and Wm. Montgomery. 
 
 Sevier. — Spencer Clack. 
 
 Sullivan. — John Scott and Richard Gammon. 
 
 Washington. — Leeroy Taylor and John Sevier, Jun. 
 
 GOVERNOR’S MESSAGE. 
 
 Mr. Speaker , and Gentlemen of the Senate , and Gentlemen of the 
 House of Representatives: 
 
 It is with peculiar satisfaction I have the honour, this day, of meeting 
 your august body in this House, where I have the pleasure of informing 
 you the State is blessed with peace and quietude — the fields of the 
 husbandman abundantly supplied with the fruits of the earth — our 
 
GOVERNOR SEVIER’S MESSAGE TO LEGISLATURE. 
 
 705 
 
 harvests have yielded to the labourer ample satisfaction for his toils, 
 and the other crops of grain are equally proportionate. 
 
 The iavvs and regular decorum, so far as come within my knowledge, 
 
 I have reason to believe, are duly observed and supported throughout the 
 government. Emigration and population are daily increasing, and I 
 have no doubt, under the propitious hand of Providence, your patron- 
 age, the wise and wholesome laws you, in your wisdom, may think pro- 
 per to enact, that our State will become more and more respectable and 
 conspicuous, and the citizens enjoy all that happiness and comfort this 
 human life, in an ordinary course, will afford them. The poor and dis- 
 tressed claim the first share of your deliberations, and I have not 
 the smallest doubt your attention will be duly directed to that, and 
 every other object worthy of legislative consideration. Among other 
 things, gentlemeu, permit me again to remind you, that the landed es- 
 tates of your constituents, in general, appear to be verging on to a very 
 precarious and doubtful situation, and should a timely interference be 
 neglected, it may become a subject of very great regret. I, therefore, 
 beg leave to recommend, so far as may be consistent with the cession 
 act, public and good faith, that you provide, in the most ample man- 
 ner, for the security and peaceful enjoyment of all such property as 
 may appear to be in jeopardy. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Senate , and Gentlemen of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives : 
 
 I now proceed to enjoin on you the great necessity of promoting and 
 encouraging manufactories, the establishing ware-houses and inspections 
 of various kinds. It will give a spring to industry and enable the agri- 
 cultural part of the community to export and dispose of all the surplus 
 part of their bulky and heavy articles. Providence has blessed this 
 State with a soil peculiarly calculated for the production of wheat, hemp, 
 flax, cotton, tobacco and indigo ; it abounds with ores and minerals, and 
 has navigable rivers, amply sufficient to enable us to export to the best 
 of markets. This being the case, gentlemen, you may readily conceive 
 how essentially necessary it will be for the encouraging and promoting 
 of all the advantages enumerated, for you to lend your early legisla- 
 tive aid and patronage. With respect to the affairs of Europe, I am 
 not able to give you much satisfactory information. The public prints 
 seem to furnish contradictory accounts, but so far as I am capable of 
 judging, our affairs with France assume a less threatening aspect than 
 heretofore, and I have the fullest confidence that the Executive of the 
 General Government will use the greatest and wisest exertions to pro- 
 mote and secure the peace, safety and dignity of the United States. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives : 
 
 I am deeply and sensibly impressed with the honour conferred on me 
 by my fellow citizens, in being elected a third time, to preside as the 
 Chief Magistrate of the State. I earnestly wish I possessed greater 
 abilities and talents to enable me to discharge the important duties, 
 trust and confidence they have reposed ; but rest assured, so far as I am 
 45 
 
706 
 
 SMITH COUNTY LAID OFF. 
 
 enabled, nothing will be lacking or neglected in me, that will tend to- 
 wards the interest, welfare and safety of the State. Before I close this 
 address, 1 cannot forbear requesting a harmony of measures in your 
 councils, and that you unite in endeavouring to promote our dearest 
 rights and interests, and I have the fullest hope that, by your wisdom 
 and policy, you may secure to our country the advantages and respect 
 to which it is entitled and has a right to enjoy. 
 
 (Signed) John Seviek. 
 
 September 19th, 1799. 
 
 As was the custom of the day, the Speakers of the two 
 Houses made a suitable response to the Governor’s message. 
 It is here inserted : 
 
 To his Excellency, John Sevier, Governor of the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Sir : — It is with peculiar satisfaction the Senate and House of Re- 
 presentatives received your communication announcing to them that 
 our State is crowned with the blessings of peace and quietude ; that the 
 toils of the husbandman are amply rewarded with abundant crops ; that 
 the laws, throughout the State, are well and duly executed ; that emi- 
 gration and population are daily increasing ; and we beg leave now to 
 assure you that, under the directing hand of the All-seeing Providence, 
 nothing, on our part, shall be wanting to increase the respectability of 
 our rising State, and promote the welfare and happiness of our constitu- 
 ents. 
 
 Receive, sir, our assurances that the matters and things contained in 
 your communications, and recommended to us as objects of legisla- 
 tive attention, shall meet with that due investigation and deliberation 
 that the importance of the different subjects requires. 
 
 We beg leave, now, sir, to express our gratification of being the wit- 
 nesses of your being once more called, by the unanimous suffrage of 
 the freemen of Tennessee, to the seat of the Chief Magistrate of the 
 State, and expressing our public confidence that you will continue to 
 execute those duties, which appertain to your office, with that firmness, 
 judgment and impartiality which have heretofore characterized the Chief 
 Magistrate of Tennessee. 
 
 A. E. Outlaw, S. S. 
 
 Wm. Dickson, Jun., S. H. R. 
 
 Oct. 26. — The county of Sumner was reduced to its con- 
 stitutional limits, and a new county, by the name of Smith, 
 established. Its first Court was held at the house of Major 
 Til man Dixon. Smith county was called for General Da- 
 niel Smith, who who was a native of Virginia, and was 
 appointed, by Governor Jefferson, a Commissioner to run 
 the dividing line between that State and North-Carolina. In 
 the execution of this duty, he saw the beautiful country in 
 the West, and soon afterwards removed to what is now 
 
WILSON AND WILLIAMSON COUNTIES LAID OFF. 
 
 707 
 
 Sumner county, whose people he represented in the North- 
 Carolina Legislature, and in the Convention which ratified 
 the Constitution of the United States. He became Secretary 
 of the Territory and a member of the Convention of 1796. 
 He was afterwards elected one of the Senators from Ten- 
 nessee. General Smith was a practical surveyor of lands, 
 whose works never needed correction. For intelligence,, 
 well-cultivated talents, for integrity and usefulness, in sound- 
 ness of judgment, in the practice of virtue and in shunning 
 vice, he was equalled by few ; and in purity of motive, ex- 
 celled by none.* 
 
 Another new county was, at the same time, established. 
 It was called Wilson, after Major David Wilson, a native of 
 Pennsylvania, who emigrated to Sumner county, then North- 
 Carolina. Here he was chosen a member of the Territorial 
 Assembly, and, subsequently, Speaker of the House of Re- 
 presentatives. He was an active and valuable officer in the 
 Revolutionary war, and, for his services, the State of North- 
 Carolina, by a special act of her Legislature, presented him 
 with a tract of valuable land within the limits of the State of 
 Tennessee. He was an honest and highly meritorious citizen. 
 
 The first Court of Wilson county was held at the house of 
 Captain John Harpole. First magistrates were — Charles 
 Cavenaugh, John Allcom, John Lancaster, Elmore Douglass, 
 John Doak, Matthew Figuns, Henry Ross, Wm. Gray, An- 
 drew Donelson and Wm. McLain. f 
 
 Robert Foster was elected clerk : Charles Cavenaugh, 
 chairman ; Charles Rosborough, sheriff ; Wm. Gray, ranger ; 
 John Allcom, Register; B. Seawell, Esquire, was appointed 
 county solicitor. 
 
 Oct. 26. — The southern part of Davidson county was 
 formed into a new county. 
 
 The new county was named Williamson. John Johnson, 
 Sen., Daniel Perkins, James Buford, William Edmonson and 
 Captain James Scurlock, were the Commissioners to lay off 
 
 * Blount Papers. 
 
 f Afterwards elected Clerk, which office he held for many years, His son, J. 
 S. McLain, afterwards was elected, and still continues Clerk of Wilson county — 
 1852 . 
 
708 
 
 SONS OF TENNESSEE IN OTHER STATES. 
 
 and erect public buildings in the county seat. The first 
 Court was held at Franklin. Williamson county was de- 
 clared to be part of Mero District. 
 
 Caption of the principal Acts passed by the Legislature of 
 Tennessee, at its session commencing September 16, 1799. 
 
 1. An act increasing the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace. 
 
 S. To suppress excessive gaming. 
 
 9. To prevent the wilful or malicious killing of slaves. 
 
 10. Making provision for opening a road from Hamilton to Mero 
 District across Cumberland Mountain, through the lands of the Chero- 
 kee Indians, as stipulated by the Treaty of Holston. 
 
 26. Establishing Kingston, near South-West Point, in Knox county, 
 under the direction of David Miller, Alexander Carmichael, George 
 Preston, John Smith, Wm. L. Lovely, Merriweather Smith and Thomas 
 N. Clark. 
 
 33. Establishing the town of Franklin. Abraham Maury, John Wal- 
 thral, Joseph Porter, Wm. Boyd and David McEwen, are appointed 
 Commissioners. 
 
 34. Authorizing John McNairy, Joseph Coleman, Robert Searcy, 
 Joseph Philips and David McGavock, to contract for building a stone 
 Court House in Nashville. 
 
 36. Establishing Haysborough, in Davidson county. 
 
 38. Establishing Dandridge, in Jefferson county. 
 
 46. Making provision for electing Electors of President and Vice- 
 President of the United States. 
 
 “ That the said Electors may be elected with as little 
 trouble to the citizens as possible,” the Legislature again 
 selected three citizens in each of the counties of the three 
 Districts of Washington, Hamilton and Mero, whose duty it 
 was to meet at Jonesboro’, Knoxville and Nashville respec- 
 tively, and elect one Elector for each District. These three 
 Electors were then to meet at Knoxville, and “ elect a Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President of the United States.” 
 
 Besides the distinguished sons of Tennessee referred to in 
 these pages, and others still surviving, these Annals could have 
 mentioned many others who have gone abroad, and acquired 
 elsewhere fame and character — as her Holt’s in Georgia ; Mc- 
 Clung, and Clay and Parsons of Alabama ; Barton, W. E. 
 Anderson, Lea and Dunlap of Mississippi ; Claiborne and 
 Gaines of Louisiana ; Houston, Crocket and Dunlap of 
 Texas ; Sevier of Arkansas ; Burnett of California ; Barton, 
 Gallaher and King of Missouri ; Tipton of Indiana, and 
 
GOVERNOR SEVIER’S COURT. 
 
 709 
 
 Reynolds of Illinois. The list could be much enlarged, but 
 the limits of this volume will not allow the writer to in- 
 dulge himself in that grateful duty. 
 
 Sevier’s Court. 
 
 The laws of Tennessee required the Governor of the State 
 to reside in Knoxville. In compliance with this requirement, 
 Governor Sevier kept the Executive office at that place, but 
 had his domicil in the country, a few miles from the capital. 
 To this he was driven, not less by necessity than his own 
 taste, for rural quiet and the unrestrained habits, which 
 use had imposed upon him in his intercourse with men. 
 
 After the organization of the State Government, the 
 aspect of affairs at the capital underwent a change. There 
 was no longer the source of power and patronage. These 
 were no longer lodged in one individual, but were thrown 
 broad-cast over the whole State, and were confided to the 
 people themselves. The same court was, of course, not paid 
 to Governor Sevier, that had been usually offered to his pre- 
 decessor. There was discernible, too, less of courtly usage, 
 and less deference to magisterial dignity and patronage. Se- 
 vier was, however, equally cordial, hospitable and generous. 
 His private fortune was small. Like Clarke, Boon, and 
 other pioneers, his public services had not been requited with 
 pecuniary compensation. He was, indeed, a poor man. 
 The inadequacy of his salary, forced him to adopt the most 
 frugal and inexpensive habits. His attire was plain, but 
 neat — his household limited, and his dwelling most simple, 
 primitive and unpretending ; but even when thus restricted 
 by the iron hand of poverty, his heart was generous and his 
 feelings liberal. With less of the display of hospitality, with 
 perhaps a smaller appreciation of some of its manifestations 
 than Gov. Blount had shewn, the Governor of the State of 
 Tennessee strove hard, for a time, to maintain the conse- 
 quence of the Executive office, and at least not to allow it to 
 fall beneath that of the Territorial administration. The 
 effort was unavailing. His official duties he discharged, 
 according to law, in town ; those of the citizen and gen- 
 tleman, were transferred to his home in the countr}\ The 
 civilities due to all from the Governor, were dispensed at 
 
710 
 
 sev/er’s country residence. 
 
 his plain residence, south of the river, on a plantation still 
 known as the “ Governor’s Old Place,” and now occupied by 
 Mr. George Kirby. 
 
 Upon the great road leading from Knoxville, the first 
 Capital of Tennessee, and still the metropolis of the Eastern 
 section of that State, and connecting it with Sevierville, 
 Newell’s and McGaughey’s Stations, may be seen, at the dis- 
 tance of five miles from the former place, the ruins of an old 
 station, now in a deserted and worn-out field. In early 
 times it had given protection to several families adjacent to 
 it. Before Knoxville was laid off, this station was a frontier 
 post, which was reached by emigrants passing the trace 
 from the mouth of French Broad to the lower settlements 
 on Nine Mile and Pistol Creek. Near that trace, and after 
 it crossed Bay’s Mountain, at the foot of one of its rugged 
 spurs, gushed forth a beautiful spring, surrounded by a hilly 
 and rocky country. In this secluded spot stood the cabin of 
 Governor Sevier. He enlarged the building, and made it, if 
 not commodious and elegant, convenient and comfortable. 
 
 Here he received his guests in the olden style of primitive 
 hospitality and backwoods etiquette. His house was always 
 open, and not unfrequently crowded with his old soldiers 
 and comrades in arms. A wandering pilgrim from Natchez 
 or the Missouri, or his countrymen from Cumberland or else- 
 where, passing anywhere through the country, would find 
 out the abode of their old captain, and was sure there to re- 
 ceive an old-fashioned welcome. Amongst his visitors 
 were some of the Cherokee chiefs, with whom he recounted 
 past success to one, and defeat and disaster to the other. In 
 his neighbourhood were his compatriots, White, Gillespie, 
 Jack, Cozby and Ramsey, all of them once officers of Franklin, 
 members and officers now of a well-regulated government, 
 and of their mother church. 
 
 It is not true, as has been sometimes asserted, that Gov- 
 Sevier was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church. It was far 
 otherwise. Fie was a member of no church. With his fa- 
 mily, he attended public worship at Lebanon, four and a half 
 miles east of Knoxville, then under the pastoral care of Rev. 
 Samuel Garrick, where he was a constant and respectful 
 
CHARACTER OF SEVIER. 
 
 711 
 
 hearer. On these occasions, he doffed the soldier and com- 
 mander — his hunting shirt and his sword — wearing only his 
 three-corned cocked hat, with citizen’s clothes. He greeted 
 his old friends with his accustomed cordiality. In the church, 
 his demeanour was grave and reverential. He always oc- 
 cupied the pew of his well-tried and trusty friend, Doctor 
 Cozby. This pew, in all its antique model and proportions, 
 is still preserved, and can be seen on the left of the principal 
 aisle, near the front entrance of the present old stone build- 
 ing. While at church, Sevier exhibited the well-bred Wil- 
 liamsburg gentleman, rather than the pioneer citizen. But 
 his demeanour, though characterized' by the greatest propri- 
 ety and gravity, was never understood to imply any personal 
 interest in religious truth. Sevier’s “ethics did not run in 
 that line.” Gallio-like, “ he cared for none of these things.’’ 
 He was too conscientious to appear to be what he was not. 
 This was not only the purest day of the republic, but the 
 soundest period of the church. The conscience of the indi- 
 vidual would have been outraged by, and revolted at, a false 
 profession, and public sentiment, far from tolerating, admin- 
 istered its severest rebuke of unworthy membership in any 
 communion. 
 
 John Sevier. 
 
 The Annals of Tennessee, after the period to which this 
 volume extends, will abound with further incidents in the 
 public service of Governor Sevier. But it may not be 
 deemed out of place to say here, that it was his destiny to 
 wear out his life in that service. After his first series of six 
 years as Governor had rendered him ineligible, he remained 
 in private life two years. Becoming again eligible, he was 
 biennially elected to the Gubernatorial Chair for another se- 
 ries of six years. He was then (1811) elected to the Con- 
 gress of the United States from the Knoxville District, and 
 re-elected to the same place in the succeeding Congress 
 (1813). This period embraced the twelfth and the thirteenth 
 Congress, in which the war of 1812 was declared and car- 
 ried on. During this time, though usually a silent member, 
 Governor Sevier was active and efficient. He was placed 
 
712 
 
 DECEASE OF SEVIER AND ROBERTSON. 
 
 upon the Committee of Military Affairs, where, from his long 
 experience, he was able to render essential and important 
 services on subjects referred to his committee. Mr. Monroe, 
 in 1815, appointed him a Commissioner to run the boundary 
 of territory ceded by the Creeks to the United States, in that 
 year. He left his home near Knoxville, in June, upon that 
 duty — was taken sick of a fever in September, and died in 
 a tent, on the 24th of that month. He was buried with the 
 honours of war, by the troops under command of Captain 
 Walker, U- S. A., on the east bank of the Tallapoosa River, 
 at an Indian village called Tuckabatchee, near Fort Decatur* 
 in Alabama. He was in his seventy-first year. 
 
 During his absence from home, at the August election of 
 that year, Governor Sevier was re-elected to Congress with- 
 out opposition — an evidence of his undiminished popularity 
 to the end of life. The Legislature of Tennessee noticed 
 his decease, and attested the appreciation by the State of his 
 great services and high character, by the customary reso- 
 lution to wear crape as a badge of mourning and respect for 
 his memory. For more than forty years, Sevier had been 
 constantly, and actively, and successfully occupied in the 
 public service — civil, military and political ; and the intelli- 
 gence of his death diffused a general sorrow throughout the 
 State and the West, where his memory is still respected, and 
 his great services highly appreciated. 
 
 More will appear in the further Annals of Tennessee, rela- 
 $ tive to General James Robertson. Here it is proper to 
 ( state, that this father of Tennessee— this founder of the 
 settlements on Watauga and Cumberland ; this most successful 
 negotiator between his countrymen and their Indian neigh- 
 bours ; this citizen, who so well united the character of the pa- 
 triot and the patriarch ; continued to the close of his useful life, 
 an active friend of his country, and possessed, in an eminent 
 degree, the confidence, esteem and veneration of all his co- 
 temporaries ; and his memory and services to the Western 
 settlements, in peace and in Avar, are recollected with grate- 
 ful regard by the present generation. He died a little ear- 
 lier than his compatriot and colleague, Sevier. This event 
 took place at the Chickasaw Agency, September 1, 1814. 
 
THEY DESERVE A CENOTAPH. 
 
 713 
 
 Robertson and Sevier both were pioneers on Watauga; 
 what the one was to East, the other was to West Tennessee. 
 Each, after a long life of activity and usefulness in civil and 
 military affairs, died in the public service, and within Indian 
 territory. A duty remains to be performed, in further honour 
 of her two great founders — Robertson and Sevier — by the 
 people of Tennessee. Their place of entombment is beyond 
 its boundaries, and it is, perhaps, proper that their remains 
 should not be removed from the field of their labours, their 
 conquest and their glory, where they now repose. But Ten- 
 nessee gratitude and public spirit should resolve, that near 
 the proud Capitol at Nashville, a cenotaph should be erected, 
 princely and magnificent, in memory of the founder at once 
 of the State and of its flourishing Metropolis. 
 
 Not less imperative is the further duty, of adorning and 
 dignifying the ancient capital of Tennessee with a similar 
 structure, in memory of Sevier. Let one of the historic 
 places within old Knoxville, or in its environs, be chosen, on 
 which a cenotaph shall be erected, commemorative of the 
 achievements, military and civil, of the pioneer on Watauga, 
 the hero of King’s Mountain, the Governor of Franklin and 
 of Tennessee. May the writer suggest respectfully, though 
 earnestly, to the able and enlightened press of his State, to 
 appeal — as he does himself here appeal — to the public spirit 
 and liberality of his countrymen, thus to perpetuate the fame 
 of these worthies in the places already consecrated by their 
 noble and patriotic services. 
 
 For the present, these Annals will stop here. Before 
 closing the volume, however, it may be proper to add some 
 general remarks, which could not be so well introduced 
 elsewhere, upon Frontier Life, Frontier Manners, Frontier 
 Society and Frontier Education. 
 
 Besides the enterprise, fearlessness and courage, already 
 mentioned, as characteristic of the first settlers of Tennessee, 
 we may mention other features in the character of these 
 pioneers. In all the relations of life, their position being 
 new and peculiar, their manners and customs, their costume, 
 amusements, pursuits, &c., are worthy of brief remark. 
 
 The settlement of Tennessee was unlike that of the pre- 
 
714 
 
 PRIMITIVE TIMES IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 sent new country of the United States. Emigrants from the 
 Atlantic cities, and from most points in the Western interior, 
 now embark upon steamboats or other craft, and, carrying 
 with them all the conveniences and comforts of civilized 
 life — indeed, many of its luxuries — are, in a few days, with- 
 out toil, danger or exposure, transported to their new abodes, 
 and, in a few months, are surrounded with the appendages 
 of home, of civilization, and the blessings of law and of 
 society. The wilds of Minnesota and Nebraska, by the 
 agency of steam, or the stalwart arms of Western boatmen, 
 are at once transformed into the settlements of a commer- 
 cial and civilized people. Independence and St. Paul’s, six 
 months after they are laid off, have their stores and their 
 workshops, their artizans and their mechanics. The mantua 
 maker and the tailor arrive in the same boat with the car- 
 penter and mason. The professional man and the printer 
 quickly follow. In the succeeding year, the piano, the 
 drawing-room, the restaurant, the billiard table, the church 
 bell, the village and the city in miniature, are all found, 
 while the neighbouring interior is yet a wilderness and a 
 desert. The town and comfort, taste and urbanity, are first ; 
 the clearing, the farm-house, the wagon road and the im- 
 proved country, second. It was far different on the frontier 
 in Tennessee. At first, a single Indian trail was the only 
 entrance to the eastern border of it, and for many years 
 admitted only of the hunter and the pack-horse. It was not 
 till the year 1776, that a wagon was seen in Tennessee. In 
 consequence of the want of roads — as well as of the great 
 distance from sources of supply — the first inhabitants were 
 without tools, and, of course, without mechanics — much 
 more, without the conveniences of living and the comforts of 
 house-keeping. Luxuries were absolutely unknown. Salt 
 was brought on pack-horses from Augusta and Richmond, 
 and readily commanded ten dollars a bushel. The salt 
 gourd, in every cabin, was considered as a treasure. The 
 sugar-maple furnished the only article of luxury on the fron- 
 tier ; coffee and tea being unknown, or beyond the reach of 
 the settlers, sugar was seldom made, and was only used 
 for the sick, or in the preparation of a sweetened, dram at a 
 
THE FRONTIER DWELLING HOUSES. 
 
 715 
 
 wedding, or the arrival of a new-comer. The appendages 
 of the kitchen, the cupboard and the table, were scanty and 
 simple. 
 
 Iron was brought, at great expense, from the forges east of 
 the mountain, on pack-horses, and was sold at an enormous 
 price. Its use was, for this reason, confined to the construc- 
 tion and repair of ploughs and other farming utensils. 
 Hinges, nails and fastenings of that material, were seldom 
 seen. 
 
 The costume of the first settlers corresponded well with 
 the style of their buildings and the quality of their furniture. 
 The hunting shirit of the militiaman and the hunter was in 
 general use. The rest of their apparel was in keeping with 
 it — plain, substantial, and well adapted for comfort, use and 
 economy. The apparel of the pioneers’ family was all home- 
 made ; and, in a whole neighbourhood, there would not be 
 seen, at the first settlement of the country, a single article of 
 dress of foreign growth or manufacture. Half the year, in 
 many families, shoes were not worn. Boots, a fur hat, and 
 a coat with buttons on each side, attracted the gaze of the 
 beholder, and sometimes received censure and rebuke. A 
 stranger, from the old States, chose to doff his ruffles, his 
 broadcloth and his queue, rather than endure the scoff and 
 ridicule of the backwoodsmen. 
 
 The dwelling-house, on every frontier in Tennessee, was 
 the log-cabin. A carpenter and a mason were not needed 
 to build them — much less the painter, the glazier or the up- 
 holsterer. Every settler had, besides his rifle, no other in- 
 strument but an axe, a hatchet and a butcher knife A saw, 
 an augur, a froe and a broad-axe, would supply a whole set- 
 tlement, and were used as common property in the erection 
 of the log-cabin. The floor of the cabin was sometimes the 
 earth. No saw-mill was yet erected, and, if the means or 
 leisure of the occupant authorized it, he split out puncheons 
 for the floor and for the shutter of the entrance to his cabin. 
 The door was hung with wooden hinges and fastened by a 
 wooden latch. 
 
 Such was the habitation of the pioneer Tennessean. 
 Scarcely can one of these structures, venerable for their 
 
71G 
 
 HOMES OF THE PIONEERS. 
 
 years and the associations which cluster around them, be 
 now seen in Tennessee. Time and improvement have dis- 
 placed them. Here and there, in the older counties, may yet 
 be seen the old log house, which sixty years ago sheltered 
 the first emigrant, or gave, for the time, protection to a neigh- 
 bourhood, assembled within its strong and bullet-proof walls. 
 Such an one is the east end of Mr. Martin’s house, at Camp- 
 bell’s Station, and the centre part of the mansion of this wri- 
 ter, at Mecklenburg, once Gilliam’s Station, changed seom- 
 what, it is true, in some of its aspects, but preserving even 
 yet, in the height of the story and in its old-fashioned and ca- 
 pacious fire-place, some of the features of primitive archi- 
 tecture on the frontier. Such, too, is the present dwelling 
 house of Mr. Tipton, on Ellejoy, in Blount county, and that 
 of Mr. Glasgow Snoddy, in Sevier county. But these old 
 buildings are becoming exceedingly rare, and soon not one 
 of them can be seen. Their unsightly proportions and rude 
 architecture, will not much longer offend modern taste, nor 
 provoke the idle and irreverent sneer of the fastidious and 
 the fashionable. When the last one of these pioneer houses 
 shall have fallen into decay and ruins, the memory of their 
 first occupants will still be immortal and indestructible. 
 
 The interior of the cabin was no less unpretending and sim- 
 ple. The whole furniture, of the one apartment, answering in 
 these primitive times, the purposes of the kitchen, the din- 
 ing room, the nursery and the dormitory, were a plain home- 
 made bedstead or two, some split bottomed chairs and stools; 
 a large puncheon, supported on four legs, used, as occasion 
 required, for a bench or a table, a water shelf and a bucket; 
 a spinning wheel, and sometimes a loom, finished the cata- 
 logue. The wardrobe of the family was equally plain and 
 simple. The walls of the house were hung round with the 
 dresses of the females, the hunting shirts, clothes, and the 
 arms and shot-pouches of the men. 
 
 The labour and employment of a pioneer family were dis- 
 tributed, in accordance with surrounding circumstances. To 
 the men, was assigned the duty of procuring subsistence and 
 materials for clothing, erecting the cabin and the station, 
 opening and cultivating the farm, hunting the wild beasts, 
 
PURSUITS OF THE FIRST SETTLERS. 
 
 717 
 
 and repelling and pursuing the Indians. The women spun 
 the flax, the cotton and wool, wove the cloth, made them up> 
 milked, churned, and prepared the food, and did their full 
 share of the duties of house-keeping. Another thus describes 
 them: — There we behold woman in her true glory ; not a 
 doll to carry silks and jewels ; not a puppet to be dandled 
 by fops, an idol of profane adoration, reverenced to-day, dis- 
 carded to-morrow ; admired, but not respected ; desired, but 
 not esteemed; ruling by passion, not affection ; imparting her 
 weakness, not her constancy, to the sex she should exalt ; the 
 source and mirror of vanity. We see her as a wife, parta- 
 king of the cares, and guiding the labours of her husband, 
 and by her domestic diligence spreading cheerfulness all 
 around ; for his sake, sharing the decent refinements of the 
 world, without being fond of them; placing all her joy, all 
 her happiness, in the merited approbation of the man 1 she 
 loves. As a mother, we find her the affectionate, the ardent 
 instructress of the children she has reared from infancy, and 
 trained them up to thought and virtue, to meditation and be- 
 nevolence ; addressing them as rational beings, and preparing 
 them to become men and women in their turn. 
 
 e ‘ Could there be happiness or comfort in such dwellings 
 and such a state of society? To those who are accustomed 
 to modern refinements, the truth appears like fable. The early 
 occupants of log-cabins were among the most happy of man- 
 kind. Exercise and excitement gave them health ; they 
 were practically equal ; common danger made them mutually 
 dependent ; brilliant hopes of future wealth and distinction 
 led them on ; and as there was ample room for all, and as 
 each new-comer increased individual and general security, 
 there was little room for that envy, jealousy and hatred, 
 which constitute a large portion of human misery in older 
 societies. Never were the story, the joke, the song and the 
 laugh, better enjoyed than upon the hewed blocks, or punch- 
 eon stools, around the roaring log lire of the early Western 
 settler. The lyre of Apollo was not hailed with more delight 
 in primitive Greece, than the advent of the first fiddler among 
 the dwellers of the wilderness ; and the polished daughters 
 of the East never enjoyed themselves half so well, moving to 
 
718 
 
 GREAT ADAPTATION OF THE SOIL 
 
 the music of a full band, upon the elastic floor of their or- 
 namented ball-room, as did the daughters of the emigrants, 
 keeping time to a self-taught fiddler, on the bare earth or 
 puncheon floor of the primitive log cabin. The smile of the 
 polished beauty, is the wave of the lake, where the wave plays 
 gently over it, and her movement, is the gentle stream which 
 drains it ; but the laugh of the log cabin, is the gush of na- 
 ture’s fountain, audits movement, its leaping waters.”* 
 
 On the frontier the diet was necessarily plain and homely, 
 but exceedingly abundant and nutritive. The Goshen of Ame- 
 rica! furnished the richest milk, the finest butter, and the 
 most savoury and delicious meats. In their rude cabins, with 
 their scanty and inartificial furniture, no people ever en- 
 joyed in wholesome food a greater variety, or a superior 
 quality of the necessaries of life. For bread, the Indian corn 
 was exclusively used. It was not till 1790, that the settlers 
 on the rich bottoms of Cumberland and Nollichucky, disco- 
 vered the remarkable adaptation of the soil and climate of 
 Tennessee to the production of this grain. Emigrants from 
 James River, the Catawba and the Santee, were surprised at 
 the amount and quality of the corn crops, surpassing greatly 
 the best results of agricultural labour and care in the Atlan- 
 tic States. This superiority still exists, and Tennessee, by 
 the census of 1840, was the corn State. Of all the farina- 
 cea, corn is best adapted to the condition of a pioneer peo- 
 ple ; and if idolatry is at all justifiable, Ceres, or certainly 
 the Goddess of Indian corn, should have had a temple and 
 a worshipper among the pioneers of Tennessee. Without 
 that grain, the frontier settlements could not have been formed 
 and maintained. It is the most certain crop — requires the 
 least preparation of the ground — is most congenial to a 
 virgin soil — needs not only the least amount of labour in 
 its culture, but comes to maturity in the shortest time. The 
 pith of the matured stalk of the corn is esculent and nutri- 
 tious, and the stalk itself compressed between rollers, fur- 
 nishes what is known as corn-stalk molasses. 
 
 This grain requires, also, the least care and trouble in 
 preserving it. It may safely stand all winter, upon the stalk, 
 * Kendall. f Butler. 
 
TO THE PRODUCTION OP CORN. 
 
 719 
 
 without injury from the weather or apprehension of damage 
 by disease, or the accidents to which other grains are subject. 
 Neither smut nor rust, nor weavil nor snow storm, will hurt 
 it. After its maturity, it is also prepared for use or the 
 granary, with little labour. The husking is a short process, 
 and is even advantageously delayed till the moment arrives for 
 using the corn. The machinery for converting it into food 
 is also exceedingly simple and cheap. As soon as the ear 
 is fully formed, it may be roasted or boiled, and forms, thus, 
 an excellent and nourishing diet. At a later period it may 
 be grated, and furnishes, in this form, the sweetest bread. 
 The grains boiled in a variety of modes, either whole or 
 broken in a mortar, or roasted in the ashes, or popped in an 
 oven, are well relished. If the grain is to be converted into 
 meal, a simple tub-mill answers the purpose best, as the 
 meal least perfectly ground is always preferred. A bolting 
 cloth is not needed, as it diminishes the sweetness and value 
 of the flour. The catalogue of the advantages of this meal 
 might be extended further. Boiled in w’ater, it forms the 
 frontier dish called mush, which was eaten with milk, with 
 honey, molasses, butter or gravy. Mixed with cold water, 
 it is, at once, ready for the cook — covered with hot ashes, 
 the preparation is called the ash-cake ; placed upon a piece 
 of clapboard, and set near the coals, it forms the jour- 
 ney-cake ; or managed in the same way, upon a helveless 
 hoe, it forms the hoe-cake ; put in an oven, and covered over 
 with a heated lid, it is called, if in a large mass, a pone or loaf, 
 if in smaller quantities, dodgers. It has the further advan- 
 tage, over all other flour, that it requires in its preparation 
 few culinary utensils, and neither sugar, yeast, eggs, spices, 
 soda, pot-ash or other et ceteras to qualify or perfect the 
 bread. To all this, it may be added, that it is not only cheap 
 and well tasted but it is, unquestionably the most wholesome 
 and nutritive food. The largest and healthiest people in 
 the world, have lived upon it exclusively. It formed the 
 principal bread of that robust race of men — giants in minia- 
 ture — which, half a century since, was seen on the frontier 
 The dignity of history is not lowered by this enumeration 
 of the pre-eminent qualities of Indian corn. The rifle and the 
 
720 
 
 SPORTS OF THE FRONTIER PEOPLE. 
 
 axe have had their influence in subduing the wilderness to 
 the purposes of civilization, and they deserve their eulogists 
 and trumpeters. Let paeans be sung all over the mighty 
 West, to Indian corn — without it, the West would have still 
 been a wilderness. Was the frontier suddenly invaded? 
 Without commissary or quartermaster, or other sources of 
 supply, each soldier parched a peck of corn ; a portion of 
 it was put into his pockets, the remainder in his wallet, and, 
 throwing it upon his saddle, with his rifle on his shoulder, 
 he was ready, in half an hour, for the campaign. Did a 
 flood of emigration inundate the frontier, with an amount of 
 consumers disproportioned to the supply of grain ? The 
 facility of raising the Indian corn, and its early maturity, 
 gave promise and guaranty that the scarcity would- be tem- 
 porary and tolerable. Did the safety of the frontier demand 
 the services of every adult militiaman ? The boys and wo- 
 men could, themselves, raise corn and furnish ample supplies 
 of bread. The crop could be gathered next year. Did an 
 autumnal intermittent confine the whole family or the entire 
 population, to the sick bed ? This certain concomitant of 
 the clearing, and cultivating the new soil, mercifully with- 
 holds its paroxysms, till the crop of corn is made. It re- 
 quires no further labour or care afterwards. Paeans, say 
 we, and a temple and worshippers, to the Creator of Indian 
 corn. The frontier man could gratefully say : “He maketh 
 me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside 
 the still waters. Thou preparest a table before me in pre- 
 sence of mine enemies .” 
 
 The sports of the frontier men were manly, athletic or 
 warlike — the chase, the bear hunt, the deer drive, shooting 
 at the target, throwing the tomahawk, jumping, boxing and 
 wrestling, foot and horse racing. Playing marbles and pitch- 
 ing dollars — cards and backgammon — were little known, and 
 were considered base or effeminate. The bugle, the violin, 
 the fife and drum, furnished all the musical entertainments. 
 These were much used and passionately admired. Weddings, 
 military trainings, house-raisings, chopping frolics, were often 
 followed with the fiddle, and dancing, and rural sports. 
 
 Another custom prevailed extensively on the frontier. An 
 
A FRONTIER CUSTOM. 
 
 721 
 
 account of it furnished many years since to “ The Knoxville 
 Argus,” is here copied. Its style is scarcely in consonance with 
 the gravity of history, but descriptive as it is of a usage not yet 
 wholly unknown, and once general iq Tennessee, it is deemed 
 not unworthy of an insertion here. It was written late in 
 December. 
 
 Mr. Editor — Christmas is just upon us again, and its re- 
 turn will awaken in the recollection of many an old settle^ 
 a melancholy reminiscence, of the way it was kept in auld 
 lang syne. What would you give, Mr. Editor, to see a real 
 old-fashioned backwoods Christmas frolic ? or a Christmas 
 country dance ? or a Christmas quilting ? or best of all, a 
 genuine Christmas wedding ? I mistake you much, if, with 
 all your known appreciation of modern improvement, the 
 bare mention of it has not excited your enthusiasm : and he 
 must have little veneration, indeed, who can think of it 
 without emotion. Why, your town parties, and balls, and 
 soirees, and all that, are nothing in comparison. There is 
 no heart about them — there is still less of nature. But the 
 contrast makes me sad, and I leave it. Who, in these times 
 of modern degeneracy, ever hears of school-boys barring out 
 the master ? That in my early days, on the frontier, was 
 one of the regular observances of the Christmas holiday. 
 Perhaps you don’t understand even this custom of early 
 times in Tennessee, and need to have it described. Well, 
 then if either you or your readers have so far wandered from 
 the old paths trodden by our venerated fathers, as to require 
 it to be explained, let me do so by first saying, that in the 
 nomenclature of early times out here, school-boy was synony- 
 mous with your present pupil, scholar, student, academian, 
 or collegian. The different grades of freshman, sophomore, 
 junior, senior, graduate and under graduate, bachelor and 
 master of arts, were as little known as the secrets of as- 
 trology or the Metamorphoses of Ovid. A country school 
 had but two classes in it, viz : the big boys and the little 
 boys, and sometimes a third — the girls. Again, in the back- 
 woods vocabulary, master was a synonyme with your present 
 teacher, preceptor, tutor, professor, principal, superintendent, 
 rector or president. Academy, Institute, College and Uni- 
 46 
 
722 
 
 A COUNTRY SCHOOL-MASTER 
 
 versity, were words not adapted to these parallels of lati- 
 tude at all : and if you had spoken of a matriculation ticket, 
 the employers and employees, parents, master and boys, would 
 all have been astounded. They expressed the same idea by a 
 simpler form : “ John Smith has signed the school article, 
 and Jim will be here to-morrow.” The school-house was, in 
 that day, a genuine bona fide log cabin, built of unhewn logs, 
 cut from the forest in which it stood, near a spring, and was 
 erected by the joint assistance of the '‘neighbours.” The 
 building was sexangular, the extreme points of the longest 
 diameter, subserving the double purpose of ends to the house 
 and convenient appendages for commodious fire-places, as 
 chimneys were most significantly and appropriately called 
 in those days of simple convenience and comfort in architec- 
 ture. What did it matter if appertures at each end, as large 
 as a barn door, did allow a rather free ingress to Boreas and 
 the snows of winter ? A neighbouring wood furnished sup- 
 plies of fuel without stint. Oh ! who can forget the luxury 
 of one of those old-fashioned school-house fires ! I shiver this 
 cold night to think I shall not again sit by and enjoy them. 
 
 But barring out the master was effected thus : A school is 
 a larger community in miniature, and a schoolmaster a mo- 
 narch upon a small scale. Boys sometimes claim the right 
 of self-government as inherent and divine, and, like older 
 politicians, declare themselves, and, especially, about Christ- 
 mas, to be free and equal ; and if that declaration is not sanc- 
 tioned by others, they claim the right of maintaining it even 
 by revolution. The master, on the other hand, is as tena- 
 cious of his short-lived authority, as the Autocrat of Russia, 
 or any European legitimist; and resists, at its inception, the 
 first invasion of his prerogative. A short time before the 
 usual outbreak, a spirit of insubordination and greater fa- 
 miliarity is manifested in the school. To repress this in the 
 bud, the master assumes a sterner demeanour, becomes cap- 
 tious, arbitrary and tyrannical. His subjects become, of 
 course, less patient of restraint, and call a convention. 
 Some one “ born to command,” proposes the bold measure of 
 rebellion, and the dethronement of the despot. The propo- 
 sition meets the general concurrence of the school, and Fri- 
 
BARRED OUT OF THE SCHOOL-HOUSE. 
 
 723 
 
 day morning preceding Christmas, is appointed as the time 
 for carrying the purpose into execution. The plan is com- 
 municated to some congenial spirits in the neighbourhood, 
 who, sympathizing with the feelings of the youthful confede- 
 rates, become their allies. At an early hour, they take pos- 
 session of the school-house, kindle large fires in the chim- 
 neys, barricade the door ; and wait, with shouts of defiance, 
 for the approach of the master. He arrives, and is denied en- 
 trance. He commands submission, asserts his authority, at- 
 tempts to enter by force, but is repulsed. Sometimes he calls 
 others to assist in re-establishing his authority ; but the be- 
 sieged refuse to surrender, unless upon terms of honourable 
 capitulation— a treat and a week of holidays. Conferrees 
 of both parties are appointed, to negotiate the treaty ; the_ 
 terms are arranged, and the belligerents are at peace. If 
 the terms are not assented to by the master, negotiation is 
 at an end, and the ultima ratio regum decides the contest. 
 The benches are removed from the barricaded door ; the 
 besieged party sallies forth, and captures the unaccommoda- 
 ting master. A prisoner in their hands, if he still continues 
 obstinate, a gentle kind of violence is threatened. His cap- 
 tors, though unacquainted with the laws of nations, feel that 
 inter arma silent leges, take their prisoner to the nearest wa- 
 ter, and plunge him under it. The argument of the cold 
 bath in December succeeds ; he yields to their demands ; a 
 messenger is started off for apples and cider, and, sometimes^ 
 for refreshments of a more stimulating kind. A general 
 merriment and exhilaration follow, in which the victors and 
 the vanquished unite in reciting with cordial glee, both the tra- 
 gic and comic of the siege. The holidays are spent in rural 
 sports and manly amusements. The good wishes of the 
 season obliterate all recollection of past differences between 
 master and boys ; and when, on the next Monday, “books” is 
 called, each one quietly and cheerfully resumes his proper 
 position in the school-house. The master’s authority is re- 
 cognized as legitimate — his instructions duly valued ; the 
 boys, late successful insurgents, have voluntarily returned to 
 their allegiance, and after a pleasant relaxation from their 
 studies, are again prosecuting them with profit and diligence. 
 
724 
 
 OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 They continue studious and obedient until the approach of 
 the next Christmas.” 
 
 The new-comer, on his arrival in the settlements, was 
 everywhere, and at all times, greeted with a cordial wel- 
 come. Was he without a family? he was at once taken in 
 as a cropper or a farming hand, and found a home in the 
 kind family of some settler. Had he a wife and children ? 
 they were all asked, in backwoods phrase, “ to camp with 
 us till the neighbours can put up a cabin for you.” The 
 invitation accepted, the family where he stops is duplicated, 
 but this inconvenience is of ^hort duration. The host goes 
 around the neighbourhood, mentions the arrival of the stran- 
 gers, appoints a day, close at hand, for the neighbours to 
 meet and provide them a home. 
 
 After the cabin is raised, and the new-comers are in it, 
 every family, near at hand, bring in something to give them 
 a start. A pair of pigs, a cow and calf, a pair of all the 
 domestic fowls — any supplies of the necessaries of life which 
 they have — all are brought and presented to the beginners. If 
 they have come into the settlement in the spring, the neigh- 
 bours make another frolic, and clear and fence a field for them. 
 
 All these acts of kindness and beneficence are not only 
 gratuitous, but are performed without ostentation, and cor- 
 dially. The strangers so appreciate them, and the first oc- 
 casion that presents, they are ready, with a like spirit, to 
 extend similar kind offices to emigrants who come next. 
 The performance of them thus becomes a usage and a char- 
 acteristic of the frontier stage of society. 
 
 Of other stamina in the character of the Tennessee pio- 
 ' neer, a stern independence in thought, feeling and action, 
 attracts the notice and secures the respect of all who are 
 pleased with simplicity, truth and nature. To these may be 
 added frankness, candour, sincerity, cordiality, and the invi- 
 olability of a private friendship. He that could be false or 
 faithless to a friend, was frowned out of backwoods society, 
 and could never again enter it. No perfidy was considered 
 so base, so belittling, and was so seldom excused or forgiven, 
 as the desertion of a friend or ingratitude to a benefactor. 
 
 “In°;ratum me si dixeris omnia dixeris.” 
 
OF FRONTIER SOCIETY. 
 
 725 
 
 To say of an individual that he was not true, carried with 
 it a stigma which, on the frontier, could never be wiped out. 
 On the contrary, to say his heart was in its right place, se- 
 cured to him fraternal regard and public confidence. 
 
 Being in the simplest stage of society, wealth, station, 
 office, family, were, of course, not essential to distinction or 
 esteem. His own personal merits, in which the physique 
 had its weight — his good feelings, his capacity to amuse and 
 instruct, and his innate civility, gave the possessor a pass- 
 port to the consideration and regard of the frontier man and 
 his family. Indeed, without them, an emigrant was friend- 
 less and a stranger. To have it said of one : He cares for 
 nobody, was, itself, to exclude and drive him off.* 
 
 To say of one — he has no neighbours, was sufficient, in 
 those times of mutual wants and mutual benefactions, to 
 make the churl infamous and execrable. A failure to ask a 
 neighbour to a raising, a clearing, a chopping frolic, or his fa- 
 mily to a quilting, was considered a high indignity ; such an 
 one, too, as required to be explained or atoned for at the next 
 muster or county court. Each settler was not only willing, 
 but desirous to contribute his share to the general comfort 
 and public improvement, and felt aggrieved and insulted if 
 the opportunity to do so were withheld. “ It is a poor dog 
 that is not worth whistling for,” replied the indignant neigh- 
 bour who was allowed to remain at home, at his own work, 
 while a house raising was going on in the neighbourhood. 
 “What injury have I done that I am slighted so?” 
 
 This beneficent and unselfish feeling is the charm of a 
 new community, and has not yet forsaken the more rural 
 districts of Tennessee. Long may it be retained and vene- 
 rated amongst the descendants of the pioneers ! 
 
 At the termination of the Territorial Government, the 
 tocsin of war had ceased, and on the long line of the Ten- 
 nessee frontier a general peace prevailed — “the sword was 
 beaten into a ploughshare and the spear into a pruning 
 hook.” The soldier rested from his martial toils, and no 
 longer thought of the campaign, the rendezvous, the march, 
 the bivouac, the night assault, the desperate charge, the 
 
 * Butler. 
 
726 
 
 DEARTH OF THE MEANS OF 
 
 deadly conflict in arms, the deathful carnage, the fierce pur- 
 suit, nor the triumphs of victory. The conquest achieved, 
 the enemy driven out, the country settled, after a struggle 
 of twenty years the soldier reposed upon his laurels, doffed 
 the warrior, and in the quiet repose of domestic life, devoted 
 himself to the calmer pursuits of the citizen and the patriot 
 at home. Order and law had taken the place of discontent 
 and turbulence. Civil government was firmly established, 
 and each citizen became still prouder of his country, and 
 more interested in its prosperity and improvement. 
 
 From the existing peace, sprang up new and important du- 
 ties. The war which had occupied the pioneers of Tennes- 
 see so long and so constantly, had forced upon them the un- 
 welcome necessity of neglecting, in some degree, the intel- 
 lectual and moral training of the young. While physical 
 education had absorbed fully the attention of the first set- 
 tlers, surrounding circumstances had not permitted them to 
 give suitable culture to the minds and hearts of their child- 
 ren. In some of the forts and stations, some one in them 
 best qualified for the duty, was selected to teach the children 
 to read and write. Books were scarce on the frontier, and 
 those suited to the age and capacity of the young, were not 
 to be had. Paper, ink, slates and pencils, were of difficult 
 procurement. An important letter, or despatch, was often 
 written with ink, made of gunpowder, upon the blank leaf 
 of a Bible, or other book — was sealed with rosin and for- 
 warded by a runner to another post. School-houses on the 
 border settlements were unknown — teacher and pupils would 
 alike have there become victims of Indian cruelty and re- 
 venge. In the older neighbourhoods the children were bet- 
 ter instructed. 
 
 Moral culture was, for like reasons, seldom afforded to the 
 first inhabitants. Here and there was forted, with the rest of 
 the settlers, the minister of truth, who conducted public 
 worship, and expounded the word, and administered the sa- 
 craments. In the absence of such a functionary, a part of 
 these services was performed by some pious layman, who in 
 the older country had known the Sabbath and appreciated 
 its sacredness — had hallowed the sanctuary and valued its 
 
MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 
 
 727 
 
 privileges — had bowed in prayer and felt its power — had 
 heard the preached word and was impressed with its influ- 
 ences — had listened to the songs of the people of God, and 
 had his heart melted by the inspirations of sacred music. 
 Such an one, with no license but the consent of his hearers^ 
 no authority but the law of necessity, no order but the com- 
 mand of conscience and duty, became the leader of public 
 worship in a fort, perhaps an exhorter and a minister. It 
 cannot be doubted that this assumption of the sacerdotal of- 
 fice was, for the time being, productive of great good, and 
 exerted a happy moral influence in restraining vice and pro- 
 moting virtue upon the frontier. 
 
 Now, however, when peace was restored, the fort disman- 
 tled, and every inhabitant could set under his own vine and 
 fig tree, “ with none to molest or make him afraid,” school- 
 houses and churches became the first care of the inhabitants. 
 A minister and a school-master was sought for in every 
 neighbourhood. Many of the inhabitants had themselves 
 enjoyed in the Fatherland the advantages of learning and of 
 religious training. Yielding to the promptings of a spirit of 
 enterprise and adventure, they forsook the altar and the fire- 
 side, where parental care and vigilance had furnished the 
 means of moral and intellectual culture. Thrown suddenly 
 upon a distant frontier, surrounded by thoughtless, if not pro- 
 fligate and vicious associates, they may at first have ceased 
 to be shocked at the habitual desecration of the Sabbath, or 
 the use of profane language. “ Evil communications” may 
 have corrupted their purity, and led them to deride the in- 
 junctions impressed upon the youthful conscience by mater- 
 nal solicitude. Engaged in business, they become identified 
 with all the interests of the society of which they now form 
 a part, the heads of a family and the principal citizens of 
 their neighbourhood. Their children are growing up, it may 
 be, in carelessness and ignorance, untutored and vicious. 
 It is now that the lessons of their youth, in all their force and 
 freshness, come home to their heart and conscience, reminding 
 them that their Father’s house was a house of prayer. They 
 recollect the sacred quiet of the day of rest, the catechism 
 and the school-house. They think of their old minister and 
 
728 
 
 NASHVILLE, THE GREAT SOURCE 
 
 the school-master. A teacher arrives in the neighbourhood, 
 or a pioneer herald of the cross passes through the country. 
 They are sought after. The one is invited to preach, a nu- 
 cleus of a Christian congregation is formed, and the. regular 
 ordinances of a Christian church are established. The other 
 is employed to teach ; the school-house is erected ; instruction, 
 cheap, solid and useful, is imparted to the young. The whole 
 face of society undergoes a perceptible amelioration. Good 
 morals, thrift, taste, progress and improvement succeed. 
 
 Besides these sources of improvement, there were others 
 worthy of notice. Roads and other channels of communi- 
 cation were now opened up to the several parts of the fron- 
 tier, which admitted to them emigrants from older commu- 
 nities, who brought with them wealth, comfort, books, fash- 
 ion and refinement. Commerce began to exert its wonted 
 influence in modifying and refining society. Philadelphia 
 and Baltimore merchants furnished capable young men of 
 the West with a small stock of goods ; and though subjected 
 to the delay and expense of a long and tedious land trans- 
 portation of seven or eight hundred miles, over bad roads, 
 from these cities to Holston and Cumberland, the traffic 
 became mutually advantageous to buyer and seller. Heavy 
 articles of export reached the foreign markets by the flat- 
 bottomed boats of the country, down the Mississippi. A few 
 goods and groceries, from the West Indies, were received in 
 keel boats, by the same channel. Money became more 
 abundant. More attention was given by the inhabitants to 
 the style and convenience of their buildings, the neatness 
 and taste of their costume, and the embellishment and im- 
 provement of their farms and villages. Knoxville had begun 
 to wear the aspect of a town, and Nashville gave, even then, 
 certain indications of her future importance, wealth and 
 commerce. The streets were extended ; stores were multi- 
 plied and workshops were established. The future proud 
 Metropolis of Tennessee — now adorned with the most mag- 
 nificent Capitol in the Union — began to be visited by stran- 
 gers in search of a theatre for the exercise of commercial 
 enterprise and skill. No city has been more fortunate in 
 having, as the artificers of its fortunes, skilful, enlightened, 
 
OF IMPROVEMENT TO THE COUNTRY. 
 
 729 
 
 liberal and public spirited merchants. Nashville may well 
 be proud of the soldiers who have gone out from her midst, 
 and the Commanders she has furnished, in every period of her 
 history, when the condition of the State or the Union made 
 a call upon her chivalry, her patriotism, or her devotion to 
 liberty. She may be proud of the fame of her civilians and 
 statesmen, whose remains repose in her precincts, or of those 
 who, in after times, adorned, dignified and still serve her 
 at home or in the national councils. She may boast of hex- 
 science, her arts and her learning ; but, earlier in her his- 
 tory, it was the spirit of the Nashville merchants, that made 
 her what she is destined to be — and, indeed, already is — the 
 great focus of wealth, of commerce and manufactures. At 
 the end of the last century, radiating from that centre, went 
 forth, to the surrounding settlements, industry, thrift, improve- 
 ment and taste. Here and there, at irregular intervals, ap- 
 peared the well-cultivated farm, in the woods of Cumber- 
 land, and the stately mansion in the place of the frontier 
 cabin. 
 
 In those purer days of the republic, patriotism was not an 
 echo merely. With the pioneers of Tennessee, it was a 
 principle, deep, strong, active, full of vitality and vigour. 
 “ Their glowing love of country, their lofty independence, 
 their devoted courage, their high religious trust, their zeal 
 for education, as the consequence of their deep regard for 
 the welfare of their descendants, all challenge our applause ; 
 all demand our emulation. In those days, professions of 
 esteem, pro bono publico , were sealed with active efforts, not 
 suffered to evaporate in air.”* 
 
 The principles held by the men of that day were their 
 convictions, the convictions of a deliberate judgment and of a 
 pure and unselfish patriotism. In these, they were persis- 
 tent and conscientious. An ebullition of disappointment, a 
 factious paroxysm, an unhealthy ambition, a newspaper 
 paragraph, were powerless in degrading a faithful public 
 officei', or in elevating an incompetent or an unworthy aspi- 
 rant. The tactics of the partizan and the factionist were 
 
 * Mr. Hume’s Address. 
 
730 
 
 GREAT REVIVAL OP RELIGION. 
 
 unknown, and the manufactories of public sentiment, were 
 confined to the good common sense of the people themselves, 
 rather than their passions, their interests and their preju- 
 dices. In the selection of public officers, the inquiry was 
 not — does the office suit the candidate ? but, is he qualified 
 for the office ? Identity of interest with the constituency, a 
 public service, and an honest, if not enlightened love of 
 country, secured the confidence, and with it the patronage 
 and suffrages of the masses. 
 
 This account of the progress and improvement attained 
 by Tennessee, would be incomplete, without a notice of the 
 Great Religious Revival, which occurred about the end of 
 the last century. Their frequent conflict with the Indians, 
 the war of the Revolution, and the exciting scenes through 
 which the pioneers of Tennessee had passed, during the for- 
 mation at several periods of their civil Government, had been 
 accompanied with a necessary relaxation of morals. Re- 
 ligious instruction and worship, were necessarily neglected* 
 and the forms even of religion were most imperfectty main- 
 tained. The march of armies, and the excitement of a sol- 
 dier’s life, are little favourable to the culture of the moral 
 sense. Vice and immorality follow in their train. The 
 same may be said of the clamour and tumult attending upon 
 political antagonism and faction. They have little tendency 
 to make men better. The standard of morality is lowered, and 
 the sacred fire of conscience burns less purely, both in the 
 congregation and the family. Scenes of bloodshed and par- 
 tizan animosity, steel the heart against the commands of God. 
 
 But now, war and its influences had ceased, and the quiet of 
 a stable government had given repose to the excited masses. 
 This condition was favourable to the needed reformation, 
 and happily the instruments by whom it was to be effected* 
 were at hand. “ Men of burning zeal, inspired by the lofty 
 theme, and imbued with the power of a boisterous but natural 
 eloquence, came amongst the people, and declared their 
 mission. To most of them it was novel, and, therefore, at- 
 tractive. Large audiences of sensitive and enthusiastic 
 hearers, were assembled, the fame of the preachers is ex- 
 
FIRST CAMP-MEETINGS. 
 
 731 
 
 tended to distant neighbourhoods, other appointments are 
 made, at which thousands will have congregated, some of 
 them having come more than fifty miles.”* This created the 
 necessity of what has since been known as “ a Camp- 
 meeting.” 
 
 “ The first important Camp-meeting on record, was held at 
 Cane Ridge, in Tennessee, in the summer of 1799. The re- 
 vivals and protracted meetings, which had preceded it, 
 caused the attendance of a vast concourse of people, en- 
 camped in the dense forest, where the religious exercises 
 were continued day and night. This novel mode of worship- 
 ping God, excited great attention, and people flocked to it 
 from a distance of fifty or sixty miles ; many came from 
 Lexington, Kentucky, a distance of one hundred and eighty 
 miles. At night the grove was illuminated with lighted 
 candles, lamps and torches. The stillness of the night, the 
 serenity of the heavens, the vast concourse of attentive wor- 
 shippers, wrapped in the deep solemnity which covered every 
 countenance, the pointed and earnest manner in which the 
 preachers, in different portions of the vast concourse, ex- 
 horted the people to repentance, faith and prayer, denounc- 
 ing the terrors of the law upon the impenitent, produced the 
 most awfully solemn sensations in the minds of all. Twenty 
 thousand persons were estimated to be present. f 
 
 The next important Camp-meeting was on Desha’s Creek, 
 near Cumberland River. It was also attended by many 
 thousands of people, and the same scenes were witnessed in 
 a still more remarkable manner.J In other parts of Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky, these assemblages of the people were 
 also general, and were accompanied with similar influences. 
 
 The Ministers, who led the way in these exciting revivals, 
 were William and John McGhee, Rev. James McGready, 
 Hoge and Rankin, of the Presbyterian church ; and William 
 McKendree, William Burke, John Sale and Benjamin Lakin, 
 of the Methodist church. § 
 
 * Monette. 
 
 \ Bang. 
 
 j: Monette. 
 
 § Ibid. 
 
732 
 
 FRONTIER EDUCATION. 
 
 FRONTIER EDUCATION. 
 
 The means of both moral and intellectual culture are ne- 
 cessarily meagre and inadequate, in all new and frontier 
 settlements. It was so in early times in Tennessee. For 
 many years there were few clergymen, and few competent 
 teachers. There were no libraries and few books. Occa- 
 sionally a minister of the gospel, well educated and capable 
 of imparting instruction, would open a classical school, and 
 furnish thus to the young men of the country, the facilities of 
 acquiring useful and solid learning; but such a school was 
 at first rare. The common schools of the country were, in 
 like manner, scarceptnd infrequent, and where they were had, 
 the teachers were often incompetent. 
 
 In this dearth of the opportunities of moral and mental 
 training, it might be supposed that the inhabitants would 
 become necessarily vicious and ignorant. To some consid- 
 erable extent, it was so. But he is greatly mistaken, who 
 supposes that an illiterate is necessarily an ignorant popu- 
 lation. Far otherwise. Fortunately for the new commu- 
 nities, upon a remote frontier, other instrumentalities than 
 the pulpit and school-house — invaluable and inappreciable 
 as they are admitted to be — are found for the improvement 
 of the mind and heart. 
 
 Education, in its broadest sense, regards the body, the 
 mind and the heart. When thus subdivided, it is physical, 
 intellectual and moral. Physical education is no where more 
 perfectly attained, than upon the frontier, in a salubrious 
 climate. The first emigrants to the solitudes of the West 
 were remarkable for their enterprise, hardihood, vigour, 
 powers of endurance, health and manhood. These were 
 not only generally inherited by their children, but increased 
 and augmented by the circumstances around them. Their 
 pursuits cultivated and enlarged them. Their mode and 
 style of living had the same tendency. There was no luxu- 
 ry to enervate, no excess of labour to depress, no idleness to 
 enfeeble them. Everyone was employed ; there was no idler — 
 no voluptuary — no drone in society. Each one felt him- 
 self stimulated by his position, in a career of active or use- 
 
GENERAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE FRONTIER. 
 
 733 
 
 ful employment. The chase, the campaign, the building of 
 cabins and forts, the felling the forest, the subduing the wil- 
 derness, all demanded active and manly exertion, and, in- 
 spiring hope and promise for the future, assisted in develop- 
 ing in the highest degree the physical man. Nowhere else has 
 the race attained a fuller development or a higher perfec- 
 tion, than upon the Tennessee frontier. 
 
 Intellectual education, if it did not advance equo pede, was 
 still not without its own peculiar adjuvants and stimulants. 
 The frontier mind had its culture, though the sources of it, 
 and its channels, were not the same as in older communities. 
 It has been already stated that there were few professional 
 instructors, and few books, and no libraries. This deficit, 
 however to be deplored, was not accompanied with ignorance, 
 as would now, byv many, be supposed. A frontier people, 
 though generally illiterate, is usually remarkable for great 
 good sense and general intelligence. Of these there are, 
 fortunately, other sources than libraries and institutions of 
 learning. Nowhere, more than upon the frontier, are these 
 brought into requisition. The ambition of superiority is 
 nowhere more active and all-pervading. There, above all 
 others, the race for distinction, is open to all ; the start is 
 even ; each one enters with an honourable competition to come 
 out foremost. General intelligence, useful information, good 
 common sense — these, and not scholastic attainment, be- 
 come the standard, the object, purpose and aim of the fron- 
 tier citizen. With these in his view, he is stimulated to 
 teach himself. He has the intellect and the ambition to 
 learn ; he has the leisure to inquire, to think and to investi- 
 gate for himself. Oral communication becomes thus, upon 
 the frontier, the great source of instruction. Information 
 thus acquired, though less minute and extensive, is not less 
 solid or profound, nor less accurate and reliable, than that 
 obtained by the infant mind from books. Hence, there is 
 less fanaticism, fewer errorists, fewer ultraists, in an unlet- 
 tered population on the frontier, than in an older community 
 with greater literary advantages — every moment of its time 
 absorbed by and devoted to business, with no leisure, and 
 less inclination, to think for themselves. The thoughts of 
 
734 
 
 POWER OF VIGOROUS THOUGHT 
 
 the latter run in one channel, are directed to one subject, 
 and often exhaust and master it — while the other com- 
 prehend a wider range, and cover a greater area. The 
 frontier mind grasps the public good, the institutions of 
 the country, government, laws, theology, politics, medi- 
 cine, every thing. This may create — it sometimes did 
 create, an unamiable self-sufficiency ; a trait of charac- 
 ter more excusable, however, than a blind subserviency to 
 the dogmas of the schools or a fashionable public opinion. 
 No one is the Magnus Apollo to the frontier man. He is 
 the Magnus Apollo to himself. Nullius addictus jurare in 
 verba magistri, is his motto. Free investigation, and inde- 
 pendent thinking, were prominent characteristics of the. bor- 
 der settlements in Tennessee. There were men in the Con- 
 ventions and Legislatures of Franklin, of the Territorial 
 Government, and of Tennessee, who could not read ; and yet 
 most, if not all of them, were men of strong mental pow- 
 ers, great good sense, extensive, if not profound knowl- 
 edge, and remarkable for their shrewdness and sagacity. 
 Intellects not disciplined by books, routine instructions and 
 scholastic rules ; but trained by the least imperfect teacher — 
 a constant intercourse with man, and an examination into 
 the relations arising from the condition of society. Go- 
 vernor Blount, whose position and attainments gave him 
 the most ample opportunity to form accurate opinions on 
 this subject, felt no unwillingness to consult the least learned 
 of the Territorial Assembly, as to the policy of his adminis- 
 tration. “ That old man,” said he, “ is strong-minded, wise, 
 and well-informed, if he can not read.” Another has said, 
 speaking of the frontier man : “ He is silent in manner, em- 
 barrassingly so at first, extremely accurate in his observa- 
 tion of human nature, and any man that cannot bear to be 
 scrutinized had better not come here. He judges much by 
 the eye, and has a most enviable power of estimation ; your 
 temperament, looks, speech and acts, are all taken in by 
 him ; and if you can get a tablet of his judgment, you will 
 find a remarkable daguerreotype of your exact worth writ- 
 ten. They are phrenologists and physiognomists, not merely 
 as philosophers, but as practical appliers of those inductive 
 
BY FRONTIER PEOPLE. 
 
 735 
 
 sciences ; and beneath a show of positive laziness or languor, 
 there is an amount of energy and action, mental and physi- 
 cal, perfectly surprising.” 
 
 Oral instruction, as alluded to above, we do not confine to 
 one only, of its manifestations. Besides that, in the family or 
 in the neighbourhood, was the Debating Club, the Forum, the 
 Tribune, the Legislative Hall, and the Hustings. As all had 
 the leisure, so no one lacked the disposition to avail himself 
 of each of these agencies, to acquire information. Returning 
 from them to his quiet cabin, the theme was there introduced, 
 and the argument resumed by the frontier man and his sons. A 
 searching analysis was there made of every position taken, 
 and every argument offered ; and with unlettered logic, 
 and with an original ratiocination, a judgment was attained 
 upon the subject examined. Men educated in the schools, 
 wei’e then, as they still are, surprised at the amount of infor- 
 mation, and the reasoning powers exhibited, in the humble 
 dwellings of the obscurest neighbourhoods, upon subjects 
 supposed to be beyond their reach. 
 
 Moral education upon the frontier was conducted with lit- 
 tle of the advantages which result from the institutions of 
 religion and piety. The pulpit and the congregational orga- 
 nizations which accompanied it, were wanting. This great 
 deficit was, upon that account, supplied the more earnestly, 
 by other instrumentalities. It created the necessity, more 
 especially for the conscientious parent, to exercise the great 
 moral power of the parental office, of the family and the 
 family altar, the home and home influence ; these were all 
 brought to bear upon infancy and childhood, in their plastic 
 forming state. As has been well remarked by another, 
 “there is not a more gigantic moral* power committed to 
 creatures upon earth, perhaps not in the Universe, than the 
 power of the parent over the child, because it lies back of 
 all other sources of influence. To the parents are committed 
 the fresh materials, untouched by any human hand, out of 
 which the whole physical, moral and intellectual character 
 of the nation, is to be manufactured for good or for evil. 
 Every parent, every home, is an educator for the country. 
 
 * Rer. L. J. Halsej. 
 
736 
 
 MORAL TRAINING AT THE FIRESIDE. 
 
 Through his child, the parent has a channel of influence, an 
 open door of communication with the world and with pos- 
 terity, through which he is forming the character and shaping 
 the destiny of his country.” This great duty became doubly 
 imperative in the new settlements. The pulpit, the school- 
 house, the press, were not there to divide with the parent, the 
 fearful responsibility of the moral training of the £ young. He 
 was the priest of his own household. The duty could not be 
 transferred to another. The great lessons of truth, honour, 
 probity, virtue, honesty, public spirit and self-reliance, were 
 taught and inculcated at the fireside, with all the freshness 
 of a personal interest, and with all the sanction, authority 
 and affection of the parental relation. None could have as- 
 sumed this duty with a higher propriety. They could be 
 discharged by no others with greater fidelity or success. 
 
 The enumeration of the traits of character which belonged 
 to frontier life might be much enlarged. We should like to 
 dwell here a little upon the enthusiasm, vivacity, shrewd- 
 ness and self-respect of the Tennessee frontier man, but we 
 can only mention two others. An unostentatious hospitality 
 characterizes the backwoodsmen. It begins in the wilderness 
 where a fellow huntsman has lost a butcher knife. His less 
 unfortunate comrade breaks his own in two, and gives the 
 one half to the other. Has one lost his ammunition? the 
 other cuts his bar of lead, and divides it and his remaining 
 powder, with his companion, before they separate. Emi- 
 grant families, on their way through the wilderness, intro- 
 duced and practised this considerate regard for the conve- 
 nience of others. The last duty, at breaking up camp, when 
 setting out on a day’s journey, was carefully to cover over 
 the coals and chumps of burning wood, remaining of their 
 camp fire, that those succeeding them the following eve- 
 ning, at the same spring or water course, might have the 
 facility of starting a fire, without delay, on their arrival at 
 it. In inclement weather, this was a kindness which none 
 but emigrants can duly appreciate. Does the settler de- 
 scry from his cabin door a stranger riding near it ? He 
 goes to meet him, asks him to come in and spend a night. 
 The family makes him welcome, attends to all his wants, an- 
 
CHARACTER AND STATE PRIDE OF THE TENNESSEAN. 
 
 737 
 
 ticipates what may add to his comfort, and never allows him 
 to depart without exacting a promise that he will come again 
 and stay a week on his return. Does a neighbour casually 
 approach his door? He is not allowed to go further till he 
 alights, partakes of some refreshments, and becomes ac- 
 quainted with the inmates of the humble household. Is a 
 neighbour sick — are his fields in consequence unworked, and 
 likely to furnish no crop? A day is set, the neighbours as- 
 semble, distribute the work amongst themselves, plough and 
 hoe the corn, gather his harvest, haul his wood, send a mes- 
 senger for the physician, and day and night administer to his 
 necessities, and soothe his sufferings and watch around his 
 sick couch. Oh, such sympathy and kindness is itself cura- 
 tive and remedial; and makes us think better of ourselves 
 and of unsophisticated and artless human nature ! It is an 
 Oasis in the desert, a green spot in the contemplation of early 
 times in Tennessee, which it is delightful to witness and re- 
 member. Growth, and progress, and art, have, in some places, 
 obliterated these beautiful and amiable features of our earlier 
 society ; enough still remains, to excite a regret that they are 
 less general, and less appreciated than in the infancy of the 
 country. 
 
 Another trait, and the last we can mention in the charac- 
 ter of the frontier man, is his lofty State pride. This is not 
 a sentiment only ; with him it became a passion. The Ten- 
 nessee pioneer can be exceeded by none in fondness for and 
 admiration of his own country. His valour acquired — his 
 enterprise subdued it. It has become the idol of his heart, 
 the home of plenty, of quiet and security. Its greatness 
 excites his admiration, its beauty his pride, its character his 
 enthusiasm ; its unstained escutcheon is the theme of his 
 boast and glory. If he leaves the hills and plains, the moun- 
 tains and valleys, and rivers of his own country, like the 
 Swiss, he remembers them with affection and a melancholy 
 pleasure. In all his wanderings, in success and in triumph 
 alike, as in solitude and disaster, his thoughts are turned 
 constantly upon Tennessee and his early home — he invokes 
 a blessing upon the Fatherland, and heaves the sigh of re- 
 gret that he left it, and cannot be interred beneath its soil. 
 
 47 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Names and date of erection of the Counties in the State of Tennessee , 
 and by what authority erected, and remarks. 
 
 NAMES. 
 
 DATE. 
 
 BY WHAT AUTHORITY. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Washington, 
 
 Nov., 
 
 1777. 
 
 North-Carolina. 
 
 Taken off Wilkes and Burke 
 
 Sullivan, 
 
 October, 1779. 
 
 it it 
 
 counties, N. C. 
 Off Washington. 
 
 Greene, 
 
 April, 
 
 1783. 
 
 it ti 
 
 Off Washington. 
 
 Davidson, 
 
 April, 
 
 1783. 
 
 it it 
 
 Off Greene ; or, rather, off 
 
 Sumner, 
 
 Nov., 
 
 1786. 
 
 a it 
 
 part of Greene. 
 
 Off East end of Davidson — 
 
 Hawkins, 
 
 Nov., 
 
 178G. 
 
 « « 
 
 that is E. of Stone’s river. 
 Off Sullivan. 
 
 Tennessee, 
 
 Nov., 1788. 
 
 « « 
 
 Off Davidson : this county, 
 
 Jefferson, 
 
 * 
 
 June 11, 1792. 
 
 By Ordinance of ) 
 
 when the State of Tennes- 
 see was named, gave up 
 its name. These seven 
 counties were erected prior 
 to the cession, in 1789, by 
 N. Carolina, of her western 
 territory. 
 
 Off Greene and Hawkins. 
 
 Knox, 
 
 June 11, 1792. 
 
 the Governor. ) 
 
 Off Greene and Hawkins. 
 
 Knox, extended, 
 Sevier, 
 
 1798. 
 Sept. 27, 1794. 
 
 By Tenn. Assembly. 
 Territorial Assembly. 
 
 Taken off Jefferson. 
 
 Blount, 
 
 July, 
 
 1795. 
 
 Off Knox — these were the 
 
 Carter, 
 
 April, 
 
 1796. 
 
 Tennessee Assembly. 
 
 only two counties erected 
 by the Territorial Assem- 
 bly, the several other coun- 
 ties of the State were 
 erected by the Legislature 
 of Tennessee. 
 
 Taken off Washington, 
 
 Grainger, 
 
 April, 
 
 1796. 
 
 (( ft 
 
 Off Hawkins and Knox. 
 
 Montgomery, 
 
 April, 
 
 1796. 
 
 a it 
 
 Formed out of part of Ten- 
 
 Robertson, 
 
 April, 
 
 1796. 
 
 tt a 
 
 nessee county. 
 
 ti it it 
 
 Cocke, 
 
 October, 1797. 
 
 tt a 
 
 Taken off Jefferson. 
 
 Smith, 
 
 October, 1799. 
 
 t: tt 
 
 Off Sumner. 
 
 Wilson, 
 
 October, 1799. 
 
 tt tt 
 
 Off Sumner. 
 
 Williamson, 
 
 October, 1799. 
 
 tt tt 
 
 Off Davidson. 
 
740 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 BOUNDARIES OF COUNTIES. 
 
 Washington County was laid off Nov., 1777, with the following 
 boundaries: Beginning at the north-westwardly point of the County 
 
 of Wilkes, in the Virginia line; thence, with the line of Wilkes County, 
 to a point twenty-six miles south of the Virginia line; thence, due west 
 to the ridge of the Great Iron Mountain, which, heretofore, divided the 
 hunting-grounds of the Overhill Cherokees, from those of the Middle 
 Settlements and Vallies; thence, running a southwardly course along 
 the said ridge, to the Uneca Mountain, where the trading-path crosses 
 the same,, from the Valley to the Overhills; thence, south, with the 
 line of this State adjoining the State of 'South-Carolina ; thence, due 
 west to the great River Mississippi ; thence, up the same river to a 
 point due west from the beginning. 
 
 Sullivan County is made to begin on the Steep Rock; thence, along 
 the dividing ridge that separates the waters of the Great Kenhawa and 
 Tennessee (?) to the head of Indian Creek; thence, along the ridge that 
 divides the waters of Holston and Watauga; thence, a direct line to the 
 highest part of the Chimney-Top Mountain, at the Indian boundary. 
 Sullivan County is that part of Washington, which lately was north 
 of this line. 
 
 The line dividing Washington from Greene, began at William Wil- 
 liams’s, in the fork of Horse Creek, at the foot of the Iron Mountain; 
 thence, a direct course to George Gillespie’s house, at or near the 
 mouth of Big Limestone; thence, a north course to the line which 
 divides the Counties of Washington and Sullivan ; thence, with the 
 said line to the Chimney-Top Mountain ; thence, a direct course to the 
 mouth of Cloud’s Creek, on Holston River. That part of Washington 
 which lay to the west of this line, was, thenceforward, to be the County 
 of Greene. 
 
 Davidson County . — The boundaries of Davidson county were as fol- 
 low: Beginning on the top of Cumberland Mountain, where the 
 
 Virginia line crosses it ; extending westwardly along said line to the 
 Tennessee River; thence, up said river to the mouth of Duck River; 
 thence, up Duck River, to where the line of marked trees run by the 
 Commissioners for laying off the land granted to the Continental line of 
 North-Carolina intersects said river, which sail line is supposed to be 
 in thirty-five degrees, fifty minutes, north latitude ; thence, east, along 
 said line to the top of Cumberland Mountain; thence, northwardly, 
 along said line to the beginning. 
 
 Sumner County . — The line of division began where the county line 
 crosses the west fork of Stone’s River ; thence, a direct line to the mouth 
 of Drake’s Lick Creek ; thence, down Cumberland River to the mouth 
 of Kasper’s Creek ; thence, up said creek to the head of the War Trace 
 Fork : thence, a northwardly course to the Virginia line, at a point 
 that will leave Red River Old Station one mile to the east. That part 
 of Davidson County that lay east of this line, was to belong to Sum- 
 ner County. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 741 
 
 Hawkins County was formed by dividing Sullivan. The divisional 
 line began where the boundary line between Virginia and North- Caro- 
 lina crosses the North Fork of Holston ; thence, down said fork to its 
 junction with the main Holston; thence, across said river, due south, 
 to the top of Bay’s Mountain; thence, along the top of said mountain 
 to the top of the dividing ridge between the waters of the Holston 
 and French Broad, to its junction with Holston River ; thence, down 
 the said River Holston to its junction with the Tennessee ; thence, down 
 the same to the Suck, where said river runs through the Cumberland 
 Mountain ; thence, along the top of said mountain to the aforesaid 
 boundary line, and thence along said line to the beginning. All that 
 part of the territory lying west of the north fork of Holston, was erected 
 into the county of Hawkins. 
 
 Tennessee County. — Beginning on the Virginia line ; thence, south, 
 along Sumner County to the dividing ridge between Cumberland River 
 and Red River; thence, westwardly, along said ridge to the head of 
 the main south branch of Sycamore Creek ; thence, down the said 
 branch to the mouth thereof; thence, due south across Cumberland 
 River to Davidson County line. All that part of Davidson County, 
 west of this line, was erected into a county called Tennessee. 
 
 Jefferson County. — The line follows. Beginning on Nollichuckv 
 River at the place where the ridge, which divides the waters of Bent 
 and Lick Creek, strikes it ; thence, with that ridge to Bull’s Gap of 
 Bay’s Mountain ; thence, a direct line to the place where the road 
 that leads from Dodson’s Ford to Perkin’s Iron Works, crosses the 
 watery fork of Bent Creek ; thence, down that road to the head of 
 Panther Creek ; down the meanders of that creek to the River Hol- 
 ston : thence, a north-west course to the River Clinch. Again : from 
 Nollichucky River, where the ridge that divides the waters of Bent and 
 Lick Creek strikes it, a direct course to Peter Fine’s Ferry, on French 
 Broad; thence, south, to the ridge that divides the waters of French 
 Broad and Big Pigeon, and, with said ridge, to the eastern boundary of 
 the territory. Southward and westward of the line thus described, 
 two new counties were to be established. The one, Jefferson County, 
 to be butted and bounded by the above line, from the eastern boundary 
 of the territory, to the River Holston, and down that stream to the 
 mouth of Creswell’s Mill Creek ; thence, a direct line to the mouth of 
 Dumplin Creek, on French Broad ; thence, up the meanders of French 
 Broad, to the mouth of Boyd's Creek ; thence, south, twenty-five de- 
 grees east, to the ridge which divides the waters of Little Pigeon and 
 Boyd’s Creek ; and, with the said ridge, to the Indian boundary, or the 
 eastern bounding of the territory, as the case may be, and by the east- 
 ern boundary. 
 
 Knox County. — The other county, Knox, to be butted and bound- 
 ed by the lines of Jefferson county, from the mouth of Creswell’s 
 Mill Creek, to the eastern boundary of the territory, or the Indian boun- 
 dary, as the case may be. Again : from the mouth of the said Creek, 
 up the meanders of the River Holston, to the mouth of Panther Creek ; 
 thence, north-west, to the River Clinch ; thence, by the River Clinch 
 to the place where the line that shall cross Holston at the ridge that 
 
742 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 divides the waters of Little River and Tennessee, according to the treaty 
 of Holston, shall strike it, and by that line. 
 
 Extension of Limits of Knox County. — In consequence of the ces- 
 sion of Cherokee lands at the Tellico Treaty, the Knox county line was 
 extended from the end of Clinch Mountain “a north-west course to 
 Clinch River ; down that river, opposite the end of the Cross Moun- 
 tain ; thence, with said mountain, to the Indian boundary at Cumber- 
 land Mountain, and with the Cumberland Mountain, agreeable to the 
 Treaty of Tellico, to Emery’s River ; thence, down its meanders to the 
 River Clinch, and down the same to the point where the line of the 
 said treaty strikes it, and with that line to the Tennessee ; thence, up 
 the meanders of the same to the point formed by the junction of the 
 Holston therewith ; thence, up the meanders of the Holston, on the 
 south side, to the mouth of Little River. 
 
 Sevier County. — Beginning on the eastern boundary of this terri- 
 tory ; from thence, a direct line to the ridge that divides the waters 
 of Little from the waters of Big Pigeon ; thence, along the same to 
 the head of Muddy Creek ; thence, a direct line to the lower end of an 
 island in French Broad River, formerly known by the name of Hub- 
 bert’s Island ; thence, a direct line to the mouth of Creswell’s Mill 
 Creek ; thence, with the Knox County line to the top of Bay’s Moun- 
 tain ; thence, along the said mountain, to where the French Broad runs 
 through the same; thence, along the said mountain, and with the ex- 
 treme height thereof, to the place where the ridge dividing the waters 
 of French Broad from those of Little River, intersects the same ; thence, 
 with said ridge to the Pigeon Mountain ; thence, along said mountain 
 to the Indian boundary, and with the same to the eastern boundary of 
 the territory ; thence, to the beginning. 
 
 Blount County. — The line began on the south side of the River 
 Holston, at the mouth of Little River; thence, up its meanders, on the 
 south side, to the mouth of Stock Creek ; thence, up its meanders, on 
 the south side, to the head of Nicholas Bartlett’s mill-pond, at high water; 
 thence, a direct line to the top of Bay’s Mountain, leaving the house of 
 James Willis to the right, within forty rods of the same line ; thence, 
 along Bay’s Mountain, to the line of Sevier County ; thence, with that 
 line, to the eastern boundary of the territory ; thence, southwardly, to 
 the line of the Indian boundary, according to the Treaty of Holston, 
 and with that line, to the River Holston, and up its meanders, on the 
 south side, to the beginning. 
 
 Carter County. — Beginning on the North-Carolina line, at a point 
 from which a line, to be drawn due north, will strike the house of 
 George Haines ; thence, the nearest direction to the top of Buffalo 
 Mountain ; thence, along the heights of the said mountain, to the high 
 knob on the same, near the north end thereof ; thence, a direct line to 
 the house where Jonathan Tipton, Jr., now lives, leaving said house in 
 Washington County ; thence, a direct line, to the south bank of Wa- 
 tauga River, at Jeremiah Dugan’s Ford ; thence, due north, to the Sulli- 
 van line. All the territory, east of this boundary, was established as 
 Carter County. 
 
 Grainger County. — Beginning on the Main Road, leading from Bull’s 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 743 
 
 Gap to Haine’s iron works, on Mossy Creek, at the house of Felps 
 Eead ; running a direct course to the Kentucky road, on the north side 
 of Holston River: thence, north, fifty degrees west, to the Virginia 
 line ; thence, west, with said line, to a point north-west of the end of 
 Clinch Mountain ; thence, a direct course, to the end of Clinch Moun- 
 tain ; thence, with the ridge that divides the waters of Richland and 
 Flat Creek, to Holston River, at the upper end of the first bluff above 
 Boyle’s old place ; thence, up the meanders of the river to the mouth 
 of Panther Creek ; thence, up said creek to the head spring thereof, 
 near the house of John EvaDs ; thence, along the main wagon road, to 
 the beginning. 
 
 Montgomery and Robertson Counties were formed out of Tennessee 
 County, by a line beginning at the upper end of the first bluff, above 
 James McFarlin’s, on Red River, near Allen’s cabins ; running from 
 thence, a direct course to the Sulphur Fork, a quarter of a mile below 
 Elias’s Forts ; thence, up the creek, as it meanders to the mouth of 
 Brush Creek ; thence, up the same, as it meanders to the head ; thence, 
 a direct course to the Davidson County line, at the mouth of Sycamore 
 Creek ; thence, with the Davidson line, up said creek, to the Sumner 
 County line; thence, with the extreme height of the dividing ridge, 
 eastwardly, to the Kentucky road, leading from Nashville ; thence, 
 northwardly, with said road, to the Kentucky State line ; thence, west, 
 with said line, to such place as a south-east course, leaving Joseph 
 French in the lower county, will strike the, beginning. Within this 
 boundary was established the new County of Robertson. The remain- 
 ing part of Tennessee County was to become a separate county, by the 
 name of Montgomery. 
 
 Cocke County. — Beginning on the North-Carolina boundary, on the 
 south side of French Broad River, one mile from said river ; thence, 
 down the river, one mile, to where it intersects the line of Greene 
 County ; thence, with that line, to Nollichucky River, a small distance 
 below Captain William White’s house; thence, down the said river, to 
 French Broad, leaving all the islands to Jefferson County ; thence, down 
 French Broad, in the same manner, to the bent of said river, opposite 
 Colonel Parmenas Taylor’s ; and, from thence, a direct line, to the top 
 of English’s Mountain, within one mile of Sevier County line ; thence, 
 parallel with that line, to the uppermost house on Cozby’s Creek; and, 
 from thence, an easterly line, to a point on the boundary line ot North- 
 Carolina, as to leave six hundred and twenty-five square miles in Jeffer- 
 son County ; and, from thence, with the North-Carolina line, to the 
 beginning. 
 
 Smith County. — Beginning upon the south bank of Cumberland 
 River, at the south end of the eastern boundary of Sumner County ; 
 thence, north, with the said eastern boundary, to the northern boun- 
 dary of the State ; and, with the said boundary, east, to where it is 
 intersected by the Cherokee boundary ; thence, with that boundary, to 
 the Cany Fork of Cumberland River; thence, with said fork, according 
 to its meanders, to the mouth thereof ; thence, down the south bank of 
 Cumberland River, according to its meanders, to the beginning. 
 
 Wilson County. — Beginning upon the south bank of the River 
 
744 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Cumberland, at low water mark, at the mouth of Drake’s Lick Branch, 
 the north-eastern corner of Davidson County ; thence, with the line of 
 Davidson County, to the Cherokee boundary, and, with said boundary, 
 to the Cany Fork ; and, down the Cany Fork, according to its mean- 
 ders, to the mouth thereof; thence, down the meanders of Cumberland 
 River, by the south bank, to the beginning. 
 
 Williamson County . — Beginning at a point forty poles due north of 
 the dwelling-house of Thomas McCrory, on the waters of Little Har- 
 peth ; running, thence, east, two miles and one hundred and four poles; 
 thence, south, seventy degrees, east, sixteen miles and two hundred and 
 seventy poles ; thence, due east sixteen miles and two hundred and 
 seventy poles ; thence, due south to the Indian boundary ; thence, with 
 said line, westwardly, to the Robertson County line ; thence, with that 
 line, north, to a point due west from the mouth of Little Harpeth ; 
 thence, a direct line to a point on South Harpeth, south-west from the 
 mouth of said Little Harpeth ; thence, north-east, to the mouth of said 
 little Harpeth ; thence, a direct line to the beginning. 
 
Tt 
 
 CATALOGUE'-- 
 
 OF 
 
 VALUABLE BOOKS, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 LIPPINCOTI, OBAMBO & CO., 
 
 (SUCCESSORS TO GRIOG, ELLIOT k CO.) 
 
 NO. 14 NORTH FOURTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA; 
 
 CONSISTING OF A LARGE ASSORTMENT OF 
 
 Bibles, Prayer-Books, Commentaries, Standard Poets, 
 
 MEDICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS, ETC., 
 
 PARTICULARLY SUITABLE FOR 
 
 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIBRARIES. 
 
 FOR SALE BY BOOKSELLERS AND COUNTRY MERCHANTS GENERALLY THROUGH- 
 OUT THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 THE BEST & MOST COMPLETE FAMILY COMMENTARY. 
 
 Tbe Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 THE TEXT ACCORDING TO THE AUTHORIZED VERSION, 
 
 SCOTT’S MARGINAL REFERENCES; MATTHEW HENRY’S COMMENTARY, 
 CONDENSED, BUT RETAINING EVERY USEFUL THOUGHT; THE 
 PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS OF REV. THOMAS SCOTT, D. D. ; 
 
 WITH EXTENSIVE 
 
 EXPLANATORY, CRITICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL NOTES, 
 
 Selected from Scott, Doddridge, Gill, Adam Clarke, Patrick, Poole, Lowth, 
 Burder, Harmer, Calmet, Rosenmueller, Bloomfield, Stuart, Bush, Dwight, 
 and many other writers on the Scriptures. 
 
 The whole designed to be a digest and combination of the advantages of 
 the best Bible Commentaries, and embracing nearly all that is valuable in 
 
 HENRY, SCOTT, AND DODDRIDGE. 
 
 Conveniently arranged for family and private reading, and, at the same time, 
 particularly adapted to the wants of Sabbath-School Teachers and Bible 
 Classes ; with numerous useful tables, and a neatly engraved Family Record. 
 
 Edited by Rev. William Jenks, D. D., 
 
 PASTOR OF GREEN STREET CHURCH, BOSTON. 
 
 Embellished with five portraits, and other elegant engravings, from steel 
 plates; with several maps and many wood-cuts, illustrative of Scripture 
 Manners, Customs, Antiquities, &c. In 6 vols. super-royal 8vo. 
 
 Including Supplement, bound in cloth, sheep, calf, &c., varying in 
 Price from $10 to $15. 
 
 The whole forming the most valuable as well as the cheapest Commentary 
 published in the world. 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 In one super-royal volume. 
 
 DERIVED PRINCIPALLY FROM THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, ANTIQUITIES, TRADITIONS, 
 AND FORMS OF SPEECH, RITES, CLIMATE, WORKS OF ART, AND 
 LITERATURE OF THE EASTERN NATIONS: 
 
 EMBODYING ALL THAT IS VALUABLE IN THE WORKS OF 
 
 ROBERTS, HARB/IER, BUREER, PAXTON, CHANDLER, 
 
 And the most celebrated oriental travellers. Embracing also the subject of the Fulfilment of 
 Prophecy, as exhibited by Keith and others ; with descriptions of the present state 
 of countries and places mentioned in the Sacred Writings. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS LANDSCAPE ENGRAVINGS, 
 
 FROM SKETCHES TAKEN ON THE SPOT. 
 
 Edited by Rev. George Bush, 
 
 Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the New York City University. 
 
 The importance of this work must be obvious, and, being altogether illustrative, without reference 
 to doctrines, or other points in which Christians differ, it is hoped it will meet with favour from all 
 who love the sacred volume, and that it will be sufficiently interesting and attractive to recommend 
 itself, not only to professed Christians of all denominations, but also to the general reader. The 
 arrangement of the texts illustrated with the notes, in the order of the chapters and verses of the 
 authorized version of the Bible, will render it convenient for reference to particular passages; 
 while the copious Index at the end will at once enable the reader to turn to every subject discussed 
 in the volume. 
 
 This volume is not designed to take the place of Commentaries, hut is a distinct department of biblical 
 instruction, and may be used as a companion to the Comprehensive or any other Commentary , or the 
 Holy Bible. 
 
 THE ENGRAVINGS 
 
 in this volume, it is believed, will form no small part of its attractions. No pains have been spared 
 to procure such as should embellish the work, and, at the same time, illustrate the text. Objec- 
 tions that have been made to the pictures commonly introduced into the Bible, as being mere crea- 
 tions of fancy and the imagination, often unlike nature, and frequently conveying false impressions, 
 cannot be urged against the pictorial illustrations of this volume. Here the fine arts are made 
 subservient to utility, the landscape views being, without an exception, matter-of-fact views of places 
 mentioned in Scripture, as they appear at the present day ; thus in many instances exhibiting, in the 
 most forcible manner, to the eye, the strict and literal fulfilment of the remarkable prophecies; “ the 
 present ruined and desolate condition of the cities of Babylon, Nineveh, Selah, <kc., and the coun- 
 tries of Edorn and Egypt, are astonishing examples, and so completely exemplify, in the most 
 minute particulars, every thing which was foretold of them in the height of their prosperity, that 
 no better description can now be given of them than a simple quotation from a chapter and verse 
 of the Bible written nearly two or three thousand years ago.” The publishers are enabled to select 
 from several collections lately pubbshed in London, the proprietor of one of which says that “seve- 
 ral distinguished travellers have afforded him the use of nearly Three Hundred Original Sketches f” 
 of Scripture places, made upon the spot. “The land of Palestine, it is well known, abounds in 
 scenes of the most picturesque beauty. Syria comprehends the snowy heights of Lebanon, and the 
 majestic ruins of Tadmor and Baalbec.” 
 
 The above work can be had in various styles of binding. 
 
 Price from $1 50 to $5 00. 
 
 THE ILLUSTRATE!) CONCORDANCE, 
 
 In one volume, royal 8vo. 
 
 A new, full, and complete Concordance; illustrated with monumental, traditional, and oriental 
 engravings, founded on Butterworth’s, with Cruden’s definitions ; forming, it is believed, on many 
 accounts, a more valuable work than either Butterworth, Cruden, or any other similar book in the 
 language. 
 
 The value of a Concordance is now generally understood ; and those who have used one, con- 
 sider it indispensable in connection with the Bible. Some of the many advantages the Illustrated 
 Concordance has over all the others, are, that it contains near two hundred appropriate engravings : 
 it is printed on fine white paper, with beautiful large type. 
 
 Price One Dollar. 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 LIPPINCOTT’S EDITION OF 
 
 BA8SIER 3 8 COMPREHENSIVE BIBLE. 
 
 In order to develope the peculiar nature of the Comprehensive Bible, it will only be necessary 
 to embrace its more prominent features. 
 
 1st. The SACRED TEXT is that of the Authorized Version, and is printed from the edition cor- 
 rected and improved by Dr. Blaney^which, from its accuracy, is considered the standard edition. 
 
 2d. The VARIOUS READINGS are faithfully printed from the edition of Dr. Blaney, inclusive 
 of the translation of the proper names, without the addition or diminution of one. 
 
 3d. In the CHRONOLOGY, great care has been taken to fix the date of the particular transac- 
 tions, which has seldom been done with any degree of exactness in any former edition of the Bible. 
 
 4th. The NOTES are exclusively philological and explanatory, and are not tinctured with senti- 
 ments of any sect or party. They are selected from the most eminent Biblical critics and com- 
 mentators. 
 
 It is hoped that this edition of the Holy Bible will be found to contain the essence of Biblical 
 research and criticism, that lies dispersed through an immense number of volumes. 
 
 Such is the nature and design of this edition of the Sacred Volume, which, from the various 
 objects it embraces, the freedom of its pages from all sectarian peculiarities, and the beauty, plain- 
 ness, and correctness of the typography, that it cannot fail of proving acceptable and useful to 
 Christians of every denomination. 
 
 In addition to the usual references to parallel passages, which are quite full and numerous, the 
 student has all the marginal readings, together with a rich selection of Philological, Critical, Histo- 
 rical, Geographical, and other valuable notes and remarks, which explain and illustrate the sacred 
 text. Besides the general introduction, containing valuable essays on the genuineness, authenticity, 
 and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and other topics of interest, there are introductory and con- 
 cluding remarks to each book — a table of the contents of the Bible, by which the different portions 
 are so arranged as to read in an historical order. 
 
 Arranged at the top of each page is the period in which the prominent events of sacred history 
 took place. The calculations are made for the“year of the world before and after Christ, Julian 
 Period, the year of the Olympiad, the year of the building of Rome, and other notations of time. 
 At the close is inserted a Chronological Index of the Bible, according to the computation of Arch- 
 bishop Ussher. Also, a full and valuable index of the subjects contained in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments, with a careful analysis and arrangement of texts under their appropriate subjects. 
 
 Mr. Greenfield, the editor of this work, and for some time previous to his death the superintend- 
 ent of the editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society, was a most extraordinary 
 man. In editing the Comprehensive Bible, his varied and extensive learning was called into suc- 
 cessful exercise, and appears in happy combination with sincere piety and a sound judgment. The 
 Editor of the Christian Observer, alluding to this work, in an obituary notice of its author, speaks 
 of it as a work of “ prodigious labour and research, at once exhibiting his varied talents and pro- 
 found erudition.” 
 
 LIPPINCOTT’S EDITION OF 
 
 THE OXFORD QUARTO BIBLE, 
 
 The Publishers have spared neither care nor expense in their edition of the Bible; it is printed 
 on the finest white vellum paper, with large and beautiful type, and bound in the most substantial 
 and splendid manner, in the following styles: Velvet, with richly gilt ornaments; Turkey super 
 extra, with gilt clasps ; and in numerous others, to suit the taste of the most fastidious. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 ° In our opinion, the Christian public generally will feed under great obligations to the publishers 
 of this work for the beautiful taste, arrangement, and delicate neatness with which they have got 
 it out. The intrinsic merit of the Bible recommends itself; it needs no tinsel ornament to adorn 
 its sacred pages. In this edition every superfluous ornament has been avoided, and we have pre- 
 sented us a perfectly chaste specimen of the Bible, without note or comment. It appears to be just 
 what is needed in every family — ‘the unsophisticated word of God.’ 
 
 “The size is quarto, printed with beautiful type, on white, sized vellum paper, of the finest texture 
 and most beautiful surface. The publishers seem to have been solicitous to make a perfectly 
 unique book, and they have accomplished the object very successfully. We trust that a liberal 
 community will afford them ample remuneration for all the expense and outlay they have necessa- 
 rily incurred in its publication. It is a standard Bible. 
 
 “The publishers are Messrs. Lippincott, Grambo & Co., No. 14 North Fourth street, Philadel- 
 phia.” — Baptist Record. 
 
 “A beautiful quarto edition of the Bible, by L., G. <fe Co. Nothing can exceed the type in clear- 
 ness and beauty; the paper is of the finest texture, and the whole execution is exceedingly neat. 
 No illustrations' or ornamental type are used. Those who prefer a Bible executed in perfect sim- 
 plicity, yet elegance of style, without adornment, will probably never find one more to their taste.” 
 — M. Magazine. 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 LIPPINCOTT’S EDITIONS OF 
 
 THE HOLY BIBLE. 
 
 SIX DIFFERENT SIZES, 
 
 Printed in the best manner, with beautiful type, on the finest sized paper, and bound in the most 
 splendid and substantial styles. Warranted to be correct, and equal to the best English editions, at 
 much less price. To be had with or without plates; the publishers having supplied themselves with 
 over fifty steel engravings, by the first artists. 
 
 Baxter’s Comprehensive Bible, 
 
 Royal quarto, containing the various readings and marginal notes; disquisitions on the genuineness, 
 authenticity, and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; introductory and concluding remarks to each 
 book; philological and explanatory notes; table of contents, arranged in historical order; a chro- 
 nological index, and various other matter; forming a suitable book for the study of clergymen, 
 Sabbath-school teachers, and st udents. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 84 00 to $5 00. — In Turkey morocco, extra, gilt edges, from $8 00 to 
 812 00. — In do., with splendid plates, 810 00 to 815 00. — In do., bevelled side, gilt clasps and illu- 
 minations, 815 00 to 825 00. 
 
 The Oxford Quarto Bible, 
 
 Without note or comment, universally admitted to be the most beautiful Bible extant. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 84 00 to $5 00. — In Turkey morocco, extra, gilt edges, $8 00 to $12 00. 
 — In do., with steel engravings, 810 00 to $15 00. — In do., clasps, <fec., with plates and illumina- 
 tions, 815 00 to 825 00. — In rich velvet, with gilt ornaments, $25 00 to $50 00. 
 
 Crown Octavo Bible, 
 
 Printed with large clear type, making a most convenient hand Bible for family use. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 75 cents to $1 50. — In English Turkey morocco, gilt edges, $1 00 to 
 82 00. — In do., imitation, <kc., 81 50 to 83 00. — In do., clasps, <fec., $2 50 to $5 00. — In rich velvet, 
 with gilt ornaments, $5 00 to $10 00. 
 
 The Sunday-School Teacher’s Polyglot Bible, with Maps, &c., 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 60 cents to «1 00. — In imitation gait edge, tl 00 to $1 60. — In Turkey, 
 super extra, $1 75 to 82 25. — In do. do., with clasps, $2 50 to 83 75. — In velvet, rich gilt orna- 
 ments, 83 50 to 88 00. 
 
 The Oxford 18mo., or Pew Bible, 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 50 cents to 81 00. — In imitation gilt edge, 81 00 to $1 50. — In Turkey 
 super extra, 81 75 to $2 25. — In do. do<with clasps, 82 50 to 83 75. — In velvet, rich gilt orna- 
 ments, 83 50 to 88 00. 
 
 • Agate 32mo. Bible, 
 
 Printed with larger type than any other small or pocket edition extant. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 50 cents to 81 00. — In tucks, or pocket-book style, 75 cents to 81 00.— 
 In roan, imitation gilt edge, 81 00 to 81 50. — In Turkey, super extra, 81 00 to 82 00. — In do. do., 
 gilt clasps, 82 50 to 83 50. — In velvet, with rich gilt ornaments, 83 00 to 87 00. 
 
 32mo. Diamond Pocket Bible; 
 
 The neatest, smallest, and cheapest edition of the Bible published. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 30 to 50 cents. — In tucks, or pocket-book style, 60 cents to 81 00.— 
 In roan, imitation gilt edge, 75 cents to 81 25. — In Turkey, super extra, 81 00 to 81 50. — In do. do., 
 gilt clasps, 81 50 to 82 00. — In velvet, with richly gilt ornaments, 82 50 to 86 00. 
 
 CONSTANTLY ON HAND, 
 
 A large assortment of BIBLES, bound in the most splendid and costly styles, with gold and silver 
 ornaments, suitable for presentation; ranging in price from 810 00 to 8100 00. 
 
 A liberal discount made to Booksellers and Agents by the Publishers. 
 
 ENCYCL0P/ED1A OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE; 
 
 OR, DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, THEOLOGY, RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY, ALL RELIGIONS, 
 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, AND MISSIONS. 
 
 Designed as a complete Book of Reference on all Religious Subjects, and Companion to the Bible; 
 forming a cheap and compact Library of Religious Knowledge. Edited by Rev. J. Newton Brown. 
 Illustrated by wood-cuts, maps, and engravings on copper and steel. In one volume, royal 8vo. 
 Price, 84 00. 
 
 6 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Lippincott’s Standard Editions of 
 
 THE BOOS OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 IN SIX DIFFERENT SIZES, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH A NUMBER OF STEEL PLATES AND ILLUMINATION Si 
 COMPREHENDING THE MOST VARIED AND SPLENDID ASSORTMENT IN THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 THE ILLUMINATED OCTAVO PRAYER-BOOK, 
 
 Printed in seventeen different colours of ink, and illustrated with a number of Steel Plates and 
 Illuminations ; making one of the most splendid books published. To be had in any variety of the 
 most superb binding, ranging in prices. 
 
 In Turkey, super extra, from 85 00 to $8 00. — In do. do., with clasps, 86 00 to 810 00. —In do. 
 do., bevelled and panelled edges, 88 00 to 815 00. — In velvet, richly ornamented, 812 00 to 820 00. 
 
 8 vo. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 81 50 to 82 00. — In imitation gilt edge, 82 00 to 83 00. — In Turkey, 
 super extra, $2 50 to 84 50. — In do. do., with clasps, 83 00 to 85 00. — In velvet, richly gilt orna- 
 ments, 85 00 to 812 00. 
 
 1 6mo. 
 
 Printed throughout with large and elegant type. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 75 cents to $1 50. — In Turkey morocco, extra, with plates, 81 75 to 
 
 83 00. — In do. do., with plates, clasps, &c., 82 50 to 85 00. — In velvet, with richly gilt ornaments, 
 
 84 00 to 89 0a 
 
 1 8mo. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 25 to 75 cents. — In Turkey morocco, with plates, 81 25 to 82 00. — In 
 velvet, with richly gilt ornaments, $3 00 to 88 00. 
 
 32mo. 
 
 A beautiful Pocket Edition, with large type. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 50 cents to 81 00. — In roan, imitation gilt edge, 75 cents to 81 50. — In 
 Turkey, super extra, '$1 25 to $2 00. — In do. do., gilt clasps, 82 00 to 83 00. — In velvet, with richly 
 gilt ornaments, 83 00 to 87 00. 
 
 32mo., Pearl type. 
 
 In plain binding, from 25 to 37 1-2 cents. — Roan, 37 1-2 to 50 cents. — Imitation Turkey, 50 cents 
 to 81 00. — Turkey, super extra, with gilt edge, 81 00 to $1 50. — Pocket-book style, 60 to 75 cents. 
 
 PROPER LESSONS. 
 
 1 8mo. 
 
 i A 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL EDITION, WITH LARGE TYPE. 
 
 In neat plain binding, from 50 cents to 81 00. — In roan, imitation gilt edge, 75 cents to 81 50. — In 
 Turkey, super extra, SI 50 to 82 00. — In do. do., gilt clasps, 82 50 to 83 00. — In velvet, with richly 
 gilt ornaments, 83 00 to 87 00. 
 
 THE BIBLE AND PRAYER-BOOK, 
 
 In one neat and portable volume. 
 
 32mo. f in neat plain binding, from 75 cents to 81 00. — In imitation Turkey, 81 00 to 81 50. — In 
 Turkey, super extra, SI 50 to 82 50. 
 
 18mo, in large type, plain, 81 75 to 82 50. — In imitation, 81 00 to 81 75. — Tn Turkey, super 
 extra, 81 75 to 83 00. Also, with clasps, velvet, &c. &c. 
 
 The Errors of Modern Infidelity Illustrated and Refuted. 
 
 BY S. M. SCHWETJCKER, A. OT. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. ; cloth. Just published. 
 
 We cannot but regard this work, in whatever light we view it in reference to its design, as one 
 of the most masterly productions of the age. and fitted to uproot one of the most fondly cherished 
 and dangerous of all ancient or modern errors. God must bless such a work, armed with his own 
 truth, and doing fierce and successful battle against black infidelity, which would bring His Majesty 
 and Word down to the tribunal of human reason, for condemnation and annihilation.—^. Spectator. 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 t Clugq nf Imttira: 
 
 CONSISTING- OF 
 
 ANECDOTES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE CHARACTER OF MINISTERS OF RELI- 
 GION IN THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 BY JOSEPH BELCHER, D. D. ( 
 
 Editor of “The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller,” “Robert Hall,” &c. 
 
 M This very interesting and instructive collection of pleasing and solemn remembrances of many 
 pious men, illustrates the character of the day in which they lived, and defines the men more 
 clearly than very elaborate essays .” — Baltimore American. 
 u We regard the collection as highly interesting, and judiciously made.” — Presbyterian. 
 
 JOSEPHUS’S (FLAVIUS) WORKS, 
 
 FAMILY EDITION. 
 
 BY THE LATE WILLIA3YI WHISTON, A. IVT. 
 
 FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION, COMPLETE. 
 
 One volume, beautifully illustrated with Steel Plates, and the only readable edition 
 published in this country. 
 
 As a matter of course, every family in our country has a copy of the Holy Bible ; and as the pre- 
 sumption is that the greater portion often consult its pages, we take the liberty of saying to all those 
 that do, that the perusal of the writings of Josephus will be found very interesting and instructive. 
 
 All those who wish to possess a beautiful and correct copy of this valuable work, would do well 
 to purchase this edition. It is for sale at all the principal bookstores in the United States, and by 
 country merchants generally in the Southern and Western States. 
 
 Also, the above work in two volumes. 
 
 BURDENS VILLAGE SERMONS; 
 
 Or, 101 Plain and Short Discourses on the Principal Doctrines of the Gospel. 
 
 INTENDED FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES, SUNDAY-SCHOOLS, OR COMPANIES ASSEM- 
 BLED FOR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN COUNTRY VILLAGES. 
 
 BY GEORGE BURDER. 
 
 To which is added to each Sermon, a Short Prayer, with some General Prayers for Families, 
 Schools, <kc., at the end of the work. 
 
 COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME, OCTAVO. 
 
 These sermons, which are characterized by a beautiful simplicity, the entire absence of contro- 
 versy, and a true evangelical spirit, have gone through many and large editions, and been translated 
 into several of the continental languages. “ They have also been the honoured means not only of 
 converting many individuals, but also of introducing the Gospel into districts, and even into parish 
 churches, where before it was comparatively unknown.” 
 
 “ This work fully deserves the immortality it has attained.” 
 
 This is a fine library edition of this invaluable work; and when we say that it should be found in 
 the possession of every family, we only reiterate the sentiments and sincere wishes of all who take 
 a deep interest in the eternal welfare of mankind. 
 
 FAMILY PRAYERS AND HYMNS, 
 
 ADAPTED TO FAMILY WORSHIP, 
 
 AND 
 
 TABLES FOR THE REGULAR READING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 By Rev. S. C. Winchester, A. M., 
 
 Late Pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia; and the Presbyterian Church at 
 Natchez, Miss. 
 
 One volume, 12mo. 
 
 8 
 

 LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SPLENDID LIBRARY EDITIONS. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED STANDARD POETS. 
 
 ELEGANTLY PRINTED, ON FINE PAPER, AND UNIFORM IN SIZE AND 
 
 STYLE. 
 
 The following Editions of Standard British Poets are illustrated with numerous Steel 
 Engravings, and may be had in all varieties of binding. 
 
 BYRON’S WORKS. 
 
 COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME, OCTAVO. 
 
 INCLUDING ALL HIS SUPPRESSED AND ATTRIBUTED POEMS ; WITH SIX BEAUTIFUL 
 ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 This edition has been carefully compared with the recent London edition of Mr. Murray, and 
 made complete by the addition of more than fifty pages of poems heretofore unpublished in Eng- 
 land. Among these there are a number that have never appeared in any American edition; and 
 the publishers believe they are warranted in saving that this is the most complete edition of Lord 
 Byron's Poetical Works ever published in the United States. 
 
 Jjfefital Works of Sirs. ®tmans. 
 
 Complete in one volume, octavo ; with seven beautiful Engravings. 
 
 This is a new and complete edition, with a splendid engraved likeness of Mrs. Hemans, on steel, 
 and contains all the Poems in the last London and American editions. With a Critical Preface by 
 Mr. Thatcher, of Boston. 
 
 “As no work in the English language can be commended with more confidence, it will argue bad 
 taste in a female in this country to be without a complete edition of the writings of one who was 
 an honour to her sex and to humanity, and whose productions, from first to last, contain no syllable 
 calculated to call a blush to the cheek of modesty and virtue. There is, moreover, in Mrs. Hemans’s 
 poetry, a moral purity and a religious feeling which commend it, in an especial manner, to the dis- 
 criminating reader. No parent or guardian will be under the necessity of imposing' restrictions 
 with regard to the free perusal of every production emanating from this gifted woman. There 
 breathes throughout the whole a most eminent exemption from impropriety of thought or diction; 
 and there is at times a pensiveness of tone, a winning sadness in her more serious compositions, 
 which tells of a soul which has been lifted from the contemplation of terrestrial things, to divine 
 communings with beings of a purer world.” 
 
 MILTON, YOUNG, GRAY, BEATTIE, AND COLLINS’S 
 POETICAL WORKS. 
 
 COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME, OCTAVO. 
 
 WITH SIX BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 CntDjM mA '(Ejjnntsoifs ^km nttir ^nrtiral RTnrks. 
 
 COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME, OCTAVO. 
 
 Including two hundred and fifty Letters, and sundry Poems of Cowper, never before published in 
 this country; and of Thomson a new and interesting Memoir, and upwards of twenty 
 new Poems, for the first time printed from his own Manuscripts, taken from 
 a late Edition of the Aldine Poets, now publislung in London. 
 
 WITH SEVEN BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 The distinguished Professor Silliman, speaking of this edition, observes : “I am as much gratified 
 oy the elegance and fine taste of your edition, as by the noble tribute of genius and moral excel- 
 lence which these delightful authors have left for all future generations ; and Cowper, especially, 
 is not less conspicuous as a true Christian, moralist and teacher, than as a poet of great power and 
 exquisite taste.” 
 
 - 9 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROGERS, CAMPBELL, MONTGOMERY, 
 LAMB, AND KIRKE WHITE. 
 
 COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME, OCTAVO. 
 
 WITH SIX BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 The beauty, correctness, and convenience of this favourite edition of these standard authors are 
 so well known, that it is scarcely necessary to add a word in its favour. It is only necessary to say, 
 that the publishers have now issued an illustrated edition, which greatly enhances its former value. 
 The engravings are excellent and well selected. It is the best library edition extant. 
 
 CRABBE, HEBER, AND POLLOK’S POETICAL WORKS. 
 
 COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME, OCTAVO. 
 
 WITH SIX BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 A writer in the Boston Traveller holds the following language with reference to these valuable 
 editions : — 
 
 “ Mr. Editor : — I wish, without any idea of puffing, to say a word or two upon the 4 Library of 
 English Poets’ that is now published at Philadelphia, by Lippincott, Grambo <fc Co. It is certainly, 
 taking into consideration the elegant manner in which it is printed, and the reasonable price at 
 which it is afforded to purchasers, the best edition of the modem British Poets that has ever been 
 published in this country. Each volume is an octavo of about 500 pages, double columns, stereo- 
 typed, and accompanied with fine engravings and biographical sketches ; and most of them are 
 reprinted from Galignani’s French edition. As to its value, we need only mention that it contains 
 the entire works of Montgomery, Gray. Beattie, Collins, Byron, Cowper, Thomson, Milton, Young, 
 Rogers, Campbell, Lamb, Hemans, Heber, Kirke White, Crabbe, the Miscellaneous Works of Gold 
 smith, and other masters of the lyre. The publishers are doing a great service by their publication, 
 and their volumes are almost in as great demand as the fashionable novels of the day ; and they 
 deserve to be so : for they are certainly printed in a style superior to that in which we have before 
 had the works of the English Poets.” 
 
 No library can be considered complete without a copy of the above beautiful and cheap editions 
 of the English Poets; and persons ordering all or any of them, will please say Lippincott, Grambo 
 6i Co.'s illustrated editions. 
 
 Eceeze 
 
 A COMPLETE 
 
 ®iriionart| nf |5orfim[ dtotatinna: 
 
 COMPRISING THE MOST EXCELLENT AND APPROPRIATE PASSAGES IN 
 THE OLD BRITISH POETS; WITH CHOICE AND COPIOUS SELEC- 
 TIONS FROM THE BEST MODERN BRITISH AND 
 AMERICAN POETS. 
 
 EDITED BY SARAH JOSEPHA HALE. 
 
 As nightingales do upon glow-worms feed, 
 
 So poets live upon the living light 
 Of Nature and of Beauty. 
 
 Bailey's Festus. 
 
 Beautifully illustrated with Engravings. In one super-royal octavo volume, in various 
 
 bindings. 
 
 The publishers extract, from the many highly complimentary notices of the above valuable and 
 beautiful work, the following: 
 
 “ We have at last a volume of Poetical Quotations worthy of the name. It contains nearly six 
 hundred octavo pages, carefully and tastefully selected from all the home and foreign authors of 
 celebrity. It is invaluable to a writer, while to the ordinary reader it presents every subject at a 
 glance.” — Godey's Lady's Book. 
 
 “The plan or idea of Mrs. Hale’s work is felicitous. It is one for which her fine taste, her orderly 
 habits ot mind, and her long occupation with literature, has given her peculiar facilities; and tho- 
 roughly has she accomplished her task in the work before us.” — Sartam's Magazine. 
 
 “It is a choice collection of poetical extracts from everv English and American author worth 
 perusing, from the days of Chaucer to the present time.” — 'Washington Union. 
 
 “ There is nothing negative about this work ; it is positively good ."—Evening Bulletin. 
 
 TO 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE DIAMOND EDITION OF BYRON. 
 
 THE POETICAL WORKS OF LORD BYRON, 
 
 WITH A SKETCH OP HIS LIFE. 
 
 COMPLETE IN ONE NEAT DUODECIMO VOLUME, WITH STEEL PLATES. 
 
 The type of this edition is so perfect, and it is printed with so much care, on fine white paper, 
 that it can be read with as much ease as most of the larger editions. This work is to be had in 
 plain and superb binding, making a beautiful volume for a gift. 
 
 “ The Poetical Works of Lord Byron, complete in one volume : published by L., G. <fc Co., Phila- 
 delphia. We hazard nothing in saying that, take it altogether, tins is the most elegant work ever 
 issued from the American press. 
 
 “ * In a single volume, not larger than an ordinary duodecimo, the publishers have embraced the 
 whole of Lord Byron’s Poems, usually printed in ten or twelve volumes; and, what is more remark- 
 able, have done it with a type so clear and distinct, that, notwithstanding its necessarily small size, 
 it may be read with the utmost facility, even by failing eyes. The book is stereotyped ; and never 
 have we seen a finer specimen of that art. Everythin?’ about it is perfect — the paper, the print- 
 ing, the binding, all correspond with each other ; and it is embellished with two fine engravings, 
 well worthy the companionship in which they are placed. 
 
 “ ‘ This will make a beautiful Christmas present.’ 
 
 “We extract the above from Godey’s Lady’s Book. The notice itself, we are given to understand, 
 is written by Mrs. Hale. 
 
 “ We have to add our commendation in favour of this beautiful volume, a copy of which has 
 been sent us by the publishers. The admirers of the noble bard will feel obliged to the enterprise 
 which has prompted the publishers to dare a competition with the numerous editions of his works 
 already in circulation ; and we shall be surprised if this convenient travelling edition does not in a 
 great degree supersede the use of the large octavo works, which have little advantage in size and 
 openness of type, and are much inferior in the qualities of portability and lightness.” — Intelligencer . 
 
 THE DIAMOND EDITION OF MOORE. 
 
 (corresponding with btron.) 
 
 THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOU AS MOORE, 
 
 COLLECTED BY HIMSELF. 
 
 COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. 
 
 This work is published uniform with Byron, from the last London edition, and is the most com- 
 plete printed in the country. 
 
 THE DIAMOND EDITION OF SHAKSPEARE, 
 
 (complete in one volume,) 
 
 SKETC22 OF 33IS X.IFS. 
 
 UNIFORM WITH BYRON AND MOORE. 
 
 THE ABOVE WORKS CAN BE HAD IN SEVERAL VARIETIES OF BINDING. 
 
 GOLDSMITH’S ANIMATED NATURE. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES, OCTAVO. 
 
 BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH 385 PLATES. 
 
 CONTAINING A HISTORY OF THE EARTH, ANIMALS, BIRDS, AND FISHES; FORMING 
 THE MOST COMPLETE NATURAL HISTORY EVER PUBLISHED. 
 
 This is a work that should be in the library of every family, having been written by one of the 
 most talented authors in the English language. 
 
 "Goldsmith can never be made obsolete while delicate genius, exquisite feeling, fine invention, 
 the most harmonious metre, and the happiest diction, are at all valued. 
 
 BIGLAND’S NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Of Animals, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, and Insects. Illustrated with numerous and beautiful Engrav- 
 ings. By JOHN BIGLAND, author of a “ View of the World,” “ Letters on 
 Universal History,” Ac. Complete in 1 vol., 12mo. 
 
 — - n 
 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE POWER AND PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES; Its Power and Progress. 
 
 BY GUILLAUME T2LL POUSSIN, 
 
 LATE MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE THIRD PARIS EDITION. 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY EDMOND L. DU BARRY, M. D., 
 
 SURGEON U. S. NAVY. 
 
 In one large octavo volume. 
 
 SCHOOLCRAFT’S GREAT NATIONAL WORK ON THE INDIAN TRIBES OF 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 WITH BEAUTIFUL AND ACCURATE COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL INFORMATION 
 
 RESPECTING THE 
 
 HISTORY, CONDITION AND PROSPECTS 
 
 OP THE 
 
 3 n b i a n Ctilits nf tin llnittii $iaf u. 
 
 COLLECTED AND PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE BUREAU OF INDIAN 
 AFFAIRS, PER ACT OF MARCH 3, 1847, 
 
 B1 1 EEHRY S. SCHOOLCEAFT, 1-1.. D. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY S. EASTMAN, Capt. U. S. A. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 THE AMERICAN GARDENER'S CALENDAR, 
 
 ADAPTED TO THE CLIMATE AND SEASONS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Containing a complete account of all the work necessary to be done in the Kitchen Garden, Fruit 
 Garden, Orchard, Vineyard, Nursery, Pleasure-Ground, Flower Garden, Green-house, Hot-house, 
 and Forcing Frames, for every month in the year; with ample Practical Directions for performing 
 the same. 
 
 Also, general as well as minute instructions for laying out or erecting each and every of the above 
 departments, according to modern taste and the most approved plans; the Ornamental Planting of 
 Pleasure Grounds, in the ancient and modern style; the cultivation of Thorn Quicks, and other 
 plants suitable for Live Hedges, with the best methods of making them. <kc. To which are annexed 
 catalogues of Kitchen Garden Plants and Herbs; Aromatic, Pot, and Sweet Herbs; Medicinal 
 Plants, and the most important Grapes, & c., used in rural economy; with the soil best adapted to 
 their cultivation. Together with a copious Index to the body of the work. 
 
 BY BERNARD M ‘MAHON. 
 
 Tenth Edition, greatly improved. In one volume, octavo. 
 
 THE PORTFOLIO OF A SOUTHERN MEDICAL STUDENT. 
 
 BY GEORGE M. WHARTON, M. D. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY CROOME. 
 One volume, 1 2 m o . 
 
 12 
 
I.IPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE FARMER’S AND PLANTER’S ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 €{r /nraiBr's mk ■jtahr’s fnqrlnpME nf Httral Muirs. 
 
 BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON. 
 
 ADAPTED TO THE UNITED STATES BY GOUVERNEUR EMERSON. 
 
 Illustrated by seventeen beautiful Engravings of Cattle, Horses, Sheep, the varieties of Wheat, 
 Barley, Oats, Grasses, the Weeds of Agriculture. <fcc. ; besides numerous Engrav- 
 ings on wood of the most important implements of Agriculture, &c. 
 
 This standard Work contains the latest and best information upon all subjects connected with 
 farming, and appertaining to the country ; treating of the great crops of grain, hay, cotton, hemp, 
 tobacco, rice, sugar, <kc. <kc. ; of horses and mules ; of cattle, with minute particulars relating to 
 cheese and butter-making ; of fowls, including a description of capon-making, with drawings of the 
 instruments employed; of bees, and the Russian and other systems of managing bees and con- 
 structing hives. Long articles on the uses and preparation of bones, lime, guano, and all sorts of 
 animal, mineral, and vegetable substances employed as manures. Descriptions of the most approved 
 ploughs, harrows, threshers, and every other agricultural machine and implement; of fruit and 
 shade trees, forest trees, and shrubs ; of weeds, and all kinds of flies, and destructive worms and 
 insects, and the best means of getting rid of them ; together with a thousand other matters relating 
 to rural life, about which information is so constantly desired by all residents of the country. 
 
 IN ONE LARGE OCTAVO VOLUME. 
 
 MASON’S FARRIER — FARMERS’ EDITION 
 
 Price, 62 cents. 
 
 THE PRACTICAL FARRIER, FOR FARMERS: 
 
 COMPRISING A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE NOBLE AND DSEFDL ANIMAL 
 
 THE HORSE; 
 
 WITH MODES OF MANAGEMENT IN ALL CASES, AND TREATMENT IN DISEASE. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A PRIZE ESSAY ON MULES; AND AN APPENDIX, 
 
 Containing Recipes for Diseases of Horses, Oxen, Cows, Calves, Sheep, Dogs, bwine, &c. <5cc. 
 
 BIT KICHAB.B IS A S O OT ? JXZ . D . , 
 
 Formerly of Surry County, Virginia. 
 
 In one volume, 12 mo.; abound in cloth, gilt. 
 
 MASON’S FARRIER AND STUD-BOOK-NEW EDITION. 
 
 THE GENTLEMAN’S NEW POCKET FARRIER: 
 
 COMPRISING A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE NOBLE AND USEFUL ANIMAL, 
 
 THE HORSE; 
 
 WITH MODES OF MANAGEMENT IN ALL CASES, AND TREATMENT IN DISEASE. 
 
 SI r I€.aSOKT, Bffl.B., 
 
 Formerly of Surry County, Virginia. 
 
 To which is added, A PRIZE ESSAY ON MULES ; and AN APPENDIX, containing Recipes for 
 Diseases of Horses, Oxen, Cows, Calves, Sheep, Dogs, Swine, Ac. Ac. ; with Annals 
 of the Turf, American Stud-Book, Rules for Training, Racing, Ac. 
 
 WITH A SUPPLEMENT, 
 
 Comprising an Essay on Domestic Animals, especially the Horse ; with Remaiks on Treatment and 
 Breeding; together with Trotting and Racing Tables, showing the best time on record at one, 
 two, three and four mile heats ; Pedigrees of Winning Horses, since 1839, and of the most 
 celebrated Stallions and Mares; with useful Calving and Lambing Tables. By 
 J. S. SKINNER, Editor now of the Farmer’s Library, New York, Ac. Ac. 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 HINDS’S FARRIERY AND STUD-BOOK-NEW EDITION. 
 
 FARRIERY, 
 
 TAUGHT ON A NEW AND EASY PLAN: 
 
 BEINQ 
 
 % Crrntise tin tjjf lOisrnsrs nnir Irrikitfs of IIjt Utorro ; 
 
 With Instructions to the Shoeing Smith, Farrier, and Groom; preceded by a Popular Description of 
 the Animal Functions in Health, and how these are to be restored when disordered. 
 
 BY JOHN HINDS, VETERINARY SURGEON. 
 
 With considerable Additions and Improvements, particularly adapted to this country, 
 
 BY THOMAS M. SMITH, 
 
 Veterinary Surgeon, and Member of the London Veterinary Medical Society. 
 
 WITH A SUPPLEMENT, BY J. S. SKINNER. 
 
 The publishers have received numerous flattering notices of the great practical value of these 
 works. The distinguished editor of the American Farmer, speaking of them, observes: — “We 
 cannot too highly recommend these books, and therefore advise every owner of a horse to obtain 
 them.” 
 
 "There are receipts in those books that show how Founder may be cured, and the traveller pur- 
 sue his journey the next day, by giving a tablespuoriful of alum. 'Ibis was got from Dr. P. Thornton, 
 of Montpelier, Rappahannock county, Virginia, as founded on his own observation in several cases.” 
 
 “The constant demand for Mason’s and Hinds’s Farrier hits imlnced the publishers, Messrs. Lip- 
 pincott, Grambo A c Co., to put forth new edit ions, wit h a ‘ Supplement’ of 100 pages, by J. S. Skinner, 
 Esq. We should have sought to render an acceptable service to our agricultural readers, by giving 
 a chapter from the Supplement, ‘On the Relations between Mari and the Domestic Animals, espe- 
 cially the Horse, and the Obligations they impose or the one on ‘The Form of Animals;’ but that 
 either one of them would overrun the space here allotted to such subjects.” 
 
 “ Lists of Medicines, and other articles which ought to be at hand about every training and livery 
 stable, and every Farmer’s and Breeder’s establishment, will be found in these valuable works.” 
 
 TO CARPENTERS AND MECHANICS. 
 
 Just Published. 
 
 A NEW AND IMPROVED EDITION OF 
 
 THE CARPENTER'S NEW GUIDE, 
 
 BEING A COMPLETE BOOK OF LINES FOR 
 
 C5ARPENTEY iiCTD JOINERY; 
 
 Treating fully on Practical Geometry, SaffU's Brick and Plaster Groins, Niches of every description, 
 Sky-lights, Lines for Roofs and Domes; with a great variety of Designs for Roofs, 
 Trussed Girders, Floors, Domes, Bndges. <kc., Angle Bars for Shop 
 Fronts, &c., and Raking Mouldings. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 Additional Plans for various Stair-Cases, wit h the Lines for producing the Face and Falling Moulds, 
 never before published, and greatly superior to those given in a former edition of this work. 
 
 BY WILLIAM JOHNSON. ARCHITECT, 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 The whole founded on true Geometrical Principles; the Theory and Practice well explained and 
 fully exemplified, on eighty-three copper plates, including some Observations and Calculations on 
 the Strength of Timber. 
 
 BY PETER NICHOLSON, 
 
 Author of "The Carpenter and Joiner’s Assistant,” “The Student’s Instructor to the Five 
 Orders,” 6lc. 
 
 Thirteenth Edition. One volume, 4to., well bound. 
 
 14 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 A DICTIONARY OF SELECT AND POPULAR QUOTATIONS, 
 
 WHICH ARE IN DAILY USE. 
 
 TAKEN FROM THE LATIN, FRENCH, GREEK, SPANISH AND ITALIAN LANGUAGES. 
 Together with a copious Collection of Law Maxims and Law Terms, translated into 
 English, with Illustrations, Historical and Idiomatic. 
 
 NEW AMERICAN EDITION, CORRECTED, WITH ADDITIONS. 
 
 One volume, 12mo. 
 
 This volume comprises a copious collection of legal and other terms which are in common use, 
 with English translations and historical illustrations ; and we should judge its author had surely 
 been to a great “ Feast of Languages,” and stole all the scraps. A work of this character should 
 have an extensive sale, as it entirely obviates a serious difficulty in which most readers are involved 
 by the frequent occurrence of Latin, Greek, and French passages, which we suppose are introduced 
 by authors for a mere show of learning — a difficulty very perplexing to readers in generaL This 
 ** Dictionary of Quotations,” concerning which too much cannor be said in its favour, effectually 
 removes the difficulty, and gives the reader an advantage over the author ; for we believe a majority 
 are themselves ignorant of the meaning of the terms they employ. Very few truly learned authors 
 will insult their readers by introducing Latin or French quotations in their writings, when “plain 
 English” will do as well; but we will not enlarge on this point. 
 
 If the book is useful to those unacquainted with other languages, it is no less valuable to the 
 classically educated as a book of reference, aud answers all the purposes of a Lexicon — indeed, on 
 many accounts, it is better. It saves the trouble of tumbling over the larger volumes, to which 
 every one, and especially those engaged in the legal profession, are very often subjected. It should 
 have a place in every library in the country. 
 
 wvwwv 
 
 RUSCHENBERGER’S NATURAL HISTORY, 
 
 COMPLETE, WITH NEW GLOSSARY* 
 
 H j dBbnnntu of Sutural Hbtori], 
 
 EMBRACING ZOOLOGY, BOTANY AND GEOLOGY: 
 
 FOR SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND FAMILIES. 
 
 S'S? W. S. W. SUSCHENBERGBE,M.B. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 WITH NEARLY ONE THOUSAND ILLUSTRATIONS, ANT- A COPIOUS GLOSSARY. 
 Vol. I. contains Vertebrate Animals. Vol. II. contains Intervertebrate Animals , Botany , and Geology . 
 
 A Beautiful and Valuable Presentation Book. 
 
 THE POET’S OFFERING. 
 
 EDITED BY MRS. HALE. 
 
 With a Portrait of the Editress, a Splendid Illuminated Title-Page, and Twelve Beautiful Engrav- 
 ings by Sartam. Bound in rich Turkey Morocco, and Extra Cloth, Gilt Edge. 
 
 To those who wish to make a present that will never lose its value, this will be found the most 
 desirable Gift-Book ever published. 
 
 “ We commend it to all who desire to present a friend with a volume not only very beautiful, but 
 of solid intrinsic value.” — Washington Union. 
 
 “A perfect treasury of the thoughts and fancies of the best English and American Poets. The 
 paper and printing are beautiful, and the binding rich, elegant, and substantial; the most sensible 
 and attractive of all the elegant gift-books we have seen.” — Evening Bulletin. 
 
 “ The publishers deserve the thanks of the public for so happy a thought, so well executed. The 
 engravings are by the best artists, and the other portions of the work correspond in elegance.” — 
 Public Lkdyer. 
 
 “ There is no book of selections so diversified and appropriat e within our knowledge.”— Pennsylv'n. 
 
 “ It is one of the most valuable as well as elegant books ever published in this country.” — Godey's 
 Lady's Book 
 
 “ It is the most beautiful and the most useful offering ever bestowed on the public. No individual 
 of literary taste will venture to be without it.” — The City Item. 
 
 15 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE YOUNG DOMINICAN; 
 
 OR, THE MYSTERIES OF THE INQUISITION, 
 
 AND OTHER SECRET SOCIETIES OF SPAIN. 
 
 BY M. V. DE FEREAL. 
 
 WITH HISTORICAL NOTES, BY M, MANUEL DE CUENDIAS, 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH TWENTY SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS BY FRENCH ARTISTS. 
 
 One volume, octavo. 
 
 SAY’S POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 A TREATISE ON POLITICAL ECONOMY; 
 
 Or, The Production, Distribution and Consumption of Wealth. 
 
 BY JUAB* SAPTISTS SA’ST. 
 
 FIFTH AMERICAN EDITION, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES, 
 BY C. C. BIDDLE, Esq. 
 
 In one volume, octavo. 
 
 It would be beneficial to our country if all those who are aspiring to office, were required by their 
 constituents to be familiar with the pages of Say. 
 
 The distinguished biographer of the author, in noticing this work, observes : “ Happily for science, 
 he commenced that study which forms the basis of his admirable Treatise on Political Economy ; a 
 work which not only improved under his hand with every successive edition, but has been translated 
 into most of the European languages.” 
 
 The Editor of the North American Review, speaking of Say, observes, that “he is the most 
 popular, and perhaps the most able writer on Political Economy, since the time of Smith.” 
 
 LAURENCE STERNE’S WORKS, 
 
 WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR: 
 
 WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 
 
 WITH SEVEN BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS, ENGRAVED BY GILBERT AND GIHON, 
 FROM DESIGNS BY DARLEY. 
 
 One volume, octavo; cloth, gilt. 
 
 To commend or to criticise Sterne’s Works, in this age of the world, would be all “ wasteful and 
 extravagant excess.” Uncle Toby — Corporal Trim — the Widow — Le Fevre — Poor Maria— the 
 Captive — even the Dead Ass, — this is all we have to say of Sterne; and in the memory of these 
 characters, histories, and sketches, a thousand follies and worse than follies are forgotten. The 
 volume is a very handsome one. 
 
 the Mexican war its heroes; 
 
 BEING 
 
 A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN WAR, 
 
 EMBRACING ALL THE OPERATIONS UNDER GENERALS TAYLOR AND SCOTT. 
 
 WITH A BIOGRAPHY OF THE OFFICERS. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA AND NEW MEXICO, 
 
 Under Gen. Kearny, Cols. Doniphan and Fremont. Together with Numerous Anecdotes of the 
 War, and Personal Adventures of the Officers. Illustrated with Accurate 
 Portraits, and other Beautiful Engravings. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 16 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 NEW AND COMPLETE COOK-BOOK. 
 
 THE PRACTICAL COOK-BOOK, 
 
 CONTAINING UPWARDS OP 
 
 OStfE THOUSAND RECEIPTS, 
 
 Consisting: of Directions for Selecting, Preparing, and Cooking all kinds of Meats, Fish. Poultry, and 
 Game; Soups, Broths, Vegetables, and Salads. Also, for making all kinds of Plain and 
 Fancy Breads, Pastes, Puddings, Cakes, Creams, Ices, Jellies, Preserves, Marma- 
 lades, «kc. <tc. <fcc. Together with various Miscellaneous Recipes, 
 and numerous Preparations for Invalids. 
 
 BY MRS. BLISS. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 €1jt dfttq ATlrrrijnnt ; nr, €\)t ^stmnra /ntlm. 
 
 BY J. B. JOI,. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "WILD WESTERN SCENES,” “THE WESThj.w. “CHANT,” &c. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH TEN ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 CALIFORNIA AND OREGON; 
 
 OR, SIGHTS IN THE GOLD REGION, AND SCENES BY THE WAY. 
 
 BY THEODORE T. JOHNSON. 
 
 WITH NOTES, BY HON. SAMUEL R. THURSTON, 
 
 Delegate to Congress from that Territory. 
 
 With numerous Plates and Maps. 
 
 AUNT PHILLIS’S CABIN; 
 
 OR, SOUTHERN RIFE AS IT IS. 
 
 BY MRS. MARY H. EASTMAN. 
 
 PRICE, 50 AND 75 CENTS. 
 
 This volume presents a picture of Southern Life, taken at different points of view from the one 
 occupied by the authoress of ' L Unde Tom's Cabin." The writer, being a native of the South, is fa* 
 miliar with the many varied aspects assumed by domestic servitude in that sunny region, and there- 
 fore feels competent to give pictures of “Southern Life, as it is.” 
 
 Pledged to no clique or party, and free from the pressure of any and all extraneous influences, 
 she has written her book with a view to its truthfulness; and the public at the North, as well as 
 at the South, will find in “Aunt Phillis’s Cabin” not the distorted picture of an interested painter, 
 but the faithful transcript of a Daguerreotypist. 
 
 WHAT IS CHURCH HISTORY? 
 
 A VINDICATION OF THE IDEA OF HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS. 
 
 BY PHILIP SCHAF. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 17 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 DODD’S LECTURES. 
 
 DISCOURSES TO YOUNG MEN. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS HIGHLY INTERESTING ANECDOTES. 
 
 BY WILLIAM DODD, LL. D., 
 
 CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY GEORGE THE THIRD. 
 
 FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, WITH ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 One volume, 18mo. 
 
 THE IRIS: 
 
 AN ORIGINAL SOUVENIR. 
 
 With Contributions from the First Writers in the Country. 
 
 EDITED BY PROF. JOHN S. HART. 
 
 With Splendid Illuminations and Steel Engravings. Bound in Turkey Morocco and rich Papier 
 Mache Binding. 
 
 IN ONE VOLUME, OCTAVO. 
 
 Its contents are entirely original. Among the contributors are names well known in the republic 
 of letters; such as Mr. Bok'er, Mr. Stoddard, Prof. Moffat, Edith May, Mrs. Sigourney, Caroline May, 
 Mrs. Kinney, Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Pease, Mrs. Swift, Mr. Van Bibber, Rev. Charles T. Brooks, Mrs. 
 Dorr, Erastus W. Ellsworth, Miss E. W. Barnes, Mrs. Williams, Mary Young, Dr. Gardette, Alice 
 Carey, Phebe Carey, Augusta Browne, Hamilton Browne, Caroline Eustis, Margaret Junkin, Maria 
 J. B. Browne, Miss Starr. Mrs. Brotherson, Kate Campbell, Ac. 
 
 (Kims from tjji $arat> Mint; 
 
 OR, HOLY THOUGHTS UPON SACRED SUBJECTS. 
 
 BY CLERGYMEN OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 EDITED BY THOMAS WYATT, A.M. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 WITH SEVEN BEAUTIFUL STEEL ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 The contents of this work are chiefly by clergymen of the Episcopal Church. Among the con- 
 tributors will be found the names of the Right Rev. Bishop Potter, Bishop Hopkins, Bishop Smith, 
 Bishop Johns, and Bishop Doane; and the Rev. Drs. H. V. D. Johns, Coleman, and Butler; Rev. G. 
 T. Bedell, M*Cabe, Ogilsby, <kc. The illustrations are rich and exquisitely wrought engravings upon 
 the following subjects “ Samuel before Eli,” “Peter and John healing the Lame Man,” “The 
 Resurrection of Christ,” “Joseph sold by his Brethren,” “The Tables of the Law,” “Christ’s 
 Agony in the Garden,” and “The Flight into Egypt.” These subjects, with many others in prose 
 and verse, are ably treated throughout the work. 
 
 ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY EXEMPLIFIED, 
 
 In tile Private, Domestic, Social, and Civil Life of tlie Primitive 
 Clirist ians, and in ilie Original Institutions, Offices, 
 Ordinances, and Rites of tlie Church* 
 
 BY REV. LYMAN COLEMAN, D. D. 
 
 In one volume 8vo. Price ®2 50. 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 LONZ POWERS; Or, The Regulators. 
 
 A ROMANCE OF KENTUCKY. 
 
 FOUNDED ON FACTS. 
 
 BY JAMES WEIR, ESQ. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 The scenes, characters, and incidents in these volumes have been copied from nature, and from 
 real life. They are represented as taking place at that period m the history of Kentucky, when 
 the Indian, driven, after many a hard-fought field, from his favourite hunting-ground, was succeeded 
 by a rude and unlettered population, interspersed with organized bands of desperadoes, scarcely 
 less savage than the red men they had displaced. The author possesses a vigorous and graphic 
 pen, and has produced a very interesting romance, which gives us a striking portrait of the times 
 he describes. 
 
 A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON BUSINESS; 
 
 OR, HOW TO GET, SAVE, SPEND, GIVE, LEND, AND BEQUEATH MONEY: 
 
 WITH AN INQUIRY INTO THE CHANCES OF SUCCESS AND CAUSES 
 OF FAILURE IN BUSINESS. 
 
 BY EDWIN T. FREEDLY. 
 
 Also, Prize Essays, Statist^, Miscellanies, and numerous private letters from successful and 
 distinguished business men. 
 
 12mo., cloth. Price One Dollar. 
 
 The object of this treatise is fourfold. First, the elevation of the business character, and to define 
 clearly the limits within which it is not only proper but obligatory to get money. Secondly, to lay 
 down the principles which must be observed to insure success, and what must be avoided to escape 
 failure. Thirdly, to give the mode of management in certain prominent pursuits adopted by the 
 most successful, from which men in all kinds of business may derive profitable hints. Fourthly, to 
 afford a work of solid interest to those who read without expectation of pecuniary benefit. 
 
 A MANUAL OL POLITENESS, 
 
 COMPRISING THE 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF ETIQUETTE AND RULES OF BEHAVIOUR 
 
 IN GENTEEL SOCIETY, FOR PERSONS OF BOTH SEXES. 
 
 18mo., with Plates. 
 
 Book of Politeness. 
 
 THE GENTLEMAN AND LADY’S 
 
 BOOK OF POLITENESS AND PROPRIETY OF DEPORTMENT. 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE YOUTH OE BOTH SEXES. 
 
 BY MADAME CELNART, 
 
 Translated from the Sixth Paris Edition, Enlarged and Improved. 
 
 Fifth American Edition. 
 
 One volume, 18mo. 
 
 L 
 
 THE ANTEDILUVIANS; Or, The World Destroyed. 
 
 A NARRATIVE POEM, IN TEN BOOKS. 
 
 BY JAMES M'EEHSI, M.D. 
 
 One volume, 18mo. 
 
I 
 
 LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Bennett’s (Rev. John) Letters to a Young Lady, 
 
 ON A VARIETY OF SUBJECTS CALCULATED TO IMPROVE THE HEART, 
 TO FORM THE MANNERS, AND ENLIGHTEN THE UNDERSTANDING. 
 
 “That our (laughters may be as polished comers of the temple.” 
 
 The publishers sincerely hope (for the happiness of mankind) that a copy of this valuable little 
 work will be found the companion of every young lady, as much of the happiness of every family 
 depends on the proper cultivation of the female mind. 
 
 THE DAUGHTER’S OWN BOOK: 
 
 OR, PRACTICAL HINTS FROM A FATHER TO HIS DAUGHTER. 
 
 One volume, 18mo. 
 
 This is one of the most practical and truly valuable treatises on the culture and discipline of the 
 female mind, which has hitherto been published in this country ; and the publishers are very confi- 
 dent, from the great demand for this invaluable little work, that ere long it will be found in the 
 library of every young lady. 
 
 THE AMERICAN CHESTERFIELD : 
 
 Or, "Youth's Guide to the Way to Wealth, Honour, aud Distinction," k. Iftaa. 
 
 CONTAINING ALSO A COMPLETE TREATISE ON THE ART OF CARVING. 
 
 “We most cordially recommend the American Chesterfield to general attention; but to young 
 persons particularly, as one of the best works of the kind that has ever been published in this 
 country. It cannot be too highly appreciated, nor its perusal be unproductive of satisfaction and 
 usefulness.” 
 
 SENECA’S MORALS. 
 
 BY WAY OF ABSTRACT TO WHICH IS ADDED, A DISCOURSE UNDER 
 THE TITLE OF AN AFTER THOUGHT. 
 
 BY SIR ROGER L'ESTRA NGE, KNT. 
 
 A new, tine edition; one volume, I8mo. 
 
 A copy of this valuable little work should be found m every family library. 
 
 NEW SONG-BOOK. 
 
 drigg’s lontjjirn nnb -CEirstrrn iongstrr; 
 
 BEING A CHOICE COLLECTION OF THE MOST FASHIONABLE SONGS, MANY OF WHICH 
 ARE ORIGINAL. 
 
 In one volume, 18mo. 
 
 Great care was taken, in the selection, to admit no song that contained, in the slightest degree, 
 any indelicate or improper allusions; and with great propriety it may claim the title of “ The Par- 
 lour Song-Book, or Songster.” The immortal Shakspeare observes — 
 
 “The man that hath not music in himself, 
 
 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 
 Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.” 
 
 ROBOTHAM’S POCKET FRENCH DICTIONARY, 
 
 CAREFULLY REVISED, 
 
 AND THE PRONUNCIATION OF ALL THE DIFFICULT WORDS ADDED. 
 
 20 
 

 LIPPINCOTT, GRAM BO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY, GENTLEMAN. 
 
 COMPRISING THE HUMOROUS ADVENTURES OP 
 
 UNCLE TOBY AND CORPORAL TRIM. 
 
 BY T*. STEENH. 
 
 Beautifully Illustrated 1b y Barley* Stitched* 
 
 A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY. 
 
 BY L. STERNE. 
 
 Illustrated as above by Barley# Stitched* 
 
 The beauties of this author are so well known, and his errors in style and expression so few and 
 far between, that one reads with renewed delight his delicate turns, <fec. 
 
 THE LIFE OF GENERAL JACKSON, 
 
 WITH A LIKENESS OP THE OLD HERO. 
 
 One volume, 18mo. 
 
 
 
 LIFE OF PAUL JONES. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 WITH ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 BY JAMES HAMILTON. 
 
 The work is compiled from his original journals and correspondence, and includes an account of 
 his services in the American Revolution, and rn the war between the Russians and Turks in the 
 Black Sea. There is scarcely any Naval Hero, of any age. who combined in his character so much 
 of the adventurous, skilful and daring, as Paul Jones. The incidents of his life are almost as start- 
 ling and absorbing as those of romance. His achievements during the American Revolution — the 
 fight between the Bon Homme Richard and Serapis, the most desperate naval action on record — 
 and the alarm into which, with so small a force, he threw the coasts of England and Scotland — are 
 matters comparatively well known to Americans; but the incidents of his subsequent career have 
 been veiled in obscurity, which is dissipated by this biography. A book like this, narrating the 
 actions of such a man, ought to meet with an extensive sale, and become as popular as Robinson 
 Crusoe in fiction, or Weems’s Life of Marion and Washington, and similar books, in fact. It con- 
 tains 400 pages, has a handsome portrait and medallion likeness of Jones, and is illustrated with 
 numerous original wood engravings of naval scenes and distinguished men with whom he was 
 familiar. 
 
 THE GREEK EXILE; 
 
 Or, ft Narrative of the Captivity and Escape of Chrislcpkus Plato Castanis, 
 
 DURING THE MASSACRE ON THE ISLAND OF SCIO BY THE TURKS. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH VARIOUS ADVENTURES IN GREECE AND AMERICA. 
 
 WRITTEN BY HIMSELF, 
 
 Author of an Essay on the Ancient and Modern Greek Languages ; Interpretation of the Attributes 
 of the Principal Fabulous Deities ; The Jewish Maiden of Scio's Citadel ; and 
 the Greek Boy m the Suuday-SchooL 
 
 One volume, I2mo. 
 
 THE YOUNG CHORISTER; 
 
 A Collection of New and Beautiful Tunes, adapted to the use of Sabbath-Schools, from some of the 
 most distinguished composers ; together with many of the author's compositions. 
 
 EDITED B1 T MENARD TV. WILSON. 
 
 — 21 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 CAMP LIFE OF A VOLUNTEER, 
 
 A Campaign in Mexico; Or, A Glimpse at Life in Camp. 
 
 BY “OWE WHO HAS SEEW THE ELEPHANT.” 
 
 lift of (fnural 3atjjatq daijlor, 
 
 COMPRISING A NARRATIVE OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH HIS PROFESSIONAL 
 CAREER, AND AUTHENTIC INCIDENTS OF HIS EARLY YEARS. 
 
 BY J. REESE FRY AND R. T. CONRAD. 
 
 With an original and accurate Portrait, and eleven elegant Illustrations, by Darley, 
 In one handsome 12mo. volume. 
 
 “ It is by far the fullest and most interesting biography of General Taylor that we have ever seen." 
 — Richmond ( Whig) Chronicle. 
 
 “ On the whole, we are satisfied that this volume is the most correct and comprehensive one yet 
 published.” — Hunt's Merchants' Magazine. 
 
 “The superiority of this edition over the ephemeral publications of the day consists in fuller and 
 more authentic accounts of his family, his early life, and Indian wars. The narrative of his pro- 
 ceedings in Mexico is drawn partly from reliable private letters, but chiefly from his own official 
 correspondence.” 
 
 “It forms a cheap, substantial, and attractive volume, and one which should be read at the firo- 
 side of every family who desire a faithful and true life of the Old General.” 
 
 GENERAL TAYLOR AND BIS STAFF: 
 
 Comprising Memoirs of Generals Taylor, Worth, Wool, and Butler; Cols. May, Cross, Clay, Hardin, 
 Yell, Hays, and other distinguished Officers attached to General Taylor’s 
 Army. Interspersed with 
 
 NUMEROUS ANECDOTES OF THE MEXICAN WAR, 
 
 and Personal Adventures of the Officers. Compiled from Public Documents and Private Corre- 
 spondence. With 
 
 ACCURATE PORTRAITS, AND OTHER BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 GENERAL SCOTT AND HIS STAFF : 
 
 Comprising Memoirs of Generals Scott, Twiggs, Smith, Quitman, Shields, Pillow, Lane, Cadwalader, 
 Patterson, and Pierce ; Cols. Childs, Riley, Harney, and Butler ; and other 
 distinguished officers attached to General Scott’s Army. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 Notices of General Kearny, Col. Doniphan, Col. Fremont, and other officers distinguished in the 
 Conquest of California and New Mexico ; and Personal Adventures of the Officers. Com- 
 piled from Public Documents and Private Correspondence. With 
 
 ACCURATE PORTRAITS, AND OTHER BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 INCLUDING THE SURGICAL, MEDICAL AND MECHANICAL TREATMENT 
 OF THE TEETH. 
 
 Illustrated witta tHirty-ome Engravings. 
 
 By CHARLES A- DU BOUCHET, M. D., Dental Surgeon. 
 
 In one volume, 18mo. 
 
 22 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 MECHANICS FOR THE MILLWRIGHT, ENGINEER AND MACHINIST, 
 CIVIL ENGINEER, AND ARCHITECT: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OP MECHANICS APPLIED TO MACHINERY 
 
 Of American models, Steam-Engines, Water-Works, Navigation, Bridge-building, &c. <tc. By 
 FREDERICK OVERMAN, 
 
 Author of “ The Manufacture of Iron,” and other scientific treatises. 
 
 Illustrated by 150 Engravings. In one large 12mo. volume. 
 
 WILLIAMS’S TRAVELLER’S AND TOURIST’S GUIDE 
 Through the United States, Canada, &c. 
 
 This book will be found replete with information, not only to the traveller, but likewise to the 
 man of business. In its preparation, an entirely new plan has been adopted, which, we are con- 
 vinced, needs only a trial to be fully appreciated. 
 
 Among its many valuable features, are tables showing at a glance the distance, fare, and time 
 occupied in travelling from the principal cities to the most important places in the Union ; so that 
 the question frequently asked, without obtaining a satisfactory reply, is here answered in full. 
 Other tables show the distances from New York, <tc., to domestic and foreign ports, by sea; and 
 also, by way of comparison, from New York and Liverpool to the principal ports beyond and around 
 Cape Horn, <kc., as well as via the Isthmus of Panama. Accompanied by a large and accurate Map 
 of the United States, including a separate Map of California, Oregon, New Mexico and Utah. Also, 
 a Map of the Island of Cuba, and Plan of the City and Harbor of Havana; and a Map of Niagara 
 River and Falls. 
 
 THE LEGISLATIVE GUIDE: 
 
 Containing directions for conducting business in the House of Representatives ; the Senate of the 
 United States; the Joint Rules of both Houses ; a Synopsis of Jefferson’s Manual, and copious 
 Indices; together with a concise system 'of Rules of Order, based on the regulations of the 
 U. S. Congress. Designed to economise time, secure uniformity and despatch in con- 
 ducting business in all secular meetings, and also in all religious, political, and 
 Legislative Assemblies. 
 
 BY JOSEPH BARTLETT BURLEIGH, LL. D. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo. 
 
 This is considered by our Judges and Congressmen as decidedly the best work of the kind extant. 
 Every young man in the country should have a copy of this book. 
 
 THE INITIALS; A Story of Modern Life. 
 
 THREE VOLUMES OF THE LONDON EDITION COMPLETE IN ONE V OLUME 12MO. 
 
 A new novel, equal to “Jane Eyre.” 
 
 WILD WESTERN SCENES! 
 
 A NARRATIVE Or ADVENTURES IN THE WESTERN WILDERNESS. 
 
 Wherein the Exploits of Daniel Boone, the Great American Pioneer, are particularly described. 
 Also, Minute Accounts of Bear. Deer, and Buffalo Hunts — Desperate Conflicts with the 
 Savages — Fishing and Fowling Adventures — Encounters with Serpents, &c. 
 
 By Luke Seiortfield, Author of “The Western Merchant.” 
 
 BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED. One volume, 12mo. 
 
 POEMS OF THE PLEASURES: 
 
 Consisting of the PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION, by Akenside ; the PLEASURES OF MEMORY, 
 by Samuel Rogers; the PLEASURES OF HOPE, by Campbell; and the PLEASURES OF 
 FRIENDSHIP, by M'Henry. With a Memoir of each Author, prepared expressly 
 for this work. 18mo. 
 
 23 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 T 
 
 BALDWIN’S PRONOUNCING GAZETTEER. 
 
 A PRONOUNCING GAZETTEER: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 TOPOGRAPHICAL, STATISTICAL, AND OTHER INFORMATION, OF ALL THE MORE IM- 
 PORTANT PLACES IN THE KNOWN WORLD, FROM THE MOST 
 RECENT AND AUTHENTIC SOURCES. 
 
 BIT THOMAS BALDWIN. 
 
 Aaaisted by several other Gentlemen. 
 
 To which is added an APPENDTX, containing: more than TEN THOUSAND ADDITIONAL NAMES, 
 chiefly of the small Towns and Villages, See., of the United States and of Mexico. 
 
 NINTH EDITION, WITH A SUPPLEMENT, 
 
 Giving the Pronunciation of near two thousand names, besides those pronounced in tho Original 
 Work : Forming in itself a Complete Vocabulary of Geographical Pronunciation. 
 
 ONE VOLUME 12mO. — PRICE, $1.50. 
 
 Sltifuir’D Xibrnq for tlje loMrjjoR. 
 
 Complete in Twelve handsome 18rao. Volumes, bound in Scarlet Cloth. 
 
 1. WOMAN’S TRIALS ; OR. TALES AND SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE AROUND D6. 
 
 2. MARRIED LIFE; ITS SHADOWS AN D SUNSHINE. 
 
 3. THE TWO WIVES; OR LOST AND WON. 
 
 4. THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE ; OR, “ HE DOETH ALL THINGS WELL.” 
 
 5. HOME SCENES AND HOME INFLUENCES. 
 
 6. STORIES FOR YOUNG HOUSEKEEPERS. 
 
 7. LESSONS IN LIFE. FOR ALL WHO WILL READ THEM. 
 
 a SEED-TIME AND HARVEST; OR, WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH THAT SHALL HE 
 ALSO REAP. 
 
 9. STORIES FOR PARENTS. 
 
 10. OFF-HAND SKETCHES, A LITTLE DASHED WITH HUMOR. 
 
 11. WORDS FOR THE WISE. 
 
 12. THE TRIED AND THE TEMPTED. 
 
 The above Series are sold together or separate, as each work is complete in itself. No Family should 
 be without a copy of this interesting and instructive Series. Price Thirty-seven and a Half Cents per 
 Volume. 
 
 FIELD’S SCRAP BOOK.— New Edition. 
 
 Xtartj ml 3lLtsrrUntirnn3 Irntp 36onk. 
 
 Consisting of Tales and Anecdotes — Biographical, Historical, Patriotic, Moral, Religious, and Senti- 
 mental Pieces, lu Prose and Poetry. 
 
 Compiled by WILLIAM FIELDS. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND IMPROVED. 
 
 In one handsome 8vo. Volume. Price, $2.00. 
 
 POLITICS FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS; 
 
 A WORD UPON OUR EXAMPLE AS A NATION, OUR LABOUR, Ac. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 THE POLITICS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OP “NEW THEMES FOR THE PROTESTANT CLERGY.” 
 
 One vol. 8vo., half cloth. Price 50 cents. For sale by ail the Trade. 
 
 THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS CONNEXION WITH MAN. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY THE PRINCIPAL ORGANS. 
 
 BY JAMES JOHN GARTH WILKINSON, 
 
 Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 
 
 IN ONE VOLUME, 12 MO — PRICE $1 25. 
 
 24 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 BOARDMAN’S BIBLE IN THE FAMILY. 
 
 in t Jr j /nniilq: 
 
 OR, 
 
 HINTS ON DOMESTIC HAPPINESS. 
 
 BY H. A. BOARDMAN, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 One Volume 12mo.— Price, One Dollar. 
 
 WHEELER’S HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 Historical Sketches 
 
 OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA, 
 
 From 1584 to 1851. 
 
 CompHed from Original Records, Official Documents, and Traditional Statements ; with Biographical 
 Sketches of her Distinguished Statesmen, Jurists, Lawyers, Soldiers, Divines, &c. 
 
 BY JOHN H. WHEELER, 
 
 Late Treasurer of the State. 
 
 IN ONE VOLUME 0 CTAV 0 . — P HI C E, $ 2 . 00 . 
 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA HEADER: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A HISTORY AMD DESCRIPTION OF NORTH CAROLINA, SELECTIONS IN PROSE 
 AND VERSE, (MANY OF THEM BY EMINENT CITIZENS OF THE 
 STATE), HISTORICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES, 
 
 Slu'd a ITavtetri of JKfscellaneous information air'd Statistics. 
 BY C. H. WILEY. 
 
 “ My own green land for ever 1 
 Land of the beautiful and brave — 
 
 The freeman’s home — the martyr’s grave." 
 
 Illustrated with Engravings , and designed for Families and Schools. 
 
 ONE VOLUME 12MO. PRICE 81.00. 
 
 THIRTY YEARS WITH THE INDIAN TRIBES. 
 
 PERSONAL MEMOIRS 
 
 OF A 
 
 totitettrt nf €ljirttj *jhm ttniji ijjt Snirinn Criks 
 
 ON THE AMERICAN FRONTIERS: 
 
 With brief Notices of passing Events, Facts, and, Opinions , 
 
 A. D. 1812 TO A. D. 1842. 
 
 BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 
 
 ONE LARGE OCTAVO VOLUME. PRICE THREE DOLLARS. 
 
 I sTTsFaT F¥i nTe?s s 
 
 OR, 
 
 ROMANTIC ADVENTURES IN NORTHERN MEXICO. 
 
 BY CAPTAIN MAINE REID, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE “ RIFLE RANGERS.” 
 
 Complete in One Volume . Price Fifty Cents . 
 
 25 
 
LIPPINCQTT, 'SRAM BO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE CONFESSIONS OF A HOUSEKEEPER. 
 
 BY MRS. JOHN SMITH. 
 
 WITH THIRTEEN HUMOROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 One Volume 12 mo. Price 50 Cents. 
 
 Splendid Illustrated Books, suitable for Gifts for the Holidays. 
 
 THE IRIS: AN ORIGINAL SOUVENIR FOR ANT YARE. 
 
 EDITED BY PROF. JOHN S. HART. 
 
 WITH TWELVE SPLENDID ILLUMINATIONS, ALL FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS. 
 
 THE DEW-DROP : A TRIBUTE OF AFFECTION. 
 
 WITH NINE STEEL ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 GEMS FROM THE SACRED MINE. 
 
 WITH TEN STEEL PLATES AND ILLUMINATIONS. 
 
 . $Jjr part's (Offering. 
 
 WITH FOURTEEN STEEL PLATES AND ILLUMINATIONS. 
 
 THE STANDARD EDITIONS OF THE POETS. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 OR, COUNTRY HOSPITALITIES. 
 
 BY CATHARINE SINCLAIR, 
 
 Author of “ Jane Bouverie,” “The Business of Life," ‘‘Modern Accomplishments,” &c. 
 
 One Volume 12mo. Price 50 cents, paper ; cloth, fine, 75 cents, 
 
 A Book for every Family. 
 
 THE DICTIONARY OF DOMESTIC MEDICINE AND HOUSEHOLD SURGERY. 
 
 BY SPENCER THOMPSON, M.D., F.R.C.S., 
 
 Of Edinburgh. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS CUTS. 
 
 EDITED AND ADAPTED TO THE WANTS OF THIS COUNTRY, BY A WELL-KNOWN 
 PRACTITIONER OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 In one volume, demi-octavo. 
 
 x €ljr Eighth's Daugjjbr: 
 
 A TALE OF TWO WORLDS. 
 
 BY W. H. CARPENTER, 
 
 AUTHOR OP “ CLAIBORNE THE REBEL,” “ JOHN THE BOLD,” AC., &C. 
 
 One Volume I8mo. Price Thirty-seven and a Half Cents. 
 
 WILLIAMS’S NEW MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, ON ROLLERS. 
 
 SIZE TWO AND A HALF BY THREE FEET. 
 
 A new Map of the United States, upon whicn are delineated its vast works of Internal Communi- 
 cation, Routes across the Continent, <fec., showing also Canada and the Island of Cuba, 
 
 BY W. WILLIAMS. 
 
 This Map is handsomely colored and mounted on rollers, and will be found a beautiful and useful 
 ornament to the Counting-House and Parlor, as well as the School-Room. Price Two Dollars. 
 
 2G 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 VALUABLE ST ANDARD MED ICAL BOOKS. 
 
 DISPENSATORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 BY DRS. WOOD AND BACHE. 
 
 New Edition, much enlarged and carefully revised. One volume, royal octavo. 
 
 A TREATISE ON THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 
 
 BY GEORGE B. WOOD, M. D., 
 
 One of the Authors of the “ Dispensatory of the U. S.,” &c. New edition, improved- 2 vols. 8vcx 
 
 AN ILLUSTRATED SYSTEM OF HUMAN ANATOMY; 
 
 SPECIAL, MICROSCOPIC, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL. 
 
 BY SAMUEL GEORGE MORTON, M. D. 
 
 With 391 beautiful Illustrations. One volume, royal octavo. 
 
 SMITH’S OPERATIVE SURGERY. 
 
 A SYSTEM OF OPERATIVE SURGERY. 
 
 BASED UPON THE PRACTICE OF SURGEONS IN THE UNITED 
 STATES ; AND COMPRISING A 
 
 Bibliographical Index and Historical Record of many of their Operations, 
 
 U FOR A PERIOD OF 2 0 0 TEARS. 
 
 BY HENRY H. SMITH, M.D. 
 
 Illustrated with nearly 1000 Engravings on Steel. 
 
 MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS, 
 
 With ample Illustrations of Practice in all the Departments of Medical Science, and copious No- 
 tices of Toxicology. 
 
 BIT THOMAS 2J„ MITCHELL, A.M., 
 
 Prof, of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Philadelphia College of Medicine, dec. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SURGERY. 
 
 By George M'Clellan, M. D. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 EBERLE’S PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 
 
 New Edition. Improved by GEORGE M'CLELLAN, M. D. Two volumes in 1 voL 8vo. 
 
 EBERLE’S THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 TWO VOLUMES IN ONE. 
 
 A TREATISE ON THE DISEASES AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN, 
 
 By JOHN EBERLE, M. D., &c. Fourth Edition. With Notes and very large Additions, 
 
 By Thomas D. Mitchell, A. M., M. D., &c. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 EBERLE’S NOTES FOR STUDENTS — NEW EDITION, 
 
 *,* These works are used as text-books in most of the Medical Schools in the United States. 
 
 A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON POISONS: 
 
 Their Symptoms, Antidotes, and Treatment. By 0. II. Costill, M. D. 18mo. 
 
 IDENTITIES OF LIGHT AND HEAT, OF CALORIC AND ELECTRICITY, 
 
 BY C. CAMPBELL COOPER. 
 
 UNITED STATES r PHARMACOP(EIA, 
 
 Edition of 1851. Published by authority of the National Medical Convention. 1 voL 8vo 
 
 27 ' 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SCHOOLCRAFTS GREAT NATIONAL WORK ON THE 
 
 a Man €x\btB of \\)i itniUfr %UUb. 
 
 PART SECOND— QUARTO. 
 
 WITH EIGHTY BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL, 
 
 Engraved in the first style of the art, from Drawings by Captain Eastman, U. S. A. 
 PRICE, FIFTEEN DOLLARS. 
 
 WITH A SELECTION FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE, 
 
 One of the Judges of the Court of Sessions in Scotland. Two volumes, demi-octavo. 
 “Those who know Lord Jeffrey only through the pages of the Edinburgh Review, get but a one- 
 sided, and not the most pleasant view of his character.” 
 
 “ We advise our readers to obtain the book, and enjoy it to the full themselves. They will unite 
 with us in saying that the self-drawn character portrayed in the letters of Lord Jeffrey, is one of the 
 most delightful pictures that has ever been presented to them.” — Evening Bulletin. 
 
 “ Jeffrey was for a long period editor of the Review, and was admitted by all the other contribu- 
 tors to be the leading spirit in it. In addition to his political articles, he soon showed his wonderful 
 powers of criticism in literature. He was equally at home whether censuring or applauding; in 
 his onslaughts on the mediocrity of Southey, or the misused talents of Byron, or in his noble essays 
 on Shakspeare, or Scott, or Burns.”— New Yorlc Express. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, IN ONE VOLUME OCTAVO, CLOTH. 
 
 “We have rarely read a volume so full of life and enthusiasm, so capable of transporting the 
 reader into an actGr among the scenes and persons described. The volume can hardly be opened 
 at any page without arresting the attention, and the reader is borne along with the movement of a 
 style whose elastic spring and life knows no weariness.” — Boston Courier and Transcript , 
 
 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN, 
 
 WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 
 
 “ Our author has acquitted himself in a manner worthy of his subject. His style is easy, flowing, 
 and yet sententious. Altogether, we consider it a highly valuable addition to the literature of our 
 age, and a work that should find its way into the library of every Friend.” — Friends’ Intelligencer > 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 “ We regard this life of the great founder of Pennsylvania as a valuable addition to the literature 
 of the country.” — Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 
 
 “We have no hesitation in pronouncing Mr. Jan ney’s life of Penn the best, because the most 
 satisfactory, that has yet been written. The author’s style is clear and uninvolved, and well suited 
 to the purposes of biographical narrative.” — Louisville Journal. 
 
 COCKBURN’S OF LORD JEFFREY. 
 
 PE OP LORD JEFFREY, 
 
 BY LORD COCKBURN, 
 
 PRICE, TWO DOLLARS AND A HALF. 
 
 ROMANCE NATURAL HISTORY; 
 
 OR, WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
 
 BY C. W. WEBBER 
 
 PRICE, TWO DOLLARS. 
 
 BY SAMUEL M . JANNEY 
 
 Second Edition, Revised. 
 
 PRICE, TWO DOLLARS. 
 

 LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 UPPINCOTT’S CABINET HISTORIES OF THE STATES, 
 
 CONSISTING OF A SERIES OF 
 
 Cabinet Histories of all the States of the Union, 
 
 TO EMBRACE A VOLUME FOR EACH STATE. 
 
 We have so far compTeted all oar arrangements, as to be able to issue the whole series in the 
 shortest possible time consistent with its careful literary production. SEVERAL VOLUMES ARE 
 .NOW READY FOR SALE. The talented authors who have engaged to write these Histories, are 
 no strangers in the literary world. 
 
 NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
 
 “These most tastefully printed and bound volumes form the first instalment of a series of State 
 Histories, which, without superseding the bulkier and more expensive works of the same charac- 
 ter, may enter household channels from which the others would be excluded by their cost and 
 magnitude.” 
 
 “In conciseness, clearness, skill of arrangement, and graphic interest, they are a most excellent 
 earnestjof those to come. They are eminently adapted both to interest and instruct, and should 
 have a place in the family library of every American.”— N. Y. Courier and Enquirer. 3 
 
 “ The importance of a series of State History like those now in preparation, can scarcely be esti- 
 mated. Being condensed as carefully as accuracy and interest of narrative will permit, the size 
 and price of the volumes will bring them within the reach of every family in the country, thus 
 making them home-reading books for old and young. Each individual will, in consequence, become 
 familiar, not only with the history of his own State, but with that of the other States ; thus mutual 
 interests will be re-awakened, and old bonds cemented in a firmer re-union .” — Home Gazette. 
 
 NEW THEMES FOR THE PROTESTANT CLERGY; 
 
 CREEDS WITHOUT CHARITY, THEOLOGY WITHOUT HUMANITY, AND PROTESTANT- 
 ISM WITHOUT CHRISTIANITY: 
 
 With Notes by the Editor on the Literature of Charity, Population, Pauperism, Political 
 Economy, and Protestantism 
 
 “The great question which the book discusses is, whether the Church of this age is what the 
 primitive Church was, and whether Christians— both pastors and people— are doing their duty. Our 
 anthor believes not, and, to our mind, he has made out a strong case. He thinks there is abundant 
 room for reform at the present time, and that it is needed almost as much as in the days of Luther. 
 And why? Because, in his own words, * While one portion of nominal Christians have busied 
 themselves with forms and ceremonies and observances; with pictures, images, and processions ; 
 others have given to doctrines the supremacy, and have busied themselves in laying down the 
 lines by which to enforce human belief— lines of interpretation by which to control human opinion 
 —lines of discipline and restraint, by which to bring human minds to uniformity of faith and action. 
 They have formed creeds and catechisms ; they have spread themselves over the whole field of the 
 sacred writings, and scratched up all the surface; they have gathered all the straws, and turned 
 over all the pebbles, and detected the colour and determined the outline of every stone and tree 
 and shrub; they have dwelt, with rapture upon all that was beautiful and sublime; but they have 
 trampled over mines of golden wisdom, of surpassing richness and depth, almost without a thought, 
 and almost without an effort to fathom these priceless treasures, much less to take possession 
 of them.’ ” 
 
 PRICE, ONE DOLLAR. 
 
 SIMPSON’S MILITARY JOURNAL. 
 
 JOURNAL OF A MILITARY REC0NN01SSANCE FROM SANTA FE, NEW 
 MEXICO, TO THE NAVAJO COUNTRY, 
 
 BY JAMES H. SIMPSON, A.M., 
 
 FIRST LIEUTENANT CORPS OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS. 
 WITH SEVENTY-FIVE COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 One volume, octavo. Price, Three Dollars. 
 
 29 
 
LIPPINCO TT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 TALES OF THE SOUTHERN BORDER. 
 
 ' BY C. W. WEBBER. 
 
 ONE VOLUME OCTAVO, HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 The Hunter Naturalist, a Romance of Sporting; 
 
 OR, WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
 
 BY C. W. WEBBER, 
 
 Author of “ Shot in the Eye,” ” Old Hicks the Guide,” “ Gold Mines of the Gila,” Ac. 
 
 ONE VOLUME, ROYAL OCTAVO. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH FORTY BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS, FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS, 
 
 MANY OF WHICH ARE COLOURED. 
 
 Price, Five Dollars. 
 
 NIGHTS IN A BLOCK-HOUSE; 
 
 OR, SKETCHES OF BORDER LIFE. 
 
 Embracing: Adventures among the Indians, Feats of the Wild Hunters, and Exploits of Boone, 
 Brady, Kenton, Whetzel, Fleehart, and other Border Heroes of the West 
 BY HENRY C. WATSON, 
 
 Author of “ Camp-Fires of the Revolution.” 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 One volume, 8vo. Price, $2 00. 
 
 HAMILTON, THE YOUNG ARTIST. 
 
 BY AUGUSTA BROWNE. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN ESSAY ON SCULPTURE AND PAINTING, 
 
 BY HAMILTON A. C. BROWNE. 
 
 1 vol. 18mo. Price, 37 1-2 cents. 
 
 THE FISCA L HISTORY OF TEXAS: 
 
 EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF ITS REVENUES, DEBTS, AND CURRENCY, FROM 
 THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION IN 1834, TO 1851-2, 
 
 WITH REMARKS ON AMERICAN DEBTS. 
 
 BY WM. M. GOUGE, 
 
 Author of “ A Short History of Paper Money and Banking: in the United States.” 
 
 In one vol. 8vo., cloth. Price $1 50. 
 
 INGERSOLL’S HISTORY OF THE SECOND WAR: 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE SECOND WAR BETWEEN THE U. STATES AND GT. BRITAIN. 
 
 BY CHARLES J. IIIGERSOLL. 
 
 Second series. 2 volumes, 8vo. Price $4 00. 
 
 These two volumes, which embrace the hostile transactions between the United States and Great 
 Britain during the years 1814 and ’In, complete Mr. lngersoll’s able work on the Second or “ Late 
 War,” as it has usually been called. A great deal of new and valuable matter has been collected 
 by the author from original sources, and is now first introduced to the public. 
 
 30 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 FR.QST’3 JUVENILE SERIES. 
 
 TWELVE VOLUMES, 16mo., WITH FIVE HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 WALTER O'NEILL, OR THE PLEASURE OF DOING GOOD. 25 Engrav’gs. 
 JUNKER SCHOTT, and other Stories. 6 Engravings. 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LURLEI, and other Stories. 12 Engravings. 
 
 ELLEN'S BIRTHDAY, and other Stories. 20 Engravings. 
 
 HERMAN, and other Stories. 9 Engravings. 
 
 KING- TREGEWALL’S DAUGHTER, and other Stories. 16 Engravings. 
 
 THE DROWNED BOY, and other Stories. 6 Engravings. 
 
 THE PICTORIAL RHYME-BOOK. 122 Engravings. 
 
 THE PICTORIAL NURSERY EOOK. 117 Engravings. 
 
 THE GOOD CHILD'S REWARD. 115 Engravings. 
 
 ALPHABET OF QUADRUPEDS. 26 Engravings. 
 
 ALPHABET OF BIRDS. 26 Engravings. 
 
 PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS EACH. 
 
 The above popular and attractive series of New Juveniles for the Young, are sold together or 
 separately. 
 
 THE MILLINER A N 0 THE MILLIONAIRE. 
 
 BY MRS. REBECCA HICKS, 
 
 (Of Virginia,) Author of “ The Lady Killer v ” &c. One volume, 12mo« 
 
 Price, 373^ cents. 
 
 AN EXPLORATION 
 OF THE VALLEY OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE 
 
 OF UTAH, 
 
 CONTAINING ITS GEOGRAPHY, NATURAL HISTORY, MINER ALOGICAL RE- 
 SOURCES, ANALYSIS OF ITS WATERS, AND AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE MORMON SETTLEMENT. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 A REC0NN01SSANCE OF A NEW ROUTE THROUGH THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, 
 
 WITH SEVENTY BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 FROM DRAWINGS TAKEN ON THE SPOT, 
 
 AND TWO LARGE AND ACCURATE MAPS OF THAT REGION. 
 
 BTT HOWAHB STANS2UHY, 
 
 CAPTAIN TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS. 
 
 One volume, royal octavo. Price Five Dollars. 
 
 31 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE ABBOTSFORD EDITION 
 
 OF 
 
 jje iBmurlnj JUneU, 
 
 PRINTED UPON FINE WHITE PA PER, WITH NEW AND BEAUTIFUL TYPE, 
 FROM THE LAST ENGLISH EDITION, 
 
 EMBRACING 
 
 THE AUTHOR’S LATEST CORRECTIONS, NOTES, ETC., 
 
 COMPLETE IN TWELVE VOLUMES, DEMI-OCTAVO, AND NEATLY BOUND IN CLOTH, 
 
 mm EHustrattons, 
 
 FOR ONLY TWELVE DOLLARS, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 WAVERLEY, or ’Tis Sixty Years Since THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 GUY MANNERING PEVERIL OF THE PEAK. 
 
 THE ANTIQUARY QUENTIN DURWARD. 
 
 THE BLACK DWARF ST. RON AN’S WELL. 
 
 OLD MORTALITY REDGAUNTLET. 
 
 ROB ROY THE BETROTHED. 
 
 THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN THE TALISMAN. 
 
 THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR WOODSTOCK. 
 
 A LEGEND OF MONTROSE THE HIGHLAND WIDOW, &e. 
 
 IVANHOE THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. 
 
 THE MONASTERY ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN. 
 
 THE ABBOT COUNT ROBERT OF PARIS. 
 
 KENILWORTH CASTLE DANGEROUS. 
 
 THE PIRATE THE SURGEON’S DAUGHTER, 
 
 ANY OF THE ABOVE NOVELS SOLD, IN PAPER COVERS, AT FIFTY CENTS EACH. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 AN ILLUSTRATED EDITION 
 
 THE WAVERLEY NOVELS, 
 
 In Twelve Volumes, Royal Octavo, on Superfine Paper, with 
 
 SEVERAL HUNDRED CHARACTERISTIC AND BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 ELEGANTLY BOUND IN CLOTH, GILT. 
 
 :$}“fce, ©nig StDentg^.U’our dollars. 
 
 82 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Bn Thcss, 
 
 A NEW AND COMPLETE 
 
 GAZETTEER OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 It will furnish the fullest and most recent information respecting the Geography, Statistics, and 
 present state of improvement, of every part of this great Republic, particularly of 
 
 TEXAS, CALIFORNIA, OREGON, NEW MEXICO, 
 
 Ac. The work will be issued as soon as the complete official retulTis of the present Census are 
 
 received. 
 
 THE ABOVE WORK WILL BE FOLLOWED BY 
 
 A UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER, OR GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY, 
 
 of the most complete and comprehensive character. It will be compiled from the best English, 
 French, and German authorities, and will be published the moment that the returns of the present 
 census of Europe can be obtained. 
 
 Ilistonj of fjje ftkrttinns of fttitji, 
 
 THEIR DOMESTIC POLITY AND THEOLOGY, 
 
 BY J. W. GUNNISON, 
 
 U. S. Corps Topographical Engineers. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, IN ONE VOLUME DEMI-OCTAVO. 
 
 PRICE FIFTY CENTS. 
 
 REPORT OF A GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
 
 OF 
 
 WISCONSIN, IOWA, AND MINNESOTA, 
 
 AND INCIDENTALLY OF 
 
 A PORTION OF NEBRASKA TERRITORY, 
 
 MADE UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE U. S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
 
 BY DAVID DALE OWEN, 
 
 United States’ Geologist. 
 
 WITH OVER 150 ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL AND WOOD. 
 
 Two volumes, quarto. Priue Ten Dollars. 
 
 MERCHANTS’ MEMORANDUM ROOK, 
 
 CONTAINING LISTS OF ALL GOODS PURCHASED BY COUNTRY MERCHANTS, Ac 
 One volume, 18mo., Leather cover. Price, 50 cents. 
 
 38 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 ARTHUR’S 
 
 Jintt Sinipiiilf fihtunj. 
 
 BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED, 
 
 1. WHO IS GREATEST ? and other Stories. 
 
 2. WHO ARE HAPPIEST? and other Stories. 
 
 3. THE POOR WOOD-CUTTER, and other Stories. 
 
 4. MAGGY’S BABY, and other Stories. 
 
 5. MR. HAVEN’T-GOT-TIME AND MR. DON’T-BE-IH-A-HURRY. 
 
 6. THE PEACEMAKERS. 
 
 7. UNCLE BEN’S NEW-YEAR’S GIFT, and other Stories. 
 
 8. THE WOUNDED BOY, and other Stories. 
 
 9. THE LOST CHILDREN, and other Stories. 
 
 10. OUR HARRY, and other Poems and Stories. 
 
 11. THE LAST PENNY, and other Stones. 
 
 12. PIERRE, THE ORGAN BOY, and other Stories. 
 
 BACH VOLUME IS ILLUSTRATED WITH 
 
 ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY CROOME, 
 
 And are sold together or separately. 
 
 TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED BY GREAT AUTHORS. 
 
 A DICTIONARY OF OVER FOUR THOUSAND AIDS TO REFLECTION— QUOTA- 
 TIONS OF MAXIMS, METAPHORS, COUNSELS, CAUTIONS, APHORISMS, 
 PROVERBS, &c. Ac., IN PROSE AND VERSE; 
 
 COMPILED FROM SHAKSPEARE, AND OTHER GREAT WRITERS, FROM THE 
 EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 A new edition, with American additions and revisions. 
 
 LIBRARY EDITION OF SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 (LARGE TYPE.) 
 
 THE DRAMATIC WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, 
 
 WITH A LIFE OF THE POET, 
 
 AND NOTES ORIGINAL AND SELECTED, TOGETHER WITH A COPIOUS GLOSSARY. 
 
 4 VOLUMES OCTAVO. 
 
 STYLES OF BINDING: 
 
 Cloth, extra $6 00 
 
 Library style 7 00 
 
 Half-Turkey morocco 9 00 
 
 Half-calf and Turkey, antique style 12 00 
 
 Full calf and Turkey, antique style 16 00 
 
 34 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 /onfpaf anh Higjjmaq; 
 
 OR, 
 
 WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN IN GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 IN 1851 AND ’52. 
 
 BY BENJAMIN MORAN. 
 
 Tins volume embodies the observations of the author, made during eight months’ wanderings, 
 as a correspondent for American Journals; and as he travelled much on foot, differs essentially 
 from those on the same countries, by other writers. The habits, manners, customs, and condition 
 of the people have been carefully noted, and his views of them are given in clear, bold language. 
 His remarks take a wide range, and as he visited every county in England but three, there will be 
 much in the work of a novel and instructive character. 
 
 One vol. 12mo. Price $1 25. 
 
 DAY DREAMS. 
 
 B7 XX I S 3 MARTHA ALLEN, 
 
 ONE VOLUME 12mo. 
 
 Price, paper, 50 cents. Cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 SIMON KENTON: OR, THE SCOUT’S REVENGE. 
 
 AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE. 
 
 BY JAMES WEIR. 
 
 Illustrated, cloth, 75 cents. Paper, 50 cents. 
 
 MARIE DE BERNIERE, THE MAROON, 
 
 AND OTHER TALES. 
 
 BY W. GILMORE SIMMS. 
 
 1 vol. 12mo., cloth. Price $1 25. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 B "ST SCHUYLER HAMILTON, 
 
 CAPTAIN BY BREVET, U. S. A. 
 
 One vol., crown 8vo. Price $1 00. 
 
 ANNA BISHOP’S TRAVELS. 
 
 TRAVELS OF ANNA BISHOP IN MEXICO (1849). 
 
 WITH TWELVE BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Price, paper, 50 cents. Cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 35 
 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 A REVIEW 
 
 OP 
 
 “NEW THEMES FOR THE PROTESTANT CLERGY” 
 
 ONE VOLUME 12mo. 
 
 Price, paper, 25 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. 
 
 THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE. 
 
 BY H. A. BOARDMAN, D.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF “THE BIBLE IN THE FA MIL Yt* 
 
 One vol. 12mo., cloth. Price One Dollar. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A NEW CHURCHMAN. 
 
 BY JOHN A. LITTLE. 
 
 ONE VOLUME 12tno. PRICE 75 CENTS. 
 
 MILTON’S WORKS-NEW AND COMPLETE EDITION. 
 
 Milton’s ^otfiral IBotks, 
 
 WITH A LIFE, DISSERTATION, INDEX, AND NOTES. 
 
 BY PROF. C. D. CLEVELAND. 
 
 ONE VOLUME ROYAL 12mo., CLOTH. PRICE $1 25. 
 
 UNIFORM AND DRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 QUARTO, CLOTH. PRICE FIVE DOLLARS. 
 
 UNIFORM AND DRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 QUARTO, CLOTH. PRICE PTVE DOLLARS. 
 
 36 
 
Date Due 
 
 m 1 1 im 
 
 ft 
 
 
 
 £UG 2 b ^ 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■Att #? y fT - 
 
 
 
 
 'f/f 
 
 ,^£P 1 *47 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L. B. Cat. No. 1 137 
 
976.8 F.'. ff 
 
 BaffiSfiy 
 
 36918 
 
 ' :v r: 
 
 18th OftaAurv. 
 
 976. b R183R p 
 
 26918 
 
t