Conquest of the Old Southwest - Chapters XVIII-XX



CHAPTER XVIII.
KING'S MOUNTAIN

With the utmost satisfaction I can acquaint you with the sudden and 
favorable turn of our public affairs. A few days ago destruction hung over 
our heads. Cornwallis with at least 1500 British and Tories waited at 
Charlotte for the reinforcement of 1000 from Broad River, which 
reinforcement has been entirely cut off, 130 killed and the remainder 
captured. Cornwallis immediately retreated, and is now on his way toward 
Charleston, with part of our army in his rear . . . .
--Elizabeth Maxwell Steel: Salisbury, October 25, 1780.

So thoroughly had the Cherokees been subdued by the devastations of the 
campaign of 1776 that for several years thereafter they were unable to 
organize for a new campaign against the backwoodsmen along the frontiers 
of North Carolina and Tennessee. During these years the Holston settlers 
principally busied themselves in making their position secure, as well as 
in setting their house in order by severely punishing the lawless Tory 
element among them. In 1779 the Chickamaugas, with whom The Dragging Canoe 
and his irreconcilable followers among the Cherokees had joined hands 
after the campaign of 1776, grew so bold in their bloody forays upon small 
exposed settlements that North Carolina and Virginia in conjunction 
despatched a strong expedition against them. Embarking on April l0th at 
the mouth of Big Creek near the present Rogersville, Tennessee, three 
hundred and fifty men led by Colonel Evan Shelby descended the Tennessee 
to the fastnesses of the Chickamaugas. Meeting with no resistance from the 
astonished Indians, who fled to the shelter of the densely wooded hills, 
they laid waste the Indian towns and destroyed the immense stores of goods 
collected by the British agents for distribution among the red men. The 
Chickamaugas were completely quelled; and during the period of great 
stress through which the Tennessee frontiersmen were soon to pass, the 
Cherokees were restrained through the wise diplomacy of Joseph Martin, 
Superintendent of Indian affairs for Virginia.

The great British offensive against the Southern colonies, which were 
regarded as the vulnerable point in the American Confederacy, was fully 
launched upon the fall of Charleston in May, l780. Cornwallis established 
his headquarters at Camden; and one of his lieutenants, the persuasive and 
brilliant Ferguson, soon rallied thousands of Loyalists in South Carolina 
to the British standard. When Cornwallis inaugurated his campaign for 
cutting Washington wholly off from the Southern colonies by invading North 
Carolina, the men upon the western waters realized that the time had come 
to rise, in defense of their state and in protection of their homes. Two 
hundred Tennessee riflemen from Sullivan County, under Colonel Isaac 
Shelby, were engaged in minor operations in South Carolina conducted by 
Colonel Charles McDowell; and conspicuous among these engagements was the 
affair at Musgrove's Mill on August 18th when three hundred horsemen led 
by Colonel James Williams, a native of Granville County, North Carolina, 
Colonel Isaac Shelby, and Lieutenant-Colonel Clark of Georgia repulsed 
with heavy loss a British force of between four and five hundred.

These minor successes availed nothing in face of the disastrous defeat of 
Gates by Cornwallis at Camden on August 16th and the humiliating blow to 
Sumter at Rocky Mount on the following day. Ferguson hotly pursued the 
frontiersmen, who then retreated over the mountains; and from his camp at 
Gilbert Town he despatched a threatening message to the Western leaders, 
declaring that if they did not desist from their opposition to the British 
arms and take protection under his standard, he would march his army over 
the mountains and lay their country waste with fire and sword. Stung to 
action, Shelby hastily rode off to consult with Sevier at his log castle 
near Jonesboro; and together they matured a plan to arouse the mountain 
men and attack Ferguson by surprise. In the event of failure, these 
wilderness free-lances planned to leave the country and find a home with 
the Spaniards in Louisiana.

At the original place of rendezvous, the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga, 
the overmountain men gathered on September 25th. There an eloquent sermon 
was preached to them by that fiery man of God, the Reverend Samuel Doak, 
who concluded his discourse with a stirring invocation to the sword of the 
Lord and of Gideon--a sentiment greeted with the loud applause of the 
militant frontiersmen. Here and at various places along the march they 
were joined by detachments of border fighters summoned to join the 
expedition--Colonel William Campbell, who with some reluctance had 
abandoned his own plans in response to Shelby's urgent and repeated 
message, in command of four hundred hardy frontiersmen from Washington 
County, Virginia; Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, with the wild fighters of 
Wilkes known as "Cleveland's Bulldogs"; Colonel Andrew Hampton, with the 
stalwart riflemen of Rutherford; Major Joseph Winston, the cousin of 
Patrick Henry, with the flower of the citizenry of Surry; the McDowells, 
Charles and Joseph, with the bold borderers of Burke; Colonels Lacy and 
Hill, with well-trained soldiers of South Carolina; and Brigadier-General 
James Williams, leading the intrepid Rowan volunteers.

Before breaking camp at Quaker Meadows, the leading officers in conference 
chose Colonel William Campbell as temporary officer of the day, until they 
could secure a general officer from headquarters as commander-in-chief. 
The object of the mountaineers and big-game hunters was, in their own 
terms, to pursue Ferguson, to run him down, and to capture him. In 
pursuance of this plan, the leaders on arriving at the ford of Green River 
chose out a force of six hundred men, with the best mounts and equipment; 
and at daybreak on October 6th this force of picked mounted riflemen, 
followed by some fifty "foot-cavalry" eager to join in the pursuit, pushed 
rapidly on to the Cowpens. Here a second selection took place; and Colonel 
Campbell, was again elected commander of the detachment, now numbering 
some nine hundred and ten horsemen and eighty odd footmen, which dashed 
rapidly on in pursuit of Ferguson.

The British commander had been apprised of the coming of the over-mountain 
men. Scorning to make a forced march and attempt to effect a junction with 
Cornwallis at Charlotte, Ferguson chose to make a stand and dispose once 
for all of the barbarian horde whom he denounced as mongrels and the dregs 
of mankind. After despatching to Cornwallis a message asking for aid, 
Ferguson took up his camp on King's Mountain, just south of the North 
Carolina border line, in the present York County, South Carolina. Here, 
after his pickets had been captured in silence, he was surprised by his 
opponents. At three o'clock in the afternoon of October 7th the mountain 
hunters treed their game upon the heights.

The battle which ensued presents an extraordinary contrast in the 
character of the combatants and the nature of the strategy and tactics. 
Each party ran true to form--Ferguson repeating Braddock's suicidal policy 
of opposing bayonet charges to the deadly fusillade of riflemen, who in 
Indian fashion were carefully posted behind trees and every shelter 
afforded by the natural inequalities of the ground. In the army of the 
Carolina and Virginia frontiersmen, composed of independent detachments 
recruited from many sources and solicitous for their own individual 
credit, each command was directed in the battle by its own leader. 
Campbell--like Cleveland, Winston, Williams, Lacey, Shelby, McDowell, 
Sevier, and Hambright--personally led his own division; but the nature of 
the fighting and the peculiarity of the terrain made it impossible for 
him, though the chosen commander of the expedition, actually to play that 
role in the battle. The plan agreed upon in advance by the frontier 
leaders was simple enough--to surround and capture Ferguson's camp on the 
high plateau. The more experienced Indian fighters, Sevier and Shelby, 
unquestionably suggested the general scheme which in any case would 
doubtless have been employed by the frontiersmen; it was to give the 
British "Indian play"--namely to take cover everywhere and to fire from 
natural shelter. Cleveland, a Hercules in strength and courage who had 
fought the Indians and recognized the wisdom of Indian tactics, ordered 
his men, as did some of the other leaders, to give way before a bayonet 
charge, but to return to the attack after the charge had spent its force.

"My brave fellows," said Cleveland, "every man must consider himself an 
officer, and act from his own judgment. Fire as quick as you can, and 
stand your ground as long as you can. When you can do no better, get 
behind trees, or retreat; but I beg you not to run quite off. If we are 
repulsed, let us make a point of returning and renewing the fight; perhaps 
we may have better luck in the second attempt than in the first."

The plateau upon which Ferguson was encamped was the top of an eminence 
some six hundred yards long and about two hundred and fifty yards from one 
base across to the other; and its shape was that of an Indian paddle, 
varying from one hundred and twenty yards at the blade to sixty yards at 
the handle in width. Outcropping boulders upon the outer edge of the 
plateau afforded some slight shelter for Ferguson's force; but, 
unsuspicious of attack, Ferguson had made no abatis to protect his camp 
from the assault to which it was so vulnerable because of the protection 
of the timber surrounding it on all sides. As to the disposition of the 
attacking force, the center to the northeast was occupied by Cleveland 
with his "Bulldogs," Hambright with his South Fork Boys from the Catawba 
(now Lincoln County, North Carolina), and Winston with his Surry riflemen; 
to the south were the divisions of Joseph McDowell, Sevier, and Campbell; 
while Lacey's South Carolinians, the Rowan levies under Williams, and the 
Watauga borderers under Shelby were stationed upon the north side. 
Ferguson's forces consisted of Provincial Rangers, one hundred and fifty 
strong, and other well-drilled Loyalists, between eight and nine hundred 
in number; but his strength was seriously weakened by the absence of a 
foraging party of between one and two hundred who had gone off on the 
morning the battle occurred. Shelby's men, before getting into position, 
received a hot fire, the opening shots of the engagement. This inspired 
Campbell, who now threw off his coat, to shout encouraging orders to his 
men posted on the side of the mountain opposite to Shelby's force. When 
Campbell's Virginians uttered a series of piercing shouts, the British 
officer, De Peyster, second in command, remarked to his chief: "These 
things are ominous--these are the damned yelling boys."

The battle, which lasted some minutes short of an hour, was waged with 
terrific ferocity. The Loyalist militia, whenever possible, fired from the 
shelter of the rocks; while the Provincial Corps, with fixed bayonets, 
steadily charged the frontiersmen, who fired at close range and then 
rapidly withdrew to the very base of the mountain. After each bayonet 
charge the Provincials coolly withdrew to the summit, under the 
accumulating fire of the returning mountaineers, who quickly gathered in 
their rear. Owing to their elevated location, the British, although using 
the rapid-fire breech-loading rifle invented by Ferguson himself, found 
their vision deflected, and continually fired high, thus suffering from 
nature's handicap, refraction. The militia, using sharpened butcher-knives 
which Ferguson had taught them to utilize as bayonets, charged against the 
mountaineers; but their fire, in answer to the deadly fusillade of the 
expert squirrel-shooters, was belated, owing to the fact that they could 
not fire while the crudely improvised bayonets remained inserted in their 
pieces. The Americans, continually firing upward, found ready marks for 
their aim in the clearly delineated outlines of their adversaries, and 
felt the fierce exultation which animates the hunter who has tracked to 
its lair and surrounded wild game at bay.

The leaders of the various divisions of the mountaineers bore themselves 
with impetuous bravery, recklessly rushing between the lines of fire and 
with native eloquence, interspersed with profanity, rallying their 
individual commands again and again to the attack. The valiant Campbell 
scaled the rugged heights, loudly encouraging his men to the ascent. 
Cleveland, resolutely facing the foe, urged on is Bulldogs with the 
inspiriting words: "Come, boys; let's try 'em again. We'll have better 
luck next time." No sooner did Shelby's men reach the bottom of the hill, 
in retreating before a charge, than their commander, fiery and strenuous, 
ardently shouted: "Now boys, quickly reload your rifles, and let's advance 
upon them, and give them another hell of a fire." The most deadly charge, 
led by De Peyster himself, fell upon Hambright's South Fork boys; and one 
of their gallant officers, Major Chronicle, waving his military hat, was 
mortally wounded, the command, "Face to the hill!", dying on his lips. 
These veteran soldiers, unlike the mountaineers, firmly met the shock of 
the charge, and a number of their men were shot down or transfixed; but 
the remainder, reserving their fire until the charging column was only a 
few feet away, poured in a deadly volley before retiring. The gallant 
William Lenoir, whose reckless bravery made him a conspicuous target for 
the enemy, received several wounds and emerged from the battle with his 
hair and clothes torn by balls. The ranking American officer, Brigadier 
General James Williams, was mortally wounded while "on the very top of the 
mountain, in the thickest of the fight"; and as he momentarily revived, 
his first words were: "For God's sake, boys, don't give up the hill." 
Hambright, sorely wounded, his boot overflowing with blood and his hat 
riddled with three bullet holes, declined to dismount, but pressed 
gallantly forward, exclaiming in his "Pennsylvania Dutch": "Huzza, my 
prave poys, fight on a few minutes more, and the pattle will be over!" On 
the British side, Ferguson was supremely valorous, rapidly dashing from 
one point to another, rallying his men, oblivious to all danger. Wherever 
the shrill note of his silver whistle sounded, there the fighting was 
hottest and the British resistance the most stubborn. His officers fought 
with the characteristic steadiness of the British soldier; and again and 
again his men charged headlong against the wavering and fiery circle of 
the frontiersmen.

Ferguson's boast that "he was on King's Mountain, that he was king of the 
Mountain, and God Almighty could not drive him from it" was doubtless 
prompted, less by a belief in the impregnability of his position, than by 
a desperate desire to inspire confidence in his men. His location was 
admirably chosen for defense against attack by troops employing regulation 
tactics; but, never dreaming of the possibility of sudden investment, 
Ferguson had erected no fortifications for his encampment. His frenzied 
efforts on the battlefield seem like a mad rush against fate; for the 
place was indefensible against the peculiar tactics of the frontiersmen. 
While the mountain flamed like a volcano and resounded with the thunder of 
the guns, a steady stricture was in progress. The lines were drawn tighter 
and tighter around the trapped and frantically struggling army; and at 
last the fall of their commander, riddled with bullets, proved the tragic 
futility of further resistance. The game was caught and bagged to a man. 
When Winston, with his fox-hunters of Surry, dashed recklessly through the 
woods, says a chronicler of the battle, and the last to come into position,

Flow'd in, and settling, circled all the lists, then
From all the circle of the hills death sleeted in upon the doomed.

The battle was decisive in its effect--shattering the plans of Cornwallis, 
which till then appeared certain of success. The victory put a full stop 
to the invasion of North Carolina, which was then well under way. 
Cornwallis abandoned his carefully prepared campaign and immediately left 
the state. After ruthlessly hanging nine prisoners, an action which had an 
effectively deterrent effect upon future Tory murders and depredations, 
the patriot force quietly disbanded. The brilliant initiative of the 
buckskin-clad borderers, the strenuous energy of their pursuit, the 
perfection of their surprise--all reinforced by the employment of ideal 
tactics for meeting the given situation--were the controlling factors in 
this overwhelming victory of the Revolution. The pioneers of the Old 
Southwest--the independent and aggressive yeomanry of North Carolina, 
Virginia, and South Carolina--had risen in their might. Without the aid or 
authority of blundering state governments, they had created an army of 
frontiersmen, Indian-fighters, and big-game hunters which had found no 
parallel or equal on the continent since the Battle of the Great Kanawha.



CHAPTER XIX.
THE STATE OF FRANKLIN

Designs of a more dangerous nature and deeper die seem to glare in the 
western revolt .... I have thought proper to issue this manifesto, hereby 
warning all persons concerned in the said revolt . . . 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 or stipulated, to the mutual 
sat'isfaction of the mother and new State . . . . 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.
--Governor Alexander Martin: Manifesto against the State of Franklin, 
April 25, 1785.

To the shrewd diplomacy of Joseph Martin, who held the Cherokees in check 
during the period of the King's Mountain campaign, the settlers in the 
valleys of the Watauga and the Holston owed their temporary immunity from 
Indian attack. But no sooner did Sevier and his over-mountain men return 
from the battle-field of King's Mountain than they were called upon to 
join in an expedition against the Cherokees, who had again gone on the war-
path at the instigation of the British. After Sevier with his command had 
defeated a small party of Indians at Boyd's Creek in December, the entire 
force of seven hundred riflemen, under the command of Colonel Arthur 
Campbell, with Major Joseph Martin as subordinate, penetrated to the heart 
of the Indian country, burned Echota, Chilhowee, Settiquo, Hiawassee, and 
seven other principal villages, and destroyed an immense amount of 
property and supplies. In March, suspecting that the arch-conspirators 
against the white settlers were the Cherokees at the head waters of the 
Little Tennessee, Sevier led one hundred and fifty horsemen through the 
devious mountain defiles and struck the Indians a swift and unexpected 
blow at Tuckasegee, near the present Webster, North Carolina. In this 
extraordinarily daring raid, one of his most brilliant feats of arms, 
Sevier lost only one man killed and one wounded; while upon the enemy he 
inflicted the loss of thirty killed, took many more prisoners, burned six 
Indian towns, and captured many horses and supplies. Once his deadly work 
was done, Sevier with his bold cavaliers silently plunged again into the 
forest whence he had so suddenly emerged, and returned in triumph to the 
settlements.

Disheartened though the Indians were to see the smoke of their burning 
towns, they sullenly remained averse to peace; and they did not keep the 
treaty made at Long Island in July, 1781. The Indians suffered from very 
real grievances at the hands of the lawless white settlers who persisted 
in encroaching upon the Indian lands. When the Indian ravages were 
resumed, Sevier and Anderson, the latter from Sullivan County, led a 
punitive expedition of two hundred riflemen against the Creeks and the 
Chickamaugas; and employing the customary tactics of laying waste the 
Indian towns, administered stern and salutary chastisement to the copper-
colored marauders.

During this same period the settlers on the Cumberland were displaying a 
grim fortitude and stoical endurance in the face of Indian attack forever 
memorable in the history of the Old Southwest. On the night of January 15, 
1781, the settlers at Freeland's Station, after a desperate resistance, 
succeeded in beating off the savages who attacked in force. At Nashborough 
on April 2d, twenty of the settlers were lured from the stockade by the 
artful wiles of the savages; and it was only after serious loss that they 
finally won their way back to the protection of the fort. Indeed, their 
return was due to the fierce dogs of the settlers, which were released at 
the most critical moment, and attacked the astounded Indians with such 
ferocity that the diversion thus created enabled the settlers to escape 
from the deadly trap. During the next two years the history of the 
Cumberland settlements is but the gruesome recital of murder after murder 
of the whites, a few at a time, by the lurking Indian foe. Robertson's 
dominant influence alone prevented the abandonment of the sorely harassed 
little stations. The arrival of the North Carolina commissioners for the 
purpose of laying off bounty lands and settlers' preemptions, and the 
treaty of peace concluded at the French Lick on November 5 and 6, 1783, 
gave permanence and stability to the Cumberland settlements. The lasting 
friendship of the Chickasaws was won; but the Creeks for some time 
continued to harass the Tennessee pioneers. The frontiersmen's most 
formidable foe, the Cherokees, stoically, heroically fighting the whites 
in the field, and smallpox, syphilis, and drunkenness at home, at last 
abandoned the unequal battle. The treaty at Hopewell on November 28, 1785, 
marks the end of an era--the Spartan yet hopeless resistance of the 
intrepid red men to the relentless and frequently unwarranted 
expropriation by the whites of the ancient and immemorial domain of the 
savage.

The skill in self-government of the isolated people beyond the mountains, 
and the ability they had already demonstrated in the organization of 
"associations," received a strong stimulus on June 2, 1784, when the 
legislature of North Carolina ceded to the Congress of the United States 
the title which that state possessed to the land west of the Alleghanies. 
Among the terms of the Cession Act were these conditions: that the ceded 
territory should be formed into a separate state or states; and that if 
Congress should not accept the lands thus ceded and give due notice within 
two years, the act should be of no force and the lands should revert to 
North Carolina. No sooner did this news reach the Western settlers than 
they began to mature plans for the organization of a government during the 
intervening twelve months. Their exposed condition on the frontiers, still 
harassed by the Indians, and North Carolina's delay in sending goods 
promised the Indians by a former treaty, both promoted Indian hostility; 
and these facts, combined with their remote location beyond the mountains, 
rendering them almost inaccessible to communication with North Carolina--
all rendered the decision of the settlers almost inevitable. Moreover, the 
allurements of high office and the dazzling dreams of ambition were 
additional motives sufficiently human in themselves to give driving power 
to the movement toward independence.

At a convention assembled at Jonesborough on August 23, 1784, delegates 
from the counties of Washington, Sullivan, and Greene characteristically 
decided to organize an "Association." They solemnly declared by 
resolution: "We have a just and undeniable right to petition to Congress 
to accept the session made by North Carolina, and for that body to 
countenance us for forming ourselves into a separate government, and to 
frame either a permanent or temporary constitution, agreeably to a resolve 
of Congress . . . ." Meanwhile, Governor Martin, largely as the result of 
the prudent advice of North Carolina's representative in Congress, Dr. 
Hugh Williamson, was brought to the conclusion that North Carolina, in the 
passage of the cession act, had acted precipitately. This important step 
had been taken without the full consideration of the people of the state. 
Among the various arguments advanced by Williamson was the impressive 
contention that, in accordance with the procedure in the case of other 
states, the whole expense of the huge Indian expeditions in 1776 and the 
heavy militia aids to South Carolina and Georgia should be credited to 
North Carolina as partial fulfilment of her continental obligations before 
the cession should be irrevocably made to the Federal government. 
Williamson's arguments proved convincing; and it was thus primarily for 
economic reasons of far reaching national importance that the assembly of 
North Carolina (October 22 to November 25, 1784) repealed the cession act 
made the preceding spring. 

Before the news of the repeal of the cession act could reach the western 
waters, a second convention met at Jonesborough on December 17th. 
Sentiment at this time was much divided, for a number of the people, 
expecting the repeal of the cession act, genuinely desired a continued 
allegiance to North Carolina. Of these may well have been John Sevier, who 
afterward declared to Joseph Martin that he had been "Draged into the 
Franklin measures by a large number of the people of this country." The 
principal act of this convention was the adoption of a temporary 
constitution for six months and the provision for a convention to be held 
within one year, at the expiration of which time this constitution should 
be altered, or adopted as the permanent constitution of the new state. The 
scholars on the western waters, desiring to commemorate their aspirations 
for freedom, chose as the name of the projected new state: "Frankland"--
the Land of the Free. The name finally chosen, however, perhaps for 
reasons of policy, was "Franklin," in honor of Benjamin Franklin. 
Meanwhile, in order to meet the pressing needs for a stable government 
along the Tennessee frontier, the North Carolina assembly, which repealed 
the cession act, created out of the four western counties the District of 
Washington, with John Haywood as presiding judge and David Campbell as 
associate, and conferred upon John Sevier the rank of brigadier general of 
the new district. The first week in December Governor Martin sent to 
Sevier his military commission; and replying to Joseph Martin's query 
(December 31, 1784, prompted by Governor Martin) as to whether, in view of 
the repeal of the cession act, he intended to persist in revolt or await 
developments, Sevier gave it out broadcast that "we shall pursue no 
further measures as to a new State."

Owing to the remoteness of the Tennessee settlements and the difficulty of 
appreciating through correspondence the atmosphere of sentiment in 
Franklin, Governor Martin realized the necessity of sending a personal 
representative to discover the true state of affairs in the disaffected 
region beyond the mountains. For the post of ambassador to the new 
government, Governor Martin selected a man distinguished for mentality and 
diplomatic skill, a pioneer of Tennessee and Kentucky, Judge Richard 
Henderson's brother, Colonel Samuel Henderson. Despite Sevier's disavowal 
of any further intention to establish a new state, the governor gave 
Colonel Henderson elaborate written instructions, the purport of which was 
to learn all that he could about the political complexion of the Tennessee 
frontiersmen, the sense of the people, and the agitation for a separate 
commonwealth. Moreover, in the hope of placating the leading chieftains of 
the Cherokees, who had bitterly protested against the continued 
aggressions and encroachments upon their lands by the lawless borderers, 
he instructed Colonel Henderson also to learn the temper and dispositions 
of the Indians, and to investigate the case of Colonel James Hubbardt who 
was charged with the murder of Untoola of Settiquo, a chief of the 
Cherokees.

When Colonel Henderson arrived at Jonesborough, he found the third 
Franklin legislature in session, and to this body he presented Governor 
Martin's letter of February 27, 1785. In response to the governor's 
request for an "account of the late proceedings of the people in the 
western country," an extended reply was drafted by the new legislature; 
and this letter, conveyed to Governor Martin by Colonel Henderson, in 
setting forth in detail the reasons for the secession, made the following 
significant statement: "We humbly thank North Carolina for every sentiment 
of regard she has for us, but are sorry to observe, that as it is founded 
upon principles of interest, as is aparent from the tenor of your letter, 
we are doubtful, when the cause ceases which is the basis of that 
affection, we shall lose your esteem." At the same time (March 22nd), 
Sevier, who had just been chosen Governor of the State of Franklin, 
transmitted to Governor Martin by Colonel Henderson a long letter, not 
hitherto published in any history of the period, in which he outspokenly 
says:

"It gives me great pain to think there should arise any Disputes between 
us and North Carolina, & I flatter myself when North Carolina states the 
matter in a fair light she will be fully convinced that necessity and self 
preservation have Compelled Us to the measures we Have taken, and could 
the people have discovered that No. Carolina would Have protected and 
Govern'd them, They would have remained where they were; but they 
perceived a neglect and Coolness, and the Language of Many of your most 
leading members Convinced them they were Altogether Disregarded."

Following the issuance of vigorous manifestos by Martin (April 25th) and 
Sevier (May 15th), the burden of the problem fell upon Richard Caswell, 
who in June succeeded Martin as Governor of North Carolina.

Meantime the legislature of the over-mountain men had given the name of 
Franklin to the new state, although for some time it continued to be 
called by many Frankland, and its adherents Franks. The legislature had 
also established an academy named after Governor Martin, and had appointed 
(March 12th) William Cocke as a delegate to the Continental Congress, 
urging its acceptance of the cession. In the Memorial from the Franklin 
legislature to the Continental Congress, dealing in some detail with North 
Carolina's failure to send the Cherokees some goods promised them for 
lands acquired by treaty, it is alleged:

"She [North Carolina] immediately stoped the goods she had promised to 
give the Indians for the said land which so exasperated them that they 
begun to commit hostalities on our frontiers in this situation we were 
induced to a declaration of Independence not doubting we should be excused 
by Congress . . . as North Carolina seemed quite regardless of our 
interest and the Indians daily murdering our friends and relations without 
distinction of age or sex."

Sympathizing with the precarious situation of the settlers, as well as 
desiring the cession, Congress urged North Carolina to amend the repealing 
act and execute a conveyance of the western territory to the Union.

Among the noteworthy features of the Franklin movement was the 
constitution prepared by a committee, headed by the Reverend Samuel 
Houston of Washington County, and presented at the meeting of the Franklin 
legislature, Greeneville, November 14, 1785. This eccentric constitution 
was based in considerable part upon the North Carolina model; but it was 
"rejected in the lump" and the constitution of North Carolina, almost 
unchanged, was adopted. Under this Houston constitution, the name 
"Frankland" was chosen for the new state. The legislature was to consist 
of but a single house. In a section excluding from the legislature 
"ministers of the gospel, attorneys at law, and doctors of physics," those 
were declared ineligible for office who were of immoral character or 
guilty of "such flagrant enormities as drunkenness, gaming, profane 
swearing, lewdness, Sabbath-breaking and such like," or who should deny 
the existence of God, of heaven, and of hell, the inspiration of the 
Scriptures, or the existence of the Trinity. Full religious liberty and 
the rights of conscience were assured--but strict orthodoxy was a 
condition for eligibility to office. No one should be chosen to office who 
was "not a scholar to do the business." This remarkable document, which 
provided for many other curious innovations in government, was the work of 
pioneer doctrinaires--Houston, Campbell, Cocke, and Tipton--and deserves 
study as a bizarre reflection of the spirit and genius of the western 
frontiersmen.

The liberal policy of Martin, followed by the no less conciliatory 
attitude of his successor, Caswell, for the time proved wholly abortive. 
However, Martin's appointment of Evan Shelby in Sevier's place as 
brigadier, and of Jonathan Tipton as colonel of his county, produced 
disaffection among the Franks; and the influence of Joseph Martin against 
the new government was a powerful obstacle to its success. At first the 
two sets of military, civil, and judicial officers were able to work 
amicably together; and a working-basis drawn up by Shelby and Sevier, 
although afterward repudiated by the Franklin legislature, smoothed over 
some of the rapidly accumulating difficulties. The persistent and quiet 
assertion of authority by North Carolina, without any overt act of 
violence against the officers of Franklin state, revealed great diplomatic 
skill in Governors Martin and Caswell. It was doubtless the considerate 
policy of the latter, coupled with the defection from Sevier's cause of 
men of the stamp of Houston and Tipton, after the blundering and cavalier 
rejection of their singular constitution, which undermined the foundations 
of Franklin. Sevier himself later wrote with considerable bitterness: "I 
have been faithfull, and my own breast acquits myself that I have acted no 
part but what has been Consistent with honor and justice, tempered with 
Clemency and mercy. How far our pretended patriots have supported me as 
their pretended chiefe magistrate, I leave the world at large to Judge." 
Arthur Campbell's plans for the formation of a greater Franklin, through 
the union of the people on the western waters of Virginia with those of 
North Carolina, came to nought when Virginia in the autumn of 1785 with 
stern decisiveness passed an act making it high treason to erect an 
independent government within her limits unless authorized by the 
assembly. Sevier, however, became more fixed in his determination to 
establish a free state, writing to Governor Caswell: "We shall continue to 
act independent and would rather suffer death, in all its various and 
frightful shapes, than conform to anything that is disgraceful." North 
Carolina, now proceeding with vigor (November, 1786), fully reassumed its 
sovereignty and jurisdiction over the mountain counties, but passed an act 
of pardon and oblivion, and in many ways adopted moderate and conciliatory 
measures.

Driven to extremities, Cocke and Sevier in turn appealed for aid and 
advice to Benjamin Franklin, in whose honor the new state had been named. 
In response to Cocke, Franklin wrote (August 12, 1786): "I think you are 
perfectly right in resolving to submit them [the Points in Dispute] to the 
Decision of Congress and to abide by their Determination." Franklin's 
views change in the interim; for when, almost a year later, Sevier asks 
him for counsel, Franklin has come to the conclusion that the wisest move 
for Sevier was not to appeal to Congress, but to endeavor to effect some 
satisfactory compromise with North Carolina (June 30, 1787):

"There are only two Things that Humanity induces me to wish you may 
succeed in: The Accomodating your Misunderstanding with the Government of 
North Carolina, by amicable Means; and the Avoiding an Indian war, by 
preventing Encroaching on their Lands . . . . 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 with it, to accede to any fair & reasonable 
Proposition it may receive from you towards an Accommodation."

Despite Sevier's frenzied efforts to achieve independence--his treaty with 
the Indians, his sensational plan to incorporate the Cherokees into the 
new state, his constancy to an ideal of revolt against others in face of 
the reality of revolt against himself, his struggle, equivocal and half-
hearted, with the North Carolina authorities under Tipton--despite all 
these heroic efforts, the star of Franklin swiftly declined. The vigorous 
measures pursued by General Joseph Martin, and his effective influence 
focussed upon a movement already honey-combed with disaffection, finally 
turned the scale. To the Franklin leaders he sent the urgent message: 
"Nothing will do but a submission to the laws of North Carolina." Early in 
April, 1788, Martin wrote to Governor Randolph of Virginia: "I returned 
last evening from Green Co. Washington destrict, North Carolina, after a 
tower through that Co'ntry, and am happy to inform your Excellency that 
the late unhappy dispute between the State of North Carolina, and the 
pretended State of Franklin is subsided." Ever brave, constant, and loyal 
to the interest of the pioneers, Sevier had originally been drawn into the 
movement against his best judgment. Caught in the unique trap, created by 
the passage of the cession act and the sudden volte-face of its repeal, he 
struggled desperately to extricate himself. Alone of all the leaders, the 
governor of ill-starred Franklin remained recalcitrant.



CHAPTER XX.
THE LURE OF SPAIN--THE HAVEN OF STATEHOOD

The people of this region have come to realize truly upon what part of the 
world and upon which nation their future happiness and security depend, 
and they immediately infer that their interest and prosperity depend 
entirely upon the protection and liberality of your government.
--John Sevier to Don Diego de Gardoqui, September 12, 1788.

From the early settlements in the eastern parts of this Continent to the 
late & more recent settlements on the Kentucky in the Rest the same 
difficulties have constantly occurred which now oppress you, but by a 
series of patient sufferings, manly and spirited exertions and 
unconquerable perseverance, they have been altogether or in great measure 
subdued.
--Governor Samuel Johnston to James Robertson and Anthony Bledsoe, January 
29, 1788.

A strange sham-battle, staged like some scene from opera bouffe, in the 
bleak snow-storm of February, 1788, is really the prelude to a remarkable 
drama of revolt in which Sevier, Robertson, Bledsoe, and the Cumberland 
stalwarts play the leading roles. On February 27th, incensed beyond 
measure by the action of Colonel John Tipton in harboring some of his 
slaves seized by the sheriff under an execution issued by one of the North 
Carolina courts, Sevier with one hundred and fifty adherents besieged 
Tipton with a few of his friends in his home on Sinking Creek. The siege 
was raised at daybreak on February 29th by the arrival of reinforcements 
under Colonel Maxwell from Sullivan County; and Sevier, who was unwilling 
to precipitate a conflict, withdrew his forces after some desultory 
firing, in which two men were killed and several wounded. Soon afterward 
Sevier sent word to Tipton that on condition his life be spared he would 
submit to North Carolina. On this note of tragi-comedy the State of 
Franklin appeared quietly to expire. The usually sanguine Sevier, now 
thoroughly chastened, sought shelter in the distant settlements--deeply 
despondent over the humiliating failure of his plans and the even more 
depressing defection of his erstwhile friends and supporters The 
revolutionary designs and separatist tendencies which he still harbored 
were soon to involve him in a secret conspiracy to give over the State of 
Franklin into the protection of a foreign power.

The fame of Sevier's martial exploits and of his bold stroke for 
independence had long since gone abroad, astounding even so famous an 
advocate of liberty as Patrick Henry and winning the sympathy of the 
Continental Congress. One of the most interested observers of the progress 
of affairs in the State of Franklin was Don Diego de Gardoqui, who had 
come to America in the spring of 1785, bearing a commission to the 
American Congress as Spanish charge d'affaires (Encargados de Negocios) to 
the United States. In the course of his negotiations with Jay concerning 
the right of navigation of the Mississippi River, which Spain denied to 
the Americans, Gardoqui was not long in discovering the violent resentment 
of the Western frontiersmen, provoked by Jay's crass blunder in proposing 
that the American republic, in return for reciprocal foreign advantages 
offered by Spain, should waive for twenty-five years her right to navigate 
the Mississippi. The Cumberland traders had already felt the heavy hand of 
Spain in the confiscation of their goods at Natchez; but thus far the 
leaders of the Tennessee frontiersmen had prudently restrained the more 
turbulent agitators against the Spanish policy, fearing lest the spirit of 
retaliation, once aroused, might know no bounds. Throughout the entire 
region of the trans-Alleghany, a feeling of discontent and unrest 
prevailed--quite as much the result of dissatisfaction with the central 
government which permitted the wholesale restraint of trade, as of 
resentment against the domination of Spain.

No sooner had the shrewd and watchful Gardoqui, who was eager to utilize 
the separatist sentiment of the western settlements in the interest of his 
country, learned of Sevier's armed insurrection against the authority of 
North Carolina than he despatched an emissary to sound the leading men of 
Franklin and the Cumberland settlements in regard to an alliance. This 
secret emissary was Dr. James White, who had been appointed by the United 
States Government as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern 
Department on November 29, 1786. Reporting as instructed to Don Estevan 
Miro, governor of Louisiana, White, the corrupt tool of Spain, stated 
concerning his confidential mission that the leaders of "Frankland" and 
"Cumberland district" had "eagerly accepted the conditions" laid down by 
Gardoqui: to take the oath of allegiance to Spain, and to renounce all 
submission or allegiance whatever to any other sovereign or power. 
Satisfied by the secret advices received, the Spanish minister reported to 
the home authorities his confident belief that the Tennessee backwoodsmen, 
if diplomatically handled, would readily throw in their lot with Spain.

After the fiasco of his siege of Tipton's home, Sevier had seized upon the 
renewal of hostilities by the Cherokees as a means of regaining his 
popularity. This he counted upon doing by rallying his old comrades-in-
arms under his standard and making one of his meteoric, whirlwind 
onslaughts upon their ancient Indian foe. The victory of this erstwhile 
popular hero, the beloved "Nolichucky Jack of the Border," over the 
Indians at a town on the Hiwassee "so raised him in the esteem of the 
people on the frontier," reports Colonel Maxwell, "that the people began 
[once more] to flock to his standard." Inspirited by this good turn in his 
fortunes, Sevier readily responded to Dr. White's overtures.

Alarmed early in the year over the unprovoked depredations and murders by 
the Indians in several Tennessee counties and on the Kentucky road, 
Sevier, Robertson, and Anthony Bledsoe had persuaded Governor Samuel 
Johnston of North Carolina to address Gardoqui and request him to exert 
his influence to prevent further acts of savage barbarity. In letters to 
Governor Johnston, to Robertson, and to Sevier, all of date April 18th, 
Gardoqui expressed himself in general as being "extremely surprised to 
know that there is a suspicion that the good government of Spain is 
encouraging these acts of barbarity." The letters to Robertson and Sevier, 
read between the lines as suggestive reinforcements of Spain's secret 
proposals, possess real significance. The letter to Sevier contains this 
dexterously expressed sentiment: "His Majesty is very favorably inclined 
to give the inhabitants of that region all the protection that they ask 
for and, on my part, I shall take very great pleasure in contributing to 
it on this occasion and other occasions."

This letter, coupled with the confidential proposals of Dr. White, 
furnished a convenient opening for correspondence with the Spaniards; and 
in July Sevier wrote to Gardoqui indicating his readiness to accede to 
their proposals. After secret conferences with men who had supported him 
throughout the vicissitudes of his ill-starred state, Sevier carefully 
matured his plans. The remarkable letter of great length which he wrote to 
Gardoqui on September 12, 1788, reveals the conspiracy in all its details 
and presents in vivid colors the strong separatist sentiment of the day. 
Sevier urgently petitions Gardoqui for the loan of a few thousand pounds, 
to enable him to "make the most expedient and necessary preparations for 
defense"; and offers to repay the loan within a short time "by sending the 
products of this region to the lower ports." Upon the vital matter of 
"delivering" the State of Franklin to Spain, he forthrightly says:

"Since my last of the 18th of July, upon consulting with the principal men 
of this country, I have been particularly happy to find that they are 
equally disposed and ready as I am to accept your propositions and 
guarantees. You may be sure that the pleasing hopes and ideas which the 
people of this country hold with regard to the probability of an alliance 
with, and commercial concessions from, you are very ardent, and that we 
are unanimously determined on that score. The people of this region have 
come to realize truly upon what part of the world and upon which nation 
their future happiness and security depend, and they immediately infer 
that their interest and prosperity depend entirely upon the protection and 
liberality of your government. .. . Being the first from this side of the 
Appalachian Mountains to resort in this way to your protection and 
liberality, we feel encouraged to entertain the greatest hope that we 
shall be granted all reasonable aid by him who is so amply able to do it, 
and to give the protection and help that is asked of him in this petition. 
You know our delicate situation and the difficulties in which we are in 
respect to our mother State which is making use of every strategem to 
impede the development and prosperity of this country . . . . Before I 
conclude, it may be necessary to remind you that there will be no more 
favorable occasion than the present one to put this plan into execution. 
North Carolina has rejected the Constitution and moreover it seems to me 
that a considerable time will elapse before she becomes a member of the 
Union, if that event ever happens."

Through Miro, Gardoqui was simultaneously conducting a similar 
correspondence with General James Wilkinson. The object of the Spanish 
conspiracy, matured as the result of this correspondence, was to seduce 
Kentucky from her allegiance to the United States. Despite the superficial 
similarity between the situation of Franklin and Kentucky, it would be 
doing Sevier and his adherents a capital injustice to place them in the 
category of the corrupt Wilkinson and the malodorous Sebastian. Moreover, 
the secessionists of Franklin, as indicated in the above letter, had the 
excuse of being left virtually without a country. On the preceding August 
1st, North Carolina had rejected the Constitution of the United States; 
and the leaders of Franklin, who were sorely aggrieved by what they 
regarded as her indifference and neglect, now felt themselves more than 
ever out of the Union and wholly repudiated by the mother state. Again, 
Sevier had the embittered feeling resultant from outlawry. Because of his 
course in opposing the laws and government of North Carolina and in the 
killing of several good citizens, including the sheriff of Washington 
County, by his forces at Sinking Creek, Sevier, through the action of 
Governor Johnston of North Carolina, had been attainted of high treason. 
Under the heavy burden of this grave charge, he felt his hold upon 
Franklin relax. Further, an atrocity committed in the recent campaign 
under Sevier's leadership--Kirk's brutal murder of Corn Tassel, a noble 
old Indian, and other chieftains, while under the protection of a flag of 
truce--had placed a bar sinister across the fair fame of this stalwart of 
the border. Utter desperation thus prompted Sevier's acceptance of 
Gardoqui's offer of the protection of Spain.

John Sevier's son, James, bore the letter of September 12th to Gardoqui. 
By a strangely ironic coincidence, on the very day (October 10, 1788) that 
Gardoqui wrote to Miro, recommending to the attention of Spain Dr. White 
and James Sevier, the emissaries of Franklin, with their plans and 
proposals, John Sevier was arrested by Colonel Tipton at the Widow Brown's 
in Washington County, on the charge of high treason. He was handcuffed and 
borne off, first to Jonesborough and later to Morganton. But his old 
friends and former comrades-in-arms, Charles and Joseph McDowell, gave 
bond for his appearance at court; and Morrison, the sheriff, who also had 
fought at King's Mountain, knocked the irons from his wrists and released 
him on parole. Soon afterward a number of Sevier's devoted friends, 
indignant over his arrest, rode across the mountains to Morganton and 
silently bore him away, never to be arrested again. In November an act of 
pardon and oblivion with respect to Franklin was passed by the North 
Carolina Assembly. Although Sevier was forbidden to hold office under the 
state, the passage of this act automatically operated to clear him of the 
alleged offense of high treason. With affairs in Franklin taking this 
turn, it is little wonder that Gardoqui and Miro paid no further heed to 
Sevier's proposal to accept the protection of Spain. Sevier's continued 
agitation in behalf of the independence of Franklin inspired Governor 
Johnston with the fear that he would have to be "proceeded against to the 
last extremity." But Sevier's opposition finally subsiding, he was 
pardoned, given a seat in the North Carolina assembly, and with 
extraordinary consideration honored with his former rank of brigadier-
general.

When Dr. White reported to Miro that the leaders of "Frankland" had 
eagerly accepted Gardoqui's conditions for an alliance with Spain, he 
categorically added: "With regard to Cumberland district, what I have said 
of Frankland applies to it with equal force and truth." James Robertson 
and Anthony Bledsoe had but recently availed themselves of the good 
offices of Governor Johnston of North Carolina in the effort to influence 
Gardoqui to quiet the Creek Indians. The sagacious and unscrupulous half 
breed Alexander McGillivray had placed the Creeks under the protection of 
Spain in 1784; and shortly afterward they began to be regularly supplied 
with ammunition by the Spanish authorities. At first Spain pursued the 
policy of secretly encouraging these Indians to resist the encroachments 
of the Americans, while she remained on outwardly friendly terms with the 
United States. During the period of the Spanish conspiracy, however, there 
is reason to believe that Miro endeavored to keep the Indians at peace 
with the borderers, as a friendly service, intended to pave the way for 
the establishment of intimate relations between Spain and the dwellers in 
the trans-Alleghany. Yet his efforts cannot have been very effective; for 
the Cumberland settlements continued to suffer from the ravages and 
depredations of the Creeks, who remained "totally averse to peace, 
notwithstanding they have had no cause of offence"; and Robertson and 
Bledsoe reported to Governor Caswell (June 12, 1787): "It is certain, the 
Chickasaws inform us, that Spanish traders offer a reward for scalps of 
the Americans." The Indian atrocities became so frequent that Robertson 
later in the summer headed a party on the famous Coldwater Expedition, in 
which he severely chastised the marauding Indians. Aroused by the loss of 
a number of chiefs and warriors at the hands of Robertson's men, and 
instigated, as was generally believed, by the Spaniards, the Creeks then 
prosecuted their attacks with renewed violence against the Cumberland 
settlements.

Unprotected either by the mother state or by the national government, 
unable to secure free passage to the Gulf for their products, and sorely 
pressed to defend their homes, now seriously endangered by the incessant 
attacks of the Creeks, the Cumberland leaders decided to make secret 
overtures to McGillivray, as well as to communicate to Miro, through Dr. 
White, their favorable inclination toward the proposals of the one country 
which promised them protection. In a letter which McGillivray wrote to 
Miro (transmitted to Madrid, June 15, 1788) in regard to the visit of 
Messrs. Hackett and Ewing, two trusty messengers sent by Robertson and 
Bledsoe, he reports that the two delegates from the district of Cumberland 
had not only submitted to him proposals of peace but "had added that they 
would throw themselves into the arms of His Majesty as subjects, and that 
Kentucky and Cumberland are determined to free themselves from their 
dependence on Congress, because that body can not protect either their 
property, or favor their commerce, and they therefore believe that they no 
longer owe obedience to a power which is incapable of protecting them." 
Commenting upon McGillivray's communication, Miro said in his report to 
Madrid (June 15, 1788): "I consider as extremely interesting the 
intelligence conveyed to McGillivray by the deputies on the fermentation 
existing in Kentucky, with regard to a separation from the Union. 
Concerning the proposition made to McGillivray by the inhabitants of 
Cumberland to become the vassals of His Majesty, I have refrained from 
returning any precise answer."

In his long letter of reply to Robertson and Bledsoe, McGillivray agreed 
to make peace between his nation, the Creeks, and the Cumberland settlers. 
This letter was most favorably received and given wide circulation 
throughout the West. In a most ingratiating reply, offering McGillivray a 
fine gun and a lot in Nashville, Robertson throws out the following broad 
suggestion, which he obviously wishes McGillivray to convey to Miro: "In 
all probability we cannot long remain in our present state, and if the 
British or any commercial nation who may be in possession of the mouth of 
the Mississippi would furnish us with trade, and receive our produce there 
cannot be a doubt but the people on the west side of the Appalachian 
mountains will open their eyes to their real interest." Robertson actually 
had the district erected out of the counties of Davidson, Sumner, and 
Tennessee given the name of "Miro" by the Assembly of North Carolina in 
November, 1788--a significant symbol of the desires of the Cumberland 
leaders. In a letter (April 23, 1789), Miro, who had just received letters 
from Robertson (January 29th) and Daniel Smith (March 4th) postmarked 
"District of Miro," observes: "The bearer, Fagot, a confidential agent of 
Gen. Smith, informed me that the inhabitants of Cumberland, or Miro, would 
ask North Carolina for an act of separation the following fall, and that 
as soon as this should be obtained other delegates would be sent from 
Cumberland to New Orleans, with the object of placing that territory under 
the domination of His Majesty. I replied to both in general terms." 

Robertson, Bledsoe, and Smith were successful in keeping secret their 
correspondence with McGillivray and Miro; and few were in the secret of 
Sevier's effort to deliver the State of Franklin to Spain. Joseph Martin 
was less successful in his negotiations; and a great sensation was created 
throughout the Southern colonies when a private letter from Joseph Martin 
to McGillivray (November 8, 1788) was intercepted. In this letter Martin 
said: "I must beg that you write me by the first opportunity in answer to 
what I am now going to say to you . . . . I hope to do honor to any part 
of the world I settle in, and am determined to leave the United States, 
for reasons that I can assign to you when we meet, but durst not trust it 
to paper." The general assembly of Georgia referred the question of the 
intercepted letter to the governor of North Carolina (January 24, 1789); 
and the result was a legislative investigation into Martin's conduct. 
Eleven months later, the North Carolina assembly exonerated him. From the 
correspondence of Joseph Martin and Patrick Henry, it would appear that 
Martin, on Henry's advice, had acted as a spy upon the Spaniards, in order 
to discover the views of McGillivray, to protect the exposed white 
settlements from the Indians, and to fathom the designs of the Spaniards 
against the United States.

The sensational disclosures of Martin's intercepted letter had no 
deterrent effect upon James Robertson in the attempted execution of his 
plan for detaching the Cumberland settlements from North Carolina. History 
has taken no account of the fact that Robertson and the inhabitants now 
deliberately endeavored to secure an act of separation from North 
Carolina. In the event of success, the next move planned by the Cumberland 
leaders, as we have already seen, was to send delegates to New Orleans for 
the purpose of placing the Cumberland region under the domination of Spain.

A hitherto unknown letter, from Robertson to (Miro), dated Nashville, 
September 2, 1789, proves that a convention of the people was actually 
held--the first overt step looking to an alliance with Spain. In this 
letter Robertson says:

"I must beg your Excellency's permission to take this early opportunity of 
thanking you for the honor you did me in writing by Mr. White.

"I still hope that your Government, and these Settlements, are destined to 
be mutually friendly and usefull, the people here are impressed with the 
necessity of it.

"We have just held a Convention; which has agreed that our members shall 
insist on being Seperated from North Carolina.

"Unprotected, we are to be obedient to the new Congress of the United 
States; but we cannot but wish for a more interesting Connection.

"The United States afford us no protection. The district of Miro is daily 
plundered and the inhabitants murdered by the Creeks, and Cherokees, 
unprovoked.

"For my own part, I conceive highly of the advantages of your Government."

A serious obstacle to the execution of the plans of Robertson and the 
other leaders of the Cumberland settlements was the prompt action of North 
Carolina. In actual conformity with the wishes of the Western people, as 
set forth in the petition of Robertson and Hayes, their representatives, 
made two years earlier, the legislature of North Carolina in December 
passed the second act of cession, by which the Western territory of North 
Carolina was ceded to the United States. Instead of securing an act of 
separation from North Carolina as the preparatory step to forming what 
Robertson calls "a more interesting connection" with Spain, Robertson and 
his associates now found themselves and the transmontane region which they 
represented flung bodily into the arms of the United States. Despite the 
unequivocal offer of the calculating and desperate Sevier to "deliver" 
Franklin to Spain, and the ingenious efforts of Robertson and his 
associates to place the Cumberland region under the domination of Spain, 
the Spanish court by its temporizing policy of evasion and indecision 
definitely relinquished the ready opportunities thereby afforded, of 
utilizing the powerful separatist tendencies of Tennessee for the purpose 
of adding the empire upon the Western waters to the Spanish domain in 
America.

The year 1790 marks the end of an era the heroic age of the pioneers of 
the Old Southwest. Following the acceptance of North Carolina's deed of 
cession of her Western lands to the Union (April 2, 1790) the Southwest 
Territory was erected on May 26th; and William Blount, a North Carolina 
gentleman of eminence and distinction, was appointed on June 8th to the 
post of governor of the territory. Two years later (June 1, 1792) Kentucky 
was admitted into the Union.

It is a remarkable and inspiring circumstance, in testimony of the martial 
instincts and unwavering loyalty of the transmontane people, that the two 
men to whom the Western country in great measure owed its preservation, 
the inciting and flaming spirits of the King's Mountain campaign, were the 
unopposed first choice of the people as leaders in the trying experiment 
of Statehood--John Sevier of Tennessee and Isaac Shelby of Kentucky. Had 
Franklin possessed the patient will of Kentucky, she might well have 
preceded that region into the Union. It was not, however, until June 1, 
1796, that Tennessee, after a romantic and arduous struggle, finally 
passed through the wide-flung portals into the domain of national 
statehood.