of Washington. In 1785 the STATE OF would have been impolitic and hazardous FRANKLAND (q. v.) was organized, but to undertake by open force. They went was reunited with North Carolina in mounted, and leading a mare of Sevier's 1788, and the next year

that State ceded the territory to the national government.

JOHN SEVIER (q. v.), first governor of Frankland, stands out as one of the most prominent and picturesque figures in the early and formative history of Tennessee. He was called "the greatest of Indian fighters," having fought against the savage Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokeesthe bravest, most warlike, and most blood-thirsty of all the native tribes east of the Mississippi. The settlers were constantly menaced by them, and nothing had saved the stouthearted pioneers from total extermination except their rude log forts and the sleepless and untiring vigilance of such men as Sevier, whose sterling honesty, captivating manners, and generous public spirit, great personal bravery, and high soldierly qualities had won for him the admiration and affection

of every man, woman, and child throughout the wide expanse of the territory.

JOHN SEVIER,

which was known as the swiftest-footed animal in the territory. The rescuers An incident which well serves to illus- halted on the outskirts of Morganton, and, trate their devotion to him, as well as concealing their horses in a clump of una typical phase of the arduous life of those derbrush, left them there in charge of the times, is recorded in the story of the trial young Seviers. Then Cosby and Evans, of Sevier by the State authorities of North disguised as countrymen, entered the town. Carolina, for high treason and outlawry, When they arrived at the court-house, and his ingenious and dramatic rescue by Evans dismounted, and, throwing the bridle a party headed by one of his lieutenants, loosely over the neck of the animal, stood James Cosby. The trial was in progress with her directly before the open door at Morganton, and many thousands had and in plain view of the interior of the come together to witness what was deemed building. Then Cosby entered the courtby them the most important political room, and, elbowing his way up the crowdevent that had occurred since the proc- ed aisle, halted directly in front of the lamation of peace with Great Britain. judge's bench, and only a few feet from With three others-Major Evans, and where his beloved leader stood encompassJames and John Sevier, the two sons of ed by the court officials. Catching his the general-Cosby proposed to go to the eye, Cosby, by a significant gesture, direscue, to effect by stratagem what it rected Sevier's attention to his horse, that

stood impatiently pawing the ground at all eyes upon him in amazement. For a

by the cheers of the crowd, and by a posse amended in 1835, and again in 1853. The of State officials, but the mare outstripped seat of government was migratory, having them and bore her brave rider in safety been at Knoxville, Kingston, Nashville, to his home on the Nolichucky. As the and Murfreesboro until 1826, when it was news of Sevier's escape flew from hamlet permanently fixed at Nashville. Tennesto hamlet, the whole territory broke out see took an active part in the War of into a blaze of bonfires and illuminations, 1812-15, especially in the operations in and soon the people elected him-branded the Gulf region. rebel and outlaw as he was-to the Senate of North Carolina, and within twelve months Washington gave him the rank of general, with the supreme military command of the district now comprised in east Tennessee.

Tidings of the declaration of war reached Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage, near Nashville, a week after that event, and on the same day (June 26) he authorized Governor Blount to tender to the President of the United States the In 1790 it was organized, together with services of himself and 2,500 men of his Kentucky, as "The Territory South of the division (he was a major-general of Ten. Ohio." A distinct territorial government nessee militia) as volunteers for the war. was granted to Tennessee in 1794, and in Madison received Jackson's generous offer 1796 (June 1) it entered the Union as a with gratitude, and accepted it "with State. The constitution then framed was peculiar satisfaction." The Secretary of

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waited until March 1, when he wrote to the Secretary of War, saying he saw little chance for the employment of his small army in the South, and suggested that they might be used in the North.

Day after day he waited anxiously for an answer. At length one came from John Armstrong, the new Secretary of War, who wrote simply that the causes of calling out the Tennessee volunteers to march to New Orleans had ceased to exist, and that on the receipt of that letter they would be dismissed from public service. He was directed to turn over to General Wilkinson all public property that may have been put into his hands. The letter concluded with the tender of cold and formal thanks of the President to Jackson and his troops. The hero's anger was fiercely kindled because of this cruel letter, which dismissed his army 500 miles from their homes, without pay, without sufficient clothing, without provisions, or means of transportation through a wilderness in which Indians only roamed. He wrote fiery letters to the President, Secretary of War, and Governor Blount, and took the responsibility of disobeying his orders and taking the troops back to Nashville before he would dismiss them. The Secretary apologized, saying he did not know that Jackson had moved far from Nashville when he wrote the letter. Late in March he began his homeward movement. It was full of peril and fatigue, and it took a month to accomplish it, moving 18 miles a day. The general shared the privations of his soldiers, who admired his wonderful endurance. They said he was as tough as hickory," and he received the nickname, which he bore through life, of "Old Hickory." Drawn up in the public square at Nashville, the Tennessee volunteers were presented with an elegant stand of colors from the ladies of Knoxville, and were there disbanded, May 22, 1813.

War wrote (July 11) a cordial letter of acceptance to Governor Blount, and that official publicly thanked Jackson and his volunteers for the honor they had done the State of Tennessee by their patriotic movement. Everything seemed so quiet below the Tennessee River that it was past midautumn before the Tennessee volunteers were called upon. On Oct. 21 Governor Blount was asked for 1,500 volunteers to be sent to New Orleans to reinforce Wilkinson, and he made a requisition upon Jackson for that number. The latter immediately entered upon that military career which rendered his name famous. On Dec. 10, when the weather in Tennessee was intensely cold and deep snow lay upon the ground, about 2,000 troops assembled at Nashville, bearing clothes for both cold and warm weather. When organized, these consisted of two regiments of infantry of 700 men each, commanded respectively by Cols. William Hall and Thomas H. Benton, and a corps of cavalry, 670 in number, under the command of Col. John Coffee. These troops were composed of the best physical and social materials of the State. On Jan 7, 1813, the little army went down the Cumberland River in boats, excepting the mounted men, whom Coffee led across the country to join the others at Natchez, on the Mississippi. In a letter to the Secretary of War, General Jack son, alluding to the conduct of some Pennsylvania and New York troops on the Niagara frontier who had constitutional objections to going into a foreign country by invading Canada, said: "I am now at the head of 2,070 volunteers-the choicest of our citizens-who go at the call of their country to execute the will of the government, who have no constitutional scruples,' and, if the government orders, will rejoice at the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort Augustine, effectually banishing from the Southern coasts all British influence." Jackson was then forty-six years of age. The troops, after many hardships, reach- but their governor, ISHAM G. HARRIS ed Natchez and disembarked, when they met an order from Wilkinson to halt there and await further orders, as he had no instructions concerning their employment; nor had he quarters for their accommodation. There Jackson and his men

66

The people of Tennessee-the daughter of North Carolina-like those of the parent State, loved the Union supremely;

(q. v.), had been for months in confidential correspondence with the Confederates in the Gulf States and in South Carolina and Virginia. To further this cause he labored incessantly to bring about the secession of Tennessee. He call

ed a special session of the legislature at to meet on April 25, 1861, and in a mesNashville, Jan. 7, 1861, and in his mes- sage to them he strongly urged the immesage he recited a long list of so-called diate secession of the State. He urged that grievances which the people of the State there was no propriety in wasting time in had suffered under the rule of the na- submitting the question to the people, for tional government. He appealed to their a revolution was imminent. A few days passions and prejudices, and recommended afterwards Henry W. Hilliard, a comamendments to the national Constitution missioner of the Confederate States of favorable to the perpetuation and protec- America, clothed with authority to tion of the slave system. The legislature negotiate a treaty of alliance with Tenprovided for a convention, but decreed nessee, appeared (April 30) and was althat when the people should elect the dele- lowed to address the legislature. He exgates they should vote for "Convention" pressed his belief that there was not a

ments in the State would cease.

Governor Harris called the legislature

true-hearted man in the South who would not spurn submission to the "Abolition North," and considered the system of government founded on slavery which had just been established as the only form of government that could be maintained in America. The legislature, in which was a majority of Confederate sympathizers, authorized (May 1) the governor to enter into a military league with the Confederate States, by which the whole military

rule of the commonwealth was to be sub

jected to the will of Jefferson Davis. It