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The State of Franklin
continued to exercise the powers of
sovereignty over her territory for the
first half of the year 1786, without a
schismatic outbreak of importance among
the inhabitants. An event that tended to
crystallize the sentiment in favor of
the new State was the negotiation of the
Treaty of Hopewell, in South Carolina,
by commissioners appointed under the
authority of the Congress of the
Confederation, with the Cherokees,
November 18-28,1785.1 This
treaty was a departure. For the first
time the national government assumed to
exercise the power of making treaties
with these Indians. For generations the
colonies had, by the exercise of that
function, governed the relations between
the white and the red races. The Treaty
of Hopewell included a formal
acknowledgment by the. Indians of the
supremacy of the United States, and
there was conceded and confirmed to the
Cherokees a considerable extent of
territory that was claimed to have been
previously ceded by the tribe. The
commissioners, as national agents,
proceeded upon the principle of
disregarding such pacts when the
Cherokees raised objection. The Treaty
of Dumplin Creek, along with others,
went into the discard. The borders of
Franklin were severely contracted. The
treaty line on the west and south ran
from a point on Campbell's2
line near Cumberland Gap to the mouth of
Cloud's Creek on Holston river (three
miles west of the present town of
Rogersville, in Hawkins county) i thence
in a northeasterly direction to Chimney
Top Mountain (at the present date the
corner of Greene, Sullivan and Hawkins);
thence to Camp Creek on Nolachucky river
(four miles southeast of Greeneville);
and thence southerly six miles to the
Great Smoky Mountains, in which Camp
Creek has its source. The enormity in
this appears when it is considered that
the site of the town of Greeneville was
by the treaty placed in the domain of
the Cherokees, and that in a
constitutional convention, held in that
town but a few days before the treaty
was signed, Greeneville had been made
the permanent capital of the State of
Franklin.
Thus, by national action, Franklin was
denied jurisdiction over a large portion
of the counties of Greene and Hawkins,
as they now exist; and a much larger
domain as those counties stood in 1785.
By another clause of the Treaty of
Hopewell, any settler south and west of
the line, who refused to remove within
six months after ratification, should
forfeit the protection of the United
States; and —particularly galling to the
Franklinites—"the Cherokees may punish
him or not as they please."3
A considerable population had settled
between the line and the French Broad
river; and four or five hundred families
had located south of the stream, and one
of those residents predicted "there will
be double that this year (1786)."4
Situated between mountain ranges on the
east and west, Franklin's thrust of
population was toward the south along
the valleys of the Holston, the
Nolachucky, and the Tennessee rivers.
Nature had so decreed.
The tide of immigration from Carolina
that had mounted forbidding steeps and
flowed through the gaps of two mountain
ranges, the Blue Ridge and the
Alleghany, into these valleys, could not
be restrained by mere lines drawn by
surveyors across rivers whose southward
currents beckoned onward and down the
rich valleys. The national authority
which thus sought to hold back that tide
was too anemic and nerveless to compass
its purpose. The government of the
confederation was itself in a state of
decay and near to dissolution.
There was indignation
on all the frontiers affected by the
treaty, in Georgia as well as in
Franklin. It was felt that, as North
Carolina furnished two (Benjamin Hawkins
and Joseph Martin) of the four
negotiating commissioners, she had been
remiss in allowing such broad
concessions to be made to the Indians.
Particular resentment was felt by the
borderers toward Martin, who, as
Carolina's agent to the Cherokees, had
not availed of his influence with the
tribe to discourage in advance extreme
claims and demands. Martin lost in
influence in Franklin; and especially in
the lower settlements was public
sentiment consolidated in favor of the
new-state movement. That solidarity in
the lower counties continued to the end.
North Carolina had granted and had
received compensation for lands in the
territory which was now surrendered to
the Cherokees. The surrender could only
have been consummated by the concurrence
of Hawkins and Martin.5
There was not lacking some basis for the
view that the people of Franklin had
been intentionally punished by this
action. The commissioners did induce the
Indians to give up their claims to lands
within the bounds of Henderson's
Transylvania, thus leaving all the
settlers in the Cumberland region
outside of Indian territory.
Many residents of North Carolina had
invested in the lands excluded by the
treaty, Governor Qaswell among the
number. William Blount, the State's
agent on the treaty ground, filed a
formal protest against the validity of
the treaty as violative of the State's
sovereign rights; and in April following
Governor Caswell, with the concurrence
of the Council of State, strongly urged
the delegation from the State in
Congress to oppose the ratification of
the treaty.6
At the next session of the North
Carolina Assembly, the senate adopted a
joint resolution expressing "utmost
horror and indignation." The treaty, it
was said, was calculated to deprive
citizens of their property; and instead
of procuring the blessings of peace
"will most likely produce the contrary
effect and involve our citizens in the
horrors of war, as the savages appear
much more hostile since than before."'
The house of commons did not give its
approval to7 the resolution,
which accordingly failed. The treaty was
ratified by Congress April 17, 1786; but
by no means did it meet with the
acquiescence of the western people, but
rather with a resistance that was not
passive. On July 12, 1786, Governor
Caswell wrote to Sevier that "Congress
itself will be persuaded that the result
is so repugnant to the rights of the
State that they will not consider us by
any means bound to abide by that
treaty."
_Steps were taken to adopt a great seal
of State. Martin wrote to Governor
Caswell (May II, 1786) "I am told they
have a coat of arms of their own,"
having reference to the State of
Franklin.
From the same source we learn that
Colonel Charles Robertson was empowered
by the Assembly to establish a mint and
to coin thirty thousand dollars specie,
and that "the Colonel was in such
forwardness with his mint that in the
course of three weeks, he could furnish
their member to Congress with cash of
the new coin." If coins were ever struck
off at this rude mint, as seems
probable, none has survived to become
the veritable treasure of some
numismatist.
The position of peril to the settlers on
the lower fringe of Franklin, produced
by the Treaty of Hopewell, compelled the
attention of the Assembly. The infant
State determined to act for herself.
Commissioners were appointed to
negotiate a second treaty with the
Cherokees—William Cocke, Alexander
Outlaw, Samuel Wear, Henry Conway and
Thomas Ingles.
In the spring of this year, Haywood
says, the Cherokees made open war upon
the settlers on the waters of the
Holston, in the present county of Knox.
Governor Sevier raised a volunteer force
and followed in pursuit. He crossed the
Unaka mountains, and destroyed the
valley towns of the North Carolina
Cherokees on the Hiwassee river.8
In April a party of Cherokees, returning
from a raid on the whites with fifteen
scalps, sent Sevier a letter saying they
they had now taken their satisfaction
for their friends who had been murdered
and did not wish for war, "but if the
white people wanted war, it was what
they would get."9
On July loth, two young men were
murdered by the Chickamauga Cherokees.
Colonels Cocke and Outlaw, at the head
of two hundred and fifty men, marched to
Chota Ford, about six miles from the
Indian towns, and sent for the headmen
to come to a conference. When The Tassel
and Hanging Maw came in, they were
charged with complicity in the murder.
The Tassel denied that accusation.
Learning in the conference that the
guilty Indians lived in Coyatee (Coytoy)
town, at the mouth of Holston, about
twenty miles below Chota, the colonels
marched their forces to Coyatee and
"luckily killed two of the very Indians
that did the murder." They again sent
for the chiefs, The Tassel and Hanging
Maw, and the warriors from the nearby
towns, and renewed the conference begun
at Chota Ford. Colonel Outlaw, in a
letter to Governor Caswell,10
after stating these facts, enclosed the
treaty there negotiated, and claimed
that the Indians "seemed friendly and
well satisfied we should settle the
country, and say they will sell us the
country on the south of the Tennessee,
and let us settle around them, if we
will keep the Creeks from killing them;
or they will leave the country entirely,
if we will give them goods for it."
The treaty on its face,11
however, gives evidence of undue
pressure, amounting to duress, or of
unfairness on the part of Cocke and
Outlaw, backed as they were at the time
by an adequate force. No act of the
State of Franklin is less creditable to
her than this Treaty of Coyatee.
The white settlements at the time had
passed the line established by the
treaty of Dumplin Creek and it was
determined that all the Cherokee lands
north of the Little Tennessee river
should be opened to settlement, the
treaty of Hopewell to the contrary
notwithstanding. Instead of submitting
to be removed from that region, the
settlers advanced to possess more of it.
The following spring, we shall see, an
office was opened by the Franklin
authorities for the entry of all the
lands north of the Little Tennessee.
William Cocke was again chosen by the
Assembly to attend on Congress, then in
session, and continue his efforts for
the recognition of Franklin. It seems
that he did not, this year, undertake
the long journey to New York to
discharge his duties. Benjamin Franklin,
who had been absent in Europe in the
diplomatic service when the new State
was launched, had recently returned to
America. To him, Cocke wrote a letter,
after the adjournment of the Assembly,
outlining what had taken place, and
appealing for advice:
State of Franklin, 15
June, 1786.
Sir:
I make no doubt you have heard that the
good people of this country have
declared themselves a separate State
from North Carolina, and that, as a
testimony of the high esteem they have
for the many important and faithful
services you have rendered to your
country, they have called their State
after you. I presume you have heard also
the reasons on which our separation is
founded, some of which are as follows:
that North Carolina granted us a
separation on certain well-known
conditions, expressed in an act of the
General Assembly of that State, which
conditions, we think, she had no right
to break through without our consent, as
well as the consent of Congress. We
therefore determine strictly to adhere
to the conditions expressed in said act,
and doubt not but Congress will be
uniform in their just demands as well as
honorable in complying with their
resolve to confirm all the just claims
of such persons, as have purchased lands
under the laws of North Carolina, for
which they have paid the State.
The confidence we have in the wisdom and
justice of the United States inclines us
to leave every matter of dispute to
their decision, and I am expressly
empowered and commanded to give the
United States full assurance, that we
shall act in obedience to their
determination, provided North Carolina
will consent that they shall become the
arbiters. I had set out with the
intention to wait on Congress to
discharge the duties of the trust
reposed in me, but I am informed that
Congress will adjourn about the last of
this month; and I will thank you to be
so kind as to favor me with a few lines
by the bearer, Mr. Rogers, to inform me
when Congress will meet again, and shall
be happy to have your sentiments and
advice on so important a subject.12
Franklin made prompt
acknowledgment, expressing appreciation
of the honor done him in the naming of
the State, and approving the resolution
of the leaders of the movement to submit
the points in dispute to the decision of
Congress:
Philadelphia, 12.
August, 1786.
Sir:
I received yesterday the letter you did
me the honor of writing me on the 15th
of June past. I had never before been
acquainted that the name of your new
State had any relation with my name,
having understood that it was called
Frankland. It is a very great honor,
indeed, that its inhabitants have done
me; and I should be happy if it were in
my power to show how sensible I am of
it, by something more essential than my
wishes for their prosperity.
Having resided some years past in
Europe, and being but lately arrived
thence, I have not had the opportunity
of being well informed of the points in
dispute between you and the State of
North Carolina. I can therefore only
say, that I think you are perfectly
right in resolving to submit them to the
discretion of Congress, and to abide by
their determination. It is a wise and
impartial tribunal, which can have no
sinister views to warp its judgment. It
is happy for us all that we have now in
our own country such a council to apply
to, for composing our differences,
without being obliged, as formerly, to
carry them across the ocean to be
decided, at an immense expense, by a
council which knew but little about our
affairs, would hardly take any pains to
understand them, and which often treated
our applications with contempt, and
rejected them with injurious language.
Let us, therefore cherish and respect
our own tribunal; for the more generally
it is held in high regard, the more able
it will be to answer effectually the
ends of its institution, the quieting of
our contentions, and thereby promoting
our common peace and happiness.
I do not hear any talk of an adjournment
of Congress concerning which you
inquire; and I rather think it likely
they may continue to sit out their year,
as it is but lately they have been able
to make a quorum for business that must
therefore probably be in arrear. If you
proceed in your intended journey, I
shall be glad to see you as you pass
through Philadelphia 13
___________
1The commissioners were
Benjamin Hawkins of North Carolina;
Andrew Pickens of South Carolina;
Lachlan McIntosh, of Georgia; and Joseph
Martin.
2 Surveyed by General William
Campbell in 1777-78, marking, as it was
supposed, the boundary between Virginia
and the Cherokees.
3 U. S. Statutes at Large,
VII, 18. There was an exception in favor
of the inhabitants in the forks of the
French Broad and Holston rivers, whose
status was to be fixed by Congress. At
Hopewell, Tassel, the beloved man of
Chota, said: "If commissioners are not
able to do me justice in removing the
people from the fork of French Broad and
Holston, I am unable to get it for
myself. Are Congress, who conquered the
King of Great Britain, unable to remove
these people? I am satisfied with the
promises of the commissioners to remove
all the people from our lines except
those in the fork, and I will agree to
be content that the particular situation
of the people settled there, and our
claims to the lands should be referred
to Congress, and I will abide by their
decision." Congress never acted on the
point submitted.
4 Alexander Outlaw to
Governor Caswell, October 8, 1786,
protesting against the Treaty of
Hopewell. N. C. State Records, XVIII,
757.
5 St. Papers, Indian Affairs,
I, 44.
6 N. C. State Records, XVIII,
591.
7 N. C. State Records, XXII,
105. The report of the committee
embodied an argument based on the
assumed validity of the cession act of
1784, and an insistence that Congress
must thereunder treat the State's grants
of western lands as valid, "whereas the
citizens to whom grants were made before
the cession act have been left to the
mercy of the Indians." Ib.,XVIII, 465.
Joseph Martin wrote to Patrick Henry
that "North Carolina is about to say in
the protest that the Continental
commissioners have given up to the
Indians lands that North Carolina
purchased of said Indians, which is
notoriously false. I speak with
confidence." Jan. 2o, 1787. Henry's
Patrick Henry, III, 384. Martin was
smarting under the stinging criticism of
his work as commissioner and (Feb. 10)
represented to Henry that the Cherokees
were so disheartened as to be
considering a removal. ". . . I incline
to think they will cross the Ohio." Cal.
Va.St.Papers, IV, 235.
8 Haywood, 162.
9 Martin to Governor Caswell,
May I I, 1786, N. C. State Records. See
also Va. Cal. State Papers, IV, 162,
164, 256.
10 Ramsey, 343; also Maryland journal,
Aug. 29, and Oct. 6, 1786, for letters
from Franklin on the campaign.
11 Given in full by Ramsey, 3445.
12 Works of Franklin (Sparks ed.), X,
266.
13 Works of Franklin (Sparks
Ed.), X, 268. |
