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If the old-state partisans on the
frontiers looked to Virginia for support
in periods of stress, the Franklinites
turned southward to Georgia for an ally.
As Roosevelt observes, Georgia was a
frontier State in spirit, particularly
at this period when political sway was
passing from her leaders of the seaboard
region to those of the North Georgia
hill country who had come in from the
frontiers of Virginia and the Carolinas.
Backwoodsmen felt toward Georgia as they
did toward no other member of the old
Thirteen.1
Governor Sevier had a warm friend in
blunt George Mathews, now elected
governor of that State, who, like
Sevier, had come out of the Valley of
Virginia.
At the time of the surrender of the
gubernatorial chair by Edward Telfair to
Mathews, the Georgia Assembly took
favorable action on a mission of Major
Elholm, in the following report:
That the letters from John Sevier, Esq.,
evince a disposition which ought not to
be unreguarded by this State,
particularly in the intention of
settlers in Nollichuckey, etc., to
co-operate with us during the late alarm
with the Indians, provided the
necessities of the case required it;
they, therefore, recommended to the
House that his Honor, the Governor,
inform the Honorable 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 tribe of
Creek Indians that were opposed to this
State.
That in regard to Major Elholm, who has
been so particularly recommended, they
cannot forbear mentioning him as a
person entitled to the thanks and
attention of the legislature, and
recommend that his Honor, the Governor,
draw a warrant on the treasury in favor
of Major Elholm for the sum of fifty
pounds.2
Governor Telfair in the same month wrote
Governor Sevier of the attention and
respect the legislature had paid to the
proffer of "aid you were authorized to
afford the State."3
Other distinguished men of Georgia wrote
to express their esteem and good wishes
for Sevier and for the new State of
Franklin. Col. Walton presented him with
a neatly bound volume of the
constitutions of the thirteen States,
accompanied by a complimentary address.
The Society of the Cincinnati of that
State elected Sevier an honorary member,
at Augusta, February 12th. Ramsey,
possessed of the certificate of
membership at the time he wrote, gives
its recitation of Sevier's record: "that
he had a principal merit in the rapid
and well conducted volunteer expedition
to attack Colonel Ferguson, at King's
Mountain, and a great share in the honor
of that day, which, as is well known,
gave a favorable turn to our gloomy and
distressed situation, and that an
opportunity never yet appeared but what
confirmed him as an ardent friend and a
real gentleman."
Major Elholm was able to inspire
enthusiasm, if not to win outright
support for the State of Franklin, in
Georgia. Haywood says that a common
toast there was, "Success to the State
of Franklin, his Excellency Governor
Sevier, and her virtuous citizens."4
Sevier had sent by Major Elholm a letter
to his old friend of the trying
revolutionary days, Col. Elijah Clarke,
who replied (February 11th) in
expressions of warm regard that must
have been, above almost any other thing,
pleasant to Sevier:
Augusta, Feb. 11th, 1787.
Dear Sir:—I received your favour by
Major Elholm, who informed me of your
health. Assure yourself of 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 speedily 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 Spaniards to
France, but it is not so. I know that
you must have the navigation of the
Mississippi. You have spirit and right;
it is almost every man's opinion that a
rumour will arise in that country.
I hope to see that part myself yet.
Adieu; Heaven attend you and every
friend, with my best respects.
In a second letter, (May 22, 1787),
Clarke said:
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 operations taken against the Creeks.
I am very sorry to hear you have not
peaceably established yourselves in the
State of Franklin, and that the unhappy
contention yet prevails between that and
the State of North Carolina, and more
particularly when they think of reducing
you by force. These ideas have not
proceeded from any assurance from this
State, as it is the received 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.5
On his return to Franklin, the ebullient
Elholm proved that he, too, could write
inspiriting letters to his recent hosts.6
The fall session of the Franklin
Assembly provided for the forwarding of
aid to Georgia of nine hundred men,
thought to be sufficient for the
purpose; and Sevier informed Mathews
that the force awaited the determination
of Georgia officials, but that the
Creeks had abated their hostilities on
the Cumberland.
Major Elholm was sent (June 24th) on a
second mission to Georgia, carrying a
letter to Governor Mathews from Governor
Sevier in which was incorporated an
appeal that Georgia intervene to bring
about a reconciliation between Franklin
and the parent State. Sevier wrote that
a reunion on just terms would prove
agreeable. Short of this—"the sword
cannot intimidate us."7
Sevier realized that the State of
Franklin was to fall into a rapid
decline unless something could be done
to bolster it. He knew the welding
influence on all frontiersmen of an
Indian campaign, particularly if land
were held out as service-bounty. He,
therefore, equipped Elholm with a letter
addressed to the Georgia Assembly, in
which he reviewed the subject of using
the territory of Georgia in the Bend of
the Tennessee as a place for settlements
by the outflow of emigrants from
Franklin, and gave assurance that his
State would aid in affording them
protection from the hostile Indian
tribes; that this would be effected in a
large measure "by erecting some
garrisons on the frontiers of this
State, which we have lately resolved to
do."
Major Elholm in reporting the action of
the Franklin Assembly requested that the
men coming for service from Franklin
should: be granted bounty lands in the
Bend; and he was called upon by the
Georgia Council of State to furnish a
project of the military preparations
necessary for the campaign, and also for
the settlement of the Bend of Tennessee.8
_______________
1 Winning of the West, pt.
IV, ch. III.
2 Ramsey, 384; Steven's
Georgia, 380, et seq.
3 Ramsey, 385. Haywood says
that this communication was addressed to
Sevier in the character of Governor of
the State of Franklin. (Haywood, 172).
The Assembly, however, appears to have
safeguarded its phrasing.
4 Haywood, 172. William Downs
assured Gov. Sevier (May 2ist) that "the
greatest politicians give it as their
opinion that Franklin will support
itself without a doubt and, from what I
can understand, would give every
assistance in their powers." Ramsey,
386.
5 Ramsey, 386. The spirit of
independence shown in this letter was,
in a later year (1794) to manifest
itself in an attempt of Clarke, the
war-hardened, imperious and stern, to
establish "a separate and independent
government on the lands allotted to the
Indians for their hunting-grounds
without the limits of Georgia, with a
legislative body, a constitution and a
committee of safety." Steven's Georgia,
33; Alston, Ga. Bar. Asso. Rep. (1912),
137-54. John Clarke, his son, was
afterward elected governor of Georgia.
6 Writing, probably from the
present Knoxville, under date line:
"Tennessee, in the State of Franklin,
June lc), 1787," "a gentlemen of the
State of Franklin to an officer in
Georgia" affords no little sidelight on
the spirit of almost the entire West:
"I had the pleasure of your friendly
favor of the 26th. ult., in which I was
happy to observe that the State of
Georgia bids fair for becoming the first
of the confederacy, with the respect to
its policy, commercial staples, military
strength, and number of officers trained
in the late war, whose experience and
courage fit them for reaping a harvest
of glory in any military enterprise, to
which their country may call them.
"By accounts the most authentic from all
the Southern Indians, we are assured,
beyond all doubt, that an opportunity
will shortly be given to those heroes,
to acquire fresh laurels in a war which
the Creek nation is determined to
create.
"The emissaries of the Spanish Governor
at Pensacola and New Orleans, have long
been indefatigable in their exertions of
exciting all the savage tribes south of
the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, to
raise the hatchet against your state in
particular, as the only one whose claims
of territory, enterprising spirit, and
strength they affect to dread. By them,
the Creeks are actually supplied with
everything for a long, vigorous,
determined series of hostilities, and it
is more than probable that before this
letter may reach you the Creeks may be
in the heart of your settlements. This
insidious interposition of Spanish
jealousy, as well as the usurpations of
the Spaniards on our rights of territory
and navigation, will (and we here [and]
in Kentucky hope that it shall) rouse
the Georgians to retaliate on the Dons
at the Natchez and New Orleans. In such
event, no doubts can exist but that the
hardy warriors of Franklin, Kentucky,
and those of all the other settlements
on the western waters, will effectually
co-operate in such a measure. And were
the force of 30,000 men necessary to the
project of subjugating the Creeks,
storming New Orleans, and opening the
navigation of the Mississippi, such
force could, I am persuaded, be called
forth, and with alacrity would turn out
from the states and settlements just
mentioned. I shall be more diffuse on
this topic in my next, and am in the
meantime, my dear sir, Yours, etc."
Charleston (S. C.) Morning Post, June
29, 1787.
7 "Franklin, 24th. June,
1787.
"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 inconsiderable, yet, by their
contention and disorder, they occasion
much uneasiness to peaceable minds. We
are friendly citizens of the American
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 what occasions in us
excruciating pain is, that perhaps we
may be driven to the necessity,
unparalleled and unexampled, 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
reunion will take place on honourable,
just, and equitable principles,
reciprocally 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 expedient, 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 sufficiently acquainted with. Only,
we beg leave to refer you to the Cession
act of North-Carolina; also the
constitution of that government, wherein
it mentions that there may be a state or
states erected in the West whenever 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 Major Elholm." Ramsey, 390.
The Council of the State, at Augusta,
resolved that it entertained a high
sense of the friendly intentions of the
people of Franklin. Draper MSS., IX, 45.
The Land Board at Washington, Ga.,
having accounts from the State of
Franklin and the settlements on the
Cumberland that a number of settlers
from those sections were contemplating
removal to the Tennessee District,
ordered surveying in that District to be
proceeded with immediately. Ramsey, 377.
8 Elholm and Sevier continued
efforts to establish claims in the Great
Bend after statehood, (1798). Cal.
King's Mountain Papers, Draper MSS.,
219, 221. |
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