p56  Chapter IX

The First General Assembly — 1785

An interesting situation was now presented for the play and interplay of influences, tending on the one hand to anchor leaders to the cause of the old State, or, on the other, to attach them to the fortunes of the fledging Commonwealth. Later researches, it is to be regretted, fail to disclose anything that adds to the bare statement of Haywood that Cocke in an interview with Sevier "erased the favorable impressions he had received towards the government of North Carolina." Cocke, more than any other man, Sevier excepted, had shaped the course of recent events. He was a lawyer and the drafting of the resolutions, articles of association and a declaration of independence naturally, in large part, fell to him; and, quite as of course, he felt the pride of parenthood. He could not easily yield assent to the wrecking of his handiwork in the construction of a new government in which his popularity and talents gave promise of raising him to high station. His must have been a persuasive appeal to Sevier, without whose coöperation headway could not be made.

Sevier felt that he owed a duty to his people. He was their recognized leader; and popular sentiment at the time ran strongly in favor of independence. By that, rather than by the influence of any leader or leaders of the frontier, Sevier was constrained to surrender his own conviction as to what was true policy. Sevier, himself, stated the case, in sum, when (in 1788) he wrote to Joseph Martin that he was "dragged with the Franklin measures by a large number of the people of this country."1

In reviewing the conduct of Sevier, the North Carolina Assembly of 1789 found that Sevier did in 1784 oppose efforts made to subvert North Carolina's authority "in such manner as actually to prevent elections being held under new government in two of the counties."2

 p57  This indicates that the first attempt to hold an election for members to an Assembly of Franklin under the Constitution was frustrated by Sevier, in efforts initiated by his Jonesborough speech and Kennedy letter; and also explains why the Assembly did not meet until March, 1785.

The Assembly met early in March and did not adjourn until near the end of the month, though it is probable that there were recesses taken in order that committees charged with the drafting of a series of legislative acts might mature the same for report and passage. The Assembly was held at Jonesborough, as Ramsey correctly states;​3 though Allison states that the meeting was at Greeneville.​4 This fact entitles the county site of Washington county to the honor of having been, in the fullest sense, the first capital of the Commonwealth.

John Sevier was elected governor, perhaps without opposition.

No roster of the members of the first Assembly of Franklin has been preserved. Landon Carter was speaker of the senate, and Thomas Talbot its clerk; and William Cage was speaker and Thomas Chapman, clerk of the house of commons. The government was organized by the election of John Sevier as governor. A judiciary was established, David Campbell becoming judge of the  p58 superior court, and Joshua Gist and John Anderson assistant judges.

The records of the legislature and council of state of the State of Franklin have been lost. The laws were never printed or published save by oral proclamation at the door of Assembly. Col. Gilbert Christian, it appears, may have had possession of the records at the time of his death in 1793.5

Copies of the titles of the Acts passed at March, 1785, session of the Assembly were forwarded to the North Carolina authorities, and filed. Haywood evidently drawing from that source gives a list of acts, ratified on March 31, 1785:

Haywood, who, by reason of his intimate knowledge of North Carolina legislation, could speak with authority, says that these enactments conformed closely to those which had been made on the same or similar subjects-matter in North Carolina. The enacting  p61 clause was,

Those named for the offices of civil government were, in large part, those who had been in the service of the old State.

Ramsey states that, as far as could be ascertained at the time he wrote, James Sevier was clerk of the Washington county court; John Rhea, of the Sullivan court;​14 Daniel Kennedy of the Greene court; Thomas Henderson, of the Spencer court;​15 Joseph Hamilton, of the Caswell court; and Samuel Wear, of the Sevier court.

Francis A. Ramsey, father of the historian, was appointed by Governor Sevier to the clerkship of the superior court for the District of Washington, which was held at Jonesborough.

Manning the state offices were: Landon Carter, secretary of state; William Cage, treasurer; and Stockley Donelson, surveyor-general. The council of state was composed of William Cocke, Landon Carter, Francis A. Ramsey, David Campbell, Daniel Kennedy, and Colonel Taylor.16

 p62  On Cage's election as state treasurer, Joseph Hardin, of Greene, succeeded to the speaker­ship of the house of commons, and served for a remnant of the March session, 1785.

Governor Martin determined to send to the disaffected region a personal representative to ascertain and report the true state of affairs. He selected Major Samuel Henderson, a brother of Judge Richard Henderson, who had in former years been on the western frontiers;​17 and on February 27, 1785, a letter of instructions was delivered to Henderson.18

 p63  When Henderson reached Jonesborough, he found the first Assembly of Franklin in session. Governor Sevier laid before the Assembly a letter brought to him from Governor Martin — addressed to him as "brigadier-general." The Assembly formulated a reply to it:​a

Governor Sevier also returned a short reply by Henderson, in which only one point was reinforced — that North Carolina had granted, for a consideration inuring to herself, the lands of the Cherokees up to the mouth of Holston river, the actual settlement of which lands she was now threatening to resist.

William Cocke was elected agent or commissioner of the State of Franklin to appear before the Congress of the Confederation and present a memorial prepared by the General Assembly, praying admission to the Union.

 p66  The Assembly considered it necessary to bring the Cherokee Indians into relation­ship with the new Commonwealth, and Governor Sevier, Alexander Outlaw and Daniel Kennedy were appointed commissioners with authority to make a treaty with the Overhill Cherokees.

The first session of the Franklin Assembly was the longest ever held. The bulk of the legislation was large; necessarily so in the launching of a new State.

Buoyancy and hopefulness were in the hearts of the Franklin people as they faced the future. In the summer of 1785, a neighbor across the line in Washington county, Virginia, wrote that the "new society or State called Franklin has already put off its infant habit and seems to step forward with a florid, healthy constitution; it wants only the paternal guardian­ship of Congress for a short period to entitle it to be admitted with eclat as a member of the Federal Government. Here the genuine Republican! here the real Whig will find a safe asylum, a comfortable retreat among those modern Franks, the hardy mountain men."19

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The Author's Notes:

1 Calendar Virginia State Papers, IV, 416.

2 Report, North Carolina Senate, Nov., 1789, signed by John Rhea, Chairman. Rhea was from Sullivan county; and in later years represented the first district of Tennessee in Congress.

3 Ramsey, 293.

4 Allison, Dropped Stitches, 28. This statement called out a newspaper controversy as to which of the two towns was the first capital of the State. Judge Allison was drawn into the discussion, and in a communication of April 5, 1916, (Johnson City Daily Staff, April 8, 1916) after quoting and reaffirming his statement, he says that he gathered the facts from Haywood's History of Tennessee, records and other official sources (without citation) and concludes: "So it appears that while there were meetings at Jonesborough, on the subject, the Constitution of Franklin was finally adopted at Greeneville, the government organized there, and state officers elected and located there, and the legislature met, first and last at Greeneville." Haywood, however, is silent on the point in issue. The Assembly's reply to Governor Martin was dated Jonesborough, March 22nd. A proclamation was issued by Governor Sevier dated "in Washington [County] this 15th day of May 1785, and in the first year of our independency;" Pennsylvania Packet, August 9, 1785; State Gazette of South Carolina, August 8, 1785. Governor Sevier wrote from "Washington Court House" to Governor Martin 1785 — while the Assembly was yet in session. Not only was the March session of the Assembly held at Jonesborough; there was an August, 1785 session held at the same place, as is shown in a later chapter. Allison was a native of Washington County, and that fact might be thought to add weight to his statement.

5 George Christian's statement to Draper (1842): "I can say that in father's possession at the time of his death, there were a quantity of manuscript copies of the laws of Franklin, all of which fell into the hands of others after the death of my mother which occurred in 1812. I presume my youngest sister, Margaret, who married Rev. Thomas Milligan, if preserved at all."

6 By this act, Martin's Academy was reincorporated. The North Carolina Assembly of 1783 had provided for the establishment of that Academy, naming it in honor of Governor Alexander Martin. It was the institution that had been founded by Rev. Samuel Doak about 1780, near Jonesborough, at Salem church (Presbyterian) on Hominy branch of Little Limestone creek. Doak had been a member of the Franklin December convention, and doubtless asked legislative recognition of his classical school. Later the Assembly of the Territory South of the Ohio River (1795) on motion of John Sevier, granted a charter to the institution under the name of Washington College. John Sevier, Jr., was named as one of the trustees. It was the first literary institution west of the mountains, and has had a useful and honorable existence ever since. Alexander, Historical Sketch of Washington College, Tennessee, 4‑10.

7 Under this act, field officers for the several counties were named, as follows: For Sullivan county: Gilbert Christian, colonel; John Anderson, lieutenant-colonel; George Maxwell, first major. For the "middle county" (later at the same session created Caswell county): Alexander Outlaw, colonel; James Roddy, lieutenant-colonel; John McNab, first major; Nathaniel Evans, second major. For Greene county: Daniel Kennedy, colonel; George Doherty, lieutenant-colonel; James Houston, first major; Alexander Kelly, second major. For Washington county: Charles Robertson, colonel; Valentine Sevier, lieutenant-colonel; Landon Carter, first major; Jacob Brown, second major.

Haywood and Ramsey state that Daniel Kennedy and William Cocke were made brigadier-generals of the Franklin militia.

8 Corresponding to Hawkins county, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

9 Ramsey, 294: "This act was probably never carried into effect. More than two years afterward commissions to the officers of Franklin were issued, having upon them a common wafer as the seal of the State."

10 In honor of General Richard Caswell, who had been elected and was soon to be inaugurated governor of North Carolina.

11 In honor of John Sevier. In 1794 at the Assembly of the Territory South of the Ohio River, a county, covering a part of the same territory, was created and given the name of Sevier.

12 Conveyances registered at Jonesborough in the year 1785, in recital of the consideration, say: "good and lawful money of the State of Franklin." Bonds were payable in "Franklin currency."

13 Named in honor of General Anthony Wayne. It embraced the territory now within the limits of Carter and Johnson counties.

14 In respect to Rhea the historian must be in error, since Rhea wrote to Governor Caswell, May 4, 1787, stating that he had been clerk of the Sullivan county court, under North Carolina, previous to the establishment of the Franklin government; but that he had been called abroad by business. "At my return lately, it appeared that during my absence there had been a change respecting a government called Franklin, that the justices of the county had let the court [North Carolina] fall, a majority if not all having joined the new‑made government. When the county courts were erected under the Franklin authority, the person who was deputy for me was by them made clerk of their court in Sullivan, by which proceeding all the records of this county have fallen into the hands of the people of Franklin," and "as an officer of the State of North Carolina" Rhea asked instructions from the governor how to proceed. The letter sheds much light upon the sentiment of the inhabitants of Sullivan County toward the new State at that time. Rhea had been clerk of the Sullivan county court as early as 1780.

15 It appears that Thomas Hutchings, before his defection, was for a time clerk of the Spencer county court. Ingram's Heirs vs. Cocke, 1 Overton Rep. 22.

16 Ramsey, 296. An effort was made to win Col. Joseph Martin's adherence to the Franklin government. As seen, he had been active in the earlier stages of the movement, but on visiting the seat of government of North Carolina, he had learned that the separation would meet with Governor Martin's determined resistance; whereupon he shifted his course. He was chosen as a member of the council of state of Franklin, but declined to qualify. Active in the affairs of Virginia, as well as those of North Carolina, he had incurred the displeasure of Col. Arthur Campbell of Washington county, Virginia. Campbell wrote to Governor Patrick Henry, June 3, 1785, in regard to Martin's appointment as lieutenant-colonel of Virginia militia; "since that he became a citizen of North Carolina, resided in that State and served there in different offices — no duty having been done by him in this for years; and lately, at his own solicitation, was chosen one of the privy council for the State of Frankland (as it is called)." Va. Cal. State Papers, IV, 31. Martin wrote to Governor Henry a letter, in which he made no reference to his active participation in the Franklin movement and guardedly stated: "As I am informed, Colo. Arthur Campbell informed your Excellency that I was an officer in the new State. I beg to assure your Excellency that the report is vague, and that no earthly thing shall prevail on me to neglect my duty as agent for the State of Virginia so long as I have the honour to fill that office. True it is the Assembly of Franklin, as they call themselves, elected me one of their privy council, which I refused to accept." Va. Cal. St. Papers, 53 (Sept. 19, 1785). Martin on the same day wrote the governor of North Carolina quite as "vague" a denial as the above: "I find myself under some concern . . . wherein I am considered a member of the new State. I beg leave to assure your Excellency that I have no part with them." N. C. St. Rec., XVII; Ramsey, 318.

17 Henderson: Conquest of the Old Southwest.

18 "You will please to repair with disestablish to General Sevier and deliver him the letters herewith handed you, and request his answer. You will make yourself acquainted with the transaction of the people in the Western Country, such as holding a convention; and learn whether the same be temporary, to be exercised only during the time of the late cession act, and that since repeal thereof they mean to consider themselves citizens of North Carolina; or whether they intend the same to be perpetual; and what measures they have taken to support such government. That you procure a copy of the constitution, and the names of such officers at present exercising the powers of the new government. That you be informed whether a faction of a few leading men be at the head of this business, or whether it be the sense of a large majority of the people that the State be dismembered at this crisis of affairs, and what laws and resolutions are formed for their future government; also, where the bounds of their new State are to extend, and whether Cumberland or Kentucky, or both, are to be included therein, and whether the people of these places have taken part in these transactions. You will learn the temper and disposition of the Indians, and what is done in Hubbard's case, and how his conduct is approved or disapproved in general. Lastly, every other information you think necessary to procure, you will communicate to me as soon as possible; at the same time you will conduct yourself with that prudence you are master of, in not throwing out menaces, or making use of any language that may serve to irritate persons concerned in the above measures." Ramsey, 307, and N. C. St. Records.

19 Quoted by Turner, "Western State-making," Am. Hist. Rev.,º I, 258. Col. Arthur Campbell was perhaps the writer.

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Thayer's Note:

a The same document is given by George Henry Alden, American Historical Review, VIII.277‑279, where the source is stated to be the Pennsylvania Packet of May 21, 1785. The two versions differ in minor and less minor points, and although the Alden version is claimed to be given "in full", the version here contains several paragraphs not to be found in the other. I've flagged by bullets the more important of the small differences between the two transcriptions. It should be noted that Williams gives no source for the version given above: if it is not the Pennsylvania Packet, that would account for the differences.

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