The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1879-08-13
The Tennessee Centennial.
To the Nashville American:

- issue of the steps being taken b
: the Tennessee Historical Society {
= celebrate formally and in an apprc
pirate manner the centennial Of th
settlement of Middle Tennessee.
there is a State on this eontinen
: which is entitled to revert with prid
;. to the achievements of her sons il
all the great fields of human action
and enterprise, it is the one who's
natal day we propose to observe
honor and cherish on the oath day
, of April, 1880. Into that hundred
} years of existence she has crowded
as much eventful history as any
among the wonderful array of States
by which she is surrounded, and In
the midst of which she stands as a
giant among giauts. AsqR theatre OF
actions mighty in fact and result she
is equalled by few, and in the infu-
ence she has exerted on the destiny
of the great West, she is surpassed
by none. For more than a century
her sons have led the van Of civili-
cation west of the Alleghanies, and
she can justly claim an empire, vast
in extent and Importance, as mainly
due the exercise of her enterprise
and Valor, Her place in the sister
hood of States Is pre.eminent. Let
her be duly honored by them all by
sharing in the ovation which she is
about to tender to the memory of
the sacred dust Of her heroic sons
sleeping on every field Of enterprise
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Let US glance Mt her claims to this
distinction. Born at Wautaga in
1856, of castaway children, fleeing
from the tyranny of cruel mother,
she bad neither cradle nor baby
hood, but passed at once into the
stage of self-reliant youth, strang-
ling like Hercules the serpents sent
to destroy her. Breasting the storm
Of Indian fury, she gradually pushed
t back, growing stronger at every
,tep of her advance, holding on with
Anglo. Saxon tenacity to every foot
jhe had won, but paying dearly, as
he has always done, in a ourren-
y of precious blood. In IVA,
.uided by patriotic impulses, by the
isplay of which on so many occa-
ions, she has won the title of the
rolunteer State, she sent body of
er sons to the help of Virginia, on )
be great Kanawha, where, by their {
charge on the flank at SUM-
ct, after the battle had hung all day {
/ the balance, the victory was won I
nd the Shawnee power broken be. a
ond recovery. a
At Kings Mountain, the back t
oods riflemen of the Wautauga set a
ements, under Sewer and Shelby, t
elped to win the most important II
nd eventful battle that was ever p
,ught on the American continent, Il
the Judgment of Thomas Jefferson g.
as right, when he declared that it e
as the turning point of the Revo- .
tion. It was the darkest hour in
merican history when, on chill
ctober day, that little band of pa u
lots stood at the base of the noun
in waiting the sigual to assault its x
mmit. Gates had been defeated c'
Camden, and Greene alone of the CT
forces in the South, with L
few brave spirits, udheld the stan N
Lrd in the desperate hope that for "
ne, in some mysterious way, might III
complish the deliverance of his OF
untry. At sunset, the cause of ca
eedom had won, and Kings Noun Vi
in stands to-day the loftiest to
merican valor in all this land of ps
ave deeds and mighty achieve. 81
ents, and next to the discovery of ps
is continent by Columbus, and the
sclaration of Independence, the ct
andest landmark in the New sc
orld's history. This victory us
enched mighty empire from the
es of kingly power and changed "
: tide of human destiny for ages kr
come.
Then we recite the colonization of de
lat is now known as Middle Ten. as
ssee, by James Robertson and
hn Donelson, one pressing by un- WI
'dden paths deeper and deeper in To-
the dark, mysterious and unin- an
bited Wilderness where the great gu
Rrt-throbs of undisturbed nature wi
,ne smote an the ear; the other Cl
.ching the same destination after
lve-months' voyage down the Ten wi
ssee and up the Cumberland, brav- ws
|, dangers Of Indian attacks and mi
,ils of engulfment, only equalled CO
the tabled story of Scylla and m,
arybdis, guided and guarded by
mighty hand of destiny, which GI
inted to a promised laud-a new an
pire, the projection of whose tn
mes have long since reached ito pa
Lakes on the north. the Gulf on da