Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1884-04-13

DR.. JAMES q. NJ. RAMSEY, author of
The Innuis qf Tennessee to the End Of Tie
Eighteenth C.1tsry, and for many years
president Of the State Historical Society,
I died at his home in Knoxville on Friday
night, in his eighty-seventh year. Or.
Ramsey, as he himself Gays in the open
ing sentence Of the preface to his history,
was zone of the frst-born sons Of the
State OF Tennessee" the son Of Col. +. A.
Ramsey. one Of the pioneers, whose ex-
ample OF fortitude, courage and persever-
ancc is noble legacy worthy
OF acceptance by great peo-
pie. Thus linked by kindred ties with
the men who founded the Watauga' AS
sociation in the God-fearing and self-reli-
ant spirit OF their fOreiathers, who, in the
"old home" contended so manfully
Tor religious liberty and civil indie
pendence, DIR. Ramsey entered upon his
task with a love of his subject born of a
reverence inspired by the tireside recital
OF the contests with Indians and Tories, in
all OF which the brave settlers We're vic
torious How well he did his work, the
annals ef Tennessee will tell. He fol
lowed infinitely every step taken in
the foundation OF the State, and
has marked almost every page with
q pl5L0nable pride in the pioneers
who. before the revolution, pushed on be
voul the mountains and took possession
of the territory SO long disputed by the
Gherokecs on the one side and the Paw
ness. OF Shawnees, on the other, disputed
until the Jecimation ofthe latter tribe com
PEELED the relonant of it TO seek shelter
across the Ohio riyer with the Giuskogees.
IL was this loug-continued contest that
suggested the name OF The dark and
bloody ground for all the territory
lying between the Cumberland and the
Ohio 10 its confluence with the Missis-
siypi No story Of sll those that illustrate
American yalor, constancy and bravery
IL more lovingly embalmed than that
which Dr. Ramsey has told in his desulto-
~ and old-iashioned, but warm-hearted
way. Wanting the order and sequence
and flowing periods OF a well-con-
s,lructed narrative, it is pervsded
10y the very spirit of the
heroic men who AZ the Wataugl, al
Nickajacl, at the Salt Springs on the Cum
I berlanl, at Kings MouHtsir, and later
| with Jackson in Alabama, Florida and
louisiana made the name of the Vol
uuteer State illustsisUs amoag her sis
srs as first always for the national
.efense. These annals are the record
nearly thirty years Of warfare in which
he personal courage of even the women
vaA put to the severest tests, and
ilways, to their eternal renown, suc'
sessiuliy. The Indians were slow and
{eluctant to leave the happy hunting
Arounds to which for ages they had como
very wear, sure of all descriptions o
;-ane, and they contended manfully fol
very foot of its soil. lndividua
contests were, therefore, frequent
and self-reliance became the chiefes
virtue with a noble race. The vol
nze in which these are necounteC
Is also a monument TO the venerable his
torian who has just passed away. i
breathesa State pride which is not lessenet
by expressions of a broader patriotism
for the whole republic; it cberishes the
memory OF deeds as noble as history has
any record OF anywhere and OF a herolsaf
that will live forever an impehshable ex
ample of the viii and ability OF the com
mon people to establish a govern
ment by the consent of the governed
and maintain it, through trials, tempta
tions, revolutions and wars that followed
each other so rapidly as to test not onll
their courage but the wisdom and law
abiding spirit that animated them from
the first DR.. Ramsey is linked foreve
with the history OF the State he loved, an'
OF which he vas one OF the first amonl
her Sons.