Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-12-19

court enacted that no person should
demand for it more than one dollar a
gallon. This price failing to attract
a sufficient supply, an enterprising in :
dlvidual announced his intention to
erect distillery. This Robertson op-
posed, very much against the senti-
ment Of majority of the people, and
fearing that the constitutional right"
OF his court to prohibit the erection
might be questioned, he went direct to
the Legislature and procured the pas
sage OF law with this preamble:
whereas, crops being short and grain
scarce, owing to the obstruction of
agriculture by the withdrawal of plant
ers and laborers to oppose the infesting
savages, sound discretion requires that
the grain should be preserved for the
subsistence of the settlers and of the
new immigrants upon their arrival" ="
The speech Robertson made on this oc-
casion was model of oratorical brevi-
ty. 1t was merely this:
THE conversion of grain into spirit
uous liquors is an unwarranted perver-
sion OF the bounty of Providence. 1t is
unserviceable to white men and devil
ish for Indians"
Robertson held his own against the
majority for fully three years, but then
the appetites of his constituents got the
better OF him, and distillery was erect
ed in the teeth of the law and of his
opposition. 1t was called the "Red
Heifer," and the custom of the distil-
Ter was to blow COW g horn whenever
run" of the hot fluid was ready for
his thirsty customers 1t was served
in drinking cup made from the horn
of buffalo, and the Western phrase,
Taking horn" is said to have origi-
mated from this circumstance.
Another of Robertson's errors was
one fixing the charges of inn keepers.
Only specified sums were to be exacted
for the board and lodging of the trav.
eller and his horse, and certain rates
for his spiritual consolation. If rum
floated melted tallow he could be made
to pay only six pence per fluid pint;
butiftallow sank in it, thereby showing
more spirit than water-the landlord
could demand eight pence.
There was neither gold nor silver in
the country, and as the North Carolina
promises to pay" we're worth only one
cent on the dollar, Robertson had to
provide some otlier circulating medi-
um. He adopted about everything that
could be either worn or eaten, and also
affixed price to bounty warrants and
guard certificates-which represented
certain quantities of land-thus max
ing the solid earth itself pass from hand
to hand like more portable articles. 1t
became common expression to say,
II will take or give"a q three twenty"
or "six forty" those figures denoting
30 many acres. A valuable $40 acre
tract in the suburbs of Nashville was
once sold for three axes and two COW
bells, another for a good rife and
clear toned bell, and the Hon. Randall
M. Ewing, of Tennessee, informed me
that his great grandfather, who was
the clerk of Robertson's court, once
gave valuable tract of 800 acres for
a plough horse, and insisted to the day
of his death that it was the best bar
gain he ever made.
These instances are curiously illus
trative of the manners and ways of
life OF these people, who were in
wide forest, and at least ten days dis
tant from the most westerly civilized
settlement; and they show that the first
settlers beyond the Alleghanies were
not the rude, uncouth and uncultiva-
ted backwoodsmen they are generally
pictured, but were thinking men, order
loving and God fearing, and in charac-
ter and principles, strikingly like our
own puritan ancestors. If their dwell
ings were of logs it was because no.
thing else was impervious to Indian
bullets; if they went about clad in
cheap llnsey, or in cheaper deer and
bear skins, it was for the reason that
no other apparel was accessible in that
far away wilderness, which with sub
lime courage and unparalleled prowess
they had wrested from the bravest and
most powerful savage nations on this
continent. The struggle, as I have
said, lasted fifteen years, and until
Tennessee was admitted to the Union,
and John Sewer was made its first Gov
ernor. Then the savages buried the
hatchet, for they knew that with Mol
achucky Jack at the head of popula-
tion of hundred thousand, and free
to act on his own volition, furthur
atrocities would be simply the signal
for their own determination.
This closed what may be called the
log cabin stage of Western civilization.
Then these pioneers emerged from the
fortified stations and entered upon
what may be termed the clapboard
stage of ofprogress,a ,and this was soon fol-
lowed by the brick and stone era,
which two stages were SO much like
our present civilization that they call
for no description. These later stages
produced statesmen and heroes whose
names are household words in every
corner of this country. But none of
he. Ia ~