Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-09-04
HAYWOOD'S
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
TCoNTIHUED FROM LAST WEEK. |

was made that the western settlements
would soon cost more than even the
possession OF them would retribate;
and it began to be whispered, that it
WAS sound policy to follow the scrip
tural injunction of looping off and
casting away whatever member of the
body proved to be offensive. To such
and the like apothegms. the members
of the Legislature began to be familiar
lied either by the real or pretended &C
cumulation of pressing burdens, which
it was dreaded were about to fall upon
the interior counties; they had, in the
late revolt, been furnished with the
hint, that for very small provocations
as they deemed them, the western
counties would set up for independence,
which it was not in their power to con.
troll. Operated upon by these and other
motives, the Atlantic counties came to
the conclusion to let them separate,
stipulating for themselves, as the price
OF emancipation, such terms as were
necessary and convenient for their own
people. The Chickamauga claims as
they were termed, were no small stimu.
lants to the cession act The Chicka.
maugas had plundered and killed the
inhabitants of Washington District till
it became necessary to emb )dy the mi.
litia and march in hostile array into
their own country; the Assembly made
the provisions already mentioned for
paying them. The mpreheusiveness
and the acumen of the terms they EN-
ployed, sufficiently point out the de-
cisive spirit with which it was enacted
and the settled determination of the
Assembly not to subject themselves to
any more western debts. Complaints
were made. that long after the cession
act, an unfair use was made by the
western people of the laws; and it must
be acknowledged that if any attempts
were made after 1890, to settle accounts
and obtain certificates under the pro-
visions of the Chickamauga act, it was
an unexpected course of proceeding,
adverse to the state of things which
North Carolina supposed to exist after
the acceptance of the cession act. But
the western people have thought it was
not material by what means they could
draw from treasury replenished by
the sales of land which the unassisted
valor of the western people had plucked
from the hands of the savages, and
which had also heen rendered valuable
by the settlements which the same
valor had planted upon them. They
may have judged, that to get into such
a treasury through an unguarded ave.
nue., which the proper owners had left
open and forgotten, might not, in a
court of conscience, be crime that is
entirely objectionable, especially If the
court were created amongst the western
people. The learned say, that all con-
sciences are not made in the same
mould nor are of the same length; and
it has been shrewdly suspected, that
upon this subject, North Carolina
and Tennessee conscience, would be
found to differ materially. 1t was be-
lieved about this time, that the western
people and their members, were not
deficient in the advancement of their
jus. claims, and lost no opportunity to
present them whenever there was
hope of having them favorably passed
on. And as their constituents were
not opulent enough to make them neg.
lect trifies, they claimed, 1T was thought,
full measure for all their services and
supplies, and omitted no claim from a
motive of disinclination to swell the
account. Either by accident or design,
the ungratified creed was inculcated,
that more expeditions against the
Chickamaugas and other Indian tribes,
would soon become necessary. Upon
its trail, there followed the odious sug.
gestion, that whenever the western
people wanted money, they pretended
that the Indians plundered and scalped
their inhabitants; embodied the militia
and continued them in service, till
their pay amounted to the sums they
wanted; that there were endless sources
of expenditure, which would never
cease to furnish claims and complaints
for the unwilling ears of the Atlantic
members, who had nearly as much
complacency about this time for the
yell of the savage as the claims anC
complaints of the western representa-
tives; these rumors did not fail of thei
effect; each party ran with Joy to the
formation of articles which were t
sever them forever asunder. They
authorized and required their Senator
in Congress to execute a deed or deed
conveying to the United States o.
America, all right, title and claim
which North Carolina had to the sov
ereignty and territory of the land
situated within the chartered limits O
North Carolina and west of the lin,
which has already been described a
the eastern boundary of the State o
Tennessee.
On the 25th of February, in the yea
of our Lord, 1890, Samuel johnson an,
Benjamin Hawkins, the Senators il
Congress from North Carolina, exc
cuted deed in the words of the cessiol
act; and on the Cd of April, of tn