Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-07-24
HAYWOOD'S
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
CONTINUED FROM LAST wEEK.l

o'J P'Nh'SooSe 81 oOihoVi
ating on the measures to be adopted
with respect to the revolted counties.
BY another act of this session, they
pardoned the offences of all persons
who had returned to their allegiance to
the State of North Carolina. and re.
stored them to all the privileges of the
other citizens of the State,a as if the said
offences and misconduct had never
existed. With regard to decisions re.
specting property, which were incom.
patible with justice, they enacted, that
the personsinjured should have remedy
at common law They continued in of.
flee all officers both civil and military,
who held and enjoyed such offices on the
lst of April, 1884; but declared vacant
the offices of ali such persons as had &C.
cepted and exercised other offices and
appointments; the acceptance and ex-
ercise of which were considered to be
a resignation of their for.ler offices
held under the State of North Carolina;
and they directed that such vacant
offices, both civil and military, shall
be filled with proper persons to be ap.
pointed by the General Assembly, and
commissioned by the Governor of
North Carolina, as by law directed;
they ordered the arrearages of taxes
due from the citizens of those counties,
up to the end of the year 1884, to be
collected and accounted for; and that
all taxes due since the end of that year,
should be relinquished and given up to
the citizens.
Measures conceived in 80 much
moderation, and breathing nothing but
benignity, could not fail to make the
wished for impressions upon those
whom they affected. The Assembly of
North Carolina directed that the first
Court for the County Of Washington,
should be held at William Davis. on
Buffalo Creek, ten miles from Jones'
boro. Commissioners were appointed
to fix on some suitable place, on which
to erect the public buildings, and to fix
the seat of justice for the county. After
various meetings and consultations,
they finally agreed upon Jonesboro as
the proper place. The County Courts
had been held there for several years
before, until the Courts themselves
were discontinued by the intrusion of
the new Government of Frankland. A
year before this period, County Courts
were held at Davis under the authority
Of North Carolina; whilst at the same
time, Courts were held at Jonesboro,
under the Government of Frankland.
The partisans of each Government
quarreled with those of the other;
Upton and Sewer both resided in the
County of Washington, and being the
leaders of the different sides, kept the
people in continual agitation and
uproar, each alternately breaking up
the Courts of the other.
Here it is right to remember, in jus.
tice 10 those who once appeared on the
side of the new Government, and now
on the side of North Carolina, that the
face of affairs was quite different, at
the time of the convention OF Frank
land, which resolved upon independ-
ence, and the fall of the year 1856.
Before this juncture, there was no
Governmental head to which the peo.
pie of the western counties could carry
their complaints. In 1884, it is true,
the Assembly which passed the cession
act, retained the sovereignty and juris.
diction of North Carolina, in and over
the ceded territory, and all the inhabi-
tants thereof. until the United States
Congress, should have accepted the
cession, as if the act for making it had
never passed. Yet, in reality, so long
as the cession act continued unrepealed, =,
North Carolina felt herself as much
estranged from the inhabitants of the
western counties, as she was with re.
spect to any other State or territory in
the United States. Until induced by
the bonds of federalism, and common
interest, 80 far as concerned their ex.
ternal relations with the other nations
of the globe, but wholly unconn ected,
for as regarded their internal regula-
tions and engagements. And as any
one State was not obliged by the nature
of her federal duties, to advance mon
les for the main tainance of another in
the possession of her rights, but through
the Intervention of all, in Congress as.
sembled; so neither did North Carolina
conceive herself bound to exert her
strength or resources for the defence of
the western counties, unless in the pro-
portion for which she was liable to
other federal contributions. 1t was in
vain, then, to solicit her interference
in behalf of the western counties, so
long as the cession act subsisted; but
when that was repealed and the pre-
cipitancy of the western people obliter'
, ated; when North Carolina declared
herself desirous to extend to them the
benefits of civil Government, whence
! it might be nationally inferred that every
necessary aud proper support would be
afforded, 1t certainly can not be mat
ter of surprise, that many well mean
ing and intelligent persons, believing
their declarations, thenceforward
deemed it their duty to return to theil
dependence on North Carolina. II
A n