The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-06-04
A CENTURY OLD.

Last Monday the State of Tennessee
celebrated the conclusion Of its first CEN
fury of its existence, and the beginning
of its second. Tennesee-the /" old vol
unteer State was the product of the
Revolutionary war, as Kansas, Nebraska,
Minnesota, and the Dakotas were the
products of the war Of the rebellion.
At the conclusion of the Revolution
the North Carolinians who had served
in it pushed in great numbers over the
mountains into the fertile lands of
the Tennessee Valley. They were joined
by their comrades from Virginia, who
followed the route now traversed by the
Virginia q Tennessee Railroad. Men
who had actually fought for their coun-
try, they were intensely loyal to it, and
this accounts for the intense loyalty OF
their descendants, who could not be dra-
gooned or prosecuted into joining the
rebellion. The Tennesseeans came legi-
timately by their devotion to the Govern
ment for which their fathers had fought.
They were bedeviled, and their State
dragged into secession by the progeny of
Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia
Tories, who had inherited disloyalty.
Tennessee was admitted as State,
June l, 1896, and was the third to come
into the Union. Kentucky was admit
ted, Feb. 4, 1871, and Vermont, Feb.
| Is, 1871. AT first the settlements on
the Tennessee and its tributaries, and
on the Cumberland at Nashville, formed
County of North Carolina. Then the
freedom-loving settlers objected to being
governed in the autocratic manner trans
mitted from the royal Governors of
North Carolina, and in 1885 set up the
Independent State of Franklin, which
they maintained for three years, but
were again united with North Carolina.
In 1894 the State of Tennessee was
organized, with Knoxville as the Capt.
tai, and admitted into the Union two
years later. Later the lands west of the
Tennessee were bought from the Indians,
the boundaries were extended to the
Mississippi, and the Capital was removed
to Murfreesboro, and finally to Nash
vile. Ian
In 1861 tho great majority of the
Tennesseeans were strongly opposed to
secession, but 1sham G. Harris-now
Senator-was Governor of the State,
and one of the conspirators who were
forcing secession upon the country. A
call for Convention to pass an ordi-
nance of secession was defeated by a
majority of 10000 in total vote of
$4,000. Gov. Harris insultingly re-
fused President Lincoln's call for troops
from Tennessee after the firing on Fort
Sumter, and summoned the Legislature
to meet in extraordinary session. He
entered into league with the Confed-
crate Commissioners, and appropriated
the school fund to arm and equip rebel
regiments.
During the war Tennessee sent 81 ,092 |
white troops into the Union army in
Tennessee regiments, besides many thou
sands more in regiments from other
States. They were all of the best
quality of fighting material.
In 1900 Tennessee was the 18th State |
in the Union, in point of population;
by 1910 she had risen to be the fifth.
Then the great free States Of the
North-Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts,
etc.-began to forge ahead of her, and |
the census of 1860 showed her III the
ninth place. The census of 1890 made
her 18th, with New York, Pennsylvania,
Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Massachusetts,,
Texas, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Ken
lucky and Georgia ahead of her in the
order named. She had then popula-
ton of 1,763,723, and had increased
14.65 per cent. during the previous 10
years
TICKETS TO NATIONAL ENGAGEMENT. |
We will anain furnish first-claca ra |