Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-01-29
THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
Salaries of State Officials Paid in
Pelts.
Tho Original Name of Tennessee ana
How The Governor, thicf Justice
nnd ether Officers We're Rcquitcd
for Services Rendered.

There are many things connected
with the early history of our country
that would seem ridiculous at this age
ana day. and are received with creduli-
~ by Il majority OF readers whenever
ana wherever related. III Virginia.
North Carolina, South Carolina. Ten
neSsee and other States. there is TO be
heard much that is curious and inter-
esting. particularly when viewed or an
alyzed in the light of the close of the
nineteenth century. With the adj
vancing years. their schools, printing
presses. closer communication with
other parts of the world. and the thirst
for knowledge and consequent increase
of wisdom TO the extent that what was
practiccd i'll many particulars one hun
dred years ago seems as crude and
strange and unnecessary To us now as
our actions would appear TO the peo-
pie then.
II we We're TO inform the readers of
the Nirginan- Pilot that the original
name of Virginia was Elizabeth they
would express genuine surprise, OF
course. as they would have we'll
founded right TO do, but scarcely less
surprising Will be the statement that
nessee was Franklin, and that in the
year l7SS the salaries of the officers
We're not paid in money. for there was
none; nor i'll tobacco. as in the colonial
days of Virginia, but in the skins of
animals.
THE LAW.
This statement will be doubted by
many. perhaps, but here is the law reg
ulating the payment or salaries:
BE it enacted by the General AS
sembly of the State of Franklin. and
the same. That from and after the first
day Of January. l1SS, the salaries OF
this commonwealth be as follows-to-
wit:
His Excellency. the Governor, per
annum, 100 deer skins.
His Honor, the Chief Justice, 500
deer skins.
The secretary to His Excelency, the
Governor. 500 raccoon skins.
County Clerk. 800 beaver skins.
Clerk Of the House Of Commons, 200
raccoon skins.
Members of the Assembly, per diem
three raccoon skins.
Justices fee for serving Il warrant
one mink skin
THE PRESENT DAY.
1t would be hazardous now To pro-
pose 10 square the salary of the digni-
fed and crudite President OF our Nir-
Einia supreme Cour; of Appeals With
deer skins, or To come nearer home. to
propose to rccompcnsc our Police Jus
tice Tomin. or Justice of the Peace
Dalton for judicial work by an offer of
mink pelts. Minks are scarce, even if
the prospect of few days in Jail for
contempt of court was far more re-
mote than the writer's Imagination is
capable of fixing it.
In Virginia. when jamestown was
the capital tobacco was n legal ten
der. and many of the laws were not
alone relics of ignorance and barba-
i1sm. but We're as ludicrous as the pen
altioS they proposed were severe and
contrary to the spirit OF justice that
now pervades the body polite.
1t would be interesting to recall some
of them and perhaps. the Virginian-
Pilot may do so some time when space
and data are available. Suffice II for
the present that the pelts of animals
were not Indispensable as a means of
paying colonial salaries when Virginia
was a colony of Great Britain.