TENNESSEE, one of the principal states in the North American union, extends from 81° 40' to 90° 15' west longitude, and from 35° to 36° 40' north latitude, being about 110 miles in width, and about 400 miles in length in the northern part, and 300 in the southern, and includes an area of 45,000 square miles. It has Virginia and Kentucky on the north; North Carolina on the east; Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi on the south; and Missouri and Arkansas on the west. The eastern part of the state is mountainous. The Kittatinny range, forming its eastern boundary, rises in some points to the height of about 5000 feet, or about 3000 feet above its base. To the west of this are several parallel ridges, separated by deep valleys, in which the great branches of the river Tennessee take a southerly course. These are prolongations of the Alleghany and Chestnut ridges of Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Cumberland Mountains are a prolongation of the Laurel ridge, the summits of which do not probably exceed 2000 feet in height: they are for the most part wooded to the top, but in some places are too rocky and rugged for cultivation. West of these mountains is Middle Tennessee, which is generally of a moderate hilly, and agreeably diversified surface. West Tennessee, beyond the river Tennessee, is a level or slightly undulating plain.

Tennessee is amply supplied with noble rivers and pure streams. The Mississippi washes the western border for a distance of 160 miles; and although its banks are generally low, and liable to inundation, the high grounds approach to its bed at several points, affording some of the most valuable sites for commercial marts to be found in its long course. These high banks, here called bluffs, have received the name of the first, second, third, and fourth Chickasaw Bluffs, from the Indian nations to whom this tract once belonged. Western Tennessee sends most of its waters directly y into the Mississippi; the Obion, Forked Deer, Hatchy or Hatchee, Wolf, and Nonconnoch, empty themselves into that river. The Wolf is a rapid and broken torrent, but the others are navigable streams. All the rest of the state is drained by two great trunks into the Ohio. The Cumberland River has its sources and its termination in Kentucky, but runs for about 250 miles, with a circular sweep, in Tennessee, preserving throughout a remarkable parallelism with the Tennessee River. There is no obstacle to its navigation below Nashville, 200 miles from its mouth, and during a great part of the year steam-boats go up to Carthage; but there are several shoals between these places, which interrupt the navigation in low stages of the water. During floods, steam-boats ascend to Burkesville in Kentucky, and they have even ascended to the mouth of the South Fork. South Fork, Cancy Fork, and Stone’s Rivers, its principal tributaries in Tennessee, are navigable streams. The Tennessee, which has but part of its course in this state, is the principal tributary of the Ohio, and is not inferior to that river in length and volume of water. It is formed by the junction of the Clinch and Holston at Kingston, about 600 miles by its windings from its mouth. It is navigable by large steam-boats to Florence, 300 miles; but higher up, shoals and masses of rock render the navigation difficult and dangerous even for keel-boats. The sources of the Clinch and Holston are in Western Virginia, in the valleys between Kittatinny and Cumberland Mountains, and they flow nearly parallel to each other. The Watoga, the French Broad River, and its branches the Nolichucky and Big Pigeon, the Little Tennessee, and the Hiwassee, all traverse the mountain ridges at right angles to their course.

The eastern part of Tennessee contains indications of gold, lead, copper, and zinc, but has not been sufficiently examined to determine whether these metals exist in workable quantities. The gold occurs only in deposit mines, or in masses of quartz rock out of place. Iron ore is also found, and there are several furnaces in Carter and Rhea counties. The rock-formations of this section, between the Kittatinny and Cumberland Mountains, have generally been referred by geologists to the grauwacke or transition series, but are perhaps of a more recent age. They comprise argillaceous slates, fossiliferous limestones, red sandstones, and conglomerates. West of this is the great coal-field of Tennessee, which is co-extensive with the Cumberland Mountains, whose summit is occupied by the coal-measures. It extends into Kentucky across the Cumberland, and perhaps across the Kentucky River, and into Alabama across the Tennessee. The coal crops out at numerous points on the declivities of the mountains, and is worked in Fentress, where it is sent down the Obey River to the Cumberland; in Morgan, where Emery’s River affords facilities for transporting it to the Tennessee; and in the Sequatchee valley. From these points, and from the banks of the Cumberland in Kentucky, it is carried down the rivers in flat boats as far as New Orleans. The supposed coal of Hawkins and Carter counties, and of Williamson, Davidson, and Maury counties, is, according to Professor Troost, aluminous slate, slightly impregnated with bitumen. Beneath the coal-measures is an alternation of different strata of limestone, some black, and others gray, sometimes compact, sometimes granular, and sometimes of an oolitic structure, in which are found extensive caves. One of these, on the borders of White and Warren counties, has received the name of the Big Bone Cave, from its containing bones of the mastodon and megalonyx. West of the Cumberland Mountains, the rocky strata are, in a descending series, a silico-calcareous deposit, a fetid encrinitic limestone, aluminous slate without animal remains, and limestone containing spirifers, producti, orthoceratites, &c. The silico-calcareous stratum includes the rich deposits of hydrate of iron, which is largely worked in Tennessee; the ore is abundant, and yields a metal of excellent quality. In 1836 there were twenty-seven furnaces, making about 30,000 tons of iron in a year.

Agriculture forms almost the sole occupation of the inhabitants of Tennessee. A large proportion of the land is productive, and many of the valleys of East Tennessee, and much of the middle and western sections, are eminently fertile. Indian corn and cotton are the staples of the state, and a good deal of tobacco, hemp, and wheat are raised. Cotton thrives in almost every part except in the north-eastern triangular section, and the crop is about 150,000 bales; but the climate of Tennessee is not so well adapted for this plant as that of the states south of the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude. The new lands of the western part have, [7:21:183]however, been chiefly devoted to this culture. The tobacco crop is about 5000 hogsheads. In East Tennessee, grazing is much attended to, and great numbers of live stock are driven out of the state to the eastern markets. The pine forests of this section of the country also afford tar, spirits of turpentine, rosin, and lamp-black. Whiskey, coarse linens, cotton bagging, live stock, pork, butter, saltpetre, gunpowder, flour, coal, and fruits, with cotton, maize, and tobacco, constitute the exports of Tennessee. The value of the exports is estimated at 8,000,000 dollars. The estimated value of real property in the state is 150,000,000 dollars.

The population of Tennessee is inconsiderable when viewed with reference to the extent and productive capacities of the state, but its amount is surprising when we consider that it occupies a region which about half a century ago was an uninhabited wilderness. The current of immigration began to set steadily into Tennessee soon after the peace of 1783, chiefly from the eastern part of North Carolina; and during the forty years from 1790 to 1830 the rate of increase was 1805 per cent. Of late years Tennessee has sent forth thousands of planters with their forces to the south-western and western states; but it is yet capable of supporting seven times its actual population, which is only fifteen to the square mile. Slavery, that dark stain upon the American character, has existed here from the first settlement of the state, and the slaves form rather more than one fifth of the whole population.

Population at different Periods.

Whites. Slaves. Free Coloured. Total.

1790 32,013 3,417 361 35,791

1800 91,709 13,584 309 105,602

1810 215,875 44,535 1,317 261,727

1820 339,727 80,107 2,979 422,813

1830 535,746 141,603 4,555 681,904

The elevated valleys of East Tennessee belong to the great Alleghany table-land of the United States, and are from 1000 to 1200 feet above the level of the sea, although from 1000 to 1500 feet below the mountain crests which rise between them. The first settlements by the whites were made in these valleys, but there is no large town in this section. Knoxville, the most important, has a population of about 2000 souls, and is a place of considerable trade. The town was the capital of the territory south-west of the Ohio, and of the state, till 1802, and it contains three or four churches, the halls of East Tennessee College, a female academy, court-house, &c. The other villages of East Tennessee, such as Blountville and Rogersville in the valley of the Holston, Clinton and Kingston on the Clinch, Jonesboro on a branch of the Nolichucky, and Calhoun on the Hiwassee, have only from 500 to 800 inhabitants.

Middle Tennessee, although settled at a later period, is more populous than East Tennessee, but it contains no considerable town except Nashville. Winchester, Fayetteville, and Pulaski, are thriving little villages in the south, in the valley of the Elk. The last named has about 1200 inhabitants, the two others about 800; Fayetteville is at the head of the navigation on the river. Columbia, on Duck River, is a flourishing town with 1500 inhabitants, and is the seat of Jackson College. To the north is Franklin, a busy, growing town, on the Harpeth, with a population equal to that of Columbia. Murfreesboro, with a population of 1000, was at one time the capital of the state. Carthage, on the Cumberland River, at the mouth of the Cancy Fork, has 800 inhabitants. On the higher branches of the Fork are the villages of Sparta and Macminnville.

The city of Nashville, the capital of the state, and its commercial emporium, is advantageously and pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Cumberland, in a highly fertile and picturesque region. The navigation of the river below the city is only interrupted for a short time, and the products of an extensive tract are brought down on its bosom. The trade and business are extensive; there are about fifteen steam-boats employed on the river, besides great numbers of keel-boats. Among the manufacturing establishments are several brass and iron founderies, rolling mills, tanneries, &c. The town was founded in 1784, but the site had been occupied as a trading post by the French in the middle of the century; and in 1779 it was occupied by a body of Americans, by whom it was called the French Lick. In 1830 the population was 5566, including 2000 slaves; and in 1836 it amounted to about 8000. Nashville is the scat of a university, and its other educational institutions are numerous and well supported. The Hermitage, the plantation of ex-president Jackson, is about twelve miles above Nashville. Gallatin, higher up the valley of the Cumberland, and Clarksville, on the river below, are flourishing villages.

West Tennessee, lying between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers, received its first white settlers in 1819, a few years before which time this tract had been ceded to the United States by the Chickasaws. At present it contains a population of about 100,000 souls, and has several flourishing towns. The soil is light and sandy, and well adapted to the raising of cotton. In this division of the state, several towns have been founded; and among these are Jackson, on the Forked Deer River, with 1000 inhabitants; Bolivar, a busy and growing town, at the head of navigation on the Big Hatchee; Lagrange, on the Wolf River; Ash-port, on the first Chickasaw Bluff, below the mouth of the Forked Deer; Randolph on the second Chickasaw, below the mouth of the Big Hatchee, with a good harbour for steam-boats in all stages of the water. Memphis, which is the most important town of this tract, stands at the mouth of the Wolf River, on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, which is thirty feet above the highest floods, and seventy-five feet above low water. At some future day, this is doubtless destined to be one of the great commercial emporiums of this vast valley. Its population at present exceeds 2000, and is rapidly increasing with its growing business. It possesses a safe and commodious harbour, and its site is admirably adapted for a large commercial town. Three miles below, at the lower end of the Bluff, the city of Girard has lately been founded on the site of Fort Pickering. The Chickasaw Bluffs, or elevated districts, are four in number, and are the only points where the river-banks are above the reach of inundation in this state.

A constitution for Tennessee was first adopted by a convention held at Knoxville in 1796, and was afterwards revised and adopted, with considerable modifications, by a convention assembled in Nashville in 1834. The supreme executive power is vested in a governor, who is chosen by the people for the term of two years, and has the power of granting reprieves and pardons. He is also commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the state, but has no official patronage or voice in legislation. The legislature, styled the General Assembly, consists of a senate of twenty-five members, and a house of representatives of seventy-five, chosen for the term of two years. the former are apportioned among the senatorial districts, and the latter among the counties, in the ratio of the number of voters in each. The pay of the senators and representatives is four dollars per day. The judiciary power is vested in a supreme court and inferior courts, and the judges are elected by joint ballot of the two houses of the legislature; the superior judges holding office for twelve years, and the inferior judges for eight. Sheriffs and coroners are appointed by the county courts. Every free white male citizen who has resided in the county in which he offers to vote during the six months immediately preceding an election, has the right of suffrage, and all elections are by ballot.

The state has a large school fund, arising chiefly from [7:21:184]the proceeds of the sales of public lands, amounting in 1837 to about 800,000 dollars, in addition to a large quantity of land not then sold. The income of this fund is distributed, by the common-school commissioners of each county, among such school districts as have provided school-houses, in proportion to the number of white children between the ages of six and eighteen years in each. There are at present about 1000 free or common schools in the state, and efforts are making to render the system more complete and efficient. There are sixty-two academies in the state, one having been endowed in each county by grants of public land; but many of these are not in actual operation. The collegiate institutions are, the university of Nashville, Greenville College at Greenville, Washington College in Washington county, East Tennessee College at Knoxville, and Jackson College at Columbia. There is also a Presbyterian theological seminary at Maryville. In 1839, fifty newspapers were published in this state.

The constitution of Tennessee declares that all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience; that no preference shall be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship; and that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for any office or public trust; but it also provides that no person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of the state. The Methodists and Baptists arc the most numerous sects, the former numbering about 30,000, and the latter about 20,000 communicants. The Presbyterians have 120 churches and 10,000 communicants, exclusive of the Cumberland Presbyterians, who are also numerous. The Episcopalians have one bishop and twelve ministers; and there arc Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Friends, &c.