The inchoate State gave due attention to its relations with the Indians, and conducted all its affairs without serious difficulty until near the close of the year 1785. Before that time an attempt was made in Washington County, Virginia, to use the privilege accorded to its citizens by the original Association of western counties, to join the new Commonwealth, but the movement was speedily prevented by Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia. The Convention of Frankland appointed to be held in November 1785, met at Greeneville in that month, adopted a Constitution like that of North Carolina, and sent a memorial to Congress by William Cocke, Esq., which was fruitless. Five days later the Legislature of North Carolina convened and passed an Act declarative of its desire “to extend the blessings of civil government to citizens of the western counties until such time as they might be separated with advantage and convenience to themselves,” and “to hear and redress their grievances.” It offered amnesty to all persons concerned in establishing the State of Frankland who should renew their allegiance to the State of North Carolina. It provided for an election of members of the General Assembly next succeeding, to be held in the revolted counties, and also appointed civil and military officers for those counties, who should supersede like officers of the State of Frankland. Ever since the repeal by North Carolina of the Act ceding its western lands to the United States, there had been opposition to the new State among its citizens. The two parties were now brought into closer antagonism. Under the authority of both rival governments, courts were held in the same counties, different laws were enforced, taxes levied and the militia called into service. Of course it followed that mutual animosities grew more intense, and practical collisions were frequent. On several occasions armed men of the respective parties visited rooms where courts were held by their adversaries; violent seizures were made of public records, and officers of the courts turned out of doors. In one instance the papers of a Frankland clerk having been forcibly abducted by partisan friends of the parent State, they were afterwards recaptured, and their official owner, to secure their future safety, hid them in a cave. These spoliations on both sides were more or less disastrous to litigants and owners of real estate. They also excited contentious followers of the two governments beyond self-control, and their exasperated feelings found vent at public meetings in pugilistic encounters. The combatants did not so far forget that they were neighbors, as do men at this period of more advanced civilization, and resort to the use of deadly weapons. They contented themselves with fisticuffs as means of drawing blood.