The Winning of the West, Volume 4: Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807Roosevelt, Theodore
History
The Winning of the West, Volume 4: Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807
Roosevelt, Theodore
Northwest, Old -- History; United States -- Territorial expansion; West (U.S.) -- History
The truth is that the United States Government during the six years from
1791 to 1796 behaved shamefully to the people who were settled along the
Cumberland and Holston. This was the more inexcusable in view of the
fact that, thanks to the example of Blount, Sevier, and Robertson, the
Tennesseeans, alone among the frontiersmen, showed an intelligent
appreciation of the benefits of the Union and a readiness to render it
loyal support. The Kentuckians acted far less rationally; yet the
Government tolerated much misconduct on their part, and largely for
their benefit carried on a great national war against the Northwestern
Indians. In the Southwest almost all that the Administration did was to
prohibit the frontiersmen from protecting themselves. Peace was finally
brought about largely through the effect of Wayne's victory, and the
knowledge of the Creeks that they would have to stand alone in any
further warfare; but it would not have been obtained at all if Sevier
and the other frontier leaders had not carried on their destructive
counter-inroads into the Cherokee and Upper Creek country, and if under
Robertson's orders Nickajack and Running Water had not been destroyed;
while the support of the Chickasaws and friendly Cherokees in stopping
the Creek war parties was essential. The Southwesterners owed thanks to
General Wayne and his army and to their own strong right hands; but they
had small cause for gratitude to the Federal Government. They owed still
less to the Northeasterners, or indeed to any of the men of the eastern
seaboard; the benefits arising from Pinckney's treaty form the only
exception. This neglect brought its own punishment. Blount and Sevier
were naturally inclined to Federalism, and it was probably only the
supineness of the Federal Government in failing to support the
Southwesterners against the Indians which threw Tennessee, when it
became a State, into the arms of the Democratic party.
Peace.
However, peace was finally wrung from the Indians, and by the beginning
of 1796 the outrages ceased. The frontiers, north and south alike,
enjoyed a respite from Indian warfare for the first time in a
generation; nor was the peace interrupted until fifteen years
afterwards.
Growth of Tennessee.
Throngs of emigrants had come into Tennessee. A wagon road had been
chopped to the Cumberland District, and as the Indians gradually ceased
their ravages, the settlements about Nashville began to grow as rapidly
as the settlements along the Holston. In 1796 the required limit of
population had been reached, and Tennessee with over seventy-six
thousand inhabitants was formally admitted as a State of the Federal
Union; Sevier was elected Governor, Blount was made one of the Senators,
and Andrew Jackson was chosen Representative in Congress.
The Tennessee Constitution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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