CHAPTER VI.
MIRO, ALIAS “MERO.”
In November, 1784, the general assembly of North Carolina, at Newbern, divided the district of Morgan, which had theretofore included all of the state “west of the mountains,” and erected Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Davidson counties into a “Superior Court of Law and Equity” district, by the name of “Washington.” From 1784 to 1788 all of the territory west of the Cumberland mountains was included in Davidson and Sumner counties, then the only organized counties in what is now Middle and West Tennessee. The population of Davidson county had so increased and extended westward from Nashville by the fall of 1788 that the general assembly of North Carolina, at Fayetteville, in November of that year, divided Davidson county by a line “beginning on the Virginia line now Kentucky, thence south along Sumner county to the dividing ridge between Cumberland river and Red river, thence westwardly along said ridge to the head of the main south branch of Sycamore creek, thence down the said branch to the mouth thereof, thence due south across Cumberland river to Davidson county line.” All that part of Davidson county west of this line was erected into a new county, which was named “Tennessee.” Tennessee county, therefore, included all of the territory now within the limits of Montgomery, Robertson, Dickson, Houston and Stewart, and parts of Hickman, Humphreys and Cheatham. The county seat of Tennessee county was fixed at Clarksville.
By another act of the general assembly of North Carolina, at Fayetteville, in November, 1788, the counties of Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee were erected into a new district for the holding of “Superior Courts of Law and Equity” therein. When this act forming the new district west of the Cumberland mountains was on its third and final reading, the Speaker called on the author of the bill for the name with which the blank left for that purpose was to be filled. James Robertson and Robert Hays were the members from Davidson, and one of them was the author of the bill providing for the new district. It is a matter of history that, in answer to the Speaker’s call for the name of the new district, James Robertson arose and suggested “Mero.” He evidently gave the name as it is pronounced, without spelling it for the benefit of the clerk, and the latter evidently recorded it phonetically; and thus the name of the new district went upon the official record as “Mero,” which is the correct pronunciation, instead of “Miro,” which is the correct orthography. The error, once committed, was perpetuated; and “Mero” it continued to be, not only in contemporary records and legal documents, but in subsequent histories.[J]
The name as suggested by Robertson was adopted without open objection. It is probable that some of the leading spirits in the assembly had been made acquainted with the motive which prompted the selection of the name, while others, without any knowledge, opinion or preference, simply followed the leaders in accepting it. There were, however, some members who knew some things, but not everything, in connection with this name; and, on reflection, after the name had been adopted, they took offence at the selection, and it was discussed, not in the general assembly, but at the taverns and boarding-houses, with spirit and much feeling. They said that it was strange and unexampled that the name of an officer of a foreign government, who was not and had never been in our service, should be given to a political division of our country and perpetuated on our public records. They wished to know what this meant.[K] They knew, they said, that Don Estevan Miro was a colonel in the Spanish army, that he was also “Governor of Orleans,” and they had heard that he was a very kind-hearted, agreeable gentleman; but so were scores of other foreigners, not to mention the names of the many loyal and distinguished citizens of the United States who had not been honored with any such mark of popular esteem. Why, said they, select a Spaniard already very distinguished, and at the very time when that nation unjustly withholds from us the free navigation of the Mississippi river, and when this very Don Estevan Miro is the instrument chosen by the Spanish king and court to guard the waters and mouth of the Mississippi and exclude us from its use? And this is not all; why, they continued, should a Spanish official be so honored during the very same year when Spain was demanding of the Congress that the United States should relinquish the navigation of the Mississippi for a period of at least twenty-five years—a measure which, if acceded to, would completely break up and ruin all of the settlements in Kentucky and on the Cumberland? Still more, this mark of respect was shown to a Spanish soldier and governor at a time when the boatmen from the upper Mississippi, Ohio and Cumberland, if they dared to float their flatboats down the Mississippi to Natchez or New Orleans with their tobacco and other products, were subjected by the Spanish to the most outrageous fines and extortions, in the shape of duties imposed for the use of a great river, and also to seizure and sometimes to imprisonment. Last but not least, said they, this very Don Estevan Miro is at this very time negotiating and intriguing with certain persons in Kentucky and Cumberland, with a view of coming to terms upon which Kentucky and the Cumberland country will become part of and submit to the government of Spain. Truly, it did appear rather cloudy.
These various phases of the subject, and the situation of affairs at that particular time, gave to the tavern-talkers a wide field for speculation and conjecture, as well as alarm. The truth is, the correspondence and communications alleged to have passed between Governor Miro and certain citizens of Kentucky and the Cumberland country, about this time, would read rather curiously if offered in court to vindicate the Kentucky and Cumberland citizens from a charge of disloyalty to the United States. Col. Robertson, however, said nothing but “Miro”; and he subsequently demonstrated that he knew what he was saying.
It is suggested—and this is probably the correct view—that the main purpose of these persons in Kentucky and Cumberland who were in correspondence with Governor Miro was, in view of their unanswered appeals to Congress for help and protection, “if the federal Union can not give aid and protection to us in life, liberty and property, and also secure to us the free and peaceable exercise of the right to navigate the Mississippi river with our products, why then, Spain having promised all this, we will unite our fortunes with the Spanish.” They knew that whoever could keep the Indians at peace with them, and at the same time control New Orleans and the navigation of the Mississippi, was the absolute arbiter of their destiny, inasmuch as, without the right to use the Mississippi, there was no market they could reach with their products.
August 26, 1779, Galvez, then governor civil and military and intendant of Louisiana, appointed, as third in command in the campaign which he was about to undertake against the British, Don Estevan Miro, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Congress observed with satisfaction the rupture between Great Britain and Spain; and, in the fall of 1779, sent a minister to the Spanish court, with instructions to negotiate a treaty of alliance, and particularly to insist on the free navigation of the Mississippi river. To this the court of Spain responded: “We are disposed to acknowledge the independence of the United States, and to enter into a treaty of alliance and commerce with you; but if you wish us to consent to your admission into the great family of nations, you must subscribe to the right of Spain to the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi, and consent to our taking possession of both the Floridas and of all the territory extending from the left bank of that river to the back settlements of the former British provinces, according to the proclamation of 1763.” In this proposition, strange as it may seem, Spain was supported by France; and up to 1788, and indeed on up to October 27, 1795, Spain did control the Mississippi. On this latter date, and about six months before Tennessee was admitted into the Union, after long and tedious negotiations, a treaty was concluded between the United States and Spain, a part of the fourth article of which reads as follows: “And his Catholic Majesty has likewise agreed that the navigation of the said river Mississippi, in its whole breadth from the source to the ocean, shall be free to only his subjects and the citizens of the United States, unless he shall extend this privilege to the subjects of other powers by special convention.” At the time this treaty was entered into, Governor Miro was in Spain, in attendance, it has been said, on the court at Madrid. He was then a lieutenant-general in the Spanish army, and held in great esteem in Spain, and nothing is more probable than that his counsel and advice on the subject of the proposed treaty were sought. It was entirely natural that, when asked for his views, he should remember James Robertson, Daniel Smith and Robert Hays, the courtesy shown him and the friendly and respectful treatment which he had received from the inhabitants of the district named in his honor, and that he should therefore favor the concession of this right. In the very nature of things, the district of “Mero,” misspelled though it was, and the circumstances connected with and surrounding its baptism and the man who was its sponsor, ought to and must have a place, not only in Tennessee history, but in the true history of the United States.
The Spaniards, constantly haunted by fear of their restless neighbors in Kentucky and the Cumberland country, spared no means by which they might conciliate the Indians. The chief military officer of the Spanish, writing to the home government, in 1786, concerning Alexander McGillivray, said: “So long as we shall hold this chief on our side, we will have a barrier between the Floridas and Georgia. The Indians are convinced of the ambition of the Americans; past injuries still dwell in their minds, with the fear that these greedy neighbors may one day seize upon their lands. It ought to be one of the chief policies of this government to keep this sentiment alive in the breasts of the Indians.” Alexander McGillivray was a noted tory during the Revolution, and had taken refuge after its close among the Creek nation. He was a man of great courage and intelligence, entertained inveterate hostility to the whites, and had an insatiable ambition for personal promotion. He was in the Spanish pay, as agent of that government among the Indians, had usurped regal authority, and was also chief of the Talapouches. It is said that he cherished the hope of having his nation admitted into the federal compact, although he was in the service of Spain, with the rank of colonel, and was afterward promoted to be commissary general. This dangerous man was under the absolute control of Governor Miro in 1788, when the name of the latter was bestowed by Robertson on the new district. The fact that Miro had control of the Mississippi river, and at the same time almost absolute command over the Indians in the south, furnishes, it is believed, the logical explanation of the motive which prompted Robertson and Hays to compliment him by giving his name to the newly established judicial district.
In 1788 Miro was made civil and military governor and intendant of Louisiana and West Florida. In this year McGillivray wrote him that two delegates from the district of Cumberland had just visited him with proposals of peace; that they were in extremities on account of the incursions of his (McGillivray’s) warriors, and would submit to whatever conditions he might impose; and, “presuming that it would please me, they added that they would throw themselves in the arms of His Majesty as subjects, and that Kentucky and Cumberland are determined to free themselves from Congress; that they no longer owe obedience to a power which is incapable of protecting them. They desired to know my sentiments on the propositions, but as it embraces important political questions, I thought proper not to divulge my views.” Miro, commenting on this letter, says:
I consider as extremely interesting the intelligence conveyed to McGillivray by the deputies on the fermentation existing in Kentucky, with regard to a separation from the Union. Concerning the proposition made to McGillivray by the inhabitants of Cumberland to become the vassals of His Majesty, I have refrained from returning any precise answer.
McGillivray was no doubt, at the very time he was writing to Miro, also in the service and pay of the British; for, in April, 1788, in a letter dated at “Little Tellisee, Upper Creek Nation,” and addressed to Colonels Anthony Bledsoe and James Robertson, he says, among other things:
Mr. Hackett arrived here a few Days ago and Delivered me your letter, together with one from Col. Hawkins. Agreeably to your request I will be Explicit and Candid in my answer to yours, and will not deny that my Nation had waged war against your Country for several years past, but that we had no motives of revenge, nor did it proceed from any Sense of Injurys Sustained from your people, but being warmly attached to the British, and being under their Influence, our operations were directed by them against you in common with other Americans.
The letter from which the foregoing is quoted is of considerable length. I have seen the original, with two others, and have “true and perfect copies” of all three.[L] That from which I have quoted above bears entirely upon the subject of a peace proposed between the Creek nation and Cumberland in the letter of Colonels Bledsoe and Robertson to which it is an answer; and there is not one word in McGillivray’s letter which indicates, even remotely, that Robertson and Bledsoe had made any such proposition to him as he had communicated to Miro. Col. Robertson had written him, telling him, among other things, that a number of the settlers on Cumberland had been killed recently by his warriors—“among those unfortunate persons,” says Robertson, “were my third son.”
Further along in McGillivray’s letter to Bledsoe and Robertson, he says: “I had received his Excel. Governor Caswell’s letter and Duplicate only a short time before the unlucky affair—so that I Differred writing an answer until I could be satisfyed in my own mind that he might Depend on what I should say to him, as I abhor every Species of Duplicity, I wish not to deceive.” He concludes as follows: “I have endeavored to make everything as agreeable as my Situation permits to Messrs. Hackett & Ewing”—which shows that the men named are the “two delegates from the district of Cumberland” referred to in his letter to Miro; and these two letters, taken together, show what a treacherous villain and liar he was, notwithstanding his abhorrence of “every Species of Duplicity.”
In April, 1789, writing to General Wilkinson of Kentucky, who was his confederate in the undertaking to separate Kentucky, Miro says:
I have just received two letters, one from Brig. Gen. Daniel Smith, dated on the 4th of March, and the other from Col. James Robertson, with date of the 11th of January, both written from the district of Miro. The bearer, Fagot [Hackett?], a confidential agent of Gen. Smith, informed me that the inhabitants of Cumberland, or Miro, would ask North Carolina for an act of separation the following fall, and that as soon as this should be obtained other delegates would be sent from Cumberland to New Orleans, with the object of placing that territory under the domination of His Majesty. I replied to both in general terms.
On the next day after writing this letter, Governor Miro wrote to Gen. Daniel Smith and Col. James Robertson, saying, among other things:
The giving of my name to your district has caused me much satisfaction, and I feel myself highly honored by the compliment. It increases my desire to contribute to the development of the resources of that province and the prosperity of its inhabitants. I am extremely flattered at your proposition to enter into correspondence with me, and I hope that it will afford me the opportunity to be agreeable to you.
These letters, messages and communications between Governor Miro and leading citizens of Miro District are more simple and straightforward than diplomatic. The reader of this part of our history, however, must keep in mind the precarious condition of the citizens of the Miro District at this period: a vast wilderness of more than two hundred and fifty miles behind them, savage Indians on both sides and the Spanish in front of them; with their state government and Congress both so weak that neither was able to extend them the slightest aid or protection—thus situated, they very naturally turned in the direction that not only had the power but gave the promise of protection and assistance. Miro, in acknowledging the compliment conveyed by bestowing his name on the new court district, said: “It increases my desire to contribute to the development of the resources of that province and the prosperity of its inhabitants.” In the year 1790, the Spanish court, contrary to the advice of Governor Miro, made a formal order levying a tax or duty of fifteen per cent. on all produce or freight carried down the Mississippi river. This order so inflamed the people of Kentucky and Miro District that it had the effect feared by Miro, of practically breaking off and forever ending further negotiations between him and the people of Miro District on the subject of the Cumberland country becoming a Spanish province.
Judge Martin, in his history of Louisiana, says that, at about the period of time when these letters were passing, there were five parties in the western country—one in favor of the formation of a new republic unconnected with the United States, and a close alliance with Spain; another that wished the western part of the United States to become a portion of the province of Louisiana and to submit to the laws of Spain; a third, desirous of war with Spain, an open invasion of Louisiana and the seizure of the Mississippi and New Orleans; a fourth, proposing by a show of war to prevail on Congress to extort from Spain the right to the free navigation of the Mississippi; the fifth, as unnatural as the second, was to solicit France to procure a retrocession of Louisiana and to extend her protection to Kentucky and Cumberland.
The administration of Miro in Louisiana terminated with the year 1791. In a letter to the Spanish court, written in the previous year, asking permission to return to Spain, he says: “I have now had the honor of serving the King, always with distinguished zeal, for thirty years and three months, of which twenty-one years and eight months in America, until the state of my health requires my return to Europe.” He returned to Spain, where he continued his military career, being promoted from the rank of brigadier to that of lieutenant-general. “He carried with him,” says Judge Martin, “the good wishes and regrets of the colonies.”
The character of Miro was that of a kind-hearted, benevolent, upright gentleman. Leprosy prevailed in Louisiana, and one of Miro’s first acts, on being appointed Governor, was to erect a hospital for the unfortunate victims of that disease, on a ridge lying between the Mississippi river and Bayou St. John, which was called “Leper’s Land.” Instances were related in which Miro would intercede with a creditor to give further time to an unfortunate debtor, and on failing to obtain such indulgence, he would satisfy the debt out of his private funds. In April, 1786, the king of Spain issued a royal order, approving the course and conduct of Miro, who, in the preceding year, had granted the former British subjects in Baton Rouge and Natchez, which had been conquered by the Spanish, ample time to sell their property, collect their debts and remove their persons and effects.
Don Estevan Miro left his name on the judicial records and reports of Tennessee, where it remained until November 4, 1809, when, by act of the general assembly, the state was divided into five judicial circuits, to which the act affixed numbers instead of names. Miro District, in addition to Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee counties, included at one time the counties of Smith, Wilson and Williamson. When “the territory of the United States of America south of the river Ohio” was admitted into the Union as the state of Tennessee, the county of Tennessee, at the first session of the general assembly, by an act passed April 9, 1796, was divided into Montgomery and Robertson counties. Thus the “District of Mero” and “Tennessee county” appeared on and then disappeared from the face of the map and the public records of the state of Tennessee.
The “Superior Courts of Law and Equity” for the Miro District were held in Nashville. An act of the first session of the first general assembly of Tennessee, passed April 22, 1796, recites that the court house, or the “office of the clerk and master of the District of Mero was lately destroyed by fire, and the books, records and papers thereof lost,” etc., and then provides for setting up the records.
While the capital and the state treasury were located at Knoxville, there was a branch treasury kept in the Miro District at Nashville.
The present chief justice of the United States, Hon. Melville W. Fuller, in an opinion on the constitutionality of a recent law of the state of Michigan, providing for the selection of presidential electors by a vote of each congressional district separately taken, refers to an act of the general assembly of the state of Tennessee, which appointed a committee of citizens in the District of Miro and empowered it to elect presidential electors—the chief justice, as I understand him, approving both these methods as a compliance with the constitution. The act referred to is worthy of acquaintance, and I therefore embody the substance of it in this chapter, as I presume that there are very few persons familiar with its provisions. The act was passed August 8, 1796, and is as follows:
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, that three electors shall be elected, one in the district of Washington, one in the district of Hamilton and one in the district of Mero, as directed by this Act, to elect a president and vice president of the United States, and that the said electors may be elected with as little trouble as possible to the citizens.
Sec. 2nd. Be it enacted that John Carter, John Adams, and John McCollester of the County of Washington; John Rhea, John Spurgeon and Robert Allison of Sullivan County; Daniel Kennedy, Joseph Hardin and James Stinson of the county of Greene; and Richard Mitchell, John Young and Bartlet Marshall of the county of Hawkins, are appointed electors to elect an elector for that purpose for the district of Washington; John Adair, Charles McClung and Samuel Flonnagan of the County of Knox; Andrew Henderson, Josiah Jackson and Christopher Hains of the County of Jefferson; Samuel McGahey, Josiah Gist, Alexander Montgomery of the County of Sevier; and Robert Boid, William Lowry and David Caldwell of Wells Station of the County of Blount, are appointed electors to elect an elector for the purpose aforesaid for the district of Hamilton; Thomas Molloy, William Donelson and George Ridley of the County of Davidson; Kasper Mansco, Edward Douglass and John Hogan of the County of Sumner; George Nevill senior, Josiah Fort and Thomas Johnson of the late county of Tennessee, are appointed electors to elect an elector in the District of Mero, for the purpose aforesaid.
Sec. 4. The electors in this Act before named shall convene, those for the District of Washington at Jonesborough, those for the District of Hamilton at Knoxville, and those for the District of Mero at Nashville, on the Second Monday of November in the year 1796, and being so convened, they, or so many of them as shall attend on said day, proceed to elect by ballot an elector qualified as by this Act directed, for the purpose aforesaid.
The act further provides that, “if two or more persons shall have the same number of votes, it shall be decided in the same manner as Grand Jurors are drawn for, in the Superior Courts”—that is, the names of such persons as received the same number of votes were to be written on slips of paper and put into a box or hat; a boy under twelve years of age then drew out one of the slips, and the person whose name appeared thereon received the certificate of election.
The electors chosen received certificates of election signed by the committee, and the three electors thus chosen were directed by the act to “convene at Knoxville on the first Wednesday in December, 1796, and proceed to elect a president and vice-president of the United States.”
This act, or method of selecting presidential electors, was re-enacted by the general assembly of Tennessee, October 26, 1799, for the presidential election to occur in 1800. I am not aware that this method of selecting presidential electors was ever adopted by any other state.
This seeming digression from the main subject will be pardoned, in view of the fact that Chief Justice Fuller, as I understand him, refers to the act under consideration as applicable only to the Miro District.
The method of choosing presidential electors prescribed in this act shows how implicitly the people at that time trusted their representatives, and also the confidence the representatives reposed in the judgment and patriotism of the citizen, as well as the confidence which the people then had in the honor and patriotism of each other.