This letter, coupled with the confidential proposals of Dr. White, furnished a convenient opening for correspondence with the Spaniards; and in July Sevier wrote to Gardoqui indicating his readiness to accede to their proposals. After secret conferences with men who had supported him throughout the vicissitudes of his ill-starred state, Sevier carefully matured his plans. The remarkable letter of great length which he wrote to Gardoqui on September 12, 1788, reveals the conspiracy in all its details and presents in vivid colors the strong separatist sentiment of the day. Sevier urgently petitions Gardoqui for the loan of a few thousand pounds, to enable him to "make the most expedient and necessary preparations for defense"; and offers to repay the loan within a short time "by sending the products of this region to the lower ports." Upon the vital matter of "delivering" the State of Franklin to Spain, he forthrightly says:
Since my last of the 18th of July, upon consulting with the principal men of this country, I have been particularly happy to find that they are equally disposed and ready as I am to accept your propositions and guarantees. You may be sure that the pleasing hopes and ideas which the people of this country hold with regard to the probability of an alliance with, and commercial concessions from, you are very ardent, and that we are unanimously determined on that score. The people of this region have come to realize truly upon what part of the world and upon which nation their future happiness and security depend, and they immediately infer that their interest and prosperity depend entirely upon the protection and liberality of your government.… Being the first from this side of the Appalachian Mountains to resort in this way to your protection and liberality, we feel encouraged to entertain the greatest hope that we shall be granted all reasonable aid by him who is so amply able to do it, and to give the protection and help that is asked of him in this petition. You know our delicate situation and the difficulties in which we are in respect to our mother State which is making use of every strategem to impede the development and prosperity of this country.… Before I conclude, it may be necessary to remind you that there will be no more favorable occasion than the present one to put this plan into execution. North Carolina has rejected the Constitution and moreover it seems to me that a considerable time will elapse before she becomes a member of the Union, if that event ever happens.
Through Miró, Gardoqui was simultaneously conducting a similar correspondence with General James Wilkinson. The object of the Spanish conspiracy, matured as the result of this correspondence, was to seduce Kentucky from her allegiance to the United States. Despite the superficial similarity between the situation of Franklin and Kentucky, it would be doing Sevier and his adherents a capital injustice to place them in the category of the corrupt Wilkinson and the malodorous Sebastian. Moreover, the secessionists of Franklin, as indicated in the above letter, had the excuse of being left virtually without a country. On the preceding August 1st, North Carolina had rejected the Constitution of the United States; and the leaders of Franklin, who were sorely aggrieved by what they regarded as her indifference and neglect, now felt themselves more than ever out of the Union and wholly repudiated by the mother state. Again, Sevier had the embittered feeling resultant from outlawry. Because of his course in opposing the laws and government of North Carolina and in the killing of several good citizens, including the sheriff of Washington County, by his forces at Sinking Creek, Sevier, through the action of Governor Johnston of North Carolina, had been attainted of high treason. Under the heavy burden of this grave charge, he felt his hold upon Franklin relax. Further, an atrocity committed in the recent campaign under Sevier's leadership—Kirk's brutal murder of Corn Tassel, a noble old Indian, and other chieftains, while under the protection of a flag of truce—had placed a bar sinister across the fair fame of this stalwart of the border. Utter desperation thus prompted Sevier's acceptance of Gardoqui's offer of the protection of Spain.
John Sevier's son, James, bore the letter of September 12th to Gardoqui. By a strangely ironic coincidence, on the very day (October 10, 1788) that Gardoqui wrote to Miró, recommending to the attention of Spain Dr. White and James Sevier, the emissaries of Franklin, with their plans and proposals, John Sevier was arrested by Colonel Tipton at the Widow Brown's in Washington County, on the charge of high treason. He was handcuffed and borne off, first to Jonesborough and later to Morganton. But his old friends and former comrades-in-arms, Charles and Joseph McDowell, gave bond for his appearance at court; and Morrison, the sheriff, who also had fought at King's Mountain, knocked the irons from his wrists and released him on parole. Soon afterward a number of Sevier's devoted friends, indignant over his arrest, rode across the mountains to Morganton and silently bore him away, never to be arrested again. In November an act of pardon and oblivion with respect to Franklin was passed by the North Carolina Assembly. Although Sevier was forbidden to hold office under the state, the passage of this act automatically operated to clear him of the alleged offense of high treason. With affairs in Franklin taking this turn, it is little wonder that Gardoqui and Miró paid no further heed to Sevier's proposal to accept the protection of Spain. Sevier's continued agitation in behalf of the independence of Franklin inspired Governor Johnston with the fear that he would have to be "proceeded against to the last extremity." But Sevier's opposition finally subsiding, he was pardoned, given a seat in the North Carolina assembly, and with extraordinary consideration honored with his former rank of brigadier-general.
When Dr. White reported to Miró that the leaders of "Frankland" had eagerly accepted Gardoqui's conditions for an alliance with Spain, he categorically added: "With regard to Cumberland district, what I have said of Frankland applies to it with equal force and truth." James Robertson and Anthony Bledsoe had but recently availed themselves of the good offices of Governor Johnston of North Carolina in the effort to influence Gardoqui to quiet the Creek Indians. The sagacious and unscrupulous half breed Alexander McGillivray had placed the Creeks under the protection of Spain in 1784; and shortly afterward they began to be regularly supplied with ammunition by the Spanish authorities. At first Spain pursued the policy of secretly encouraging these Indians to resist the encroachments of the Americans, while she remained on outwardly friendly terms with the United States. During the period of the Spanish conspiracy, however, there is reason to believe that Miró endeavored to keep the Indians at peace with the borderers, as a friendly service, intended to pave the way for the establishment of intimate relations between Spain and the dwellers in the trans-Alleghany. Yet his efforts cannot have been very effective; for the Cumberland settlements continued to suffer from the ravages and depredations of the Creeks, who remained "totally averse to peace, notwithstanding they have had no cause of offence"; and Robertson and Bledsoe reported to Governor Caswell (June 12, 1787): "It is certain, the Chickasaws inform us, that Spanish traders offer a reward for scalps of the Americans." The Indian atrocities became so frequent that Robertson later in the summer headed a party on the famous Coldwater Expedition, in which he severely chastised the marauding Indians. Aroused by the loss of a number of chiefs and warriors at the hands of Robertson's men, and instigated, as was generally believed, by the Spaniards, the Creeks then prosecuted their attacks with renewed violence against the Cumberland settlements.
Unprotected either by the mother state or by the national government, unable to secure free passage to the Gulf for their products, and sorely pressed to defend their homes, now seriously endangered by the incessant attacks of the Creeks, the Cumberland leaders decided to make secret overtures to McGillivray, as well as to communicate to Miró, through Dr. White, their favorable inclination toward the proposals of the one country which promised them protection. In a letter which McGillivray wrote to Miró (transmitted to Madrid, June 15, 1788) in regard to the visit of Messrs. Hackett and Ewing, two trusty messengers sent by Robertson and Bledsoe, he reports that the two delegates from the district of Cumberland had not only submitted to him proposals of peace but "had added that they would throw themselves into the arms of His Majesty as subjects, and that Kentucky and Cumberland are determined to free themselves from their dependence on Congress, because that body can not protect either their property, or favor their commerce, and they therefore believe that they no longer owe obedience to a power which is incapable of protecting them." Commenting upon McGillivray's communication, Miró said in his report to Madrid (June 15, 1788): "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."
In his long letter of reply to Robertson and Bledsoe, McGillivray agreed to make peace between his nation, the Creeks, and the Cumberland settlers. This letter was most favorably received and given wide circulation throughout the West. In a most ingratiating reply, offering McGillivray a fine gun and a lot in Nashville, Robertson throws out the following broad suggestion, which he obviously wishes McGillivray to convey to Miró: "In all probability we cannot long remain in our present state, and if the British or any commercial nation who may be in possession of the mouth of the Mississippi would furnish us with trade, and receive our produce there cannot be a doubt but the people on the west side of the Appalachian mountains will open their eyes to their real interest." Robertson actually had the district erected out of the counties of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee given the name of "Miró" by the Assembly of North Carolina in November, 1788—a significant symbol of the desires of the Cumberland leaders. In a letter (April 23, 1789), Miró, who had just received letters from Robertson (January 29th) and Daniel Smith (March 4th) postmarked "District of Miró," observes: "The bearer, Fagot, a confidential agent of Gen. Smith, informed me that the inhabitants of Cumberland, or Miró, 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." [215]
Robertson, Bledsoe, and Smith were successful in keeping secret their correspondence with McGillivray and Miró; and few were in the secret of Sevier's effort to deliver the State of Franklin to Spain. Joseph Martin was less successful in his negotiations; and a great sensation was created throughout the Southern colonies when a private letter from Joseph Martin to McGillivray (November 8, 1788) was intercepted. In this letter Martin said: "I must beg that you write me by the first opportunity in answer to what I am now going to say to you.… I hope to do honor to any part of the world I settle in, and am determined to leave the United States, for reasons that I can assign to you when we meet, but durst not trust it to paper." The general assembly of Georgia referred the question of the intercepted letter to the governor of North Carolina (January 24, 1789); and the result was a legislative investigation into Martin's conduct. Eleven months later, the North Carolina assembly exonerated him. From the correspondence of Joseph Martin and Patrick Henry, it would appear that Martin, on Henry's advice, had acted as a spy upon the Spaniards, in order to discover the views of McGillivray, to protect the exposed white settlements from the Indians, and to fathom the designs of the Spaniards against the United States. [216]
The sensational disclosures of Martin's intercepted letter had no deterrent effect upon James Robertson in the attempted execution of his plan for detaching the Cumberland settlements from North Carolina. History has taken no account of the fact that Robertson and the inhabitants now deliberately endeavored to secure an act of separation from North Carolina. In the event of success, the next move planned by the Cumberland leaders, as we have already seen, was to send delegates to New Orleans for the purpose of placing the Cumberland region under the domination of Spain.
A hitherto unknown letter, from Robertson to (Miró), dated Nashville, September 2, 1789, proves that a convention of the people was actually held—the first overt step looking to an alliance with Spain. In this letter Robertson says: