Abruptly changing and without waiting for Sevier to speak, he became the smiling host again and asked—
“What is it I hear about your separating from North Carolina?”
“As you heard it as soon as, if not before, we did, there’s nothing new to tell,” Sevier replied. “We are about to set up an independent State and be admitted to the Union.”
“So? My agents are careless fellows,” sighed the emperor, shaking his head ruefully. “Both careless and ignorant fellows. Why, they actually informed me that the Western settlements have been given to the central Government as North Carolina’s share of the war-debt. They led me to believe Carolina was paying her debts with Western land. Never a word about the new State.”
“A month from now they’ll be telling you about the new State,” Sevier answered.
McGillivray simulated a density of understanding and rubbed his head in perplexity.
“I can’t comprehend it,” he sorrowfully confessed. “The wine must have muddled my poor head. Now let me see. North Carolina owes some five million dollars, a ninth of the national debt, plus three millions unpaid interest. France advanced much of the money and is asking for the interest and some arrangement that ultimately will take care of the principal. North Carolina, not having the five millions, votes to pay some twenty-nine or thirty million acres of land. Now, if I have followed you correctly, the thirty million acres refuse to be considered as the equivalent of North Carolina’s share of the debt and insist on being created into a State. It’s very bewildering.”
“Perhaps it will be clearer if you remember there are some twenty-five or thirty thousand settlers who won those acres and who do not intend to be turned over along with their lands like so many beaver pelts,” Sevier replied. “Perhaps you can perceive that the very weakness of the central Government which you have dwelt on is an excellent reason why thirty thousand people will determine the future of the land they alone won and developed. How will the central Government stop us from forming a State if she is unable to resent any insult from distant Spain?”
“I don’t think she can.” And the admission was accompanied by a smile of genuine amusement. “It’s absolutely humorous, the whole situation. A man owes me a thousand pounds. He makes payment. Just as I am about to count the money it hops up and says, ‘You can’t have me as payment for a debt. But you shall take me as a partner and share with me what you already have accumulated.’ What could I do? Perhaps I would demand that my debtor bring me some better behaved money. Eh? What will North Carolina say when she finds she’s lost her land and hasn’t paid her debt?”
“She’ll do nothing,” assured Sevier. “There will be no violence, no bloodshed. You don’t understand the true temper of the people on both sides of the mountains. We’re kinsmen. And your amusing little illustrations make you forget the simple fact that a new State must pay its share of the national debt. Our new State will make good what Carolina owes.”