At the first session of the general assembly of the state of Franklin, held in March, 1785, fifteen acts or laws were passed. In the act levying a tax for the support of the government was the following section:
Be it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the aforesaid land tax, and the free polls, to be paid in the following manner: Good flax linen, ten hundred, at three shillings and six pence per yard. Nine hundred at three shillings: Eight hundred two shillings and nine pence: Seven hundred two shillings and six pence: Six hundred two shillings: tow linen one shilling and nine pence: linsey three shillings: and woolen and cotton linsey three shillings and six pence per yard: Good clean beaver skin six shillings: cased Otter skins six shillings: uncased ditto five shillings: rackoon and fox skins one shilling and three pence: woolen cloth at ten shillings per yard: bacon well cured at six pence per pound: good clean beeswax one shilling per pound: good clean talow six pence per pound: good distilled rye whiskey at two shillings and six pence per gallon: good peach or apple brandy at three shillings per gallon: good country made sugar at one shilling per pound: deer skins, the pattern six shillings: good neat and well managed tobacco fit to be prized that may pass inspection the hundred, fifteen shillings, and so on in proportion for a greater or less quantity.
The last section of the act is in these words: “And all the salaries and allowances hereby made shall be paid by any treasurer, sheriff or collector of public taxes to any person entitled to the same, to be paid in specific articles as collected, and at the rates allowed by the state for the same, or in current money of the state of Franklin.” This provision furnished those who adhered to the North Carolina government much amusement. They asserted that the salaries of the Governor, judges and other officers were to be paid in skins, absolutely; and, to add to their amusement, had them payable in mink skins at that. From this provision the inhabitants of that section of the country fell into the habit of referring to money as “mink skins;” and this term, as descriptive of money, thus spread all over the southwestern country.
They estimated by law two dollars and fifty cents to be equal to fifteen shillings of the current money of Franklin. They allowed the Governor two hundred pounds annually; the Attorney General twenty-five pounds for each court he attended; the Secretary of State twenty-five pounds and fees; the judge of the Superior Court one hundred and fifty pounds; the assistant judges twenty-five pounds for each court they attended; the treasurer forty pound; and each member of the council six shillings per day for each day of actual service.
A convention met in Greeneville, in November, 1785, to adopt a constitution. Up to this time no disagreement had taken place—all were for Franklin; but when the constitution which had been proposed was submitted, it was rejected; and, on motion of Col. William Cocke, the convention adopted the entire constitution of North Carolina. Thus began the trouble which ended in the overthrow of the state of Franklin.
HOUSE USED AS CAPITOL OF THE STATE OF FRANKLIN.
In Greeneville, Tennessee. From a photograph taken in April, 1897.
I can not now notice the various sessions held by the assembly of Franklin. It met for the last time in Greeneville, in September, 1787. “During the years 1786 and 1787, a strange spectacle was presented—that of two empires being exercised at one and the same time, over one and the same territory and people.” County courts were held in the same counties, under the Franklin and the North Carolina governments; “the same militia was called out by officers appointed by each government; laws were passed by both assemblies”; taxes were laid by authority of both states—but the people said that they did not know which government had the right to receive their taxes, and therefore they adopted the easy solution of paying to neither. The Superior Courts of Franklin were held at Jonesboro; the courts under North Carolina were held at Davis’s on Buffalo creek, ten miles east of Jonesboro, and at Col. Tipton’s. There were now two strong parties, one under Tipton, adhering to North Carolina, and the friends of Franklin following Sevier, each of whom endeavored by every possible means to strengthen his cause. “Every provocation on the one side was surpassed in the way of retaliation by a still greater provocation on the other.... The clerks of the county courts of Washington, Greene and Sullivan, under Franklin, issued marriage licenses, and many persons were married by virtue of their authority.”
In 1786, while a court was in session at Jonesboro, under the Franklin government, Col. John Tipton entered the court house with a party of men, took the records away from the clerk and drove the justices out of the house. Not long after this, Sevier entered the house where the North Carolina court was sitting, turned the justices out bodily and carried off the records. “The like acts were repeated several times during the existence of the Franklin government.” James Sevier was clerk of Washington county under the Franklin government, as he had been under North Carolina. Tipton went to Sevier’s house and took the old records away from him by force. Shortly afterward, the same records were recaptured, and James Sevier hid them in a cave. During these captures and removals many of the records were lost. Of the Franklin records all save one were either lost or destroyed.
This single remaining record of the Franklin courts is not only interesting but amusing; and, to be as drunk as it unquestionably is, contains some law and a great deal of early history. This record was evidently made late at night, by the light of a “tallow dip” or a bear-oil lamp, with a bottle of well-distilled apple or peach brandy near by. It is the only written record relative to the “lost state” and its courts that I have ever been able to find. It is like an old-time copy-book. On the outside are the following entries and memoranda—I give them literally: