All opposition to North Carolina authority was now virtually withdrawn, but the people west of the Alleghanies worked quietly for a separation and a new state.
North Carolina passed a second cession act, under the provisions of which, February 25, 1790, Samuel Johnston and Benjamin Hawkins, Senators in Congress from North Carolina, deeded the territory to the United States, and the sovereignty of North Carolina over it instantly expired. It has been aptly said that “the separation was not like that of a disconsolate mother parting from a beloved daughter, but rather like that when Abraham said to Lot, ‘Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.’”
President Washington appointed William Blount Governor of the territory, August 7, 1790. On the 10th day of the following October, Governor Blount organized the territorial government, at the house of Mr. Cobb, in Sullivan county, on the north side of Watauga river, since known as the Massengale farm, above and opposite where Austin Springs are. The population of the territory in July, 1791, was 36,043, including 3,417 slaves. The whole population of the Cumberland settlement at that time was 7,042.
November 5, 1791, the second printing press introduced in the “New World west of the Alleghanies” was set up, at Rogersville, by Mr. George Roulstone.
The people who made it possible for Tennessee to have a centennial were a wonderful people. Within a period of about fifteen years, they were engaged in three revolutions; participated in organizing and lived under five different governments; established and administered the first free and independent government in America; founded the first church and the first college in the southwest; put in operation the second newspaper in the “New World west of the Alleghanies;” met and fought the British in half a dozen battles, from King’s Mountain to the gates of Charleston, gaining a victory in every battle; held in check, beat back and finally expelled from the country four of the most powerful tribes of Indian warriors in America; and left Tennesseans their fame as a heritage, and a commonwealth of which it is their privilege to be proud.
These are the people among whom Andrew Jackson settled and began life, and from whose character, example and achievements he must have received some little degree of inspiration.
Passing from the scene of their toil and trials, their struggles and dangers, from war with the savage and war with the civilized, let us devote a little time to further examination into their character, as revealed in the judicial records made and left by them.
FOOTNOTES:
[B] The almanac-groundhog and goose-bone theories were adopted by a later and wiser generation.