A UNIQUE COURT.
There may be mistake, error, fraud and injustice in court proceedings and judicial records; but when such records were made more than a century ago, and contain some part of the history of the people who made them, and have stood all these years unchallenged and uncontradicted, such records may be safely accepted as truth. In writing of a people more than a century after the period in which they lived—a people who did not have a daily newspaper in their midst to chronicle their deeds and views, and who were in a country between which and other parts of the world there was but little if any communication—it is easy indeed for a facile writer to ascribe to them characters which they did not have, views which they did not entertain, and accomplishments with which they were not entitled to be credited, without taking much risk of being contradicted.
The early history of the colonies and “new settlements” in North America is and has been for many years a fascinating field for writers; and it must be confessed that too often a little incident or tradition has been so magnified by a too vivid imagination that it has appeared in print as a very readable but colossal falsehood. It is also lamentable that the plain, unvarnished truth of history has, in many instances, been so colored and distorted in the effort to make it romantic, that many persons who could have contributed much valuable information in the way of simple facts have not done so, because of a lack of that faculty of imagination which some writers possess to such a degree that they can inform you beforehand that they are going to tell you a lie—in part, at least—and yet will tell it in such beautiful language and in so smooth and plausible a way as to make you believe the whole story.
The Tennessee pioneers did not have any one with them in their earliest days to write an account of their experiences, or to portray their lives and characters; nor did they have any newspapers to make a record of their doings in the business concerns and affairs of life; and if they wrote any letters on these matters, they have not been preserved. They had, however, at Jonesboro, a “County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions,” in which they made and left a record showing much that they did, and from which, even at this late day, we can get a very clear insight into their views as to the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, the power and duty of courts, as well as their notions concerning the business and social relations of life, and indeed on all matters which, in their judgment, pertained in any way to the peace, good fame and welfare of the community and of individuals. I shall, therefore, quote literally much from these old original records kept in Washington county—the quotations being taken from the records of that county only, for the reason that it was the first county established and organized in what is now Tennessee, and included for quite a time all of the early settlements in what is commonly known as “upper East Tennessee.” The same character of entries will no doubt be found in the old records kept in Sullivan, Greene, Davidson, Hawkins, Sumner, Tennessee and Knox counties, in all of which Jackson practised as an attorney or presided as a judge. The proceedings in the courts of the counties named, especially those that will be set out, will be of interest not alone to Tennesseans, but also to the descendants, scattered throughout the southwest and west, of the men who made these records.
The first session of the court was held at the log-cabin of Charles Roberson, near Jonesboro, February 23, 1778. It was composed of the justices of the peace whose names have been given as subscribers to the oath set out in a preceding chapter. After the court had been organized by electing officers, its first act was to fine John Sevier, Jr., for some minor matter which was gravely denominated “a contempt to the court.” John Sevier, Sr., had just been elected clerk of the court, and was undoubtedly the most influential man in the country, on account of his meritorious character—but this did not shield the son. The fine was not remitted; and there is no evidence that John Sevier the clerk endeavored in any way to interpose.
On the second day, “William Cocke by his counsel Waightsell Avery moved to be admitted to the office of Clerk of this County of Washington which motion was rejected by the Court knowing that John Sevier was entitled to the office.” This is absolutely the whole of the record. It was the first contested election case that occurred west of the Alleghany mountains, and was between two citizens who became very distinguished—Cocke having been elected one of the first two Senators from Tennessee, while Sevier, after holding all the other offices within the gift of the people of that county, was elected a representative in Congress and six times chosen Governor of Tennessee. The worthy justices, “knowing,” as they said, that Sevier had been elected, without hearing Mr. Cocke, his counsel or any evidence whatsoever, swore in Sevier as clerk.
These entries follow:
Ordered that David Hinkley be fined 30 L. for insulting the Court.
Ordered that Hump Gibson be fined 10 L. for swearing in Court.
Then, after passing upon a motion or two—