CHAPTER V.
EARLY TENNESSEE LEGISLATION.
The first legislative act passed in what is now the state of Tennessee was an “Ordinance of the Governor and Judges of the Territory of the United States of America South of the River Ohio, for circumscribing the counties of Greene and Hawkins, and laying out two new counties, Jefferson and Knox.” This act was passed June 11, 1792, and describes with minute particularity that part of the boundaries of the old counties affected by it, as well as those of the new counties created. The act appoints Charles McClung and James Maberry to run and mark certain parts of the lines, and Alexander Outlaw and Joseph Hamilton to run and mark the other parts. It also directs that the Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for Knox county be held at Knoxville, for the ensuing year, on the third Mondays of January, April, July and October, and for Jefferson county at the house of Jeremiah Matthews, on the fourth Mondays of the same months, “for the administration of justice.”
The second ordinance passed by the same authority is one the example of which it were well we had followed, but, alas! we have not. This ordinance, in a preamble, recites that, “whereas, doubts have arisen whether the several Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in this Territory have by the laws of North Carolina authority to levy taxes for building or repairing court houses, prisons and stocks in the said counties respectively, pay jurors and defray contingent expenses; and whereas, it is necessary that these doubts shall no longer exist”; and then proceeds to authorize and empower the courts to levy and collect a tax for the purposes named—not to issue bonds, and entail their payment, with interest, upon future generations.
The ordinance provides that the tax so levied and collected by the several counties shall not exceed, in any one year, more than fifty cents on each poll, nor more than seventeen cents on each hundred acres of land.
Wise legislators were William Blount, David Campbell and Joseph Anderson, who constituted the legislative authority. Their example was followed, after Tennessee was admitted into the Union, by the general assemblies elected by the people, for a very long period, so that, whenever money was appropriated or a county authorized to make any expenditures, the same act required the county authorities to levy a tax, collect it and pay up, instead of piling up debt. Those who wish to know how it was that Tennessee made such rapid strides in the production of statesmen, the building up of a name, the development of her natural resources, and advancement in education and the very highest order of civilization, for the first half century of her existence, have but to study the legislative history of that period.
“The Governor, Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of the United States of America South of the river Ohio” passed an act, September 30, 1794, entitled “An Act for the relief of such persons as have been disabled by wounds, or rendered incapable of procuring for themselves and families subsistence in the military service of the territory, and providing for the widows and orphans of such as have died.”
The act provides that persons of the description mentioned in the caption must apply to and establish their right to an allowance, under the act, before the county court; that the county court shall make an allowance “adequate to their relief for one year—which allowance shall be continued for the succeeding year and so long as such court shall certify such person to continue under the description aforesaid”; that when such certificate was “countersigned by the Governor and President of the Council and Speaker of the House of Representatives, together with their order or certificate for the said allowance, it shall be a sufficient voucher to any sheriff, collector or treasurer paying the same, in the settlement of their public accounts.”
On August 26, 1776, Congress promised, by a resolution, to the officers and soldiers of the army and navy who might be disabled in the service, a pension, to continue during the continuance of their disabilities.
On June 7, 1785, Congress recommended that the several states should make provision for the army, navy and militia pensioners resident with them, to be reimbursed by Congress.