Here again, in this second charter of a private corporation for profit, is given unmistakable evidence that these early legislators believed in and adhered to that other fundamental principle proclaimed in the “declaration of rights”—that “all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness; for the advancement of those ends, they have at all times an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper.” They had probably not learned, so early, that it would ever be insisted by anyone that the government could bring into existence a creature greater and more powerful than the creator; but fearing, no doubt, that such a claim might be set up, they put in the face of this charter an answer to any such pretence. It had not probably been intimated, at that early day, that a government which the people, in the exercise of their inherent power, could alter, reform or abolish at their pleasure, could nevertheless by its legislature bring into existence an invisible, intangible, incorporeal entity which the people could neither control nor destroy, although they have the power to do both with reference to the creator of such entity; still, they said in the charter that all power is inherent in the people, and you take the rights, privileges and franchises granted, subject to their power to control and regulate your operations, and your dealings with and relations to the public.
Two other features of this charter deserve to be thoughtfully considered. The first is that the corporation is made liable, in the face of its charter, for damages sustained by any person who shall be detained by the keepers of the turnpikes or the bad condition of the road. Under the language of the section, the liability is fixed and absolute, the plaintiff having to prove only two facts in any case: the fact that he was detained, and the amount of damage sustained—this was all; he did not have to prove negligence, or carelessness, ordinary or gross. The other feature is that which required the corporation to give a bond, with approved security, conditioned for keeping the road in good repair. The corporation might become insolvent, go into the hands of a receiver, come out again under a new organization, load up again with mortgages first, second and third, stock itself again and issue first and second preferred and common, and then collapse again; but the bond which this charter required this corporation to give, and the security thereon, could not be cancelled, or touched by anyone except one who had sustained damages by reason of being detained by the keepers of the gates or the road being out of repair. The corporation might dissolve, become bankrupt, go out of business—but the bond and security remained.
What a monument is this charter, granted to a private corporation for profit, to the wisdom and far-reaching foresight of the pioneer statesmen who framed and granted it; and how unfortunate it is, for both the people and for the corporations, that subsequent general assemblies in Tennessee have not engrafted its principles upon all charters since granted to private corporations.
“History repeats itself” only when and where human nature parallels itself: have legislative statesmen duplicated themselves in Tennessee?
FOOTNOTES:
[I] Thomas Jefferson Wilson, an aged, intelligent and respected citizen, now nearly blind, living at Chesterton, in Washington county, Tenn., writing to me, April 1, 1897, among other things, says: “In the spring of 1833 I went to live with Elijah Embree [brother of Elihu], and continued to reside with him until his death, in 1846. During this time I had access to all his books and papers, and I found a copy of ‘The Emancipator.’ I hunted up all of the numbers that had been issued, and had James Dilworth of Jonesboro to bind them in book form. Elihu Embree claimed [in ‘The Emancipator’] that his paper was the first paper ever published in the United States wholly in the interest of emancipation. It was a monthly paper, and the first number was published in 1820, during which year Embree died, and the paper ceased. The first movement that I know of in Tennessee in the interest of emancipation was among the Quakers. They organized a society on Lost Creek, in Jefferson county, from which sprang many similar societies all over East Tennessee. Charles Owens, Benjamin Lundy and a great many others who were emancipationists moved [from Eastern Tennessee] to Ohio between 1815 and 1820.”
With reference to this subject of the first abolition paper, see an interesting note on Elihu Embree, in the interpretation of the “Centennial Dream,” in the [appendix] to this volume.
CHAPTER VI.
MIRO, ALIAS “MERO.”
In November, 1784, the general assembly of North Carolina, at Newbern, divided the district of Morgan, which had theretofore included all of the state “west of the mountains,” and erected Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Davidson counties into a “Superior Court of Law and Equity” district, by the name of “Washington.” From 1784 to 1788 all of the territory west of the Cumberland mountains was included in Davidson and Sumner counties, then the only organized counties in what is now Middle and West Tennessee. The population of Davidson county had so increased and extended westward from Nashville by the fall of 1788 that the general assembly of North Carolina, at Fayetteville, in November of that year, divided Davidson county by a line “beginning on the Virginia line now Kentucky, thence south along Sumner county to the dividing ridge between Cumberland river and Red river, thence westwardly along said ridge to the head of the main south branch of Sycamore creek, thence down the said branch to the mouth thereof, thence due south across Cumberland river to Davidson county line.” All that part of Davidson county west of this line was erected into a new county, which was named “Tennessee.” Tennessee county, therefore, included all of the territory now within the limits of Montgomery, Robertson, Dickson, Houston and Stewart, and parts of Hickman, Humphreys and Cheatham. The county seat of Tennessee county was fixed at Clarksville.