(Nashville American, March 7, 1897.)
Having spent an afternoon in wandering about the Centennial grounds, I had devoted the evening to Haywood, Ramsey and other chroniclers of early Tennessee history. These two circumstances combined were doubtless the cause of a singular dream which I had that night. I thought that I stood in the Auditorium, and saw congregated within its walls many of the famous men and women of the past whose names are closely interwoven with the history of our state. They seemed to constitute a convention of some kind; and, although the assemblage had not yet been called to order, the chair had already been taken, very appropriately, by the illustrious patriot whom Andrew Jackson styled “the Father of Tennessee” (1), while the publisher of the first newspaper issued in the state (2) acted as secretary, assisted by the first native historian of Tennessee (3), the founder of the first “campaign paper” established west of the Alleghanies (4), and the editor of the first abolition paper issued in the south (5).
Seated upon the platform were several persons who seemed to have been designated as vice presidents of the meeting. There were the statesman who defeated another eminent Tennessean for speaker of the national House of Representatives, and was in turn defeated by him (6); the only two United States Senators from Tennessee who were ever expelled (7, 8); the only Confederate States Senators from Tennessee (9, 10); the man of whom an ex-President of the United States said that he was “the greatest natural orator in Congress” (11); the United States Senator who published the first map of Tennessee (12); “Old Bullion” (13); and the patriot who, on resigning his seat in the Senate because he could not conscientiously obey the instructions of the legislature, said: “For myself, I am proud that my state can, in my person, yet produce one man willing to be made a sacrifice rather than sacrifice his principles” (14).
An interesting quartet, near the stage, consisted of the member of the first constitutional convention who proposed the name “Tennessee” for the infant commonwealth (15); the eminent statesman who said of the first constitution of Tennessee that it was “the least imperfect and most republican” of any which had been adopted up to that time (16); and the presidents respectively of the second and third constitutional conventions (17, 18).
Seated together, a little farther back, were the two men who signed the act ceding “the territory south of the Ohio” to the United States (19, 20); the Virginia statesman in whose honor, at the suggestion of Andrew Jackson, a county was named, in recognition of his earnest advocacy of the admission of Tennessee to the Union (21); the man who gave in the Senate the casting vote which secured that admission (22); and the commissioner who was sent by the Confederate government to effect the withdrawal of Tennessee from the Union (23).
Chatting pleasantly together, in one corner of the hall, was a notable group of women, comprising the wife of whom her husband left the record that she was “a being so gentle and yet so virtuous, slander might wound, but could not dishonor” (24); the only female for whom a Tennessee county has ever been named (25); the pioneer maiden who, in endeavoring to escape from Indians, fell into the arms of the soldier who afterwards became her husband (26); and the beautiful Irish girl who was the cause of the disruption of a President’s cabinet (27); while near them “the Pocahontas of the West” (28) stood silently listening.
A remarkable group was composed of the famous general whose name was bestowed on the largest area ever embraced within the limits of a single county (29); a nobleman whose ancestral name, in abbreviated form, is borne by a Tennessee county (30); the explorer who named the Cumberland mountains and river (31); the governor by whose misspelled name a large part of Tennessee was known for many years (32); the revolutionary soldier in whose honor the first settlement on the Cumberland was called (33); and the famous explorer whose mysterious death, within the limits of the county which now bears his name, has never been satisfactorily explained (34).
A picturesque trio consisted of the leader of the first body of white men who ever set foot on the soil of Tennessee (35); the first white man who erected an edifice within its limits (36); and the nobleman whose titular name was given to the first structure built therein by English-speaking people (37).
Grouped modestly in the rear of the hall were several men whose dress and accoutrements proclaimed them pioneers. There were the famous “big-foot hunter” who lived in a hollow tree (38); the man whom the Indians called the “fool warrior” on account of his reckless bravery (39); the commander of a marvellous expedition by water, of which it has been said that “it has no parallel in modern history” (40); the man for whom the oldest town in the state was named (41); the first white child born in Tennessee (42); the first white child born in Nashville (43); and the bridegroom of the first marriage ceremony performed west of the Cumberland mountains (44).