Okla-homey
8/23/2006, 06:11 AM
August 23, 1784: State of Franklin declares independence
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/733/wwwstateoffranklinxd2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
222 years ago on this day in 1784, several counties in western North Carolina declare their independence as the state of Franklin. The counties lay in what would eventually become Tennessee.
The previous April, the state of North Carolina had ceded its western land claims between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River to the United States Congress.
The settlers in this area, known as the Cumberland River Valley, had formed their own independent government from 1772 to 1777 and were concerned that Congress would sell the territory to Spain or France as a means of paying off some of the government’s war debt. As a result, North Carolina retracted its cession and began to organize an administration for the territory.
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/7206/wwwtiphay1lq9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Typical Franklin-area hillbilly homestead
Simultaneously, representatives from Washington, Sullivan, Spencer (modern-day Hawkins) and Greene counties declared their independence from North Carolina. Their biggest beef with NC was over taxes. The hillbillies in the region simply couldn't abide paying taxes to a state government which did not spend much of those monies within their region.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/5527/wwwfranklincapitalkn3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Franklin's state capitol building in modern Greenville TN
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2361/wwwfranklincapitalinsideyf8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Interior of the capitol and seat of state government.
The following May, the counties petitioned for statehood as “Frankland” to the United States Congress. A simple majority of states favored acceptance of the petition, but it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass, even after the counties’ changed their proposed name to “Franklin” in an attempt to curry Benjamin Franklin’s and others’ favor.
One of the biggest bars to the original petition for Franklin statehood was the fact that at the time it was proposed, the infant nation was still operating under the Articles of Confederation (the Constitution wouldn't become a fact until 1789) and the Articles were silent on precisely the manner in which new states from the western territories could be formed and admitted to the Union.
In defiance of Congress which was hamstrung by the weak Articles of Confederation, Franklin survived as an independent nation for four years with its own constitution, Indian treaties and legislated system of barter in lieu of currency, though after only two years, North Carolina set up its own parallel government in the region.
See, all of the hillbillies did not go along with the new state, however, and for about four years both Franklin and North Carolina maintained separate sets of officers, courts, and worst of all , tax collectors in the disputed territory.
Finally, Franklin’s weak economy forced its governor, John Sevier, to approach the Spanish for aid. North Carolina, terrified of having a Spanish client state on its border, arrested Sevier, hauled him back to Tarheel country and threw him in irons in Morganton.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3721/wwwsevierpv3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
John Sevier, a former Revolutionary War general, Governor of Franklin and Tennessee.
The rebellious former North Carolinians in "Franklin" eventually reconciled with their North Carolina cousins when their very survival became threatened by formerly peaceful Indians in the region who were tired of the hillbillies' trepidations and raids on their villages and had decided to fight back and perhaps even wipe them out.
When war parties of Cherokee, Chickamauga and Chickasaw began to attack settlements within Franklin’s borders in 1788, it quickly rejoined North Carolina to gain its militia’s protection from attack.
One can almost imagine the sort of things Franklin's representatives had to say to the the North Carolinians when they came down from the hills and hollows and high-tailed it into North Carolina to kiss and make-up..."uh, sorry for that there ruckus over settin' up as a seperate state, but we need you fellers to peel these murderin' redskins off'n us. We'll be good if y'all will come over and help us outta this hear fix we's in":eek:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2162/wwhistoricalmarblespringsib3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Governor Sevier's house
Eight years later in 1796, the contested region was extended west to the Mississippi River and Congress granted its petition to join the Union as a state in accordance with procedures covered by the Constitution which had become the supreme law of the land in 1789.
John Sevier, by now out of the NC slammer, would serve as the new state's first governor.
Chap. XLVIL.-- An Act for the admission of the State of Tennessee into the Union.
WHEREAS by the acceptance of the deed of cession of the State of North-Carolina, Congress are bound to lay out into one or more States the territory thereby ceded to the United States:
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the whole of the territory ceded to the United Sates by the State of North-Carolina shall be one State, and that the same is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, by the name and title the State of Tennessee. That until the next general census, the said State of Tennessee shall be entitled to one Representative in the House of Representatives of the United States; and in other respects as far as they may be applicable, the laws of the United States shall extend to, and have force in the State of Tennessee, in the same manner, as if that State had originally been one of the United States.
Jonathan Dayton
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Samuel Livermore
President of the Senate, pro tempore
Approved June the first 1796
G. Washington
President of the United States
I certify that this Act did originate in the Senate. Attest Sam A. Otis Secretary
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/875/insane7zoit6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/733/wwwstateoffranklinxd2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
222 years ago on this day in 1784, several counties in western North Carolina declare their independence as the state of Franklin. The counties lay in what would eventually become Tennessee.
The previous April, the state of North Carolina had ceded its western land claims between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River to the United States Congress.
The settlers in this area, known as the Cumberland River Valley, had formed their own independent government from 1772 to 1777 and were concerned that Congress would sell the territory to Spain or France as a means of paying off some of the government’s war debt. As a result, North Carolina retracted its cession and began to organize an administration for the territory.
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/7206/wwwtiphay1lq9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Typical Franklin-area hillbilly homestead
Simultaneously, representatives from Washington, Sullivan, Spencer (modern-day Hawkins) and Greene counties declared their independence from North Carolina. Their biggest beef with NC was over taxes. The hillbillies in the region simply couldn't abide paying taxes to a state government which did not spend much of those monies within their region.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/5527/wwwfranklincapitalkn3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Franklin's state capitol building in modern Greenville TN
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2361/wwwfranklincapitalinsideyf8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Interior of the capitol and seat of state government.
The following May, the counties petitioned for statehood as “Frankland” to the United States Congress. A simple majority of states favored acceptance of the petition, but it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass, even after the counties’ changed their proposed name to “Franklin” in an attempt to curry Benjamin Franklin’s and others’ favor.
One of the biggest bars to the original petition for Franklin statehood was the fact that at the time it was proposed, the infant nation was still operating under the Articles of Confederation (the Constitution wouldn't become a fact until 1789) and the Articles were silent on precisely the manner in which new states from the western territories could be formed and admitted to the Union.
In defiance of Congress which was hamstrung by the weak Articles of Confederation, Franklin survived as an independent nation for four years with its own constitution, Indian treaties and legislated system of barter in lieu of currency, though after only two years, North Carolina set up its own parallel government in the region.
See, all of the hillbillies did not go along with the new state, however, and for about four years both Franklin and North Carolina maintained separate sets of officers, courts, and worst of all , tax collectors in the disputed territory.
Finally, Franklin’s weak economy forced its governor, John Sevier, to approach the Spanish for aid. North Carolina, terrified of having a Spanish client state on its border, arrested Sevier, hauled him back to Tarheel country and threw him in irons in Morganton.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3721/wwwsevierpv3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
John Sevier, a former Revolutionary War general, Governor of Franklin and Tennessee.
The rebellious former North Carolinians in "Franklin" eventually reconciled with their North Carolina cousins when their very survival became threatened by formerly peaceful Indians in the region who were tired of the hillbillies' trepidations and raids on their villages and had decided to fight back and perhaps even wipe them out.
When war parties of Cherokee, Chickamauga and Chickasaw began to attack settlements within Franklin’s borders in 1788, it quickly rejoined North Carolina to gain its militia’s protection from attack.
One can almost imagine the sort of things Franklin's representatives had to say to the the North Carolinians when they came down from the hills and hollows and high-tailed it into North Carolina to kiss and make-up..."uh, sorry for that there ruckus over settin' up as a seperate state, but we need you fellers to peel these murderin' redskins off'n us. We'll be good if y'all will come over and help us outta this hear fix we's in":eek:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2162/wwhistoricalmarblespringsib3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Governor Sevier's house
Eight years later in 1796, the contested region was extended west to the Mississippi River and Congress granted its petition to join the Union as a state in accordance with procedures covered by the Constitution which had become the supreme law of the land in 1789.
John Sevier, by now out of the NC slammer, would serve as the new state's first governor.
Chap. XLVIL.-- An Act for the admission of the State of Tennessee into the Union.
WHEREAS by the acceptance of the deed of cession of the State of North-Carolina, Congress are bound to lay out into one or more States the territory thereby ceded to the United States:
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the whole of the territory ceded to the United Sates by the State of North-Carolina shall be one State, and that the same is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, by the name and title the State of Tennessee. That until the next general census, the said State of Tennessee shall be entitled to one Representative in the House of Representatives of the United States; and in other respects as far as they may be applicable, the laws of the United States shall extend to, and have force in the State of Tennessee, in the same manner, as if that State had originally been one of the United States.
Jonathan Dayton
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Samuel Livermore
President of the Senate, pro tempore
Approved June the first 1796
G. Washington
President of the United States
I certify that this Act did originate in the Senate. Attest Sam A. Otis Secretary
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/875/insane7zoit6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)