University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XX

THE LURE OF SPAIN[1]—THE HAVEN OF
STATEHOOD

A STRANGE sham-battle, staged like
some scene from opéra bouffe, in the
bleak snow-storm of February, 1788, is really
the prelude to a remarkable drama of revolt
in which Sevier, Robertson, Bledsoe, and the

Cumberland stalwarts play the leading rôles.
On February 27th, incensed beyond measure
by the action of Colonel John Tipton in harboring
some of his slaves seized by the sheriff
under an execution issued by one of the North
Carolina courts, Sevier with one hundred and
fifty adherents besieged Tipton with a few of
his friends in his home on Sinking Creek. The
siege was raised at daybreak on February 29th
by the arrival of reinforcements under Colonel
Maxwell from Sullivan County; and Sevier,
who was unwilling to precipitate a conflict,
withdrew his forces after some desultory firing,
in which two men were killed and several
wounded. Soon afterward Sevier sent word
to Tipton that on condition his life be spared
he would submit to North Carolina. On this
note of tragi-comedy the State of Franklin
appeared quietly to expire. The usually
sanguine Sevier, now thoroughly chastened,
sought shelter in the distant settlements—
deeply despondent over the humiliating failure
of his plans and the even more depressing
defection of his erstwhile friends and supporters.

JOHN SEVIER (1745-1815)

From a miniature attributed to C. W. Peale, in the possession of
Mr. Daniel V. Sevier

The revolutionary designs and separatist
tendencies which he still harbored were
soon to involve him in a secret conspiracy to
give over the State of Franklin into the protection
of a foreign power.

The fame of Sevier's martial exploits and
of his bold stroke for independence had long
since gone abroad, astounding even so famous
an advocate of liberty as Patrick Henry and
winning the sympathy of the Continental Congress.
One of the most interested observers
of the progress of affairs in the State of Franklin
was Don Diego de Gardoqui, who had come
to America in the spring of 1785, bearing a commission
to the American Congress as Spanish
chargé d'affaires (Encargados de Negocios)
to the United States. In the course of his
negotiations with Jay concerning the right of
navigation of the Mississippi River, which
Spain denied to the Americans, Gardoqui was
not long in discovering the violent resentment
of the Western frontiersmen, provoked by
Jay's crass blunder in proposing that the
American republic, in return for reciprocal

foreign advantages offered by Spain, should
waive for twenty-five years her right to navigate
the Mississippi. The Cumberland traders
had already felt the heavy hand of Spain
in the confiscation of their goods at Natchez;
but thus far the leaders of the Tennessee frontiersmen
had prudently restrained the more
turbulent agitators against the Spanish policy,
fearing lest the spirit of retaliation, once
aroused, might know no bounds. Throughout
the entire region of the trans-Alleghany, a
feeling of discontent and unrest prevailed—
quite as much the result of dissatisfaction with
the central government which permitted the
wholesale restraint of trade, as of resentment
against the domination of Spain.

No sooner had the shrewd and watchful
Gardoqui, who was eager to utilize the separatist
sentiment of the western settlements in
the interest of his country, learned of Sevier's
armed insurrection against the authority of
North Carolina than he despatched an emissary
to sound the leading men of Franklin and
the Cumberland settlements in regard to an

alliance. This secret emissary was Dr. James
White, who had been appointed by the United
States Government as Superintendent of Indian
Affairs for the Southern Department on
November 29, 1786. Reporting as instructed
to Don Estevan Miró, governor of Louisiana,
White, the corrupt tool of Spain, stated concerning
his confidential mission that the leaders
of "Frankland" and "Cumberland district"
had "eagerly accepted the conditions" laid
down by Gardoqui: to take the oath of allegiance
to Spain, and to renounce all submission
or allegiance whatever to any other sovereign
or power. Satisfied by the secret advices
received, the Spanish minister reported to the
home authorities his confident belief that the
Tennessee backwoodsmen, if diplomatically
handled, would readily throw in their lot with
Spain.[2]

After the fiasco of his siege of Tipton's
home, Sevier had seized upon the renewal of
hostilities by the Cherokees as a means of regaining
his popularity. This he counted upon
doing by rallying his old comrades-in-arms

under his standard and making one of his meteoric,
whirlwind onslaughts upon their ancient
Indian foe. The victory of this erstwhile popular
hero, the beloved "Nolichucky Jack of
the Border," over the Indians at a town on the
Hiwassee "so raised him in the esteem of the
people on the frontier," reports Colonel Maxwell,
"that the people began [once more] to
flock to his standard." Inspirited by this good
turn in his fortunes, Sevier readily responded
to Dr. White's overtures.

Alarmed early in the year over the unprovoked
depredations and murders by the Indians
in several Tennessee counties and on the
Kentucky road, Sevier, Robertson, and Anthony
Bledsoe had persuaded Governor Samuel
Johnston of North Carolina to address
Gardoqui and request him to exert his influence
to prevent further acts of savage barbarity.
In letters to Governor Johnston, to
Robertson, and to Sevier, all of date April
18th, Gardoqui expressed himself in general
as being "extremely surprised to know that
there is a suspicion that the good government

of Spain is encouraging these acts of barbarity."
The letters to Robertson and Sevier,
read between the lines as suggestive reinforcements
of Spain's secret proposals, possess real
significance. The letter to Sevier contains
this dexterously expressed sentiment: "His
Majesty is very favorably inclined to give the
inhabitants of that region all the protection
that they ask for and, on my part, I shall take
very great pleasure in contributing to it on
this occasion and other occasions."

This letter, coupled with the confidential
proposals of Dr. White, furnished a convenient
opening for correspondence with the
Spaniards; and in July Sevier wrote to Gardoqui
indicating his readiness to accede to their
proposals. After secret conferences with men
who had supported him throughout the vicissitudes
of his ill-starred state, Sevier carefully
matured his plans. The remarkable letter of
great length which he wrote to Gardoqui on
September 12, 1788, reveals the conspiracy in
all its details and presents in vivid colors the
strong separatist sentiment of the day. Sevier

urgently petitions Gardoqui for the loan of a
few thousand pounds, to enable him to "make
the most expedient and necessary preparations
for defense"; and offers to repay the loan
within a short time "by sending the products
of this region to the lower ports." Upon the
vital matter of "delivering" the State of
Franklin to Spain, he forthrightly says:

Through Miró, Gardoqui was simultaneously
conducting a similar correspondence with
General James Wilkinson. The object of the
Spanish conspiracy, matured as the result of
this correspondence, was to seduce Kentucky
from her allegiance to the United States. Despite
the superficial similarity between the situation
of Franklin and Kentucky, it would
be doing Sevier and his adherents a capital

injustice to place them in the category of the
corrupt Wilkinson and the malodorous Sebastian.
Moreover, the secessionists of Franklin,
as indicated in the above letter, had
the excuse of being left virtually without
a country. On the preceding August 1st,
North Carolina had rejected the Constitution
of the United States; and the leaders
of Franklin, who were sorely aggrieved by
what they regarded as her indifference and
neglect, now felt themselves more than ever
out of the Union and wholly repudiated by
the mother state. Again, Sevier had the embittered
feeling resultant from outlawry. Because
of his course in opposing the laws and
government of North Carolina and in the killing
of several good citizens, including the
sheriff of Washington County, by his forces at
Sinking Creek, Sevier, through the action of
Governor Johnston of North Carolina, had
been attainted of high treason. Under the
heavy burden of this grave charge, he felt his
hold upon Franklin relax. Further, an atrocity
committed in the recent campaign under
Sevier's leadership—Kirk's brutal murder of
Corn Tassel, a noble old Indian, and other
chieftains, while under the protection of a flag
of truce—had placed a bar sinister across the
fair fame of this stalwart of the border. Utter
desperation thus prompted Sevier's acceptance
of Gardoqui's offer of the protection of Spain.

John Sevier's son, James, bore the letter
of September 12th to Gardoqui. By a
strangely ironic coincidence, on the very day
(October 10, 1788) that Gardoqui wrote to
Miró, recommending to the attention of Spain
Dr. White and James Sevier, the emissaries
of Franklin, with their plans and proposals,
John Sevier was arrested by Colonel Tipton
at the Widow Brown's in Washington County,
on the charge of high treason. He was handcuffed
and borne off, first to Jonesborough
and later to Morganton. But his old friends
and former comrades-in-arms, Charles and
Joseph McDowell, gave bond for his appearance
at court; and Morrison, the sheriff, who
also had fought at King's Mountain, knocked
the irons from his wrists and released him on

parole. Soon afterward a number of Sevier's
devoted friends, indignant over his arrest, rode
across the mountains to Morganton and silently
bore him away, never to be arrested
again. In November an act of pardon and
oblivion with respect to Franklin was passed
by the North Carolina Assembly. Although
Sevier was forbidden to hold office under the
state, the passage of this act automatically operated
to clear him of the alleged offense of
high treason. With affairs in Franklin taking
this turn, it is little wonder that Gardoqui
and Miró paid no further heed to Sevier's proposal
to accept the protection of Spain.
Sevier's continued agitation in behalf of the
independence of Franklin inspired Governor
Johnston with the fear that he would have to
be "proceeded against to the last extremity."
But Sevier's opposition finally subsiding, he
was pardoned, given a seat in the North Carolina
assembly, and with extraordinary consideration
honored with his former rank of brigadier-general.

When Dr. White reported to Miró that the

leaders of "Frankland" had eagerly accepted
Gardoqui's conditions for an alliance with
Spain, he categorically added: "With regard
to Cumberland district, what I have said of
Frankland applies to it with equal force and
truth." James Robertson and Anthony Bledsoe
had but recently availed themselves of the
good offices of Governor Johnston of North
Carolina in the effort to influence Gardoqui to
quiet the Creek Indians. The sagacious and
unscrupulous half breed Alexander McGillivray
had placed the Creeks under the protection
of Spain in 1784; and shortly afterward
they began to be regularly supplied with ammunition
by the Spanish authorities. At first
Spain pursued the policy of secretly encouraging
these Indians to resist the encroachments
of the Americans, while she remained
on outwardly friendly terms with the United
States. During the period of the Spanish
conspiracy, however, there is reason to believe
that Miró endeavored to keep the Indians at
peace with the borderers, as a friendly service,
intended to pave the way for the establishment
of intimate relations between Spain and the
dwellers in the trans-Alleghany. Yet his efforts
cannot have been very effective; for the
Cumberland settlements continued to suffer
from the ravages and depredations of the
Creeks, who remained "totally averse to peace,
notwithstanding they have had no cause of
offence"; and Robertson and Bledsoe reported
to Governor Caswell (June 12, 1787): "It
is certain, the Chickasaws inform us, that
Spanish traders offer a reward for scalps of
the Americans." The Indian atrocities became
so frequent that Robertson later in the
summer headed a party on the famous Coldwater
Expedition, in which he severely chastised
the marauding Indians. Aroused by the
loss of a number of chiefs and warriors at the
hands of Robertson's men, and instigated, as
was generally believed, by the Spaniards, the
Creeks then prosecuted their attacks with renewed
violence against the Cumberland settlements.

Unprotected either by the mother state or
by the national government, unable to secure

free passage to the Gulf for their products,
and sorely pressed to defend their homes, now
seriously endangered by the incessant attacks
of the Creeks, the Cumberland leaders decided
to make secret overtures to McGillivray, as
well as to communicate to Miró, through Dr.
White, their favorable inclination toward the
proposals of the one country which promised
them protection. In a letter which McGillivray
wrote to Miró (transmitted to Madrid,
June 15, 1788) in regard to the visit of Messrs.
Hackett and Ewing, two trusty messengers
sent by Robertson and Bledsoe, he reports that
the two delegates from the district of Cumberland
had not only submitted to him proposals
of peace but "had added that they would
throw themselves into the arms of His Majesty
as subjects, and that Kentucky and Cumberland
are determined to free themselves from
their dependence on Congress, because that
body can not protect either their property, or
favor their commerce, and they therefore believe
that they no longer owe obedience to a
power which is incapable of protecting them."
Commenting upon McGillivray's communication,
Miró said in his report to Madrid (June
15, 1788): "I consider as extremely interesting
the intelligence conveyed to McGillivray
by the deputies on the fermentation existing
in Kentucky, with regard to a separation from
the Union. Concerning the proposition made
to McGillivray by the inhabitants of Cumberland
to become the vassals of His Majesty, I
have refrained from returning any precise answer."

In his long letter of reply to Robertson and
Bledsoe, McGillivray agreed to make peace
between his nation, the Creeks, and the Cumberland
settlers. This letter was most favorably
received and given wide circulation
throughout the West. In a most ingratiating
reply, offering McGillivray a fine gun and a
lot in Nashville, Robertson throws out the following
broad suggestion, which he obviously
wishes McGillivray to convey to Miró: "In
all probability we cannot long remain in our
present state, and if the British or any commercial
nation who may be in possession of the

mouth of the Mississippi would furnish us with
trade, and receive our produce there cannot
be a doubt but the people on the west side of
the Appalachian mountains will open their
eyes to their real interest." Robertson actually
had the district erected out of the counties
of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee
given the name of "Miró" by the Assembly
of North Carolina in November, 1788—a significant
symbol of the desires of the Cumberland
leaders. In a letter (April 23, 1789),
Miró, who had just received letters from Robertson
(January 29th) and Daniel Smith
(March 4th) postmarked "District of Miró,"
observes: "The bearer, Fagot, a confidential
agent of Gen. Smith, informed me that the
inhabitants of Cumberland, or Miró, would ask
North Carolina for an act of separation the
following fall, and that as soon as this should
be obtained other delegates would be sent from
Cumberland to New Orleans, with the object
of placing that territory under the domination
of His Majesty. I replied to both in
general terms."[3]

Robertson, Bledsoe, and Smith were successful
in keeping secret their correspondence with
McGillivray and Miró; and few were in the
secret of Sevier's effort to deliver the State
of Franklin to Spain. Joseph Martin was
less successful in his negotiations; and a great
sensation was created throughout the Southern
colonies when a private letter from Joseph
Martin to McGillivray (November 8, 1788)
was intercepted. In this letter Martin said:
"I must beg that you write me by the first
opportunity in answer to what I am now going
to say to you. . . . I hope to do honor to
any part of the world I settle in, and am determined
to leave the United States, for reasons
that I can assign to you when we meet,
but durst not trust it to paper." The general
assembly of Georgia referred the question of
the intercepted letter to the governor of North
Carolina (January 24, 1789); and the result
was a legislative investigation into Martin's
conduct. Eleven months later, the North
Carolina assembly exonerated him. From the
correspondence of Joseph Martin and Patrick

Henry, it would appear that Martin, on
Henry's advice, had acted as a spy upon the
Spaniards, in order to discover the views of
McGillivray, to protect the exposed white
settlements from the Indians, and to fathom
the designs of the Spaniards against the United
States.[4]

The sensational disclosures of Martin's intercepted
letter had no deterrent effect upon
James Robertson in the attempted execution
of his plan for detaching the Cumberland
settlements from North Carolina. History
has taken no account of the fact that Robertson
and the inhabitants now deliberately endeavored
to secure an act of separation from
North Carolina. In the event of success, the
next move planned by the Cumberland leaders,
as we have already seen, was to send delegates
to New Orleans for the purpose of placing the
Cumberland region under the domination of
Spain.

A hitherto unknown letter, from Robertson
to (Miró), dated Nashville, September 2,
1789, proves that a convention of the people

was actually held—the first overt step looking
to an alliance with Spain. In this letter Robertson
says:

A serious obstacle to the execution of the
plans of Robertson and the other leaders of
the Cumberland settlements was the prompt

action of North Carolina. In actual conformity
with the wishes of the Western people, as
set forth in the petition of Robertson and
Hayes, their representatives, made two years
earlier,[6] the legislature of North Carolina in
December passed the second act of cession, by
which the Western territory of North Carolina
was ceded to the United States. Instead of
securing an act of separation from North
Carolina as the preparatory step to forming
what Robertson calls "a more interesting connection"
with Spain, Robertson and his associates
now found themselves and the transmontane
region which they represented flung
bodily into the arms of the United States.
Despite the unequivocal offer of the calculating
and desperate Sevier to "deliver" Franklin
to Spain, and the ingenious efforts of Robertson
and his associates to place the Cumberland
region under the domination of Spain,
the Spanish court by its temporizing policy of
evasion and indecision definitely relinquished
the ready opportunities thereby afforded, of
utilizing the powerful separatist tendencies of
Tennessee for the purpose of adding the empire
upon the Western waters to the Spanish
domain in America.

The year 1790 marks the end of an era—
the heroic age of the pioneers of the Old Southwest.
Following the acceptance of North
Carolina's deed of cession of her Western lands
to the Union (April 2, 1790) the Southwest
Territory was erected on May 26th; and William
Blount, a North Carolina gentleman of
eminence and distinction, was appointed on
June 8th to the post of governor of the territory.
Two years later (June 1, 1792) Kentucky
was admitted into the Union.

It is a remarkable and inspiring circumstance,
in testimony of the martial instincts
and unwavering loyalty of the transmontane
people, that the two men to whom the Western
country in great measure owed its preservation,
the inciting and flaming spirits of the King's
Mountain campaign, were the unopposed first
choice of the people as leaders in the trying experiment
of Statehood—John Sevier of Tennessee
and Isaac Shelby of Kentucky. Had

Franklin possessed the patient will of Kentucky,
she might well have preceded that region
into the Union. It was not, however, until
June 1, 1796, that Tennessee, after a romantic
and arduous struggle, finally passed through
the wide-flung portals into the domain of
national statehood.