335 State of Franklin
Last week, we covered the Continental Congress’ focus on setting up some form of governance for what would be called the Northwest Territory. There were, however, other western territories whose fate was still undecided. This week, we’re going to talk about another of those western territories that was proclaimed the state of Franklin.
Land Grab
North Carolina had some basis for a land claim that reached all the way to the Mississippi River. Most of its population, however, lived near the coast. Settlers had moved as far west as the Appalachian mountains, but few had crossed those mountains into what was regarded as Cherokee Territory.
The North Carolina state legislators had a different idea. They argued that the Cherokee had given up any legal claims to the land since they had backed the British during the war. In April 1783, the legislature opened up millions of acres of western lands for the bargain price of 10 pounds per 100 acres. The money could be paid using specie certificates. These were certificates issued during the war that could be exchanged for gold or silver at some later time. Since the state did not have that specie, it offered certificate holders this land in exchange.
Part of the problem with this is that most people had already sold their certificates at a discount to speculators who had paid them pennies on the dollar. These speculators, many of whom were also legislators, or their friends and relatives, had the inside track on western land purchases. Land buyers, mostly insiders, bought up four million acres in a matter of months. The Act that permitted this quickly became known as the Land Grab Act.
Overmountain Men
At the time, all this was happening, there were already quite a few settlements in these western lands. Those who had settled there were known as the Overmountain men. These men had played a critical role, not only in keeping the Cherokee contained and not overrunning the rest of North Carolina, they had also played an important role in fighting the British, particularly at Kings Mountain.
The state owed many of these men money for their wartime service, but had not paid them, not even with those paper specie certificates that they could have used to buy western lands. Instead, the insiders were able to buy up the land before the war debts got paid.
In the spring of 1784, groups of Overmountain men petitioned the state legislature for payment of the money owed to them from the war. The easterners, of course, preferred not to pay and accused the Overmountain men of fabricating claims that would have to be paid off through higher taxes on the larger eastern population.
Land Cession
Instead, in May, 1784, the legislature shut down the land office that was selling western lands. A few weeks later, it voted to cede 29 million acres west of the Alleghenies to Congress to form new western territories. They did not do this out of the goodness of their heart. They were hoping to use thig grant to pay of debts that they owed to congress, and also to reduce the overall valuation of the state since Congress was assessing payments of debt based on the total value of the state. This gave them the additional argument that they were no longer liable for the claims made by the Overmountain men since those men were no longer part of North Carolina. This was now land controlled by Congress, and Congress should be responsible for paying off the war debts for defending it.
The legislature also voted to renege on making promised payments to the Cherokee as compensation for any claims they still had to the land. When these payments stopped, the Cherokee began attacking the frontier settlements again, killing settlers and looting property.
Since Congress had not yet accepted this land, the settlers living in the region had no government protection from either the state or Congress. They were on their own.
Jonesboro Convention
In August, local community leaders from Washington, Sullivan, and Greene counties met in Jonesboro to come up with a new government for the region. They opted to form a new state, separate from North Carolina. They would name the new state "Franklin" in honor of Benjamin Franklin.
There are no good records of the convention. The only information we have consists of documents that were written at a later time.
The delegates elected John Sevier as the convention president. I’ve discussed Sevier in earlier episodes. He was a leader among the Overmountain men. He had fought in Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774, and was a colonel of militia during the American Revolution. One of his more notable contributions was as one of the commanding officers at King’s Mountain. Most of Sevier’s combat experience came as an Indian fighter. In recent years, he had led several campaigns against the Chickamauga who were fighting under Dragging Canoe.
Sevier had also served in the North Carolina legislature during the Revolutionary War. He had grown frustrated by the Assembly’s unwillingness to protect the interests of the Overmountain men. They would not open any courthouses in the west, and provided little support for the continued fighting with the Indians on the frontier.
At the convention, several delegates made speeches for secession and forming an independent state. One delegate read from a copy of the Declaration of Independence and then explained that many of the same reasons that caused the colonies to seek independence from Britain also applied to their need to be independent of North Carolina. The delegates voted unanimously in favor of independence.
Delegates then voted on rules for holding a Constitutional Convention a few months later. They agreed to select delegates based on the size of militia companies. They also agreed to send a delegate to the Continental Congress in New York to enter into negotiations to join the union as the fourteenth state. There was also some debate about whether portions of southwestern Virginia should be included as part of the new state of Franklin.
Delegates also voted that sheriffs and tax collectors should hold any public monies already collected for North Carolina and not send the money east until a proper accounting and division of money could be made. The delegates would return home to let the people vote on new delegates for a constitutional convention that would meet in December.
Repeal of Cession
Even before the August meeting was over, officials in North Carolina were expressing concerns about what was happening. The independence movement in the west was based on North Carolina’s decision to cede these western lands to Congress. The vote to cede these lands had been a close one, with many of those on the losing side feeling very strongly that this was a mistake.
Over the summer of 1784, new delegates were elected to the North Carolina legislature. Western independence was the big issue in many campaigns. Quite a few delegates who had voted for the cession were replaced by opponents of cession.
When the new legislature met in October, both the assembly and the Senate voted to reconsider the cession of western lands and voted decisively to repeal the cession. Of course, there were no delegates from the western counties present, since they had already declared their independence.
A large minority of delegates objected to these votes on the age-old rule of “no take-backs”. As one delegate put it, “the grant by the act of cession is irrevocable on the part of the State, and therefore the repeal is disgraceful.”
There is no specific reference to the independence votes that had taken place in Jonesboro, but the delegates were likely well aware of the independence movement in the west. To help mollify the situation, the delegate voted to create a judicial district for the western counties, something they had demanded for a long time. They also voted to form the western militia into a new brigade, naming John Sevier as the new brigadier general in command of this militia.
Constitutional Convention
While the eastern part of the state was trying to undo everything and go back to being one big happy state again, the westerners were moving forward with their plans for Independence. Following elections, the western delegates met in Jonesboro again in December. Once again, they elected John Sevier to preside over the convention.
Again, the delegates voted on independence. Perhaps based on North Carolina’s decision to repeal the land cession and pass conciliatory measures for the western counties,, the vote was not unanimous this time. Even so, the vote “forming ourselves into a separate and distinct State, independent of the State of North Carolina” won the vote 28 to 15.
The convention voted on a constitution for their new state, that was quite similar to that of the North Carolina Constitution. The document began with a declaration of independence. The declaration cited North Carolina’s decision to cede their lands left them without a government. It noted the state’s failure to provide resources sufficient to keep the Indians on the frontier contented, thus resulting in threats to their communities. They also noted how far removed they were from the eastern part of the state, and separated by a mountain range.
After the declaration, came a 25 part bill of rights. It was very similar to the North Carolina Bill of Rights, calling for a government derived from the people, with separation of powers, rule of law, free elections, due process - including bail, warrants, and jury trials, the right to bear arms, fore a free press and free assembly, the right to worship God according to one’s own conscience, regular elections, a ban on emoluments and monopolies, and the right of the people through their representatives to enact laws that “encourage virtue & suppress vice and immorality.”
Following the bill of rights was the new state constitution. Once again, they borrowed very heavily from the North Carolina Constitution, setting up a Senate and House, a governor, and an independent judiciary. One important change they made was the elimination of a property requirement to vote for members of the House, and a greatly reduced property requirement to vote for the Senate. It also reduced the property requirement to be eligible to serve as governor. By and large, the constitution was the same as North Carolina’s. The westerners were not looking for a very different government, just one of their own.
This may have been more a matter of convenience, wanting to get something in place quickly. The delegates also provided that there would be a second convention a year later to decide whether to make this constitution permanent or to make amendments that the people wanted.
The New Government
Following elections under the new constitution, the new elected assembly met in March, 1785 in Jonesboro. One of their first actions was to select John Sevier as the state’s governor.
I've mentioned Sevier several time at the head if several of these conventions. But he was not a leading advocate of the independence movement. In fact, after he learned that North Carolina had repealed its land cession and offered him a commission as a brigadier general, he seemed to make efforts to have the counties rejoin North Carolina. This included trying to stop the elections.
Despite his reluctance on the issue of independence, Sevier was the most respected leader in the new state, and was elected governor. Believing it his duty to carry out the will of the people, Sevier took office and organized his administration.
The new assembly passed laws establishing that private property claims under the laws of North Carolina would continue to be respected by the Franklin government. It divided the three counties to create a total of seven counties in the new state, including Sevier county, named for the new governor. The legislature established a state militia and a public school system, appointed very government officials and allowed for the circulation of North Carolina currency. It established property taxes and poll taxes to fund the state government and established salaries for the governor and other state officials.
Perhaps the biggest issue for the new government was dealing with its neighbor, North Carolina, which refused to accept Franklin’s independence. North Carolina Governor Alexander Martin, hoping to avoid an all-out war, sent a letter to Governor Sevier, who he addressed as General Sevier.
He sent Major Samuel Henderson, who had lived on the frontier for many years to deliver the letter. Martin also wanted Henderson to give him some intelligence about what was happening. There was still some debate over whether the Franklin government had acted based on the land cession that had been repealed and might be convinced to return to North Carolina rule. Henderson also had instructions to put together a list of names of leaders of the new government and get a sense if this was the work of a few powerful men, or a more broad based movement.
Henderson arrived in Jonesboro, finding the Franklin Assembly in session. He presented his letter to Sevier, who then turned it over to the Assembly. Martin’s letter essentially said North Carolina offered the ceded territory to Congress for financial reasons that Congress was not willing to accept. Therefore, the cession was reversed and you guys are all still part of North Carolina.
The Franklin Assembly responded to the letter with one of their own, again citing the rule of “no take-backs.” They did not care if the reasons for the initial land cession weren’t right. The fact was that North Carolina had declared that these lands were not part of North Carolina and that they had every right to form their own government. The response also complained about North Carolina simply using these western counties as a place to collect tax revenue, without ever providing government services or assistance with Indian conflicts. They ended the letter by quoting their own declaration of independence and asserting that Franklin was, and would remain, an independent state.
Fight for Statehood
Governor Martin realized that the western counties were not going to submit peacefully. In April of 1785, he released a Manifesto to the people of western North Carolina that they were being led astray by designing men and that their revolt against the government of North Carolina would not be tolerated. Martin appealed to them not to abandon the North Carolina that they had fought for during the Revolution. If they had complaints about North Carolina’s rule, they could talk about reforms. Independence, however, was off the table. He called on the people to accept North Carolina’s rule, or he would be forced to do so by military force and civil war.
North Carolina printed and circulated Martin’s manifesto to the western counties. In response, Franklin Governor Sevier printed his own proclamation, calling the manifesto an attempt to spread sedition and stir up insurrection against the Franklin government.
That summer, the people of Franklin reelected Governor Sevier. The people of North Carolina replaced Governor Martin with Richard Caswell, who had also served as governor during the Revolutionary War. The new governor took a softer tone, distancing himself from Martin’s Manifesto. He did, however, write to Sevier after taking office in June, 1785, hoping they could address the western counties political concerns and restore political harmony under North Carolina’s government. He was not ready to recognize Franklin’s independence either.
Franklin’s leaders continued to press their case. That spring, they had sent William Cocke to New York to petition the Continental Congress to accept North Carolina’s cession of land and to admit Franklin as the 14th State in the Union. Cocke was the ideological father of Franklin. When Governor Sevier had waffled on the issue of independence, Cocke had convinced him to remain firmly in support of the state and to accept the governorship. Cocke was a lawyer. He owned a large plantation in Franklin, and had served in the North Carolina assembly before independence.
Knowing North Carolina’s opposition, the Continental Congress tried to table the request to accept North Carolina’s land cession, despite the repeal. Seven states voted to consider the matter. After some debate, supporters could not get the support of two-thirds of the states to adopt the resolution. Instead, they passed a resolution asking North Carolina to reconsider its repeal of the land cession.
Encouraged by the apparent support of the majority of states in the Union, the people of Franklin continued their fight for Independence. After a second annual election in the summer of 1785, a new session of the Franklin legislature met.
As the first Constitutional Convention had provided, a second constitutional convention met that fall. The Reverend Samuel Houston offered up several amendments including a ban on office holders who engaged in swearing, gambling, drunkenness, or breaking the sabbath. He also wanted a legislature of just a single house, and a rule that all laws must be printed and circulated to the public before they could be voted into law. I should mention that this Sam Houston is not related to the Sam Houston who later became governor of Tennessee and later Texas.
The convention voted down these changes, but the dispute led to a public fight, with both sides publishing pamphlets to promote their views. One pamphlet was even ordered burned by the court after finding it to be “treasonable, wicked, false, and seditious libel.” Despite the controversy, the old constitution remained largely intact.
For the next few years, Franklin continued to operate as an independent state. North Carolina never conceded independence. Like Vermont, Franklin operated as a sovereign state but was denied membership in the Union. Governor Sevier made treaties with the Cherokee, encouraged immigration from neighboring states, and helped the new state to continue to grow.
Next week, we continue the discussion of westward expansion as the Congress finalizes the treaty of Fort McIntosh and the Land Ordinance of 1785.
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Next Episode 336 Treaty of Fort McIntosh
Previous Episode 334 Land Ordinance of 1784
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Further Reading
Websites
State of Franklin: https://www.ncpedia.org/franklin-state
The True Story of the Short-Lived State of Franklin https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/true-story-short-lived-state-franklin-180964541
Keedy, Edwin R. “The Constitutions of the State of Franklin, The Indian Stream Republic, and the State of Deseret” Penn Law Review, Vol. 101 p. 516. https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7935&context=penn_law_review
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
“Constitution of the State of Franklin (1784)” American Historical Magazine, Oct. 1904.
A declaration of rights: also, the Constitution or form of government agreed to, and resolved upon, by the representatives of the freemen of the State of Frankland, elected and chosen for that particular purpose, in convention assembled, at Greenville, the 14th of November, 1785.
Arthur, John Preston Western North Carolina: A History (from 1730 to 1913), Raleigh, NC: Edward Buncombe Chapter of the DAR, 1914.
Gilmore, James R. John Sevier as a commonwealth-builder, New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1898.
Turner, Francis Marion Life of General John Sevier, New York: The Neale Publishing Co. 1910.
Williams, Samuel Cole History of the Lost State of Franklin, Johnson City, TN: Watauga Press, 1924.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Barksdale, Kevin T. The Lost State of Franklin: America's First Secession, Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2009 (borrow on archive.org).
Gerson, Noel B. Franklin, America's "Lost State", New York: Crowell-Collier Press, 1968 (borrow on archive.org).
Rigdon, John C. First Families of the Lost State of Franklin, CreateSpace, 2014.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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