A party of men called long explored Middle Tennessee — the Cumberlanc country — in 1778. They made a clearing at Bledsoe's Lick and planted corn the following year. In 1779 James Robertson, called "the Father of Middle Tennessee,") with a number of others, settled where Nashville now is. Their families came by water, down the Holston, the Tennessee, up the Ohio and the Cumber land, a distance of a thousand miles the next spring. Several other settlements were made the same year. On 13 May 1780 each settle ment sent representatives to Nashborough where a compact of government was entered into and signed by 256 men, only one of whom was unable to sign his name. James Robert son was chosen chairman and was practically the governor of the new settlements. In 1783 the Cumberland settlements were organized into Davidson County, N. C. The county em braced all of Middle Tennessee north of Duck River. A court was established. Nash borough was changed to Nashville and was made the seat of government for the county in 1784. At that time Spain claimed Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and western Kentucky and closed the Mississippi River to the com merce of the settlers whom the Spanish treated as intruders. The Spanish supplied the In dians with arms and ammunition and incited them to acts of hostility against the whites. From the summer of 1780 to 1794 the frontier people were in constant danger, many of them, men, women and children, being killed and much property destroyed or stolen. After the cession by North Carolina and its accept ance by Congress in 1790, Robertson was made brigadier-general of the district. Governor Blount was ordered by the President to per mit no attacks on the Indians. The Spanish became angered and refused to complete a treaty for the free navigation of the Missis sippi. Robertson learned that the Spanish trad ers were buying American scalps from the In dians and were instigating raids on his peo ple. His brother, his son and many others were killed and others wounded. These last acts so incensed the whites that Robertson ordered an attack on the Cherokee towns below Chatta nooga. Five towns were destroyed and many Indians killed. Then came peace for the pio neers. The Secretary of War severely con demned this act of just retribution, which in justice so incensed the people in the West that many of them favored setting up a sepa rate government, or casting their lot with Spain. One of the first acts of North Carolina, after becoming a State of the Union, was to make to Congress a second cession of her west ern territory. This was on 25 Feb. 1790. The cession was accepted on 2 April. On 8 June President Washington commissioned William Blount governor of the Territory belonging to the United States south of the river Ohio. In 1775 an enumeration disclosed the fact that there were more than 60,000 inhabitants in the Territory. A constitutional convention was called and completed its labors 6 February and the people asked to be admitted into the Union as a State. The act admitting Tennessee was approved by Washington on 1 June 17%.
Constitutional Tennessee as al ready stated was originally the Western Terri tory recognized as belonging to North Caro lina and, during its early settlement, lived tin der the nominal jurisdiction of that province and later of that State, whose political insti tutions it was to inherit. In several instances temporary compacts were drawn up by isolated -communities until the jurisdiction of North Carolina could in fact be extended to them. The insurrectionary state of Franklin adopted the constitution which North Carolina had framed on declaring its independence in 1776.
After the cession of North Carolina's western possessions to the United States, the organic law of the land was the act of Congress for thegovernment of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, made applicable to the South west Territory by a separate act.
With this experience in constitution-making and having before them the newly-adopted Con stitution of the United States, the people of Tennessee sent their representatives to a con vention at Knoxville in 1796 to form the con stitution under which they were to live as a State of the Union so soon as Congress should recognize their demand for Statehood. Like the North Carolina constitution, it was adopted in committee and not submitted to popular vote. William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory was president of the convention and J Andrew ackson, a prominent member, is said to have suggested that' the name of the new State should be Tennessee.
The constitution of 1796 remained un changed until 1834 when another convention, with William B. Carter as chairman, met in response to a genuine popular demand for alterations that would bring the constitution in accord with growth of the State and the spirit of the times. A new instrument was drawn up and submitted for adoption to the electorate as established by it.
Amendments were adopted in 1853 and 1865 and in 1869 a convention to meet the following year was called by the legislature. John C. Brown was made president by the convention. In 1897 a proposal by the legislature to hold another election was disapproved by the voters and in 1904 a number of amendments submitted by the legislature were likewise rejected.
Aside from the inevitable constitutional evo lution through court decisions, legislative and administrative action and the changing concep tions of the people, the rapidly changing politi cal and social life of the last generation has met with no constitutional response. Previous to the Civil War, however, the naturally gradual development of the Tennessee constitution cor responded with the growth of State consti tutions generally. In length and complexity it advanced from the less than 5,000-word in strument adopted by North Carolina in 1776 to the 14,000-word constitution of 1870. The North Carolina constitution placed property qualifications on both voting and office-holding. In 1796 what amounted to manhood suffrage was established for freemen. The 1834 consti tution omitted all property qualifications but disfranchised free negroes. The 1870 consti tution contains much added detail, but few changes of general importance. The 18th cen tury declarations of the rights of individuals have continued almost unchanged to the present.
Civil and Political History.-- During the early years of Statehood the two problems of chief importance were the danger from the Indians and the settlement of land titles. The two early centres of Tennessee were far apart, divided by rough mountainous country. It was many years before one could journey from Knoxville to Nashville without crossing land in the possession of Indian tribes. Strip by strip was bought from the Indians by the United States government. The region between the Tennessee and the Mississippi rivers known as uthe Western District' was not open to white settlement until 1818; the last lands held by the Cherokees, constituting the southeastern corner of the State, were not purchased until the treaty of New Echota.