"Advertisement. "This is to certify that I did rashly and inconsiderately slander Ben Northern, by slanderous words, wrongfully in a pashon, for which I am sorry and ask pardon of him the said Northern, whome I haved wronged. given under my hand this 19th Day of May 1764. Test. FREDERICK BOUSH" "Thomas Burges" In 1770 pease were not only a good edible but credible,-for Esquire Cartwright obtained credit on his debt for "30 bushels of pease." The following order contains some information relating to local matters in Davidson county and the residence of a few early settlers, which will justify its insertion here: "Davidson Court day. Tenn. 1787. "By order of Court, Robt. Cartwright is appointed to oversee the clearing out so far as from Whites Creek to Mansker's Station, the road as lately laid out by Hadon Wells & Co. and that those living at Dan Frazers, Sam Walkers, Mr. Mears and Mr. Coon's and all within sa. Bounds work thereon, under the direction of ye sd. Cartwright in clearing out the sd. Road. "Test-ANDREW EWING C.D.C.” In 1797 Mr. Cartwright obtained a license, in due form, "to distill liquor from materials of the growth or produce of the United States for the term of one month, paying the revenue of ten cents per gallon on what his said still may contain." This was under the act which caused the commotion and whisky rebellion in Western Pennsylvania and encountered the fierce opposition of the Tipton party in East Tennessee. We cannot afford to give a facsimile, but a copy of the following writ: STATE OF TENNESSEE, To any lawful ofser you are heir by Commanded to summons Daniel Frazar, John hope, Jeams Bowers Joseph Shay Wiliam Boen David Shannon. abner Johnson absalom Hooper, Ben Johnson, Nickols, John Worken John Mack farling, To apear be for Me or some Other jistis of said county To anser the Complaint of Robt. Cartwright Over sear of the rod fer Default in working on said rod given under my hand and seal This "jistis of Peace" was one of the worthiest men in Davidson county. Mr. Cartwright came on the "Adventure" with Col. Donelson. He was in company with Captain Donelson at the Clover Bottom defeat, and was enabled to escape by riding Donelson's horse. When Mansker's Station was abandoned, he removed to and remained at Eaton's. He was an industrious and useful man, a consistent Christian, an ingenious mechanic, a judicious adviser, faithful friend, and quiet and influential citizen. He has left a most worthy posterity. THE ADMISSION OF TENNESSEE INTO THE UNION. BY THE LATE NATHANIEL CROSS, APRIL, 1850. The following extract from Mr. Calhoun's speech on the slavery question, delivered in the United States Senate March 4, 1850, contains an allusion to an incident in the history of Tennessee that is new, not only to the undersigned, but to others with whom he has conversed about it. In answer to the inquiry, What shall be done with California, should she not be admitted? Mr. Calhoun says: "Remand her to the territorial condition, as was done in the case of Tennessee in the early stage of the government. Congress, in her case, had established a territorial government in the usual form, with a governor, judges, and other officers appointed by the United States. She was entitled, under the deed of cession, to be admitted to the Union as a State as soon as she had sixty thousand inhabitants. The territorial government, believing it had that number, took a census, by which it appeared it exceeded it. She then formed a constitution and applied for admission. Congress refused to admit her, on the ground that the census should be taken by the United States, and that Congress had not determined whether the territory should be formed into one or two States, as it was authorized to do under the cession. She returned quietly to her territorial condition. An act was passed to take a census by the United States, containing the provision that the territory should form one State. All afterwards was regularly conducted, and the territory admitted in due form as a State." The presumption would seem to be that Mr. Calhoun should be correct in regard to the history of the admission of Tennessee to the Union; and yet the little investigation I have been able to give to the subject since his speech has been received here would appear to lead to the contrary result, and to indicate that our State is not entitled to the credit that he gives her of "returning quietly to her territorial condition," when remanded back by Congress, if she was thus remanded; and that this example, so far from sustaining the position taken by Mr. Calhoun in regard to California, is rather against it. In Roustone's Statutes of Tennessee, pages 51, 524, 53, is an act passed July 11, 1795, at the second session of the Territorial Legislature, providing for the taking of the census of the Territory, preparatory to application for admission into the Union. The schedule, according to which the sheriffs of the counties are to make their returns, consists of six columns, to contain heads of families, free white males of 16 years and upwards, free white males under 16 years, free white females, all other free persons, and slaves; and what is remarkable, as indicating in advance something of that independent spirit that had already prompted the creation of the short-lived State of Franklin, the sheriffs and their deputies are directed to add an additional column to the schedule, containing the answers given by each free male person, 18 years of age and upward, to the following question: "Is it your wish, if upon taking the enumeration, there should prove to be less than 60,000 inhabitants, that this territory shall be admitted as a State into the federal Union with such less number, or not?" "And it shall be the duty of the sheriffs," the act goes on to say, "and of their deputies, to make due returns of the yeas and nays upon that question, to the governor; and if the number be less than 60,000, and the question be determined in the affirmative, the governor is requested to call the general assembly into session as early as may be." If the population should prove to be 60,000, the act directs that the governor shall order an election of five members from each county, to meet in convention at Knoxville, at such time as he shall judge proper, for the purpose of forming a constitution. If the population had been less than 60,000, the Territorial Legislature was to have been convened, if the people desired it; but what measures the Legislature could have taken to have brought about an admission into the Union, without the requisite number of inhabitants, is not easy to conceive; but from what was actually done, and what was contemplated to be done had the necessity occurred, as appears from the provisions of the act, it appears that there was presented, or would have been presented, a condition of things quite as anomalous as that of California. But a remarkable fact in the history of the admission of Tennessee remains to be noticed, and which proves, as before hinted, that Mr. Calhoun, unless there is some mistake in my authorities, has been very unfortunate in citing the case of Tennessee as a precedent for remanding California back to the territorial condition. And here it may be proper to state that I would not be understood as opposed to this remanding, or in favor of admitting this golden territory into the Union; only if the alternative is between admission with disunion, and remanding with union, few, I presume, would hesitate to adopt the latter. But to return to the subject. I went to the office of the Secretary of State last Saturday to see if I could verify Mr. Calhoun's statement, but found the books in the Library, as is well known, in great confusion, and in saying this I would not be understood as imputing anything like negligence to the excellent and very gentlemanly incumbent of that office; for it is next to an impossibility to keep the books in order in this present exposed locality. Though I found there the journals of Congress for the first and second sessions for 1792, and for other years, I did not succeed in finding those for 1795 and 1796. In Peters' statutes at large, however, extending from 1789 to March 3, 1795, in Vol. I., pages 491, 492, is the act of Congress admitting Tennessee into the Union, and approved June 1, 1796; but there is nowhere in Peters, in the act of 1795 or 1796, any allusion to any remanding, or any previous application, or what might certainly be, expected there, the act which Mr. Calhoun says Congress passed for taking the census in the regular manner. Again, the sheriffs under the act of the Territorial Legislature were required to make their returns to the governor by the 30th of November, 1795. The governor, it must be presumed, then ordered elections to be held in several counties, as required by the act; the members elected met in convention at Knoxville, formed a constitution, sent it on to Philadelphia, where Congress then met, with a petition to be admitted into the Union; this petition, according to Mr. Calhoun, is rejected; Tennessee remanded back to her territorial condition; an act passed by Congress to take the census anew, and the whole process of organization gone over again, it is to be presumed, as he assures us, "that all afterwards was regularly conducted, and the territory admitted as a State in due form." And yet all these things connected with the birth of our glorious State were done in Ten |