of full age. When it should be ascertained that the Territory had the five thousand population, a House of Representatives was to be elected consisting of one representative for every five hundred free male inhabitants, and so on, progressively, with the number of free male inhabitants, the right of representation should increase until the number of representatives should amount to twenty-five, each representative to be elected for a term of two years.

The House of Representatives was to be a part of the General Assembly or Legislature of the Territory, which was to consist of the Governor, the Legislative Council, and the House of Representatives. The Legislative Council was to consist of five members holding office for five years, selected by Congress out of ten nominated by the House of Representatives. The General Assembly or Legislature had authority to make all the laws for the good government of the territory not repugnant to the Ordinance of

1787.

The Ordinance provided also that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory except as a punishment for crime whereof the party should have been duly convicted.

The Ordinance of 1787 was made applicable by Congress May 26, 1790, to "the Territory of the United States to the South of the River Ohio" with the exception "that no regulations made or to be made by Congress shall tend to emancipate slaves" in said. territory south of the Ohio.

Under this ordinance President Washington appointed William Blount Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs; Daniel Smith, Secretary to the Governor; David Campbell, Joseph Anderson, and John McNairy, Judges; John Sevier, Brigadier General for Washington District; James Robertson, Brigadier General for the Mero District. The Governor was authorized to appoint all military officers below the grade of Brigadier General.

The Ordinance of 1787 provided that as soon as there were five thousand free male inhabitants of full age in the territory, upon giving proof thereof to the Governor, they should receive authority with time and place to elect representatives from their counties or townships to represent them in the General Assembly Proof having been made to him that there were the requisite five thousand inhabitants of the full age in the territory, Governor Blount proceeded to carry out this provision of the Ordinance of 1787 by issuing his proclamation as follows:

PROCLAMATION

BY

WILLIAM BLOUNT,

Governor in and over the territory of the United States of America, South of the River Ohio.

AN ORDINANCE, giving authority for the election of representatives to represent the people in General Assembly.

PROOF having been made to me, that there are five thousand and upwards of free male inhabitants, of full age, in the said Territory: I DO give authority for the election of representatives to represent the people in General Assembly; and do ordain, that an election shall be held by ballot, for thirteen representatives, to represent the people for two years in General Assembly, on the third Friday and Saturday in December next, qualified as provided and required by the ordinance of Congrees, of July 13th, 1787, for the government of the territory north of the Ohio, and by free male inhabitants, of full age qualified as electors; as also provided and required by the said ordinance, of whom the electors of the counties of Washington, Hawkins, Jefferson, and Knox, shall elect two each for said counties; and the electors for the counties of Sullivan, Greene, Tennessee, Davidson and Sumner, shall elect one for each of those counties.

AND BE IT ORDAINED, That the said election for the representatives to represent the people in general assembly, shall be held at the Court houses in each county by the Sheriff thereof; and in case of his absence or inability, his deputy, or the coroner thereof, with the advice and the assistance of inspectors of the polls, in the manner and form as prescribed and directed by the laws of North Carolina, respecting the holding of electionin that State. And the said Sheriff or other officer holding the said election, is directed and required to report to the secretary's office at Knoxville, as early as may be the name or names of persons duly elected, to represent the respective counties.

Done at Knoxville, in the Territory aforesaid, this the 19th day of October 1793. WM. BLOUNT.

The election was duly held and the Territorial Legislature assembled at Knoxville February 24, 1794, and chose David Wilson Speaker, and Hopkins Lacy, Clerk. The members of the Legislature elected were: David Wilson of Sumner County; Leroy Taylor and John Tipton of Washington; George Rutherford of Sullivan; Joseph Hardin of Greene; William Cocke and Joseph McMinn of Hawkins; Alexander Kelly and John Beard of Knox; Samuel Wear and George Doherty of Jefferson; Thomas White of Davidson; James Ford of Tennessee.

The Legislature nominated the following from which five were to be selected to compose the Legislative Council: James Win

chester, William Fort, Stockley Donelson, Richard Gammon, David Russel, John Sevier, Adam Meek, John Adair, Griffith Rutherford, and Parmenas Taylor. From this number Congress selected Griffith Rutherford, John Sevier, James Winchester, Stockley Donelson, and Parmenas Taylor, and they were duly commissioned by President George Washington. George Rutherford was elected President of the Legislative Council: George Roulstone, Clerk; Christopher Shoat, Doorkeeper. So the General Assembly or Legislature of the Territory was completely organized.

The House of Representatives followed the rule of the English House of Commons in permitting a member to sit with his hat on when the House was in session.

Rule VIII of the "Rules of Decorum" provides:

"He that digresseth from the subject to fall upon the person of any member shall be suppressed by the Speaker."

The interest in education of the General Assembly in that backwoods country was very remarkable. It incorporated three colleges which, or their lineal descendants, are in existence today, viz: Greenville College in Greene County; Blount College, the progenitor of the University of Tennessee, in Knox County; and Washington College in Washington County.

CHAPTER 4.

Knoxville and Gen. James White, its Founder-The White Family.

The period covered by this book-the life of Andrew Jackson, 1767-1845-forbids any account of Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga, after they had reached the population and dimensions of cities. In 1845, the year of General Jackson's death, Knoxville had between 1,500 and 2,000 population; Nashville about 8,500; Memphis about 8,000, and Chattanooga less than one thousand. Our interest in them at that early day is as a part of the developing State, which was a little past the pioneer period; as to Knoxville and Nashville especially, the one being founded in 1791, and the other in 1780, our interest is strongly historical.

Knoxville is in Latitude 35° 56', Longitude 85° 58' and is the geographical center of the valley of East Tennessee, which contains about 9,200 square miles. The city was named for General Knox, the Secretary of War in Washington's cabinet, as was also the County of Knox in which it is located. The county was formed by ordinance of territorial Governor William Blount, from parts of Hawkins and Greene Counties in 1792. Five days after the Governor's ordinance establishing the county, he appointed fifteen Justices of the Peace to constitute the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, and the first court was held at the house of John Stone, July 16, 1792. The lawyers admitted to practice in this Court were men who afterwards became distinguished in Tennessee: Luke Bowyer, Alexander Outlaw, Archibald Roane, Hopkins Lacy, John Rhea, James Reese, and John Sevier, Jr. The Court was prompt in taking steps to open roads from Knoxville, and on January 26, 1793, commissioners were appointed to contract for the building of a log jail 16 feet square, also to erect a courthouse. The pioneer merchants were Nathaniel and James Cowan and Hugh Dunlap. Goods were brought from Philadelphia and Baltimore overland. It took Hugh Dunlap from December, 1791, to February 1st, 1792, to bring goods to Knoxville by wagon from Philadelphia.

In 1795 the United States government gave Knoxville a bimonthly mail, and George Roulstone, the publisher of the Knoxville Gazette, was the Postmaster.

The city was founded, named and laid out in 1791, but it is probable that nothing much was done in the building line until 1792, and this is usually the date given for the founding and laying out of the city. Ramsey says that some of the lots were sold in 1791, but that no considerable improvement was commenced until February, 1792, when several small buildings were erected. Some of the writers give 1792 as the date when Colonel Charles McClung surveyed the lots and laid out the town, but there is a document that would seem to settle the question in favor of 1791. This document was published in the Knoxville Gazette of December 17, 1791, and every resident of the present city will doubtless read it with intense interest, for it goes back to the very beginning of things in Knoxville, and names are attached to it that will be readily recognized. Families here can trace their ancestry to some of the signers.

"KNOXVILLE, October 3, 1791.

"Articles of agreement made and concluded on this third day of October, 1791, by and between James White, proprietor of the land laid off for the town of Knoxville, of the one part, and John Adair, Paul Cunningham, and George McNutt, commissioners appointed in behalf of the purchasers of the lots in the town of Knoxville, of the other part, all of Hawkins County, and Territory of the United States of America South of the Ohio River, WITNESSETH that the said James White do bargain and sell to the subscribers for lots in the said town, 64 lots, each containing one-half acre square, reserving 8 lots which are not to be loted for. The said town to be loted for and drawn in a fair lottery by the said commissioners in behalf of the subscribers, on the third of October aforesaid; and further, the said James White doth hereby bind himself, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns to make, or cause to be made, a good and sufficient title for each lot to the person drawing the same, as soon as payment is made, agreeable to the terms of sale of said lots. And we the commissioners aforesaid, do covenant and agree in behalf of the said purchasers, to superintend the drawing of the tickets for the said lots and that we will do equal justice between the parties, without fear or affection to any, whether present or absent, and the said James White doth agree that all the lands lying between the said town and the river, one pole in breadth along the river bank excepted and all the land between the town and the creek, as far as the southeast corner of Broad street, with a street thirty-three feet wide around the remainder of the town, shall be commons for the said town. And