BLOUNT COLLEGE 
 
 AND THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, 
 
 AN HISTORICAL ADDRKSS 
 
 ■BY- 
 
 Bdward T. Sanford, a. M
 
 m 
 
 
 ^T
 
 BLOUNT COLLEOK 
 
 AND TH E 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF TBNNESSEB 
 
 AX HISTOklCAL ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 Alumni Association and Members of the University 
 of Tennessee, 
 
 Bv Edna-'A.rd T. Sanford. A. Nl. 
 
 JUXE 12thi, 1894. 
 
 ^d&^h 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVKRSITY
 
 •^'" ■ •' b' ' r^^r^r,^ 
 
 '^- '^J'/iM/sy 
 
 Jr. 
 ^^^istant Secretar 
 
 ■H.)
 
 THE FLOWERS COLLECTION LT] 
 
 Bleunt College and the OniVeP^itiJ of Tenne^^ee. 
 
 With this present year, the University of Tennessee, 
 whose existence, under her maiden name of Blount Col- 
 lege, dates from September 10th, 1794, rounds out the 
 span of her first one hundred years. 
 
 Nature has no counterpart to that arbitrary division 
 of infinite time which man denominates a century. Or^ 
 thodox natural science, scornino- the poetic fancy of the 
 myths and traditional lore which would tell us that with 
 each recurring- one hundred years the Phoenix is born 
 ag-ain and the century-plant blooms anew, records, 
 among- all her duly authenticated phenomena, none 
 whose C3xle is a century. Nevertheless, man has made 
 the century the yard-stick with which he measures his- 
 tory, and has, by an immemorial and worthy custom, set 
 apart centennial anniversaries as historical resting- 
 places and occasions of solemn and reflective ceremonial, 
 upon which, in pleasant reminiscence and hopeful 
 augury, to recite the story of the past and read the 
 promise of the future. 
 
 The University whose days have thus lengthened 
 into five score years is a venerable and historic institu- 
 tion, and one of the few pioneer institutions that yet 
 survive within the borders of our State. 
 
 If, it is true, we compare its life of one hundred years 
 with the ages of finite time recorded in human history, 
 and the countless unrecorded ages of infinite time that 
 lie beyond those vague and measureless wastes, over 
 which, to use the words of Lowell, fancy flutters "like 
 a butterfly blown out to sea, and finds no foQthold," this 
 closing century will seem but as the single ticking of 
 a clock, that in the same instant hath both beginning 
 and ending. 
 
 Nor is our University ancient in days when compared 
 
 30225 
 
 r;^
 
 with the yet more ancient and venerable institutions of 
 learning- in Europe and this country. 
 
 The Universities of Paris an.d Bolog-na were cele- 
 brated as ancient schools centuries before America was 
 discovered: the classic Universities of Eng-land, Oxford, 
 which received the fostering" care of Alfred the Great, 
 and Cambridg-e, its scarce young-er sister, beg-in their 
 histories with the dawn of Eng-lish civilization: and are 
 rich with memories and inspiration of that which has 
 been best and hig-hest in that civilization; while among- 
 the older Universities of America, illustrious in name 
 and g-lorious in achievements. Harvard has already 
 passed the two hundred and fifty-seventh mile stone in 
 her liistor}", Yale dates her records from the birth of the 
 eig-hteenth century, and Princeton, to whom Tennessee - 
 ans owe so much, is of scarce less ancient orig-in. 
 
 Althoug-h, in contrast with these older academies the 
 University of Tennessee seems but in the first flush of 
 adolescent vig-or, nevertheless, to us who live in a civili- 
 zation that is comparatively new; in aland that hath not 
 the historic associations of ivy-mantled castles, ruined 
 battlements and the dim fretted vaults of ancient 
 cathedrals; in sig-ht, as we are to-day, of a river down 
 whose placid bosom Indian war canoes have stealthily 
 g-lided almost within the memory of living man ; 
 surrounded by wooded hillsides in which painted sav- 
 ag-es have lurked on death-dealing- mission, even since 
 this century beg-an ; an institution well deserves to be 
 termed historic and venerable, whose foundation ante- 
 dates by two years the establishment of our State 
 g-overnment, and whose early history, inseparably linked 
 with that of the infant Commonwealth and entwined 
 with memories of its illustrious pioneers, bring-s us, 
 when we read its records, into closer touch with the 
 inspiring- spirit of those brave days. 
 
 There i», I believe, nothing- more conducive to g-ood 
 citizenship, more stimulating- to patriotic love of country
 
 and a hig-h sense of civic duty, and more inspiring- to 
 true ambition, than the study of that history which 
 teaches us what manner of men our forefathers were ; 
 in what hig-h emprises they engfag-ed ; what they suf- 
 ferred, dared and achieved ; and what was their rug-g-ed 
 virtue and streng-th of character. 
 
 Our present civilization must of necessity incur the 
 dang-er that inevitably shadows all advancing- civiliza- 
 tions, that with the g-rowth of luxurious arts, tending- to 
 develop the g^races and refinements of character, there 
 is a constant and imperceptible tendency to lose the 
 strong-er, roug-her virtues developed in pioneer times ; 
 and in these days of our republic, when there are upon 
 every hand omens which can but make the thoughtful 
 citizen tremble, when, in the not distant future, the "irre- 
 pressible conflicts " which we daily seek to postpone, 
 can be postponed no long-er, and "the times that trj- 
 men's souls " shall come ag-ain, it will be well for our 
 land, and will make certain a happ}- termination of our 
 dang-ers, if, in those da3's, the citizens who will have to 
 solve those fearful problems and meet those dang-ers face 
 to face, shall be quickened by those same pioneer virtues 
 of fearless determination, rugfg-ed honesty, and unquench- 
 able love of liberty, which inspired the earh* settlers of 
 this country so valoroush' to fig-ht the g-ood fig-ht. 
 
 That disting-uished historian and erudite scholar, 
 Judg-e John Haywood, has written, in his history of our 
 State, that: "In viewing- the first settlements of Ten- 
 nessee, and those who were the principal actors in the 
 establishment of them ; in contemplating- the obstacles 
 opposed to their efforts, and the difficulties which were 
 encountered in surmounting- them ; in noticing- the expe- 
 dients resorted to for the accomplishment of their pur- 
 poses, (there) will also be evinced an important truth 
 that men, educated in poverty and almost in ig-norance 
 of literature of any sort, are yet capable of g-reat achieve- 
 ments and of actions the most hig-hly conducive to the
 
 — 6 — 
 
 prosperity and character of the nation to which they 
 belong-." 
 
 That the achievements of these men were great, our 
 present civilization bears witness ; that they were, in 
 the main, without literary education, is true ; but neither 
 must it be forg-otten, on the other hand, that John Sevier, 
 William Blount and "William Cocke, and, in fact, all the 
 g-reat pioneer leaders, except James Robertson, were 
 men of excellent education and considerable polish, 
 Governor Blount especially being- one of the most courtly 
 and cultivated g-entlemen in the entire South ; and that 
 the main body of the pioneers had received at least the 
 elementary education g-iven in the log--house country 
 schools in the lands east of the AUeg-hanies, whence 
 they had come. 
 
 Thus, Theodore Roosevelt, in his brilliant book on 
 "The Winning- of the West," invaluable to the student 
 of our pioneer history, bears testimony to the fact that 
 in examining- "numerous orig-inal drafts of petitions 
 and the like, sig-ned by hundreds of the orig-inal set- 
 tlers of Tennessee and Kentucky," he was "struck by 
 the small proportion- — not much over three or four per 
 cent, at the outside— of men who made their mark instead 
 of sig-ning-." ^ 
 
 The pioneers, let me repeat, while, in the main, not 
 cultured, were not, as a rule, illiterate. 
 
 It was in 1763 that King- Georg-e III. of England, in 
 order to allow the " savag-es to enjoy their deserts in 
 quiet lest the peltry trade should decrease," endeavored 
 to arrest the tide of civilization advancing- irresistibly 
 westward from the Atlantic seaboard, by a Royal procla- 
 mation that forbade the provincial g-overnors to g-rant 
 lands or individuals to purchase lands from the Indians 
 upon any territory lying- west of the sources of the rivers 
 
 1. The Winning of the West; by Theodore Roosevelt; vol. 1, 
 p. 180, note.
 
 — 7 — 
 
 flowing- into the Atlantic ; but vain was his proclama- 
 tion as that royal mandate by which his predecessor, 
 King- Canute, had soug-ht to stop the advancing- tide of 
 ocean. For overruling- Destin}' had decreed that " West- 
 ward the course of empire" should take "its way," and 
 that the history of the American people, for the first 
 century of their national life, should be, in the main, the 
 history of ceaseless and ever advancing- western mig-ra- 
 tion. And so it has come to pass that the royal procla- 
 mation bids fair to live in history chiefly because it 
 called forth the eloquent protest of Edward Burke in his 
 oration on Conciliation with America. " 
 
 And when, in the latter part of the eig-hteenth cen- 
 tur}', in the period of the Revolution, the g-reat turbid 
 wave of civilization swept westward over the crest of 
 the Alleg-hanies down into the beautiful valleys of South- 
 western Virg-inia and Eastern Tennessee, it had, with 
 other admixtures, one predominating- and salty element 
 that g-ave it savor, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians ; as 
 sturdy, uprig-ht, God-fearing- and intelligent a race of 
 men as history has ever known, if, withal, a little inclined 
 to narrowness, and who deserve, if any people do, to be 
 termed "the salt of the earth." These men it was who 
 constituted the dominant and principal element, the very 
 bone and sinew, of the body of settlers and home seekers 
 who came into these mountain valleys in search of per- 
 manent abiding- places, after the roving- hunters and 
 trappers who had preceded them had passed restlessly 
 onward into other forests laying- yet further westward. 
 
 Let me quote Roosevelt : "The backwoodsmen were 
 Americans b}- birth and parentag-e, and of mixed race, 
 
 2. The proclamation was dated Oct. 7, 1763. See article by 
 Charles C. Royce ou "The Cherokee Nations of Indians," in 
 annual report of the Bureau of f^thnology, 1883-4, at p. 149; also 
 article by Frederick J. Turner on '' The Significance of the Frontier 
 in American History," in the annual Report of the American His- 
 torical Association for 1893, at pp. 202 and 224; together with 
 references given in said articles.
 
 — 8 — 
 
 but the dominant strain in their blood was that of the 
 Presbyterian Irish — the Scotch-Irish as they were called. 
 Full credit has been awarded the Roundhead and the 
 Cavalier for their leadership in our history ; nor have we 
 been altog-ether blind to the deeds of the Hollander and 
 the Hug-uenot ; but it is doubtful if we have wholh' 
 realized the importance of the part played by that stern 
 and virile people, the Irish whose preachers taug-ht the 
 creed of Knox and Calvin. These Irish representatives 
 of the Covenanters were in the west almost what the 
 Puritans were in the northeast, and more than the Cava- 
 liers were in the south. Ming-led with the descendants 
 of many other races, the}' nevertheless formed the kernel 
 of the distinctive and intenseh' American stock who 
 were the pioneers of our people in their march westward, 
 the vanguard of the arm}" of fig-hting- settlers, who 
 with axe and rifle won their way from the AUeghanies 
 to the Rio Grande and Pacific." ■' 
 
 And with these men came their preachers ; not overly 
 toltrant, perhaps, or liberal in opinion, and fond of 
 preaching- what a contemporaneous writer terms "very 
 iudicious and alarming- " discourses ; but resolute, high- 
 minded, heroic men, who shared the labors and perils of 
 the settlers, " tilled their fields, rifle in hand, and fought 
 the Indians valoroush*," feeling, as has been said, "that 
 they were dispossessing- the Canaanites, and were thus 
 working- the Lord's will in preparing the land for a race 
 which the}^ believed was more truh' His chosen people 
 than was the nation which Joshua led across the Jordan." 
 
 They feared God and kept their powder dry. 
 
 These men, when the}- had come to the western set- 
 tlements, had brought with them their rifles and axes 
 across their saddle bows, and their Bibles and spelling 
 books in their saddle pockets ; for they had diligently 
 read their Bibles and they had accepted and practiced as 
 a part of their religion, with that same fervid intensity 
 
 .'5. Winiiiimof the West; \ol. 1. p. 102.
 
 X 
 
 a 
 < uJ - 
 
 5^1
 
 with which the}' performed all their relig^ious duties, the 
 words of the Wise Man : ' ' Take fast hold of instruction ; 
 let her not g-o ; for she is thy life." And so it came to 
 pass that wherever these men went the}' established a 
 church, and at the same time they built hard by a school 
 house. 
 
 And so it is that history, in its imperishable rec- 
 ords, must note the fact that the four prominent edu- 
 cators of pioneer times in Tennessee, the Reverends 
 Samuel Doak, Thomas B. Craig-head, Hezekiah Balch 
 and Samuel Carrick, were all Presbyterian ministers, 
 of Scotch-Irish descent, and all but one, to the honor of 
 Princeton be it said, having- been students at that 
 college. ■* 
 
 The first and greatest of these valiant and worthy 
 pastors, Samuel Doak, established near Jonesboro, in the 
 year 1777, a Presbyterian church, afterwards known as 
 " Salem Church" and an academy of learning, afterwards 
 known as "Washington College," which are said to 
 have been the first church and first institution of learn- 
 ing established west of the crest of the Alleghanies. ° 
 The last named, Samuel Carrick, a scholarly and ardent 
 young Pennsylvanian, who had settled in Tennessee in 
 1788, was the first pastor of the First Presbyterian 
 Church of this city, and the first President of Blount 
 College. 
 
 The early interest displayed in Tennessee in educa- 
 tional matters is the more noteworthy when contrasted 
 with the fact that North Carolina, of whose territory 
 
 4. The one exception was Samuel Carrick, who was trained at 
 Augusta Academy, Virginia, now known as Washington and Lee 
 College, which Doak also attended for a time. See the Goodspeed 
 Publishing Company's History of Tennessee, p. 414, 
 
 5. Address of John Allison before the Tennessee Press Associa- 
 tion, on " East Tennessee a Hundred Years Ago," p. 8. Monette 
 calls Doak's Academy "the first literarj' institution established in 
 the great Mississippi valley." Quoted in James Phelan's History 
 of Tennessee, p. 283.
 
 — 10 — 
 
 Tennessee was a part until the year 1790, was, before the 
 Revolution, in this respect, one of the most backward of 
 all the American colonies. 
 
 We may surmise that its colonial g-overnment, which 
 was always, I believe, of a pronounced Tory and reaction- 
 ary character, had some sympathy with the jealous fears 
 of popular education expressed in the year 1671 by Sir 
 William Berkely, the Royal Governor of Virg-inia, in the 
 words: "I thank God there are no free schools, nor 
 printing-; and I hope we shall not have these hundred 
 years; for learning has broug-ht disobedience and heresy 
 and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them 
 and libels against the best government. God keep us 
 from both." 
 
 The Tennessee mountaineers shared not, however, in 
 these views, ^ their feeling- being- rather expressed in the 
 clause proposed, it is said, by Samuel Doak, at the con- 
 vention held at Jonesboro, in 1784, to adopt a Constitu- 
 tion for the revolutionary government of Franklin, 
 which not only declared that " all kinds of useful learn- 
 ing- shall be encouraged by the commonwealth," but 
 specifically provided for the erection, near the center of 
 the State, of a university, to be endowed by an appropri- 
 ation of land and supported by public taxation, and also 
 contemplated, at a subsequent day, public grammar 
 schools in each county. ' 
 
 But although the spirit expressed in this clause did 
 not then find permanent expression,- and although the 
 
 0. Nor did the people of North Carolina themselves, as shown 
 by their prompt and effective legislation, enacted after the Revolu- 
 tion, in behalf of popular and liigher education, including the Act 
 estaljlishing the University of North Carolina, at which so many 
 distinguished sons of Tennessee have been educated. See the 
 Goodspeed History of Tennessee, p. 414. 
 
 7. Goodspeed History of Tennessee, p. 415. 
 
 8. The proposed constitution was rejected by the convention, 
 and a constitution adoptofl closely modelled after that of North 
 Carolina. See Phclan's History of Tennessee, p. 85.
 
 — 11 — 
 
 independent little g-overnraent of Franklin, scarcely large 
 enoug-.h to be termed a ship of State, was unable, even 
 with John Sevier at the helm, to weather the storms of 
 opposition that beat upon her, and foundered after four 
 3'ears of tempestuous cruising-, nevertheless the idea thus 
 expressed by Doak, that learning- is an excellent thing-, 
 and that education is the true corner stone of the State, 
 still survived, and was one of the first to find expression 
 after the Commonwealth had established its independent 
 existence. 
 
 In the year 1790, North Carolina, for the second time, 
 ceded to the United States the area now comprising- the 
 State of Tennessee, and the cession having- been accepted, 
 the United States soon thereafter created a territorial 
 g-overnment embracing- the ceded district, with the 
 imposing- name of the " Territory of the United States of 
 America South of the River Ohio," and Georg-e Wash- 
 ing-ton, then President of the United States, appointed 
 as the Territorial Governor that polished g-entleman 
 and capable statesman, William Blount. 
 
 In the fall of 1794, two j^ears after Colonel James 
 White, the orig-inal proprietor and worthy founder 
 of Knoxville, whose character is said to have won for 
 him the cog-nomen of "the just," had laid off the sixt}*- 
 four lots comprising- the orig-inal town, the Territorial 
 Assembly met in its first reg-ular session at Knoxville, 
 the session commencing-, as the clerk has recorded, with 
 "a suitable and well-adapted prayer by the Rev. Mr. 
 Carrick." ' 
 
 9. Annals of Tennessee, by J. G. M. Ramsey, p. 624. There 
 had been a preliminary session of the House of Representatives, 
 begun, at Knoxville, on the 4th Monday in Feb., 1794, at which ten 
 persons were selected, from whom Congress subsequently chose 
 five as the Legislative Council, or upper house, but no legislation 
 was enacted, and the session begun at Knoxville on Aug. 25th, 1794, 
 was the first regular session of both houses of the Assembly. See 
 Ramsey's Annals, pp. G2I-3.
 
 — 12 — 
 
 The members of that assembly- were the pick and 
 flower of the community', for people then still retained 
 the old-fashioned idea, sounding- so absurdly in these 
 enlig-htened da3's, that the people should select their best 
 and fittest men to represent them in their Leg-islative 
 bodies. 
 
 These representatives, as did their constituents, knew, 
 with a realizing- sense, the value of education, and knew 
 that in no community is it of such vital necessity as in a 
 Republic, a g-overnment that can not be safely or perma- 
 nenth' built except upon the corner stone of universal 
 education. 
 
 It may perchance also be that these leg-islators remem- 
 bered that North Carolina in ceding- Tennessee to the 
 United States had stipulated that the inhabitants of the 
 ceded territory should "enjoy all the privileg-es, benefits 
 and advantages set forth " in the ordinance of 1787, for 
 the g-overnment of the Northwest Territor}^ ; " one of 
 the articles of compact declared in this celebrated ordi- 
 nance being- in these words: " Relig-ion, Morality and 
 Knowledg-e being- necessary to g-ood g-overnment and the 
 happiness of mankind, schools and the means of educa- 
 tion shall forever be encourag-ed." '^ This, therefore, 
 is the fundamental law of our land. 
 
 And so it was that on September 3rd, the territorial 
 leg-islature, having- made provisions for its judicial sys- 
 tem and for the public revenue, g-ranted a charter to 
 Greeneville Colleg-e, whose first President was the Rev- 
 erend Hezckiah Balch, and whose centennial anniversar}^ 
 under its present name of Greeneville and Tusculum 
 Colleg-e, was celebrated but a few weeks since. 
 
 And hence it was that on the next day, William Cocke, 
 
 10. Deed of Session, cl. 4., printed in Ben Perley Poore's Char- 
 ters and Constitutions, part 2, p. lOfif); also in Haywood and Cobb's 
 Statute Laws of the State of Tennessee, vol. 2, p. 9. 
 
 11. Tlie Nortli west Ordinance, Art. III., Poore's Charters and 
 Constitutions, part 1, p. 431.
 
 — 13 — 
 
 representative from Hawkins Count}^ one of the strong-- 
 est men developed in those sturdy times, a man of great 
 natural abilit}-, and who, as orator, has had but few peers 
 in the histor}- of Tennessee, presented, as the record 
 
 shows, " a Bill for the establishment of College 
 
 in the vicinity of Knoxville, '' the blank being- subse- 
 quenth' right worthily filled with the name of the hon- 
 ored Governor, and on September 10th, 1794, the fifteenth 
 day of the first regular session of the first Territorial 
 Assembly, the bill chartering- our universit}- became a 
 law, baptising her with the name of the "President and 
 Trustees of Blount Colleg-e in the vicinity of Knoxville.'* " 
 B}^ the preamble of its charter the Colleg-e was dedi- 
 cated to the promotion of "the happiness of the people 
 at large, and especially of the rising generation" as a 
 seminar}" of education where youth might be "habit- 
 uated to an amiable, moral and virtuous conduct, and 
 accurateh' instructed in the various branches of useful 
 science, and in the principles of the ancient and modern 
 languages," and was made a non-denominational institu- 
 tion by the provision that the Trustees "shall take 
 effectual care that students of all denominations may 
 and shall be admitted to the equal advantages of a liberal 
 education, and to the emoluments and honors of the Col- 
 lege, and that they shall receive a like fair, generous and 
 equal treatment during their residence therein," a provis- 
 ion which makes Blount College the first strictly non-de- 
 nominational college established under the jurisdiction 
 of the United States, according to the authority of Col. 
 Moses White, the learned and scholarly historian of 
 our Univarsit}', whose sketch of the " Earl}'' History 
 of the University of Tennessee " is the over-flowing 
 
 12. Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, p. 623. 
 
 13. Chapter XVIII, of the Acts of the First Session of the 
 General Assembly of the Territory of the United States of Americ-a 
 South of the River Ohio, p. 89. The charter is printed in iull in^ 
 Appendix A hereto.
 
 — 14 — 
 
 well-spring" of information, from which all later searciiers 
 must drink. '* 
 
 That the legislature intended the establishment of 
 this colleg-e to be no idle ceremony, but regarded the 
 step which they were taking- as fraught with highest 
 significance to the young Commonwealth, is demon- 
 strated by the character and standing of the seventeen 
 men designated in the charter as Trustees: first, the 
 Rev. Samuel Carrick as President, "liberal, tolerant 
 and refined," than whom none was more scholarly, none 
 more worthy; then His ExceUenc}-, William Blount, Gov- 
 ernor of the Territory, afterwards one of the first two 
 United States Senators from Tennessee ; three Honor- 
 ables who were respectively the Secretar}^ of the Terri- 
 tory and its two Judges; General John Sevier, the hand- 
 somest man in the Territory, dashing Indian fighter and 
 popular hero, first Governor of Tennessee, first represent- 
 ative in Congress from the Mississippi valley, and first in 
 the hearts and memories of ever}" East Tennesseean ; 
 Colonel James White' (after which name we must write 
 an interrogation point, for there were two Colonels 
 of that name, and history leaves it doubtful whether 
 our Trustee was the James White who founded Knox- 
 ville, or James White, the representative from Davidson 
 County, although our University historian is firmly of 
 the former opinion) ; another Colonel who was a 
 representative in the Territorial Assembly ; then Colonel 
 William Cocke, he of ever grateful memory, who had 
 introduced the bill for the establishment of the College, 
 and was afterwards Blount's colleague in the Sen- 
 ate of the United States ; and nine other gentlemen 
 
 14. I Imve endeavored in every instance to give credit to Col. 
 White for information gleaned from his pages, but may in some 
 instances have forgotten the quotation marks, and therefore state 
 generally that whenever any particularly intorestinj: bit of informa- 
 tion is given concerning the early days of our University it may be 
 known to be the result of his researches.
 
 — 15 — 
 
 desig-nated in the charter as "Esquires," then without 
 official stations, yet bearing- names no less honored in the 
 community than those of their predecessors ; among- 
 whom were Archibald Roane and Willie Blount, both 
 subsequent Governors of the State, Charles McClung, 
 a prominent Knoxville pioneer, who, according to 
 Colonel W. A. Henderson, suggested the design for 
 our Great Seal of State, and George Roulstone eserv- 
 ing- of immortality as proprietor and editor of the first 
 newspaper published in Tennessee, which appeared in 
 1791, and was called " The Knoxville Gazette," although 
 it then happened to be published at Rogersville. Four 
 of these Trustees were subsequently United States Sena- 
 tors from Tennessee, and three Governors of the State. 
 
 The Collegfe beg-an operations soon thereafter in a 
 two-story wooden building erected by subscription, and 
 which, as our historian tells us, stood near the northwest 
 corner of the square upon which the First Baptist Church 
 of this city now stands, about where Yeager's drug- store 
 is now located, the entire square having- been donated to 
 the CoUeg-e by Col. James White, the founder of the 
 town. ^' 
 
 And there for many faithful years stood this modest 
 edifice, as a light house of learning- staading on the very 
 shores of civilization. 
 
 The entire population of the Territory at that time, 
 both free and slave, was less than the present population 
 of our trio of Knoxville cities. Knoxville, though the 
 capital of the Territory, was on the very outskirts of the 
 settlement, with a vast waste of wilderness separating- 
 her from the Cumberland settlements, her nearest neigh- 
 bors on the West. The town was then little more than 
 
 15. Early History of the University of Tennessee : Address 
 delivered before the Alumni Association by Moses White, Esq., in 
 1879, p. 9.
 
 — 16 — 
 
 a cluster of houses, ^* surrounding- the loop-holed and 
 palisaded block house, a fair type of those places of 
 refug-e from the Indians, which have played so impor- 
 tant a part in the history of our civilization, as it has 
 advanced on its westward way. 
 
 On all sides, were "endless leag-ues on leagues" of 
 forests, haunted with wolves, bears and "the hawk-eyed 
 and wolf-hearted Indian," and interspersed only here and 
 there with an occasional clearing, or a village surround- 
 ing- a block-house. 
 
 It was only three years before the founding- of the 
 Colleg-e that Governor Blount had held at Knoxville his 
 famous treaty with the Cherokee Indians, at which, on 
 an oak shaded knoll on the banks of the Holston, at the 
 foot of what is now called Crozier street, the forty-one 
 chiefs who were in attendance, were, in turn, with sol- 
 elmn pomp and ceremonial, presented by the master of 
 ceremoJiies to the Governor, arrayed in resplendent uni- 
 form, and as tradition relates, seated upon a dais, and at 
 which the polished Governor succeeded, through the daz- 
 zling effect of his ceremonial display, or otherwise, in 
 inducing- the Indians to agree to perpetual peace, and to 
 give up large bodies of their lands for a very trifling con- 
 sideration, the agreement of peace, however, being ap- 
 parently entered into by the Cherokees with the same 
 facility with which it was almost immediately thereafter 
 broken — by both sides. 
 
 It had been in the very year before the College was 
 established that the Rev. Mr. Carrick, its first President, 
 had been, at the imperious call of dut}^ forced to leave 
 the body of his beloved wife to be buried by a faithful 
 servant and neighborhood women, while he, with the 
 other able bodied citizens of Knoxville, shouldered his 
 rifle and marched to the top of the range of hills upon 
 
 l(j. In lfti)6, Knoxville contained about forty houses, with a 
 population of 200. Sketch of Knoxville, in W. C. CroKier's Knox- 
 ville City Directory, mn-iVI, p. 5.
 
 :=r-V^
 
 - 17 
 
 which the Knoxville Colored Colleg^e now stands, to 
 intercept the threatened attack of over a thousand 
 Creeks and Cherokees, under the leadership of John 
 Watts, the half breed Cherokee Chief, who were only 
 turned aside a few miles from the city bj- approaching- 
 daylig"ht, having- been delayed by a family named Cavet, 
 who, with unreasonable obstinacy, objected to being- 
 scalped, and in a spirit of captious and pugnacious oppo- 
 sition detained the Indians longer than had been ex- 
 pected. To this, coupled with an amiable discussion that 
 arose among the Indians as to whether or not they should 
 massacre all the inhabitants of Knoxville or onl}- the 
 men, which was somewhat protracted, may be attributed 
 the saving of the town, as its fighting- men numbered 
 only forty, and the oldest two of these had been left to 
 guard the women and children in the block-house. '^ 
 
 It was at the same session of the Territorial 
 Assembly at which Blount College was chartered, that 
 Mr. Kelley and Mr. Beard, the representatives from 
 Knox county, were granted "leave of absence to go 
 on a scout against the Indians;" and at the close of 
 the session Governor Blount, at the request of the 
 members from the Mero District, ordered a guard of 
 soldiers to accompam- them across the Cumberland 
 mountains. '* 
 
 The citizens of Knoxville and the surrounding coun- 
 try at that time, were practically frontiersmen; strong, 
 sinewy, home-spun. God-fearing men, and mainh', except 
 a few traders at Knoxville, engaged in agriculture 
 and hunting. 
 
 It is probable that few 3'ouths found time in these 
 days for an elaborate schooling or academic training, 
 being only able to give to their education the intervals 
 snatched from agricultural labors, although as we learn 
 
 17. White's Early History of the University of Tennessee, p. 9. 
 Sketch in Crozier's City Directory, 1891-'92, p. 34. 
 
 18. Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, pp. 626 and 633.
 
 — 18 — 
 
 from J. W. M. Brazeale, in his curious and moralizing" 
 book, " Life as it Is," it was not long- before the manners 
 and customs of the people underwent "a considerable 
 change and many of them began to think of becoming a 
 polished and fashionable people. School houses were 
 erected all over the country, in which the children were 
 instructed, not only in the various branches of literature, 
 but, it was the business of school-teachers, at that day, to 
 instruct the youth in the rules of politeness and morality, 
 as well as those of literature and science; and it was 
 Tare to meet with a boy of thirteen years of ag"e, who 
 w^ould not make a more g-enteel bow than is now made 
 "by our members of Cong-ress. Children at that day 
 w^ere not permitted to join in the conversation of 
 g-rown-up people, but were taught to be listeners instead 
 of talkers, and educated to respect hoary hairs, and treat 
 the aged with politeness and veneration." '" 
 
 We can easily fancy that in these country schools, the 
 emphasis was not laid too heavily on the instruction in 
 literature and science, and that this boy of thirteen 
 would probably cut a pretty poor fig-ure in the final ex- 
 aminations of our school children to-day; but yet, after 
 all, there is something- in the old time education in po- 
 liteness, and the stern drill in the rudiments of educa- 
 tion, which some old fashioned people yet think to be 
 almost as g-ood as a modern smattering- in the sciences. 
 
 We must also remember that while Blount College 
 had been liberally endowed by the Territorial Legisla- 
 ture with Trustees, it had been endowed with nothing- 
 else, the scanty revenues of the Commonwealth being 
 probably needed for the expenses of the frugal govern- 
 ment and more especially for purposes of common defence 
 against the Indians, so that when Blount Colleg-e and 
 Greeneville Colleg-e were chartered, the essential feature 
 of Doak's Franklin plan for a university, namely: that it 
 
 I'J. "Life as it Is; or Matters and Things in General." ByJ.W. 
 M. Brazeale, Knoxville (1842), p. 114.
 
 — 19 — 
 
 should be supported by public taxation, was (emitted. 
 Blount Colleg-e, neither in its beginning-, nor in its sub- 
 sequent history, at an}- time, received any grant from the 
 public revenues or an}- support from the g-overnment ; ^" 
 nor did each family contribute either one peck of corn or 
 twelve pence to its support as the citizens of New Eng-- 
 land taxed themselves to support Harvard Colleg-e; it was 
 always dependent for its support upon its tuition fees 
 and voluntary contributions. 
 
 So that, althoug-h, as our historian has g-leaned from 
 the earliest records of Blount Colleg-e, the little " Colleg-e 
 Book of Students and Accounts," made of plain, ung-lazed 
 paper, covered with a sheet of coarse wall paper, which 
 dates from 1804, the price of tuition in Blount Col- 
 leg-e was onl}^ $8.00 per session of five months, and that of 
 boarding- onl}- $25.00 per session, ^' it is probable that 
 in a community with but little accumulated wealth, even 
 this modest fee was sufficient to prevent the Colleg-e from 
 being- attended by any except the favored sons of the 
 wealthier classes living- in Knoxville and its immediate 
 vicinit}^; for we must not forg-et that the rival institutions 
 of upper East Tennessee, Greeneville Colleg-e and Wash- 
 ing-ton Colleg-e, by which latter name Doak's Academy 
 was chartered by the State of Tennessee in 1795, both of 
 which were located in the older and then more thickly 
 settled portion of the State, drew unto themselves nearly 
 all the colleg-e students from that section, and were much 
 more larg-ely attended than Blount Colleg-e. 
 
 We must not therefore fall into the error of reg-arding" 
 
 20. Thus, in 1801, the Senate of Tennessee, in answer to a peti- 
 tion from the University of North Carolina, adopted a resolution, 
 in which it is said: "Tennessee, in her present condition and 
 infant state, has not arrived at the period when her revenues will 
 even authorize a loan to patronize the seminaries of learning already 
 established within the limits of her own state." Quoted in Phe- 
 lan's History of Tennessee, p. 234. 
 
 21. Moses White's Early History of the University of Ten- 
 nessee, p. 13.
 
 — 20 — 
 
 Blount Colleg-e as an institution g-iving- a g-eneral educa- 
 tion to the mass of the people ; it was on the contrary, a 
 classical Academy for the sons of the comparatively 
 wealthy, g-iving- them a classical training- and acquaint- 
 ance with the polite and liberal arts. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that our earl}^ Leg-islators, 
 while they thus made abundant provision for the hig-her 
 learning", failed to provide at the same time for that com- 
 mon and g"eneral schooling- which is the only sure found- 
 ation upon which the higher education can be built. 
 Not until many years after Blount Colleg-e was estab- 
 lished was there any public school system whatever in 
 Tennessee, and none that was efficient until 1873, and 
 even with the system that then existed, the colleg-e and 
 its successors had no org-anic or official connection, and 
 from it derived no support. Our Leg-islators beg-an 
 their system of public education at the top, instead of 
 first laying- the sure foundations of common school edu- 
 cation. 
 
 It was this lack of an efficient common school 
 system theit up to the civil war was the greatest obstacle 
 in the way of the more wide spread influence of the various 
 colleg-es of the State, and caused them, one and all, to be, 
 more than they should have been, institutions for the edu- 
 cation solely of the more favored portion of the community. 
 It is a fact that has often been remarked, that here lies, 
 in the main, the broad distinction between education in 
 the North and in the South prior to the war ; for althoug-h 
 in New Eng-land, Harvard Colleg-e had been founded 
 before public schools were established, yet the defect was 
 almost immediately remedied, and only eleven years after- 
 wards, Massachusetts laid the foundation of an efficient 
 system of public schools which have supported the Col- 
 leg-c from that g-ood day until this ; and so in the other 
 New Eng-land States ; and so g-enerally throug-hout the 
 North. In the South it has been otherwise. 
 
 The explanation commonly g-iven for this is that the
 
 — 21 — 
 
 slave-holding- system, by which the education of a larg-e 
 class of the population was rendered impolitic and for- 
 bidden, and the education of the poorer whites thoug"ht 
 unnecessary, naturally confined education larg-ely to the 
 aristocratic and slave-owning- classes, and made these 
 ruling- classes feel it unnecessary to tax themselves for the 
 education of the rest of the community. However, there 
 is much weig-ht to be attached to another explanation:" 
 that the system of townships, as independent municipali- 
 ties, existing- in most of the Northern and especially in 
 the New Eng-land States, by furnishing- local org-aniza- 
 tions throug-h which public schools could be supported, 
 and the absence of such municipalities in the South, 
 with the more scattered character of its population, had 
 much also to do with the matter. But whatever the 
 explanation may be, the fact exists, and no one can fully 
 understand the history of hig-her education in Tennessee 
 who does not understand and remember this fact. The 
 frequent apparent failure of the hig-her education in Ten- 
 nessee to accomplish its ideals, has been larg-eh' due to 
 the lack of common schools affording- the necessary pri- 
 mary education and the source whence the Colleg-es might 
 draw their pupils. 
 
 The students of Blount Colleg-e, coming therefore 
 mainly from the leisure class, who desired an acquaint- 
 ance with the polite arts, it was but natural that its cur- 
 riculum should have been the traditional training- of the 
 old fashioned classical seminary. 
 
 We are confirmed in this surmise by the glimpse that 
 is given us in the college record of the studies pursued 
 by William E. Parker, who graduated October 18th, 1806, 
 the first and only graduate of Blount College, who 
 
 22. Given me by my scholarly friend, J. W. Caldwell, Esq., 
 with whom I have often counselled in the preparation of this 
 address, and to whom I am indebted for much kindly assistance 
 and many valuable suggestions.
 
 — 22 — 
 
 is recorded by President Carrick as having- been exam- 
 ined and approved in Virg-il, Rhetoric, Horace, Logic, 
 Geography, Greek Testament, Lucien, Mathematics, 
 Ethics and Natural Philosophy. ^^ 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Humes, in his address deliv- 
 ered at the semi-centennial Anniversary of the settlement 
 of Knoxville, has also preserved for us a picture of the 
 commencement exercises of Blount College, v^hich gives 
 us an idea of their Academic nature. They took place 
 just east of the barracks, that is, on the present court 
 house square, just about where Governor Sevier's monu- 
 ment now stands, in an unenclosed space, which was, as 
 he tells us, preserved cleanly swept by the soldiers, and 
 appropriated to the public exhibitions of the students of 
 the College. "The stag^e, erected against the wall of 
 the barracks, a room of which was devoted to the use of 
 the students who were to be speakers of the day ; the 
 citizens passing- by stately sentinels into the open area, 
 where seats were preserved for their accommodation ; the 
 silent throng standing with uncovered heads in prayer ; 
 the voice of the Reverend President commanding-, in 
 scholastic phrase, the appearance of the youthful orator, 
 and the bursts of martial music and the firing- of cannon, 
 with which the intervals of juvenile display were enli- 
 vened, all constitute," now as then, "a picture of early 
 days rich to us in novelty." '^* 
 
 That this classic Academy, however, did indispensa- 
 ble and precious work in training the minds of the rising- 
 generation, is attested by the list of its students, among 
 which appear the names, honored in East Tennessee, of 
 McClung, Hyndman, Rodgers, Campbell, Reese and 
 others, one of the first names appearing in the record 
 book being that of C. C. Clay, whom President Carrick 
 noted as giving evidence of "good genkis, orderly and 
 
 23. White's Early History of the University of Tennessee, p. 17. 
 
 24. Quoted in White's Early History of the University of Ten- 
 nessee, p. 13.
 
 — 23 — 
 
 dilig-ent," whence we are not surprised to learn that he 
 was afterwards Governor of Alabama and Senator in 
 Cong-ress from that State. ^' 
 
 But let me not pass from the history of Blount Col- 
 leg"e without noting- the fact that her record book shows 
 that for some time at least, young- women were admitted 
 as students, apparently upon equal terms with the young- 
 men, and as a matter of course, without any particular 
 to-do being- made thereat; and for the benefit of the 
 future Alumnae of the University, be it noted that the 
 first feminine names are those of Polly McClung^, Bar- 
 bara Blount, Jennie Armstrong- and Mattie and Kittie 
 Kain. '"^ Of these, Barbara Blount was the charm- 
 ing- daug-hter of the courtly Governor, who had lived for 
 sometime after he came to Knoxville upon a knoll 
 between the University and the river, which must have 
 been where the house of Dr. Dabney now stands. In 
 honor of his daug-hter the knoll was named "Barbara 
 Hill," the name being- afterwards g-iven to the entire Col- 
 leg-e Hill. It ma^' also be read that the marks of merit 
 used to indicate the standing- of the g-irls were the words : 
 "attentive," "dilig-ent" and "ing-enious," and that 
 while some of the other g-irls attained unto one or two 
 of these marks of distinction, the charming- Barbara 
 alone g-ained all the marks of merit, and was recorded as 
 not onh' "attentive," but also "dilig-ent," and also 
 "ing-enious," so that it is no wonder, as our historian 
 says, that she afterwards captured Major General Gaines 
 of the United States army. 
 
 And so passed the days of Blount Colleg-e. It was not 
 a g-reat institution ; it was not, perhaps, what we would 
 to-day call a university. But we may be certain that the 
 Rev. Mr. Carrick labored well and faithfully, and that 
 even if he did not teach these young- men and young- 
 women much science, he instructed them well in the 
 
 25. Early History of the University of Tennessee, p. 14. 
 
 26. Early History of the University of Tennessee, p. 14.
 
 — 24 — 
 
 classics, and inspired them with a love of learning- and 
 an ideal of lofty character. Blount Colleg^e was an inde- 
 pendent, thoug"h modest, academy of learning-, in which 
 the lamp of scholarship and culture was kept always 
 brig-htly burning-, shedding- its beneficent rays over many 
 a 3'oung- and ambitious student ; and so it should be 
 remembered. 
 
 And now I come to a chapter of our history, which, 
 as a son of Tennessee, I would need not be opened ; a 
 chapter, adding- nothing- to the fame of our State, in 
 which is written the story of her dealing's with our Uni- 
 versity and other of the institutions of learning- within 
 her borders ; a chapter, which, unfortunately, cannot be 
 omitted from their history. 
 
 I recite this story, not in a spirit of reproach, but of 
 reg-ret, seeking- only to find and declare the truth, and, as 
 one loving- his State, believing- that when she shall know 
 the truth, she will hasten to repair whatever of wrong- 
 may have been committed. 
 
 Prior to 1806, there had been pending- for several 
 years a leg-islative controversy between the United States 
 and Tennessee, as to the ownership of the vast domain 
 of vacant lands within the borders of the State. 
 
 In the lig-ht of to-day we would have no hesitation in 
 saying- that the United States had decidedly the better 
 arg-ument. Nevertheless, in 1806, Cong-ress, no doubt 
 larg-ely in "a spirit of compromise," but perhaps more 
 as "an act of g-race," ceded to Tennessee all the rig-ht 
 and title of the United Stiites to the lands lying within 
 the State east and north of a certain specified line, run- 
 ning- across the western part of the State, and afterwards 
 known as the Cong-rcssional Reservation Line, to take 
 effect upon the release by Tennessee of all claims to the 
 lands lying- west and south of this line. '" 
 
 27. Act of Congress, passed April 18th, 1806. 
 
 An historical note as to this controversy, giving further details
 
 llliillii'iBlii'irifl'Ji r]w
 
 — 25 — 
 
 The State of Tennessee, in the same year, by an Act 
 of Leg-islature, accepted the provisions of the Act of 
 Congress, and in the following" year the cession was duly 
 perfected b}- a written instrument executed by our Sena- 
 tors and Representatives in Cong^ress, releasing- all claims 
 of the State to the lands west and south of the reserva- 
 tion line. 
 
 By virtue of this settlement Cong^ress ceded to Ten- 
 nessee, subject to certain claims reserved under the North 
 Carolina cession, and to the ling-ering- Indian titles, all 
 the title of the United States to a magfnificent empire, 
 comprising- about the eastern two-thirds of the State, 
 reserving- to the United States about the western third. ^* 
 
 However, in thus yielding- this vast territory. Con- 
 gress, not unmindful of the solemn covenant "that 
 schools and the means of education shall forever be 
 encourag-ed," which North Carolina has made a perpetual 
 privileg-e to be enjo3'ed by the inhabitants of this soil, '^ 
 and in order to insure its faithful performance after the 
 land should have passed from the United States, had pro- 
 vided, in the Act of 1806, as one of the inseparable con- 
 ditions of the cession, that Tennessee should set apart 
 within the ceded territory one hundred thousand acres, to 
 be located in one entire tract, on land to which the Indian 
 title had been exting-uished, lying- within the limits that 
 
 as to its settlement, together with the adjustment of the claims 
 of North Carolina to perfect titles within the State, which was inter- 
 woven therewith, will be found in Appendix B. 
 
 28. For details as to the area embraced in the Congressional Res- 
 ervation, the amount of North Carolina claims afterwards satisfied 
 out of the territory east and nortla of the reservation line, and the 
 extinguishment of the Indian titles, see Appendix B. 
 
 29. Notes 10 and 11 supra; see also treatise on " Higher Educa- 
 tion in Tennessee," by Lucius S. Merriam, p. 23. This work, which 
 is published by the U. S. Bureau of Education as No. 16 in its 
 ■"Contributions to American Educational History," is a learned 
 and invaluable study, indispensable to the student of the educational 
 history of our State.
 
 — 26 — 
 
 had been reserved to the Cherokee Indians by North Car- 
 olina in 1783, which should be sold for not less than two 
 dollars an acre, and the proceeds invested for the use of 
 two colleges to be established by the Legislature, one in 
 East and one in West (now Middle) Tennessee ; with a 
 like tract for the joint use of academies to be created in 
 each county of the State. ^ 
 
 The cession act also contained the further express 
 condition, which afterwards became of deepest signi- 
 ficance to the institutions of learning, that the people 
 residing "south of French Broad and Holston and west 
 of Big Pigeon rivers, provided for by the Constitution 
 of the State of Tennessee," should be "secured in their 
 respective rights of occupancy and pre-emption" and 
 receive titles to the land claimed by them " at a price not 
 less than one dollar per acre." 
 
 Out of these two conditions, apparently in no wise 
 connected, there at once arose, by reason of a state of 
 affairs existing at the time, as to which, by an unfortu- 
 nate oversight, Congress had made no express provision, 
 a conflict of interest, dire in its results, between the col- 
 leges and academies, on the one hand, and the residents 
 south of the French Broad and Holston on the other. 
 
 And here begins a "strange eventful history;" the 
 story of these clashing interests, and the manner in 
 which the State of Tennessee did, or did not, carry into 
 effect the act of Congress ; a story which is essential to 
 a clear understanding of the subsequent history, not 
 only of our University, but of higher education through- 
 out the State. 
 
 The underlying cause of the trouble was the fact that 
 
 30. The State was also required, in issuing grants, to locate six 
 hundred and forty acres to every six square miles in the territory 
 ceded, where existing claims would allow, to "be appropriated for 
 the use of schools for the instruction of children forever." How- 
 ever, as this provision was on an entirely diflFerent basis from that 
 in reference to colleges and academies, no further reference will be 
 made thereto.
 
 — 27 — 
 
 the territory desig^nated as that in which the colleg'e and 
 academy tracts should be located, was one and the same 
 as that in which there had also been made provision for 
 the rig-hts of occupancy and pre-emption. 
 
 The two educational tracts, it will be remembered, 
 were to be located in that specific portion of the ceded 
 territory lying- within the lands reserved b}- North Car- 
 olina in 1783 for the Cherokees, to which the Indian title 
 had alread}^ been exting-uished. 
 
 This Cherokee reservation had extended so near to 
 where we are assembled to-day, that I doubt not but 
 that David with his sling- might from here have cast a 
 pebble into its bounds ; for it had embraced all that 
 expanse of country, unsurpassed in loveliness, which lies 
 spread out, in varied panorama, before the spectator look- 
 ing- southeastwardl}' from our colleg-e campus ; extending- 
 from the opposite shore of the stately river that rolls at 
 the foot of Colleg-e Hill, past the wooded hills and fertile 
 valleys, past the beautiful Chilhowee rang-e, to the very 
 cloud-capped crest of the Great Smoky Mountains ; 
 stretching- northeastwardly to the rushing- waters of the 
 Big- Pig-eon ; southwestwardh^ to the extreme limits of 
 the State. '' 
 
 This, then, was the area in which the colleg-e and 
 academy tracts were to be located. It was a rich domain, 
 lying- south and east of the French Broad and Tennessee 
 rivers, and extending^ from the Big- Pig-eon to the Little 
 
 31. This " reservation," by which North Carolina, in violation 
 of her treaty of 1777 and her act of 1778, attempted to greatly nar- 
 row the Indian boundaries, without so much as saying " by your 
 leave," had included, in addition to lands in the western part of 
 North Carolina," the entire southeastern portion of the present State 
 of Tennessee, lying west of the Big Pigeon river, south of the French 
 Broad, and south and east of the Tennessee, from its junction with 
 the French Broad above Knoxville, to the southern boundary of the 
 State. Acts of North Carolina, 1783, ch. 2, sec. 3. 
 
 An historical note as to the legislation and treaties of North Car- 
 olina, the United States and the government of Franklin in regard 
 to the Indian boundary line, will be found in Appendix C.
 
 — 28 — 
 
 Tennessee, containing- perhaps eig-ht hundred thousand 
 acres, with many rich lowlands and fertile valley's. At 
 least one-half of its entire acreag-e was peculiarly well 
 adapted for cultivation, embracing- some of the most fer- 
 tile lands in the State, while the remainder was, in the 
 main, mountain land unsuited for farming-, thoug-h rich 
 in every mineral wealth. " 
 
 And now as to the residents in this territory south of 
 French Broad and Holston. How came they in this 
 reg-ion ? What were their rig-hts of pre-emption and 
 occupancy ? and how were these rig-hts acquired ? 
 
 As early as 1777, by that treaty near the Long- Island 
 of the Holston, by which North Carolina had conceded 
 to the Cherokees nearly all that portion of Tennessee 
 lying- southwest of Jonesboro, a concession which was 
 confirmed by solemn leg-islative enactment in the follow- 
 ing- year, and emphasized, as to this territory, by the 
 "reservation" of 1783, this fair reg-ion has been within 
 the limits of the Cherokee hunting- g-round, in which the 
 whites were forbidden to settle or in any manner intrude. 
 
 Nevertheless, unfortunately for the institutions of 
 learning-, so fair had been this rich g-arden, so inviting- 
 its valleys, so enticing- its prospects, that in spite of 
 treaties and leg-islative prohibitions and the hundred-fold 
 greeiter perils from the Indians, its charms had proven 
 an irresistible attraction to an army of settlers, who had 
 invaded this territory, encroaching- farther and farther 
 upon the Indians, conquering the soil from them, acre by 
 acre, at the cost of countless privations, often, indeed, of 
 life itself. 
 
 32. This area embraced the greater part of the present county 
 of Blount, most of Sevier, and portions of Loudon, Knox, Jefferson 
 and Cocke counties. It is the section known in our State legisla- 
 tion as the district south of the Frencli Broad and Holston. 
 
 The estimate of the proportion of arable lauds was given me by 
 Gen. .1. C. J. Williams, who is thoroughly acquainted with this 
 section of country.
 
 — 29 — 
 
 In vain had the Congress of the Confederation, in. 
 1785, by the treaty at Hopewell, ag-ain declared this 
 region to be within the Indian boundaries, and that all 
 settlers should "forfeit the protection of the United 
 States" and be subject to punishment by the Indians. 
 Kncourag-ed by the revolutionar}' g-overnment of Frank- 
 lin, "whose leaders stood distinctly for the idea of en- 
 croachment,"^^ and whose two quasi treaties of Dumplin 
 Creek and Chota Ford, althoug^h never recog^nized by 
 North Carolina, and repudiated by the United States, 
 afforded, perchance, some moral, if not leg"al, justifica- 
 tion for the settlements made on the faith of those treaties 
 before the provisions of the treaty of Hopewell became 
 known, the settlers steadily extended their possessions, 
 moving- their habitations ever farther and farther south- 
 ward, nearer and nearer to the Cherokee towns that lay 
 along- the southern banks of the Little Tennessee. 
 
 In vain did Cong-ress, in 1788, issue a proclamation 
 forbidding- all intrusions upon this territory and enjoining- 
 the departure of persons alread}' there. Equally inef- 
 fectual were the threats and ravag-es of the exasperated 
 Indians, who continual!}- complained as the settlements 
 constantly- encroached upon their hunting- g-rounds, and 
 took sullen reveng-e upon these settlers and other whites 
 as well, in marauding- attacks and midnig-ht slaug-hter. 
 
 Nor did the stringent provisions ag-ainst new en- 
 croachments contained in the treaty of the Holston, by 
 which, in 1791, Governor Blount succeeded in extin- 
 g-uishing- the Indian title to the lands north of ISIaryville, 
 prove more effective. 
 
 Still the boundary was overleaped ; still the invasion 
 continued southward, and it was not until the treatv held 
 
 33. Quoted from a valuable paper by Prof. Stephen B. Weeks 
 on " General Joseph Martin and the War of the Revolution in the 
 West," printed in the Annual Report of the American Historical 
 Association for 1893, p. 444.
 
 — Se- 
 near Tellico in 1798 that the large number of settlers 
 who had taken up lands southwest of Maryville, in the 
 forks of the Tennessee and Little Tennessee rivers, 
 ceased to be within the Cherokee boundaries/' 
 
 Such was the nature of the settlements south of the 
 French Broad and Holston. 
 
 It is not my purpose to-day, however, to pass moral 
 judgment as to the right and the wrong in the conflict 
 between the settlers and the Indians ; perhaps this would 
 be impossible, from the lack now of sufficient data upon 
 which to base such judgment. There was undoubtedly 
 much of right, much of wrong, on both sides. 
 
 While it is impossible to excuse the constant violations 
 of treaties, yet when I remember that these settlers were, 
 in the main, honest men, seeking homes for themselves 
 and their families, I cannot but feel that the original 
 wrong had been done — a wrong not only to these settlers, 
 but to Civilization — when in deference to a highly tech- 
 nical legal fiction, it had been conceded, in the first 
 instance, that the Indians had gained a title, which 
 others were bound to respect, to vast areas of land out- 
 side of their actual habitations and improvements, simply 
 by roving over them in their hunting, fishing and warring 
 expeditions, and that they were entitled to reserve these 
 domains for these purposes, to the exclusion of home- 
 seekers and tillers of the soil — a legal fiction which, in 
 that inevitable conflict between Civilization and Savagery, 
 in which Civilization shall ever prevail, should yield to the 
 claims of those who desire to take up their habitations 
 upon the land, to cultivate and improve it. ^^ Hunting 
 grounds must ever give way to homes. 
 
 I can well understand that these men felt, as they 
 
 34. See as to these various treaties and enactments, historical 
 note, Appendix C. 
 
 35. Since the whites had begun to settle in this section of the 
 country, the Cherokees had had no towns or fixed habitations north 
 of the Little Tennessee river.
 
 — 31 — 
 
 g-azed upon this fair land from which it was soug^ht to 
 exclude them, that they had, by hast}- pens, been cheated 
 out of that which had been their birthright. 
 
 But whatever the merits of the struggle between set- 
 tlers and Indians, certain it is that as to other citizens of 
 the State the settlers had earned a prior right to these 
 lands. Every acre had been "cleared by the axe and 
 held b}^ the rifle," those "two national weapons of the 
 American backwoodsman, in whose use he has never 
 been excelled ; " ever}^ acre had been bought with drops 
 of blood. 
 
 And hence, it was but just and fitting that when 
 those lands were freed from the Indian title, and became 
 subject to lawful disposition, the State, in putting them 
 upon the market, should officially recognize this prior 
 claim and give the settlers that same right of preference 
 which North Carolina had in 1777 given to the actual 
 occupant of the soil in selling her western lands, ^* and 
 which has since been recognized both by Tennessee and 
 the United States in every disposition made of any body 
 of their public lands," the right, in legal parlance, of pre- 
 emption, or literally, of prior purchase, that is, the right 
 of the occupant who has settled upon land before the Gov- 
 ernment has made it subject to purchase, to be given a 
 first chance to buy it upon the terms prescribed, when it 
 is put upon the market. 
 
 So manifestly had the settlers south of the rivers 
 earned, by sweat and blood, a prior claim to the fields 
 which they had cleared, and the cabins which they had 
 
 36. North Carolina Acts of 1777, 2nd sess., chap. I, sec. 16; 
 Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 16. See also North Carolina Acts, 1782, ch. 
 3; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 259. 
 
 37. See, as to Tennessee, report of the Select Committee on 
 Ocoee District, October 30, 1837. (House Journal, 1837-8, p. 803.) 
 Thomas H. Benton says, speaking of the land lawb of the United 
 States : " The pre-emption system was established, though at first 
 the pre-emption claimant was stigmatized as a trespasser and 
 repulsed as a criminal."
 
 — 32 — 
 
 raised and g-uarded, that it is little wonder it had been 
 provided as one of the fundamental "Declaration of 
 Rig-hts " in the Constitution of 1796, under which Ten- 
 nessee was admitted into the Union, that the}^ were 
 entitled to the rig-ht of pre-emption in the territory 
 which they occupied. ^® 
 
 And so it was that in 1806, no disposition having- as 
 yet been made of these lands, no title vested in the 
 settlers, no payment made by them to either State or 
 National Government,^' Cong-ress by that same cession 
 Act, in which it had required the colleg-e and academy 
 tracts to be located in the territory south of French 
 Broad and Holston, had also provided that the settlers 
 should be secured in their pre-emption rig-hts and receive 
 titles to their occupant claims, at not less than one 
 dollar an acre. 
 
 And now there fell upon the State the double duty of 
 
 38. Tennessee Constitution of 1796, Declaration of Rights^ 
 Article XL, sec. 38: "That the people residing south of French 
 Broad and Holston, between the rivers (Little) Tennessee and the 
 Big Pigeon, are entitled to the rights of pre-emption and occupancy 
 in that tract." 
 
 North Carolina had previously, in her Act ceding Tennessee to 
 the United States, reserved the right of the General Assembly 
 passing the Act to open an office for the entry of pre-emptions by 
 the people then "residing south of the French Broad, between 
 the rivers (Little) Tennessee and Pigeon," but the Assembly seems 
 to have adjourned without opening the office. (North Carolina 
 Acts, 1789, chap. 3, sec. 1, sub-sec. 10; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 408.) 
 
 39. There were some instances entirely distinct from the occu- 
 pant claims, in which persons had paid for and obtained grants 
 from North Carolina for lands lying south of French Broad and 
 Holston, but the Tennessee Legislature made provision for such 
 persons by providing that other grants should issue to them, 
 instead, in other parts of the State. (Acts of 1806, ch. 1, sec. 27; 
 Whitney's Land Laws, p. 131 ; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 901.) 
 
 See historical note. Appendix D, for various Tennessee enact- 
 ments, from 1799 to 1805, inclusive, in reference to the occupant 
 claims south of the French Broad and Holston.
 
 — 33 — 
 
 setting- apart within this territory the two educational 
 tracts which were to be sold for not less than two dollars 
 an acre, and the preservation of the pre-emption rig-hts 
 of the occupants at not less than one dollar an acre. 
 The task of the State would have been easy of perform- 
 ance had it not been for the one fact, so disastrous in its 
 results to our institutions of learning-, so injurious to the 
 cause of hig-her education in Tennessee, that, already 
 in 1806, so thickh^ had this reg-ion been settled that it 
 was impossible to lay off two tracts of one hundred 
 thousand acres which should not include lands already 
 occupied, and, in fact, be largely composed of them. " 
 
 It being thus inexorably demanded b}' the logic of 
 the situation that the colleg-e and academy tracts should 
 be chief!}" composed of occupant lands, the question of 
 the price which the State should fix upon them became 
 one of vital importance to the institutions of learning-, 
 for on this would mainl}^ depend the amount which they 
 would receive from their respective funds. 
 
 Cong-ress, it will be remembered, had merel}^ fixed a 
 minimum of one dollar per acre on the occupant lands. *' 
 No legislation, either State or National, had ever defi- 
 nitely determined the price to be charg-ed ; this was now 
 the task of the State. 
 
 Complicating the situation was the fact that the min- 
 
 40. In a report made to the Tennessee Legislature, November 
 Ist, 1821, by the Committee on Education, it is stated that this 
 territory was "already in the possession of occupants." (Printed 
 in Nile's Weekly Register, vol. 21. p. 299.) Merriam says that all 
 of this land which was fit for cultivation, and to which the Indian 
 title had been extinguished, had been settled prior to 1806. (Higher 
 Education in Tennessee, p. 39.) 
 
 We may be certain that as the Act of Congress allowed pre- 
 emptions of 640 acres to each occupant, not exceeding his previous 
 claim, the la'ger part of the arable land in this district was 
 already subject to pre emption claims in 1806. 
 
 41. Mprriam, usually very accurate, erroneously states that the 
 Act provided that these land-» shou d be sold at not "more " than 
 one dollar per acre. (History of Higher Education, p. 38.)
 
 — 34 — 
 
 imum of two dollars an acre, placed by Congress upon 
 the collegfe and academy tracts, was an unusually hig-h 
 price in those days ; in fact, it is doubtful if much of 
 the lands could have been then sold at that rate. Even 
 one dollar per acre was, g-enerallv speaking-, a hig-h 
 price. *' 
 
 It was also manifest that Cong-ress had not had in 
 mind the conting-encv that the educational tracts would 
 include the occupant lands, and had expected that the 
 occupants would receive their lands at a less price than 
 the minimum fixed upon the colleg-e and academy tracts ; 
 otherwise the difference in the two provisions was mean- 
 ing-less. 
 
 To discharg-e the trust confided in the State with 
 equal justice to all, and with due reg-ard to all conflict- 
 ing- equities, became now a task of no little delicacy and 
 difficulty. As that charming- and diplomatic old knig-ht, 
 Sir Rog-er de Coverlev, used to say, when called upon to 
 settle a dispute between his neig-hbors, "much might be 
 said on both sides." 
 
 However, in view of the extreme hardship which 
 would have resulted to the settlers from strict, literal 
 
 42. In the report of the Committee on Education, cited in note 
 40 supra, it is stated that in 1806 one dollar per acre " was consid- 
 ered a high average price." 
 
 Up to this time no public land had ever been sold in Tennessee 
 at more than fifty cents an acre. The price fixed by the North 
 Carolina Act in 1777 was twenty-five cents. (North Carolina Acts 
 of 1777, 2nd sess., chap. 1, sec. 4; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 159.) 
 The Act of 178.'} fixed fifty cents an acre, payable in specie certifi- 
 cates, etc. (North Carolina Acts of 1783, chap. 2, sec. 10; Scott's 
 Laws, p. 2()9), and by the cession Act of 1800, Congress had author- 
 ized Tennessee to perfect titles based on warrants issued under this 
 Act to countless acres in the State. 
 
 When, in 1791), Tennessee had contemplated opening her own 
 land offices, she had fixed the price of lands at twenty-five cents 
 an acre. (Acts of 1799, ch. 24; Scott's Laws, vol. 2, p. 264.) 
 
 The public lands of the United States were, however, at that 
 time selling at two dollars an acre.
 
 — 35 — 
 
 compliance with the terms of cession, " and the grave 
 doubt whether the lands could have been sold at the price 
 fixed for many years, it cannot be denied that the State, 
 being- thus confronted with a condition of affairs for 
 which no express provision had been made, was justified 
 in departing from the letter of the cession, provided she 
 should in some other manner g"ive effect to its spirit and 
 provide for the objects to be attained. 
 
 The course, however, which was adopted by the 
 Legislature, was extraordinary, and without apparent 
 justification, even if somewhat palliated by tardy and 
 partial efforts at compensation made in later 3'ears. For 
 on the very day on which the Legislature accepted the 
 Act of Congress and solemnly enacted that "the provis- 
 ions thereof be carried into effect," it directed that the 
 colleg^e and academy tracts should be located "in such 
 manner and in such places" as to contain, respectively, 
 ■one hundred thousand acres of land "actually' claimed 
 b}' occupanc}', or fit for cultivation and improvement," 
 and provided that the occupant claimants of lands, 
 including those within these two tracts, should receive 
 grants for their lands at the rate of one dollar for each 
 acre, payable in ten annual installments, without inter- 
 est, beginning in 1808. All the remainder of the land 
 in the district south of French Broad and Holston, Iving 
 
 43. To have fixed the price of all the lands in the district at 
 two dollars an acre would have been an unnecessary hardship on 
 all the settlers ; to have fixed it at two dollars within the college 
 and academy tracts, and at one dollar outside of these two tracts, 
 would have been, in addition, great injustice as between the settlers 
 within these tracts and those outside. It was furthermore imprac- 
 ticable to have fixed the price of the occupant lands at one dollar, 
 and then to have laid off the college and academy tracts in scat- 
 tered parcels, aggregating 200,000 acres ; for even if so much 
 unoccupied lands could have been found, it would have been 
 impossible to sell them for anything like two dollars an acre, the 
 lands already taken up by the occupants constituting, undoubtedly, 
 far the most valuable portions, at least for farming, practically the 
 only purpose for which land had a value in those days.
 
 — 36 — 
 
 outside of the two educational tracts, was reserved to 
 the State and to be sold for her own use and benefit ; no 
 provision was made for the sale of any lands in the dis- 
 trict other than those claimed by occupants. " 
 
 The Leg-islature thus provided for the sale of only 
 such part of the educational tracts as was claimed by 
 occupants, and for the sale of this part at one-half of 
 the minimum price fixed by Cong-ress and upon long- 
 time, retaining- unto herself all the remainder of the 
 district. Thus, at one stroke, the colleg-e and academy 
 fund was cut down to less than one-half. There is, as I 
 have said, no apparent justification for this leg-islation. 
 
 The State had, under the Cong-ressional cession, 
 received title to a vast area of land to which its previous 
 claim had been, to say the least, of doubtful validity ; 
 and having- received the benefits of the cession, it had 
 become bound, not only legally, but morally, to faith- 
 fully discharg-e every oblig-ation and trust imposed upon 
 it as a condition of the cession. 
 
 While it must be conceded that the State had a right, 
 at least morally, to vary the details by which the pro- 
 visions of the cession were to be carried out, still in 
 varying- those details she was bound to do so in such 
 manner as to accornplish the purpose of the cession. 
 She mig-ht depart from the letter, but the spirit she was 
 under solemn oblig-ation to fulfill. 
 
 The object and purpose of Cong-ress had been to pro- 
 vide from the sale of these lands south of the French 
 Broad and Holston a fund of four hundred thousand 
 dollars for the use of the coUeg-es and academies. 
 Whatever the details by which this was to be done, this 
 
 44. Acts of 1806, chap. 2, passed September 6, 180G; Whitney's 
 Land Laws of Tennessee, p. 341 ; Eldward Scott's Laws of the 
 State of Tennessee, vol. 1, p. 915. It was not until 1819 that the 
 lands in the district sonth of French Broad and Holston were 
 opened to genera! ])nrciiase by others than occupants, and then at 
 the price of fifty cents an acre.

 
 — 37 — 
 
 was the object soug"ht. The State received the land 
 charged with this trust. If, out of sympathy for the 
 settlers or from practical difficulties, she chose to depart 
 from the method of compliance provided, to the detri- 
 ment of the colleges and academies, she was bound to 
 make good to them its provisions in some other way ; 
 otherwise it was her duty strictly to enforce the Act. 
 She did not have the right to be charitable to the settlers 
 at the expense of the institutions of learning ; the char- 
 ities of a State, like those of an individual, should be 
 paid out of her own pocket. 
 
 Especially was this true when, under the terms of 
 this same cession, the State had received a large acreage 
 of land in this very district south of French Broad and 
 Holston ample to have satisfied the claims of the insti- 
 tutions of learning, as well as of the settlers, to say 
 nothing of the vast area which the State received out- 
 side of this district, of which she retained the benefit. 
 
 View the matter in what light we will, we are com- 
 pelled to the conclusion that the State had no right, either 
 legal or moral, to sell a single acre within the college 
 and academy tracts at less than two dollars an acre, 
 unless she at the same time set apart for the colleges 
 and academies such an amount of the land out of the 
 territory ceded her as was necessary, at whatever price 
 she might fix upon it, to realize the fund intended for 
 colleges and academies. 
 
 A simple and just solution of all the difficulty would 
 have been to fix the price of all lands in the district 
 south of French Broad and Holston at one dollar an 
 acre, and to have made the college and academ}' tracts 
 each consist of two hundred thousand acres instead of 
 one hundred thousand acres. ^' 
 
 I have thus far dealt generally with this subject. I 
 now come to that time when the State legislation begins 
 to affect specifically the fortunes of our own University. 
 
 45. See Merriara's Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 38. 
 
 '302237
 
 — 38 — 
 
 The prospect of g-overnraent aid had been most entic- 
 ing". Small wonder it is that the General Assembly, 
 after its acceptance of the cession, received memorials 
 and petitions from the people of various counties and 
 each of the colleges in East Tennessee, praying for the 
 establishment of the eastern college. Blount county 
 sought its location at Maryville ; Hawkins county at 
 Rogersville ; and Greeneville College also desired the 
 fund.^'' 
 
 And so the trustees of Blount Colleg^e, allured by the 
 glittering rainbow of promise, were constrained to agree, 
 by a resolution unanimously adopted, that if the Legis- 
 lature would establish the eastern college within two 
 miles of Knoxville they would surrender their corporate 
 existence and transfer their funds to it. *' 
 
 To the trustees of Blount Colleg-e, which had de- 
 pended for so many years upon the uncertain assistance 
 of the public, the assured support thus guaranteed, in 
 spite of the diminution of the fund, must have seemed a 
 vision as g^rateful as the green oasis to the desert traveler; 
 and it is not surprising that they were easily deceived 
 by a mirag-e and found the prospect that at first seemed 
 so fair and beautiful, as the}^ hastened toward it, g^radu- 
 ally vanish into nothing^ness. 
 
 The Leg"islature accepted the proposition of the 
 Blount College trustees, and in 1807 chartered the new 
 college under the name of the "President and Trustees 
 of the East Tennessee Colleg-e ; " endowed it with that 
 part of the Congressional fund designed for East Ten- 
 nessee ; appointed thirty trustees, of whom Archibald 
 Roane and John Sevier had been in the original board ; 
 repealed the charter of Blount College ; transferred to 
 the East Tennessee College all its corporate funds, prop- 
 
 46. The Goodspeed History of Tennessee, p. 418. 
 
 47. White's Early History of the University, p. 15; see also 
 recitals in chap. 78, Acts of 1807, sec. 3; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 
 1061.
 
 — 39 — 
 
 erty and effects, thus merg-ing- the two into one ; and 
 located the new college "on ten acres of land within 
 two miles of Knoxville, conve^'ed in trust for the use of 
 said college by Moses White, at a place called the Rocky 
 or Poplar Spring," which was near the old Branner 
 residence in Shieldstown ; providing, however, that the 
 buildings of Blount College should be temporarily used 
 and that its trustees should remain in control of affairs 
 until the new trustees mig-ht take charg-e. *^ 
 
 At the same time the Leg-islature also beg"an with a 
 flourish of trumpets to provide for the care of the fund 
 to be realized for the support of the colleges, and ap- 
 pointed a commission of six, among- whom were James 
 Park and John Overton, to superintend its management 
 and investment. " 
 
 The next vear, the Trustees of Kast Tennessee Col- 
 lege met and organized, retaining the Rev. Mr. Carrick 
 as president. '■"^ 
 
 And here, saith our Chronicler, feminine names dis- 
 appear from the college record. 
 
 During this year Mr. Carrick was stricken with parah- 
 sis, and passed into his well-earned rest, dying when the 
 new college was in the first flush of hopeful anticipation, 
 before the dark days of disappointment had come. He 
 now sleeps beneath the m3-rtle and the elms in the his- 
 toric graveyard of the First Presbyterian Church of this 
 cit3% where also rest William Blount and James White, 
 with the mysterious and unexplained inscription upon 
 his head-stone: "Samuel C. Z. R. Carrick," the three 
 intermediate letters not being", so far as history shows, 
 a part of his name. His head-stone recites that he first 
 planted the Presbyterian religion in the wilds of Ten- 
 
 48. Chap. 64, Acts of 1807, passed October 26, 1807, and chap. 
 78, Acts of 1807, passed December 3, 1807. These two Acts are 
 printed in full in Appendix E and F, respectively. 
 
 49. Appendix E, Sec. 2. 
 
 50. White's Early History of the University, p. 16.
 
 — 40 — 
 
 nessee, that he was the founder and first pastor of the 
 First Presbyterian Church of this city, and the first 
 president of Kast Tennessee Colleg-e, and bears the ap- 
 propriate lines : "Truly the last end of the g-ood man is 
 Peace. How calm his exit ! Nig-ht dews fall not more 
 g-ently to the g-round ; Nor weary, worn out winds expire 
 so soft."*^ 
 
 From this time until after the Civil War the history 
 of the Colleg-e is a story of strug-g-le and repeated disap- 
 pointment ; of heroic effort on the part of successive 
 presidents, conspicuous among- whom are Sherman, 
 Coffin, Estabrook and Cook ; of alternating- periods of 
 advance and retreat. 
 
 Yet in spite of obstacles and disappointments the 
 coUeg-e, conscious of its hig-h mission, kept ever bravely 
 onward. The record of those days is, on the whole, one 
 of triumph, for it shows that the lig-ht of the hig-her 
 learning- can never be entirely exting-uished, and that, 
 thoug-h often temporarily enshrouded in g-loom, the mist 
 will at leng-th pass away and the lig-ht shine ag-ain 
 serene and clear. Education, like truth, thoug-h crushed 
 to earth, will rise ag-ain triumphant ; for it is one of the 
 elemental and vital forces that shall and will prevail. 
 
 The history of the period before the war was larg-ely 
 taken up with the effort to realize the land g-rant fund, 
 and to overcome the popular prejudice which was eng-en- 
 dered ag-ainst the colleg-e on account of this strug-g-le. 
 
 For the settlers were not content with having- had 
 the minimum price fixed upon their lands, and with the 
 additional concession of long- time payments, and there 
 now commenced a bitter strug-g-le that lasted for many 
 trying- j^ears, beginning- with their repeated and success- 
 ful efforts to have the times of payment extended, g-row- 
 ing- into a request for remission of part of the interest. 
 
 51. The inscription is given in full in White's Early History of 
 the UniverHity, p. 17.
 
 iv.
 
 — 41 — 
 
 and culminating" in a demand for the release of part, if 
 not all, of the principal itself."^" 
 
 The long^ history of delay beg^an, as if by an iron}' of 
 fate, on that same da}- in 1807 on which the Leg^islaturc 
 completed the org-anization of the colleg-e and appointed 
 the commissioners of the colleg"e fund. On that day, at 
 the first kindling- discontent, the Leg"islature took the 
 initial step in yielding- to public clamor, by extending for 
 one year the time for payment of all purchase money 
 installments on all lands south of French Broad and 
 Holston, ^' this being- repeated by the next General As- 
 sembly and a somewhat long-er extension g-iven. '''* 
 
 Before the close of 1809, the settlers having- become 
 more imperious in their demands, the yielding- Leg-isla- 
 ture took the next step in dissipating- the educational 
 fund, by postponing- indefinitely the principal of all the 
 installments, and also somewhat extending- the time for 
 
 52. The Committee on Education, whose report is cited in note 
 40 supra, state that these lands were " necessarily sold to the occu- 
 pants upon extensive credits, the interest of which has been but 
 partially collected, producing in the meantime all the vexations 
 and costs, both to the government and people, that in the United 
 States are known to exist, when the people are debtors to their 
 government." 
 
 That the United States also has been obliged to indulge its 
 needy debtors by suspending forfeiture of lands for delay in making 
 payments, see, for example, 5 U. S. Stat, at Large, pp. 2G1, 509 
 and 555. 
 
 53. Chap. 67, Acts of 1807, passed December 3, 1807 ; Whitney's 
 Land Laws, p. 354; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 1053. Payments to be 
 made in ten annual installments, to begin March 1, 1809, bearing 
 interest from the time they had originally fallen due. 
 
 54. Chap. 34, Acts of 1809; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 357; 
 Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 1115. Payments to be made in ten annual 
 installments, beginning Jub' 15, 1811. On default in payment of 
 any installment, land.'^ to be sold, and in absence of bidders college 
 and academv lauds to be bid in for the use of these institutions.
 
 — 42 — 
 
 the payment of interest ; ^^ this leg-islation also being- 
 substantially repeated by the General Assembly of 1811/" 
 
 Ag-ain, so far as this leg-islation affected the colleg-e 
 and academy tracts, the State was indulg-ing- her S3'mpa- 
 thetic inclinations at the expense of the institutions of 
 learning-. 
 
 It was during- these days that the Leg-islature, in 
 order to relieve the necessities of the Colleg-e, which had 
 not yet been able to open its doors, with an exceeding- 
 and ever memorable g-enerosity, allowed the trustees, in 
 lieu of the funds to which they were entitled, the privi- 
 leg-e of establishing- a lottery for the benefit of the 
 Colleg-e, at their own expense, and appointed Hug-h 
 Lawson White, Robert Craig-head and others as trustees 
 for that purpose. But in spite of the enticing- adver- 
 tisement of the trustees, showing- that there were but 
 little more than two blanks to each prize in the lottery, 
 and appealing- to the public to subscribe to the tickets 
 "to aid the funds of a seminary of education where the 
 youth * * * may have their minds prepared in such 
 manner as will make them ornaments to their families 
 and useful to their country," sufficient tickets were not 
 sold and the lottery had to be abandoned. " 
 
 55. Chap. 47, Acts of 1809; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 359^ 
 Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 1146. Distress warrants were to issue 
 for the collection of interest due November 1, 1811, and annually 
 thereafter. 
 
 50. Chap. 9, Acts of 1811; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 361; 
 Scott's Laws, vol. 2, p. 6. Payment of principal postponed "until 
 the J^egislature shall otherwise direct;" interest due on installments 
 postponed until November 1, 1813, and annually thereafter; lands 
 to he sold in case of default in interest. 
 
 57. White's Early History of the University, p. 20. In early 
 days in Tennessee a lottery was a favorite method by which to raise 
 funds for needy and deserving institutions, private as well as public, 
 and individuals as well. Thus, for example, in 1824, at a single 
 session of the I^egislature, authority was given for lotteries for the 
 purposes of building Masonic halls in Columbia and Franklin, of 
 completing a public road from .Jonesborongh to the Nortli Carolina
 
 — 43 — 
 
 About this time, also, a pleasing- variety was g-iven 
 to the leg-islation by remitting al tog-ether the interest 
 that had fallen due in 1810 and 1811, on account of the 
 neg-lect of the Leg-islature to appoint any one to receive 
 it, thereby, as it was recited, having- prevented the citi- 
 zens from making- payments. •''*' It being- afterwards 
 discovered, however, that certain energ-etic citizens had 
 paid this remitted interest, nevertheless, it was ])rom})tly 
 refunded to them. °" 
 
 Indefinite postponement of the principal and exten- 
 sion of the interest now became the order of the da}', 
 and was re-enacted in 1813,"" with the additicmal feature 
 of remitting- all interest which should accrue during- the 
 interval of postponement, this leg-islation, in turn, being- 
 repeated in 1815. *' Further extensions were made on 
 both principal and interest by the Leg-islature of 1817. "■ 
 
 In 1819 the Leg-islature for the first time provided for 
 the sale of such lands as were not claimed by occupants, 
 and authorized the g-eneral taking- up of all vacant lands 
 south of the French Broad and Holston at fifty cents 
 
 line, and of benefiting Tlios. White and .Tno. McCracken and their 
 respective creditors, and provisions were made in reference to a 
 lottery for the erection of a hospital in Nashville. (Acts of 1824, 
 chaps. 33, 76, 81 and 133, respectively.) 
 
 58. Chap. 9, Acts of 1812; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 365; 
 Scott's Laws, vol. 2, p. 79. 
 
 59. Chap. 145, Acts of 1819; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 374. 
 
 60. Chap. 51, Acts of 1813; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 367. 
 Interest postponed until November 1, 1815, and all interest which 
 should accrue in the interval remitted. 
 
 61. Chap. 12, Acts of 1815; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 357. 
 Payment of all interest and principal postponed until November 1, 
 1817, and all interest remitted which should accrue in the interval. 
 
 62. Chap. 88, Acts of 1817; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 368; 
 Scott's Laws, vol. 2, p. 366. Payment of all monies suspended 
 until the rise of the next General Assembly; all accrued interest 
 to be paid in three annual installments, beginning November 1, 
 1818; collection of interest falling due in 1818 and 1819 suspended 
 until the next General Assemblv.
 
 — 44 — 
 
 an acre. ^' As this applied, with the rest, to such lands 
 in the coUegfe and academy tracts as had not already 
 been g^ranted to occupants, it was, as to these lands, a 
 further reduction below the minimum price, which would 
 well-nig-h complete the ruin of the coUeg-e and academy 
 funds. Partly, perhaps, for this reason, the Leg^islature 
 provided that the Act should not take effect without the 
 assent of Cong-ress, an assent which seems never to have 
 been g-iven. 
 
 In this same year the principal due on lands was ag-ain 
 indefinitely postponed, likewise interest extended. ®* 
 
 In view of this leg"islation it is not astonishing- — in 
 spite of the privileg-e that had been g-iven the settlers in 
 most of these enactments of making- payments on the 
 interest at any time they mig-ht choose, and even on the 
 principal itself, if they insisted upon it — that East Ten- 
 nessee Colleg-e was, from sheer poverty, never able to 
 open its doors until the year 1820, when it united with 
 the Hampden-Sidney Academy, that had been chartered 
 at Knoxville in 1806 in pursuance of the same land g-rant 
 Act, and which had been put into successful operation 
 at Knoxville in 1817, and kept open by its able president, 
 Mr. Sherman, for four years, supported by subscription. 
 The colleg-e and academ}^ however, thoug-h united, each 
 retained its own board of trustees and the control of its 
 own funds. "^ 
 
 63. Chap. 5-1, Acts of 1819; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 3(59; 
 Scott's Laws, vol. 2, p. 501. Prior to this the only grants author- 
 ized in this district, except upon occupant claims, had been certain 
 grants to religious associations (chap. 13, Acts of 1809) and to per- 
 sons building iron works (cliap. 156, Acts of 1815). The preference 
 right of occupants had been hitherto preserved by various extension 
 Acts, giving them further times in which to obtain their grant.". 
 (Chap. 20, Acts 1811; chap. II, Acts 1812; cliap. 33, Acts 1813; 
 chap. 33, Acts of 1815.) 
 
 64. Chap. 97, Acts of 1S19; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 372. 
 Payment of interest due for the years 1818 and 1819 postponed 
 until November 1, 1820, and 1821, respectively. Lands to be sold 
 in case of default in jjayment of interest. 
 
 65. White's Early History of the University, pp. 20 and 21.
 
 — 45 — 
 
 The lax nianag-ement of the educational fund and the 
 deplorable condition into which it had fallen is forcibly 
 illustrated by the messag-e of Governor Joseph McMinn 
 to the General Assembly, in 1821, in which he saj'S : 
 "It is incontestabl}' true that even the officers of govern- 
 ment are ig-norant of many of the most material facts 
 from which alone a tolerable estimate of the available 
 character of the fund can be obtained. We all know 
 that two hundred thousand acres of land, south of 
 French Broad and Holston rivers, at the price of one 
 dollar per acre, was appropriated to- the establishment 
 and support of colleges and academies ; but in what 
 manner collections on the sale of those lands have been 
 made, and to what amount ; how much of the principal 
 or interest has been voluntaril}" or otherwise paid ; or 
 how much still remains due or to become due, is scarcely 
 known to any individual within the State, and perhaps 
 it would not be practicable for the Legislature to inform 
 themselves satisfactorih' on the various points connected 
 with the subject b}- reports drawn from any department 
 of the government. * * * I submit to 3'ou whether 
 the desire of conforming 3'our acts to the rules of con- 
 stant right will not urge the expedienc}^ of devising 
 some plan of acquiring a full knowledge of the manner 
 in which the whole business has been conducted, from 
 its first origin, so as to exhibit the true state in which it 
 may be now found." '**' 
 
 In pursuance of this recommendation the Senate 
 adopted a joint resolution, introduced b}- Aaron V. 
 Brown, for the appointment of a Select Committee to 
 make an investigation of the matters embraced in the 
 Governor's message, *' but the House refused to concur 
 in this resolution, '* and there the matter dropped, in 
 
 66. Governor's message, September 17, 1821. Senate Journal 
 for 1821, at pp. 20 and 21. 
 
 67. Senate Journal for 1821, pp. 41 and 42. 
 
 68. House Journal for 1821, p. 4-5.
 
 — 46 — 
 
 spite of the fact that in the fall of that same year 
 Governor McMinn's recommendation was repeated by 
 his successor, Governor William Carroll. "■' The Legfis- 
 lature, instead, passed another Act for the relief of the 
 settlers, repeating- the old story of indefinite postpone- 
 ment of the principal and extension of the interest ; '" 
 only to be ag-ain repeated in 1822. '^ 
 
 In the midst of these dark days, however, there came 
 one which Tennessee should note upon its calendar as a 
 g^olden day in its dealing's with the colleg^es. 
 
 The president and trustees of the University of North 
 Carolina, to whom the State of North Carolina had 
 issued warrants for man}' thousand acres of land in 
 Tennessee, founded upon military- services that had been 
 performed by certain officers and soldiers of the Conti- 
 nental line of North Carolina, who had died, leaving- no 
 heirs in the United States, had presented a memorial to 
 the Tennessee Leg-islature, praying- that grants might 
 issue upon these warrants, and that all their lands in 
 Tennessee mig-ht be exempt from taxation, offering to 
 give a fair equivalent for such exemption. 
 
 There was, however, grave doubt as to the validity 
 of these warrants, '"' and the Legislature directed the 
 
 69. Governor's message, October 1, 1821 ; Senate Journal, 1821, 
 p. 98. 
 
 70. Chap. 148, Acts of 1821, p. 144. Sales for default in pay- 
 ment of interest suspended until May 1, 182.3; two-thirds of accu- 
 muhited interest to be paid by said date, the remainder, with that 
 accruing in 1822, to be paid by May 1, 1824. 
 
 71. Chap. 8, Acts of 1822, p. 11. November 1, 1823, substituted 
 for May 1, 1823, in all provisions of chap. 148 of Acts of 1821. 
 
 72. There was no doubt but that under tlie reservations made 
 by North Carolina in her cession of 1796, and the compact between 
 North Carolina and Tennessee in 1804, ratified ))y Conjj;ress in 180(), 
 and 8ui)plemented in 1818, it was the duty of Tennessee, in general, 
 to issue grants upon land warrants issued by North Carolina for 
 services rendered by her Revolutionary sohliers and oni(;ers. (See
 
 — 47 — 
 
 appointment of two commissioners to investig-ate and 
 adjust the claim of the University- of North Carolina, 
 authorizing- them to enter into an agreement with the 
 University concerning the warrants and exemption fn^m 
 taxation, which, it was provided, should be binding on 
 the State. '-'' 
 
 Governor Carrt)ll having appointed Jenkins Whiteside 
 and James Trimble as commissioners, the}', on August 
 26th, 1822, entered into a compact with the University- of 
 North Carolina, directing that grants should issue upon 
 its warrants, and agreeing that all lands owned or 
 acquired by the University within Tennessee should be 
 exempt from all taxes until January 1, 1850 ; the Univer- 
 sit}-, in return for this exemption from taxation and the 
 settlement of the controvers}-, agreeing to transfer sixty 
 thousand acres of its land warrants to two public semi- 
 naries, designated by the commissioners, "as a fund for 
 the support of education in said seminaries," one-third, 
 or twenty thousand acres, to East Tennessee College, 
 and two-thirds, or forty thousand acres, to Cumberland 
 College, which had been designated as the Western 
 recipient of the land grant fund, '* the University further 
 agreeing to assig-n to the two colleg-es, in like manner. 
 
 Historical Note, Appendix B.) But Tennessee contended, apparently 
 with justice, tliat after the death of the parties entitled to the war- 
 rants North Carolina had no right to issue them to other persons, 
 even so deserving as the trustees of her State University, and that 
 grants ought not to issue on such warrants, or if issued, that they 
 would vest in the State of Tennessee. (See recitals in Compact, 
 Whitney's Land Laws, p. 481.) 
 
 73. Acts of 1820, chap. 3, p. 8, passed August 14, 1822; Whit- 
 ney's Land Laws, p. 480. The commissioners were especially 
 authorized to direct how these warrants should be disposed of, and 
 to whom grants should issue ; the lands, however, to be located 
 west of the Tennessee river. The agreement made by them was to 
 be published witli the Acts of the Legislature. 
 
 74. It had been designated by the Legislature as the Western 
 College, September 11, 1806. (Acts of 1806, chap. 7; Scott's Laws, 
 vol. 1, p. 929.)
 
 — 48 — 
 
 one-half of all military land warrants which mig-ht in 
 the future be issued to it by North Carolina. " 
 
 It was a g-enerous g-ift on the part of the State, 
 throug"h its commissioners, none the less g-enerous be- 
 cause indirectly made, and one of which we should not 
 fail in fitting- recog-nition. 
 
 The prospect of this additional source of revenue, in 
 supplement of the depleted land grant fund, was most 
 welcome and g-ave the trustees of East Tennessee CoUeg-e 
 renewed courag-e and stout hearts with which to carry 
 on the strug-g-le ag-ainst opposing- odds. 
 
 In the following- year the Leg-islature, as if conscious 
 of the g-reat injustice that had been done to the institu- 
 tions of learning-, and desiring- to make some reparation, 
 and yet at the same time solicitous of further indulg-ence 
 to the settlers, ™ made a desperate effort to steer between 
 
 75. See Compact, Whitney's Laud Laws, p. 481. The agree- 
 ment was made with Joseph H. Bryan, agent of the trustees of the 
 University of North Carolina. 
 
 No further warrants seem to have ever issued. The 60,000 acres 
 were to be transferred, subject to contracts previously made for 
 locating and procuring grants. The University was to warrant 
 titles to 45,000 acres at $1.50 an acre, with interest, but Hability to 
 terminate on all lands on which no adverse claim had been made 
 by January 1, 1831 ; subsequent warrants to be assigned without 
 any guaranty of title. The compacts designated the specific war- 
 rants which were to be transferred to eacli of the two colleges. 
 (See, generally, Merriam's Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 36.) 
 
 76. It must not be forgotten that the necessities of the settlers 
 were, to a large extent, real ; many of them being very poor, and 
 the enforcement of the purchase money often a grievous burden. 
 Thus, in 1821, as appears from a report of a committee of the House, 
 there had been four hundred and sixty-six tracts advertised for 
 sale, of which two hundred and five had been bid in by the State, 
 and forty-five by individuals. The committee further reported that 
 large numbers would be unable to pay the interest next accruing. 
 (House Journal for 1821, p. 120. See also Governor McMinn's mes- 
 sage, cited in note G4 supra.) If the State alone had been interested 
 in the proceeds of this land, the constant postponements and
 
 — 49 — 
 
 Sc3'lki and Charybdis. The expediency hit upon was 
 this : to remit altogether, in the first instance, one-third 
 of the purchase money still due on all lands south of the 
 French Broad and Holston, and then, by wa}- of atone- 
 ment to the institutions of learning-, to vest in them the 
 entire unremitted balance due upon all lands that had 
 been previously sold within the district, whether without 
 or within the college and academy tracts, together with 
 all such lands as might be subsequentl}- re-sold for default 
 in payments and bid in bv the State, or that had been 
 previously sold, and should not be redeemed b}- the 
 owners, this gift being, as was recited, "in consid- 
 eration of the delays of payment heretofore or hereafter 
 to be sustained b}' the colleges and academies," and in 
 order "to make a final appropriation and investiture 
 of the mone3'S and lands aforesaid, * * * * 
 and put it out of the power of the Legislature to inter- 
 fere hereafter by indulging the debtors or in any other 
 way whatsoever."" 
 
 partial releases would have been, perhaps, no more than right. 
 The fundamental wrong consisted in the fact that the State post- 
 poned and remitted funds in which slie herself had no interest, and 
 for the collection of which the National Government liad made her 
 a trustee. Small wonder it is, however, that the settlers, knowing 
 that the State was probably willing to forego its own claims, became 
 embittered against the distant colleges and academies, for whose 
 benffit the State was continually being urged to insist upon the 
 collection of the purchase money ; a bitterness constantly fed by- 
 demagogues for their own purposes. 
 
 77. Acts of 1823, chap. 30, passed November 15, 1823 ; AVhitney's 
 Land Laws, p. 378; Haywood & Cobbs' Statute Laws of Tennessee, 
 p. 134. The whole amount, principal and interest, due was to be 
 calculated to May 1, 1824; one third of this amount to be then 
 remitted; one-tifth of the remaining two- thirds to he paid by the 
 said May 1st, and the remainder in six interest-bearing annual 
 installments ; land<o be sold on default in payment of any of these 
 installments, but to be subject to redemption. 
 
 Apparently this Act only applied to lands that had been already 
 sold, and not to subsequent sales of lands that might be made by 
 the State for its own benefit out.«ide of the college and acadeuiv
 
 — 50 — 
 
 Thus did the State make effort to compensate the 
 institutions of learning- for all the past and to partially 
 atone for the orig-inal wrong- of 18(X). For this eifort it 
 should be g-iven due credit. '^ Unfortunately it was but 
 partial at the best, and came too late. There are no data 
 from which to-day we can ascertain exactly the fund thus 
 transferred by the State to the institutions of learning- ; 
 probably it was small. 
 
 Furthermore, so unaccustomed were the settlers to 
 making- payments upon their lands that it was too late 
 to make a chang-e of habit. A few days later the last 
 step in reducing- the educational fund was taken, by an 
 Act which made all of the territory that had been 
 acquired by Tennessee east and north of the Cong-res- 
 sional line subject to entry at twelve and one-half cents 
 an acre, the Act being- so broad in its terms as to include 
 the lands south of the French Broad and Holston, and 
 even those within the college and academy tracts ; and 
 this was the melancholy ending- of the provision in the 
 Cession Act of 1806, requiring these lands to be sold at 
 not less than two dollars an acre. " 
 
 tracts. The proceeds due for lands within the college and academj' 
 tracts, and the defaulted lands within those tracts bid in by the 
 State and not redeemed, were vested in the colleges and academies 
 according to the tracts in which they were located. Other defaulted 
 lands and the balance then due the State on lands outside of tliese 
 two tracts were vested one-fourth in each of the colleges and one- 
 half in the academies. 
 
 78. This effort at compensation has generally been overlooked 
 in the discussion of this subject. Thus Mr. Merriam recites the 
 fact that one-third of the purchase money was remitted in 182.3, but 
 does not refer to the counter gift from the State. (Higher Educa- 
 tion in Tennessee, p. 39.) 
 
 79. Acts of 1823, chap. 49, passed November 22, 1823 ; Whitney's 
 J>and Laws, p. 308; Haywood &. Cobbs' Statute Laws, vol. 2, p. 113- 
 
 Mr. Merrium states, without giving his authority, that Congress 
 in 1823 repealed the clause of the Act of 1800 fixing a minimum 
 j)rice on the college and academy lands. (Higher I'^dmation in 
 Tennessee, ]>. 38, note.) 
 
 The otdy Act of Congress upon this sutijectt was one repealing
 
 — 51 — 
 
 "Considerable payments," we read, "were made in 
 1824, but in 1825 the occupants of the lands refused 
 almost unanimousl}^ to pay any more ; *" a statement 
 corroborated by the fact that at this time there appear 
 various acts of leg-islation authorizing- the trustees of 
 the Universit}' to further extend the time for payments. *' 
 
 In this latter 3'ear there appears an interesting- bit of 
 leg-islation, apparently intended to carry out the g-en- 
 erous gift made the colleg-es in 1822 in connection with 
 the compact made with the University of North Carolina, 
 by which, however, in certain respects the intended g-ift 
 appears to have been somewhat reduced and partly 
 chang-ed from a gift into a payment on the land grant 
 fund. 
 
 Under the compact of 1822, it will be remembered, 
 
 so mucli of the Act of 1806 as had provided " that the lowest price 
 of all lands granted or sold within the ceded territorj' should be the 
 same as should be established by Congress for lands of the United 
 States." (Act of Congress, February 23, 1823; 5 U. S. Stat, at L., 
 p. 729.) This proviso of the original Act had been inserted between 
 the provisions as to college and academy lands and that as to the 
 settlers' rights of pre-emption. While the exact construction of the 
 Act of 1806 is one of some little difficulty, raising the question, for 
 example, whether or not it was intended to prevent the sale of the 
 pre-empted lauds at a less price than those fixed by the United 
 States upon its lands, still it is clear that the repeal of this clause 
 did not, in any way, repeal the minimum limit on the college and 
 academy lauds, but merely authorized the pale of other vacant 
 lands north and east of the Reservation line at less than $1.50 an 
 acre, the price at which public lands of the United States were thei. 
 selling. (5 U. S. Stat, at L., p. 566. 1 
 
 Previous to 1820 public lands of the United States had sold at 
 $2.00 an acre. (See 5 U. S. Stat, at L., pp. 407, 410, 466 and 522.) 
 
 80. Merriam's Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 39. 
 
 81. Acts of 1824, chap. 24, authorizing the trustees of the two 
 colleges to postpone the sales of land, provided that interest was 
 paid in advance for the period of postponement ; and Chap. 73, Acts of 
 1825, authorizing the redemption of lands sold for the payment of 
 interest, provided the trustees of the two colleges consented. 
 (Whitney's Land Laws, p. 381.)
 
 — 52 — 
 
 the University of North Carolina had agreed to assig-n 
 to the two colleg-es one-half of all military warrants 
 which might thereafter be issued to it by the State of 
 North Carolina. Probably between 1822 and 1825 a con- 
 siderable number of such additional warrants were 
 issued, whose validity had never been adjudicated by 
 Tennessee. Accordingly, in 1825, an Act was passed, 
 providing for a commissioner to examine all military 
 land warrants laid before him by the University of North 
 Carolina, East Tennessee College or Cumberland College, 
 which had been issued to the University of North Caro- 
 lina, and to adjudicate their validity, not exceeding in 
 the aggregate one hundred and five thousand acres, upon 
 which adjudication a corresponding amount of land 
 should be sold by the State at certain specified prices, 
 one-third of the proceeds to be paid to the University of 
 North Carolina, one-third to be appropriated to the use 
 of common schools, two-ninths to be paid Cumberland 
 College, and the remaining one-ninth to East Tennessee 
 College. All sums so paid to Cumberland College and 
 East Tennessee College were to be treated as made "for 
 the relief of the people residing on the college and acad- 
 emy lands south of French Broad and Holston," and 
 were to be credited as peiyments upon their purchase 
 money; it being further provided that out of the moneys 
 thereafter collected from the college and academy lands 
 the academies should first be paid an amount equal to 
 that received by the two cuj leges from the proceeds 
 of these warrants, and that East Tennessee College 
 should then be equalized with Cumberland College. ^''' 
 
 82. Chap. 30, Acts of 1825; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 487. By 
 this Act a commissioner was appointed to examine all military land 
 warrants originally issued to the University of Nortli Carolina, 
 which .should l)e laid before him by the trustees of the University 
 of North Carolina, East Tennessee College and Cumberland College ,^ 
 and to adjudicate their validity, not exceeding the aggregate of one 
 hundred and five thousand acres, for which amount certificates 
 should be issued for land west and south of the congressional reser- 
 vation line, in 25 acre tracts, which should be sold : first, to any occu-
 
 — 53 — 
 
 Apparently this Act of 1825 only applied to the unadju- 
 dicated warrants that had been issued since the compact 
 of 1822. As to these warrants, it will be noticed, it 
 reduced the proportion which the colleg^es were to 
 receive and limited the total acreag-e and the price at 
 which the lands could be sold. Furthermore, the prefer- 
 ence that had been g^iven by the compact to Cumberland 
 Colleg"e over East Tennessee Colleg-e, which had been 
 proper in a gift, became discrimination when treated 
 as a payment on debts due them. ^'' 
 
 pants of unappropriated land in this territory' at fifty cents an acre ; 
 next to general purchasers for a time at one dollar an acre ; then at 
 fifty cents an acre ; and lastly, the residue at public auction : one- 
 third of the proceeds to be paid to the University of North Carolina, 
 one-third to be appropriated for tlie use of common schools forever, 
 and of the remaining one-third, two-thirds to be paid to Cumberland 
 College and one-third to East Tennessee College. The sums paid 
 to the two colleges was to be treated as made "for the relief of the 
 people residing on the college and academy lands south of French 
 Broad and Holston," and to be credited as a payment upon the 
 sums due from purchasers of such land south of French Broad and 
 Holston as should thereafter be adjudged to be of the third-class 
 in value. No reference is made in this Act to the compact of 1822. 
 
 83. The Act of 1825 had provided that it should not take eflTect 
 unless the President and Trustees of the University of North Carolina 
 should send to the Secretary of State of Tennessee their written 
 consent to the Act l)efore the first day of the succeeding February. 
 This is not now on file in the Secretary of State's office, but I have 
 been informed in a letter received from Dr. Kemp P. Battle, former 
 President of the University of North Carolina, that this written 
 consent, as appears from the University records, was given and 
 sent to the Secretary of State on January 19, 1826. 
 
 There is much confusion as to the relation of the Act of 1825 to 
 the compact of 1822, as to which our histories fail to enlighten us. 
 Thus Merriam discusses the compact in detail, but does not even 
 mention the Act; and other authorities are likewise silent on this 
 point. 
 
 I was at first of the opinion that the Act of 1825 was intended to 
 supplant the compact of 1822, but after much reflection have reached 
 the conclusion stated in the text that the Act of 1825 was intended 
 to carry out the compact as to warrants issued subsequently, and 
 that a large number of warrants were probably issued after the
 
 — 54 — 
 
 compact of 1822. The statement made in note 75, supra, should be 
 corrected accordingly. 
 
 The Act of 1825 is in its terms very obscure. However, its basic 
 provision as to the adjudication of warrants, manifestly, could not 
 apply to those warrants that had been issued prior to 1822 and were 
 adjudicated by the commissioners at that time. 
 
 Furthermore, from extrinsic sources we learn that the University 
 and Colleges subsequently received moneys from Western lands in 
 the two methods provided for by the compact and the Act, respect- 
 ively. One main difference between the compact and the Act was 
 the fact that by tlie compact the grants were to issue directly to the 
 University and Colleges, the lands to be their property and disposed 
 of by them in the ordinary way, while by the Act the lands were to 
 be sold by the State and the proceeds paid over to the University 
 and Colleges. 
 
 It, therefore, would appear that the compact was carried out from 
 the fact, stated by Merriam, that Cumberland College, which had 
 become the University of Nashville in 1826 (Merriam's Higher 
 Education, p. 31), received as her share of the Western lands 
 33, .3633^ acres, after the locators had received their portion, which 
 was sold in 1834 for $1.00 an acre and interest, but from which the 
 College eventually realized only $15,000.00. (Higher Education in 
 Tennessee, p. 37.) So, also, Robert N. McEwen, State Superin- 
 tendent of Public Instruction, in his annual report, 1837, referred 
 to the funds of Cumberland College (or Nashville University, as it 
 was then called) as amounting principally to about $32,000.00, in 
 notes for the sale of her Western district lands, due in one, two, 
 three, four and five years, from April 8, 1836. (House Journal, 
 1837-8, p. 654.) I have also carefully examined the Day Book of 
 East Tennessee College, covering the period from 1830 to 1858, in 
 which the cash accounts were kept (the earlier account books being 
 lost), and from this it appears that the College sold to various per- 
 sons at various times portions of its Western district lands, often 
 taking notes therefor, and receiving on this account from April 30, 
 1832, to February 22, 1859, inclusive, $19,112.98, less expenses, the 
 exact amount of which cannot be now ascertained. (See Day Book, 
 folios 76, 86, 101, 104, 112, 119, 124, 127, 132, 133, 136, 152, 153, 154, 
 179, ISO, 181 and 185.) This is more than (lould, by any possibility, 
 have been obtained under the Act of 1825. 
 
 On the other hand, we would infer that the execution of Ihe Act 
 of 1825 was at least begun, from the fact that in 1825 and 1826 com- 
 missioners were appointed to examine the lands south of the French 
 Broad and Ilolston and adjudge which were of the "third and last 
 class in value," to be credited with tlm payments made the two 
 colleges. (Chap. 73, Acts of 1825, and chap. 34, Acts of 1826; 
 Whitney's Land Laws, pj). 492 and 499.)
 
 — 55 — 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain exact!}- how much East 
 Tennessee Colleg-e realized from the Western lands under 
 both the compact and the Act of 1825 ; probabl}-, how- 
 ever, the total amount was not far from twenty-four 
 thousand dollars. *"* 
 
 The hostilit}' to the collegfes, at this time, was exceed- 
 ing-l}' bitter. As an illustration of the influences that 
 during" all this period were broug-ht to bear against them 
 and an explanation of a popular prejudice, which has 
 onh^ recently been destroyed, or at least driven to take 
 hidden refug-e in our mountain fastnesses in its flig-ht 
 before a growing- public intelligence, let me cite the 
 
 Furthermore, in 1829, Daniel Grabaui, Secretary oi State of 
 Tennessee, replying to an inquiry from George Graham, Commis- 
 sioner of the General Land Office, among other things, as to the 
 vahie of vacant lands in the Western part of Tennessee, states that 
 "in the summer of 1826 a large stock of 91,000 acres, claimed by 
 the University of North Carolina and the colleges and common 
 scliools of this State, was, by direction of the Legislature, divided 
 into small parcels of 25 acres each and sold at 50 cents per acre, 
 cash." (Amer. State Papers, Pub. Lands, vol. 6, p. 32.) 
 
 So, too, Dr. Battle writes me, that the University of North Caro- 
 lina received the proceeds of her Western lands, partly by direct 
 sales made by the University, and partly through the State govern- 
 ment, receiving about !fl4.000 directly from the State of Tennessee 
 (almost the exact proportion coming to the University of North 
 Carolina from the 91,000 acres .«aid by Graham to have been sold in 
 1826), and about $160,580.00 from sales of lands made by the Univer- 
 sity direct; $111, .'WO. 00 (hiring the land boom of 1835, and the rest 
 before. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, while there is much obscurity in this 
 legislation, and it is impossible witli the data now at hand to reach 
 an entirely satisfactory conclusion, 1 think the opinion expressed 
 in the text is probably correct. 
 
 84. As shown in note 88, supra, it appears from the College 
 Day Book that subsequent to April 30, 1832, the College received 
 .'i>10,112.9S from lands obtained and sold by her under the compact. 
 I think it probable that if the old books could be found it would 
 also appear that in 1826 the College received about $5,000.00, or 
 one-ninth of the proceeds of the 91,000 acres sold by the State in 
 that vear under the Act of 1825.
 
 — 56 — 
 
 speech of Thomas D. Arnold, a prominent lawyer of 
 Knoxville, who, when a candidate for Cong-ress, in ad- 
 dressing- the people south of the river, speaking- of the 
 coUeg-e building, which had recently been erected on 
 Barbara Hill (that had been boug-ht in 1826 for six hun- 
 dred dollars),*^ denounced the trustees as "having used 
 the people's money to build light-houses of the sky on 
 them for the sons of a few great men to go up and star- 
 g-aze," and for having had "a law passed for their special 
 benefit, which authorized these gentlemen, when your 
 lands have been sold, because you had not the money to 
 pay 3'our installment, and when, perhaps, j^ou have sold 
 your last cow to g-et the money, to charge you ten per 
 centum instead of six."^" 
 
 And so, in 1829, Dr. Jno. C. Gunn, the author of 
 Gunn's Domestic Medicine, a great medical authority, I 
 am told, in olden times, when a candidate for the State 
 Leg-islature, thus referred to the modest brick central 
 building-, which in its unadorned and weather-beaten 
 simplicity still crowns the summit of our coUeg-e hill : 
 "Behold that great rotunda — that monument of folly — 
 the colleg-e. That building- for the rich man's son — that 
 building- which closes its doors against the poor man's 
 child, * * * this temple of aristocracy ; why do they 
 forget that the south-of-the-river people paid drop by 
 drop of sweat to erect this tomb of extravagance — this 
 wild g-oose scheme — this fanciful — this melancholy build- 
 ing- raising its proud front on an isolated hill until you 
 become exhausted to reach the summit ?***** 
 
 85. White'H Early History of the University, p. 23. By chap. 
 122, Acts of 1822, p. 104, the trustees had been authorized to sell 
 the lots and houses desij^nated as the site of the college, and to 
 appro|)riate the proceeds to the purchase of a more eligible site in 
 the vicinity of Knoxville and the erection of buildings. 
 
 80. Quoted in White's Pearly History of the University, p. 2(). 
 He doubtless referred to the provision in an Act of 1823, by which 
 the citizens hail been allowed to redeem their lands after sale, by 
 paying costs and amount due with twelve i)er cent.
 
 Behold the oil brick at S13.00 a thousand, when l)rick 
 equall}' as g^ood could be bought for $5.00 a thousand. 
 Oh, how the people have been oiled ! Do you forg^et that 
 tower of Babel — the steeple — as it raises its g-littering- 
 spire as if supplicating the Author of all good to forgive 
 its projectors for such blind, such foolish extravagance ? 
 * * * A building that cost $13,000.00 of the people's 
 money ! A steeple that cost $2,726 of the people's money, 
 including its glittering spire, clock and ornaments ! 
 Fifteen hundred dollars a year, and a fine house to oil 
 the Reverend Dr. Coffin for teaching thirty-five students 
 and half of them small children ! '"*' 
 
 In 1829 the State, weary of its arduous, persevering 
 and heroic efforts to secure for the colleges that which 
 was justly their due under the national land grant, offered 
 to give one-half of a township of land in the country' lying 
 south of the Hiwassee river, to which the Indian title 
 had not then been extinguished, to East Tennessee Col- 
 lege and the Universit}" of Nashville, the name that had 
 been previoush^ given to Cumberland College, provided 
 they would execute a written instrument releasing all 
 their claims south of the French Broad and Holston and 
 all rights which they had acquired to any of the lands 
 in that section. '** 
 
 87. Quoted in extenso in White's Early History of the Univer- 
 sity, p. 27. 
 
 88. Chap. 47, ,Act8 1829 ; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 383. 
 
 The preamble of this Act was as follows : " Whereas, a contro- 
 versy has existe<i for many years between the c5lleges and academies 
 in this State, and the citizens residing south of French Broad and 
 Holston and west of Big Pigeon rivers, in regard to large sums of 
 money claimed by said colleges and academies to be due and owing 
 from said citizens; and, whereas, the subject matter of said contro- 
 vers}' has frequently been brought before the Legislature of this 
 State, to the great detriment of other business; and also has been 
 productive of much expense and perplexity in the examination 
 thereof; and for the purpose of producing harmony and quiet V)e- 
 tween a respectable portion of the citizens of this State and the
 
 — 58 — 
 
 The Trustees of Kast Tennessee Colleg-e, weary of 
 the unequal strug-g-le and compelled b}' povert}- to g-ive 
 up the lig'ht, consented, emd executed the prescribe<l 
 deed of release, placing- of record however, in this instru- 
 ment, their sense of the obligation of the State to pay 
 the balance of the congressional donation. '''' 
 
 However, neither the Western academies nor the Uni- 
 versity of Nashville would 3'et assent to this inadequate 
 substitute for the magnificent gift intended for them by 
 the Government of the United States ; peirtly no doubt 
 because of the imperfect title of the lands to be given, 
 
 literary institutions therein, and for the purpose of avoiding all 
 future legislation respecting said subject." 
 
 The Act provided that l)efore the land should be located or 
 granted the trustees of the two institutions " in their l(fgal capacity 
 shall make, sign, seal and deliver to the Secretary of State such a 
 deed in writing as will forever acquit, discharge and release citizens 
 residing south of French Broad and Holston and west of Big Pigeon 
 rivers, from all judgments, debts, dues, demands, claims, rents, 
 issues, or suits of any kind, character or description whatever, 
 either in law or equity, and also all rights that they may have 
 acquired by, through or under the sale of any of the lands in said 
 section of country." 
 
 89. Deed of Release, Trustees of p]ast Tennessee College to the 
 citizens south of French Broad and Holston, dated April 20th, 1830. 
 Executed by Win. Park, President pro tevi., Board of Trustees. 
 Recorded April 28th, 1830, in Register's office, Blount County, in 
 book 24, p. 0. 
 
 In this deed the Trustees express their desire to settle the con- 
 troversy with the citizens, and rejoice in the prospect of the com- 
 plete discharge and release of their lands from the demands of the 
 literary institutions, but add: "We hereby protest against any- 
 thing in said Act, or in this deed containe<l from being construed to 
 operate as a release to the State from its obligation to pay this insti- 
 tution the balance of its proportion of the congressional donation. 
 We hold it bound in equity and good conscience to make good to 
 tiiis institution the donation of the congressional government, and 
 relying on the Legislature to hereafter provide for the more exten- 
 sive usefulness of this literary institution, we cheerfully comply 
 with the provision of the Act of Assembly." Theji, following the 
 language of the Act, they release their claims against the citizens 
 south of the French Broad and Holston and all rights in the lands.
 
 — 5V — 
 
 but largely because, being- further removed from the 
 settlers, the}' had not felt so keenly or so grievously the 
 bitter animosit}' that had been eng-endcred in the long- 
 strug-g-le. ^" They therefore refused to accept the condi- 
 tions of settlement and persevered in their efforts to 
 obtain justice. In 1834 Cumberland College prepared a 
 memorial to Congress "g-iving- a history of the I^and 
 Grant Fund, and praying- to be indemnified by another 
 grant," but in vain."' 
 
 In 1835, however, the lands south of the Hiwassee 
 river, having been acquired by treaty from the Indians, h.- 
 and the ceded territory' having been established as the 
 Ocoee District of Tennessee,^' the University of Nash- 
 ville, wearied into submission, at length also consented 
 to the settlement, and in 1838 the Legislature directed 
 the setting apart of the half township in Ocoee District 
 for the use of the College and University.'" 
 
 90. lu tlie report by Robert N. McEwen, Supt. of Public In- 
 struction, 1837, he says, speaking of tlie legislative offer of 1829, "it 
 is understood that the College of East Tennessee and perhaps some 
 one or two academies there agreed to the arrangement, but that the 
 Nashville University and the other academies have not agreed to it, 
 in consequence of which no location was made." (House Journal, 
 1837-8, p. 655). So, in a repot t of the select committee on the Ocoee 
 District, Oct. 30, 1837, it is stated tliat inasmuch as the Trustees of 
 the colleges and academies "have not as yet signified their accept- 
 ance of the provision of the Act by complying with its requisitions, 
 the tracts for the use of colleges and academies have never been 
 located." (House Journal. 1837-8, p. 800.) 
 
 91. Merriam's Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 391. 
 92.— See Appendix C. 
 
 93.— See Appendix C. 
 
 94. Chap. 19G, Acts of 1837-8, p. 287; passed January 26, 1838. 
 By the terms of the Act it is doubtful whether the College and 
 University were to receive a half township each, or a half township 
 jointly, as the Act directs the entry taken of the Ocoee District, 
 before the first Monday in November, 1838, to select and designate 
 " the two half townships of land which have been reserved by law 
 for the use of colleges and academies, the money arising from the
 
 — 60 — 
 
 It is noteworthy that in this final settlement no 
 compensation was made to East Tennessee Colleg-e for 
 the excess of western lands that had been g-iven to 
 Cumberland Colleg-e. 
 
 Out of these Ocoee lands, which were almost imme- 
 diately sold, Kast Tennessee College realized in cash 
 something- over thirty-four thousand dollars."-^ And this, 
 after thirty years of conflict, was the realization of that 
 brig-ht vision which had induced the trustees of Blount 
 Colleg-e to surrender their independence. The one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars which Congress had intended the 
 Colleg-e to receive, if put at simple interest, would, at 
 the time the Ocoee land was sold, have amounted, prin- 
 cipal and interest, to about three hundred thousand 
 
 entry of which shall he paid over to the Trustees of East Tennessee 
 College and the Nashville University in equal proportions, upon 
 their agreeing to receive the same in full satisfaction of all claims 
 which they have against the State or the citizens residing south of 
 the French Broad and Holston rivers." 
 
 Mr. A J. White, Register of Ocoee District, writes me that on 
 November 14, 1839, 72 Grants for 160 acres each, issued to Nashville 
 University and East Tennessee College, in all 11 ,520 acres, or exactly 
 a half township. 
 
 (It will be noticed that the Act apparently intended that tlie 
 <lesignated land should be sold to individuals as other lands, and 
 the proceeds paid over to the institutions, instead of being granted 
 directly to them.) 
 
 On the other hand, Merriam states that the State gave the Uni- 
 versity of Nashville a half township in the Ocoee District, or 11,500 
 acres, and that in 1839-40 it received $40,000 from the sale of these 
 lands. (Higher Edncation in Tennessee, p. 39.) So, Col. White 
 implies that P^ast Tennessee College received a half township. 
 (Early History of the University, p. 34.) 
 
 This is possihly tiie correct construction of the Act instead of 
 that stated in the text. I regret 1 have not sufficient data at hand 
 from whi(;h to reach a satisfactory conclusion. 
 
 95. Tiie Day Book of East Tennessee College shows cash receipts 
 in 1839, from the sales of lands in the Ocoee district, of $34,397.29. 
 (Folio 124.) 
 
 I have been unable to find any record of further cash receipts 
 from this source.
 
 — 61 — 
 
 dollars. In other words, the Colleg^e ultimately received 
 from both the western tlistrict and the Ococc lands about 
 one-lifth of that which Cong-ress had promised."" 
 
 From the contest over the land g-rant fund, anrl the 
 hostilit}' thereVj}' g-eneratcd in the public mind, supple- 
 mented by the fact, as already stated in reference to 
 Blount Colleg"e, that there was at that time no efficient 
 public school system in Tennessee, and that the colleg^e 
 had no org^anic connection with even such public schools 
 as then existed and was not supported by them t(^ anj- 
 g-reat extent, being- chiefly reg^arded as a rich man's col- 
 leg-e, it came about that the natural tendency of colleg^es 
 in those da3's to a purel}- classical course of training-, was 
 intensified, and we are not surprised when we read the 
 prog-ramme of the Commencement Exercises in 1<S27, 
 under its scholarh^ and energ-etic President, Dr. Coffin, 
 (our historian having- preserved for us this programme 
 vcrhatim)'^'^ to find that they were of a hig-hly academic 
 nature, embracing- four English Orations, two Forensic 
 Debates, two Conferences, a Salutatory Oration in Latin, 
 a Latin Dialog-ue, a S^dlog-istic Disputation in Latin, a 
 a French Oration and a Greek Oration. 
 
 That Commencement Prog-ramme of 1827, I ha:iard 
 the opinion, would almost bear comparison with a Com- 
 mencement Programme of to-day. 
 
 And Mullen we read in the list of participants the 
 names of Charles J. ISIcKinne}*, John H. Crozier, Samuel 
 
 96. It is a matter of great regret that no records exif-t by wliicli 
 it can be ascertained how much the College had received directly 
 from the settlers. There can now be found, however, no records 
 earlier than 1830. The auditing committee's report on October 21, 
 1830, shows that the College then had on hands ^3,2-19.25 in cash, 
 and ,$9,080.00 in well secured notes for money loaned i,Day Book, 
 folio 12). How much of this was the proceeds of the college land.s 
 south of French Broad and Holston, how much had come from the 
 lands in the western district, and how much from the sale of its 
 former site near Poplar Spring, it is impossible at lhi.s date to 
 definitely determine. 
 
 97. White's Early History of tlie ('nivcrsity, p. 25.
 
 — 62 — 
 
 B. Bo^^d, James Williams, Joseph L. King-, Matthew W. 
 Lindsay, Charles Scott, Ebenezer Alexander, Thomas A. 
 R. Nelson and Thomas C. L3'on : of whom one afterwards 
 became a member of Congress; one, a Judg-eof the State 
 Supreme Court; one, a minister to Constantinople; one, 
 a Chancellor of Mississippi; two Judges of the State 
 Circuit Courts; and one, Comptroller of the Treasury of 
 Tennessee, we know that the college that educated such 
 students was a great institution, no matter what its 
 fund or its pecuniary fortunes, and we are not astonished 
 to read that, after these Commencement Exercises, the 
 Trustees should have issued a valedictory address to the 
 public, in which "they felicitated themselves with the 
 idea that ' a day of science had fairly dawned ' upon 
 them."«« 
 
 If history had preserved for us no other record of East 
 Tennessee College than this one programme, we would 
 know that her days were those of usefulness, and that 
 her life was well spent and rich in the achievements of 
 the sons whom she educated. 
 
 The college, it will readily be seen, during all these 
 years occupied a peculiarl}^ anomalous and unfortunate 
 position. Ostensibly it was to receive Government sup- 
 port; practically it did not, but the belief that it was 
 dependent upon the Government naturall}^ tended to 
 deprive it of the support of private individuals. This, 
 chiefly, I believe, together with the theological zeal that 
 has always characterized Tennesseeans, causing the 
 up-building throughout the country of the large number 
 of flourishing denominational schools, established by 
 Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and 
 others, has tended to prevent the concentration of funds 
 and teachers in a great central University which could, 
 by combined force, educate the youth of the State more 
 adequately than could each of these separate institutions. 
 
 98. White's l<'>arly Uifjtory of the University, p. li().
 
 — 63 — 
 
 I am not well versed in theolog-ical matters, but it is, 
 to say the least, a debatable question in m}- mind, 
 whether the God of all Mankind, who loveth one denomi- 
 nation equally with another, would not be as well pleased 
 if we should cease our efforts to educate g-ood Baptists, 
 g-ood Presb3'terians and other g-ood denominationalists, 
 and should devote our united energies to educating good 
 men and good citizens. It has come to pass, in Ten- 
 nessee, as has been said, that "of the making of colleges 
 there is no end," and that nearly "ever}- cross roads 
 hamlet has, not its academy or high school, but its col- 
 leg"e," of which, by the way, the denominational col- 
 leges have attained, generally, no little excellence. And 
 now to-day, we have in prospect colleges where our sons 
 are to be educated, not onl}' to be good denominational- 
 ists, but to be good Prohibitionists, or good Free Masons, 
 or good Odd Fellows, or the like. 
 
 I cannot but believe that this is all wrong, and that 
 this diffusion of energy and scattering of forces is unwise 
 and injurious, and that instead of having for the educa- 
 tion of our sons scores of colleges, none of which rise to 
 rank of a high-grade university, it would be ten-fold 
 better to make our local colleges into academies, and to 
 concentrate into one great university, worthy of the 
 name and dignit}- of the State, the united resources 
 which would give the sons of Tennessee the best educa- 
 tion that these times will afford and make it unnecessary 
 for them to leave the borders of their State in order to 
 complete their education. 
 
 Before I pass from the ante-bellum records of East 
 Tennessee College, let me note that in 1840 the name of 
 the college was changed b}' an Act of the Legislature to 
 the trustees of East Tennessee University. ^ 
 
 In 1860, Dr. Carnes, then president of the college, 
 obtained a joint resolution of the Legislature requesting 
 
 99. Acts of 1839-40, chap. 98, p. 180. Passed January 29, 1840.
 
 — 64 — 
 
 the Judg-es of the Supreme Court to report at the next 
 session the facts in reg-ard to the appropriation of the 
 colleg"e lands under the Act of Cong-ress of 1806, and to 
 state their opinion as to the equitable right of the two 
 universities to further compensation on this account. ""* 
 The trustees appointed John H. Crozier and Thomas C. 
 Lyon to present the claim of the University to the 
 Supreme Court. 
 
 There was much hope of success in this matter, but 
 the war came up, and the matter has been sleeping- ever 
 since. Is it yet too late for an awakening- ? Is it 3'et 
 too late for the State of Tennessee to do equity to the 
 institutions of learning- which are its brightest orna- 
 ments ; to do justice, not onl}" to them, but to its own 
 fair name and fame ? 
 
 It was in speaking- of the acts of the Tennessee Leg-- 
 islature in reference to her colleg-e fund, that one of 
 Tennessee's most distinguished and patriotic sons, the 
 Honorable John Bell, many 3'ears ag-o, said: "I will 
 not enumerate them. I would rather cast the veil of 
 eternal oblivion over them ; but it should sink deep 
 into the mind of every true friend of his country, that no 
 temporary expedient, no short-lived applause of the peo- 
 ple, can justify a leg-islative body in violating those rules 
 of honor, propriety and justice in the discharge of a 
 public trust, which individuals are bound to respect. 
 The good that is obtained is generally fleeting, and can 
 never weigh in the balance ag-ainst public credit im- 
 paired and public confidence destroyed."""" 
 
 It was not until after the Civil War and the election to 
 the Presidency of the late Reverend Doctor Thomas W. 
 Humes, that cultured and Christian gentleman to whose 
 energ-y the University owes so much, that the next great 
 step was taken in the history of the University. 
 
 100. Re.solntion No. 3'), adopte<l Maivli 1<), ISGO. Acts of 1859-00, 
 p. (i7(i. 
 
 101. Quoted in White's Karly History of the Uiuvcrsity, p. 29.
 
 — 65 — 
 
 In 1862, the United States had, by the so-called Mor- 
 rill Act,"'' g-ranted to each State a certain amount of the 
 public lands within its borders, or if there was not such 
 quantity of public land, then land scrip for a correspond- 
 ing" acreag-e,'"^ to be sold by the States, and the monej-s 
 derived therefrom invested in "safe stocks," consti^ 
 tuting "a perpetual fund," remaining "forever undi- 
 minished,""* whose interest should be "inviolably 
 appropriated " to the endowment and maintenance of 
 at least one coUeg'e whose "leading object" should be- 
 "without excluding- other scientific and classical studies, 
 and including military tactics, to teach such branches of 
 learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts, in order to promote the liberal and practical educa- 
 tion of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 
 professions of life." 
 
 The Civil War having- prevented the acceptance of 
 this gift by Tennessee until 1865,"" at which date the 
 time originally limited by Cong-ress for its acceptance 
 had expired, Cong-ress was induced to extend the original 
 Act, so as to still allow Tennessee to obtain its benefits, 
 and the legislature, in 1868, for the second time, accepted 
 the donation and made provisions for obtaining- and 
 selling- the land scrip, which, b}- reason of the lack of 
 public lands, the State was entitled to receive, and 
 
 102. Act of Congress, passed July 2nd, 1862, approved July 5th, 
 1862. This Act is printed in full as Appendix G. 
 
 103. A warrant entitling the assignee from the State to locate 
 the designated number of acres upon any of the unappropriated 
 lands of the United States of the kind specified. 
 
 104. Except that a sum not exceeding ten per centum of the 
 amount received might " be expended for the purchase of lands for 
 sites or experimental farms whenever authorized by the respective 
 legislatures." (Appendix G, sec. 5, sub-sec. 1.) 
 
 105. By the express terms of the Act. (See Appendix G, 
 sec. 5, feub-sec. 6.)
 
 — 66 — 
 
 directed that the proceeds should be invested in bonds 
 of the State to await subsequent disposition.""' 
 
 However, Cong-ress had provided as one of the express 
 conditions of the Land Grant, that any State claiming- 
 its benefits should, within five years, provide a colleg^e 
 to receive the endowment, ^"^ or the g-rant to such State 
 
 106. The Act of Congress was first accepted by the Tennessee 
 legislature June 6th, 1865. (Chap. 22, Acts of 1865, p. 42; Whit- 
 ne3'^'s Land Laws, p. 516.) 
 
 However, the Act of Congress, which had been approved July 
 •5th, 1862, had specifically provided that " no State shall be entitled 
 to the benefit of this Act, unless it shall express its acceptance 
 thereof by its legislature within two years from the date of its 
 ^.pproval by the President" (Appendix G. ; sec. 5, sub-sec. 7), and 
 iience this acceptance by Tennessee came almost a year too late to 
 he effective. 
 
 By Joint Resolution adopted December 14th, 1866, our representa- 
 tives in Congress were " instructed " and our senators " requested " 
 to "intercede for Tennessee and use all reasonable and laudable 
 efforts to have said sub-section * * so amended as to enable the 
 State of Tennessee to accept the provisions of said Act." (Acts of 
 1866-7, Joint Resolution No 51, p. 281; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 
 516.) 
 
 Their "laudable efforts" were crowned with success, and by 
 Joint Resolution of Congress, February 28th, 1867, the provisions 
 of the Act of 1862, and of an amendment of July 2.Srd, 1866, were 
 extended and made applicable to the State of Tennessee. (Land 
 Laws of the United States, Vol. 2, p. 1098.) 
 
 Tennessee, thereupon, again accepted the provisions of the Act 
 on February 1st, 1868. (Chap. 32, Acts of 1867-8, p. 33; Whitney's 
 Land Laws, p. 515.) 
 
 107. Tlie State was to provide and equip the college ; Congress 
 furnishing the endowment fund whose interest should thereafter 
 support and maintain it. 
 
 Congress had specifically provided, not only, that the proceeds 
 of the sale of the land scrip should "constitute a perpetual fund, 
 the capital of which "should remain forever undiminished," (except 
 ' "a sum not exceeding ten per centum of the amount received, •■■" * * 
 for sites or experiinentai farms") ; but also that "no portion of said 
 fund, nor the interest thereon," should be applied directly or indi- 
 rectly, under any pretense whatever, to the purchase, erection, 
 preservation or repair of any building or buildings" ; and that the
 
 — 67 — 
 
 should cease, and it should be bound to refund the 
 amounts received from any lands previously sold. "*** 
 
 And hence, as the State had obtained and sold its 
 quota of land scrip and invested the proceeds in its bonds, 
 it was imperative that it should provide the required 
 college. Owing" to the condition of the State finances 
 it would perhaps have been difficult, if not impossible, 
 for it then to have made out of its own Treasury a suf- 
 ficient appropriation to fitly supplement the g-enerous 
 g-ift of the United States. 
 
 The University of East Tennessee, which was already 
 somewhat of a State institution, fortunately, was in a 
 position to assist the State, and was, furthermore, desir- 
 ous of securing- the location of the Ag-ricultural college. 
 It, therefore, under the energetic leadership of Dr. 
 Humes, made application to the State for the Congres- 
 sional appropriation, offering, if given the fund, to 
 provide the necessar}- college. Various other institutions 
 and localities made like application, but the efforts of 
 our Universit}^ were at length crowned with success, and 
 in 1869 the Legislature appropriated the proceeds of the 
 sale of the land scrip to the Kast Tennessee Universit}^ 
 making it the express "dut}- of the Trustees of said 
 Universit}^ to establish an Agricultural College, so as 
 to strictl}' conform with the Congressional enactment," 
 and providing that the fund appropriated should be used 
 only according to the terms of that enactment. "^ 
 
 interest of the fund should be "inviolably appropriated" to "the 
 endowment, support and maintenance" of the college to be pro- 
 vided by the State. Appendix G; Sec. 4, and Sec. 5, Sub-Sees. 
 1 and 2.) 
 
 108. Appendix G, Sec. 5, Sub-Sec. 3 
 
 109. Chap. 12, Acts of 1868-9, p. 12, passed January 16, 1869. 
 This Act is printed in full in Appendix H. 
 
 May I not be permitted, in this connection, to refer to the fact 
 that under date of February 12, 1869, the Board of Trustees of the 
 East Tennessee University passed a resolution tendering the most 
 hearty thanks of the Board of Trustees to E. J. Sanford "for his
 
 — 68 — 
 
 I cannot here forbear from mentioning the historical 
 fact that the city of Knoxville, having- been anxious to 
 secure the location of the Agricultural College here, its 
 Board of Ma3'or and Aldermen, to aid in securing this 
 result, had previousl}-, with commendable alacrity, voted 
 to appropriate fifteen thousand dollars for the purchase 
 of a library for the University when the College should 
 be so located, and that now, this having been accom- 
 plished, our excellent city, with an alacrity equal to that 
 with which it had formerly voted to give the library, 
 changed its mind and was only compelled to do so 
 by the Supreme Court at the end of a lawsuit. "" 
 
 The State, it is to be observed, did not in the Act of 
 1869 appropriate a dollar from its own treasury to aid in 
 providing the Agricultural College, this being made the 
 task of the University. And not only did the State 
 require the Trustees to complete buildings for the accom- 
 modation of two hundred and seventy-five students, fur- 
 nish them with appropriate school furniture, and provide 
 at least two hundred acres of suitable lands, making the 
 whole property worth at least one hundred and twenty- 
 five thousand dollars, before the Government should 
 issue to them the bonds, but it was furthermore made a 
 condition of the Act that the University should at all 
 times be required to give free tuition in the Agricultural 
 College to three students from each county of the State, 
 that number being, in 1873, increased to two hundred 
 and seventy-five students from the entire State, "* with 
 
 faithful and very efficient services as our agent in securing the loca- 
 tion of the Agricultural College at Knoxville, as a branch of the 
 East Tennessee University." 
 
 1 10. vSuit of East Tennessee University vs. Mayor and Aldermen 
 of Knoxville ; appealed to the Supreme Court from the Chancery 
 Court of Knox county. The city finally gave the University •$20,000 
 in city bonds in settlement of the decree against it. 
 
 111. Appendix H, sec. G; amended by sec. 1, chap. 81, Acts of 
 1873, p. lilt, passed March 22, 1873.
 
 — 69 — 
 
 the additional requirement that the profits arising- from 
 crops on the Ag-ricultural farm should be applied towards 
 paying" the expenses of indig-ent students. ''■ 
 
 The Universit}^ thereafter not only shouldered all the 
 burden that had devolved upon the State under the Act 
 of Cong-ress — a burden that well nig-h impoverished the 
 University and tied up nearh' all the little property it 
 "possessed in unproductive lands and buildings," but it 
 did so with the additional condition as to free students 
 which, "under easy appointment laws * * deprives 
 the University practically of all tuitions.""^' 
 
 I call attention to these facts to-day, not by way of 
 complaint, for the University was gflad to obtain the 
 appropriation under these conditions, and has no com- 
 plaint to make in this reg-ard, but as a matter of simple 
 justice; to the Universit}-, that it ma}' be known how 
 heroically it has strug-g-led, how bravely it has dis- 
 charg-ed, unassisted, all the duties that have devolved 
 upon it, and to correct an impression often, thoug-h 
 erroneously, entertained, that the State, in some way, 
 contributed to the support of the University, and that 
 its appropriation is due to the g-enerosity of the State 
 instead of the United States, "* an impression, doubt- 
 
 112. Appendix H, sec. 7. 
 
 113. Quoted from a very vahiable report on the history, 
 condition, needs and objects of the University made to the Board 
 of Trustees by President Charles W. Dabney, in 1888, in which it is 
 also said: "The fact is, it took all the slender resources of the 
 University of that day, with the exception of about ten thousand 
 dollars to acquire the additional land and put up the additional 
 buildings necessary to meet the terms of the proposal which looked 
 so favorable to the friends of the institution who had struggled with 
 severe povert}' for over fifty years." 
 
 (Biennial Report of Board of Trustees to the General Assembly, 
 1887-88, p. 45.) 
 
 I am informed that since this address was delivered, in December, 
 1894, the Trustees have made tuition free to all students. 
 
 114. Even the Legislators of 1869, themselves seemed to have 
 shared in this mistaken idea, as appears from the recital of the Act
 
 — 70 — 
 
 less arising" from the fact that the University is known 
 to have received and to hold State bonds. 
 
 The fact is, however, as has been stated bv our Presi- 
 dent, that ''the State which g-ave it birth, and has 
 undertaken to preside over its destinies, has g"iven 
 it, during- three-quarters of a century, not one dollar 
 of support, voluntarily and from its own Treasury. "^ 
 Others have bestowed g^ifts upon it by permission of the 
 State; it has been repeatedl}^ the recipient of Cong-res- 
 sional or Federal aid," which the State has merely trans- 
 mitted, "but the State itself has never once put its hand 
 into its own vaults and drawn hence a g-ift for this child 
 of its creation. The interest paid the University * * * 
 by the State is not a gfift, but merely rent for the use of 
 funds, which the State pays and would be required to pay 
 to any other" owner of its bonds. "The only money now 
 received by the University from the State treasury is 
 this interest money paid in settlement of coupons cut 
 from bonds which she holds, just as any private person 
 mig-ht hold them.""'- 
 
 The University, however, as I have said, does not 
 complain of the conditions attached to the vesting- in 
 her of the appropriation for the Ag-ricultural Collegfe ; 
 on the contrary, she rejoices in the fact that her halls 
 have been officially set apart for the free education of 
 the youth of the State, as well as in the fact that in the 
 same Act of 1869 the State made the Governor and other 
 hig-h officials ex-officio members of her Board of Trustees, 
 and added to the Board six new Trustees from Middle 
 and West Tennessee, "' because these provisions marked 
 
 that the University receives "its foundation and endowments by 
 the munificence of the United States Government and that of the 
 State Government." (Appendix H, sec. 10.) 
 
 115. There was, of course, the indirect gift of the lands of the 
 Western District. 
 
 IIG. Quoted from report of Dr. Charles W. Dabney, Trustees 
 Report, cited in Note 118, supra, p. 39. 
 
 1 17. Appendix H, sees. 8 and 11.
 
 — 71 — 
 
 the fact, so full of g^lorious meaning-, that the University 
 had become essentially the State University- and the 
 official head of its educational S3'stem. 
 
 Shortl}- after the passagfe of the Act of 1869 the 
 Trustees accepted the trust which it imposed and ag-reed 
 to establish the Ag-ricultural Colleg-e. They at once took 
 steps to carry out the provisions of this Act, and in May 
 of the same year were able to notif}' the Governor that 
 they had complied with all the conditions of the appro- 
 priation. In June the Board org^anized the Industrial 
 Colleg-e, and in September following- it went into opera- 
 tion. "« 
 
 I regret that I must ag-ain pause, while dwelling- on 
 these auspicious events, to note the fact that even under 
 the Act of 1862, the State has been in certain particulars 
 unfaithful to its trust. 
 
 The first instance apparently orig-inated in careless- 
 ness. Both the Acts of Cong-ress and of the State had 
 specificall}' provided that all expenses incurred in the 
 sale of the scrip and investment of its proceeds should 
 be paid by the State out of its own Treasury. ^"' Never- 
 theless, in spite of these plain provisions, the State, in 
 
 118. See White's Early History of the University, p. 118, and 
 chapter on the "University of Tennessee" in Merriam's Higher 
 Education in Tennessee, p. 71. This chapter was written by Prof. 
 T. C. Karns, and is a scholarly contribution to the history of our 
 University, fittingly supplementing as to the later period the work 
 done by Col. White for the earlier. I am indebted to Prof. Karns' 
 article for most of the information gathered as to the history of the 
 University since the Civil War. 
 
 119. The act of Congress had contained this express provision, 
 to the end that "the entire proceeds of the sales of said lands 
 shall be applied without diminution whatever " to the endowment 
 of the Colleges (Appendix G, Sec. 3), and the Tennessee Legisla- 
 ture had directed in the Act of 1868, accepting the Congressional 
 graut, that all the costs and expenses incurred in obtaining and S'^-t- 
 tling the land scrip and investing the proceeds in bonds should be 
 paid out of the State treasury." Acts of 1867-68, chap. 32, p. 33.
 
 — 72 — 
 
 1868, allowed items ag-gregating- over thirty-three hun- 
 dred dollars, for brokerag^e fee, express charg^es and 
 other expenses incurred in selling- the scrip and bu3'ing" 
 the bonds, ^'^° to be deducted from the proceeds of the 
 scrip, retaining- also in her own hands a cash balance 
 of over four hundred dollars, that had remained unex- 
 pended. The amount of these expenses and cash balance 
 was not paid over to the University until 1881, and then 
 without interest, ^'^' so that the University lost on these 
 two items the interest for about eleven years, or roundly 
 speaking-, about twenty-two hundred dollars. 
 
 But far more serious, and without justification, was 
 the conduct of the State in reg-ard to the payment of the 
 interest on the State bonds, constituting- the endowment 
 in which the Ag-ricultural fund had been invested. 
 
 The Act of Cong-ress had provided that the proceeds 
 of the sale of the scrip should be invested in " stock of 
 the United States, or of the State, or some other safe 
 stocks * * the interest of which shall be inviolably 
 appropriated * * to the endowment, support and 
 maintenance of the CoUeg-e," and the State itself, under 
 its Act of 1868, had directed that the interest on the 
 bonds should "be paid over semi-annuall}'." 
 
 Nevertheless, impartial history must relate the fact, 
 thoug-h she fain would drop a tear to blot out the record, 
 that in spite of this sacred oblig-ation to preserve 
 inviolable the interest on this fund, ag-ain and ag-ain^ 
 
 120. From a memorandum entitled " Manhattan Companj' of 
 New York, in account with Agricultural College Scrip," now in pos- 
 session of James Comfort, Esq., treasurer of the University, and 
 written, as he informs me, by the late Robert Craighead, a former 
 treasurer, it appears that the Manhattan Company sold 1,875 pieces 
 of scrip for the State and bought $.'>()(), 000 l)on(ls with the proceeds, 
 after deducting the following items : $3,292.80 expenses of counter- 
 signing, affixing seal, etc.; .$420.75 expressage ; and $495 commis- 
 sions, making total expenses of $4,208.55, and leaving a cash bal- 
 ance of $40(1.45. 
 
 :21. Chapter 43, Acts of 1S81, p. 52, passed November 28, 1881.
 
 ;p.-.> 
 
 M 
 
 i'A
 
 — 73 — 
 
 especially in the 3-ears just after the establishment of 
 the Industrial Colleg-e, when the University's Treasury 
 was well nig-h depleted with the drains made upon it in 
 complying- with the conditions of the appropriation, and 
 when most of all the Ag-ricultural College needed sup- 
 port and maintenance, the State not only repeatedl}- and 
 injuriousl}' dela3'ed the payment of the interest on its 
 bonds, oftentimes forcing- the Universit}' to borrow 
 mone}' to meet its current expenses, but when it did pay, 
 frequently paid, not in cash, but in depreciated State 
 warrants, which the Universit}- was oblig-ed, at great 
 loss, to peddle upon the open market for what the}' 
 would bring-. "' 
 
 The Treasurer's report shows that between the years 
 1873 and 1877 the Universit}' lost over twelve thousand 
 dollars b}* this payment in depreciated warrants alone. ''* 
 
 In 1875 the Leg-islature appointed a committee to 
 inquire into this matter, but nothing- was ever done; no 
 reparation has as 3'et been made to the Universit}'. '"* 
 
 The State is bound by ever}' principle of simple jus- 
 tice, and of trust obligation to make good this loss to 
 the University. It is furthermore under strict legal 
 obligation so to do by virtue of the provision in the Act 
 of Congress that "if any portion of the fund invested 
 * * or an}' portion of the interest thereon shall, b}' 
 
 122. Moses White's Early History of the University, page 48; 
 Prof. Karns' chapter on the University of Tennessee; Merriam's 
 Higher Education in Tennessee, page 74. 
 
 123. The exact amount was $12,122.87. Stated by Dr. Dabney, 
 Biennial Report of Trustees, cited in Note 113, supra, p. 50. 
 
 124. The committee was required to investigate both the matter 
 of the expenses deducted from the proceeds of land scrip and the 
 failure of the State in payment of interest, and to obtain the opinion 
 of the Attorney General of the State as to whether the State had 
 fully performed its obligation. (Resolution "No. 33, adopted Feb. 15, 
 1875, Acts of 1875, p. 298). Nothing was done in regard to the 
 expenses until paj-tial compensation was made, as we have seen in 
 1881, and nothing whatever in regard to the interest.
 
 — 74 — 
 
 an}' action or conting-ency, be diminished or lost, it shall 
 be replaced by the State to which it belong"s, so that the 
 capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished; 
 and the annual interest thereon shall be reg-ularly applied, 
 without diminution " to the support of the College. ''' 
 
 Financial trouble at the time may, perchance, be 
 urg-ed in palliation of the conduct of the State in these 
 matters ; but this reason can no long-er delay the making- 
 of reparation. 
 
 It is a relief to turn from this melancholy page to 
 the story of that auspicious year of 1879, ever memor- 
 able in the history of our University, in which the 
 Legislature, by changing her name to the "University 
 of Tennessee," ^^^ giving her the proud privilege of 
 bearing the name of the State, and by also providing 
 for the more general distribution of the Trustees 
 throughout the entire State, and for a Board of Visitors, 
 three from each Grand Division of the State, '" sol- 
 emnly attested, under the Great Seal of State, that the 
 University had in name, as well as in fact, become the 
 State University, of the entire State and for the entire 
 State, and was no longer a mere academy of one of its 
 geographical sub-divisions. 
 
 125. Appendix G, sec. 5, sub-sec. 1. 
 
 126. Chap. 75, Acts of 1879, p. 88, passed March 10, 1879. Cum- 
 berland College had failed to obtain this privilege in 1826. See 
 Merriam's Higher Education in Tennessee, p. 31. 
 
 127. Resolution No. 33, adopted March 24, 1879 (Acts of 187i', 
 p. 338). This Act provided that no further vacancies should be 
 filled in the Board of Trustees until the number should become 
 reduced under thirty, and that in filling subsequent vacancies pref- 
 erence should be given to Congressional districts not represented in 
 the Board, until each district should liave at least one representa- 
 tive. (Sec. 1). 
 
 In a resolution adopted by the Legislature January 24, 1893, it is 
 stated that the appointment of the Board of Visitors has lapsed, 
 and is no longer necessary on account of the election of the Trustees 
 from the different Congressional districts. (Senate Joint Resolution 
 No. 19, Acts of 1893, p. 459.)
 
 We also rejoice in the fact that in this same j^ear the 
 Leg-islature, by providing- for the appointment of State 
 students in the University, by public examinations of 
 the candidates for scholarships under the supervision of 
 the superintendents of public schools of the various 
 cities and counties, and the selection of the appointees 
 from the candidates thus qualified, '" took the last and 
 most important step in bring-ing- the University into 
 harmony with the public school system of the State, 
 making- the University what it should be, the cap-stone 
 of the public school system of the entire State, drawing- 
 its support from the public schools, on the one hand, 
 and, on the other, forming- the natural complement to 
 the education of these schools. 
 
 Small wonder it was that at the commencement exer- 
 cises of 1879 the inaug-ural ceremonies of the new 
 " University of Tennessee" were celebrated with much 
 pomp and ceremonial in connection with the installation 
 of the distinguished Board of Visitors that had been 
 appointed by the Governor. ^^'^ 
 
 The two subsequent Acts of Cong-ress, the so-called 
 Hatch Bill of 1887, by which an annual appropriation of 
 fifteen thousand dollars was made to establish Ag-ricul- 
 tural Experiment Stations in connection with the various 
 Ag-ricultural Colleg-es in the different States, '™ to which 
 
 128. Chapter 155, Acts of 1879, page 197, passed March 24, 1879. 
 
 129. See Prof. Karns' Chapter on University of Tennessee, Merri- 
 am's Higher Education in Tennessee, page 81 . The inaugural address 
 was delivered by Dr. Humes, President of the University, the 
 installation address by Gov. A. S. Marks, and the reply by the Hon. 
 Z. W. Ewing. It was during these exercises that Colonel White 
 delivered before the Alumni the address on the Early History of the 
 University, from which I have so often quoted, and that a poem was 
 read by the Rev. J. H. Martin. 
 
 130. Act of Congress, approved March 3, 1887 ; 24 United States 
 Statutes at Large, page 440. See also Prof. Karns' article, Mer- 
 riam's Higher Education in Tennessee, page 89.
 
 — 76 — 
 
 the Tennessee Leg"islature assented in the same year, 
 authorizing- the University to accept the grant upon 
 condition that it should carry out all the provisions 
 of the donation, ^'^ and the so-called New Morrill Act 
 of 1890, by which an additional appropriation was 
 made out of the sale of the public lands to the 
 land g-rant colleg"es established in the various States, 
 beginning- with fifteen thousand dollars annually, and 
 increasing one thousand dollars each year until it reaches 
 twenty-five thousand dollars annually, '■'" to which Act 
 the Tennessee Legislature also assented, ^^' have but 
 served to increase the solemn obligation of the Uni- 
 versity to the National Government, to fulfill in its 
 Agricultural Colleg-e the purpose of these gifts, and to 
 faithfully maintain the Colleg-e as one whose leading- 
 object shall be to "teach such branches of learning- as 
 are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts * * * 
 in order to promote the liberal and practical education 
 of the industrial classes." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln is, I believe, quoted as having- said 
 that the Lord must love the common people best since 
 
 131. Chapter 220, Acts of 1887, p. 352, passed March 28, 1887. 
 See also Prof. Karns' article, Merriara's Higher Education in Ten- 
 nessee, page 89. 
 
 132. Acts of Congress, approved August 30, 1890; United States 
 Statutes, 1889-90, p. 417. 
 
 By Section 1 of this Act it is provided that this additional 
 appropriation shall be used only for " instruction in agri- 
 culture, mechanic arts, the English language, and the various 
 branches of the mathematical, physical, natural and economic 
 sciences, with special reference to their applications in the indus- 
 tries of life, and to the facilities for such instruction." 
 
 133. Prof. Karns' article, Merriam's Higher Education in Ten- 
 nessee, p. 100. Chap. .']6, Acts of 1891, passed February 20, 1891. 
 By this Act the Tennessee Legislature assents to the Act of Con- 
 gress, and provides that the additional grant shall be committed to 
 the Trustees of the University " as a part of the endowment and 
 support of the college for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts, established by contract of this State with the Trustees of the 
 University of Tennessee."
 
 He has made so many more of them. It is the "com- 
 mon people" whom these agricultural colleg^es are 
 intended primaril}- to reach ; the industrial classes who 
 constitute the streng^th and bulwark of the State. By 
 the wise leg"islation of Congress, supplemented b}- the 
 wise leg^islation of the State, bringing- the University 
 of Tennessee into close harmony with the public school 
 system, it is the manifest destin}- of the Universit}- to 
 g-ive an education to every industrious youth within her 
 borders who shall deserve it and desire it. 
 
 The correct aim of the University is nowhere so well 
 expressed as in the words of Dr. Charles W. Dabney, the 
 forceful thinker and capable executive to whose revivify- 
 ing- energy and ability the University owes so much of 
 its present prosperitj^ who in speaking- of the objects of 
 this class of colleg"es as expressed in the Act of Con- 
 g-ress, says: "As interpreted b}' the best authorities 
 and illustrated by the best institutions," the language of 
 the Act "means that these colleges are to teach the 
 sciences, and train the youth in the methods, of the two 
 great producing industries, farming and manufacturing, 
 including planting, stock raising, mining, engineering, 
 both mechanical and civil, and general business. They 
 were to be pol3'technic institutes, not mere manual labor 
 or industrial schools — though scientific men, engineers 
 and farmers should all be trained to work with their 
 hands — but schools of the natural sciences, of engineer- 
 ing and technology; not schools to train farm laborers, 
 miners, mechanics, and mere artisans, for these can be 
 trained best on the farm, in the mine, or the shop, but 
 institutes for the education, in the broadest sense of that 
 word, of the future scientific agriculturist, the mining 
 engineer and metallurgist, the mechanical engineer and 
 the manufacturer, of our country." ^^' 
 
 The University authorities believe with Dr. Dabney 
 
 134. Trustees' Report, cited in note 133, supra, p 51. Also 
 quoted by Prof. Karns, ^lerriam's Higher Education in Tennessee, 
 p91.
 
 — 78 — 
 
 that the best resource of the South is its people, that 
 the best way to develop its wealth is to develop the 
 capacities of its people; to train and educate our own 
 youth so that we shall not need to import foreig-n 
 eng-ineers, foreign mineralog"ists and other foreig"n men 
 of science, but shall obtain from among- our own chosen 
 youth those who shall lead in our industrial future. 
 These schools protest that the South, in ante bellum 
 days, in the education of her favored sons, devoted her 
 attention too exclusively to classic literature and the 
 polite arts, and that it is folly to continue as Huxley 
 says: " in this ag-e of full modern artillery to turn out 
 our boys to battle in it, equipped onlj with the sword 
 and shield of an ancient g-ladiator.""^ 
 
 It would be inappropriate for me to fail to-da}- to 
 make some reference to that formidable enterprise which 
 was undertaken with such fear and trembling- and reluc- 
 tance one year ago : the admission of blue eyes and rosy 
 cheeks within the academic halls. We have had one 
 year's experiment. The reports of the professors, if 
 they have not been bewitched by the brightness of those 
 eyes, indicate not only that Tennessee yet has daugh- 
 ters as bright and fair as charming Barbara Blount, and 
 who, like her, are entitled to be classed as not only 
 attentive, but also diligent, and also ingenious, but the}', 
 furthermore, indicate that the experiment has been most 
 successful, and are full of encouragement to those who 
 believe that the daughters of the State are entitled to 
 be educated as thoroughly as her sons, and that the 
 giving to them of this education, side by side with their 
 brothers and the brothers of the other girls, will not 
 detract from their feminine charms, nor deprive them of 
 their graces, but will, on the contrary, in the generous 
 rivalr}^ of the schools, stimulate l)oth the young men 
 and women to higher excellence. 
 
 185. Quoted by Dr. Dabney ; Trustees' Report, 1887-88, cited in 
 note 11.'5, supra, p 52.
 
 — 79 — 
 
 My tongue, however, doth not, I fear, trip easily in 
 this new and double academic lang^uag-e, and if, in what 
 I have yet to sa}^ I shall fail to make mention of the 
 young- women every time I speak of the young- men, I 
 can only make the same apolog-y as the preacher who 
 had excited the ire of the female portion of his cong-re- 
 g-ation by his apparent neg-lect of their sex in beg-inning- 
 his sermon simply: "My dearh' beloved brethren,'' his 
 justification being- that "the brethren always embrace 
 the sisters." 
 
 There is one anomaly in our Universit}- affairs of 
 which this is also an appropriate time to speak, the fact 
 that its Alumni have, as such, no voice or participation 
 in its manag-ement. There is not, I believe, a successful 
 larg-e universit}- in America in which this anomaly exists. 
 I can speak with certain knowledg-e of but one — Harvard, 
 There the Board of Overseers are elected by and from 
 the g-raduates. It is certainly most fit and appropriate 
 that part, at least, of the manag-ement of the affairs of 
 a university- should be entrusted to her sons, devoted to 
 her b}- the ties of filial g-ratitude, and interested above 
 all others in her welfare and prosperitj- ; for who shall 
 care for a mother, if not her sons ? 
 
 It is a difficult thing- to inspire Alumni enthusias- 
 ticall}^ to come to annual conclaves under the stimulus 
 merely of dr}- speeches and equally drj- dining-. Let 
 them feel that at their annual meetings they shall have 
 some voice in the affairs of the University. We do not 
 ask to control the University, but we respectfully urge 
 that consent be given to some provision b}' which at least 
 a certain proportion of future Trustees shall be selected 
 from the Alumni and elected by them ; and, mark my 
 word, no step will ever be taken that will more redound 
 to the prosperity of the University. 
 
 And now, before I close, may I be permitted to con- 
 fess that while I believe that the opinions I have quoted
 
 — 80 — 
 
 from Dr. Dabney are sound, and that our young" men 
 need, most of all, and especially at the present day, the 
 education which he has outlined; yet, in my heart of 
 hearts, I am g-lad that Cong-ress, in defining- the leading- 
 objects of our Colleg-e, still retained the words, "with- 
 out excluding- * * * * classical studies." 
 
 I say this, because I believe that there comes 
 from the study of the classics, and the familiar com- 
 munion with the world's great thinkers which it involves, 
 that rounded and symmetrical development of the entire 
 mental man, which the mere specialist never g-ets, and 
 which is essential to real streng-th, so that, in the end, it 
 will often, if not g-enerally, happen, that the broadly 
 educated man will, even in practical thing-s, outstrip the 
 specialist in his own specialty. I cannot forg-et that 
 Gladstone, g-reatest statesman of modern times, received 
 the hig-hest classical training- that Eng-land's universities 
 could g"ive. 
 
 But I say this yet more earnestly because I do not 
 believe the world is yet prepared to forg-et the classical 
 literature, and because I bejieve that the youth who has 
 been trained only in strictly scientific and technical pur- 
 suits, who has closed his ears to the beautiful song-s of 
 antiquity, who has refused to open his mind to the g-reat 
 thoug-hts of the world's g-reat masters, as expressed in its 
 deathless literature, even if he achieve material success, 
 will yet miss the best of life ; for he will never have 
 walked in that "rig-ht path of a virtuous and noble edu- 
 cation," of which Milton wrote, "so smooth, so green, so 
 full of g-oodly prospects and melodious sounds on every 
 side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming-," 
 and he will g-o down to his g-rave, not having- heard the 
 music that murmured all around him, nor seen the 
 pictures of ineffable beauty that lay open in every noble 
 book. 
 
 One word more and I am done. As the University 
 to-day reviews her past history, her voice may well have
 
 COL. MOSES WHITE, UNIVERSITY HISTORIAN.
 
 — 81 — 
 
 the ring- of triumph and achievement, for in spite of all 
 obstacles, she has steadily been true to her ideal and 
 faithful to her precious trust ; she has ever kept trimmed 
 and burning- the lamp of learning- and of scholarship. 
 
 She will start upon her second century as a victor 
 that hath lived down all popular prejudice; exalted as 
 the official head of the educational system of the State; 
 the venerable and dignified institution, upon whose 
 future, more than any other of the State, hang-s the wel- 
 fare of generations yet unborn ; qualified in the amplest 
 manner to give the very best education that the age 
 affords ; stronger than ever before ; rich in students, but 
 richer yet in wisdom and ripened experience ; with 
 bright visions of future usefulness before her eyes, as a 
 great and magnificently equipped State Universit}^ 
 whose ramifying influences shall extend into ever}^ 
 village and hamlet within the border of the Common- 
 wealth ; who shall not only give to each 3'outh that 
 training for which he hath greatest need and which 
 shall do him most valiant service, but shall also, ever 
 faithful to her high calling, by her tradition and teach- 
 ings, inspire her students with the ideal of those scholars 
 described by Milton : "inflamed with the studv of learn- 
 ing and the admiration of virtue ; stirred up with high 
 hopes of living to be brave men and worth}' patriots, 
 dear to God and famous to all." 
 
 And as our University shall train her youth in those 
 pursuits that make for wealth, so too, as wealth shall be 
 developed in the community", bringing with it, as it 
 alwaj^s does, well earned rest and more attention to the 
 polite arts, to the graces and luxuries of life, to those 
 things that lift life above mere money-getting and make 
 it a thing of jo}^ and beauty, it shall be that those arts 
 which make for culture and refinement shall also keep 
 their homes within the walls of our University, which 
 shall ever be the abiding place, not only of that which 
 is practical, but also of that which is ideal. 
 
 And so it shall come to pass that when the harmon;-
 
 — 82 — 
 
 ous voices of all the universities in the land shall swell 
 loud and triumphant the national anthem of true educa- 
 tion, there will be realized the prophetic words of 
 Emerson: "I see in all directions the light breaking-. 
 Trade and g-overnment will not alone be the favored aims 
 of mankind, but ever}' useful, every eleg-ant art, ever}' 
 exercise of imag-ination, the heig-ht of reason, the 
 noblest affection, the purest religion, will lind their 
 home in our institutions and write our laws for the 
 benefit of men."
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS OF APPENDIX. 
 
 A.— Act esUvblibhing Blount College (1794). 
 
 B. — Historical note as to the controversy between the Unittd 
 States, Tenne-see and North Carolina as to the ownership 
 of vacant lauds in Tennessee, and the right to perfect titles 
 therein, with special reference to the Congressional Cession 
 Act of 1806. 
 
 C. — Historical note as to legislation and treaties of North Carolina, 
 the United States and the Fj-anklin government, relating to 
 the Indian boundary line in the territory embracevl in the 
 Cherokee "reservation " uf 1783. 
 
 D. — Historical note as to Tennessee enactments, from 1799 to 
 1805, inclusive, in reference to the occupant claims south 
 of the French Broad and Holston. 
 
 E. — Act establishing East Tennessee College (1807.) 
 
 F. — Act supplementary to Act establishing East Tennessee Col- 
 lege 11807). 
 
 G. — Act of Congress establibliing Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 
 leges (1862). 
 
 H. — Act of Tennessee appropriating agricultural fund to East 
 Tennessee University (1869). 
 
 1. — Notes on illustrations. 
 
 J. — Chronological list of Presidents. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 AX ACT for the E-tabli hraei.t of Blount College, in the vicinity of 
 Kuoxville. 
 
 Whereas, The legislature of this Territory are disposed to pro- 
 mote the happiness of the people at large, and espfcially of the 
 rising generation, by instituting seminaries of education, where 
 youth may be habituated to an amiable, moral and virtuous conduct, 
 and accurately instructed in the various brai ches of ustfi.l science, 
 and in the piinciples of the ancient und modem languages : 
 
 Sectio.n 1. Be il ena- led by the Governor, Legislative C<^unciland 
 House nf Representatives of the Terrilonj of the United Stall s of Amer- 
 ica south of the river Ohio, That the Reverend Samuel Cariick, Prcsi-
 
 — 84 — 
 
 dent, and His Excellency William Blount, the Honorable Daniel 
 Smith, Secretary of the Territory, the Honorable David Campbell,, 
 the Honorable Joseph Anderson, General John Sevier, Colonel 
 James White, Colonel Alexander Kelly, Colonel William Cocke, 
 Willie Blount, Joseph Hamilton, Archibald Roane, Francis A. 
 Ramsey, Charles M'Clung, George Roulstone, George M'Nutt, 
 John Adair, and Robert Houston, Esquires, shall be and 
 they are hereby declared to be a body politic and corporate, by the 
 name of the President and Trustees of Blount College, in the 
 vicinity of Knoxville, and shall have perpetual succession and a 
 common seal ; and that they and their successors, or the President, 
 and any four or more of them, by the name aforesaid, shall have 
 and they are hereby invested with all legal powers and capacities 
 to buy, receive, possess, hold, olien, and dispose of any property for 
 the use and benefit of the college; and may sue and be sued, 
 commence and prosecute any legal process or processes, and have 
 the same instituted against them in any court of record in this 
 Territory, in the most ample manner. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it enacted, That the President of the College, 
 with any ionr or more of the Trustees who may be present, 
 shall be a Board of Trustees adequate to the transaction of business ; 
 and in the absence of the President, any five or more of the Trustees 
 being met upon their own adjournment, shall choose a Vice- 
 President, who shall act during the absence of the President; and 
 that the President and each of the Trustees, before their entrance 
 upon the actual execution of their office, or their being known as 
 such' in law, shall appear before some Justice of the Peace for the 
 county of Knox, and shall take an oath faithfully to execute their 
 respective offices, which shall be entered on the records of the 
 College ; and that the President, or any of the Trustees, shall have 
 a right at any time to resign his office, by signifying such resigna- 
 tion in writing to the B jard of Trustees ; and that the Board of 
 Trustees shall have power to remove from office the President or 
 any of the Trustees, when they may think proper, and fill up any 
 vacancies which may happen in the board, thro' the death, resig- 
 nation, or removal of members, by electing others in their room. 
 
 Sec. 3. And be it enacted, That the Board of Trustees shall 
 have full power to appoint a secretary, treasurer, professors, tutors, 
 and all necessary officers for conducting the civil and literary con- 
 cerns of the College, and to displace and supersede them at 
 pleasure. They shall have j)Ower to meet upon their own adjourn- 
 ment, or upon a citation from the President or Vice-President; to 
 examine the proficiency of the students ; to confer the literary 
 degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts ; to fix the seat of the 
 College, and erect the necessary buildings in the vicinity of Knox- 
 ville; to make all laws and regulations which they shall judge
 
 — 85 — 
 
 necessary for the good government of the College, and for 
 promoting moralitj' and virtue amongst the students, provided they 
 be consistent with the laws of the United States : and they shall 
 take eflFectual care that students of all denominations may and shall 
 be admitted to the equal advantages of a liberal education, and to 
 the emoluments and honors of the College, and that they shall 
 receive a like fair, generous aud equal treatment during their 
 residence therein. 
 
 Sec. 4. And be it enacted, That the President, Vice-President, 
 Professors, Tutors aud Students of said College shall be exempted 
 from all military duty, during their continuance as members of the 
 college, except in a general invasion of the Territory. 
 
 WILLIAM BLOUNT, Governor. 
 
 GRIFFITH RUTHERFORD, P. L. C. 
 
 DAVID WILSON, S. H. R. 
 
 [The above is Chap. XVIII of the "Acts passed at the First Session of the 
 Genei-al Assembly of the Territory of the United States of America, South of the 
 river Ohio;" pp. 89 to 91. Passed September lOlh, 1794. Reprinted in Vol. 1 of 
 Edward Scott's " Laws of the State of Tennessee," at p. 504.1 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTE as to the controversy between the United States, Tennessee, 
 and North Carolina, as to the owneiship of vacant lands in Tennessee, and 
 the right to perfect titles therein, with special reference to the Congressional 
 Cession Act of 1806. 
 
 By various enactments from 17S2 to 17S4, inclusive, North Caro- 
 lina, whose Western boundary then extended, subject to unextin- 
 guished Indian titles, to the Mississippi River, provided for the 
 issuance to tlie soldiers and officers of lier continental line, as com- 
 pensation for their services in the Revolutionary war, of warrants 
 of survey to be located in the western part of the State, in what is 
 now Tennessee, on a tract reserved for that purpose around Nash- 
 ville, known as the ^Military Reservation, or, if tliere was not suffi- 
 cient tillable land in this reservation, then upon any other unappro- 
 priated lands in the State. ^^'' 
 
 In 1783 also, in order to redeem the large amount of specie cer- 
 tificates which she had issued to defray the expenses of the war and 
 to dispose of her surplus western lands. North Carolina opened an 
 entry taker's office, afterwards known as John Armstrong's office, 
 for the entry of land west to the Mississippi River, except within 
 
 136. Laws of North Carolina: Acts of 1782, Chap. 3; Acts of 1783, Chap. 3; and 
 Acts of 1784, Chap. 19. Whitney's Land Laws, pp. 92 to 97. Scott's Laws, Vol. 1, 
 pp. 257, 272.
 
 — 86 — 
 
 a certain tract reserved for the Cherokees, ^^" the price of the land 
 being pa5'able either in cash, specie certificates or certain other 
 designated certificates.-^^ 
 
 " Nearl}' all the holders of specie certificates, and many others, 
 embraced the provisions of the Act, and obtained incipient titles to 
 lands to be laid out in the Western territory of the State, and to 
 which grants were subsequently to issue. * * * 
 
 " lu the month of December, in the year 1789, the State of North 
 Carolina ceded to the United States all that portion of the Western 
 territory which now constitutes the State of Tennessee. * * * 
 At the period of the cession many of the military land war- 
 rants of the officers and soldiers of the North Carolina line, had 
 not been issued. Other claims were floating and unlocated to any 
 particular spot or parcel of land, and their number and amount 
 were unascertained. Many other claims had been located and 
 entered upon particular spots or parcels of land, to the claimants of 
 which no grant had issued, and thus the titles remained incom- 
 plete." 139 
 
 It was in view of this state of affairs that North Carolina in her 
 Act of cession specifically provided, among other express condi- 
 tions, that her oflicers and soldiers should have the right to lay off 
 any lands to which they were entitled within the limits of the 
 reservation already allotted them, and that if the reservation should 
 not contain a sufficient quantity of lands fit for cultivation, such 
 deficiency should be made up out of any other portion of the ceded 
 territory ; that when lawful entries previously made within the 
 territory had not been perfected by grant, the Governor of North 
 Carolina should, from time to time, perfect such titles; that all 
 rights of occupancy and pre-emption should be preserved ; and that 
 all entries previously made in John Armstrong's office which inter- 
 fered with prior entries, might be removed and located on any other 
 part of the ceded territory. Subject, however, to the foregoing and 
 other expressed conditions. North Carolina ceded to the United 
 States all her right, title and claims "to the sovereignty and terri- 
 tory" of the ceded lands, and declared that they should "be con- 
 sidered as a common fund for the use and benefit of the United 
 States of America, North Carolina inclusive, and should be faith- 
 fully disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose 
 
 137. See Note 31, svpra. 
 
 ns. Acts of North Ciiiolina, ]"fS3, Chap. 2; Scott's Laws, Vol. 1, p. 2(57; Whit- 
 ney's Land Laws, p. 82. 
 
 139. Quoteil from a very valuable coinmiltee report made to the United States 
 House of Ucprescntatives, Feb. 9, 1820, by James K. I'olk on the "Application of 
 Tennessee for a Grant of certain land." Amer. State Pai)ers, Public l^ands, 
 Vol. 4, p. 3S.
 
 — 87 — 
 
 whatever," one of the purposes of the cession, as expressed in 
 the Act, being to give the United States further revenues for extin- 
 guishing the National debt. ' '" 
 
 In 1796 Congress admitted Tennessee into the Union, the Act 
 declaring her "to be one of the United States of America, on an 
 equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever," but 
 being silent as to the ownership or right of disposition of the vacant 
 and unappropriated lands b'ing within the boundaries of the State. ^ ^ ^ 
 
 As might have been expected in this state of afiairs, it was not 
 long before a tripartite controversy arose as to tlie right of disposi- 
 tion of these lands. 
 
 North Carolina, even after the admission of Tennessee into the 
 Union, activeh' "continued to exercise the powers wliich she had 
 reserved to herself in the cession act, from its date in 1789 until the 
 year 1803, and continued to issue grants and perfect titles to lands 
 lying within the State of Tennessee, according to the reservation 
 which she had made to herself in the act of cession." ^^- It was not 
 long, liowever, before Tennessee, in the exercise of lier new sov- 
 ereignty, began to assert title to the vacant land witliin her bor- 
 ders and to insist that North Carolina was exceeding her reserved 
 powers. 
 
 The causes of the dispute between North Carolina and Tennessee, 
 and the grounds of the contention on the part of Tennessee, are 
 stated in a memorial made to Congress by the Tennessee Legisla- 
 ture, as follows : 
 
 "At the time this (cession) act was passed by North Carolina 
 and accepted by the United States, the time limited by the laws of 
 that State, witliin which the claimants of land were required to 
 have their surveys finished and to procure grants, expired in the 
 year 1792, and there was no reservation in said act of cession that 
 North Carolina might enlarge the time of making surveys and 
 issuing grants ; and it would seem as if North Carolina had no other 
 right to perfect titles on unsatisfied claims, except such as she 
 could exercise within the time limited by her laws, which expired 
 in the year 1792. 
 
 "Tlie State of North Carolina, after the year 1792, discovered 
 that from the Indian wars, and the unsettled state of the country, 
 but small progress had been made towards completing and return- 
 
 140. North Carolina Act of cession, passed December, 17S9; Laws of 1789, Chap. 
 3. Whitney's Land Laws, p. 46. In the Act of Congress accei)ting the cession, 
 approved April 2nd, 1790, the deed of cession wliich was dated Feb. 25, 1790, is set 
 out in full; Scott's Laws, Vol. 1, p. 455; Whituey's Laud Laws, p. 49. 
 
 141. Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 541 ; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 53. 
 
 142. Quoted from report by James K. Polk, cited in note 139, supra.
 
 — 88 — 
 
 ing the surveys by her officers, and, being unwilling that lier citi- 
 zens should lose their claims, extended the time by different acts 
 for making and returning surveys, until about the year 1800. ^^^ 
 
 " In the meantime the State of Tennessee was admitted into the 
 Union, in the year 1796, as an independent State and her constitu- 
 tion accepted by the United States. Upon the admittance of this 
 State into the Union, and the acceptance of her constitution, no 
 condition was imposed which would deprive her of the right to the 
 ungranted lands within her limits. Tennessee, accordingly, in the 
 year 1799, asserted her right to the ungranted land as a consequence 
 of her possessing an independent and sovereign government. The 
 holders of warrants issued by North Carolina, she insisted, had no 
 right to survey and obtain grants for lands unless these grants had 
 been issued within the time limited by the laws of North Carolina 
 when the cession from the State was made, in 1789 ; and that the 
 United States had ceased to possess any right to the vacant land by 
 not reserving her claim when Tennessee was admitted into the 
 Union as an independent State." ^** 
 
 The Tennessee Act of 1799 referred to in the memorial was an 
 act passed January 5th, 1799, for the purpose of " establishing 
 offices for receiving entries of claims for all vacant lands within the 
 several counties of the State. ^^^ This act was, however, never 
 enforced by Tennessee, its operation being from time to time sus- 
 pended by successive acts passed in 1799, 1801, 1803 and 1805. ^^'^ 
 
 On November 1st, 1801, however, the Tennessee Legislature 
 passed an act reciting that " it appears by communications made 
 to this General Assembly, by the Senators of this State in the Con- 
 gress of the United States, that the United States claim a right to 
 dispose of the vacant and unappropriated soil within the limits of 
 this State," and, in order that a determination might be made 
 whether the United States or Tennessee had this right, vesting the 
 Senators and Representatives from Tennessee, or a majority of 
 
 143. See Report of Committee of U. S. House of Representatives on " Claim of 
 tlie United States to Lancia in Tennessee," communicated January 8, 1H05, for an 
 excellent digest of the principal X.irtli Carolina enactments from 1782 to 1802, 
 inclu3lv(!, in i-ei^ard to \<iwU in Tennessee, inoliidin;? various extension acts. 
 (Amer. St. Papers, Pub. Lands, vol. 1, p. 193.) 
 
 144. Memorial of Tennessee Legislatnre to Congress, asking an amendment to 
 the Act of 180(5, so as to give Tennessee authority to perfect all valid North Caro- 
 lina clainiM on lands wes*; and south of the (Jongressiond] line. Dated November 
 18, 1817. Communicated to the House of Heprcsentativcs, December 29, 1817. 
 Amer. State Papers, I'ub. Lands, vol. 3, p. 287. 
 
 145. Acts of 1799, 2nd session, chap. ?4; Scott's Laws, vol. 1. p. {)2i. 
 
 14(). Acts of Oct. 23, 1799; Nov. 13, 1801: Nov. 7, 1S!)3, and Oct. 18, 1805; Scott's 
 Laws, vol. 1, pp. (!57. 723, 778 and 859. respectively. Sec also Whitney's Land 
 Laws, p. 93, note, with references.
 
 — 89 — 
 
 them, "with full power and authority as agents on the part of this 
 State to claim the ahsolute right of disposing of the vacant and 
 unappropriated soil within the same, and to have the claim of the 
 United States and the claim of this State examined and deter- 
 mined," and " in order to prevent all future dispute?," authorizing 
 them " to procure from the United States a relinquishment of their 
 claim to said land, in such manner and upon such terms as to the 
 said agents hereb}- appointed may deem proper." ^^^ 
 
 Pending the settlement of this dispute with tlie United States, 
 the Legislature, by an act passed November 14, 1801, confirmed all 
 prior lawful entries made and warrants and grants issued by North 
 Carolina for lands in Tennessee, as reserved by the act of cession, 
 and provided for the issuance of Tennessee grants on such North 
 Carolina warrants as had not been ripened into grants, but at the 
 same time laid a penalty of $5,000 upon any person subsequently 
 surveying any land in Tennessee "for the purpose of obtaining a 
 title for such laud from the State of North Carolina," and provided 
 that any grant so obtained from North Carolina should not be 
 admitted as evidence in the Tennessee courts.^*"* 
 
 In 1802, the Tennessee Legislature adopted a joint resolution 
 giving its Senators and Representatives instructions in regard to the 
 dispute with the United States, ^^* and on December 5, 1803, they 
 submitted to Congress a written communication, in which they rep- 
 resented " that the State of Tennessee, being particularly desirous 
 to preserve that harmony which hath hitherto happily subsisted 
 between the United States and that State," had appointed them 
 "commissioners, with full power to settle the disputes between the 
 United States and said State, respecting the vacant and unappropri- 
 ated lands lying within the limits of the State of Tennessee," and 
 suggested the propriety of appointing commissioners on the part of 
 the United States, with power to adjust and determine with them 
 " all interfering claims of the United States and Tennessee to said 
 vacant and unappropriated lands." ^^° 
 
 The claim of Tennessee to these vacant lands rested solely upon 
 the shadowy and untenable ground, already quoted from the memo- 
 rial of the Tennessee Legislature, that having been admitted by 
 Congress in 1796 as "one of the United States of America, on an 
 equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever," 
 
 147. Acts of 1801, chap. 39; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 722; Whitney's Land Laws, 
 p. 118. 
 
 US. Acts of 1801, chap. 2; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 6&S. 
 
 149. See Recirals in Act of Congress of Cvpril 18, 180G, and other documents 
 hereinafter referred to. 
 
 150. Communicated to tlie Senate December .'>. 1803; printed in Amer. State 
 Papers, Pub. Lands, vol. 1, p. 148.
 
 — 9U — 
 
 the ownership of the snil had passed to her, by implication, as an 
 incident of political sovereignty. ■'^^ 
 
 The United States, on the other hand, insisted that the "terri- 
 tory of the lands " having been expressly transferred by North Car- 
 olina to the United States in 1789, subject only to certain specified 
 conditions and reserved rights, as a common fund for the use and 
 benefit of all the States in the Union, for the purpose of paying the 
 national debt and otherwise, and Congress having never relinquished 
 the title to the soil, either in the act admitting Tennessee into the 
 Union or otherwise, this title still remained in the United States for 
 the purposes expressed in the original cession, subject only to the 
 rights and conditions specified in the cession, and that Tennessee, 
 having been given no right of disposition of these lands in the act 
 admitting her into the Union, this right was still retained by Con- 
 gress. 
 
 It is needless to say that no AVestern State would, to-day, think 
 of making the claim then made by Tennessee under similar circum- 
 stances, it being now familiar law that upon the admission of a ter- 
 ritory as a State, the United States, nevertheless, retains title to all 
 A-acant lands within her borders, not expressly ceded to the State. 
 
 While this dispute between Tennessee and the United States was 
 being arbitrated, Tennessee, in the meantime, endeavored to adjust 
 with North Carolina the rights of that State within the borders of 
 Tennessee, and by an act passed November 8, 1803, reciting that 
 "justice, the genius of our confederated government, and the prin- 
 ciples of intercourse which should govern sister States, require, 
 that any difference of opinion between North Carolina and Tennes- 
 see respecting their essential interests should be terminated by 
 friendly explanation and adjustment," appointed John Overton, 
 Esq., as "an agent on the part of this State, to confer and agree 
 with the Legislature of North Carolina, or such agent or agents as 
 they might think proper to appoint, respecting the land titles of this 
 State, or any circumstance or case relating thereto, and to make 
 such agreement, compromise or stipulation with the eaid State 
 respecting the same as may be necessary to do justice to the citizens 
 of both States," such stipulation to become the law of both States 
 when agreed to and enacted by their respective legislatures. ^*^ 
 
 151. Thus it is stated in a report made to the U. S. House of Representatives. 
 January 24, 1832, on tlic "Cession of the rublic Lands in Tennessee," tliat the 
 contention of Tennessee was "that with sovereignty the right of soil passed by 
 the act of iier admission into the Union, there being no reservation by Congress 
 of that right in said act.'' (Amer. St. Papers, Pub. Lands, vol. 0, p. 5.')2.) 
 
 152. Acts of 1803, cliap. 82; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 81C; Whitney's Land Laws, 
 p. 54.
 
 — 91 — 
 
 By a subsequent act of the same session, outlining the duties of 
 our agent and providing means for carrying his mission into elTect, 
 it was made "the duty of the said agent, if practicable, to settle 
 the said differences conformabl-i to the obligation of the law of 
 nations by consulting the interests of both States." ^^^ 
 
 On December 22, 1803, the Legislature of North Carolina, as 
 a result of John Overton's negotiations, passed an act, subject to 
 the agreement and ratification of Tennessee, and to the assent of 
 Congress, giving Tennessee 'full power and authority to issue 
 grants and perfect titles to all claims of lauds " lying in Tennessee, 
 which, under the terms of the North Carolina cession act of 17S0, 
 remained and were reserved to be issued and perfected by North 
 Carolina "in as full and ample a manner as the State of North Caro- 
 lina possessed the same," subject to certain specified conditions and 
 restrictions, one of which was that North Carolina " reserves exclu- 
 sively the right of issuing military warrants." 
 
 On August 4th, 1804, the Tennessee Legislature passed an act, 
 agreeing to and ratifying the said act of North Carolina, "as an 
 agreement between this State and the State of North Carolina, 
 vesting this State with full power and authority to issue grants and 
 perfect titles to all claims of lands lying in this State ia as full and 
 ample a manner as the said State of North Carolina possessed the 
 same, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, anything to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding." ^'"^ 
 
 However, the Committee of the United States House of Repre- 
 sentatives, to whom the North Carolina act had been referred, 
 recommended that Congress assent thereto only upon the express 
 conditions that the same should not, in any manner, "affect or 
 impair any right whatever, which accrued to the United States in 
 virtue of " the North Carolina Act of Cession;" and, for the time 
 being. Congress did not give its assent. ^^^ 
 
 In the meantime, however, pending these negotiations with 
 North Carolina, our Representatives in Congress had continued 
 to urge the claims of Tennessee to the vacant lands within her 
 borders. On April 18, 1806, their efforts resulted in the act men- 
 tioned in the text (p. 24^1, whereby Congress, "for the purpose of 
 defining the limits of the vacant and unappropriated lands in the 
 
 153. Acts of 1803, chap. 81 ; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 54. 
 
 154. Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 831; Whitne\''s Land Laws, p. 55. This act con- 
 tains the North Carolina act in full. 
 
 155. Report of Committee on "Claim of the United States to Lands in Ten- 
 nessee," communicated to tlie House Januarys, 1805. (Amcr. St. Papers, Pub. 
 Lands, vol. 1, p 103, also giving the North Carolina act ia lull )
 
 — 92 — 
 
 State of Tennessee, hereafter to be subject to the sole and entire 
 disposition of the United States," established a certain specified 
 line, running across the western part of the State, and afterwards 
 known as the Congressional Reservation Line, '^''^ and provided 
 "that upon the Senators and Representatives from the State of 
 Tennessee, by an instrument signed and sealed by them respect- 
 ively, making known, that in pursuance of the power in them 
 vested," by the act of Tennessee of 1801 and the resolution of 1802, 
 " they do, for, and in behalf of the State of Tennessee, and in con- 
 sideration of the provisions made in this act, agree and declare that 
 all right, title and claim which the State of Tennessee hath to the 
 lands lying west and south of the lines hereinbefore established 
 within the limits of the State of Tennessee, shall therefore forever 
 cease, and that the lands aforesaid shall be and remain at the sole 
 and entire disposition of the United States, and shall be exempted 
 from every disposition or tax made by order, or under the authority 
 of the State of Tennessee, while the same shall remain the 
 property of the United States, and for the term of five years after 
 the same shall be sold ; which said instrument shall be approved 
 by the Senate of the United States, and entered at large in their 
 journal and deposited in the office of the Secretary of State," the 
 " United States thereupon do cede and convey to the State of Ten- 
 nessee, all right, title and claim which the United States have to the 
 territory of the lands lying east and north of the line hereinbefore 
 established, within the limits of the State of Tennessee subject to 
 tiie same conditions as are contained " in the North Carolina Ces- 
 sion Act of 1789, "and the said State of Tennessee shall thereupon 
 have as full power and authority to issue grants and perfect titles to 
 all lands lying east and north of the before described lands, within 
 the limits of the State, that the State of Tennessee might have, by 
 virtue of the North Carolina Act of 1804, authorizing Tennessee to 
 perfect titles to lands reserved by the Cession Act, to which said 
 Act the assent of Congress is hereby given, so far as it is necessarj' 
 to carry into eflTect the object of the said contract;" the Cession to 
 Teimessee, being furthermore subject to various express conditions, 
 among others the provisions recited in the text in regard to the 
 appropriation of lands within the relinquished territory for the use 
 of colleges, academies and schools, and the pre-emption rights of 
 occupants south of French Broad and Holston rivers. ^^" 
 
 I.")6. It was tlius callcfl "liecau.se all the lanris on the south and west were 
 reserved from entiy, and exein|)t fi'oin claim Ijy Tennessee." Opinion by Judge 
 Carutheis, in case of Goodman vs. Tennessee Mining Co., 1 Head's Tcnn. Ileports, 
 p. 174. 
 
 157. 2 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. ."JSl; also printed in Land Laws of tlie United 
 States, vol. 2, p. 1094.
 
 — 93 — 
 
 In July, 1S06, Governor John Sevier called a special session of 
 the Legislature, to take action in reference to the settlements with 
 the United States and North Carolina. The following extracts from 
 his message show clearly the spirit in which the Cofigressiunal 
 claim was received, and the value put upon the relinquished lands, 
 especially those south of French Broad and Holston, as well as the 
 tenderness of sentiment then felt for the occupants in that region : 
 " In compliance witii request at the last session, I have deemed it 
 expedient to convene the Legislature, in order to lay before them 
 for their consideration, the Acts of Congress and State of North 
 Carolina, together with the result of the mission of your agent to 
 the latter, respecting the landed interest of the State of Tennessee. 
 It must afford great satisfaction to discover this business brought so 
 far towards a final and amicable adjustment with those govern- 
 ments. The proposed liberal modifications by the national legisla- 
 tion to our State, is such, if conceded to, I entertain no doubt, you 
 will avail yourselves, will, in my opinion, ultimately ensure a per- 
 manent security in all its relations touching the claims of the State, 
 and individual citizens holding lands under the laws of Xoith Caro- 
 lina, the basis on which the real property of this State has been 
 derived. * * * * Among the ver}' great objects you will have 
 before you for legislative consideration, will be the situation and 
 circumstance of the people settled on the south side of French 
 Broad and Holston and west of Big Pigeon rivers. They are 
 respectable and worthy inhabitants, who have suffered by Indian 
 depredations in a manner too deplorable to relate — they are justly 
 deserving the patronage and indulgence of a liberal and patriotic 
 legislature ; and I entertain every hope that the paternal care of the 
 Assembly will be tenderly exercised towards such a deserviug and 
 worthy class of citizens. * * * * 
 
 The lands conceded to this State by the national government, 
 especially those lying on the south of the French Broad and Hol- 
 ston, and West of Big Pigeon rivers, will alone, inevitably, in the 
 course of no distant period, furnish the treasury with considerable 
 and ample funds, sufficient to enable the government to facilitate 
 all the desirable and beneficent improvements calculated for the 
 happiness and prosperity of the most opulent and long established 
 republics. No additional burdens of taxation need ever be required 
 or imposed on our fellow-citizens, and we may safely contemplate, 
 under the care of Diviue Providence, with mild and salutary laws, 
 on always continuing to be a free, happy and independent people. 
 Very liberal and ample donations are now procured for the estab- 
 lishment and support of several of the most drnamental and instruc- 
 tive seminaries of learning. I am sensible of your good dispositicn 
 to forward and promote so noble a w^rk, and yield it all the aid and
 
 — 94 — 
 
 dispatch within your power, and will readily discover the sooner 
 the same can be brought into operation the greater will be the 
 utility of such inestimable and useful institutions." ^^^ 
 
 On September 6th, 1806, the legislature passed an act whereby 
 it was enacted that the act of Congress of 1806, " be and the same 
 is hereby accepted, ratified and confirmed to all intents and pur- 
 poses by and on part of the State of Tennessee, and that the pro- 
 viftions thereof be carried into effect." ^^° 
 
 And on January 23, 1807, Tennessee's Senators and Representa- 
 tivea in Congress, except Senator Joseph Anderson, who was absent, 
 executed a written instrument, making known that in pursuance of 
 the power vested in them by the Tennessee act of 1801 and the reso- 
 lution of 1802, and in consideration of the provisions made in the 
 act of Congress of 1806, they, "for and in behalf of the State of 
 Tennessee, agree and declare, that all right, title and claim, which 
 ihe State of Tennessee hath to the lands lying west and south " of 
 the Congressional reservation line, within the limits of Tennessee, 
 " shall hereafter forever cease, and the lands aforesaid * * * 
 shall be and remain at the sole and entire disiosition of the United 
 States, and shall be exempt from every disposition or tax," as 
 specified in the act of Congress. This instrument was approved by 
 the United States Senate on February 17, 1807, and ordered to be 
 entered upon the journal, the original to be deposited in the office 
 of the Secretary of State. ^'^° 
 
 In a report made to the Tennessee Legislature in 1821, by the 
 Committee on Education, in which the history of this cession is 
 cited, the committee express "the belief that the cession of the 
 vacant soil made to the Stale of Tennessee, north and east of the 
 reservation, resulted as much from a spirit of compromise, and to 
 quiet the conflicting claims of the parties concerned as from an act 
 of grace on the part of the Government of the United States." 
 The only ground stated by them for the faith that was in them, was 
 the fitct that Tennessee had been admitted into the Union on an 
 
 158. Governor's message, submitted July 29, 1806. Senate Journal for 1806, p. 5. 
 
 ).'>9. Acts of IfSOl), cliHi). 10, |). 58; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. '.t;jG; Whitney's Land 
 Laws. p. 58. 
 
 In tills ai-,t the act of Congress is set out in full. It had been originaly pro- 
 posed lohuihor'ze the Senators and Representatives in Congress to execute the 
 instrument of release provided for in the act of Congress, but this plan seea.8 to 
 have been dropped, (Senate Journal, July 29th and 30th, 1800, p. f, et seq.), and 
 the act of September 6ih sub->tituie(l therefor. On August 2iid, 1800, a lesolution 
 was adopted giving the thanks of the Legislature lo their Senators and llepie- 
 sentaiives in <;ongr^.^s " for the faiihful dischaige cf the trust imposed in them." 
 (Senate Journal. 1806, p. 15.) 
 
 160. This instrument is printed in full in Amer. St. ra|)erH, Public Laiuin, vol. 
 J, p. 581, with the proceedings In )egard thereto.
 
 — 95 — 
 
 equal footing with the original States, supplemented b}' the peculiar 
 argument that Tennessee had claimed these lands as early as 
 1798. I'^i 
 
 There can in fact, however, be little doubt but that the United 
 States had the better title, and that the cession was intended by- 
 Congress and accepted by the State more as a gift than as a compro- 
 mise. This is indicated not only by the relative strength of their 
 claims, and by the language of Governor Sevier's message, but by 
 various incidental expressions of our judges and statesmen. Thus, 
 in a decision of our Supreme Court, in the case of Lowry vs. Francis, 
 2 Yerger's Tennessee Reports, 538 (decided in 1831), Judge Catron 
 states that the United States, before the cession, held the legal title 
 to the public lands in Tennessee, and that Tennessee acquired 
 the land east and north of the reservation line by the compact of 
 1806 (p. 537?, subject to the conditions of the North Carolina session 
 (p. 539), and in the case of George vs. Gamble, 2 Overton's Tenu. 
 Reports, 170, at 172, Judge White, in delivering the opinion, states 
 that the constitutional convention of 1796, were "aware that the 
 United States would ultimately have the disposal of the vacant 
 land within the State of Tennessee." 
 
 So, in a report made to the Legislature in 1837, by the select 
 committee on the Ocoee district, referring to the lands in that 
 district, which were part of the ceded lands east and north of 
 the Congressional line, it is said that the title to these lands was 
 ceded to the United States by North Carolina and " the title thereto 
 remained in the General Government until 1806." ^'^- 
 
 The Congressional Reservation Line began where the main 
 branch of Elk River crosses the southern boundary of the State ; 
 thence due north (following almost exactly the present line of the 
 L. & N. R. R ) to Duck River (near Columbia) ; thence north- 
 westerly, down Duck River, (nearly to Centreville) : thence flue 
 west to the Tennessee River; thence northerly down the Tennesste 
 River to the northern boundary of the State. It is sometimes called 
 the Elk River Line, on account of the point of beginning. (Memo- 
 rial of Tennessee Legislature, Amer. State Papers, Pub. Lands, 
 vol. 3, p. 286.) 
 
 The territory west and south of this line, title to which was 
 reserved b)' the United States (subject to unextinguished Indian 
 titles), included all that portion of the State lying to the extreme 
 west of the Tennessee River, and the territory east thereof com- 
 prised in the present counties of Hardin, Wayne, Lawrence and 
 Lewis, and portions of Perry, Hickman, Maury and Giles. 
 
 IGl. Itepoit, November 1, 1821. Printed in Niles' Register, vol. 21, p. 299. 
 
 162. Repoit, biibinitted to Tennes.-ee House of Representatives, October 30tli, 
 1837. (House Journal, 1837-8, p, 800.)
 
 — % — 
 
 The territoiy ceded to Tennessee, east and nortli of the line, 
 comprised, broadly speaking, the eastern two-thirds of the 
 State, ^^^ embracing, approximately, from sixteen to seventeen 
 million acres, of which, after satisfying all North Carolina claims 
 that were located east and noith of this line, there remained un- 
 located in 1838, according to a memorial made by the Legislature of 
 Tennessee to the Congress of the United States, about eight million 
 acres, the most of which the memorialists declared, in language 
 that sounds strangely enough to-day, "is mountainous, unfit for 
 cultivation, uninhabited, and must be so for centuries." (Joint 
 Resolution No. 1, passed Jan. 5, 1838, Acts of 1837-38, p. 448; 
 Whitney's Land Laws of Tennessee, p. 522.) 
 
 There was, however, a considerable portion of the territory 
 ceded to Tennessee lying in the south-eastern portion of the State, 
 and mainly within the tract reserved by North Carolina in 1783 for 
 the Cherokee Indians, to which the Indian title had not been, in 
 1806, extinguished, but as this territory, with other lands, was 
 gradually ceded by the Cherokees in successive treaties made with 
 them by the United States at the Cherokee Agency in 1817, at 
 Washington City in 1819, and at New Echota in 1835, the benefit 
 accrued to Tennessee by virtue of the Congressional cession of 1806, 
 and the unencumbered title to the soil became gradually vested in 
 the State. i«* • 
 
 The territory obtained by the two treaties of 1819 and 1835 was 
 created into the Hiwassee and Ocoee Districts of Tennessee, re- 
 spectively. ^^'^ 
 
 Immediately upon the acceptance of the Congressional cession the 
 Tennessee Legislature authorized all the vacant land that had been 
 ceded to her, except that south of French Broad and Holston, to be 
 entered and granted for the purpose of satisfying the reserved North 
 Carolina claims, ^'"^ and kept open her offices continually for this 
 purpose. 
 
 103. This ie the estimate given in 1821 by the Committee on Education in the 
 report cited, supra. Note 40, p. 33. 
 
 1C4. See as to i hese and all other treaties with the Cherokees, a scholarly and 
 extremely valuable paper by Charles C. Royce on "■The Cherokee Nation of 
 Indians," which is printed in the Annual Report of the U.S. Kureau of I<:thnolo?ry 
 for 1SS3-4, at p. 120 e/; se7. The treaties are printed in full botli in Haywood & 
 Cobb's Statute Laws ">f Tennessee and Whitney's Land Laws. 
 
 105. Acts of 1819. chap. 59; Acts of 1830, chaii. 2; Whitney's Land Laws, 
 at pp. 380 and 43.'5, resjiectively. 
 
 100. Acts of IKOO. chap. 1, passed Sept. 1, ISOO (Scott's Laws, vol.1, p. 889). 
 See, also, recitals in memorial of Tennessee Legislature to Congress, 1817. (Amer, 
 St. Pajiers, Pub. Lancis, vol. 3, p. 286.) Also memorial of IS30 (Acts of 1S37-.38, 
 p. 443; Whitney's I>and Laws, p. 522.)
 
 — gr- 
 in 1811, however, there being still many unsatisfied North Caro- 
 lina claims, and most of the vacant arable land east and north of 
 the Reservation Line having been granted, North Carolina, pro- 
 ceeding on the theory that since by the compact of 1804 she had only 
 relinquished to Tennessee the right to perfect titles in Tennessee 
 subject to the assent of Congress, and that Congress had in the Act 
 of 1806 only consented to the compact so far as the territory east and 
 north of the Reservation Line was concerned, she, therefore, still 
 retained her original right to perfect titles west and south of this 
 line, without requesting Tennessee to permit her to resume the power 
 vested in Tennessee bj' the compact, passed an Act authorizing 
 surveys to be made in Tennessee west and south of this line on her 
 unsatisfied claims, and proceeded to perfect titles on such sur- 
 veys. ^*' 
 
 The first notice given to Tennessee "was the appearance of a 
 surveyor to do the duties of his office." He proceeded at once to 
 receive warrants and make surveys, and prior to October, 1812, 
 North Carolina had issued grants for about 50,000 acres of the best 
 land in Tennessee, lying west and south of the Reservation 
 Line. ^^^ 
 
 At once the Tennessee Legislature passed a prohibitory Act 
 declaring that the North Carolina Act was " not only a direct viola- 
 tion of the contract aforesaid, but an infringement of the right of 
 sovereignty possessed by the State of Tennessee, declaring all 
 grants issued under the North Carolina act to be void, forbidding 
 them to be read in evidence in her courts, imposing a penalty of 
 $5,000 on any surveyor who should survey land under the North 
 Carolina act, or register who should record such grant, and a fine 
 of $1,000 and disbarment for ten years upon any lawyer who should 
 begin a suit upon such North Carolina claim. ^®^ 
 
 Thereupon North Carolina apparently desisted from her efforts 
 to enforce the act of 1811. But about the year 1815 her Legisla- 
 ture presented a memorial to Congress claiming the right to perfect 
 titles in Tennessee south and west of the reservation line, complain- 
 ing against so much of the act of 1806 as authorized the appropria- 
 tion by Tennessee of 200,000 acres for the use of colleges and acade- 
 mies, and seeking the partial repeal of the act of 1806. ^"^ 
 
 167. See recitals in memorial of Tennessee Legislature, 1817, cited in note 144, 
 supra, and in chap. 80 of the Tennessee Acts of 1812. 
 
 168. See recitals in memorial of Tennessee Legislature, 1817, cited In note 144, 
 supra. 
 
 169. Acts of 1812, chapter SB, passed October 19, 1812; Scott's Laws, vol. 2, p. 
 99; reciting the substance of the North Carolina act. 
 
 170. See recitals in Memorial of Tennessee, 1817, cited in note 114, supra.
 
 — 98 — 
 
 To this the Tennessee Legislature replied by a counter memorial 
 in 1817, denying the right of North Carolina to perfect titles in any 
 part of Tennessee, and protesting against the repeal of any part of 
 the act of 1806, but stating that "all, or nearly all of the vacant 
 land fit for cultivation " east and north of the reservation line had 
 been already granted, leaving "yet remaining many warrants un- 
 satisfied " without land out of which to satisfy them, and praying 
 Congress to pass an act supplemental to the act of 1806, authorizing 
 Tennessee to perfect unsatisfied North Carolina claims out of any 
 vacant land south and west of the reservation line. In this memo- 
 rial Tennessee insisted that North Carolina had no cause to com- 
 plain of the " liberality of the United States " in regard to the appro- 
 priation for the colleges and academies, upon the ground that as no 
 North Carolina statute had ever authorized grants to issue south of 
 the French Broad and Holston, and Tennessee had, by the North 
 Carolina act of 1803, been prohibited from issuing grants in this 
 territory, the permission given by Congress to Tennessee to make 
 an appropriation for the support of educational seminaries in this 
 territory was no injury to the citizens of North Carolina. ^'^ 
 
 The cession act of 1806 had contained the express proviso that if 
 the territory ceded to Tennessee " shall not contain a sufficient 
 quantity of land fit for cultivation, according to the true intent and 
 meaning of the original (North Carolina) act of cession, including 
 the lands within the limits reserved by the State of North Carolina 
 to the Cherokee Indians, to perfect all legal existing claims charged 
 thereon, by the conditions contained in this act of cession, Congress 
 will hereafter provide by law for perfecting such as cannot be 
 located in the territory aforesaid, out of the lands lying west and 
 south of the before described line. ^"^ 
 
 Accordingly, on April 4th, 1818, " after the Indian title, by a 
 treaty made with tlie Chickasaw tribe of Indians, had been extin- 
 guished to all that portion of the country south and west of the 
 Congressional reservation line, to which that tribe had previously 
 claimed title, and over which they exercised dominion," Congress 
 passed an act authorizing Tennessee to issue grants and perfect 
 titles within the territory south and west of the reservation line to 
 all valid special entries and locations that had been made in this 
 southwestern territory under North Carolina laws prior to the deed 
 of cession, and also to issue grants within said territory on all valid 
 warrants of surve}', interferring entries, certificates, grants and 
 locations that had not been actually located or granted east and 
 
 171. Mpmorlal of 1817, cited in note 144, supra. Amei'ican State Papers, Pub- 
 lic Lands, vol 3, j). 280. 
 
 172. Act of Congress, 1800, cited in note 167, supra.
 
 — 99 — 
 
 north of the reservation line, and that were removable under the 
 North Carolina cession act, in the same manner as Tennessee then 
 issued grants to lands east and north of said line. This act made 
 no provision similar to that of 1806 for the benefit of children's 
 fechools. ^^^ 
 
 In pursuance of this act of Congress, Tennessee, in 1819, opened 
 a land office for the satisfaction of all valid North Carolina claims 
 south and west of the reservation line, the time for the adjudication 
 and satisfaction of such claims being extended in 1821, 1823, 1827, 
 and from year to year thereafter until 1839. ^"* 
 
 In 1825 the Tennessee Legislature memorialized Congress, repre- 
 senting that, owing to a large aiumber of North Carolina claims 
 wliich had to be satisfied out of the territory east and north of the 
 Congressional reservation line, she had been able to set apart only 
 22,705 acres for her school fund instead of one thirty-sixth part of 
 the entire territory, as contemplated by the cession act of 1806, (see 
 note 30, p. 26, supra), and requesting Congress to cede to her the 
 remaining vacant land south and west of the reservation line for 
 the purpose of making good her school fund, pledging the State to 
 appropriate the lands to this purpose. ^"* 
 
 But although Mr. Polk, as chairman of the select committee to 
 whom these memorials were referred, recommended that they be 
 granted, and reported a bill to that effect, no action was taken. ^'^ 
 
 From a report made by S. T. Ingram, Secretary of the Treasury* 
 to the United States House of Representatives in 1830, based upon 
 a report of the Commissioner of the general land office, and a letter 
 from Daniel Graham, the Secretary of State of Tennessee, it 
 appears (there being slight discrepancies in the figures as given 
 by the different officials, and also errors in their calculations;, 
 that the total area south and west of the reservation line was 
 estimated at 6,840,000 acres, of which 942,375 acres had been 
 granted by North Carolina previous to the cession of 1789, and 
 3,567,801 (or 4,567,801) acres had been adjudicated by Tennessee 
 since the act of 1818, leaving, subject to the disposition of the 
 
 173. 3 U. S. Stat, at Large, p. 416 ; Land Laws of the United States, vol. 2, p . 
 1096; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 521. See also committee report made by James 
 K. Polk to U. S. House of Rep., Feb. 9, 1826, on " Application of Tennessee for a 
 tirant of Certain Lands. (Amer St. Papers, Pub. Lands, vol. 4, p. 381.) In note 
 139, supra, this citation is erroneously given as p. 38.) 
 
 174. See recitals in Polk's committee report, cited in note 139, supra, and in 
 memorial of Tennessee Legislature, 1838, cited on p. 9<J, supra. In note 166 on 
 said page, it is i-eferred to, by a typographical error, as the memorial of 1836. 
 
 175. See recitals in Polk's committee report, cited note 173, supra. 
 
 176. See Polk's report, Amer. St. Papers, Pub. Lands, vol. 4, p. 381, cited in 
 note 173, supra.
 
 — 100 — 
 
 United States, 2,353,824 (or 3,353,824) acres of unappropriated 
 lands, which were supposed to be of little value, Daniel Graham 
 estimating that one-twentieth of them could be sold at 12^0 cents 
 an acre and one-fifth at one cent. ^''^ 
 
 Mr. Polk said of this vacant land: "Twelve and a half cents 
 per acre is believed to be a fair price for much the greater portion 
 of it that is worth appropriating at any price. Much of it consists 
 of barrens and hills that are not worth the annual taxes required to 
 be paid by the State, and will not be taken up at all. ^'^ 
 
 But although in 1830 and 1832, committees of the United States 
 House of Representatives recommended a cession to Tennessee of 
 the vacant land south and west of the reservation line for the pur- 
 pose of creating a school fund, ^'^^ and although, in a memorial of 
 the Tennessee legislature, in 1838, Tennessee offered to refund to 
 the United States all sums the State might receive " over and above 
 643,961, the number of acres of school lands, deficit to the State 
 (calculated on the basis of one section to every thirty-six), after 
 paying the expenses necessarily incurred," ^^° such legislation was 
 not enacted. 
 
 Finally, however, in 1848, Congress, finding that the remainder 
 of the public lands would scarcely pay for the expense of sale, made 
 Tennessee its agent for the disposal of all unappropriated lands 
 south and west of the reservation line, authorizing Tennessee, after 
 satisfying all valid North Carolina claims and pre-emption rights, 
 to sell the residue, paying over the proceeds annually to the United 
 States. 1" 
 
 177. American State Papers, Public Lands, vol. 5, p. 355. 
 
 178. I'olk's report, citeii in note 173, supra. See also as to these lands, report 
 of Kicliaid Rush, Secretary of Treasury, Jan. 22, 1828, on " Description of the 
 Public Lands in Tennessee," (Auier. St. Papers, Pub. Lands, vol. 5, p 49.) See 
 also statements of various persons acquainted witli the land, and of U. S. Sen- 
 ators and IJepresentatives from Tennessee, appemled to report of Committee on 
 Public Lands, on " Cession of the Public Lands in Tennessee," communicated to 
 the House of Representatives, January 24, 1832, (Anier. St. Papers, vol. .5, p. r).")2.) 
 This report, liy Mr. Wicklifle, gives an admirable historical statement of the 
 legislation of Congress in regard to lands in Tennessee. In this report the bal- 
 ance of vacant lands is stated at 3,353,824 acres. 
 
 179. Amer. St. Papers, Pub. Ljinds, vol. 5, pp. 428 and 562, respectively. 
 
 180. Memorial, 1838, ciicd note 174, supra. Wliltney's Land I>a\vp, at p. 528 
 
 181. Act of Congress, aj)proved Fel)ruary 18, 1841 ; 5 V. S. »tat. at Large, p. 
 412 ; Land Laws of the U. .S., vol. 2, y.. 1007 ; Donaldson's Public Domain, p. 483 ; 
 Whitney's Land Laws, p. 283. In 1^40 the Tennessee legislature liad instructed 
 tlieir Senators In Congress and requested their Representatives "to use their 
 moat earnest exertions to procure the passage of a li>\v auihorizing the State of 
 Tennessee to dispose of tlie vacant lands lying south and west of tlie Congres- 
 sional Resei-vatlon Line." (Resolution No. 14,1840; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 283.)
 
 — 101 — 
 
 And at length, after two memorials from the Tennessee legisla- 
 ture to Congress, in 1844 and 1845, respectively, ^'^ by act of Con- 
 gress, passed August 7th, 184G, the United States released and sur- 
 rendered to Tennessee, subject to valid North Carolina claims, all 
 unappropriated lands within the State, together with the proceeds 
 of such as had already been sold, providing, liowever, that out of 
 the proceeds Tennessee should apply $40,000 towards a college at 
 Jackson, Tennessee. ^*^ 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTE as to the legislation and treaties of North Carolina, the 
 United States and tlie Government of Franklin, in regard to the Indian 
 boundary line so far as relates to the territory embraced in the tract reserved 
 by North Carolina for the Cherokees in 1783. 
 
 So early as 1777, by a treaty held at Fort Henry, near the Long 
 Island of the Holston, between commissioners of North Carolina 
 and the Cherokee Indians, there had been established, as the 
 boundary between the whites and the Indians, an irregular line 
 running across the northeastern corner of the State, midway 
 between the present sites of Greeneville and Jonesboro, the Chero- 
 kees retaining title to all lands south and west of this line, and the 
 whites being forbidden to build, plant, improve, settle, hunt, or 
 drive stock below it. ^** This treaty was transmitted to the North 
 Carolina legislature but never recorded or formally ratified. ^** 
 
 In November, 1777, the North Carolina legislature passed an act 
 establishing Washington county, with the present boundaries of 
 the State of Tennessee, extending westward to the jMississippi, 
 without any reservation as to Indian boundaries. ^^'^ At this same 
 session an act was also passed establishing offices for the entry of 
 lands in all the counties of the State. ^*^ Under this act various 
 entries were made in Washington county southwest of the Indian 
 boundary line as fixed by the treaty of 1777. ^** Accordingly, the 
 
 182. Resolution No. 36, adopted January 10, 1844, and memorial No. 1, adopted 
 December 4, 1845 ; Whitney's Land Laws, pp. 530 and 298, respectively. 
 
 183. 9 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 66 ; Land Laws of the U. S., vol. 2, p. 1098 ; 
 Whitney's Land Laws, p. 301. 
 
 184. Haywood's History of Tennessee, p. 501; Royce's article on "Cheiokee 
 Nation of Indians," in Bureau of Ethnology Report, cited in note 2, stipra, at 
 p. 150. 
 
 185. Haywood, p. 63. 
 
 186. Acts of North Carolina, 1777, chap 31; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, j). 221; Hay- 
 wood, p. 69. 
 
 187. North Carolina Acts, 1777, chap. 1; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 259.
 
 — 102 — 
 
 North Carolina legislature, in April, 1778, passed an amendatory 
 and so-called explanatory act, forbidding for the future any person 
 "to presume to enter or survey any lands within the Indian hunt- 
 ing grounds, or without the limits of the land heretofore ceded by 
 the Indians or conquered from them, which limits westward " were 
 declared to be the boundary line established by the treaty of 1777 
 (though without naming it), declaring all entries and surveys which 
 had been, or might be made within the Indian boundaries to be 
 utterly void, and ordering the entry takers to refund all monies 
 previously paid them for the purpose of obtaining such entries. ^^^ 
 In 1781, the further entry of land was forbidden. ^^° 
 But, in 1783, the act of 1781 was repealed, and by an extraordi- 
 nary exercise of arbitrary power, perhaps based upon the idea 
 of actual conquest, without consultation with the Cherokees, 
 or so much as saying by your leave, and in violation of the 
 treaty of 1777 and the act of 1778, the western boundary of North 
 Carolina was declared to be "enlarged and established" so as to 
 extend westward to the Mississippi river, there being, however, 
 " reserved " unto " the Cherokee Indians and their nation forever " 
 all the territory in the present State of Tennessee, lying west of the 
 Big Pigeon river, south of the French Broad and east of the Ten- 
 nessee, together with some lands in the present State of North Car- 
 olina. By this arbitrary exercise of power by which North Caro- 
 lina attempted, as it were, to make a treaty by its own legislative 
 fiat, the Cherokee possessions were reduced to one-tenth of the 
 area conceded to them by the treaty of 1777 and the act of 1778. In 
 this act North Carolina forbade all persons, under heavy penalty, 
 from entering or surveying lands within the bounds set apart for 
 the Cherokees, or from purchasing, leasing or taking any gift of 
 lands therein from the Indians, declaring all such entries, grants 
 thereupon, purchases, leases and gifts to be utterly void, and for- 
 bidding, under heavy penalty, the whites from hunting, ranging, 
 or driving stock within the Indian lands. ^^^ 
 
 188. Hay woof<, p. 70. 
 
 189. North Carolina Acts, 1778, chap. 3; Scott's Laws, -vol. 1, p. 2i4; Hay- 
 wood, p. 70. 
 
 In an "address and remonstrance" of the Tennessee legislatuie to Congresg 
 in 1707, it is said: "It is believed that, by this act and line, * * * * no re- 
 lin'niishinent of right of territory is made, but that the said line was declared 
 for certain i olltlcal reasons." It is also insisted in this memorial that if the 
 Indians have any kind of claim to the land it is believed to be of the lowest 
 kind of tenancy, namely, that of tenants at will. (Amer. St. Papers, Indian 
 AlTairs, vol. 1, p. G25.) 
 
 190. North Carolina Acts, 1781, chap. 7, sec. 7; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 2.^5. 
 
 101. North CaioUna Acts, 17h:{; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 267; Whitney's Land 
 Laws, p. K2.
 
 — 103 j- 
 
 This arbitrary action on the part of North Carolina, in reilucin^; 
 the Indian boundaries, was undoubtedly largely the cause of the 
 subsequent Indian hostilities. ^^^ 
 
 In spite, however, of this legislation, white settlers, as stated 
 in the text (page 28), persistently encroached within the loound- 
 aries even of the " reservation," especially in the territory south of 
 the French Broad and Holston. Thus, in 1784, the Indian agent, 
 Joseph Martin, writing of the encroachment of the whites, grad- 
 ually extending closer and closer to the Indian towns that lay 
 along the southern shore of the Little Tennessee river, said : " The 
 people from franklyn have actually settled or at least built houses 
 within two miles of their beloved town of Chota, one of their 
 principal towns. * * * There has a number of families moved 
 (on Little river) and talk of Building forts, and Say they will Hold 
 it in defiance of Every power." '^^^ 
 
 In 1785 the revolutionary State of Franklin negotiated a treaty 
 with the Cherokees at Dumplin Creek, beginning May Slst, at 
 which the Cherokees ceded to the whites all lands lying "east" 
 (north) of the ridge dividing the waters of Little river and the 
 (Little) Tennessee, this being followed by a quasi treaty between 
 the State of Franklin and the Cherokees, held at Chota Ford and 
 Coytoy, beginning July 31st, 1786, at which, under threats of virtual 
 extirpation, the Indians gave up all their lands north of the (Little) 
 Tennessee river and west to the Cumberland mountain. ^^* 
 
 These Franklin treaties were, of course, not recognized by North 
 Carolina. They were furthermore virtually repudiated by the 
 United States in the treaty held at Hopewell on the Keowee, 
 November 28th, 1785, by which also the North Carolina act of 1783 
 was utterly abrogated, the boundary line between the Cherokees 
 and the United States in East Tennessee being declared to be an 
 irregular line running across the northeastern part of the State from 
 Cumberland Gap, and passing between the present sites of Jones- 
 boro and Greeneville. ^^^ In a "talk" made during the negotiation 
 of this treaty by the Cherokee chief, Old Tassel, the Beloved Man of 
 Chota, he stated that the whites had already settled on Little river 
 
 192. See Royce'8 article. Bureau Ethnology Report, p. 151; also article by 
 Prof. Werks on "General Joseph Martin and the War of the llevolution iu the 
 West,"' (cited in note 33, p. 29), at page 44. 
 
 193. Quoted in Pjof. Week's .article, American Historical Association Report, 
 pase 444. 
 
 I use the word "reservation" in default of abetter. It was merely a "les- 
 ervation " vi et arviis, and was never recognized bv the (i erokees. 
 ♦ 
 
 194. For an account of these treaties see Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, pp. 
 299 and 343, and Koyce's article, IJureau of Ethncdogy Report, p. 152. 
 
 195. Royce's article, Bureau of Ethnology Report, p. 133.
 
 — 104 — 
 
 aod Niae Mile creek, nine miles from the Cherokee towns on the 
 southern banks of the Little Tennessee river, and had marked out 
 lands across the river from the town of Chota itself and in the fork 
 of the Tennessee and Little Tennessee. ^^'^ 
 
 In 1788, the Franklin Government having collapsed, and North 
 Carolina failing to recognize or protect the people who had settled 
 upon the Indian lands, they organized for themselves " a rude gov- 
 ernmental machine, on the model of the Commonwealth of Frank- 
 lin," which lasted until the formation of the territorial government 
 in 1790. (Roosevelt's Winning of the West, vol. 3, p. 202.) 
 
 By the treaty of the Holston, made with the Cherokees by Gov- 
 ernor Blount on the present site of Knoxville, July 2nd, 1791, and 
 proclaimed February 7th, 1792, the Cherokees ceded to the United 
 States in Tennessee, among other lands, all that portion of their 
 "reservation" in Tennessee, lying north of a line, running from 
 a point just above Kingston southeastwardly, passing near the 
 present site of Maryville, to the State line. ^^^ 
 
 In a report made to Congress, November 10th, 1791, by Thomas 
 Jefferson, then Secretary of State, on the unclaimed lands in the 
 northwestern and southwestern territory, he states, in speaking of 
 that portion of the lands south of the French Broad and Holston, 
 which had been acquired from the Indians at the treaty of Holston : 
 "They are supposed to amount to about three hundred thousand 
 acres, and we are told that three hundred families have already set 
 down upon them without right or license." ^^^ 
 
 The Cherokee boundary line, established by the treaty of Hoi 
 ston, was confirmed by the treaty concluded at Philadelphia June 
 26th, 1794, and proclaimed January 2l8t, 1795. ^^^ 
 
 By the treaty held in the Cherokee council house, near Tellico, 
 concluded October 2nd, 1798, the Cherokees ceded to the United 
 States, among other lands, all the remaining portion of their orig- 
 inal " reservation " in Tennessee lying south of Hawkin's line and 
 west of the Chilhowee mountains, except a small portion just west 
 of the mountains on tie north shore of Little Tennessee river, ^"^ 
 
 196. Amcr. St. Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 41. 
 
 )i>7. 7 U. S. Stat, at Large, p. 389; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 17. 
 
 It must be remembered in reading this and otlier treaties that the I^ittle Ten- 
 ne.ssee river was then considered tlie main branch oT the Tennessee above the 
 jniiction at what is now Lenoir (;ity,and was called the Tennessee river, while 
 tlic brancli passing by Knoxville, now styled the Tennessee, was then called 
 the Holston. 
 
 19S. Anier. St. Papers. Tnb. Lands, vol. 1, p. 18. 
 
 IW. Wliitney's Land Laws, p. IS. 
 
 200. Wliitney's Land Laws, p. 20; Uoyce's article, Bureau of Ethnology Re- 
 port, j(. 174.
 
 — 105 — 
 
 and also to something over 100,000 acres north of the river lying 
 mainly in that portion of Blount county east of the Chilhowee 
 mountains, perhaps partly also in Sevier, and in that detached 
 portion of Monroe county which lies north of the Little Tennessee 
 river and west of the Chilhowee. It was not in fact until the treaty 
 concluded at Washington February 27 tb, 1819, proclaimed March 
 10th, 1819, that the Cherokees ceded to the United States, among 
 other lands, the remainder of their "reservation" in Tennessee 
 lying nortb of the Little Tennessee river, together with about one- 
 half of their "reservation" south of the river, the land so ceded 
 being afterwards established as the Hiwassee District of Ten- 
 nessee. ^"^ 
 
 The remainder of the "reservation" was ceded to the United 
 States by the treaty made at New Echota, December 29th, 1835, 
 proclaimed May 23rd, 1836, by which, in consideration of $5,000,000 
 the Cherokees conveyed all their lands east of the Missii-sippi river, 
 this portion being afterwards established as the Ocoee District, ^o* 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTE as to Tennessee enactments from 1799 to 1805, inclusive, 
 in reference to occupant claims soutb of French Broad and Holston. 
 
 In 1799, Tennessee had provided that these lands claimed by 
 occupancy and pre-emption, should be subject to taxation. ^°^ 
 
 In this same year, in the act opening land offices for the general 
 sale of land at twenty-five cents an acre, it had been expressly 
 provided that the occupants south of French Broad and Holston 
 should have preference of entry; ^o* and in an act in 1801 these 
 occupants had been authorized to locate certain North Carolina 
 warrants on their improvements and obtain grants thereon. ^"^ 
 But as will more fully appear by reference to historical note. 
 Appendix B, supra, Tennessee never sought to enforce either of 
 these acts. 
 
 201. Whitney's Land Laws, p. 39; Royce's article, Bareau of Ethnology 
 Report, p. 253. Acts of 1819, chap. 59; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 386. 
 
 202. Whitney's Land Laws, p. 40 ; Royce's article. Bureau of Ethnology 
 Report, p. 253. Acts of 1836, chap. 2; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 436. 
 
 203. Acts of 1799, chap. 14, Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 620. 
 
 204. Acts of 1799, chap. 24; Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. 624, 
 
 205. Acts of 1801, chap. 2; Scott's Laws, p. 668.
 
 — 106 — 
 
 And so as to an act passed in 1805, "directing the mode of 
 ascertaining the bounds of improvement and occupant claims" in 
 this territory, ^oe Sections 1 to 4 of this act are not contained in 
 any of the compilations, and the original act is not in the Secre- 
 tary of State's office, having been lost or destroyed ; neither is there 
 any printed copy in the State library. Section 5 provides for 
 recording bills of sale of pre-emption rights in this territory, and 
 section 6 forbids any surveys in this district or any warrants or 
 entries on warrants for the purpose of obtaining grants (thus 
 repealing the provisions of the act of 1801), and excludes from evi- 
 dence any grant that may issue to these lands. 
 
 In the case of Shields vs. Walker, 2 Overton's Tenn. Reports, 
 114 at 116 (decided in 1811), it is stated by Judge White that " the 
 first and perhaps the only material acts of Tennessee," in reference 
 to persons entitled to preference south of French Broad and Hol- 
 ston, is chapter 1 of the acts of 1806, sections 1, 8 and 9. 
 
 Since writing the note 38 on page 32, supra, in which it is stated 
 that the North Carolina Assembly of 1789 seems not to have opened 
 an office for the entry of pre-emptions south of French Broad and 
 Holston, under the power vested in the cession act, I have found it 
 stated as a fact by Judge White, in this same case of Shields vs. 
 Walker, that North Carolina "never did exercise that power;" 
 that there had never been any North Carolina legislation prior to 
 1789 giving pre-emption rights to the settlers in this district; " and 
 that so far from it, we find the legislature continually striving to 
 reserve this country for the use of the Indians." ^"'^ 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 AN ACT to establish a College in East Tennessee. 
 
 Whereas it is provided by an act of the Congress of the United 
 States, entitled, " An Act to authorize the State of Tennessee to 
 issue grants to certain lands therein described, and to settle the 
 claims to the vacant and unappropriated lands within the same," 
 passed the eighteenth day of April, one tliousand eight hundred 
 and six, that there shall be one hundred thousand acres of land 
 laid off on the south side of Holston and French Broad, and west 
 side of Big Pigeon rivers, to which the Indian claim had been 
 
 2i)(l. Acts of 1805, chap. 72, passed Oct. 28, ISOri; Whitney's Land Laws, p. 340; 
 Scott's Laws, vol. 1, p. :i86; Haywood's & Cobb's Statutes, vol. 2, p. 124. 
 
 207 2 Overton, pp. 115 and 110. See also recitals in memorial of Tennessee 
 Legislature, 1817, cited in note 144, supra. 
 
 i
 
 — 107 — 
 
 extinguished ; and that the proceeds of the sales of the said one 
 hundred thousand acres of land should be appropriated in such 
 way by the legislature of this state that the profits thereof 
 should be applied to the support of two colleges in this state, 
 the one in East and the other in West Tennessee, to be 
 established by the legislature of this state ; And whereas it is 
 expedient that this General Assembly should establish a college in 
 East Tennessee, capable of receiving that part of said donation, 
 designed by said act to be given to the college to be established in 
 East Tennessee aforesaid : Therefore, 
 
 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ten- 
 nessee, That there shall be thirty persons appointed by this 
 General Assembly, who shall be, and hereby are constituted a body- 
 politic and corporate, by the name of the "Trustees of East Ten- 
 nessee College." And by that name shall have perpetual succession 
 and a common seal. And the said trustees, and their successors, 
 by the name aforesaid, shall be endowed with, and receive in such 
 manner as the General Assembly of this state may from time to 
 time direct, that part of the donation aforesaid, which was designed 
 for the college in East Tennessee ; and they shall by the name afore- 
 said, be capable in law, to purchase, receive and hold to them and 
 their successors forever, or for any less estate, any lands, tenements, 
 goods, or chattels, which shall be given, granted, or devised to them 
 or purchased by them to the use of said college, and to use and dis- 
 pose of the same, in such manner as to them shall seem most advan- 
 tageous for the use of said college. The said trustees and their 
 successors by the name aforesaid, may sue and be sued, plead and 
 be impleaded, in any court of law or equity in this state or elsewhere. 
 
 2. Be it enacted, That no less than seven of said trustees 
 shall constitute a board, to determine upon any matter relative to 
 said college, nor shall any of the real or personal estate belonging to 
 said college be disposed of or appropriated at any session of said 
 board, except a stated session ; nor shall any president or professor in 
 said college, ever be chosen, except at a stated session of the board ; 
 but temporary appointments which shall expire with the next 
 stated session after they are made, may be made at an adjourned or 
 called session of the board. 
 
 3. Be it enacted, That the said trustees at their stated sessions, 
 shall have full power and authority to elect a president, such 
 professors, tutors, and other officers in said college, as they may 
 judge necessary, and to make such by-laws, rules and regulations 
 for the government of said college, and the promotion of education 
 therein, as in their opinion may be expedient or necessary ; Provided, 
 such by-laws, rules and regulations are not inconsistent with the 
 constitution and laws of the United States, or of this state.
 
 — 1U8 — 
 
 4. Be it enacted, That upon the death, removal out of the 
 county in which lie resides, or resignation of any of the said trus- 
 tees, the vacancy thereby occasioned, shall be supplied, by the re- 
 maining trustees appointing some other person, a resident of the 
 same county, in which the one deceased, resigned or removed, 
 resided ; which appointment shall remain until the expiration of the 
 next session of the General Assembly; within which time, the Gen- 
 eral Assembly shall supply such vacancy. 
 
 5. Be it enacted. That the said trustees shall have two meet- 
 ings of their board in each year, at the place where said college is 
 established, to commence on the first Thursday of April, and the first 
 Thursday of October, in each year ; and at either of said sessions, the 
 board may adjourn to any day they may judge expedient; and 
 when, in the opinion of the president and any two trustees of said 
 college, a called session may be necessary, they may call the same. 
 And at any stated session, the board of trustees shall have power to 
 remove the president, professors, or any other ofiicer of said college ; 
 and to fix and regulate their respective salaries. And the president 
 and professors of said college, with the advice and consent of a 
 majority of the board, shall have full power and authority, at any 
 stated session of the said board, to confer on any student in said 
 college, or any other person they may think proper, the degrees of 
 Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, or any other degree known and 
 used in any college or university, in any of the United States. At 
 every meeting of the board of trustees, when there is a president 
 of the college present, he shall be president of the board, but shall 
 in no wise have a vote, when there is no president present, the 
 board may appoint one of their own body to act as president. 
 
 6. Be it enacted, That each of said trustees, before acting in 
 his appointment, shall before some judge or justice of the peace, 
 take an oath, faithfully, honestly and impartially to discharge the 
 duties of his said appointment; and that in all votes by him to be 
 given as a trustee of said college, he will so vote, as in his judgment 
 will best promote the interest of said college, and education therein. 
 
 7. Be it enacted. That said trustees shall have full power to 
 sell, exchange, assign, transfer or convey any of the real or per- 
 sonal estate of said college by deed or otherwise, except the pro- 
 ceeds of the sales of one moiety of said one hundred thousand acres 
 of land, with which the said college is endowed by this act, at any 
 stated session of said trustees, provided a majority of the acting 
 trustees shall be privy to, and join in the same. And said trustees, 
 at their first stated meeting, or at some adjournment of the same, 
 shall appoint one of their own body, secretary ; and one other of their 
 own body, treasurer; and said treasurer before entering on the 
 duties of office, shall enter into bond, with approved security, in the
 
 — 109 — 
 
 sum of one hundred thousand dollars, to the f^overnor for the time 
 being, and his successors in office, conditioned for the safe keeping, 
 paying, settling and accounting for all moneys by him received, on 
 account of said college. 
 
 8. Be it enacted, That said college be established on ten 
 acres of land, within two miles of Knoxville, conveyed in trust, for 
 the use of said college, by Moses White, at a place called the Kocky 
 or Poplar Spring. 
 
 [Chapter 64 of the Laws of Tenneesee for the year 1807. Passed October 26, 
 1807. Kepriiued, as above, in Vol. 1 of .Scott's Laws of the State of Tennessee, 
 at p. 1047.J 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 AN ACT supplementary to an Act, entitled, "An act to establish a College in 
 East Tennessee." 
 
 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Stale of Tennessee, 
 That the following persons hereinafter named, be, and they are 
 hereby appointed trustees of East Tennessee college; twenty-three 
 of whom are appointed amongst the different counties in East Ten- 
 nessee, according to the present ratio of representation, and the 
 remaining seven in the country adjacent to said college, for the pur- 
 pose of conveniently attending to, and conducting the ordinary 
 affairs and business of said college, that is to say, in the county 
 of Hawkins, Richard Mitchell and Andrew Galbreath ; in the 
 county of Sullivan, John Rhea and James King; in the county of 
 Greene, Augustine P. Fore and John Gass ; in the county of Wash- 
 ington, Matthew Stephenson and John Kennedy ; in the county of 
 Carter, Geo. Duffield ; in the county of Jefferson, James Rice (Reese) 
 and Joseph Hamilton ; in the county of Grainger, John Cocke and 
 Major Lea; in the county of Cocke, Alexander Smith; in the 
 county of Sevier, Hopkins Lacy ; in the county of Blount, the Rev- 
 erend Joseph B. Lapsly and Doctor Robert Gant; in the county of 
 Claiborne, William Graham ; in the county of Anderson, Arthur 
 Crozier ; in the county of Roane, Thomas I. Vandyke ; in the county 
 of Knox, Geo. W. Campbell, John Sevier and Thomas Emmerson. 
 And John Crozier, John Williams, Archibald Roane, Francis A. 
 Ramsey, David Deaderick, George Doherty and John Lowry, mer- 
 chant, being the additional number, to complete the number of thirty, 
 required by said act, to which this is a supplement, to be appointed ; 
 and that the above named trustees, are hereby vested with as full 
 power and authority and with all the privileges intended by said 
 act to be vested in the trustees of East Tennessee college. 
 
 2. Be it enacted, That John Russell, James Park, Josiah Nichol,
 
 — 110 — 
 
 Edward Douglass, John Overton and William Tate, be, and they 
 are hereby appointed commissioners to superintend the manage- 
 ment of the fund, appropriated by tlie act of the Congress of the 
 United States, for the support of said college and for the support of 
 Cumberland (college, heretofore established in West Tennessee, on 
 pursuance of said act of Congress ; and said commissioners or a 
 majority of them, are hereby authorized and empowered to receive 
 from time to time, from the treasurer of the districts of Washing- 
 ton and Hamilton, all such monies as shall be paid into the hands 
 of said treasurer, arising from the sale of one hundred thousand 
 acres of laud, lying on the south side of French Broad and Holston 
 rivers, between the rivers Big Pigeon and Tennessee heretofore 
 directed to be laid off, and appropriated for the use of two colleges 
 iu this state, one in East and the other in West Tennessee, by an 
 act of the Congress of the United States. And when said commis- 
 sioners or a majority of them shall have received said monies or 
 any part or portion thereof, it shall be their duty, and they, or a 
 majority of them, are hereby authorized and empowered, from time 
 to time, to purchase the capital stock, or some share or shares of 
 the capital stock of some reputable bank or banking association, in 
 the United States, to the amount of such money by them received ; 
 and when any dividend or share of profits of such bank or banking 
 association, shall be declared and become payable, the said com- 
 missioners, or a majority of them, shall receive the same, and pay 
 over the same in equal moieties and half parts, to the trustees of East 
 Tennessee college, or to their treasurer, for the use of said college, 
 and to the trustees of Cumberland college, or to their treasurer for 
 the use of said Cumberland college ; Provided always, that whenever 
 said commissioners or a majority of them, shall have purchased any 
 (Mpital stock or share or shares of the capital stock of any bank, 
 tiiey shall cause the transfer of such stock to be made to said com- 
 missioners, expressing in such transfer that the same is for the use 
 of East Tennessee college, and Cumberland college ; and said com- 
 missioners shall not be at liberty to sell or transfer said stock after- 
 Mvirdp, unless specially authorized by the General Assemby of this 
 state. 
 
 3. Be it enacted, That the trustees of said college of East Ten- 
 nessee, shall be at liberty to carry on or cause to be carried on and 
 conducted, the business of said college, and the instruction of 
 youth, to be educated at said college, at the place and in the build- 
 ings now known by the name of Blount college, until suitable 
 buildings shall have been prepared, at the j)lace designated and 
 laid out for the establishment of said East Tennessee college, and 
 until the trustees of East Tennessee college shall take upon them- 
 selves to discharge the duties of said appointment, and hoM their
 
 — Ill — 
 
 first meetin}?, it shall be lawful for the trustees of Blount college, to 
 carry on and conduct the business of said college, in the same man- 
 ner as heretofore. 
 
 And, whereas, the trustees of Blount college have agreed, by a 
 resolution by them unanimously adopted, on the twenty-ninth day 
 of September, one thousand eight hundred and seven, that, pro- 
 vided this General Assembly should establish the college for East 
 Tennessee, within two miles of Knoxville, the funds of Blount col- 
 lege might be incorporated with the funds of the college so to be 
 established ; and that the act incorporating said trustees of Blount 
 college, might be repealed, except so far as might be necessary to 
 enable said trustees to collect the monies due to said college, and 
 authorize the instruction of youth and the other business of said col- 
 lege, to be carried on as heretofore, until the trustees of such new 
 instituted college, shall be prepared to commence the business of 
 tuition. And, whereas, this General Assembly has established East 
 Tennessee college within two miles of Knoxville, whereby said 
 trustees of Blount college are bound to incorporate the funds of 
 Blount college with the funds of East Tennessee college ; therefore, 
 
 4. Be it enacted, That the funds of Blount college shall be, and 
 they are hereby declared to be incorporated with the funds of East 
 Tennessee college, and made a part of the same. And the trustees 
 of East Tennessee college, are hereby authorized and empowered to 
 demand and receive from the trustees of Blount college, all the 
 funds and effects of said college, of whatever nature and descrip- 
 tion ; and said trustees of Blount college, are hereby authorized and 
 required to pay and deliver up to the trustees of East Tennessee 
 college aforesaid, on demand, after the first meeting of said trus- 
 tees, all monies, goods, chattels and eflTects of whatever nature or 
 description, belonging to Blount college in the hands of said trus- 
 tees, or held in trust by any person or persons, for the use of said 
 college, by deed, to convey to said trustees of East Tennessee col- 
 lege and their successors in office forever, all lands, tenements and 
 hereditaments, belonging to or appertaining to said college ; and 
 said trustees last mentioned, shall and may use and dispose of the 
 same, in like manner, as they may use and dispose of any other 
 property belonging to said college of East Tennessee: Provided, 
 that nothing contained in this section shall invalidate any provision 
 contained in the third section of this act. 
 
 5. Be it enacted, That an act entitled "An act to establish a col- 
 lege in the vicinity of Knoxville, by the name of Blount college," 
 be and the same is hereby repealed : Provided, that the trustees of 
 said college shall not be disabled or debarred from the collection of 
 any debt or debts due and owing to said college, or to the trustees of 
 said college, for the use of the same : And provided further, that noth-
 
 — 112 — 
 
 ing contained in this section, shall effect or avoid any provision con- 
 tained in the third section of this act. 
 
 [Chapter 78 of the Laws of the State of Tennessee for the yearlSO". Passed 
 December 3, 1807. Reprinted, as above, in Vol. lof Scott's Laws of the State of 
 Tennessee, at p. 1059.] 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 AN ACT donating Public Lands to the several States and Territories which may 
 provide Colleges f >r the Benefit of Agriculture and the Meclianic Arts. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 United States of America in Congress assembled, That there be granted 
 to the several States, for the purposes herein mentioned, an 
 amount of public land, to be apportioned to each State a quantity 
 equal to thirty thousand acres for each senator and representative 
 in Congress to which the States are respectively entitled by the 
 apportionment under the census of eighteen hundred and sixty : 
 Provided, That no mineral lands shall be selected or purchased 
 under the provisions of this act. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the land aforesaid, after 
 being surveyed, shall be apportioned to the several States in sec- 
 tions or subdivisions of sections, not less than one-quarter of a 
 section; and whenever there are public lands in a State subject to 
 sale at private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, 
 the quantity to which said state shall be entitled shall be selected 
 from such lands within the limits of such state, and the Secretary 
 of the Interior is hereby directed to issue to each of the states in 
 which there is not the quantity of public lands subject to sale at 
 private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to which 
 said state may be entitled under the provisions of this act, land- 
 scrip to the amount in acres for the deficiency of its distributive 
 share : said scrip to be sold by said states and the proceeds thereof 
 applied to the uses and purposes prescribed in this act, and for no 
 other use or purpose whatsoever: Provided, That in no case shall 
 any state to which land-scrip may thus be issued be allowed to 
 locate the same within the limits of any other state, or of any terri- 
 tory of the United States, but their assignees may thus locate said 
 land-scrip upon any of the unappropriated lands of the United 
 States subject to sale or private entry at one dollar and twenty-five 
 cents, or less, per acre: And provided, further. That not more than 
 one million acres shall be located by such assignees in any one of 
 the states : And provided, further, That no such location shall be 
 made before one year from the passage of this act. 
 
 Skc. 3. And he it further enacted, That all the expenses of man-
 
 — 113 — 
 
 agement, superintendence, and taxes from date of selection of 
 said lands, previous to their sales, and all expenses incurred in the 
 management and disbursement of the moneys which may be 
 received therefrom, shall be paid by the States to which they may 
 belong, out of the treasury of said states, so that the entire pro- 
 ceeds of the sale of said lands shall be applied without any 
 diminution whatever to the purpose hereinafter mentioned. 
 
 Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all moneys derived from 
 the sale of the lands aforesaid by the States to which the lands 
 are apportioned, and from the sale of land-scrip hereinbefore 
 provided for, shall be invested in stocks of the United States, or of 
 the States, or some other safe stocks, yielding not less than 5 per 
 centum upon the par value of said stocks ; and that the moneys so 
 invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which 
 shall remain forever undiminished, (except so far as may be pro- 
 vided in section fifth of this act,) and the interest of which shall 
 be inviolably appropriated, by each state which may take and claim 
 the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support, and maintenance 
 of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without 
 excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including mili- 
 tary tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to 
 agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legisla- 
 tures of the states may respectively prescribe, in order to promote 
 the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the 
 several pursuits and professions in life. 
 
 Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the grant of land and 
 land-scrip hereby authorized shall be made on the following condi- 
 tions, to which, as well as to the provisions hereinbefore contained, 
 the previous assent of the several states shall be signified by legis- 
 lative acts : 
 
 First. — If any portion of the fund invested, as provided by the 
 foregoing section, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall, by 
 any action or contingency, be diminished or lost, it shall be replaced 
 by the state to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund 
 shall remain forever undiminished; and the annual interest shall 
 be regularly applied without diminution, to the purposes men- 
 tioned in the fourth section of this act, except that a sum, not 
 exceeding ten per centum upon the amount received by any state 
 under the provisions of this act, may be expended for the purchase 
 of lands for sites or experimental farms, whenever authorized by 
 the respective legislatures of said states. 
 
 Second. — No portion of said fund, nor the interest thereon, shall 
 be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretense whatever, to 
 the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or 
 buildings.
 
 — 114 — 
 
 Third. — Any State which may take or claim the benefit of the 
 provisions of this act shall provide, within five years, at least not 
 less than one college, as described in the fourth section of this act, 
 or the grant to such State shall cease ; and said state shall be bound 
 to pay the United States the amount received of any lands pre- 
 viously sold, and that the title to purchasers under the state shall 
 be valid. 
 
 Fourth. — An annual report shall be made regarding the progress 
 of each college, recording any improvements and experiments 
 made, with their costs and results, and such other matters, includ- 
 ing state, industrial and economical statistics, as may be supposed 
 useful ; one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free, by 
 each, to all the other colleges which may be endowed under the 
 provisions of this act, and also one copy to the secretary of the 
 Interior. 
 
 Fifth. — When lands shall be selected from those which have 
 been raised to double the minimum price, in consequence of 
 railroad grants, they shall be computed to the States at the maxi- 
 mum price, and the number of acres proportionally diminished. 
 
 Sixth. — No State, while in a condition of rebellion or insurrec- 
 tion against the government of the United States, shall be entitled 
 to the benefit of this act. 
 
 Seventh. — No State shall be entitled to the benefits of this act 
 unless it shall express its acceptance thereof, by its legislature, 
 within two years from the date of its approval by the President. 
 
 Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That land-scrip issued under 
 the provisions of this act shall not be subject to location until after 
 the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
 three. 
 
 Sec. 7. And be it further enacted. That the land officers shall 
 receive the same fees for locating land-scrip issued under the 
 provisions of this act as is now allowed for the location of military 
 bounty land warrants under existing laws ; Provided, their max- 
 imum compensation shall not be thereby increased. 
 
 Skc. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Governors of the 
 several States to which scrip shall be issued under this act shall 
 be required to report annually to Congress all sales made of such 
 scrip until the whole amount shall be disposed of, the amount 
 received for the same and what appropriation has been made of 
 the proceeds. 
 
 Approved July 2, 1862. 
 
 (The above act is chapter 130 of the Acts of 37th Congress, Second Session, 
 approved July 2, 1862; 12 United States Statutes at Large, p. 603.)
 
 — US- 
 APPENDIX H. 
 
 AX ACT to establish the Tennessee Agricultural College. 
 
 Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of 
 Tennessee, That the proceedffof the sale of the Agricultural Scrip, 
 appropriated by Congress for the establishment of an institution of 
 learning, devoted to agriculture and the mechanic arts, be, and are 
 hereby appropriated to the University of East Tennessee, upon the 
 restrictions and conditions herein mentioned. 
 
 Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the 
 Trustees of said University, to establish an Agricultural College, 
 so as to strictly conform with the Congressional enactment making 
 the appropriation. 
 
 Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That the fund hereby appropriated, 
 shall be used only according to the terms of the Congressional 
 enactment making the appropriation to the State. 
 
 Sec. 4. Be it further enacted. That as soon as the Trustees of 
 said University shall have completed buildings for the accommoda- 
 tion of two hundred and seventy-five students, and shall have 
 furnished the same with appropriate school furniture ; and shall 
 have provided suitable lands, not less in extent than two hundred 
 acres, so that the whole property shall be worth, at a fair estimation 
 of values, not less than one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 dollars, it shall be lawful for the Governor of the State to issue to 
 the Trustees of said University, the bonds of the State in which 
 the proceeds of the sale of the Agricultural Scrip have been 
 invested. 
 
 Sec. 5. Be it further enacted. That the Secretary of State shall 
 register the number and denominations of the bonds issued to the 
 Trustees of said University, and shall also cause the character of 
 the issue to be indelibly printed upon the bonds, and shall retain a 
 file of said numbers and denominations in his office. 
 
 Sec. 6. Be it further enacted, That three students from each 
 county in the State of Tennessee, shall at all times be entitled to 
 receive free tuition in said College ; said students to be nominated 
 by the several Representatives to the Legislature from each county 
 in the State, and preference being given; first, to the children of 
 deceased Federal soldiers; second, to children of those who lost 
 their lives on account of their loyalty ; and third, to those who 
 excel in public schools ; it being understood that in all cases, prior 
 claims shall be given to those whose circumstances especially 
 require it. 
 
 Sec. 7. Be it further enacted, That the profits arising from crops 
 on the agricultural farm, shall be annually applied by the Board of
 
 — 116 — 
 
 Trustees toward paying the necessary expenses of students who are 
 in indigent circumstances; and the Trustees are required to carry 
 on a farm under such regulations as they may prescribe, and 
 require all students who are physically able, to labor on said farm, 
 but not exceeding two hours each day, except in the way of punish- 
 ment, should the Trustees or Faculty adopt such system of correc- 
 tion of the pupils. 
 
 Skc. 8. Be it further enacted, That the Governor of the State, 
 the Secretary of State, and the State Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction, shall be ex-officio members of the Board of Trustees of 
 said University. 
 
 Sec. 9. Be it further enacted, That the Board of Trustees of said 
 University shall deposit with the Secretary of State, their bond, 
 made payable to the State of Tennessee, with security, approved 
 by the Governor of the State, and the Comptroller of the State, in 
 double the amount of the issue of said bonds to the Trustees of said 
 University, said bond to contain all the details of this act, and the 
 Congressional enactment making the appropriation, and to bind 
 said Trustees to carry them into effect — all and singly. 
 
 Sec. 10. Be it further enacted. That the Board of Trustees of the 
 East Tennessee University, receiving its foundation and endow- 
 ments by the munificence of the United States Gavernment, and 
 that of the State of Tennessee, shall always foster, encourage, and 
 inculcate loyalty to both the State and National Governments, as 
 well in the general administration of the Institution, as in the dis- 
 cipline of the pupils; nor shall the University be controlled in the 
 interest of any particular sect or religious denomination whatever. 
 
 Sec. 11. Be it further enacted, That three Trustees from Middle, 
 and three from West Tennessee, be added to the directory of the 
 institution; and that William Bosson, John Trimble, and Hon. 
 Josliua B. Frierson, from Middle, and Isaac Roach, David A. Nunn, 
 and Martin T. Ryder, from West Tennessee, be, and are hereby, 
 appointed said Trustees. 
 
 Sec. 12. Be it further enacted. That the Trustees of this Institu- 
 tion shall make a report to each biennial session of the Legislature, 
 giving the number of students, together with a detailed statement 
 of the workiuiis of the Institution, and of receipts and expenditures; 
 and shall, at the same time, secure the bond required to be given in 
 section 9 of this vVct, and according to the requirements of said 
 ninth section. 
 
 Sec. 13. Be it further enacted. That no citizen of this State, 
 otherwise qualified, shall be excluded from the privileges of said 
 University, by reason of his race or color; provided, that it shall 
 be the duty of the Trustees of said University, to make such pro- 
 visions as miy be necessary for the separate accommodation or
 
 — 117 — 
 
 instruction of any persons of color, who may be entitled to admis- 
 sion. 
 
 Skc. 14. Be it further enacted, That the Legislature reserves the 
 right to control and manage said fund by whatever legislation may 
 be deemed necessary for its protection and safety; provided, no 
 such legislation shall extend to the removal of said fund from the 
 University of East Tennessee, so long as it shall comply with and 
 observe the requirements of the Act of Congress donating said fund. 
 Sec. 15. Be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect 
 from and after its passage. 
 
 F. 8. RICHARDS, 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
 D. W. C. SENTER, 
 
 Speaker of the Senate. 
 Passed January 16, 1869. 
 
 (The above Act is Chap. XII, Acts of 1868-69, p. 12.) 
 
 Xole. — Sec. 6 of the above Act, from words "and preference," 
 "loyalty," inclusive, are repealed by Act of December 5th, 1S71, 
 (Acts of 1871, chap. 57, p. 51.) 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Frontispiece. — View of the University, 1893. — From photo- 
 graphs taken from south side of the Tennessee river in 1893, by 
 Prof. F. Lamson-Scribner and Prof. S. W. McCallie, the upper view 
 being.taken after a heavy snow storm in the winter. 
 
 Graveyard of the First Presbyterian Church, Knoxville. — 
 From photograph taken from northwest corner, in 1894. This was 
 the first church established in Knoxville. In the graveyard are 
 buried many of the early Trustees of the University, and persons 
 prominent in the history of Knoxville ; among others, Hugh Lawson 
 White, the founder of Knoxville; the Rev. Samuel Carrick, whose 
 grave-stone is photographed in the upper left hand corner; and 
 Governor William Blount, whose grave is photographed in the upper 
 right hand corner. By a typographical error on page 39, supra, the 
 inscription upon Mr. Carrick's grave is stated as Samuel C. Z. R. 
 Carrick. There should be no periods after the letters C and Z.
 
 — 118 — 
 
 Portrait of Rev. Charles Coffin, D. D. — From a photograph 
 obtained through the courtesy of Colonel Moses White from Mr. 
 Hector Coffin, a descendant of the President. 
 
 Portrait of Joseph Estabrook, A. M. — From an oil painting 
 kindly loaned by Hon. Perez Dickinson. 
 
 Portrait of Rev. George Cook, A. M. — From a wood cut 
 obtained through the courtesy of ^Nlrs. S Barton. 
 
 View of the University, 1867. — From a copper plate, first 
 appearing in the University Catalogue of 1867, but probably made 
 sometime before the war. 
 
 Portrait of Hon. W. B. Reese, L. L. D. — From a photograph 
 loaned through the courtesy of his daughter-in-law, Mrs. W. B. 
 Reese. 
 
 View of the University, 1863.— From a photograph taken by 
 Mr. Smiley, from Fort Sanders, northwest of the University. 
 
 View of the University, 1865. — From an old photograph 
 taken from the south side of the Tennessee river, secured through 
 the courtesy of Mr. Z. T. Barry. The photograph is in four parts, 
 making a very interesting picture of Knoxville at that date. Only 
 the portion showing the Fast Tennessee University is reproduced. 
 
 Portrait of Rev. William D. Games, A. M. — From a crayon 
 portrait owned by the University. 
 
 Portrait of Rev. Thomas W. Humes, A. M., S. T. D.— From a 
 crayon portrait owned by the University, made by Mr. Lloyd 
 Branson. 
 
 View of the University, 1877. — From a wood cut, the view 
 being taken from the northeast corner of the University grounds. 
 
 View of the University, 1887. — From a photograph taken 
 from the north side, showing the older college buildings. 
 
 View Looking South from the University. — From a photo- 
 grapli, 1.S92. The large building in the centre contains the agricul- 
 tural department, museums of geology, natural history, etc., with 
 the offices, library and laboratories of the agricultural experiment 
 station. To the left is the house of the President, and on the right 
 can be seen the green house; in the back ground the Tennessee 
 river and hills beyond. The mountains, which can be seen on a 
 clear day, are not visible in this picture. 
 
 Agricultural Building. — From a photograph, taken in 1892, 
 giving a nearer view of the agricultural experiment station building, 
 whicli appears in the center of the above mentioned " View looking 
 south from the University."
 
 — 119 — 
 
 Y. M. C. A. Building-, East View.— From a photograph taken 
 from the east side, about 1891. This contains the association gym- 
 nasium, chapel, reading room, ladies' auxiliary room, secretary's 
 office, baths, lockers, den and student's room. 
 
 Science Hall and Y. M. C. A. Building.— From photographs 
 taken in IS92. The view of Science Hall is taken from the southeast 
 and rear, the Y. M. C. A. building from the east side. 
 
 Mechanical Building. — From a photograph, 1SS7. 
 
 Portrait of Colonel Moses White. — From a photograph. 
 
 APPENDIX J. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Carrick, A. M . . -L,' , ^'°"°* <?°,V^^^' JS^iS^ 
 ' (East Tenn. College, 180»-18(K» 
 
 Rev. David Sherman, A. M East Tenn. College, 1820-1825 
 
 Rev. Charles Coffin, D. D East Tenn. College, 1827-1832 
 
 Rev. James H. Piper, A. M East Tenn. College, 1833-1834 
 
 Joseph Estabrook, A. M \^^f Jenn. College, 1834-1810 
 
 ^ ' i East Tenn. Univ., 1840-18o0 
 
 Hon. AV. B. Reese, L. L. D East Tenn. Univ., 1850-1853 
 
 Rev. George Cook, A. M East Tenn. Univ., 1853-1857 
 
 Rev. William D. Carnes, AM East Tenn. Univ., 1858-1860 
 
 Rev. J. J. Ridley, D. D East Tenn. Univ., 1860-1862 
 
 Rev. Thos. W.Humes, A.M., S.T.D. j.^^ast Tenn Univ., 1865-1879 
 ' (University of Tenn., 1879-1883 
 Charles W. Dabney, Ph. D University of Tenn., 1887- 
 
 NOTK.— For autobiographical details as to the various Presidents, see Colonel 
 White's Early Histoiy of the University, and Prof. Karns' chapter on the Uni- 
 versity of Tennessee in Meriam's " Higher Education in Tennessee.'" 
 
 In the interval from 1883 to 1887 no President was elected, this pi'sltion being 
 filled by a Chairman of the Faculty. Professors Rodes Massie, Ebeii Alexander 
 and S. B. Crawford successively filed this position. (See Prof. Karns' chapter on 
 the University of Tennessee, cited, sup')a.)
 
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