THE SOUTHWEST TERRITORY, 1788-1790.

Uneasiness in the southwest

During the years 1788 and 1789 there was much disquiet and restlessness
throughout the southwestern territory, the land lying between Kentucky
and the southern Indians. The disturbances caused by the erection of the
state of Franklin were subsiding, the authority of North Carolina was
re-established over the whole territory, and by degrees a more assured
and healthy feeling began to prevail among the settlers; but as yet
their future was by no means certain, nor was their lot irrevocably cast
in with that of their fellows in the other portions of the Union.

As already said, the sense of national unity among the frontiersmen was
small. The men of the Cumberland in writing to the Creeks spoke of the
Franklin people as if they belonged to an entirely distinct nation, and
as if a war with or by one community concerned in no way the other
[Footnote: Robertson MSS. Robertson to McGillivray, Nashville, 1788.
"Those aggressors live in a different state and are governed by
different laws, consequently we are not culpable for their
misconduct."]; while the leaders of Franklin were carrying on with the
Spaniards negotiations quite incompatible with the continued sovereignty
of the United States. Indeed it was some time before the southwestern
people realized that after the Constitution went into effect they had no
authority to negotiate commercial treaties on their own account. Andrew
Jackson, who had recently taken up his abode in the Cumberland country,
was one of the many men who endeavored to convince the Spanish agents
that it would be a good thing for both parties if the Cumberland people
were allowed to trade with the Spaniards; in which event the latter