BURR'S CONSPIRACY.

93

he found public opinion turned against him, and on the 22d of that month, he commenced his voyage down the Cumberland with ten boats, without ammunition, and with only men enough to work the boats. Scarcely had he gone, when Jefferson's proclamation, denouncing Burr's designs, and calling on all good citizens to aid in his arrest, arrived, by a special messenger, with instructions to the civil and military authorities, enjoining them to make use of such force as might be necessary to suppress the conspiracy and arrest the leader.

General Jackson immediately despatched an express down the Cumberland, to watch Burr's movements, and ordered out twelve companies of his command. The express hastened to the mouth of the river, where he ascertained that Burr, with ten boats and six men unarmed in each, had proceeded peacefully down the Ohio. The general dismissed his men, and reported his proceedings to the government.

Colonel Burr descended the Mississippi to the Mississippi Territory, when, finding himself intercepted by the agents of the government, he quietly surrendered himself to the civil authorities, by whom he was sent to Richmond, Virginia, for trial. He was tried on a charge of treason and acquitted. He retired to private life, and never made known his real designs. He always entertained the greatest respect for General Jackson, and spoke of him as a man of the strictest integrity and honour.

"The history of Tennessee at this time," says Flint, "is little more than a dreary chronicle of Indian masMany of these narratives, related apart,

sacres.

would possess a harrowing interest. Grouped together, they occur in such numbers, and with such uniform circumstances of atrocity and barbarity, that they lose their interest in the confusion of the mass. No less than thirty murders of individuals, or of whole families, occurred within three years after the setting up the federal government. To a person travelling through this fine and populous country, where there is now no more apprehension from Indians, than in the vicinity of Philadelphia, it seems almost incredible that such scenes should have occurred in the vicinity of Nashville, so late as 1796.

"The most conspicuous characters among the Indian chiefs, were Double Head, Hanging Maw, Bloody Fellow, Mad-Dog, and other chiefs, with equally terrible names; and Bowles, Watts, and M'Gillivray, whites, who had become chiefs among them. Piomingo, a Chickasaw chief, is often mentioned in the annals of these times, as having been uniformly friendly to the Americans.

"The last severe lesson taught these people by the Americans, previous to the inflictions of General Jackson, by which they were completely and finally subdued, was at Nickajack, in 1794. An expedition, in which Andrew Jackson took a part, was fitted out against this town from Tennessee. It had been a central point, whence the war parties had proceeded. The American force was sufficient to look down opposition. The town was large and populous. The inhabitants attempted to escape in their canoes across the river, on which their town is built. The troops opened a deadly fire upon the canoes. Some were

INDIAN BARBARITIES.

95

killed, and some leapt into the water and attempting to escape by swimming were killed before they were out of the reach of the guns. Some women and children were taken prisoners, fifty-five warriors were slain, and that town and another reduced to ashes. In Nickajack were found fresh scalps taken at Cumberland, and a quantity of powder and lead just received from the Spanish government, and a commission to Breath, a chief of that town, who was killed in the action. This severe chastisement, with other events that soon occurred, broke the spirits of the Cherokees.

On

"Among the murders that still continued to occur, we select the following as a fair sample of the desperate character of the conflicts between the Indians and Americans. We may infer that similar resistance took place in almost every case of the almost numberless assaults and murders in these border wars. the 27th of January, a party of Indians killed George Mason, on Flat Creek, about twelve miles from Knoxville. During the night he heard a noise at his stable, and he stepped out to ascertain the cause; and the Indians coming in between him and the door, intercepted his return. He fled, but was fired upon and wounded. He reached a cave a quarter of a mile from his house, out of which, already weltering in his blood, he was dragged and murdered. Having finished this business, they returned to the house to despatch his wife and children: Mrs. Mason, unconscious of the fate of her husband, heard them talking to each other as they approached the house. At first she was delighted with the hope that her neighbours, aroused by the firing, had come to her assistance. But under

standing English and German, the language of her neighbours, and perceiving that the conversation was in neither of these tongues, she instantly inferred that they were savages coming to attack the house. This heroine had that very morning learned how the double trigger of a rifle was set. Fortunately the children were not awakened by the firing; and she took good care not to disturb them. She shut the door, and barred it with benches and tables; and took down the well charged rifle of her husband. She placed herself directly opposite the opening which would be made by forcing the door. Her husband came not, and she was but too well aware that he was slain. She was alone in the darkness. The yelling savages were without, pressing upon the house. She took counsel from her own magnanimity, heightened by affection for her children, sleeping unconsciously around her. The Indians pushing with great violence, gradually opened the door sufficiently wide to attempt an entrance. The body of one was thrust into the opening, and just filled it. He was struggling for admittance. Two or three more, directly behind him, were propelling him forward. She set the trigger of the rifle, put the muzzle near the body of the foremost, and in a direction that the ball, after passing through his body, would penetrate those behind. She fired. The first Indian fell. The next one uttered the scream of mortal agony. This intrepid woman saw the necessity of profound silence. She observed it. The Indians in consequence were led to believe that armed men were in the house. They withdrew from the house, took three horses from the stable, and set it on fire. It was after

TENNESSEE ENTERS THE UNION.

97

wards ascertained that this high-minded woman had saved herself and children from the attack of twentyfive assailants."

This incident will serve as a specimen of the horrors to which the inhabitants of Tennessee were subjected, even at so recent a period as 1796. In all the perilous expeditions which were undertaken for the protection of the frontier in his neighbourhood from the savage enemy, Jackson bore his full share.

In 1796, the territory of Tennessee was erected into a state, and the people seized the earliest opportunity afforded them at a popular election, to manifest their confidence in Andrew Jackson, and to secure to themselves the benefit of his judgment and counsel. He was chosen a member of the convention, assembled to frame the republican constitution of the state, assumed the duties of the office, and entered upon its discharge with conscientious respect for its responsibilities, and a deep anxiety firmly to establish those fundamental principles which are embraced in the comprehensive expression of the "rights of man." The constitution which was established, asserts among its provisions two great and leading propositions, which he always defended as maxims, and followed as the guides of his political life-the inherent, indefeasible, and uncontrollable sovereignty of the people, and the injustice and enormity of perpetuities and monopolies-those insiduous and cruel instrumentalities by which the prosperity of the many has been subjugated to the unjust advancement of the few-the bane of peace, and of all private, and therefore of all national prosperity.