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The
State Government of One Hundred Years Ago (1796) The
First General Assembly of the State and Some of Its Prominent Acts Tennessee’s
first legislature, elected one hundred years ago was made up As
follows: Senate Washington County - John Tipton Greene
County - Samuel Frazier Hawkins
County - Joseph McMinn Sullivan County - George Rutledge Knox County - James White Jefferson County—George Doherty Blount County - Alexander Kelly Sevier County—John Clack Davidson County - Joel Lewis Tennessee County – James Pool Sumner County - James Winchester James
Winchester was, on motion of James White, unanimously elected speaker of the Senate. Francis A. Ramsey was chosen clerk
Nathaniel Buckingham, assistant clerk, And Thomas Bounds, door-keeper. Lower House Blount - James Houston and
Joseph Black Davidson - Robert Weakly and Seth
Lewis Greene
- Joseph Conway and John Cass Hawkins
- John Cocke and Thomas Henderson Jefferson – Alexander Outlaw and
John Knox—John Menefee and John Crawford Sullivan
– John Rhea and David Looney Sevier
- Spencer Clack and Samuel Newell Sumner—Stephen Cantrell and
William Montgomery Tennessee - Thomas Johnson and William
Ford Washington - John Blair and James Stuart James
Stuart was chosen speaker; Thomas H. Williams clerk; John Sevier, Jr., assistant
clerk; John Rhea, door-keeper. Amongst
the first duties performed by this general assembly, after the inauguration of
Governor Sevier, was the election of United States senators. The
names of William Blount, William M. Cocke, Dr, James White and Judge Joseph
Anderson were proposed. The latter two names were withdrawn and Blount and
Cocke were elected. It was
afterwards found that their election was premature, and the legislature was convened
again in July, 1796, in extra session, when they were again elected. William
Maclin was elected secretary of state. John McNairy, Walhe Blount and Archibald
Roane were elected by the legislature to be judges of the Superior Courts of
law and equity. McNairy
declined and Howell Tatum, of Davidson County, was commissioned in has place. Blount
also declined and W. C.C Claiborne was commissioned in his place. The
state was divided into three districts then: Washington, Hamilton and Mere. Landon Carter was elected treasure of Washington
and Hamilton districts, embracing what is known now as East Tennessee, and William
Black, treasurer of Mere district, embracing what is now Middle Tennessee. At that
first session of the Tennessee legislature, Tennessee County was divided and the
counties of Robertson and Montgomery were established out of its territory. Robertson was
named for the patriarch of the Watauga association, and the founder of the Cumberland set. Montgomery
was named for Col. John Montgomery, a native
of Virginia. Carter
County was established at the same session, out of territory belonging to Washington
County, and named for General Landon Carter, who was also a native Of
Virginia. The county seat Elizabethton, was named for
Elizabeth, wife of General
Carter An act was
passed at this session fixing the governor’s salary at $750 a year and the Compensation
of members of the legislature at $1.75 per day and a flat sum for Every
twenty-five miles traveled coming from and going to their homes. The act of
admitting Tennessee into the union as a state met with very little Opposition
in the House of Representatives but was vigorously opposed by the Senate and
passed by a majority of only one. The first
representative elected from Tennessee to the lower house of congress was Andrew
Jackson who served only a single term and was succeeded by W. C. C. Claiborne. This we
have here in a short space, the Tennessee State Government as it existed One
hundred years ago. The Knoxville Journal – June 1, 1896 |