22 The Winning of the West 



The settlers, by their representatives, met together 

 at Nashborough, and on May i, 1780, entered into 

 articles of agreement or a compact of government. 

 It was doubtless drawn up by Robertson, with per 

 haps the help of Henderson, and was modeled upon 

 what may be called the "constitution" of Watauga, 

 with some hints from that of Transylvania. 14 The 

 settlers ratified the deeds of their delegates on May 

 1 3th, when they signed the articles, binding them 

 selves to obey them to the number of two hundred 

 and fifty-six men. The signers practically guaran 

 teed one another their rights in the land, and their 

 personal security against wrong-doers; those who 

 did not sign were treated as having no rights what 

 ever a proper and necessary measure as it was es 

 sential that the naturally lawless elements should be 

 forced to acknowledge some kind of authority. 



The compact provided that the affairs of the com 

 munity should be administered by a Court or Com 

 mittee of twelve Judges, Triers or General Arbitra 

 tors, to be elected in the different stations by vote 

 of all the freemen in them who were over twenty- 

 one years of age. Three of the Triers were to come 



14 Phelan, the first historian who really grasped what this 

 movement meant, and to what it was due, gives rather too 

 much weight to the part Henderson played. Henderson cer 

 tainly at this time did not aspire to form a new State on the 

 Cumberland ; the compact especially provided for the speedy 

 admission of Cumberland as a county of North Carolina. 

 The marked difference between the Transylvania and the 

 Cumberland "constitutions," and the close agreement of 

 the latter with the Watauga articles, assuredly point to 

 Robertson as the chief author. 



