246 The Winning of the West 



a natural division for purposes of representation. 

 It was accordingly agreed that "each captain's com 

 pany" in the counties of Washington, Sullivan, and 

 Greene should choose two delegates, who should all 

 assemble as committees in their respective counties 

 to deliberate upon some general plan of action. The 

 committees met and recommended the election of 

 deputies with full powers to a convention held at 

 Jonesboro. 



This convention, of forty deputies or thereabout, 

 met at Jonesboro, on August 23, 1784, and appointed 

 John Sevier President. The delegates were unani 

 mous that the three counties represented should de 

 clare themselves independent of North Carolina, and 

 passed a resolution to this effect. They also re 

 solved that the three counties should form them 

 selves into an Association, and should enforce all the 

 laws of North Carolina not incompatible with be 

 ginning the career of a separate State, and that Con 

 gress should be petitioned to countenance them, and 

 advise them in the matter of their constitution. In 

 addition, they made provision for admitting to their 

 State the neighboring portions of Virginia, should 

 they apply, and should the application be sanctioned 

 by the State of Virginia, "or other power having 

 cognizance thereof." This last reference was, of 

 course, to Congress, and was significant. Evidently 

 the mountaineers ignored the doctrine of State Sov 

 ereignty. The power which they regarded as para 

 mount was that of the Nation. The adhesion they 

 gave to any government was somewhat shadowy; 



