248 The Winning of the West 



ties dividing on the lines indicated in the vote on 

 the question of immediate independence. When the 

 convention did meet, in November, it broke up in 

 confusion. At the same time North Carolina, be 

 coming alarmed, repealed her cession act ; and there 

 upon Sevier himself counseled his fellow-citizens to 

 abandon the movement for a new State. However, 

 they felt they had gone too far to back out. The 

 convention came together again in December, and 

 took measures looking toward the assumption of 

 ful Statehood. In the constitution they drew up 

 they provided, among other things, for a Senate 

 and a House of Commons, to form the legislative 

 body, which should itself choose the Governor. 2 By 

 an extraordinary resolution they further provided 

 that the government should go into effect, and elec 

 tions be held, at once; and yet that in the fall of 

 1785 a new convention should convene at which 

 the very constitution under which the government 

 had been carried on would be submitted for revision, 

 rejection, or adoption. 



Elections for the Legislature were accordingly 

 held, and in March, 1785, the two houses of the 

 new State of Franklin met, and chose Sevier as 

 Governor. Courts were organized, and military and 

 civil officials of every grade were provided, those 



* Hay wood, 142; although Ramsey writes more in full 

 about the Franklin government, it ought not to be forgotten 

 that the ground-work of his history is from Haywood. Hay- 

 wood is the original, and by far the most valuable, authority 

 on Tennessee matters, and he writes in a quaint style that is 

 very attractive. 



