The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 261 



A somewhat comic incident of the* affair occurred 

 in connection with an effort made by Sevier and his 

 friends to persuade old Evan Shelby to act as um 

 pire. After a conference they signed a joint mani 

 festo which aimed to preserve peace for the mo 

 ment by the novel expedient of allowing the citizens 

 of the disputed territory to determine, every man for 

 himself, the government which he wished to own, 

 and to pay his taxes to it accordingly. Nothing 

 came of this manifesto. 



During this time of confusion each party rallied 

 by turns, but the general drift was all in favor 

 of North Carolina. One by one the adherents of 

 Franklin dropped away. The revolt was essentially 

 a frontier revolt, and Sevier was essentially a fron 

 tier leader. The older and longer-settled counties 

 and parts of counties were the first to fall away from 

 him, while the settlers on the very edge of the Indian 

 country clung to him to the last. 



The neighboring States were more or less excited 

 over the birth of the little insurgent commonwealth. 

 Virginia looked upon it with extreme disfavor, 

 largely because her own western counties showed 

 signs of desiring to throw in their fortunes with the 

 Franklin people. 10 Governor Patrick Henry issued 

 a very energetic address on the subject, and the au 

 thorities took effective means to prevent the move 

 ment from gaining head. 



Georgia, on the contrary, showed the utmost 

 friendliness toward the new State, and gladly en- 



10 Va. State Papers IV, 53. 



