472 TENNESSEE. 



was given up, and the inhabitants remained in general peaceable un- 

 til 1796, when a convention was held at Knoxville, and on the 6th of 

 February the constitution of the state of Tennessee was signed by 

 every member of it. Its principles promise to ensure the happiness 

 and prosperity of the people, being framed much like the constitutions 

 already noticed, consisting of a single executive magistrate, and a 

 legislature of two branches. Their duration in office is for two years. 

 The judiciary, as in most of the other states, hold their commissions 

 during good behaviour None but freeholders can vote at elections. 



Religion... .The presbyterians are the prevailing denomination of 

 Christians in this district. They have a presbytery, called the Abing- 

 don presbytery, established by act of synod, which, in 1788, consisted 

 of twenty -thi*ee large congregations. There are many methodists, 

 and some baptists. 



Colleges. ...Besides private schools there are three colleges esta- 

 blished bylaw: Greenville college in Green's county ; Blount college 

 at Knoxville, and Washington college in the county of that name. 

 Here is likewise a society for promoting useful knowledge. 



History.. .The eastern parts of this district were explored by co- 

 lonels Wood, Patton, Buchanan, captain Charles Campbell, and Dr. 

 T. Walker (each of whom were concerned in large grants of land 

 from the government) as early as between the years 1740 and 1750. 

 In 1755, at the commencement of the French war, about fifty families 

 had settled here, who were either destroyed or driven off by the In- 

 dians before the close of the following year. It remained uninhabited 

 till 1765, when the settlement of it l'ecommenced ; and, in 1773, the 

 country as far west as the long island of Holstein, an extent of more 

 than 120 miles in length from east to west, had become tolerably well 

 peopled. In 1780, a party of about 40 families, under the guidance 

 and direction of James Robertson (afterwards brigadier-general Ro- 

 bertson of Mero district) passed through a wilderness of at least 300 

 miles, and founded Nashville. Their nearest neighbours were the 

 settlers of the infant state of Kentucky, between whom and them was 

 a wilderness of 200 miles. This territory then appertained to North 

 Carolina, which, in 1789, ceded it to the United States on certain 

 conditions, and congress provided for its government. In 1796, as 

 above mentioned, it was admitted into the Federal union, as a mem" 

 ber of the United States. 



