In his long letter of reply to Robertson and Bledsoe, McGillivray agreed to make peace between his nation, the Creeks, and the Cumberland settlers. This letter was most favorably received and given wide circulation throughout the West. In a most ingratiating reply, offering McGillivray a fine gun and a lot in Nashville, Robertson throws out the following broad suggestion, which he obviously wishes McGillivray to convey to Miro: "In all probability we cannot long remain in our present state, and if the British or any commercial nation who may be in possession of the mouth of the Mississippi would furnish us with trade, and receive our produce there cannot be a doubt but the people on the west side of the Appalachian mountains will open their eyes to their real interest." Robertson actually had the district erected out of the counties of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee given the name of "Miro" by the Assembly of North Carolina in November, 1788—a significant symbol of the desires of the Cumberland leaders. In a letter (April 23, 1789), Miro, who had just received letters from Robertson (January 29th) and Daniel Smith (March 4th) postmarked "District of Miro," observes: "The bearer, Fagot, a confidential agent of Gen. Smith, informed me that the inhabitants of Cumberland, or Miro, would ask North Carolina for an act of separation the following fall, and that as soon as this should be obtained other delegates would be sent from Cumberland to New Orleans, with the object of placing that territory under the domination of His Majesty. I replied to both in general terms."

Robertson, Bledsoe, and Smith were successful in keeping secret their correspondence with McGillivray and Miro; and few were in the secret of Sevier's effort to deliver the State of Franklin to Spain. Joseph Martin was less successful in his negotiations; and a great sensation was created throughout the Southern colonies when a private letter from Joseph Martin to McGillivray (November 8, 1788) was intercepted. In this letter Martin said: "I must beg that you write me by the first opportunity in answer to what I am now going to say to you.... I hope to do honor to any part of the world I settle in, and am determined to leave the United States, for reasons that I can assign to you when we meet, but durst not trust it to paper." The general assembly of Georgia referred the question of the intercepted letter to the governor of North Carolina (January 24, 1789); and the result was a legislative investigation into Martin's conduct. Eleven months later, the North Carolina assembly exonerated him. From the correspondence of Joseph Martin and Patrick Henry, it would appear that Martin, on Henry's advice, had acted as a spy upon the Spaniards, in order to discover the views of McGillivray, to protect the exposed white settlements from the Indians, and to fathom the designs of the Spaniards against the United States.

The sensational disclosures of Martin's intercepted letter had no deterrent effect upon James Robertson in the attempted execution of his plan for detaching the Cumberland settlements from North Carolina. History has taken no account of the fact that Robertson and the inhabitants now deliberately endeavored to secure an act of separation from North Carolina. In the event of success, the next move planned by the Cumberland leaders, as we have already seen, was to send delegates to New Orleans for the purpose of placing the Cumberland region under the domination of Spain.

A hitherto unknown letter, from Robertson to (Miro), dated Nashville, September 2, 1789, proves that a convention of the people was actually held—the first overt step looking to an alliance with Spain. In this letter Robertson says:

"I must beg your Excellency's permission to take this early opportunity of thanking you for the honor you did me in writing by Mr. White.

"I still hope that your Government, and these Settlements, are destined to be mutually friendly and usefull, the people here are impressed with the necessity of it.

"We have just held a Convention; which has agreed that our members shall insist on being Seperated from North Carolina.

"Unprotected, we are to be obedient to the new Congress of the United States; but we cannot but wish for a more interesting Connection.

"The United States afford us no protection. The district of Miro is daily plundered and the inhabitants murdered by the Creeks, and Cherokees, unprovoked.

"For my own part, I conceive highly of the advantages of your Government."

A serious obstacle to the execution of the plans of Robertson and the other leaders of the Cumberland settlements was the prompt action of North Carolina. In actual conformity with the wishes of the Western people, as set forth in the petition of Robertson and Hayes, their representatives, made two years earlier, the legislature of North Carolina in December passed the second act of cession, by which the Western territory of North Carolina was ceded to the United States. Instead of securing an act of separation from North Carolina as the preparatory step to forming what Robertson calls "a more interesting connection" with Spain, Robertson and his associates now found themselves and the transmontane region which they represented flung bodily into the arms of the United States. Despite the unequivocal offer of the calculating and desperate Sevier to "deliver" Franklin to Spain, and the ingenious efforts of Robertson and his associates to place the Cumberland region under the domination of Spain, the Spanish court by its temporizing policy of evasion and indecision definitely relinquished the ready opportunities thereby afforded, of utilizing the powerful separatist tendencies of Tennessee for the purpose of adding the empire upon the Western waters to the Spanish domain in America.

The year 1790 marks the end of an era the heroic age of the pioneers of the Old Southwest. Following the acceptance of North Carolina's deed of cession of her Western lands to the Union (April 2, 1790) the Southwest Territory was erected on May 26th; and William Blount, a North Carolina gentleman of eminence and distinction, was appointed on June 8th to the post of governor of the territory. Two years later (June 1, 1792) Kentucky was admitted into the Union.

It is a remarkable and inspiring circumstance, in testimony of the martial instincts and unwavering loyalty of the transmontane people, that the two men to whom the Western country in great measure owed its preservation, the inciting and flaming spirits of the King's Mountain campaign, were the unopposed first choice of the people as leaders in the trying experiment of Statehood—John Sevier of Tennessee and Isaac Shelby of Kentucky. Had Franklin possessed the patient will of Kentucky, she might well have preceded that region into the Union. It was not, however, until June 1, 1796, that Tennessee, after a romantic and arduous struggle, finally passed through the wide-flung portals into the domain of national statehood.

THE END