tavern, with North Carolina's men at
arms--as many as were within call--drinking his health. So his sons and
a company of his Wataugans found him, when they rode into Morgantown to
give evidence in his behalf--with their rifles. Since none now disputed
the way with him, Sevier turned homeward with his cavalcade, McDowell
and his men accompanying him as far as the pass in the hills.

* Statement by John Sevier, Junior, in the Draper MSS., quoted by
Turner, "Life of General John Sevier," p. 182.

No further attempt was made to try John Sevier for treason, either west
or east of the mountains. In November, however, the Assembly passed the
Pardon Act, and thereby granted absolution to every one who had been
associated with the State of Franklin, EXCEPT JOHN SEVIER. In a clause
said to have been introduced by Tipton, now a senator, or suggested by
him, John Sevier was debarred forever from "the enjoyment of any office
of profit or honor or trust in the State of North Carolina."

The overhill men in Greene County took due note of the Assembly's fiat
and at the next election sent Sevier to the North Carolina Senate.
Nolichucky Jack, whose demeanor was never so decorous as when the
ill-considered actions of those in authority had made him appear to have
circumvented the law, considerately waited outside until the House had
lifted the ban--which it did perforce and by a large majority, despite
Tipton's opposition--and then took his seat on the senatorial bench
beside his enemy. The records show that he was reinstated as Brigadier
General of the Western Counties and also appointed at the head of the
Committee on Indian Affairs.

Not only in the region about Watauga did the pioneers of Tennessee
endure the throes of danger and strife during these years. The little
settlements on the Cumberland, which were scattered over a short
distance of about twenty-five or thirty miles and had a frontier line
of two hundred miles, were terribly afflicted. Their nearest white
neighbors among the Kentucky settlers were one hundred and fifty miles
away; and through the cruelest years these could render no aid--could
not, indeed, hold their own stations. The Kentuckians, as we have
seen, were bottled up in Harrodsburg and Boonesborough; and, while the
northern Indians led by Girty and Dequindre darkened the Bloody Ground
anew, the Cumberlanders were making a desperate stand against the
Chickasaws and the Creeks. So terrible was thei