nization of "associations," received a strong stimulus on
June 2, 1784, when the legislature of North Carolina ceded to the
Congress of the United States the title which that state
possessed to the land west of the Alleghanies. Among the terms of
the Cession Act were these conditions: that the ceded territory
should be formed into a separate state or states; and that if
Congress should not accept the lands thus ceded and give due
notice within two years, the act should be of no force and the
lands should revert to North Carolina. No sooner did this news
reach the Western settlers than they began to mature plans for
the organization of a government during the intervening twelve
months. Their exposed condition on the frontiers, still harassed
by the Indians, and North Carolina's delay in sending goods
promised the Indians by a former treaty, both promoted Indian
hostility; and these facts, combined with their remote location
beyond the mountains, rendering them almost inaccessible to
communication with North Carolina--all rendered the decision of
the settlers almost inevitable. Moreover, the allurements of high
office and the dazzling dreams of ambition were additional
motives sufficiently human in themselves to give driving power to
the movement toward independence.

At a convention assembled at Jonesborough on August 23, 1784,
delegates from the counties of Washington, Sullivan, and Greene
characteristically decided to organize an "Association." They
solemnly declared by resolution: "We have a just and undeniable
right to petition to Congress to accept the session made by North
Carolina, and for that body to countenance us for forming
ourselves into a separate government, and to frame either a
permanent or temporary constitution, agreeably to a resolve of
Congress...." Meanwhile, Governor Martin, largely as the
result of the prudent advice of North Carolina's representative
in Congress, Dr. Hugh Williamson, was brought to the conclusion
that North Carolina, in the passage of the cession act, had acted
precipitately. This important step had been taken without the
full consideration of the people of the state. Among the various
arguments advanced by Williamson was the impressive contention
that, in accordance with the procedure in the case of other
states, the whole expense of the huge Indian expeditions in 1776
and the heavy militia aids to South Carolina and Georgia should
be credited to North Carolina as partial ful