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John Sevier settled in the Watauga region on the North Carolina frontier shortly before the American Revolution. A veteran Indian fighter, Sevier soon entered politics and received a commission as a militia officer. Campaigns against the Cherokee and his role in the defeat of British forces at the Battle of King’s Mountain made him a hero among many backcountry whites. After North Carolina indicated a willingness to cede its western lands to Congress, Sevier served briefly as governor of the ill-fated “state” of Franklin. After the cession was completed, Sevier became the first governor of the new state of Tennessee. A pragmatist if not an opportunist, Sevier seems to have been driven by a desire for western land, not by political ideology or a sense of American nationalism.

This chapter reveals the Franklin–Spanish conspiracy that threatened to fracture the southwestern frontier in order to reconstruct the shattered remains of Franklin and advance the political and financial fortunes of a cabal of influential Tennessee Valley leading men. It notes that Dr. James White, former North Carolina congressman, visited the former Franklin governor, John Sevier, at Washington County plantation, and revealed a “shadowy scheme” that tantalizingly held out the possibilities of simultaneously resurrecting backcountry separatism and reviving the elusive Muscle Shoals land deal. The chapter shows that the events which unfolded between July 1788 and April 1789 involved the government of Spain, a small group of powerful land speculators, prominent Franklinites, and the communities of “Lesser Franklin.” It observes that the Spanish conspiracy was the last opportunity to preserve Franklin's political and economic hegemony; to pressure North Carolina and the U.S. government; to eliminate the Native American threat; and to advance collective fiscal and political interests.

This chapter continues to cover Pickens’s efforts in Indian diplomacy, seeking treaties and in several instances acting to prevent war. In May 1788, Pickens is outraged at the treacherous slaughter of several Indians under a flag of truce, including his friend Corn Tassel, and he uses his influence to try to hold responsible the white militia officers involved. The chapter highlights the practical, constitutional, and political obstacles to establishing a lasting peace between white settlers and the Creeks and Cherokees, as well as what Pickens, influenced by Calvinist theology, saw as a moral problem—man’s inherent greed and penchant for violence.

This chapter discusses the last period of Franklin’s life, from his triumphant return to Philadelphia after securing the Treaty of Paris to his last days. The chapter discusses Franklin’s propaganda efforts to gain the respect of British and European allies in the face of negative publicity abroad. It also discusses Franklin’s political roles in settling settlers’ disputes in Pennsylvania and areas of North Carolina and Tennessee being overrun by a group under John Sevier in an effort to create a state called Franklin. Franklin supported the Cherokees in their effort to seek justice from Congress. The chapter also traces Franklin’s views about slavery. In his last year, Franklin became involved with the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and as its president drafted a memorial to Congress favoring gradual emancipation, speaking to the injustice of having a national political ideology of freedom while Africans and African Americans were held in perpetual bondage.