the memorial to Congress and to make what further representations he might find “conducive to the interest and independence of this country.”  The memorial set forth the earnest desire of the people of Franklin to be admitted as a State of the Federal Union, together with the wrongs they had endured from North Carolina, dwelling with particular bitterness upon the harm which had resulted from her failure to give the Cherokees the goods which they had been promised.  It further recited how North Carolina’s original cession of the western lands had moved the Westerners to declare their independence, and contended that her subsequent repeal of the act making this cession was void, and that Congress should treat the cession as an accomplished fact.  However, Congress took no action either for or against the insurrectionary commonwealth.

The new state wished to stand well with Virginia, no less than with Congress.  In July, 1785, Sevier wrote to Governor Patrick Henry, unsuccessfully appealing to him for sympathy.  In this letter he insisted that he was doing all he could to restrain the people from encroaching on the Indian lands, though he admitted he found the task difficult.  He assured Henry that he would on no account encourage the southwestern Virginians to join the new state, as some of them had proposed; and he added, what he evidently felt to be a needed explanation, “we hope to convince every one that we are not a banditti, but a people who mean to do right, as far as our knowledge will lead us.” [Footnote:  Va.  State Papers, IV., 42, Sevier to Henry, July 19, 1785.]

    Correspondence with Benjamin Franklin.

At the outset of its stormy career the new state had been named Franklin, in honor of Benjamin Franklin; but a large minority had wished to call it Frankland instead, and outsiders knew it as often by one title as the other.  Benjamin Franklin himself did not know that it was named after him until it had been in existence eighteen months. [Footnote:  State Dept.  MSS., Franklin Papers, Miscellaneous, vol. vii., Benj.  Franklin to William Cocke, Philadelphia, Aug. 12, 1786.] The state was then in straits, and Cocke wrote Franklin, in the hope of some advice or assistance.  The prudent philosopher replied in conveniently vague and guarded terms.  He remarked that this was the first time he had been informed that the new state was named after him, he having always supposed that it was called Frankland.  He then expressed his high appreciation of the honor conferred upon him, and his regret that he could not show his appreciation by anything more substantial than good wishes.  He declined to commit himself as to the quarrel between Franklin and North Carolina, explaining that he could know nothing of its merits, as he had but just come home from abroad; but he warmly commended the proposition to submit the question to Congress, and urged that the disputants should abide by its decision.  He wound up his letter by some general remarks on the benefits of having a Congress which could act as a judge in such matters.