The North Carolina Assembly did not confine itself to impolite
remarks. It proceeded to get rid of what it deemed western
rapacity by ceding the whole overmountain territory to the United
States, with the proviso that Congress must accept the gift
within twelve months. And after passing the Cession Act, North
Carolina closed the land office in the undesired domain and
nullified all entries made after May 25, 1784. The Cession Act
also enabled the State to evade its obligations to the Cherokees
in the matter of an expensive consignment of goods to pay for new
lands.
This clever stroke of the Assembly's brought about immediate
consequences in the region beyond the hills. The Cherokees, who
knew nothing about the Assembly's system of political economy but
who found their own provokingly upset by the non-arrival of the
promised goods, began again to darken the mixture in their paint
pots; and they dug up the war hatchet, never indeed so deeply
patted down under the dust that it could not be unearthed by a
stub of the toe. Needless to say, it was not the thrifty and
distant Easterners who felt their anger, but the nearby
settlements.
As for the white overhill dwellers, the last straw had been laid
on their backs; and it felt like a hickory log. No sooner had the
Assembly adjourned than the men of Washington, Sullivan, and
Greene counties, which comprised the settled portion of what is
now east Tennessee, elected delegates to convene for the purpose
of discussing the formation of a new State.
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