How cleverly Mire played his personal role
we discover in the letters addressed to him by Sevier and
Robertson. These letters show that, as far as words go at any
rate, the founders of Tennessee were willing to negotiate with
Spain. In a letter dated September 12, 1788, Sevier offered
himself and his tottering State of Franklin to the Spanish King.
This offer may have been made to gain a respite, or it may have
been genuine. The situation in the Tennessee settlements was
truly desperate, for neither North Carolina nor Congress
apparently cared in the least what befell them or how soon. North
Carolina indeed was in an anomalous position, as she had not yet
ratified the Federal Constitution. If Franklin went out of
existence and the territory which it included became again part
of North Carolina, Sevier knew that a large part of the newly
settled country would, under North Carolina's treaties, revert to
the Indians. That meant ruin to large numbers of those who had
put their faith in his star, or else it meant renewed conflict
either with the Indians or with the parent State. The
probabilities aria that Sevier hoped to play the Spaniards
against the Easterners who, even while denying the Westerners'
contention that the mountains were a "natural" barrier between
them, were making of them a barrier of indifference.
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