How the Southwest Territory Became A State, the One We Know As Tennessee

I’ve been hanging out with that truly strange fellow, Andrew Jackson, whom, no matter what, I have a hard time finding a good word for.

My 'fun' bit out of this (no one has ever accused King Andrew of being 'fun') is how the Southwest Territory became the state of Tennessee. Territorial administrator-in-chief, Blount (young Jackson’s mentor, handler and father-figure), politician (and land speculator) extraordinaire, had a finely honed machine which ran the Southwest Territory just as they liked. Rather than having ambitions to join the U.S.A., Blount and fellows wanted to keep the U.S. gummit as far away from them as possible, for as long as possible. But then, there were the Indians. Settlers in the territory kept pushing into Indian lands, which Blount and Company were delighted by – they could sell the lands, administer titles, etc. all for hefty fees.

Nevermind that these lands were Indian lands by treaty etc. By god, where in hell is the U.S. army to protect our white settlers settling illegally on the lands we illegally sold them? Armies and militias are expensive in time and equipment. Damnit, what to do?

We know! Waving hands wildly! We solved the goddammit problem! We will become a state and then we can get OUR hands on that U.S. federal military money AND soldiers to drive the Indians out (and somehow manage to have a lot of some of it stick to our wildly waving hands).

They rushed through a census because a territory needed 66,000 free white citizens in order to qualify for statehood. Tennessee had 77,000 – nearly 9 thousand slave and nearly a thousand free people of color. They rushed through a referendum to become a state and won in the west though the east wasn’t so keen. They rushed through elections for governor – Blount, astoundingly won that office– for the two senators, and the single rep to which they were entitled, who happened to be from the east and be Blount’s fair-haired boyo, Jackson. Off they went to Philadelphia, then the Capital.

Hai! here we r. We r state now 2! We sit down in senate and house with u. Give us monies and soldiers to kill Indians!

O, rilly? says the Senate and the House. We never received a statehood request. We never had a discussion on yur ratification. U r not state. U can't sit with us. Srsly.

Srsly? Dayem! Request Statehood? Ratification? Who knew?

Srsly dudes. kbaiugohomenaonothnx.

They didn’t go home. They hung around and were handsome, courtly and impressive, especially Jackson. O, and did more land deals and speculations.

There was heated debate regarding the ratification of Tennessee statehood, because of slavery, and because of representation, including for electoral votes, particularly by the Federalists, who still existed then. But it didn't take that long before deals were cut and, thanks in part to Aaron Burr, the Southwest Territory entered the Union in 1796 as the state of Tennessee (choosing the state’s name is also a charming story).

Image of Charles Darwin Appears on Wall in Tennessee.... Thousands Flock

A steady stream of devoted evolutionists continued to gather in this small
Tennessee town today to witness what many believe is an image of Charles
Darwin--author of The Origin Of Species and founder of the modern evolutionary
movement--made manifest on a concrete wall in downtown Dayton.

"I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin
can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene
Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious
stain...

You can read full story here.

Then there is this story.

"Gov. Jindal exorcizes arts funds from Louisiana budget," by Christopher Knight, Culture Monster Blog (LA Times) March 30, 2009

When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal gave the now-infamous televised Republican response to President Obama's Congressional address in February, he mocked the inclusion of "something called 'volcano monitoring' " in the economic stimulus bill. "Instead of monitoring volcanoes," Jindal said, "what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington."Twenty-six days later, Alaska's Mt. Redoubt began to erupt, spreading volcanic ash all over Anchorage and egg all over Jindal's face.

Now Gov. Jindal has proposed a $26.7-billion state budget for next year that makes painful but necessary program cuts to deal with a $1.3-billion drop in his state's general fund income. According to the Associated Press, "The largest cuts would fall on health care and education programs.... The state's health department would be cut $413 million, or 5%; public colleges would be trimmed $219 million, or nearly 8%; and the education department would lose $141 million, or nearly 3%."Unmentioned by the AP is the fate the Louisiana Decentralized Arts Fund, a competitive program that makes small grants ranging from $500 to $10,000 to arts and cultural projects in every parish of the state. The arts fund will lose just a couple of million dollars -- chump change compared to the big numbers cited above.

Except, that is, when you look at the percentages. WWL-TV reported today the arts fund would be whacked a whopping 83% -- effectively putting the program out of business. The arts, not health and education, are taking the largest cuts by a factor of 10.

Shocking, I know. Who could imagine a Republican politician wanting to wipe out public arts funding? Gov. Jindal challenged arts funding in the president's stimulus package afew weeks back on "Larry King Live."

"Fundamentally, I don't think ... $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts is going to get the economy moving again as quickly as allowing the private sector to create jobs," he said.The governor did not explain how the minuscule NEA boost -- which Congress ultimately approved -- would hinder job creation in the arts, public or private.