or leadership in organizing this new government. The convention
at which Articles of Association, unfortunately lost, were drawn
up, is noteworthy as the first governmental assemblage of
free-born American citizens ever held west of the Alleghanies.
The government then established was the first free and
independent government, democratic in spirit, representative in
form, ever organized upon the American continent. In describing
this mimic republic, the royal Governor of Virginia says: "They
appointed magistrates, and framed laws for their present
occasion, and to all intents and purposes, erected themselves
into, though an inconsiderable, yet a separate State." The most
daring spirit in this little state was the young John Sevier, of
French Huguenot family (originally spelled Xavier), born in
Augusta County, Virginia, on September 23, 1745. It was from
Millerstown in Shenandoah County where he was living the
uneventful life of a small farmer, that he emigrated (December,
1773) to the Watauga region. With his arrival there begins one of
the most fascinating and romantic careers recorded in the varied
arid stirring annals of the Old Southwest. In this daring and
impetuous young fellow, fair-haired, blue-eyed, magnetic,
debonair--of powerful build, splendid proportions, and athletic
skill--we hold the gallant exemplar of the truly heroic life of
the border. The story of his life, thrilling in the extreme, is
rich in all the multi-colored elements which impart romance to
the arduous struggle of American civilization in the opening
years of the republic.

The creative impulses in the Watauga commonwealth are hinted at
by Dunmore, who serves, in the letter above quoted, that Watauga
"sets a dangerous example to the people America, of forming
governments distinct from and independent of his Majesty's
authority."

It is true that the experiment was somewhat limited. The
organization of the Watauga association, which constituted a
temporary expedient to meet a crisis in the affairs of a frontier
community cut off by forest wilderness and mountain barriers from
the reach of the arm of royal or provincial government, is not to
be compared with the revolutionary assemblage at Boonesborough,
May 23, 1775, or with the extraordinary demands for inde pendence
in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, during the same month.
Nevertheless the Watauga settlers defied both North Carolina and
the Crown, by adopting the laws of Virginia an