by violence which, in time, no doubt,
would have been obtained by consent, when the terms of separation
would have been explained or stipulated, to the mutual
satisfaction of the mother and new State.... Let your
proposals be consistent with the honour of the State to accede
to, which by your allegiance as good citizens, you cannot violate
and I make no doubt but her generosity, in time, will meet your
wishes.--Governor Alexander Martin: Manifesto against the State
of Franklin, April 25, 1785.

To the shrewd diplomacy of Joseph Martin, who held the Cherokees
in check during the period of the King's Mountain campaign, the
settlers in the valleys of the Watauga and the Holston owed their
temporary immunity from Indian attack. But no sooner did Sevier
and his over-mountain men return from the battle-field of King's
Mountain than they were called upon to join in an expedition
against the Cherokees, who had again gone on the war-path at the
instigation of the British. After Sevier with his command had
defeated a small party of Indians at Boyd's Creek in December,
the entire force of seven hundred riflemen, under the command of
Colonel Arthur Campbell, with Major Joseph Martin as subordinate,
penetrated to the heart of the Indian country, burned Echota,
Chilhowee, Settiquo, Hiawassee, and seven other principal
villages, and destroyed an immense amount of property and
supplies. In March, suspecting that the arch-conspirators against
the white settlers were the Cherokees at the head waters of the
Little Tennessee, Sevier led one hundred and fifty horsemen
through the devious mountain defiles and struck the Indians a
swift and unexpected blow at Tuckasegee, near the present
Webster, North Carolina. In this extraordinarily daring raid, one
of his most brilliant feats of arms, Sevier lost only one man
killed and one wounded; while upon the enemy he inflicted the
loss of thirty killed, took many more prisoners, burned six
Indian towns, and captured many horses and supplies. Once his
deadly work was done, Sevier with his bold cavaliers silently
plunged again into the forest whence he had so suddenly emerged,
and returned in triumph to the settlements.

Disheartened though the Indians were to see the smoke of their
burning towns, they sullenly remained averse to peace; and they
did not keep the treaty made at Long Island in July, 1781. The
Indians suffered from very real grievances at the hands of the
lawless white settlers w