often did their share of farm work, and prided themselves upon their capacity to do it well.  They had none of that feeling which makes slave-owners look upon manual labor as a badge of servitude.  They were often lazy and shiftless, but they never deified laziness and shiftlessness or made them into a cult.  The one thing they prized beyond all others was their personal freedom, the right of the individual to do whatsoever he saw fit.  Indeed they often carried this feeling so far as to make them condone gross excesses, rather than insist upon the exercise of even needful authority.  They were by no means entirely logical, but they did see and feel that slavery was abhorrent, and that it was utterly inconsistent with the theories of their own social and governmental life.  As yet there was no thought of treating slavery as a sacred institution, the righteousness of which must not be questioned.  At the Fourth of July celebrations toasts such as “The total abolition of slavery” were not uncommon. [Footnote:  Knoxville Gazette, July 17, 1795, etc.  See also issue Jan. 28, 1792.] It was this feeling which prevented any manifestation of surprise at Blount’s apparent acquiescence in a section of the ordinance for the government of the Territory which prohibited slavery.

    Dulness of the Public Conscience about Slavery.

Nevertheless, though slaves were not numerous, they were far from uncommon, and the moral conscience of the community was not really roused upon the subject.  It was hardly possible that it should be roused, for no civilized people who owned African slaves had as yet abolished slavery, and it was too much to hope that the path toward abolition would be pointed out by poor frontiersmen engaged in a life and death struggle with hostile savages.  The slaveholders were not interfered with until they gradually grew numerous enough and powerful enough to set the tone of thought, and make it impossible to root out slavery save by outside action.

    Blount’s First Appointments.

Blount recommended the appointment of Sevier and Robertson as brigadier-generals of militia of the Eastern and Western districts of the Territory, and issued a large number of commissions to the justices of the peace, militia officers, sheriffs, and clerks of the county courts in the different counties. [Footnote:  Blount MSS., Journal of the Proceedings, etc.] In his appointments he shrewdly and properly identified himself with the natural leaders of the frontiersmen.  He made Sevier and Robertson his right-hand men, and strove always to act in harmony with them, while for the minor military and civil officers he chose the persons whom the frontiersmen themselves desired.  In consequence he speedily became a man of great influence for good.  The Secretary of the Territory reported to the Federal Government that the effect of Blount’s character on the frontiersmen was far greater than was the case with any other man, and that he was able