Editing Greeneville, Tennessee (section)

===State of Franklin===
[[Image:Capitol-replica-greeneville-tn1.jpg|right|210px|thumb|Replica of the Capitol of the State of Franklin in Greeneville]]

In 1784, North Carolina attempted to resolve its debts by giving the U.S. Congress its lands west of the Appalachian Mountains, including Greene County, abandoning responsibility for the area to the [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] government.  In response, delegates from Greene and neighboring counties convened at Jonesborough and resolved to break away from North Carolina and establish an independent state.  The delegates agreed to meet again later that year to form a constitution, which was rejected when presented to the general delegation in December.<ref>Doughty, 15-16.</ref>  Reverend Samuel Houston (not to be confused with the later [[Sam Houston|governor of Tennessee and Texas]]) had presented a draft constitution that restricted the election of lawyers and other professionals. Houston's draft met staunch opposition, especially from Reverend [[Hezekiah Balch]] (1741–1810) (who was later instrumental in the creation of Tusculum College). [[John Sevier]] was elected governor, and other executive offices were filled.

A petition for statehood for what would have become known as the State of Franklin (named in honor of [[Benjamin Franklin]]) was drawn at the delegates session in May 1785. The delegates submitted a petition for statehood to [[Congress of the Confederation|Congress]], which failed to gain the requisite votes needed for admission to the Union. The first state legislature of Franklin met in December 1785 in a crude log courthouse in Greeneville, which had been named the capital city the previous August.<ref>Doughty, 15-17.</ref> During this session, the delegates finally approved a constitution that was based on, and quite similar to, the North Carolina state constitution.  However, the Franklin movement began to collapse soon thereafter, with North Carolina reasserting its control of the area the following spring.

In 1897, at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], a log house that had been moved from Greeneville was displayed as the capitol where the State of Franklin's delegates met in the 1780s.  There is, however, nothing to verify that this building was the actual capitol.  In the 1960s, the capitol was reconstructed, based largely on the dimensions given in historian [[J. G. M. Ramsey]]'s ''Annals of Tennessee''.<ref>Doughty, 17-19.</ref>