PETITION REQUESTING PAYMENT FOR GRAIN

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PETITION TO INCORPORATE FEMALE ACADEMY

Petition Number 206, Year 1846

[Cover sheet reads: "A petition from Sundry Citizens of Bradley County praying for the Incorporation of Cleveland Male and Female Academy in Said County of Bradley".]

Cleveland, Tenn. Dec. 14th, 1847

To the Genl. Assembly of the State of Tennessee Now in Session

The undersigned your petitioners Respectfully Request Your Honerable Body to incorporate the Cleveland Female Academy for Bradley County.

And we further Request that this Academy be allowed One half of the Academy fund to which the County of Bradley is Entitled.

Very respectfully

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PETITION OF ISAAC BRAZELTON FOR PEDDLING LICENSE

Petition Number 211, Year 1847

[Cover sheet reads: "Petition of Isaac Brazelton Praying for a law to be Past Autherising him to hawk and Peddle with out Licens". The petition was read in the House on Dec. 7, 1847 and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The committee recommended that it be rejected on Dec. 10, and the House concurred.]

Charleston, Tenn. Nov. 28th, 1847

To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Tennessee now in Session, Your Humble petitioners Represent to Your Honorable Boddy the case of one Isaac Brazelton a Citizen of Bradly County Tenn Who is forty Eight year of age and from a long series of affliction of Rheumatism in his hip & thigh has rendered him intirely incapable of performing manuel labour and has no other means of making a Support for himself and family. Your Humble petitioners therefore pray Your Honorable boddy that you grant to the said Isaac Brazelton the privelidge to hawk and peddle through out the State of Tennessee free of licens this being done Your petitioners as in duty bound will every pray & etc.

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PETITION OF ABSALOM CARSON FOR PEDDLING LICENSE

Petition Number 217, Year 1847_

[Cover sheet reads: "No. 62. Petition of Absalom Carson of Bradley County praying the passage on an act authorizing him to hawk & peddle or to retail spirituous liquor without license". The petition was read in the House on Nov. 5, 1847, and referred to the Judiciary Committee. The committee recommended it be approved.]

Cleveland, October 23rd, 1847

Mr. Purvine, I enclose my petition to you which you will please have attended to as soon as you can. You can see the signers names and know them all, and you will please lay the same before your body immediately.

Yours with respect, Absalom Carson

State of Tennessee, Bradley County

To the Legislature now in Session, assembled in Nashville, Tennessee, the petition of Absalom Carson a citizen of Bradley County and State aforesaid, would represent to your body that he has lost the sight of his right eye caused by a lick, and when he labors his eye gives him so much pain that it renders him incapable of performing labor enough to support himself and family. Now from the premises, your petitioner would pray you to grant him the privilege of Hawking and Peddling or of retailing Spirituous Liquors without license, whichever your body may see fit to do. Said Stock not to exceed from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars.

Absalom Carson

We the undersigned citizens of Bradley County are acquainted with Mr. Carson and believe what he has stated in the foregoing petition as true, and would recommend his case to your consideration.

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PETITION REGARDING MISSING SCHOOL FUNDS

Petition Number 55, Year 1849_

[Cover sheet reads: "P.J.R. Edwards regarding loss of public funds. No. 63. Read & Referred to the Committee on Education and Comm. on Schools. W.J. Monroe, Clerk". The committee's response is noted as follows: "The Committee on Education and the Committee on Schools do not see the importance of the facts set forth in this memorial and ask to be discharged from its consideration. H.R. Hill, Ch'man." Another line on the cover sheet is incomprehensible and reads: " 24[?] Jay. Concurred in. Bradley County 1849. Thornbergh".]

Cleveland, Tennessee, Dec. 15th, 1847

To the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee

The undersigned propose to inform the Legislature in as plain a way as he is capable of doing, how three thousand two hundred dollars of the public money became misplaced.

By referance to the Statutes it will be seen that of the Ocoee Lands two half Townships were bestowed upon the University at Nashville and the then East Tennessee College but it was provided that these lands should be disposed of in like manner as other lands in the same district; only that the money paid into the land office for College land should be kept separate & paid over to the said College, a quarterly of the "College land" as it was called was held, as well as other land, by Prefferences and entered under these Claims, it was not uncommon for two and sometimes more persons to have prefference Claims on the same land and when the Land Office first opened, the Entry Taker deemed it his duty to allow all to enter who presented legal claims. This practice was afterwards abandoned, but while It continued a number of places were twice Entered and in this way there were three tracts of College land twice entered each. Two were entered at $1200 each & the other at $800, making the $3200. Of course but one of the Enterers could hold the land and the defeated claimants were turned over to the State for redress. Subsequently the Legislature directed the unsuccessful Enterers Should have their money refunded by the Bank of Tennessee. No exception was made as to those entering College land, so that while the Colleges were gaining $3200 the State was Losing that amount, and this loss falls upon the common school fund.

The Undersigned was Register of Ocoee District at the time the foregoing occurrences happened, and of course was necessarily acquainted with them and having been honoured by the State with a public trust by means of which the foregoing facts came to his

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knowledge, deems it his duty to make the same known that Justice

may be done in the end. Refference is made to the laws on the subject & the undersigned has aimed to State their substance. This is however, done from memory, not having the acts to refer to. All which is respectfully submitted.

P.J.R. Edwards

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PETITION REGARDING TAXATION FOR SLAVES

Petition Number 101, Year 1849

[The cover sheet notes read: "Read and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 14 Octr. 1849. J. Miller, Clk". This is followed by: "16 Nov. 1849 committee ask to be discharged report concurred in. J. Miller".]

Petition for Amendment of Revenue Law, Bradley Co. 1849

We a Potton of the Citizens of Bradley County State of Tennessee wish to memorialize the general assembly of the State now in Session on the subject of the Revenue Law. And for that purpose will bring to your notice the 28 Sect of the 2nd article of the Constitution of this State. Which exempts Slaves under 12 and over 50 years of Age from taxation.

Which laws in said Constitution we want amended So as to make Slaves taxable from the time they become Slaves as Long as they are Slaves according to their value. This we think would be just and Equil.

Revenue is Raised to Support our Laws. And our the Poor man has but little to protect. but he under the present Law has to pay taxes for every Acre of Land he owns and that as Soon as he owns it. And evry dollars worth of labor he bestows that ads value to it as long as he lives. While the Rich Slave holder is Raising young Negros and Speculating on his old ones fee of taxation. We think a free Republican goverment will not oppress the poor to protect the Rich.

We therefore Submit the mater to your Consideration hopeing in your legislative Cappasity you will Considder your Selves the Representatives of the poor as well as the Rich.

In duty bound will every pray & etc.

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PETITION FROM WOMEN PROTESTING LIQUOR SALES

Petition Number 123, Year 1851_

[The envelope is postmarked at Bolivar, Tenn. and addressed to "Division S of T, Cleveland, Tenn". The petition was referred to the committee on Tippling and Tippling Houses on Dec. 1, 1851. It is a printed petition, and copies of this petition were also signed and sent to the Legislature from other Tennessee counties. It reads as follows.]

To the Legislature of Tennessee

The undersigned, female citizens of Tennessee Bradley County, would respectfully represent to your Honorable body, that, from a conviction of the fact, that the largest portion of the Pauperism, Crime, Solial [sic] Evils and Untimely Deaths, with which our country is afflicted, flows from Intemperance; That the chivalrous State of Tennessee already has its thousand of suffering women and children, whose woes are rendered still more sacred, by the tears of other thousands of widows and orphans, whose sorrows may be traced to the use of intoxicating liquors by a husband or father, as the grand originating cause.

And, inasmuch as the present existing Laws of Tennessee have hitherto proved ineffectual in suppressing the unholy traffice [sic], in those exhilerating [sic] poisons, and we believing the true remedy to be found only in removing the cause. Although your petitioners do not wish to arrogate to themselves the right to dictate to or take part in the Law-making power; yet we do claim the right of soliciting, at your hands, the enacting of such laws as will best protect our interest in society, and preserve from disgrace, degredation and a drunkards grave. Thousands of fathers, husbands, brothers and sons, who, but for the intoxicating bowl, would hold an honorable station in that society to which nature intended them to belong. Your petitioners therefore pray your honorable body to take solemnly into consideration the importance of this momentous subject, and at an early day after your convention, enact some law that will be calculated to suppress the unholy traffic in intoxicating liquors, save for Medicinal and Chemical purposes; thereby placing it beyond the power of the dealer in those poisons to place the tempting glass to the lips of the unsuspecting youth, or filch from the inebriate gray haired sire's wife, the pittance with which his wife and children should be made comfortable.

We cannot suggest the Legislative action upon this subject that would likely be most efficient, but hope that the wisdom of your honorably body, when tempered with justice, and with due regard to our claims on you as patriots, and the interest of all the people, will enact some law by weich [sic] our country will be freed from the sin of vending intoxicating drink, and with due

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respect, your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

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PETITION FROM MEN PROTESTING LIQUOR SALES

Petition Number 123, Year 1851_

[A printed petition from males, this petition was apparently sent along with the womens' petition. Copies of this petition were also signed and sent to the Legislature from other Tennessee counties. They read as follows.]

To the Legislature of Tennessee

The undersigned, citizens of Bradley County, Tenn., would respectfully represent to your Honorable Body, that from the accumulation of testimony during the last quarter of a century, the demonstration would seem to be complete, that the largest portion of the pauperism, crime and indeed of most of the social evils, with which our country is afflicted, flows from Intemperance; that Tennessee shares largely in these evils, and the consequently no subject more imperatively demands your careful consideration, as the representatives of an enlightened and Christian community.

They would also represent that the existing legislative enactments are found to be inadequate to the suppression of these evils; and that some of their provisions are considered disreputable to our good name and injurious to public morale, inasmuch as they lead to perjury, and from their operation as revenue laws, render the State a partner in, and give legality and dignity to a traffic, that enlightened public sentiment has everywhere stamped as immoral.

Among the measures that have been adopted by Legislatures of some of the States of the Union for the suppression of the great evil, your attention is invited to the following:

1. The entire prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors, except for medical and chemical purposes, the penalties being fines, imprisonment in the county jails and in the State Penitentiaries, and disfranchisement.

2. To allow every person to traffic in these liquors, but to consider the seller as an accomplice in all the crimes and misdemeanors resulting from his traffic, and to punish him accordingly. This enactment, it is said, has been found very salutary and efficient, and would seem to be recommended by the principle of common law and common sense, [italics] that a man shall be held accountable for his actions.

3. To pass an act, embracing one of the above provisions, or provisions equally stringent and prohibitory; and then submit it to the people, to be adopted or rejected by a majority vote of each county separately, or of the entire State, the act to be in force in such counties as adopt it, but inoperative elsewhere.

The undersigned would respectfully suggest that this last measure is recommended by the consideration that it is in

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accordance with the republican principle, [italics] that the will of the majority shall rule [end italics]; and relieves the Legislature from the responsibility of acting in opposition to this will, and is therefore recommended to your favorable consideration. They will only add that this brief and imperfect memorial may, with but little of fiction, be presented to hour Honorable Body as an appeal from thousands of suffering women and children enforced by the now unavailing tears of thousands of widows and orphans; and as such, it is believed will not be disregarded. All of which is respectfully submitted.

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