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 organized, indicate the high character of its citizens. They bore the impress of the true Anglo-Saxon spirit,—the love of order and equity. They required strict obedience to the will of the majority. Invoking the blessing of Divine Providence, the compact set up in the wilderness a temple of justice that secured ample legal protection to the citizen and the stranger, until the lawful jurisdiction of the parent State of North Carolina could be extended over the new territory.

FORT RIDLEY, AN OLD NASHVILLE BLOCKHOUSE.

James Robertson, the well-recognized leader of the settlement, was not blessed with the genius and natural gifts of John Sevier, the soldier and statesman of the eastern section, but he was a born ruler and organizer, a man full of resources, of lofty personal character and purposes. Well might he be called the founder and father of Nashville. His life is an epitome of the early history of Middle Tennessee.