Tennessee Valley Authority

“ Every possible presumption is in favor of the validity of a statute, and this continues until the contrary is shown beyond a rational doubt. One branch of the government cannot encroach on the domain of another without danger. The safety of our institutions depends in no small degree on a strict observance of this salutary rule.'
The challenge of the power of the Tennessee Valley Authority rests wholly upon the claim that the act of Congress which authorized the contract is unconstitutional. ”

“ Whereas it has been deemed necessary by the local residents to organize the Norris community into an incorporated municipality in order to provide essential services and functions, some of which were provided formerly by the Tennessee Valley Authority, and for which no permanent arrangements have been established ”

“ The cost to the United States was several hundred thousand dollars less than the cost of rebuilding the old road. And all the landowners in the area, except these six respondents who refused to sell, have received full compensation for their property.
The Courts below have held that T.V.A. had no power under the Act to condemn the tracts of these respondents as contemplated by the agreement. The District Court reached this conclusion by limiting the Authority's power so that it can condemn only those lands which are needed for the dam and reservoir proper. ”

“ Aetna Insurance Company v. Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company 229 F.2d 587 (1956) United States Tennessee Valley Authority v. Acres of Land More or Less Located in Sumner County Tennessee 229 F.2d 588 (1956) Duke Power Company v. ”

“ The speediest method of accomplishing this will be the perfecting of an ordinance by the Legislature formally declaring the independence of the State of Tennessee of the Federal Union, renouncing its authority, and resuming each and every function belonging to a separate sovereignty; and said ordinance when perfected should be submitted to a vote of the people to be by them adopted or rejected. Under existing circumstances I can see no propriety in encumbering the people of the State with the election of delegates, to do that which is in our power to enable them to do directly for themselves. ”

“ Whereas the first article and the first section of the Declaration of Rights in the Constitution of the State of Tennessee declares, ‘That all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness ”

“ Tennessee, as one of the United States, cannot be under a constitutional duty to recognize the governmental obligations of those who, by revolution, and in violation of the Federal Constitution, overthrew the legitimate State government, not because of its administration of the internal affairs of that State, but solely because of its adherence to the Federal Union, and its refusal to acknowledge the authority of the Confederate government. ”

“ A federal court enforcing the Federal Constitution is not, to be sure, bound by the remedial doctrines of the state courts. But it must consider as pertinent to the propriety or impropriety of exercising its jurisdiction those state law effects of its decree which it cannot itself control. A federal court cannot provide the authority requisite to make a legislature the proper governing body of the State of Tennessee. ”

“ Wise legislators were William Blount, David Campbell and Joseph Anderson, who constituted the legislative authority. Their example was followed, after Tennessee was admitted into the Union, by the general assemblies elected by the people, for a very long period, so that, whenever money was appropriated or a county authorized to make any expenditures, the same act required the county authorities to levy a tax, collect it and pay up, instead of piling up debt. ”

“ This was the first territorial division in the United States named in honor of George Washington. The Governor of North Carolina appointed justices of the peace and militia officers for this county, who, in February, 1778, met and took the oath of office, and organized the new county and its courts. Thereupon, the first “free and independent government” formed and put into operation in America was no more, the jurisdiction and authority of the five commissioners having, by their own consent and that of the people, been superseded by the newly appointed authorities. ”

“ A greater curse can scarcely be inflicted upon the people of any State, than to have their land titles unsettled. What, then, must be the condition of Tennessee, where there are many disputed land titles, when we are informed, by undoubted authority, “that some of the important causes now pending in their circuit courts are older than the professional career of almost every man at the bar.” ”

“ No Judge of any Court of law or equity, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Register, Clerk of any court of Record, or person holding any office under the authority of the United States, shall have a seat in the General Assembly; nor shall any person in this State hold more than one lucrative office at the same time; provided, that no appointment in the Militia, or to the office of Justice of the Peace, shall be considered a lucrative office, or operative as a disqualification to a seat in either House of the General Assembly. ”

“ In pursuance of the authority the commissioners appointed by the states settled the line from the east to a point on the Great Iron or Smoky mountain west of the Pigeon river, marked by a stone set up on the north side of the Cataloochee Turnpike road, about due north from the present town of Waynesville, in Heywood county, North Carolina, and about 6 miles east of the point where the Tennessee river passes through the mountain range, leaving the line to the southern boundary of the states unmarked. ”

“ It has been the constant desire of the Government, from the beginning of the war, to rescue the loyal inhabitants of East Tennessee from the hands of the rebels, who fully appreciated the importance of continuing their hold upon that country. In addition to the large amount of agricultural products drawn from the upper valley of the Tennessee, they also obtained iron and other materials from the vicinity of Chattanooga. The possession of East Tennessee would cut off one of their most important railroad communications, and threaten their manufactories at Rome, Atlanta, etc. ”

“ Petitions, with nearly two thousand signers or names to them, coming from all settlements in the state (territory) were presented to the Constitutional Convention in 1796, asking that a provision be embodied in the constitution prohibiting slavery in the state after the year 1864. This was the voice of prophecy coming up out of the Western Wilderness.
True philanthropy liberates its own slaves, and not other people’s without their consent.
The first private corporation chartered by the general assembly of Tennessee was the “Nolichucky River Company,” November 10, 1801. ”

“ These agents enforced a code that reduced almost every activity and relation of the slave to a basis of law. The patrol system was characterized by a careful consideration of the slave’s weaknesses and, with its patriarchal supervision, gave him a respect for authority that partially prepared him to be a citizen in a government of law. It is singularly true that Tennessee negroes today enjoy a greater participation in politics than any other Southern negroes. ”

“ That while the country is now upon the very threshold of a most ruinous and desolating Civil War, it may with truth be said, and we protest before God, that the people, so far as we can see, have done nothing to produce it. That the people of Tennessee, when the question was submitted to them in February last, decided by an overwhelming majority that the relations of the State towards the Federal Government should not be changed ”

“ Each Branch Chief may use any system of index numbering that will help in orderly filing and cross-indexing. Probably the best method is the simple practice of having each man, while assigned to any particular squad, keep his own set of numbers, starting with No. 1 and breaking them up as required and keeping a record of numbers used, together with the subject of the computation. The system used should make it possible to refer readily to another designer's computations by specific page number. ”

“ Not only is it the same body politic now, but it has always been the same. There has been perpetual succession and perpetual identity. There has from that time always been a State of Tennessee, and the same State of Tennessee. Its executive, its legislative, its judicial departments have continued without interruption and in regular order. It has changed, modified, and reconstructed its organic law, or State Constitution, more than once. It has done this before the rebellion, during the rebellion, and since the rebellion. ”

“ I was much interested in the appearance of a number of intelligent-looking men who sat together, engaged in earnest conversation. There were the man who founded the first educational institution in the Mississippi valley (48) ; the first minister who preached regularly to a Tennessee congregation (49) ; the bishop whose journal forms a valuable contribution to the history of early times in this state (50) ; the president of the first non-sectarian college chartered in the United States (51) ; the classmate of Daniel Webster who founded the first academy for females in Tennessee (52) ”

“ THE LEGAL STATUS OF FREE NEGROES AND SLAVES IN TENNESSEE
In 1790, the free colored population of Tennessee was 361, while the slave numbered 3,417. [1] In 1787, three years previous, Davidson County, which then, as now, comprised the most important and thickly settled part of the Cumberland Valley, had a population of 105 Negroes between the ages of 1 and 60. [2] Nashville was just a rough community in the wilderness with a few settlers from the older districts of the East, living in several hewed and framed log-houses and twenty or more rough cabins. ”

“ The Industrial School, which is for orphan, helpless, wayward and abandoned children, is governed by a board of directors consisting of the governor, comptroller, secretary of state, and treasurer as ex officio members, and seven other members, a portion retiring every two years, and their successors being appointed by the remaining directors with the concurrence of the senate. The act for establishing the Tennessee Reformatory for Boys provides that the institution shall be governed by a board of trustees consisting of the governor and five other members, one retiring each year ”

“ Electors, presidential, in 1796—method of their selection, 97. Emancipation of slaves— early cases of, in Tennessee, 77; authority conferred on county courts, 78. Embree, Elihu—first abolition editor, 78 (note) , 148. Fees of public officers and attorneys—regulated by law, 73. Fire at Jonesboro— Andrew Jackson’s share in extinguishing, 121; Ben Boyd’s rencontre with Jackson, 122. Franklin, state of— inception, 27; organized, 29; boundaries, 29; extent, 30; early laws, 31; collapse, 35. Free and independent government, the first— its establishment, 20 ”

“ CHAPTER III LOYALTY OF EAST TENNESSEE While we have attempted to show the untenable position of those who maintain that the majority of the people of Tennessee were opposed to separation and it was only a coup d’état of Governor Harris that carried the State into the Confederacy, it is, however, true that a great number of her inhabitants did resist withdrawal and remain openly loyal. This was especially the case with East Tennessee. Her persistent loyalty is a striking illustration of the physical conditions and causes which lay behind the Civil War. ”

“ No one can question the sincerity of the legislature of Tennessee in thus enacting what it deemed for the health of its citizens, or the conviction of the members of its supreme court of the validity of such legislation by reason of the greatness of the supposed evil which it was intended to restrain. ”

“ When the State was admitted into the Union, in 1796, her population was homogeneous. The institution of slavery existed in all sections of the State.
In West and Middle Tennessee, where the soil and climate were suitable for raising cotton, slave labor was very profitable. In East Tennessee, the poor upland farms scarcely yielded a return to white labor. As the result of this difference in natural conditions, slavery flourished in West and Middle Tennessee, but in East Tennessee, by 1860, it had become almost extinct, except upon the rich plantations that bordered the Tennessee River. ”

“ This last full and final repealing act deserves to be further noted, and to be remembered with reverence—so to speak—for the reason that it is the first act passed in Tennessee in which the term “in the year of our Lord” is used. What an intellectual treat it must have been to hear the man (not the member of the general assembly) who prepared this last repealing act, explaining its provisions to the members of the general assembly, and pointing out to them the great benefits that were to accrue to the “merchants, physicians and inn-keepers” of the country by its passage ”

“ It follows that no ratification of the subscription to the Mississippi River Railroad Company, or of the bonds issued for its payment, could be made by the county court, subsequently to the new constitution of Tennessee, without the previous assent of three-fourths of the voters of the county, which has never been given. ”

“ Whereas on April 8, 1949, a Private Act of the legislature of the State of Tennessee was approved, under which a charter of incorporation has been granted creating the municipality styled City of Norris, Tennessee ”