John Sevier

American politician

John Sevier (September 23, 1745 – September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee.

A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennessee's pre-statehood period, both militarily and politically, and he was elected the state's first governor in 1796.

He served as a colonel of the Washington District Regiment in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, and he commanded the frontier militia in dozens of battles against the Cherokee in the 1780s and 1790s.

Sevier settled in the Tennessee Valley frontier in the 1770s.In 1776, he was elected one of five magistrates of the Watauga Association and helped defend Fort Watauga against an assault by the Cherokee.

At the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, he was chosen as a member of the Committee of Safety for the association's successor, the Washington District.

Following the Battle of Kings Mountain, he led an invasion that destroyed several Cherokee towns in northern Georgia.In the 1780s, he served as the only governor of the State of Franklin, an early attempt at statehood by the trans-Appalachian settlers.

He was brigadier general of the Southwest Territory militia during the early 1790s.Sevier served six two-year terms as Tennessee's governor: from 1796 until 1801, and from 1803 to 1809.

Term limits prevented a fourth consecutive term in both instances.His political career was marked by a growing rivalry with rising politician Andrew Jackson, which nearly culminated in a duel in 1803.

After his last term as governor, Sevier was elected to three terms in the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee, serving from 1811 until his death in 1815.

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