his long enjoyed popularity, and was defeated for the senate by Jefferson Franklin, of Surry. Governor Martin had been, theretofore, unerring in his campaigns in that perception of the politic and prudent course to pursue; but here he made a political blunder, which Talleyrand pronounced worse than a crime. He lingered about like some superfluous actor of the stage, when his day had passed, and he no more had the "honors and troops of friends," he once enjoyed.
Such long, laborious and continued services in the political field should condone any errors in his military career.
He was fond of literature, and was for a while at Princeton College. He was one of the most active and useful trustees of our university from 1790 to the date of his death. As governor, in his messages, he warmly advocated the claims of the institution to the patronage of the state. He was vain of his literary attainments. His ode on the death of General Nash, in 1777, and his eulogy on the death of Governor Caswell (November 10, 1789) have been printed, and may be considered as more patriotic than poetic. He died at Danbury, on the Dan River, in 1807, unmarried.
Newton Cannon, born 1781, died September 29th, 1841, soldier and statesman, at one time governor of Tennessee. He was a native of Guilford County, removed to Tennessee.
His grandfather, Richard
Thompson, was the first man who fell at Alamance, (in the battle between the
regulators and Governor Tryon, in 1771.) Mr. Thompson was also the
* Caruther's Life of David
Caldwell, p. 153.
He was a member of the legislature of Tennessee, 1811,-'12, and of the state constitutional convention of 1824.
In 1813, he was appointed colonel of a regiment of Tennessee mounted rifles, and commanded the left wing in the battle of Tallahatchie, November 3d, 1813, where he displayed much valor and skill.
He was elected twice a member of congress from Tennessee, and served from 1814 to 1817, and from 1819 to 1823.
He was appointed by Monroe, one of the commissioners to treat with the Chickasaws in 1819. He was Governor of Tennessee from 1835 to 1839, and died at Nashville on September 29th, 1841. He was a man of great purity of character; of strong common sense and of indomitable courage.
He married the eldest daughter of General James Wellborn, of Wilkes County, whose mother was the daughter of Hugh Montgomery, of Rowan.
General James Wellborn was a member of the state senate from Wilkes County for many years, from 1796 to 1829.
He was active, patriotic, and useful in the legislature, and often spoke on various questions, always with great vehemence and earnestness. He was blest with a stentorian voice, and when excited used it with great force. "In the legislature of 1805, says Moore in his history, (page 116,) the most remarkable feature of this session was General James Wellborn's proposition for the state to construct a great road from Beaufort to the mountains. The senator from Wilkes County was prophetic in his fore cast and entitled to be considered, the first to propose the great railway inaugurated in 1848.
John Motley Morehead, born July 4, 1796, died August 27, 1866, son of John Morehead and Obedience Motley, was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. He was educated at the school of Dr. David Caldwell, and at the university,*
* Judge Kerr in his oration
"on the life and character of Governor Morehead at Wentworth," states that
"Governor Morehead gave evidence of his future eminence by the laurels he won in
competition with such class mates as John Y. Mason, of Virginia, and James K.
Polk." They were never classmates.
where he graduated in 1817 in
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