The Cumberland Compact was signed at a Longhunter and native American trading post and camp near the French Lick[1] aka the "Big Salt Springs" on the Cumberland River on May 13, 1780, by 256 settlers led by James Robertson and John Donelson, where the group settled and built Fort Nashborough, which would later become Nashville, Tennessee.
The Cumberland Compact was based on the earlier Articles of the Watauga Association composed in 1772 at the Watauga settlement located on the Watauga River at present day Elizabethton, Tennessee.
The only surviving copy of the Cumberland Compact was discovered in 1846 inside a trunk that once belonged to early pioneer and founder Colonel Samuel Barton. The copy in the Tennessee State Archives is slightly damaged. Other than this the document is intact and legible.
The Cumberland Compact was composed and signed by 256 colonists. One colonist, James Patrick of Virginia, was illiterate and marked his name with an "X". This constitution called for a governing council of 12 judges who would be elected by the vote of free men 21 years of age or older. Unique to the times, the Compact included a clause that these judges could be removed from office by the people. Government salaries were to be paid in goods. Governors are paid 1,000 deer skins, secretaries are paid 450 otter skins, county clerks are paid 500 raccoon skins, and the constables are paid one mink skin for every warrant served. All males sixteen or older were subject to militia duty.
The compact did establish a contract and relationship between the settlers of the Cumberland region and limited the punishment that could be meted out by the judicial system. Serious capital crimes were to be settled by transporting the offending party to a location under the direct jurisdiction of the State of North Carolina for a proper trial. The compact remained in effect until Tennessee became a state.
In 1788, at the first court session in Nashville Andrew Jackson was granted permission to practice law. He was immediately handed the job of prosecuting attorney. In 1793, Judge John McNairy sentenced Nashville's first horse thief, John McKain, Jr., to be fastened to a wooden stock one hour for 39 lashes, his ears cut off and cheeks branded with the letter "H" and "T". The first female convicted of stealing soap and thread was stripped to the waist and publicly whipped nine lashes. By 1800, the first divorce was granted between May and Nathaniel Parker. Henry Baker became the first capital punishment case in Davidson County with the first death sentence of "hanged by the neck until he is dead" for stealing a horse. These records survive in a heavy leather bound book in the care of the circuit court clerk.