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Weekly 150: William Carroll

Our County’s Namesake

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This morning as I scrambled to find a topic about Carroll County, my topics were few and far between based on level of interest. What came to mind was how I knew little to nothing about Carroll County’s namesake, Governor William Carroll. So guess what, this week’s article is a biographical sketch of the late governor.

Carroll was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 3, 1788. He was the oldest son of the nine children of Thomas Carroll, a merchant. As a child, Carroll received a limited education that emphasized practical fields like bookkeeping, surveying, mathematics, English language and grammar, and probably farming and rudimentary military training. The majority of his education came from working in his father’s hardware store and other mercantile ventures.

In 1810, Carroll made the move to Nashville. He was given a letter of introduction from Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, to Andrew Jackson. This led to his establishment of a hardware store and nail factory. The success of these businesses put him at the forefront of the town’s development throughout the 1810s.

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Carroll was appointed captain of the Nashville Uniform Volunteers and joined Andrew Jackson’s Creek campaign. Within a few months, he had been promoted to major and took part in the Battle of Talladega in November 1813. For his actions in this battle, he was promoted to colonel.

In 1813, Carroll became involved in a quarrel with another Jackson subordinate, Jesse Benton, that culminated in a duel on June 14 of that year. Jackson initially tried to defuse the quarrel, but, unsuccessful, he agreed to be Carroll’s second. In the duel, Carroll lost part of his thumb, and Benton was shot through the hip, but both survived. Benton’s older brother, Thomas Hart Benton, was enraged after hearing Jackson had supported Carroll, and would later injure Jackson in a brawl in Nashville over the incident.

Carroll was wounded at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814. After the battle, he returned to Nashville to recruit troops for the defense of New Orleans. When Jackson resigned from the militia to accept a commission in the federal army, Carroll was elected major-general of the Tennessee militia. Traveling via the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, his new troops arrived in New Orleans just before the British invasion. At the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, Carroll’s troops fought near the center of Jackson’s line, where some of the most intense fighting occurred.

In 1816 Carroll purchased the General Jackson, the first steamboat on the Cumberland River. The next year, he and other leading merchants attempted to bring a branch of the Bank of the United States to Nashville. When the legislature blocked this effort, he was named to the board of directors of the newly created Bank of Nashville.

Carroll’s business ventures prospered until the financial Panic of 1819 when he was forced into bankruptcy. While ruined commercially, he launched his political career. The panic promoted a huge resentment of state run banks. This sentiment was true with Carroll especially with the Bank of Nashville as planters and land speculators led by John Overton controlled the banks and suspended specie payment (the redemption of paper money or coin by banks or the Treasury), to the detriment of debtors and small farmers. This led to the development of two political factions based on banking.

In 1821, Carroll emerged as the ideal candidate to oppose the Overton faction. Carroll’s supporters presented him as a poor man standing against the pretensions of the wealthy. In promotional circulars, Carroll declared himself “no friend of banks” and speculated that “we would . . . have done better, if we had never seen one in the state.” Still, he rejected radical proposals to abolish the banks because “their sudden downfall would be ruinous to the interest of the people.”

He favored compelling the banks to resume specie payments, with continued supervision over future operations. The moderately conservative approach differed little from that of his opponent, Colonel Edward Ward, who proposed the consolidation of Tennessee’s banks into one central institution. Carroll’s image as a self-made man ruined by the panic, however, contrasted sharply with Ward’s image of a well-educated son of inherited wealth. Carroll defeated Ward by a more than four-to-one margin.

The majority of Carroll’s first term in office was working toward repairing the State’s budget and banking practices. At Carroll’s insistence/persuasion, the legislature passed a law compelling the banks to resume specie payments by April 1824. Later, the date was moved back to September 1, 1826. In 1825 the assembly repealed a prohibitive tax on banks operating in Tennessee without a state charter, and with Carroll’s support, the Bank of the United States finally opened a Nashville branch the next year.

The Tennessee State Constitution limited the length of gubernatorial terms to no more than six years in an eight-year period, forcing Carroll’s retirement in 1827. This led to the election of Sam Houston, who resigned in April 1829.

Carroll was eligible to run for governor in 1829 and won the first of another three consecutive terms. During the next six years, the assembly funded internal improvements, established a penitentiary and mental hospital, reorganized the judicial system, and revised the penal code. Tennessee established new banks that provided the state’s financial system until the Civil War.

Carroll predicted Andrew Jackson’s rise to national prominence, but he was hesitant to commit himself fully to Jackson’s presidential prospects. He believed that Jackson lacked the experience and reputation necessary for a serious run for President of the United States. He and Jackson also had opposing views on federal banks and the exclusive specie currency.

Despite his lack of confidence in Jackson, he did agree to serve as campaign treasurer for the 1824 election. Jackson won a plurality of the popular vote in the 1824 election but lost the presidency to John Quincy Adams after the House of Representatives voted in what was known as the “Corrupt Bargain.” He had also supported and advised Henry Clay in the 1824 election (who became Secretary of State under Adams after removing his name for consideration as president). Carroll actively supported Jackson’s successful candidacy in 1828 and re-election campaign in 1832.

He worked to ingratiate himself with Jackson, as the President was aware of Carroll’s lack of faith and duplicity. By the early 1830s, he was back in Jackson’s good graces and regained a foothold in the leadership of Jackson’s forces in Tennessee. Carroll went on to endorse Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s hand-picked successor, in the 1836 presidential election.

An 1834 convention revised Tennessee’s 1796 constitution, but it retained the previous limitations on the governor’s term of office. Carroll attempted to remain in office for a fourth term claiming he was eligible for a first term under the new frame of government but former congressman Newton Cannon defeated the incumbent.

Following the loss, Jackson appointed Carroll as an Indian commissioner to conclude negotiations for the Cherokee removal, and in 1838 President Van Buren appointed him a special agent to the Creeks. Critics charged that Carroll used these positions to enrich himself through illicit land speculation.

Despite Democratic encouragement, Carroll never again stood for public office after his 1835 loss. By the early 1840s, his health had declined significantly, and he died at his Nashville home in 1844. He is interred at Nashville City Cemetery.