WHITE, James, pioneer, born in Iredell county, North Carolina, in 1737; died in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1815. He served as a soldier during the Revolution, and receiving his pay from North Carolina in a land-warrant, located it, in the summer of 1787, on the northern bank of the Holston river about four miles below the mouth of the French Broad. Here he erected a fort, built a grist-mill, and began a settlement. The place was then on the extreme frontier, and a treaty with the Cherokees being held there in 1791, it attracted the attention of Governor William Blount, who at once decided to make it the capital of the southwest territory. It was laid out into lots, named Knoxville, and soon attracted to itself a population, whose purchase of his property made White a wealthy man. In September, 1793, the fort, which contained 300 stand of United States muskets, and a large amount of ammunition, was threatened with attack from a body of 1,500 Cherokees. In the absence of Governor Blount and General Sevier, White assumed command of the forty settlers, and prepared for a desperate resistance. The Indians came within eight miles of the fort, and then, alarmed by the near approach of Sevier and his riflemen, suddenly retreated. Mr. White was a member of the territorial legislature, one of those that founded the state of "Franklin" (see SERIES, Jona), served as territorial delegate in congress in 1794-'5, and, on the admission of Tennessee into the Union in 1796, was elected to the state senate, and soon afterward chosen the speaker of that body. He held this position till December, 1797, when he resigned to make place for ex-Governor William Blount, who, for alleged treason, had been expelled from the United States senate. In November, 1813, as brigadier-general of Tennessee volunteers, he led a successful attack on the Creek Indians at Hillabee Town.--His son, Hugh Lawson, born in Iredell county, North Carolina, 30 October, 1773; died in Knoxville, Tennessee, 10 April, 1840, had meagre facilities for education. At the age of fourteen he accompanied his family to the remote backwoods, and there soon afterward began the study of law in a small log office. A war with the Cherokees breaking out when he was seventeen years old, he volunteered as a private under General Sevier, and was with him when he gave that nation its last Crushing defeat the battle of Etowah. Young White doubtless decided that battle, for in the crisis of the fight he levelled his rifle upon their leading chief, King Fisher, and mortally wounded him, whereupon the savages scattered in all directions. At the close of the war he went to Philadelphia to study the classics and mathematics, and read law in the office of James Hopkins in Lancaster, Pennsylvania Then he returned to Knoxville and began practice. For a short time he was private secretary to Governor Blount. At the age of twenty-eight he was appointed a justice of the supreme court of Tennessee, which office he held for six years, and until he received the appointment of United States district attorney. In 1809 he was elected to the state senate, and during the same year he was again appointed to the bench of the supreme court. In 1820 he was again chosen a state senator, and he served in this capacity till 1825. During the session of 1807 he compiled the land laws of the state, and in 1817 he drafted the act against duelling. In 1815 he was elected president of the Bank of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 1822, with Judge Burnett, of Ohio, he had been chosen by Kentucky to adjust the military land claims of Virginia. In October, 1825, Judge White was elected to the United States senate to succeed General Andrew Jackson, who had resigned. The first important effort of Judge White in the senate was on the Panama mission, in which he opposed the measure on constitutional grounds. He delivered an able speech, 16 April, 1826, on the apportionment of the judiciary, he opposed a general system of internal improvements by the government, favored a protective tariff, prevented the re-charter of the United States bank, and ardently supported the action of President Jackson. He served many years on the committee of Indian affairs as its chairman, and urged the policy of removal of the Indians west of the Mississippi. On 16 February, 1835, Judge White made his speech in favor of limiting executive patronage, which was regarded as an attack upon the administration. This effort was followed by an able argument against Thomas H. Benton's proposition to expunge from the record resolutions of censure that had been passed against the president. Judge White had voted against these, and had then defended the conduct of the president, but regarded it as unconstitutional to obliterate the record. He was in favor of so amending the resolution as to declare the resolutions of censure "rescinded, repealed, reversed, and declared null and void." From this time the breach between hint and the executive became impassable. The convention that had assembled at Baltimore, 20 May, 1836, nominated Martin Van Buren unanimously for president. The fifteen votes of Tennessee were cast by a single citizen of the state, who happened to be in the city; not a single delegate had been sent by Tennessee. Both branches of the assembly of that state, on 16 and 17 October, 1835, pronounced in favor of Mr. White, and he accepted the nomination for president. In the elections of 1824 and 1828 General Jackson had practically the entire vote of the state, and the contest was now between him and Judge White, who carried the state by a majority of nearly 10,000. He also secured the electoral vote of Georgia. In the course of three years the enemies of the judge gained the legislature and passed resolutions of instructions that he could not in conscience obey, and he therefore resigned his seat. In the following year the Whigs, under the lead of General Harrison, placed Judge White upon their electoral ticket, but his failing health did not permit him to make the canvass. "A Memoir of Judge White, with Selections from his Speeches and Correspondence," was issued by Nancy N. Scott, one of his descendants (Philadelphia, 1856).