Tennessee’s Pivotal Role in America’s Democracy
Jun 30, 2026 by FACT
Last year on July 1, Gov. Bill Lee and his wife Maria kicked off a year-long, 95-county tour of Tennessee marking America's 250th anniversary under a fitting banner: "Tennessee: The Original Frontier."
"Throughout our nation's 250 years, historians have called Tennessee ‘The Original Frontier.’ And Tennessee frontiersmen to this day never stop exploring the possibilities of a better future for our people. Never coast, never settle. We press through from one frontier to the next,” Gov. Lee stated.
That theme is more than a catchy slogan – it highlights an important detail about Tennessee’s place in American history. Tennessee’s story didn't begin with the first 13 states in 1776. It began four years earlier.
In 1772, settlers along the Watauga River, outside the reach of any colonial government, did something history would later recognize as remarkable. They wrote their own compact, elected their own magistrates, and governed themselves by majority rule. The Watauga Association is widely regarded as the first majority-rule system of American democratic government, established at Sycamore Shoals years before Philadelphia ever convened.
"As the site where the Overmountain Men gathered and the Watauga Association launched a groundbreaking experiment in independent self-government, Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park serves as a powerful link to the early roots of American democracy," park manager Marcianne O'Day shared. "Each of the park events connects visitors to the pivotal moments that unfolded here, highlighting Tennessee's unique and lasting contribution to the formation of American democracy."
“[Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River] was one of the most significant early settlement areas on the western frontier,” Dr. Carroll Van West wrote. “Here in 1772, residents established the Watauga Association, recognized as the first majority-rule system of American democratic government.”
No nation before ours had built its government from the ground up – its laws, its limits on power, its source of authority – on the premise that our rights come from God rather than from a king or parliament. The Declaration of Independence said exactly that, declaring that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned the new nation that “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports… And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”
At a deadlocked Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin reminded the delegates, "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men."
These convictions shaped the idea, woven into Tennessee's own constitution, that our God-given rights are something no government grants and no government can take away. Chief among these rights is freedom of religion – the ability to worship God according to the dictates of one's own conscience, free from government interference.
Defending that principle is one of the reasons FACT exists. As it happens, 2026 also marks FACT's 20th anniversary. We were founded in 2006 by a small group of Tennesseans who, like the Wataugans before them, looked at what was in front of them and decided that protecting what mattered – in our case, faith, family, and freedom – wasn't going to happen on its own.
That is the inheritance Tennessee is celebrating this year: not just a flag and a fireworks show, but a more than 250-year-old conviction that our rights come from God, and that self-government under Him is worth defending in every generation.
Twenty years is a small fraction of 250, but the same conviction runs underneath both anniversaries: liberty isn't self-sustaining. It must be taken up anew by every generation.
We encourage you to find a TN250 event near you and celebrate Tennessee’s roots and America’s 250th anniversary with your family. FACT remains committed to that same spirit of self-government in our own work for the next 20 years. Click here to support that mission.
"Throughout our nation's 250 years, historians have called Tennessee ‘The Original Frontier.’ And Tennessee frontiersmen to this day never stop exploring the possibilities of a better future for our people. Never coast, never settle. We press through from one frontier to the next,” Gov. Lee stated.That theme is more than a catchy slogan – it highlights an important detail about Tennessee’s place in American history. Tennessee’s story didn't begin with the first 13 states in 1776. It began four years earlier.
In 1772, settlers along the Watauga River, outside the reach of any colonial government, did something history would later recognize as remarkable. They wrote their own compact, elected their own magistrates, and governed themselves by majority rule. The Watauga Association is widely regarded as the first majority-rule system of American democratic government, established at Sycamore Shoals years before Philadelphia ever convened.
"As the site where the Overmountain Men gathered and the Watauga Association launched a groundbreaking experiment in independent self-government, Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park serves as a powerful link to the early roots of American democracy," park manager Marcianne O'Day shared. "Each of the park events connects visitors to the pivotal moments that unfolded here, highlighting Tennessee's unique and lasting contribution to the formation of American democracy."
“[Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River] was one of the most significant early settlement areas on the western frontier,” Dr. Carroll Van West wrote. “Here in 1772, residents established the Watauga Association, recognized as the first majority-rule system of American democratic government.”
No nation before ours had built its government from the ground up – its laws, its limits on power, its source of authority – on the premise that our rights come from God rather than from a king or parliament. The Declaration of Independence said exactly that, declaring that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned the new nation that “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports… And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”
At a deadlocked Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin reminded the delegates, "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men."
These convictions shaped the idea, woven into Tennessee's own constitution, that our God-given rights are something no government grants and no government can take away. Chief among these rights is freedom of religion – the ability to worship God according to the dictates of one's own conscience, free from government interference.
Defending that principle is one of the reasons FACT exists. As it happens, 2026 also marks FACT's 20th anniversary. We were founded in 2006 by a small group of Tennesseans who, like the Wataugans before them, looked at what was in front of them and decided that protecting what mattered – in our case, faith, family, and freedom – wasn't going to happen on its own.
That is the inheritance Tennessee is celebrating this year: not just a flag and a fireworks show, but a more than 250-year-old conviction that our rights come from God, and that self-government under Him is worth defending in every generation.
Twenty years is a small fraction of 250, but the same conviction runs underneath both anniversaries: liberty isn't self-sustaining. It must be taken up anew by every generation.
We encourage you to find a TN250 event near you and celebrate Tennessee’s roots and America’s 250th anniversary with your family. FACT remains committed to that same spirit of self-government in our own work for the next 20 years. Click here to support that mission.
