By the time Euro-American explorers arrived in the area in the 18th century, the Overhill Cherokee had established several villages along the Little Tennessee. These villages included Tanasi, the name source for the state of Tennessee, and Chota, the mother town of the Overhills.
A Writ of Habeas Corpus. On April 27th Lincoln startled the country by suspending the Constitutional privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus along the military lines from Washington to Philadelphia. Habeas Corpus is a personal right that goes back to English common law, predating our own Constitution.
The procedure for the issuing of writs of habeas corpus was first codified by the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, following judicial rulings which had restricted the effectiveness of the writ. A previous act had been passed in 1640 to overturn a ruling that the command of the Queen was a sufficient answer to a petition of habeas corpus.