The Fair Play System
The settlers elected three commissioners each March who were responsible that everyone was dealt with fairly (hence the name "fair play"). Most of their rulings seem to have dealt with property issues, but they dealt with any legal or criminal cases in the Fair Play area. They granted permission for new settlers to enter the area, could take away a settler's land claim if they were absent more than six weeks (except for military service), and could expel a person (by setting them adrift in a canoe on the river). The commissioners' decisions were final and supposedly were never challenged. In 1776 the three commissioners of the Fair Play Men were Bratton Caldwell, John Walker, and James Brandon. They are the only commissioners whose names are now known and it is conjectured that they were the only three for the duration of the Fair Play system.
Read more about this topic: Fair Play Men
Famous quotes containing the words fair, play and/or system:
“Let ideas establish their legitimate sway again in society, let life be fair and poetic, and the scholars will gladly be lovers, citizens, and philanthropists.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The worst constructed play is a Bach fugue when compared to life.”
—Helen Hayes (1900–1993)
“If mothers are to be successful in achieving their child-rearing goals, they must have the inner freedom to find their own value system and within that system to find what is acceptable to them and what is not. This means leaving behind the anxiety, but also the security, of simplistic good-bad formulations and deciding for themselves what they want to teach their children.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)