Sevier had planned to march against the Chickamaugas with the levies that were thronging to his banner; but the news of the murder provoked such discussion and hesitation that his forces melted away.

He was obliged to abandon his plan, partly owing to this disaffection among the whites, and partly owing to what one of the backwoodsmen, in writing to General Martin, termed "the severity of the Indians," [Footnote: State Department MSS., 150, iii., Maxwell to Martin, July 7, 1788.]--a queer use of the word severity which obtains to this day in out-of-the-way places through the Alleghanies, where people style a man with a record for desperate fighting a "severe man," and speak of big, fierce dogs, able to tackle a wolf, as "severe" dogs.
It is Condemned Elsewhere.
Elsewhere throughout the country the news of the murder excited great indignation.

The Continental Congress passed resolutions condemning acts which they had been powerless to prevent and were powerless to punish.
[Footnote: _Do_., No.

27, p.

359, and No.