A Message from the CEO
Spring 2026
Nathaniel F. Cheairs III
Randal McGavock
Francis W. Carter
What do these three men have in common? They were all born before or during the American Revolution, and all three eventually emigrated to Tennessee with their families. Their sons – Nat Cheairs IV, John McGavock, and Fountain B. Carter – were all impacted by the American Civil War.
This is my final letter before the 250th anniversary of the release and publication of the Declaration of Independence. For much of late June and into July the country will be reflecting on what it all means, and, once again, how the past impacts the present. However, the impact of the 250th will last far beyond the summer of 2026.
Could there be anything more important in our past than the document that opened the doors to human equality, to liberty, and to justice? Likely not, but the Constitution followed the Revolution and enshrined human rights and the limits of government, less than 20 years after the Declaration. As F. B. Carter, John McGavock, and Nat Cheairs grew up, the United States celebrated its 50th anniversary. However, from the late 1820s until 1861, the country slowly slipped into moral, social, and political chaos. The fabric of the nation began to fray between free and slave states, white and black, power and poverty, and election to election.
En route to Washington, DC as President-elect, Abraham Lincoln spoke at Independence Hall and gave people insight into his thinking and how he viewed what was at stake:
“It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.”
Lincoln knew that slavery was not the promise of the Declaration, and he also knew that the Declaration was a living document, with promises from the past, for that moment, and also for the future.
By the time the war ended in 1865, roughly 700,000 were dead, and so, too, was the President of the United States. The world that the Carter, McGavock, and Cheairs families grew up in was shattered. Their “way of life” that was tied to slavery was clinically dead.
In 1976, the United States celebrated its 200th anniversary. It was not an easy time. The country had just emerged from Vietnam, President Richard Nixon had resigned, the economy was struggling, and the Soviet Union was an omnipresent threat. Even so, the anniversary had a tone of celebration and reflection.
Today, we have few of the issues that plagued the country in 1976, and even so, many seem reticent to commemorate, celebrate, or even reflect on the past 250 years. It seems that either the country must be heralded as noble and righteous, ordained by God, or otherwise dismissed as patently racist and filled with greed and avarice.
I think those who lived in 1776 and 1861, would be puzzled. I can remember 1976 from the perspective of a child, and I am often puzzled. As a historian, I am sometimes saddened, but more often emboldened.
I believe that the American Civil War put the founding of this nation, this republic, to its greatest test. The endless horrors and anti-liberty sentiments of African slavery had to be destroyed, and the limitless rights of states had to be solved. We set upon a new course in 1865, but still grounded in the moral rights of 1776, and protected by the Bill of Rights of 1791.
We will continue to do everything we can, every day of the week, to teach new generations about our past, and how one cannot fully understand the Civil War without some understanding of the Declaration of Independence. Moreover, one cannot appreciate 2026, without a true sense of the difficult, troubled, and often bloody path required to get to today.
I hope you take a few moments to appreciate, to truly and sincerely appreciate, how blessed we all are to live in the United States of America.
Eric A. Jacobson
Chief Executive Officer
The Battle of Franklin Trust
