as a director of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, which finally brought railroad access to Knoxville in 1855. In 1858, the Bank of East Tennessee, of which Ramsey was also a director, collapsed due to overspeculation. The bank chose to pay off its largest depositors instead of its smaller (and less affluent) depositors, causing outrage throughout the region. Knoxville Whig newspaper editor and Methodist minister William "Parson" Brownlow, who had been at odds with Ramsey since the 1840s, sued on behalf of these depositors and won a civil judgement against Ramsey. The Annals of Tennessee Ramsey began accumulating historical documents pertaining to the state's history during the 1830s. He began writing The Annals of Tennessee in 1840, but the project stalled as Ramsey struggled with a lack of information regarding certain periods, and attempted to address certain contradictions in his source documents. A major catalyst for Ramsey during this period was his friendship with historian Lyman Draper, who first visited Ramsey in October 1844. Draper, who was compiling documents for a history of the Trans-Allegheny region, helped Ramsey fill in a number of gaps, and provided him with technical advice. The Annals of Tennessee, which covers the state's history to 1800, was finally published in 1853. Contemporary historians such as Draper, George Bancroft, and Benson John Lossing, praised the Annals, while others, such as William B. Campbell and A. W. Putnam, derided it. The book sold moderately well, and a second edition was published within a few years. The 1860 edition of Ramsey's The Annals of Tennessee also features approximately 36 pages of display advertising for Lippincott & Grambo & Co.s Publications at the back section of the book, predominately selling religious books, sermons, and illustrations. The book is an invaluable account of many of the state's early historical events, especially considering that many of the documents on which it was based were destroyed during the Civil War. Modern historians, however, criticize Ramsey for focusing almost solely on battles and biographies of key figures, while ignoring economic and social factors that contributed significantly to the state's early settlement. The book has also been criticized for its unbalanced organization, providing a torrent of details on some events and scant details on other, equally important events. Secession crisis Ramsey had long sought to bring a Deep South-style economy to East Tennessee. He believed the South was morally superior to the North,