jurisdiction of the United States. If the Ordinance of 1787 extended to them, then the United States had control and the State of Connecticut had no right to sell the land, so that their titles were of no use. These matters were settled in 1800, when the title of Connecticut to the soil was confirmed and jurisdiction was given to the United States. During this period when there was no established law, there was little trouble, because the settlers had been trained in Connecticut habits and customs. In several cases a township government had been organized before a body of emigrants left home. Another reason for the tranquillity of the Western Reserve was the small number of settlers in the great wilderness, for there was little inducement for emigrants to come where land titles were uncertain. In 1798 there were but fifteen families on the Reserve. The largest settlement was at Youngstown; Cleaveland had only three families. By the end of 1800, however, the Reserve had a population of thirteen hundred and grew very rapidly from that time. Governor St. Clair, September 22, 1800, issued a proclamation establishing the Western Reserve as the County of Trumbull, and it became a part of the Northwest Territory.

CHAPTER VII

THE ORGANIZATION AND ADMISSION OF THE FIRST NEW STATES TO THE UNION

KENTUCKY grew very rapidly in population in the closing years of the century. The land was fertile and could be reached with comparative ease by way of the Ohio. Very important also was the security from the Indians compared with the conditions existing on the northern banks after 1787. In 1784, there were probably thirty thousand settlers, in more than fifty settlements, in Kentucky. By 1787, when settlements began in Ohio, Kentucky had a population of about eighty thousand. But this rapidly increasing population was not satisfied with the government it had. When the early settlements were established they had no separate government, but were regarded as a part of Fincastle County, Virginia. In 1776, Kentucky County was set off from this and Harrodsburg made the county seat. In this way Virginia recognized the existence of the western people. With the increase in population, one county was found too large for proper administration, therefore, in 1781 the "District of Kentucky" was divided into three counties by Act of the Virginia Legislature. Jefferson County stretched along Ohio River for two hundred miles between Kentucky and Green Rivers; Fayette County along the Ohio from the Kentucky to the Big Sandy Rivers. Lincoln County comprised the southeastern portions of the present State of Kentucky. These were organized with a civil and military government like the other Virginian counties. Each

county had a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and surveyor. The three colonels were justices of their respective counties. But the political conditions remained unsatisfactory. Some of the settlements were five hundred miles from the capital of Virginia and action upon any administrative matters which had to be referred to the home government was greatly delayed. The Virginian government was so far away that the needs of the Kentucky settlers, from the nature of the case, were not understood and appreciated. It often took months before an answer was obtained from the capitol concerning some question of importance in the civil or military administration. The conviction was forced on Kentuckians that they were an isolated colony, with interests in many cases different from those of the home State. During the Revolutionary period Kentucky had received very little aid from Virginia, because the latter was not able to give it; and yet the Kentucky military operations were greatly hampered by the necessity of receiving orders from Virginia. For these reasons, as Kentucky emerged into the condition of a settled country, there was, among its inhabitants, a strong feeling that it ought to become a separate State, and that only as a separate State could it be free from the delays and irritations caused by its dependence upon the Virginian government.

With the increase of its population Kentucky took on the habits of a civilized community and its productions exceeded the amount required for its own needs. It wished to export its wheat and other products and the natural channel of commerce was Mississippi River. But the river, below the thirty-first degree of latitude, was held by Spain, which was unfriendly to the United States and therefore held in its own hands the commerce of the river. This question of the navigation of the Mississippi was the most important matter in the politics of Kentucky. If the river was closed to the people of that territory there was no possibility of its growth, for the eastern market was too far away and the journey was too difficult. The bond

connecting the States was a very weak one and there was serious danger that Kentucky might, because of her interest in the navigation of the Mississippi, be drawn into alliance with the country controlling it. There was a strong feeling that the eastern States were selfishly willing to deprive Kentucky of this natural outlet if they could themselves, by treaty, gain certain advantages. These and similar ques

tions involving all the West, are closely connected with the purchase of Louisiana, and may best be considered in connection with that transaction.

The first request for separation was presented to the Continental Congress in 1780 in a petition signed by over six hundred men from Kentucky and Illinois. They petitioned for separation because of the little aid given them by Virginia, the long distance from the seat of government, in some cases as much as a thousand miles, and the uncertainty as to the ownership of the country; they did not know whether their territory belonged by right to the United States or Virginia. They asked to be formed into a separate State or that Congress should grant them such rules as should be proper during the continuance of the war. The signers of this petition were not men of prominence and apparently Congress paid no attention to it.

The first serious attempt at separate statehood did not come till after the close of the Revolution and then it arose out of military necessity. There was danger of a general Indian invasion in 1784, and on the invitation of Benjamin Logan, county lieutenant, his field officers came together to see what could be done to meet the emergency. It was found that they could do nothing without orders from Virginia, and Virginia was too far off to be of much help. The officers issued a circular letter recommending a meeting to consider this subject, and the meeting was appointed for December 24, 1784, at Danville. The government was essentially military, so was the basis of representation to this first convention. Each military organization sent one delegate. The evils under which the people were suffering

were discussed. It was felt that Virginia, by proper legislative action, might relieve them of some of the disabilities under which they were laboring, but it was the decision of the majority of the delegates that there was no solution of the problem without a separation from Virginia. But, with commendable moderation, no definite steps in this direction were taken. The delegates realized that they were not civil but military representatives, and had no authority to act for the people of Kentucky, so they transacted no business other than the recommendation that a convention of twenty-five delegates be held in the following May, to which should be sent persons instructed to consider the propriety of an application to the legislature of Virginia for an act establishing the independent State of Kentucky.

This moderation is in commendable contrast to the course taken by the parallel movement which resulted in the formation of the State of Franklin. Possibly, Kentucky had learned something from the experience of her southern neighbor. It is certain that in the more northerly State control was in the hands of men who were conservative politicians rather than impulsive frontiersmen and Indian fighters. This second convention, May, 1785, was careful and moderate. Many of its members had been delegates to the former convention, and it was made up of some of the ablest men of the district. As a result of their deliberation they "Resolved unanimously, as the opinion of the convention, that a petition be presented to the Assembly praying that this district may be established into a State, separate from Virginia," and "Resolved unanimously, as the opinion of this committee, that this district when established as a State ought to be taken into union with the United States of America, and enjoy equal privileges in common with the said States.'

The petition to the Virginia Assembly set forth the necessity for separation, calling attention to the inconvenience which came from the long distance from the seat