282 The Winning of the West 



teous in ordinary intercourse with his fellows, he 

 was nevertheless, if angered, subject to fits of raging 

 wrath that impelled him to any deed of violence. 10 

 He was a true type of the Roundheads of the fron- 

 tier, the earnest, eager men who pushed the border 

 ever further westward across the Continent. He 

 followed Indians and tories with relentless and un- 

 dying hatred; for the long list of backwoods virtues 

 did not include pity for either public or private foes. 

 The tories threatened his life and the lives of his 

 friends and families; they were hand in glove with 

 the outlaws who infested the borders, the murder- 

 ers, horse-thieves, and passers of counterfeit money. 

 He hunted them down with a furious zest, and did 

 his work with merciless thoroughness, firm in the 

 belief that he thus best served the Lord and the na- 

 tion. One or two of his deeds illustrate admirably 

 the grimness of the times, and the harsh contrast 

 between the kindly relations of the border folks with 

 their friends, and their ferocity toward their foes. 

 They show how the better backwoodsmen, the up- 

 right church-going men, who loved their families, 

 did justice to their neighbors, and sincerely tried to 

 serve God, not only waged an unceasing war on the 

 red and white foes of the State and of order, but 

 carried it on with a certain ruthlessness that indi- 

 cated less a disbelief in, than an utter lack of knowl- 

 edge of, such a virtue as leniency to enemies. 



One Sunday Campbell was returning from church 

 with his wife and some friends, carrying his baby 



10 Campbell MSS. Notes, by Gov. David Campbell. 



