The War in the Northwest 285 



may have failed to learn that it is good to be mer- 

 ciful, but at least they knew that it is still better 

 to be just and strong and brave ; to see clearly one's 

 rights, and to guard them with a ready hand. 



These frontier leaders were generally very jeal- 

 ous of one another. The ordinary backwoodsmen 

 vied together as hunters, axemen, or wrestlers; as 

 they rose to leadership their rivalries grew likewise, 

 and the more ambitious, who desired to become the 

 civil and military chiefs of the community, were 

 sure to find their interests clash. Thus old Evan 

 Shelby distrusted Sevier; Arthur Campbell was 

 jealous of both Sevier and Isaac Shelby; and the 

 two latter bore similar feelings to William Camp- 

 bell. When a great crisis occurred all these petty 

 envies were sunk; the nobler natures of the men 

 came uppermost; and they joined with unselfish 

 courage, heart and hand, to defend their country 

 in the hour of her extreme need. But when the 

 danger was over the old jealousies cropped out 

 again. 



Some one or other of the leaders was almost 

 always employed against the Indians. The Chero- 

 kees and Creeks were never absolutely quiet and 

 at peace. After the chastisement inflicted upon 

 the former by the united forces of all the Southern 

 backwoodsmen, treaties were held with them, 12 in 

 the spring and summer of 1777. The negotia- 

 tions consumed much time, the delegates from both 

 sides meeting again and again to complete the pre- 



12 See #/<?, Chapter III of "In the Current of the Revolution." 



