The War in the Northwest 61 



the Gulf rivers. Had we remained a loose confed 

 eration these boundaries would more probably have 

 shrunk than advanced; we did not overleap them 

 until some years after Washington had become the 

 head of a real, not merely a titular, nation. The 

 peace of 1783, as far as our western limits were 

 affected, did nothing more than secure us undis 

 turbed possession of lands from which it had proved 

 impossible to oust us. We were in reality given 

 nothing more than we had by our own prowess 

 gained; the inference is strong that we got what 

 we did get only because we had won and held it. 



The first duty of the backwoodsmen who thus con 

 quered the West was to institute civil government. 

 Their efforts to overcome and beat back the Indians 

 went hand in hand with their efforts to introduce 

 law and order in the primitive communities they 

 founded ; and exactly as they relied purely on them 

 selves in withstanding outside foes, so they like 

 wise built up their social life and their first systems 

 of government with reference simply to their special 

 needs, and without any outside help or direction. 

 The whole character of the westward movement, 

 the methods of warfare, of settlement, and gov 

 ernment, were determined by the extreme and 

 defiant individualism of the backwoodsmen, their 

 inborn independence and self-reliance, and their in 

 tensely democratic spirit. The West was won and 

 settled by a number of groups of men, all acting 

 independently of one another, but with a common 

 object, and at about the same time. There was no 



