The War in the Northwest 65 



outside aggression, and during these years the chief 

 function of government was to provide for the grip 

 ing military needs of the community, and the one 

 pressing duty of -its chief was to lead his followers 

 with valor and wisdom in the struggle with the 

 stranger. 12 



These little communities were extremely inde 

 pendent in feeling, not only of the Federal Govern 

 ment, but of their parent States, and even of one 

 another. They had won their positions by their 

 own courage and hardihood; very few State troops 

 and hardly a Continental soldier had appeared West 

 of the Alleghanies. They had heartily sympathized 

 with their several mother colonies when they became 

 the United States, and had manfully played their 

 part in the Revolutionary War. Moreover they 

 were united among themselves by ties of good-will 

 and of services mutually rendered. Kentucky, for 

 instance, had been succored more than once by 



12 My friend, Professor Alexander Johnson, of Princeton, 

 is inclined to regard these frontier county organizations as 

 reproductions of a very primitive type of government indeed, 

 deeming that they were formed primarily for war against 

 outsiders, that their military organization was the essential 

 feature, the real reason for their existence. I can hardly ac 

 cept this view in its entirety ; though fully recognizing the 

 extreme importance of the military side of the little govern 

 ments, it seems to me that the preservation of order, and 

 especially the necessity for regulating the disposition of the 

 land, were quite as powerful factors in impelling the settlers 

 to act together. It is important to keep in mind the terri 

 torial organization of the militia companies and regiments; 

 a county and a regiment, a forted village and a company, 

 were usually co-extensive. 



