The War in the Northwest 71 



woodsmen were above all things characteristically 

 American ; and it is fitting that the two greatest and 

 most typical of all Americans should have been re 

 spectively a sharer and an outcome of their work. 

 Washington himself passed the most important 

 years of his youth heading the westward move 

 ment of his people ; clad in the traditional dress of 

 the backwoodsmen, in tasseled hunting-shirt and 

 fringed leggings, he led them to battle against the 

 French and Indians, and helped to clear the way 

 for the American advance. The only other man who 

 in the American roll of honor stands by the side of 

 Washington, was born when the distinctive work of 

 the pioneers had ended ; and yet he was bone of their 

 bone and flesh of their flesh; for from the loins of 

 this gaunt frontier folk sprang mighty Abraham 

 Lincoln. 



