86 The Winning of the West 



before the northernmost and the southernmost por 

 tions of the wilderness lying on our Western border 

 could be thrown open to settlement. The lands lying 

 between had already been conquered, and yet were 

 so sparsely settled as to seem almost vacant. While 

 they offered every advantage of soil and climate to 

 the farmer and cultivator, they also held out pecu 

 liar attractions to ambitious men of hardy and ad 

 venturous temper. 



With the ending of the Revolutionary War the 

 rush of settlers to these Western lands assumed 

 striking proportions. The peace relieved the pres 

 sure which had hitherto restrained this movement, 

 on the one hand, while on the other it tended to 

 divert into the new channel of pioneer work those 

 bold spirits whose spare energies had thus far found 

 an outlet on stricken fields. To push the frontier 

 westward in the teeth of the forces of the wilder 

 ness was fighting work, such as suited well enough 

 many a stout soldier who had worn the blue and 

 buff of the Continental line, or who, with his fellow 

 rough-riders, had followed in the train of some grim 

 partisan leader. 



The people of the New England States and of 

 New York, for the most part, spread northward 

 and westward within their own boundaries ; and 

 Georgia likewise had room for all her growth within 

 her borders; but in the States between there was a 

 stir of eager unrest over the tales told of the beau 

 tiful and fertile lands lying along the Ohio, the 

 Cumberland, and the Tennessee. The days of the 



