The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 183 



and those who, in the culminating catastrophe of all 

 the separatist agitations, appealed to the sword, 

 proved the sincerity of their convictions by their 

 resolute courage and self-sacrifice. Nevertheless 

 they warred against the right, and strove mightily 

 to bring about the downfall and undoing of the 

 nation. 



The men who brought on and took part in the 

 disunion movements were moved sometimes by good 

 and sometimes by bad motives ; but even when their 

 motives were disinterested and their purposes pure, 

 and even when they had received much provocation, 

 they must be adjudged as lacking the wisdom, the 

 foresight, and the broad devotion to all the land 

 over which the flag floats, without which no states 

 man can rank as really great. The enemies of the 

 Union were the enemies of America and of man 

 kind, whose success would have plunged their coun 

 try into an abyss of shame and misery, and would 

 have arrested for generations the upward movement 

 of their race. 



Yet, evil though the separatist movements were, 

 they were at times imperfectly justified by the spirit 

 of sectional distrust and bitterness rife in portions 

 of the country which at the moment were themselves 

 loyal to the Union. This was especially true of the 

 early separatist movements in the West. Unfortu 

 nately the attitude toward the Westerners of certain 

 portions of the population in the older States, and 

 especially in the Northeastern States, was one of 

 unreasoning jealousy and suspicion ; and though this 



