1 86 The Winning of the West 



the American colonies as a whole. They came dan 

 gerously near repeating, in their feeling toward their 

 younger brethren on the Ohio, the very blunder com 

 mitted in reference to themselves by their elder 

 brethren in Britain. For some time they seemed, 

 like the British, unable to grasp the grandeur of their 

 race's imperial destiny. They hesitated to throw 

 themselves with hearty enthusiasm into the task of 

 building a nation with a continent as its base. They 

 rather shrank from the idea as implying a lesser 

 weight of their own section in the nation; not yet 

 understanding that to an American the essential 

 thing was the growth and well-being of America, 

 while the relative importance of the locality where 

 he dwelt was a matter of small moment. 



The extreme representatives of this Northeastern 

 sectionalism not only objected to the growth of the 

 West at the time now under consideration, but even 

 avowed a desire to work it harm, by shutting the 

 Mississippi, so as to benefit the commerce of the At 

 lantic States a manifestation of cynical and self 

 ish disregard of the rights of their fellow-country 

 men quite as flagrant as any piece of tyranny com 

 mitted or proposed by King George's ministers in 

 reference to America. These intolerant extremists 

 not only opposed the admission of the young West 

 ern States into the Union, but at a later date actually 

 announced that the annexation by the United States 

 of vast territories beyond the Mississippi offered 

 just cause for the secession of the Northeastern 

 States. Even those who did not take such an ad- 



