216 The Winning of the West 



the slight extent to which a separatist movement in 

 any one of these localities depended upon or sympa 

 thized with a similar movement in any other. The 

 national feeling among the separatists was so slight 

 that the very communities which wished to break 

 off from the Atlantic States were also quite indif 

 ferent to the deeds and fates of one another. The 

 only bond among them was their tendency to break 

 loose from the central government. The settlers 

 on the banks of the Cumberland felt no particular in 

 terest in the struggle of those on the head-waters of 

 the Tennessee to establish the State of Franklin ; and 

 the Kentuckians were indifferent to the deeds of 

 both. In a letter written in 1788 to the Creek Chief 

 McGillivray, Robertson alludes to the Holston men 

 and the Georgians in precisely the language he might 

 have used in speaking of foreign nations. He evi 

 dently took as a matter of course their waging war 

 on their own account against, and making peace 

 with, the Cherokees and Creeks, and betrayed little 

 concern as to the outcome, one way or the other. 



In this same letter, 31 Robertson frankly set forth 

 his belief that the West should separate from the 

 Union and join some foreign power, writing: "In 

 all probability we can not long remain in our pres 

 ent state, and if the British, or any commercial na 

 tion which may be in possession of the Mississippi, 

 would furnish us with trade and receive our produce, 

 there can not be a doubt but the people on the west 



31 Robertson MSS., James Robertson to Alexander McGil 

 livray, Nashville, Aug. 3, 1788. 



