The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 235 



entering into a treaty with Spain on her own ac 

 count. Their leaders must certainly have known 

 Wilkinson's real purposes, even though vaguely. 

 The probability is that they did not, either to him 

 or in their own minds, define their plans with clear 

 ness, but awaited events before deciding on a defi 

 nite policy. Meantime by word and act they pur 

 sued a course which might be held to mean, as occa 

 sion demanded, either mere insistence upon Ken 

 tucky's admission to the Union as a separate State, 

 or else a movement for complete independence with 

 a Spanish alliance in the background. 



It was impossible to pursue a course so equivocal 

 without arousing suspicion. In after years many 

 who had been committed to it became ashamed of 

 their actions, and loudly proclaimed that they had 

 really been devoted to the Union; to which it was 

 sufficient to answer that if this had been the case, and 

 if they had been really loyal, no such deep suspicion 

 could have been excited. A course of straightfor 

 ward loyalty could not have been misunderstood. 

 As it was, all kinds of rumors as to proposed dis 

 union movements, and as to the intrigues with 

 Spain, got afloat ; and there was no satisfactory con 

 tradiction. The stanch Union men, the men -who 

 "thought continentally," as the phrase went, took the 

 alarm and organized a counter-movement. One of 

 those who took prominent part in this counter-move 

 ment was a man to whom Kentucky and the Union 

 both owe much: Humphrey Marshall, afterward a 

 Federalist Senator from Kentucky, and the author 



