240 The Winning of the West 



exactly as a similar connection, with Great Britain 

 instead of with Spain, tainted the similar course of 

 action Ethan Allen was pursuing at this very time 

 in Vermont. 56 In after years they and their apolo 

 gists endeavored to explain away their deeds and 

 words, and tried to show that they were not disun- 

 ionists ; precisely as the authors of the Kentucky and 

 Virginia resolutions of 1798 and of the resolutions 

 of the Hartford Convention in 1814 tried in later 

 years to show that these also were not disunion 

 movements. The effort is as vain in one case as in 

 the other. Brown's letter shows that he and the 

 party with which he was identified were ready to 

 bring about Kentucky's separation from the Union, 

 if it could safely be done ; the prospect of a commer 

 cial alliance with Spain being one of their chief ob 

 jects, and affording one of their chief arguments. 



The publication of Brown's letter and the bold 

 ness of the separatist party spurred to renewed effort 

 the Union men, one of whom, Col. Thomas Mar 

 shall, an uncle of Humphrey Marshall and father 

 of the great Chief- Justice, sent a full account of the 

 situation to Washington. The more timid and 

 wavering among the disunionists drew back ; and the 

 agitation was dropped when the new National Gov 

 ernment began to show that it was thoroughly able 

 to keep order at home and enforce respect abroad. 57 



These separatist movements were general in the 



56 "Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography," XI, 

 No. 2, p. 165. Ethan Allen's letter to Lord Dorchester. 

 " Letter of Col. T. Marshall, September n, 1790. 



