308 The Winning of the West 



though he chafed at the need, and in his private 

 letters he spoke with bitterness of the "big little 

 men," the ambitious nobodies, whose jealousy had 

 prompted them to destroy him by ten thousand lies ; 

 and, making a virtue of necessity, he plumed him 

 self on the fact that he did not meddle with politics, 

 and sneered at the baseness of his fellow-citizens, 

 whom he styled "a swarm of hungry persons gaping 

 for bread." 11 



Benjamin Logan, who was senior colonel and 

 county lieutenant of the District of Kentucky, stood 

 second to Clark in the estimation of the early set 

 tlers, the men who, riding their own horses and 

 carrying their own rifles, had so often followed 

 both commanders on their swift raids against the 

 Indian towns. Logan naturally took the lead in the 

 first serious movement to make Kentucky an indepen 

 dent State. In its beginnings this movement showed 

 a curious parallelism to what was occurring in 

 Franklin at the same time, though when once fairly 

 under way the difference between the cases became 

 very strongly marked. In each .case the prime 

 cause in starting the movement was trouble with 

 the Indians. In each, the first steps were taken by 

 the commanders of the local militia, and the first 

 convention was summoned on the same plan, a mem 

 ber being elected by every militia company. The 

 companies were territorial as -well as military units, 

 and the early settlers were all, in practice as well 



11 Draper MSS., G. R. Clark to J. Clark, April 20, 1788, and 

 September 2, 1791. 



