The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 311 



being one of the members, while it was presided 

 over by Col. Samuel McDowell, who, like Fleming, 

 was a veteran Indian fighter and hero of the Great 

 Kanawha. Up to this point the phases through 

 which the movement for Statehood in Kentucky had 

 passed were almost exactly the same as the phases 

 of the similar movement in Franklin. But the two 

 now entered upon diverging lines of progression. 

 In each case the home government was willing 

 to grant the request for separation, but wished to 

 affix a definite date to their consent, and to make 

 the fulfilment of certain conditions a prerequi 

 site. 



In each case there were two parties in the district 

 desiring separation, one of them favoring imme 

 diate and revolutionary action, while the other, with 

 much greater wisdom and propriety, wished to act 

 through the forms of law and with the consent of 

 the parent State. In Kentucky the latter party 

 triumphed. Moreover, while up to the time of 

 this meeting of the May convention the leaders 

 in the movement had been the old Indian fighters, 

 after this date the lead was taken by men who 

 had come to Kentucky only after the great rush 

 of immigrants began. The new men were not 

 backwoods hunter-warriors, like Clark and Logan, 

 Sevier, Robertson, and Tipton. They were poli 

 ticians of the Virginia stamp. They founded po 

 litical clubs, one of which, the Danville Club, be 

 came prominent, and in them they discussed with 

 fervid eagerness the public questions of the day, 



