ji2 The Winning of the West 



the members showing a decided tendency toward 

 the Jeffersonian school of political thought. 



The convention, which met at Danville, in May, 

 1785, decided unanimously that it was desirable 

 to separate, by constitutional methods, from Vir 

 ginia, and to secure admission as a separate State 

 into the Federal Union. 



Accordingly, it directed the preparation of 

 a petition to this effect, to be sent to the Vir 

 ginia Legislature, and prepared an address to the 

 people in favor of the proposed course of action. 

 Then, in a queer spirit of hesitancy, instead of 

 acting on its own responsibility, as it had both the 

 right and power to do, the convention decided that 

 the issuing of the address, and the ratification of 

 its own actions generally, should be submitted to 

 another convention, which was summoned to meet 

 at the same place in August of the same year. 

 The people of the district were as yet by no 

 means a unit in favor of separation, and this 

 made the convention hesitate to take any irrevo 

 cable step. 



One of the members of this convention was Judge 

 Caleb Wallace, a recent arrival in Kentucky, and 

 a representative of the new school of Kentucky pol 

 iticians. He was a friend and ally of Brown and 

 Innes. He was also a friend of Madison, and to 

 him he wrote a full account of the reasons which 

 actuated the Kentuckians in the step they had 

 taken. 14 He explained that he and the people of 



14 State Department MSS. Madison Papers, Caleb Wallace 

 to Madison, July 12, 1785. 



