3 H The Winning of the West 



made for entry into the Union beyond the expres 

 sion of a hopeful belief that it would be allowed. 



Such a course would have been in the highest 

 degree unwise; and the Virginians refused to allow 

 it to be followed. Their Legislature, in January, 

 1786, provided that a new convention should be 

 held in Kentucky in September, 1786, and that, if 

 it declared for independence, the State should come 

 into being after the ist of September, 1787, pro 

 vided, however, that Congress, before June I, 1787, 

 consented to the erection of the new State, and 

 agreed to its admission into the Union. It was 

 also provided that another convention should be 

 held in the summer of 1787 to draw up a consti 

 tution for the new State. 15 



Virginia thus, with great propriety, made the 

 acquiescence of Congress a condition precedent for 

 the formation of the new State. Wilkinson im 

 mediately denounced this condition and demanded 

 that Kentucky declare herself an independent State 

 forthwith, no matter what Congress or Virginia 

 might say. All the disorderly, unthinking, and sepa 

 ratist elements followed his lead. Had his policy 

 been adopted the result would probably have been a 

 civil war ; and at the least there would have followed 

 a period of anarchy and confusion, and a condition of 

 things similar to that obtaining at this very time in 

 the territory of Franklin. The most enlightened and 

 farseeing men of the district were alarmed at the 

 outlook ; and a vigorous campaign in favor of order- 



15 Marshall, I, 224. 



