The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 319 



tility of the savages had grown steadily. By the 

 summer of 1787 the Kentucky frontier was suffer 

 ing much. The growth of the district was not 

 stopped, nor were there any attempts made against 

 it by large war bands ; and in the thickly settled re 

 gions life went on as usual. But the outlying neigh 

 borhoods were badly punished, and the county lieu 

 tenants were clamorous in their appeals for aid to 

 the Governor of Virginia. They wrote that so many 

 settlers had been killed on the frontier that the 

 others had either left their clearings and fled to the 

 interior for safety, or else had gathered in the log 

 forts, and so were unable to raise crops for the sup 

 port of their families. Militia guards and small 

 companies of picked scouts were kept continually 

 patrolling the exposed regions near the Ohio, but 

 the forays grew fiercer, and the harm done was 

 great. 18 In their anger the Kentuckians denounced 

 the Federal Government for not aiding them, the 

 men who were loudest in their denunciations being 

 the very men who were most strenuously bent on 

 refusing to adopt the new Constitution, which alone 

 could give the National Government the power to 

 act effectually in the interest of the people. 



While the spirit of unrest and discontent was 

 high, the question of ratifying or rejecting this new 

 Federal Constitution came up for decision. The 

 Wilkinson party, and all the men who believed in 

 a weak central government, or who wished the Fed 

 eral tie dissolved outright, were, of course, violently 



18 State Dept. MSS., No. 71, Vol. II, pp. 561, 563. 



