320 The Winning of the West 



opposed to ratification. Many weak or short-sight 

 ed men, and the doctrinaires and theorists most 

 of the members of the Danville political club, for 

 instance announced that they wished to ratify the 

 Constitution, but only after it had been amended. 

 As such prior amendment was impossible, this 

 amounted merely to playing into the hands of the 

 separatists; and the men who followed it were re 

 sponsible for the by no means creditable fact that 

 most of the Kentucky members in the Virginia con 

 vention voted against ratification. Three of them, 

 however, had the patriotism and foresight to vote 

 in favor of the Constitution. 



Another irritating delay in the march toward 

 Statehood now occurred. In June, 1788, the Con 

 tinental Congress declared that it was expedient 

 to erect Kentucky into a State. 19 But immediately 

 afterward news came that the Constitution had been 

 ratified by the necessary nine States, and that the 

 new government was, therefore, practically in be 

 ing. This meant the dissolution of the old Confed 

 eration, so that there was no longer any object in 

 admitting Kentucky to membership, and Congress 

 thereupon very wisely refused to act further in the 

 matter. Unfortunately, Brown, who was the Ken 

 tucky delegate in Congress, was one of the separa 

 tist leaders. He wrote home an account of the mat 

 ter, in which he painted the refusal as due to the 

 jealousy felt by the East for the West. As a matter 

 of fact the delegates from all the States, except Vir- 



19 State Dept. MSS., No. 20, Vol. I, p. 341, etc. 



