St. Clair and Wayne 327 



tlement of the country northwest of the Ohio. Here, 

 also, the enterprise, daring, and energy of the in 

 dividual settlers were of the utmost consequence; 

 the land could never have been won had not the in 

 comers possessed these qualities in a very high de 

 gree. But the settlements sprang directly from the 

 action of the Federal Government, and the first and 

 most important of them would not have been un 

 dertaken save for that action. The settlers were 

 not the first comers in the wilderness they cleared 

 and tilled. They did not themselves form the armies 

 which met and overthrew the Indians. The regu 

 lar forces led the way in the country north of the 

 Ohio. The Federal forts were built first; it was 

 only afterward that the small towns sprang up in 

 their shadow. The Federal troops formed the van 

 guard of the white advance. They were the main 

 stay of the force behind which, as behind a shield, 

 the founders of the commonwealths did their work. 

 Unquestionably many of the settlers did their 

 full share in the fighting; and they and their de 

 scendants, on many a stricken field, and through 

 many a long campaign, proved that no people stood 

 above them in hardihood and courage ; but the land 

 on which they settled was won less by themselves 

 than by the statesmen who met in the national 

 capital and the scarred soldiers who on the fron 

 tier upbore the national colors. Moreover, instead 

 of being absolutely free to choose their own form 

 of government, and shape their own laws and so 

 cial conditions untrammeled by restrictions, the 



