34 2 The Winning of the West 



in this direction, and was the most determined in 

 pressing the matter to a successful issue. She 

 showed the greatest hesitation in joining the Con 

 federation at all while the matter was allowed to 

 rest unsettled; and insisted that the titles of the 

 claimant States were void, that there was no need 

 of asking them to cede what they did not possess, 

 and that the West should be declared outright to be 

 part of the Federal domain. 



Maryland was largely actuated by fear of her 

 neighbor Virginia. Virginia's claims were the most 

 considerable, and if they had all been allowed, hers 

 would have been indeed an empire. Mary 

 land's fears were twofold. She dreaded the mere 

 growth of Virginia in wealth, power, and popula 

 tion in the first place; and in the second she feared 

 lest her own population might be drained into these 

 vacant lands, thereby at once diminishing her own, 

 and building up her neighbor's, importance. Each 

 State at that time had to look upon its neigh 

 bors as probable commercial rivals and possible 

 armed enemies. This is a feeling which we now find 

 difficulty in understanding. At present no State in 

 the Union fears the growth of a neighbor, or would 

 ever dream of trying to check that growth. The 

 direct reverse was the case during and after the 

 Revolution ; for the jealousy and distrust which the 

 different States felt for one another were bitter to 

 a degree. 



The Continental Congress was more than once 

 at its wits' ends in striving to prevent an open 



