St. Clair and Wayne 369 



quences of which were of vital importance. They 

 showed that they possessed the highest attributes of 

 good citizenship resolution and sagacity, stern 

 morality, and the capacity to govern others as well 

 as themselves. But they performed no pioneer feat 

 of any note as such, and they were not called upon 

 to display a tithe of the reckless daring and iron en 

 durance of hardship which characterized the con 

 querors of the Illinois and the founders of Kentucky 

 and Tennessee. This is in no sense a reflection upon 

 them. They did not need to give proof of a cour 

 age they had shown time and again in bloody battles 

 against the best troops of Europe. In this particu 

 lar enterprise, in which they showed so many ad 

 mirable qualities, they had little chance to show the 

 quality of adventurous bravery. They drifted com 

 fortably down stream, from the log fort whence they 

 started, past many settlers' houses, until they came 

 to the post of a small Federal garrison, where they 

 built their town. Such a trip is not to be mentioned 

 in the same breath with the long wanderings of 

 Clark and Boone and Robertson, when they went 

 forth unassisted to subdue the savage and make tame 

 the shaggy wilderness. 



St. Clair, the first Governor, was a Scotchman of 

 good family. He had been a patriotic but unsuc 

 cessful general in the Revolutionary army. He was 

 a friend of Washington, and in politics a firm Fed 

 eralist; he was devoted to the cause of Union and 

 Liberty, and was a conscientious, high-minded man. 

 But he had no aptitude for the incredibly difficult 



