37 2 The Winning of the West 



had decreed that they should have equal rights with 

 the older States and with one another, and yet that 

 they should remain forever inseparable from the 

 Union; and above all, it had been settled that the 

 bondman should be unknown within their borders. 

 Their founding represented the triumph of the prin 

 ciple of collective national action over the spirit of 

 intense individualism displayed so commonly on 

 the frontier. The uncontrolled initiative of the indi 

 vidual, which was the chief force in the settlement 

 of the Southwest, was given comparatively little 

 play in the settlement of the Northwest. The North 

 west owed its existence to the action of the nation 

 as a whole. 



