St. Clair and Wayne 19 



territory. Blount was a good-looking, well-bred 

 man, with cultivated tastes; but he was also a man 

 of force and energy, who knew well how to get on 

 with the backwoodsmen, so that he soon became pop- 

 ular among them. 



The West had grown with astonishing rapidity 

 during the seven years following the close of the 

 Revolutionary War. In 1790 there were in Ken- 

 tucky nearly seventy-four thousand, and in the 

 Southwest Territory nearly thirty-six thousand, 

 souls. In the Northwest Territory the period of 

 rapid growth had not begun, the old French inhabi- 

 tants still forming the majority of the population. 



The changes during these seven years had been 

 vital. In the West, as elsewhere through the Union, 

 the years succeeding the triumphant close of the 

 Revolution were those which determined whether 

 the victory was or was not worth winning. To 

 throw off the yoke of the stranger was useless and 

 worse than useless if we showed ourselves unable 

 to turn to good account the freedom we had gained. 

 Unless we could build up a gr.eat nation, and unless 

 we possessed the power and self-restraint to frame 

 an orderly and stable government, and to live un- 

 der its laws when framed, the long years of warfare 

 against the armies of the king were wasted and went 

 for naught. 



At the close of the Revolution the West was seeth- 

 ing with sedition. There were three tasks before the 

 Westerners ; all three had to be accomplished, under 



