2o The Winning of the West 



pain of utter failure. It was their duty to invade 

 and tame the shaggy wilderness; to drive back the 

 Indians and their European allies; and to erect free 

 governments which should form parts of the in- 

 dissoluble Union. If the spirit of sedition, of law- 

 lessness, and of wild individualism and separatism 

 had conquered, then our history would merely have 

 anticipated the dismal tale of the Spanish- American 

 republics. 



Viewed from this standpoint the history of the 

 West during these eventful years has a special and 

 peculiar interest. The inflow of the teeming throng 

 of settlers was the most striking feature ; but it was 

 no more important than the half-seen struggle in 

 which the Union party finally triumphed over the 

 restless strivers for disunion. The extent and re- 

 ality of the danger are shown by the numerous sep- 

 aratist movements. The intrigues in which so many 

 of the leaders engaged with Spain, for the purpose 

 of setting up barrier States, in some degree feuda- 

 tory to the Spaniards; the movement in Kentucky 

 for violent separation from Virginia, and the more 

 secret movement for separation from the United 

 States ; the turbulent career of the commonwealth of 

 Franklin; the attitude of isolation of interest from 

 all their neighbors assumed by the Cumberland set- 

 tlers: all these various movements and attitudes 

 were significant of the looseness of the Federal tie, 

 and were ominous of the anarchic violence, weak- 

 ness and misrule which would have followed the 

 breaking of that tie. 



