no The Winning of the West 



westward extension of the nation, and in conse- 

 quence were identified with a movement which was 

 all-essential to the national well-being. 



Kentucky was ripe for Genet's intrigues, and he 

 found the available leader for the movement in the 

 person of George Rogers Clark. Clark was deeply 

 imbittered, not only with the United States Govern- 

 ment but with Virginia, for the Virginia Assembly 

 had refused to pay any of the debts he had contracted 

 on account of the State, and had not even reim- 

 bursed him for what he had spent. 1 He had a right 

 to feel aggrieved at the State's penuriousness and 

 her indifference to her moral obligations; and just 

 at the time when he was most angered came the 

 news that Genet was agitating throughout the 

 United States for a war with England, in open de- 

 fiance of Washington, and that among his plans he 

 included a Western movement against Louisiana. 

 Clark at once wrote to him expressing intense sym- 

 pathy with the French objects and offering to under- 

 take an expedition for the conquest of St. Louis and 

 upper Louisiana if he was provided with the means 

 to obtain provisions and stores. Clark further in- 

 formed Genet that his country had been utterly un- 

 grateful to him, and that as soon as he received 

 Genet's approbation of what he proposed to do he 

 would get himself "expatriated." He asked for 

 commissions for officers, and stated his belief that 

 the Creoles would rise, that the adventurous West- 

 erners would gladly throng to the contest, and that 



1 Draper MSS., J. Clark to G. R. Clark, Dec. 27, 1792. 



