252 The Winning of the West 



expansion, the Jeffersonian party was, on the whole, 

 emphatically right, and its opponents, the Federal- 

 ists, emphatically wrong. The Jeffersonians be- 

 lieved in the acquisition of territory in the West, 

 and the Federalists did not. The Jeffersonians 

 believed that the Westerners should be allowed to 

 govern themselves precisely as other citizens o"f the 

 United States did, and should be given their full 

 share in the management of national affairs. Too 

 many Federalists failed to see that these positions 

 were the only proper ones to take. In consequence, 

 notwithstanding all their manifold shortcomings, 

 the Jeffersonians, and not the Federalists, were those 

 to whom the West owed most. 



Whether the Westerners governed themselves as 

 wisely as they should have mattered little. The es- 

 sential point was that they had to be given the right 

 of self-government. They could not be kept in 

 pupilage. Like other Americans, they had to be left 

 to strike out for themselves and to sink or swim 

 according to the measure of their own capacities. 

 When this was done it was certain that they would 

 commit many blunders, and that some of these 

 blunders would work harm not only to themselves 

 but to the whole nation. Nevertheless, all this had 

 to be accepted as part of the penalty paid for free 

 government. It was wise to accept it in the first 

 place, and in the second place, whether wise or not, 

 it was inevitable. Many of the Federalists saw 

 this; and to many of them, the Adamses, for in- 

 stance, and Jay and Pinckney, the West owed more 



