292 The Winning of the West 



and appreciated the need of obedience to the law, 

 and they thoroughly respected the law. 



The separatist agitations had largely died out. 

 In 1798 and 1799 Kentucky divided with Virginia 

 the leadership of the attack on the Alien and Sedi- 

 tion laws ; but her extreme feelings were not shared 

 by the other Westerners, and she acted not as a rep- 

 resentative of the West, but on a footing of equal- 

 ity with Virginia. Tennessee sympathized as little 

 with the nullification movement of these two States 

 at this time as she sympathized with South Carolina 

 in her nullification movement a generation later. 

 With the election of Jefferson the dominant politi- 

 cal party in the West became in sympathy with the 

 party in control of the nation, and the West became 

 stoutly loyal to the National Government. 



The West had thus achieved a greater degree of 

 political solidarity, both as within itself and with the 

 nation as a whole, than ever before. Its wishes 

 were more powerful with the East. The pioneers 

 stood for an extreme Americanism, in social, politi- 

 cal, and religious matters alike. The trend of Amer- 

 ican thought was toward them, not away from 

 them. More than ever before, the Westerners were 

 able to make their demands felt at home and to 

 make their force felt in the event of a struggle with 

 a foreign power. 



