FRONTIERSMAN AND SOLDIER 223 



and this was especially true of the Federalist leaders, 

 such as Hamilton, John Adams, Pickering, the Pinck- 

 neys, and to some extent even Washington. But for 

 the wholesome counter-influence of such men as Jef- 

 ferson and Gallatin, the political structure reared in 

 1787 would have rested upon too narrow a basis. For 

 the thorough development of American democracy, 

 however, a second struggle with the wilderness seems 

 to have been needed. The pure American spirit first 

 came to maturity in the breasts of that rugged popula- 

 tion that since the days of Daniel Boone and James 

 Robertson had been pouring down the western slope 

 of the Alleghanies and making the beginnings of the 

 two great commonwealths, Kentucky and Tennessee. 

 These were states that from the outset owed no alle- 

 giance to a sovereign power beyond the ocean. Their 

 affairs were never administered by British officials, 

 and from the first moment of their existence as organ- 

 ized communities, Great Britain was to them a foreign 

 country. The importance of this new development 

 for a long time passed unnoticed by the older commu- 

 nities on the Atlantic coast, and especially by the New 

 England states, which were the most remote from it 

 alike in geographical position and in social structure. 

 For a long time there was a feeling about the Western 

 country and its inhabitants not unlike that to which 

 Gouverneur Morris gave expression. There was an 

 ignorant superciliousness, such as some Englishmen 

 are still found to entertain toward the United States 

 as a whole. This feeling has been apt to colour the 

 books on American history written by Eastern men. 

 With the best of intentions, and without the least sus- 

 picion of the narrowness of their views, such writers, 



