192 NA TIONA L GRO WTH A ND NA TIONA L CHA RA CTER 



and children's children, and solemnly undertook the duty of 

 conquest over half a million square miles of little-known wood- 

 land haunts for warlike tribes stretching from the mountains to 

 the Mississippi. Today this transmontane territory may seem 

 small; to present geographic knowledge it may seem but a 

 natural appendage of the Atlantic plains and mountains ; in the 

 light of the history of the nineteenth century, with its marvelous 

 territorial growth of mairy nations, the expansion may seem 

 trivial ; but, so far as the light of 1779 can now be measured, the 

 undertaking was one of singular boldness — of a boldness exceed- 

 ing even that displayed in the Declaration of Independence. 

 This first essay in territorial growth was worthy the well-grown 

 progeny of humanity's finest stock ; it could not have been made 

 b_y an}- weaker people — indeed it would seem impossible that it 

 could have been made even by the cumulatively prepotent colo- 

 nial stock save through that inspiring self-reliance which is the 

 boon of freedom. 



Having undertaken the conquest of their outlying territory, 

 the colonists set themselves to their task with serious persistence. 

 True, the territory was for a time a bone of contention among the 

 colonies ; true, strong young lives were lost in numbers through 

 disease and savage ambuscade, as the outposts of settlement 

 were pushed forward; true, it became necessary to erect a part 

 of the territory into a federal colony (an action contributing 

 much to subsequent union) ; true, the hardest pioneering the 

 world has seen was required to subdue the forests and lay the 

 ways of traffic over and beyond the mountains ; yet few among 

 the founders appear to have regretted, or even to have fully recog- 

 nized, the boldness of their essay. As the years grew into dec- 

 ades, the wisdom of the colonists became manifest; inspired in 

 peace as in war by freedom, the pioneers pushed into the forests, 

 acquired lands, built mills, laid out trails and stage lines, and 

 above all inaugurated an era of public education the most note- 

 worthy in any country ; invention was fostered by a patent 

 system , industries grew apace, race troubles began to settle them- 

 selves (albeit slowly), and the hard-working settlers developed 

 that physical and moral strength which is the best fruit of volun- 

 tary labor. Meantime the blending of blood and culture, aided 

 by the immigration of thinkers and workers, continued to raise 

 the vigorous pioneers even above the plane on which the Decla- 

 ration of Independence was conceived. 



So began and ended the first great episode in American devel- 



