hem in
hardihood and courage; but the land on which they settled was won less
by themselves than by the statesmen who met in the national capital, and
the scarred soldiers who on the frontier upbore the national colors.
Moreover, instead of being absolutely free to choose their own form of
government, and shape their own laws and social conditions untrammelled
by restrictions, the Northwesterners were allowed to take the land only
upon certain definite conditions. The National Government ceded to
settlers part of its own domain, and provided the terms upon which
states of the Union should afterwards be made out of this domain; and
with a wisdom and love of righteousness which have been of incalculable
consequence to the whole nation, it stipulated that slavery should never
exist in the States thus formed. This condition alone profoundly
affected the whole development of the Northwest, and sundered it by a
sharp line from those portions of the new country which, for their own
ill fortune, were left free from all restriction of the kind. The
Northwest owes its life and owes its abounding strength and vigorous
growth to the action of the nation as a whole. It was founded not by
individual Americans, but by the United States of America. The mighty
and populous commonwealths that lie north of the Ohio and in the valley
of the Upper Mississippi are in a peculiar sense the children of the
National Government, and it is no mere accident that has made them in
return the especial guardians and protectors of that government; for
they form the heart of the nation.

Unorganized Settlements West of the Ohio.

Before the Continental Congress took definite action concerning the
Northwest, there had been settlements within its borders, but these
settlements were unauthorized and illegal, and had little or no effect
upon the aftergrowth of the region. Wild and lawless adventurers had
built cabins and made tomahawk claims on the west bank of the Upper
Ohio. They lived in angry terror of the Indians, and they also had cause
to dread the regular army; for wherever the troops discovered their
cabins, they tore them down, destroyed the improvements, and drove off
the sullen and threatening squatters. As the tide of settlement
increased in the neighboring country these trespassers on the Indian
lands and on the national domain became more numerous. Many were driven
off, again and again; but here and there one kept his foothold. It was
th