peaceable and
friendly intercourse with them. In the end, while the French villagers
were left undisturbed in their ancient privileges, and while they were
granted or were confirmed in the possession of the land immediately
around them, the Americans and the French who chose to go outside the
village grants were given merely the rights of other settlers.

The Continental officers exchanged courtesies with the Spanish
commandants of the Creole villages on the west bank of the Mississippi,
but kept a sharp eye on them, as these commandants endeavored to
persuade all the French inhabitants to move west of the river by
offering them free grants of land. [Footnote: Hamtranck to Harmar,
October 13, 1788.]

The Real Founders of the Northwest.

But all these matters were really of small consequence. The woes of the
Creoles, the trials of the American squatters, the friction between the
regular officers and the backwoodsmen, the jealousy felt by both for the
Spaniards--all these were of little real moment at this period of the
history of the Northwest. The vital point in its history was the passage
by Congress of the Ordinance of 1787, and the doings of the various land
companies under and in consequence of this ordinance.

Individualism in the Southwest, Collectivism in the Northwest

The wide gap between the ways in which the Northwest and the Southwest
were settled is made plain by such a statement. In the Northwest, it was
the action of Congress, the action of the representatives of the nation
acting as a whole, which was all-important. In the Southwest, no action
of Congress was of any importance when compared with the voluntary
movements of the backwoodsmen themselves. In the Northwest, it was the
nation which acted. In the Southwest, the determining factor was the
individual initiative of the pioneers. The most striking feature in the
settlement of the Southwest was the free play given to the workings of
extreme individualism. The settlement of the Northwest represented the
triumph of an intelligent collectivism, which yet allowed to each man a
full measure of personal liberty.

Difference in Stock of the Settlers.

Another difference of note was the difference in stock of the settlers.
The Southwest was settled by the true backwoodsmen, the men who lived on
their small clearings among the mountains of western Pennsylvania,
Virginia, and North Carolina. The first settlement in Ohio, the
settlement whi