t was saved by the knitting together of the
States into a Nation.

This knitting process passed through its first and most critical stage,
in the West, during the period intervening between the close of the war
for independence, and the year which saw the organization of the
Southwest into a territory ruled under the laws, and by the agent, of
the National Government. During this time no step was taken towards
settling the question of boundary lines with our British and Spanish
neighbors; that remained as it had been, the Americans never abandoning
claims which they had not yet the power to enforce, and which their
antagonists declined to yield. Neither were the Indian wars settled; on
the contrary, they had become steadily more serious, though for the
first time a definite solution was promised by the active interference
of the National Government. But a vast change had been made by the
inflow of population; and an even vaster by the growing solidarity of
the western settlements with one another, and with the Central
Government. The settlement of the Northwest, so different in some of its
characteristics from the settlement of the Southwest, had begun.
Kentucky was about to become a State of the Union. The territories north
and south of it were organized as part of the domain of the United
States. The West was no longer a mere wilderness dotted with cabins and
hamlets, whose backwoods builders were held by but the loosest tie of
allegiance to any government, even their own. It had become an integral
part of the mighty American Republic.

THE END OF VOL. III.

INDEX.

Allen, Ethan, separatist leader;
relations with British authorities.
Army, regular, relations of officers to Kentuckians;
friction with frontiersmen;
distrust of militia;
failure to understand how to fight Indians;
shortcomings of;
superiority to the militia;
further friction with frontiersmen.
Baptist preachers.
Black Wolf, Indian chief, death of.
Bledsoe, Anthony, corresponds with McGillivray;
slain by Indians.
Bloody Fellow, Cherokee chief,
writes note taunting Sevier and Martin.
Blount, William,
Governor of Southwest Territory.
Bolivar, Spanish-American general.
Boone, Daniel, hunter and deputy surveyor;
in Virginia Legislature;
trader;
creed;
keeps faith with Indians.
Borarth, Mrs., feat of, against Indians.