n expressed it, with sole intent to
bless its people, they agreed to a dismemberment of its part, to secure
the happiness of the whole."[F]

[Footnote F: Daniel Boone, by W. H. Bogart.]

It is not important here to enter into a detail of the various
discussions which ensued, and of the measures which were adopted. It is
sufficient to say that the communication from Kentucky to the
Legislature of Virginia was referred to the illustrious John Marshall,
then at the commencement of his distinguished career. He gave to the
request of the petitioners his own strong advocacy. The result was, that
a decree was passed after tedious delays, authorising the formal
separation of Kentucky from Virginia. On the fourth of February, 1791,
the new State, by earnest recommendation of George Washington, was
admitted into the American Union.

It does not appear that Colonel Boone was a member of any of these
conventions. He had no taste for the struggles in political assemblies.
He dreaded indeed the speculator, the land jobber, and the intricate
decisions of courts, more than the tomahawk of the Indian. And he knew
full well that should the hour of action come, he would be one of the
first to be summoned to the field. While therefore others of the early
pioneers were engaged in these important deliberations, he was quietly
pursuing those occupations, congenial to his tastes, of cultivating the
farm, or in hunting game in the solitude of the forests. His humble
cabin stood upon the banks of the Kentucky River, not far from the
station at Boonesborough. And thoroughly acquainted as he was with the
habits of the Indians, he felt quite able, in his bullet-proof citadel,
to protect himself from any marauding bands which might venture to show
themselves so near the fort.

It seems to be the lot of humanity that life should be composed of a
series of storms, rising one after another. In the palace and in the
cottage, in ancient days and at the present time, we find the sweep of
the inexorable law, that man is born to mourn.

"Sorrow is for the sons of men,
And weeping for earth's daughters."

The cloud of menaced Indian invasion had passed away, when suddenly the
sheriff appears in Boone's little cabin, and informs him that his title
to his land is disputed, and that legal proceedings were commenced
against him. Boone could not comprehend this. Kentucky he regarded
almost his own by the right of his discovery. He h