, and the like. He
and Blount held some tens of thousands of acres of the Henderson claim,
and Hart proposed that they should lay it out in five-hundred-acre
tracts, to be rented to farmers, with the idea that each farmer should
receive ten cows and calves to start with; a proposition which was of
course hopeless, as the pioneers would not lease lands when it was so
easy to obtain freeholds. In his letters, Hart mentioned cheerfully that
though he was sixty-three years old he was just as well able to carry on
his manufacturing business, and, on occasion, to leave it, and play
pioneer, as he ever had been, remarking that he "never would be
satisfied in the world while new countries could be found," and that his
intention, now that he had moved to Kentucky, was to push the mercantile
business as long as the Indian war continued and money was plenty, and
when that failed, to turn his attention to farming and to divide up
those of his lands he could not till himself, to be rented by others.
[Footnote: Blount MSS., Thomas Hart to Blount, Dec. 23, 1793.]

This letter to Blount shows, by the way, as was shown by Madison's
correspondent from Kentucky, that the Indian war, scourge though it was
to the frontiersmen as a whole, brought some attendant benefits in its
wake by putting a stimulus on the trade of the merchants and bringing
ready money into the country. It must not be forgotten, however, that
men like Hart and Blount, though in some ways they were benefited by the
war, were in other ways very much injured, and that, moreover, they
consistently strove to do justice to the Indians and to put a stop to
hostilities.

In his letters Colonel Hart betrays a hearty, healthy love of life, and
capacity to enjoy it, and make the best of it, which fortunately exist
in many Kentucky and Tennessee families to this day. He wanted money,
but the reason he wanted it was to use it in having a good time for
himself and his friends, writing: "I feel all the ardor and spirit for
business I did forty years ago, and see myself more capable to conduct
it. Oh, if my old friend Uncle Jacob was but living and in this country,
what pleasure we should have in raking up money and spending it with our
friends!" and he closed by earnestly entreating Blount and his family to
come to Kentucky, which he assured him was the finest country in the
world, with moreover, "a very pleasant society, for," said he, "I can
say with truth that the society of this