of Fort Pitt, guarded--strange irony of fate--from a savage
enemy by the very flag which flaunted oppression in their native Britain
and Ireland. That they learned to love their adopted land who can
question? A Virginian cavalier, accustomed to the graces and _politesse_
of a slave-owning aristocracy, saw fit to sneer at their humble abodes,
and their lack of the finer accessories of civilization, forgetting that a
cabin is more often than a palace the cradle of the purest patriotism, and
that as true American hearts beat in those huts in the wilderness as in
the courtly precincts of Richmond.

But the "poor mechanics and laborers" exercised a tremendous influence on
the destinies of the young, and as yet disunited republic. They were
freemen. Pittsburg, the outpost of civilization, had no slave within
sight of its redoubts, and the spirit of freedom which hovered there,
found rest and refreshment for its broader flight toward the great
northwest. The decision of 1780, which saved Pittsburg to Pennsylvania,
preserved it as a stronghold of freedom and of free labor, and now it far
surpasses in industry, wealth and population the then slave-labor capital
of the Old Dominion.

It is an interesting fact that the colonial French left no impress on the
site where they made such a gallant stand for New France. They have
vanished as completely as the Indian. In Detroit, in St. Louis, French
ancestry can be traced in families of high position and honorable
lineage. Such families are to those cities what the Knickerbockers are to
New York. They give a gracious flavor to society; they are a link between
the dim and heroic past and the dashing, eager, practical present; they
add a dreamy fascination to the social landscape, like the lingering haze
of morning illumined by the rays of the sun fast mounting to zenith.
Where Duquesne stood, neither track nor mark remains of the volatile,
daring and glory-loving race whose lily flag greeted the bearers of brave
Beaujeu's remains from the fatal field of Braddock. No authentic trace
has been discovered even of the fortifications which they erected, and
Fort Duquesne is known only by its tragic place in American history.

The ordinance of 1787, creating the Northwestern Territory, and throwing
it open for settlement, at once induced a large emigration to the lands
beyond the Ohio. Descendants of the Puritans mingled in the pioneer
throng with rangers from Virginia and backwoodsmen from P