f the Revolution, for it decided that its after-effects
should be felt throughout the entire continent, not merely in the way of
example, but by direct impress. The creation of a nation stretching
along the Atlantic seaboard was of importance in itself, but the
importance was immensely increased when once it was decided that the
nation should cover a region larger than all Europe.

Excuses for Some of the Separatists.

While giving unlimited praise to the men so clearsighted, and of such
high thought, that from the beginning they foresaw the importance of the
Union, and strove to include all the West therein, we must beware of
blaming overmuch those whose vision was less acute. The experiment of
the Union was as yet inchoate; its benefits were prospective; and
loyalty to it was loyalty to a splendid idea the realization of which
lay in the future rather than in the present. All honor must be awarded
to the men who under such conditions could be loyal to so high an ideal;
but we must not refuse to see the many strong and admirable qualities in
some of the men who looked less keenly into the future. It would be mere
folly [Footnote: R. T. Durrett, "Centenary of Kentucky," 64.] to judge a
man who in 1787 was lukewarm or even hostile to the Union by the same
standard we should use in testing his son's grandson a century later.
Finally, where a man's general course was one of devotion to the Union,
it is easy to forgive him some momentary lapse, due to a misconception
on his part of the real needs of the hour, or to passing but intense
irritation at some display of narrow indifference to the rights of his
section by the people of some other section. Patrick Henry himself made
one slip when he opposed the adoption of the Federal Constitution; but
this does not at all offset the services he rendered our common country
both before and afterwards. Every statesman makes occasional errors; and
the leniency of judgment needed by Patrick Henry, and needed far more by
Ethan Allen, Samuel Adams, and George Clinton, must be extended to
frontier leaders for whose temporary coldness to the Union there was
much greater excuse.

Characteristics of the Frontiersmen.

When we deal, not with the leading statesmen of the frontier
communities, but with the ordinary frontier folk themselves, there is
need to apply the same tests used in dealing with the rude, strong
peoples of by-gone ages. The standard by which international, and eve