ited States, alleging that the former had ceded what it did not
possess. They claimed the land as theirs by right of conquest. The
territory which they controlled stretched from Florida along a vaguely
defined boundary to the Mississippi, up the east bank of the latter at
least to the Chickasaw Bluffs, and thence up the west bank; while the
Creeks and Choctaws were under their influence. The Spaniards dreaded
and hated the Americans even more than did the British, and they were
right; for three fourths of the present territory of the United States
then lay within the limits of the Spanish possessions. [Footnote: State
Dep. MSS., No. 81, vol. ii., pp. 189, 217. No. 120, vol. ii., June 30,
1786.]

Thus there were foes, both white and red, to be overcome, either by
force of arms or by diplomacy, before the northernmost and the
southernmost portions of the wilderness lying on our western border
could be thrown open to settlement. The lands lying between had already
been conquered, and yet were so sparsely settled as to seem almost
vacant. While they offered every advantage of soil and climate to the
farmer and cultivator, they also held out peculiar attractions to
ambitious men of hardy and adventurous temper.

The Rush of Settlers

With the ending of the Revolutionary War the rush of settlers to these
western lauds assumed striking proportions. The peace relieved the
pressure which had hitherto restrained this movement, on the one hand,
while on the other it tended to divert into the new channel of pioneer
work those bold spirits whose spare energies had thus far found an
outlet on stricken fields. To push the frontier westward in the teeth of
the forces of the wilderness was fighting work, such as suited well
enough many a stout soldier who had worn the blue and buff of the
Continental line, or who, with his fellow rough-riders, had followed in
the train of some grim partisan leader.

The people of the New England States and of New York, for the most part,
spread northward and westward within their own boundaries; and Georgia
likewise had room for all her growth within her borders; but in the
States between there was a stir of eager unrest over the tales told of
the beautiful and fertile lands lying along the Ohio, the Cumberland,
and the Tennessee. The days of the early pioneers, of the men who did
the hardest and roughest work, were over; farms were being laid out and
towns were growing up among the felled fores