slature represented only a constituency of one hundred
and fifty souls. But the Colonel presented to them very clearly the true
republican principle of government. He declared that the only legitimate
source of political power is to be found in the will of the people, and
added:

"If any doubts remain among you with respect to the force and efficiency
of whatever laws you now or hereafter make, be pleased to consider that
all power is originally in the people. Make it their interest,
therefore, by impartial and beneficent laws, and you may be sure of
their inclination to see them enforced."

Rumors of these extraordinary proceedings reached the ears of Lord
Dunmore. He considered the whole region of Kentucky as included in the
original grant of Virginia, and that the Government of Virginia alone
had the right to extinguish the Indian title to any of those lands. He
therefore issued a proclamation, denouncing in the severest terms the
"unlawful proceedings of one Richard Henderson and other disorderly
persons, his associates." The legislature continued in session but three
days, and honored itself greatly by its energetic action, and by the
character of the laws which it inaugurated. One bill was introduced for
preserving game; another for improving the breed of their horses; and it
is worthy of especial record that a law was passed prohibiting profane
swearing and Sabbath breaking.

The moral sense of these bold pioneers was shocked at the desecration of
the Creator's name among their sublime solitudes.

The controversy between the Transylvania Company and the Government of
Virginia was short but very sharp. Virginia could then very easily send
an army of several thousand men to exterminate the Kentucky colony. A
compromise was the result. The title of Henderson was declared "null and
void." But he received in compensation a grant of land on the Ohio,
about twelve miles square, below the mouth of Green River. Virginia
assumed that the Indian title was entirely extinguished, and the region
called Transylvania now belonged without encumbrance to the Old
Dominion.

Still the tide of emigration continued to flow into this beautiful
region. Among others came the family of Colonel Calloway, consisting of
his wife and two daughters. For a long time no Indians had been seen in
the vicinity of Boonesborough. No one seemed to apprehend the least
danger from them, and the people in the fort wandered about as freely as
if no