end an army for the destruction of their towns and crops north of the
Ohio. But here they were embarrassed by the consideration that they had
no legal power to make this movement, and that the whole question,
momentous as it was and demanding immediate action, must be referred to
the State Government, far away beyond the mountains. This involved long
delay, and it could hardly be expected that the members of the General
Court in their peaceful homes would fully sympathize with the
unprotected settlers in their exposure to the tomahawk and the scalping
knife.

Several conventions were held, and the question was earnestly discussed
whether the interests of Kentucky did not require her separation from
the Government of Virginia, and her organization as a self-governing
State. The men who had boldly ventured to seek new homes so far beyond
the limits of civilization were generally men of great force of
character and of political foresight. They had just emerged from the war
of the Revolution, during which all the most important questions of
civil polity had been thoroughly canvassed. Their meetings were
conducted with great dignity and calm deliberation.

On the twenty-third of May, 1785, the convention at Danville passed the
resolve with great unanimity that Kentucky ought to be separated from
Virginia, and received into the American Union, upon the same basis as
the other States. Still that they might not act upon a question of so
much importance without due deliberation, they referred the subject to
another convention to be assembled at Danville in August. This
convention reiterated the resolution of its predecessor; issued a
proclamation urging the people everywhere to organise for defence
against the Indians, and appointed a delegation of two members to
proceed to Richmond, and present their request for a separation to the
authorities there.

"The Legislature of Virginia was composed of men too wise not to see
that separation was inevitable. Separated from the parent State by
distance and by difficulties of communication, in those days most
formidable, they saw that Kentuckians would not long submit to be ruled
by those whose power was so far removed as to surround every approach to
it with the greatest embarrassment. It was, without its wrongs, and
tyranny and misgovernment, the repetition of the circumstances of the
Crown and Colonies; and with good judgment, and as the beautiful
language of the Danville conventio