on
of the reservations of Virginia, and a small reservation of the state of
Connecticut in northeastern Ohio, passed over to the general government,
before the adoption of the federal constitution, and before George
Washington, the first president of the United States, was sworn into
office, on the 30th day of April, 1789.

But the wisdom and the broad national views of the leading Virginia
law-makers and statesmen, had already, in great measure, pointed the way
to the Indian policy to be pursued by Washington and his successors. No
state, either under the old confederation or the new constitution,
presented such a formidable array of talent and statecraft as Virginia.
Washington, Jefferson, John Marshall, and Madison, stood pre-eminent,
but there was also Edmund Randolph, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, George
Mason, William Grayson and Richard Henry Lee.

Washington had always taken a deep and abiding interest in the western
country. In 1770 he had made a trip down the Ohio in company with his
friends, Doctor Craik and William Crawford. The distance from Pittsburgh
to the mouth of the Great Kanawha was two hundred and sixty-five miles.
The trip was made by canoes and was rather hazardous, as none of
Washington's party were acquainted with the navigation of the river. The
party made frequent examinations of the land along the way and
Washington was wonderfully impressed with the future prospects of the
country. Arriving at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, he ascended that
river for a distance of fourteen miles, hunting by the way, as the land
was plentifully stocked with buffalo, deer, turkeys and other wild game.
He also made critical observations of the soil here, with a view to
future acquisitions. The whole country below Pittsburgh at that time,
was wild and uninhabited, save by the Indian tribes.

At the close of the revolution the minds of Washington, Jefferson and
other leading Virginians were filled with the grand project of
developing and colonizing the west, and binding it to the union by the
indissoluble ties of a common interest. There was nothing of the narrow
spirit of provincialism about these men. Their thoughts went beyond the
limited confines of a single state or section, and embraced the nation.
They entertained none of those jealousies which distinguish the small
from the great. On the contrary, they looked upon the mighty
trans-montane domain with its many watercourses, its rich soil, and its
temper