VII. THE WAR IN THE NORTHWEST, 1787-1790

VIII. THE SOUTHWEST TERRITORY; TENNESSEE, 1788-1890


[Illustration: The Western Land Claims at the Close of the Revolution.
Showing also the state of Franklin, Kentucky, and the Cumberland
Settlements, or Miro District. _Source:_ Based on a map by G. P.
Putnam's Sons, New York and London.]


THE WINNING OF THE WEST.




CHAPTER I.

THE INRUSH OF SETTLERS, 1784-1787.

At the beginning of 1784 peace was a definite fact, and the United
States had become one among the nations of the earth; a nation young and
lusty in her youth, but as yet loosely knit, and formidable in promise
rather than in actual capacity for performance.

The Western Frontier.

On the western frontier lay vast and fertile vacant spaces; for the
Americans had barely passed the threshold of the continent predestined
to be the inheritance of their children and children's children. For