the inpracticability of executing the law for want of time. It further expressed a continued disposition in the legislature to assent to the proposed separation. It enacts that at the August courts of the year 1787, the free male inhabitants of the district, in their respective counties, should elect five members for each county to compose a convention to be held at Danville on the third Monday in the ensuing September.

The 4th of July, 1787, was fixed as the limit within which congress was to express its assent to the admission of the proposed state into the Confederation. This action meant the postponment of the matter for an entire year. By the first act separation might possibly have occurred in 1787; by the second, it was postponed until 1789. The people were disappointed but not hopeless. Under the most favorable circumstances they could not enter the Union for two years and, recognizing the conditions surrounding the newly

formed Union, they realized that there might yet be other years of waiting. They could wait and they could also fight. Congress had made treaties with the Indians; the latter had ruthlessly disregarded them. The United States authorities paid no attention to these violations and the people of Kentucky found themselves neglected but by no means helpless or hopeless. When there was fighting against the Indians necessary, there was no lack of fighting men from Kentucky. Congress might delay the matter of admission; meanwhile. Kentncky, as occasion offered, was giving practical demonstrations of its fitness to be a member of the sisterhood of states. The patience with which Kentucky awaited the act of justice was only equalled by the equanimity with which it met every difficulty and the bravery with which, for years, it combatted the savage enemies whose bitter attacks were constantly met with unremitting regularity.

Men

In this hour of doubt and uncertainty, the tempter came to Kentucky. The attempt at self-government was an experiment. doubted if a Republican form of government could continue to exist; the constitution was a venture into new fields and was yet to be tested and it is not to be wondered at that there were doubters, some who predicted failure. It will not be forgotten that there were men who wished that Washington should be a king rather than a president. The men who dreamed of a successful republic never despaired. Almost, they believed the Federal constitution to be an inspired instrument; never for a moment did they fail in the belief that Divine Providence was watching over the new land and that, in the end, all would be well with it and them. But, at the same time, they kept their powder dry and were in a constant state of defense against their savage foes.

But they were not without resentment at the delay attendant upon their admission to the Union. With their blood and treasure they had taken the new territory from the savages, had defended it against countless attacks, and could see no good reason why their hopes for statehood should be disappointed. Gen. James Wilkinson, who had sat as a delegate in the Danville convention, boldly and defiantly declared himself in favor of the im

mediate separation of Kentucky from the parent state and the setting up of an independent government for the time being. It is not improbable that when this proposal was made, Wilkinson was already in correspondence with the Spanish authorities in the south or was courting such correspondence and such financial offers as might result there from. Wilkinson had served in the war with England; was largely engaged in commercial pursuits and by his plausible manner, had ingratiated himself into the good opinion of far better men than himself, thus giving him perhaps as great an influence as was possessed by any man in Kentucky.

At the time when Wilkinson was sowing the seeds of discord, there was forwarded to Kentucky from a body of men at Pittsburg, styling themselves "A Committee of Correspondence from Western Pennsylvania," a communication stating as follows: "That John Jay, the American secretary for foreign affairs, had made a proposition to Don Gardoqui, the Spanish minister to the United States, to cede the navigation of the Mississippi river to Spain for twenty-five or thirty years, in consideration of some commercial advantages to be granted to the United States, but such as the western country could derive no profit from."

congress had any communication as to the progress of the negotiation. Difficulties were at length announced by the American minister on the subjects of treaty. He was called before congress and explained by reference to the navigation of the river which was claimed exclusively and justly by Spain within her territories, and further by presenting to view the project of a commercial treaty containing, as he contended, advantageous stipulations in favor of the United States, in consideration of which it was proposed that they should 'forbear the use of the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty-five or thirty years.' He urged the adoption of this project as a beneficial one for the United States; said that a stipulation to forbear the use on the part of the United States, accepted by Spain, was an admission on her part of the right; that, in fact, the United States were in no condition to take the river or force the use of it, and, therefore, gave nothing for the benefits they would derive from the proposed treaty, not otherwise to be effected, for the use of the nation.

"Under this view of the subject, the seven most eastwardly of the states voted to rescind the ultimata in the secretary's instructions, and it was, of course, so entered on the journal, the other states dissenting. It, however, required the concurrence of nine states to give an instruction; therefore, none was given. The case had been debated; the strength of the party for the treaty had been tried and found wanting. The project had failed, most happily for the Union."

Jay, who had formerly rendered great service to his country, was under the ban in the

protesting states. The excitement was very great and there was a possibility that had nine. instead of seven states joined in supporting his plans, the protesting states would have seriously considered the propriety of withdrawing from the confederation which they could probably have done without meeting the resistance from the remaining states which followed the withdrawal of the southern states from the Union many years later. Virginia was the most earnest of those states opposing Jay's plans, and by a unanimous vote of her legislature instructed her delegates in congress never to accede to any such proposition, and was warmly seconded by the other nonconcurring states.

General Wilkinson, urged on by an unappeasable ambition, saw, in the situation, his opportunity and was sustained by many men of purer minds and less ambition. The people felt that they were neglected, and, driven to desperation by Indian forays and the discomforts attendant upon the development of a new land, seemed almost ready to dissolve all allegiance to the new government and set up for themselves. But they were never ready to form an alliance with any foreign government. They were, first of all things, Americans and such they would remain, whether members of the Union or citizens of an independent state. Wilkinson was able and plausible but not able enough nor plausible enough to lead astray the brave men and women about whose homes in the wilderness, the flowers of beauty, the harvests of prosperity were beginning to grow.

A new chapter was written in Kentucky history at this moment, a chapter which has been duplicated very many times. On the 28th of August, 1787, John Bradford began at Lexington the publication of The Kentucky Gazette, the first newspaper published in Kentucky. It was a modest affair, appearing first on a half-sheet, but almost immediately afterwards increasing in size; later becoming still larger. It was a boon to the better informed men of the day, as it gave them an opportunity to display their powers as controversialists. At once, its columns were filled with discussions for and against separation and those of today who have imagined our forefathers to have been but poorly educated and crudely informed would have the impression removed by an examination of the files of this pioneer newspaper of the west.

September the 17th the convention reassembled at Danville nearly all the members being present. It was decided, unanimously, after brief discussion, that it would "be expedient for the good people of the district that it should be separated from the rest of the state (Virginia) upon the terms and conditions prescribed by law."

An address to congress was prepared, that body being requested in respectful manner, to admit the new state into the Union by the

name of Kentucky. The last day of December, 1788, was fixed as the date upon which the authority of Virginia should cease and that of the new state begin.

It was also agreed that at the respective court days in the various counties in the following April, representatives should be chosen who should continue who should continue in office until December 31, 1788, their election to be by the free male inhabitants of each county; the usual number of five delegates from each county being provided for. After making these provisions the convention adjourned and thus one more of the tedious steps towards statehood had been taken.

It appears that the chief industry of the district at this period consisted of the election of delegates and the holding of conventions. But the end justified the means. Through many difficulties and, on the part of congress, unjust delays, the district finally came to its own, though it was not yet to be.

General Wilkinson was always to be reckoned with. His ambitious dreams spurred him on, as did his avaricious fondness for Spanish gold. In June, 1787, he had gone to New Orleans with a cargo of tobacco and other Kentucky products. While in New Orleans, as he afterwards stated, he made arrangements with the Spanish General Miro,