which was accordingly done. And which produced a supervision of the first, and the passage of the second act, of separation; as will be noticed in another place.

In the interval, and conforming this history to the chequered affairs of human life, its frequent transitions from military to civil, and from civil to military, occurrences, is but a necessary consequence, of that conformity. There is, therefore, na difficulty in falling into the following narrative of Indian hostility, and depredation.

In October of this year, a large number of families, travel ling by land to Kentucky, known by the name of McKnitt's company, were surprised in camp, at night, by a party of Indians, between Big, and Little, Laurel river; and totally defeated, with the loss of twenty-one persons killed, and the rest dispersed, or taken prisoners.

About the same time, Captain Hardin, from the southwestern part of the district, with a party of men, made an excursion into the Indian country, surrounding the Saline; he fell in with a camp of Indians, whom he attacked, and defeated; killing four of them, without loss on his part.

Sometime in December, Hargrove and others, were defeated at the mouth of Buck creek, on the Cumberland river. The Indians attacked in the night, killed one man, and wounded Hargrove; who directly became engaged in a rencounter with the Indian, armed with his tomahawk; of this he was disarmed, but escaped; leaving the weapon with, Hargrove, who bore it off; glad to extricate himself.

In this year also, Benjamin Price, was killed near the three forks of Kentucky.

Thus ended the year, in a full renewal of the war, whose beginning had witnessed the completion of the treaties of peace.

By this time, one thing must have been obvious to those who had attended to the course of events-and that was: that if the Indians came into the country, whether for peace, or war, hostilities were inevitable.

If the white people, went into their country, the same consequences followed. The parties were yet highly exasperated

against each other; they had not cooled since the peace, if peace it could be called; and meet where they would, bloodshed, was the result.

Whether the Indians to the north, and west, had ascertained, or not, that the two expeditions of this year were with or without the consent of congress, they could but think the treaties, vain things; and either made by those who had no right, to make them, or no power, to enforce them. With Kentuckians, it was known, that the latter was the fact. To the Indians, the consequence was the same. They knew to a certainty, that the British had not surrendered the posts on the lakes-that it was from them, they received their supplies; that they had been deceived, as to the United States getting the posts-and they were easily persuaded to believe, that these posts, would not be transferred; and that in truth, the British, not the United States, had been the conquerors, in the late war.

Such, were the reflections, which the state of facts, would have justified; and at the same time have disposed them for war. The invasion of their country, by two formidable armies' from Kentucky, could leave no doubt of a disposition equally hostile, on her part. Congress, utterly destitute of the means for enforcing the treaties, either, on the one side, or the other; stood aloof, ruminating on the inexhaustible abundance of her own want of resources--and the abuse of herself, for not possessing them.

[1787.] During this time, so extremely solicitous were. those members of the convention, who had attended their seats, to prevent the extinction of the body to which they belonged; that a part of them, and the clerk, attended, and adjourned, every day, until some time in January, 1787; when a quorum, attended, and proceeded to business. The question was again proposed, Whether it was expe lient for, and the will of the good people of the district, that the same should become a state separate from, and independent of Virginia, upon the terms of the act-and answered in the affirmative.

At this important, and eventful crisis, the second act, requiring another convention, was received by the president, in a letter from a member of the legislature.

It is not easy to describe the discomfiture and chagrin attending this communication. Those, who, the moment before felt themselves big with the future destinies of the country, discovered in an instant, that the vote they had just given, was without authority; that they were private individuals; and that the next step taken by them as a convention, would be an act of usurpation.

Such, however, was their sense of moral and legal obligation, that they immediately desisted; and soon after, returned peaceably, if not contentedly, home, to contemplate con

sequences.

Those among the leaders, who were extremely sanguine in their expectations of office, and emolument, under the new order of things, murmured at the recent disappointment; and endeavoured to throw an odium on the legislature for an act, rendered necessary by occurrences in Kentucky, over which it had no control; and for which it had given no order, or authority: the expeditions of 1786; the consequent failure of the convention of September to act under the first law; and finally, the application of a committee, of that convention, to alter the law, which prescribed the terms of separation. These were causes, or considerations, which induced the conduct of the legislature; which in reason, should have been expected; but which in passion, was reprobated and condemned.

Mr. Marshall, to whom the memorial of the committee had been transmitted, as has been mentioned, and who had attended to it before the legislature, by letter, stated the reasons, which influenced the general assembly, in passing the new law;which in substance were:

1st. That the original law, requiring a decision on the subject of separation, in time, if adopted, for congress to determine on the admission of Kentucky into the union before the first day of June, 1787, could pot, in consequence of delay, be executed.

2d. That the twelve months' existence allowed to the con vention, for other purposes, might in the divided state of public opinion, involve difficulties-especially as there did not appear to be in the minority, a disposition to submit to the will of the majority.

3d. That the proceedings of the convention, would be sub-. ject to objections in consequence of defects in the law.

4th. That the most safe, accommodating, and unexceptionable, course, would be, to pass a new law, in which the defects of the former act might be corrected; and to call another convention, to the decisions of which, even the disappointed, could make no reasonable objection.

The result of this reasoning is to be found in a summary of the act, as follows:

The preamble assigns as reasons for the act, the failure of the convention to meet, and the impracticability 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 on 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; with the powers, and for the purposes, to be further mentioned in the act.

The members were to continue in appointment for one year. And the officers were charged to notify the people, and to conduct the elections, as had been prescribed in the first act.

Five members assembled to have power to adjourn from day to day, and to issue writs, for elections, if necessary to fill vacancies.

A majority of the whole, might choose president and other officers, settle the rules of proceedings, and authorize a call of the convention, during a recess. Two-thirds of the whole, were required to decide in favour of a separation, in order to make it valid.

The 4th of July, 1787, was fixed as the limit within which congress was to express her assent to the admission of the proposed state into the confederation.

And to the end that no period of anarchy should take place, the convention was required to take measures for the election, and meeting of a convention, to form the constitution, and to declare what laws should be continued in force, until altered or abolished by the new state. Taking care that all this should be done prior to the day determined on, for the separation. Which was limited to the permanent terms, expressed in the first law; but different as to time.

The material change effected by the incidents now detailed, was to postpone the separation for one year. By the act first passed, the separation could not take place before the 1st day of September, 1787;-by the second act it was not to take place prior to the 1st day of January, 1789. But then, it was necessarily postponed to the assent of congress,—and the formation of the constitution, as before stated.

There is one proviso in the act, which should not be omitted. If two-thirds of the members of the convention, did not assemble within the first fifteen days, any number, in which a majority of the whole concurred in the vote, was competent to decide, in favour of separation. (See Appendix, B.)

It is true, that this law replaced the separatists at the starting pole, again to run the race of popular opinion, and to encounter the incidents of delay. But time brought to their aid new circumstances, and events, convertible to their purposes; and well calculated under their management, to subdue existing objections to the proposed separation.

By some, these occurrences were seized with avidity, to rouse, inflame, and disaffect, the minds of the people, not only in relation to Virginia; but also to the eastern states---and even, as to congress, and the confederation.

The Indian war, now found a most powerful auxiliary, in the navigation of the Mississippi, for carrying on this new.