Frontier in American History — III - The Old West - Part 7

VI.

Perhaps the most noteworthy Western activity in the Revolutionary era, aside from the aspects already mentioned, was in the part which the multitude of sects in the Old West played in securing the great contribution which the United States made to civilization by providing for complete religious liberty, a secular state with free churches.

Particularly the Revolutionary constitutions of Pennsylvania and Virginia, under the influence of the back country, insured religious freedom.

The effects of the North Carolina upland area to secure a similar result were noteworthy, though for the time ineffective.

[121:1] VII.

As population increased in these years, the coast gradually yielded to the up-country's demands.

This may be illustrated by the transfer of the capitals from the lowlands to the fall line and Valley.

In 1779, Virginia changed her seat of government from Williamsburg to Richmond;

in 1790, South Carolina, from Charleston to Columbia; in 1791, North Carolina, from Edenton to Raleigh; in 1797, New York, from New York City to Albany; in 1799, Pennsylvania, from Philadelphia to Lancaster.

VIII.

The democratic aspect of the new constitutions was also influenced by the frontier as well as by the prevalent Revolutionary philosophy;

and the demands for paper money, stay and tender laws, etc. , of this period were strongest in the interior.

It was this region that supported Shays' Rebellion; it was (with some important exceptions) the same area that resisted the ratification of the federal constitution, fearful of a stronger government and of the loss of paper money.

IX.

The interior later showed its opposition to the coast by the persistent contest against slavery, carried on in the up-country of Virginia, and North and South Carolina.

Until the decade 1830-40, it was not certain that both Virginia and North Carolina would not find some means of gradual abolition.

The same influence accounts for much of the exodus of the Piedmont pioneers into Indiana and Illinois, in the first half of the nineteenth century.

[122:1] X.

These were the regions, also, in which were developed the desire of the pioneers who crossed the mountains, and settled on the "Western waters," to establish new States free from control by the lowlands, owning their own lands, able to determine their own currency, and in general to govern themselves in accordance with the ideals of the Old West.

They were ready also, if need be, to become independent of the Old Thirteen.

Vermont must be considered in this aspect, as well as Kentucky and Tennessee.

[122:2] XI.

The land system of the Old West furnished precedents which developed into the land system of the trans-Alleghany West.

[122:3] The squatters of Pennsylvania and the Carolinas found it easy to repeat the operation on another frontier.

Preemption laws became established features.

The Revolution gave opportunity to confiscate the claims of Lord Fairfax, Lord Granville, and McCulloh to their vast estates, as well as the remaining lands of the Pennsylvania proprietors.

The 640 acre (or one square mile) unit of North Carolina for preemptions, and frontier land bounties, became the area awarded to frontier stations by Virginia in 1779, and the "section" of the later federal land system.

The Virginia preemption right of four hundred acres on the Western waters, or a thousand for those who came prior to 1778, was, in substance, the continuation of a system familiar in the Old West.

The grants to Beverley, of over a hundred thousand acres in the Valley, conditioned on seating a family for every thousand acres, and the similar grants to Borden, Carter, and Lewis, were followed by the great grant to the Ohio Company.

This company, including leading Virginia planters and some frontiersmen, asked in 1749 for two hundred thousand acres on the upper Ohio, conditioned on seating a hundred families in seven years, and for an additional grant of three hundred thousand acres after this should be accomplished.

It was proposed to settle Germans on these lands.

The Loyal Land Company, by order of the Virginia council (1749), was authorized to take up eight hundred thousand acres west and north of the southern boundary of Virginia, on condition of purchasing "rights" for the amount within four years.

The company sold many tracts for L3 per hundred acres to settlers, but finally lost its claim.

The Mississippi Company, including in its membership the Lees, Washingtons, and other great Virginia planters, applied for two and one-half million acres in the West in 1769. Similar land companies of New England origin, like the Susquehanna Company and Lyman's Mississippi Company, exhibit the same tendency of the Old West on the northern side.

New England's Ohio Company of Associates, which settled Marietta, had striking resemblances to town proprietors.

These were only the most noteworthy of many companies of this period, and it is evident that they were a natural outgrowth of speculations in the Old West.

Washington, securing military bounty land claims of soldiers of the French and Indian War, and selecting lands in West Virginia until he controlled over seventy thousand acres for speculation, is an excellent illustration of the tendency.

He also thought of colonizing German Palatines upon his lands.

The formation of the Transylvania and Vandalia companies were natural developments on a still vaster scale.

[124:1] XII.

The final phase of the Old West, which I wish merely to mention, in conclusion, is its colonization of areas beyond the mountains.

The essential unity of the movement is brought out by a study of how New England's Old West settled northern Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, the Adirondacks, central and Western New York, the Wyoming Valley (once organized as a part of Litchfield, Connecticut), the Ohio Company's region about Marietta, and Connecticut's Western Reserve on the shores of Lake Erie; and how the pioneers of the Great Valley and the Piedmont region of the South crossed the Alleghanies and settled on the Western Waters.

Daniel Boone, going from his Pennsylvania home to the Yadkin, and from the Yadkin to Tennessee and Kentucky, took part in the whole process, and later in its continuation into Missouri.

[124:2] The social conditions and ideals of the Old West powerfully shaped those of the trans-Alleghany West.

The important contrast between the spirit of individual colonization, resentful of control, which the Southern frontiersmen showed, and the spirit of community colonization and control to which the New England pioneers inclined, left deep traces on the later history of the West.

[125:1] The Old West diminished the importance of the town as a colonizing unit, even in New England.

In the Southern area, efforts to legislate towns into existence, as in Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, failed.

They faded away before wilderness conditions.

But in general, the Northern stream of migration was communal, and the Southern individual.

The difference which existed between that portion of the Old West which was formed by the northward colonization, chiefly of the New England Plateau (including New York), and that portion formed by the southward colonization of the Virginia Valley and the Southern Piedmont was reflected in the history of the Middle West and the Mississippi Valley.

[125:2] FOOTNOTES:

[67:1] _Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1908. _ Reprinted with the permission of the Society.

[68:1] For the settled area in 1660, see the map by Lois Mathews in Channing, "United Stales" (N. Y.

, 1905), i, p. 510; and by Albert Cook Myers in Avery, "United States" (Cleveland, 1905), ii, following p. 398. In Channing, ii, following p. 603, is Marion F. Lansing's map of settlement in 1760, which is on a rather conservative basis, especially the part showing the interior of the Carolinas.

Contemporaneous maps of the middle of the eighteenth century, useful in studying the progress of settlement, are: Mitchell, "Map of the British Colonies" (1755); Evans, "Middle British Colonies" (1758); Jefferson and Frye, "Map of Virginia" (1751 and 1755).

On the geographical conditions, see maps and text in Powell, "Physiographic Regions" (N. Y.

, 1896), and Willis, "Northern Appalachians," in "Physiography of the United States" (N. Y.

, 1896), pp. 73-82, 169-176, 196-201. [70:1] See Osgood, "American Colonies" (N. Y.

, 1907), iii, chap.

iii.

[70:2] See chapter ii, _ante_.

[70:3] Sheldon, "Deerfield" (Deerfield, Mass.

, 1895), i, p. 288. [70:4] Parkman, "Frontenac" (Boston, 1898), p. 390; compare his description of Deerfield in 1704, in "Half Century of Conflict" (Boston, 1898), i, p. 55. [72:1] Hanna, "Scotch Irish" (N. Y.

and London, 1902), ii, pp. 17-24. [72:2] "Half Century of Conflict," ii, pp. 214-234. [72:3] "American Husbandry" (London, 1775), i, p. 47. [73:1] For the extent of New England settlements in 1760, compared with 1700, see the map in Channing, "United States," ii, at end of volume.

[74:1] Schafer, "Land Grants for Education," Univ.

of Wis.

_Bulletin_ (Madison, 1902), chap.

iv.

[75:1] On New England's land system see Osgood, "American Colonies" (N. Y.

, 1904), i, chap.

xi; and Egleston, "Land System of the New England Colonies," Johns Hopkins Univ.

_Studies_ (Baltimore, 1886), iv.

Compare the account of Virginia, about 1696, in "Mass.

Hist.

Colls."

(Boston, 1835), 1st series, v, p. 129, for a favorable view of the New England town system; and note the probable influence of New England's system upon Virginia's legislation about 1700. See chapter ii, _ante_.

[76:1] Amelia C. Ford, "Colonial Precedents of our National Land System," citing Massachusetts Bay, House of Rep. "Journal," 1715, pp. 5, 22, 46; Hutchinson, "History of Massachusetts Bay" (London, 1768), ii, p. 331; Holland, "Western Massachusetts" (Springfield, 1855), pp. 66, 169. [76:2] "Conn.

Colon.

Records" (Hartford, 1874), viii, p. 134. [77:1] Holland, "Western Massachusetts," p. 197. See the comments of Hutchinson in his "History of Massachusetts Bay," ii, pp. 331, 332. Compare the steps of Connecticut men in 1753 and 1755 to secure a land grant in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, for the Susquehanna Company, and the Connecticut governor's remark that there was no unappropriated land in the latter colony--"Pa.

Colon.

Records" (Harrisburg, 1851), v, p. 771; "Pa.

Archives," 2d series, xviii, contains the important documents, with much valuable information on the land system of the Wyoming Valley region.

See also General Lyman's projects for a Mississippi colony in the Yazoo delta area--all indicative of the pressure for land and the speculative spirit.

[78:1] Compare Vermont's dealings with the British, and the negotiations of Kentucky and Tennessee leaders with Spaniards and British.

See _Amer.

Hist.

Review_, i, p. 252, note 2, for references on Vermont's Revolutionary philosophy and influence.

[79:1] See H. C.

Emery, "Artemas Jean Haynes" (New Haven, 1908), pp. 8-10. [80:1] Ballagh, in Amer.

Hist.

Assoc.

"Report," 1897, p. 110. [80:2] "N.

Y.

Colon.

Docs," vii, pp. 654, 795. [81:1] Becker, in _Amer.

Hist.

Review_, vi, p. 261. [81:2] Becker, _loc.

cit.

_ For maps of grants in New York, see O'Callaghan, "Doc.

Hist.

of N. Y."

(Albany, 1850), i, pp. 421, 774;

especially Southier, "Chorographical Map of New York"; Winsor, "America," v, p. 236. In general on these grants, consult also "Doc.

Hist.

of N. Y.

," i, pp. 249-257; "N.

Y.

Colon.

Docs.

," iv, pp. 397, 791, 874; v, pp. 459, 651, 805; vi, pp. 486, 549, 743, 876, 950; Kip, "Olden Time" (N. Y.

, 1872), p. 12; Scharf, "History of Westchester County" (Phila.

, 1886), i, p. 91; Libby, "Distribution of Vote on Ratification of Constitution" (Madison, 1894), pp. 21-25. For the region of the Wallkill, including New Paltz, etc. , see Eager, "Outline History of Orange County, New York" (Newburgh, 1846-47); and Ruttenber and Clark, "History of Orange County" (Phila.

, 1881), pp. 11-20. On Cherry Valley and upper Susquehanna settlements, in general, in New York, see Halsey, "Old New York Frontier," pp. 5, 119, and the maps by De Witt and Southier in O'Callaghan, "Doc.

Hist.

of N. Y.

," i, pp. 421, 774. Note the French Huguenots and Scotch-Irish in Orange County, and the Scotch-Irish settlers of Cherry Valley and their relation to Londonderry, N. H.

, as well as the missionary visits from Stockbridge, Mass.

, to the upper Susquehanna.

[82:1] Lord, "Industrial Experiments" (Baltimore, 1898), p. 45;

Diffenderfer, "German Exodus" (Lancaster, Pa.

, 1897).

[82:2] See _post_.

[84:1] Hening, "Va.

Statutes at Large" (N. Y.

, 1823), ii, p. 326. [84:2] _Ibid.

_, p. 433. [84:3] Bassett, "Writings of William Byrd" (N. Y.

, 1901), p. xxi.

[85:1] Hening, iii, p. 82. Similar acts were passed almost annually in successive years of the seventeenth century; cf.

_loc.

cit.

_, _pp.

_ 98, 115, 119, 126, 164; the system was discontinued in 1722--see Beverley, "Virginia and its Government" (London, 1722), p. 234. It is interesting to compare the recommendation of Governor Dodge for Wisconsin Territory in 1836--see Wis.

Terr.

House of Reps.

"Journal," 1836, pp. 11 _et seq.

_ [85:2] Hening, iii, pp. 204-209. [87:1] Compare the law of 1779 in "Va.

Revised Code" (1819), ii, p. 357;

Ranck's "Boonesborough" (Louisville, 1901).

[87:2] Bassett, "Writings of Byrd," p. xii; "Calendar of British State Papers, Am.

and W. I.

," 1677-80 (London, 1896), p. 168. [87:3] Bassett, _loc.

cit.

_, p. x, and Hening, iii, p. 304 (1705).

[87:4] [See Alvord and Bidgood, "First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region."

] [87:5] Bassett, "Writings of Byrd," pp. xvii, xviii, quotes Byrd's description of the trail; Logan, "Upper South Carolina" (Columbia, 1859), i, p. 167; Adair describes the trade somewhat later; cf.

Bartram, "Travels" (London, 1792), _passim_, and Monette, "Mississippi Valley" (N.

Y.

, 1846), ii, p. 13. [88:1] Bruce, "Economic Hist.

of Va."

(N.

Y.

, 1896), i, pp. 473, 475, 477. [88:2] See descriptions of cow-pens in Logan, "History of Upper S. C.

," i, p. 151; Bartram, "Travels," p. 308. On cattle raising generally in the Piedmont, see: Gregg, "Old Cheraws" (N. Y.

, 1867), pp. 68, 108-110;

Salley, "Orangeburg" (Orangeburg, 1898), pp. 219-221; Lawson, "New Voyage to Carolina" (Raleigh, 1860), p. 135; Ramsay, "South Carolina" (Charleston, 1809), i, p. 207; J.

F.

D.

Smyth, "Tour" (London, 1784), i, p. 143, ii, pp. 78, 97; Foote, "Sketches of N. C."

(N.

Y.

, 1846), p. 77;

"N. C.

Colon.

Records" (Raleigh, 1887), v, pp. xli, 1193, 1223;

"American Husbandry" (London, 1775), i, pp. 336, 350, 384; Hening, v. pp. 176, 245. [88:3] Spotswood, "Letters" (Richmond, 1882), i, p. 167; compare _Va.

Magazine_, iii, pp. 120, 189. [89:1] "N.

C.

Colon.

Records," v, p. xli.

[89:2] Lawson, "Carolina" (Raleigh, 1860), gives a description early in the eighteenth century; his map is reproduced in Avery, "United States" (Cleveland, 1907), iii, p. 224. [89:3] The advantages and disadvantages of the Piedmont region of the Carolinas in the middle of the eighteenth century are illustrated in Spangenburg's diary, in "N. C.

Colon.

Records," v, pp. 6, 7, 13, 14. Compare "American Husbandry," i, pp. 220, 332, 357, 388. [90:1] Spotswood, "Letters," i, p. 40. [90:2] On Germanna see Spotswood, "Letters" (index); Fontaine's journal in A. Maury, "Huguenot Family" (1853), p. 268; Jones, "Present State of Virginia" (N. Y.

, 1865), p. 59; Bassett, "Writings of Byrd," p. 356;

_Va.

Magazine_, xiii, pp. 362, 365; vi, p. 385; xii, pp. 342, 350; xiv, p. 136. Spotswood's interest in the Indian trade on the southern frontier of Virginia is illustrated in his fort Christanna, on which the above references afford information.

The contemporaneous account of Spotswood's expedition into Shenandoah Valley is Fontaine's journey, cited above.

[91:1] See the excellent paper by C. E.

Kemper, in _Va.

Magazine_, xii, on "Early Westward Movement in Virginia."

[91:2] Compare Phillips, "Origin and Growth of the Southern Black Belts," in _Amer.

Hist.

Review_, xi, p. 799. [91:3] _Va.

Magazine_, xiii, p. 113. [92:1] "Revised Code of Virginia" (Richmond, 1819), ii, p. 339. [92:2] _Mag.

Amer.

Hist.

_, xiii, pp. 217, 230; Winsor, "Narr.

and Crit.

Hist.

of America," v, p. 268; Kercheval, "The Valley" (Winchester, Va.

, 1833), pp. 67, 209; _Va.

Magazine_, xiii, p. 115. [93:1] "William and Mary College Quarterly" (Williamsburg, 1895), iii, p. 226. See Jefferson and Frye, "Map of Virginia, 1751," for location of this and Borden's manor.

[93:2] Brown, "The Cabells" (Boston, 1895), p. 53. [93:3] _Loc.

cit.

_, pp. 57, 66. [94:1] Meade, "Old Churches" (Phila.

, 1861), 2 vols.

; Foote, "Sketches" (Phila.

, 1855); Brown, "The Cabells," p. 68. [94:2] _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. xci, pp. 83 _et seq.

_; Ford, "Writing of Thomas Jefferson" (N. Y.

, 1892), i, pp. xix _et seq.

_ [94:3] Byrd, "Dividing Line" (Richmond, 1866), pp. 85, 271. [95:1] "N.

C.

Colon.

Records," iii, p. xiii.

Compare Hawks, "Hist.

of North Carolina" (Fayetteville, 1859), map of precincts, 1663-1729. [95:2] Raper, "North Carolina" (N. Y.

, 1904), chap.

v; W. R.

Smith, "South Carolina" (N. Y.

, 1903), pp. 48, 57. [95:3] Clewell, "Wachovia" (N. Y.

, 1902).

[96:1] Ballagh, in Amer.

Hist.

Assoc.

"Report," 1897, pp. 120, 121, citing Bassett, in "Law Quarterly Review," April, 1895, pp. 159-161. [96:2] See map in Hawks, "North Carolina."

[96:3] McCrady, "South Carolina," 1719-1776 (N. Y.

, 1899), pp. 149, 151;

Smith, "South Carolina," p. 40; Ballagh, in Amer.

Hist.

Assoc.

"Report," 1897, pp. 117-119; Brevard, "Digest of S. C.

Laws" (Charleston, 1857), i, p. xi.

[96:4] McCrady, "South Carolina," pp. 121 _et seq.

_; Phillips, "Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt" (N. Y.

, 1908), p. 51. [96:5] This was not originally provided for among the eleven towns.

For its history see Salley, "Orangeburg"--frontier conditions about 1769 are described on pp. 219 _et seq.

_; see map opposite p. 9. [97:1] Gregg, "Old Cheraws," p. 44. [97:2] Ballagh, _loc.

cit.

_, pp. 119, 120. [98:1] Compare the description of Georgia frontier traders, cattle raisers, and land speculators, about 1773, in Bartram, "Travels," pp. 18, 36, 308. [99:1] See Willis, "Northern Appalachians," in "Physiography of the U. S."

in National Geog.

Soc.

"Monographs" (N. Y.

, 1895), no. 6. [100:1] Diffenderfer, "German Immigration into Pennsylvania," in Pa.

German Soc.

"Proc.

," v, p. 10; "Redemptioners" (Lancaster, Pa.

, 1900).

[100:2] A.

B.

Faust, "German Element in the United States."

[100:3] See the bibliographies in Kuhns, "German and Swiss Settlements of Pennsylvania" (N. Y.

, 1901); Wayland, "German Element of the Shenandoah Valley" (N. Y.

, 1908); Channing, "United States," ii, p. 421;

Griffin, "List of Works Relating to the Germans in the U. S."

(Library of Congress, Wash.

, 1904).

[100:4] See in illustration, the letter in Myers, "Irish Quakers" (Swarthmore, Pa.

, 1902), p. 70. [101:1] Shepherd, "Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania" (N. Y.

, 1896), p. 34. [101:2] Gordon, "Pennsylvania" (Phila.

, 1829), p. 225. [101:3] Shepherd, _loc.

cit.

_, pp. 49-51. [101:4] Ballagh, Amer.

Hist.

Assoc.

"Report," 1897, pp. 112, 113. Compare Smith, "St. Clair Papers" (Cincinnati, 1882), ii, p. 101. [101:5] Shepherd, _loc.

cit.

_, p. 50. [101:6] Mereness, "Maryland" (N. Y.

, 1901), p. 77. [102:1] "Calendar Va.

State Papers" (Richmond, 1875), i, p. 217; on these grants see Kemper, "Early Westward Movement in Virginia" in _Va.

Mag.

_, xii and xiii; Wayland, "German Element of the Shenandoah Valley," _William and Mary College Quarterly_, iii.

The speculators, both planters and new-comers, soon made application for lands beyond the Alleghanies.

[102:2] In 1794 the Virginia House of Delegates resolved to publish the most important laws of the state in German.

[102:3] See Bernheim, "German Settlements in the Carolinas" (Phila.

, 1872); Clewell, "Wachovia"; Allen, "German Palatines in N. C."

(Raleigh, 1905).

[102:4] See Wayland, _loc.

cit.

_, bibliography, for references; and especially _Va.

Mag.

_, xi, pp. 113, 225, 370; xii, pp. 55, 134, 271;

"German American Annals," N. S.

iii, pp. 342, 369; iv, p. 16; Clewell, "Wachovia; N. C.

Colon.

Records," v, pp. 1-14. [103:1] On the Scotch-Irish, see the bibliography in Green, "Scotch-Irish in America," Amer.

Antiquarian Soc.

"Proceedings," April, 1895; Hanna, "Scotch-Irish" (N. Y.

, 1902), is a comprehensive presentation of the subject; see also Myers, "Irish Quakers."

[103:2] Fiske, "Old Virginia" (Boston, 1897), ii, p. 394. Compare Linehan, "The Irish Scots and the Scotch-Irish" (Concord, N. H.

, 1902).

[103:3] See MacLean, "Scotch Highlanders in America" (Cleveland, 1900).

[103:4] Hanna, "Scotch-Irish," ii, pp. 17-24. [104:1] Halsey, "Old New York Frontier" (N. Y.

, 1901).

[104:2] MacLean, pp. 196-230. [104:3] The words of Logan, Penn's agent, in 1724, in Hanna, ii, pp. 60, 63. [104:4] Winsor, "Mississippi Basin" (Boston, 1895), pp. 238-243. [105:1] See Thwaites, "Early Western Travels" (Cleveland, 1904-06), i;

Walton, "Conrad Weiser" (Phila.

, 1900); Heckewelder, "Narrative" (Phila.

, 1820).

[105:2] Christian, "Scotch-Irish Settlers in the Valley of Virginia" (Richmond, 1860).

[105:3] Roosevelt gives an interesting picture of this society in his "Winning of the West" (N. Y.

, 1889-96), i, chap.

v; see also his citations, especially Doddridge, "Settlements and Indian Wars" (Wellsburgh, W. Va.

, 1824).

[106:1] Bassett, in Amer.

Hist.

Assoc.

"Report," 1894, p. 145. [106:2] "N.

C.

Colon.

Records," v, pp. xxxix, xl; _cf.

_ p. xxi.

[106:3] _Loc.