ment for statehood was considered too serious a procedure to allow a powerful minority to remain in opposition.

This desire for unanimity is strikingly shown in the method that was now used to secure it. Efforts were made by this convention to set up a newspaper in the state, which resulted two years later in the establishment of the Kentucky Gazette, the second newspaper west of the Alleghanies. The convention resolved "That to assure unanimity in the opinion of the people respecting the propriety of separating the district of Kentucky from Virginia and forming a separate state government, and to give publicity to the proceedings of the convention, it is deemed essential to the interests of the country to have a printing-press.'

The address to Virginia, which the convention left over for the action of the following convention and which was never presented to the authorities at Richmond, showed great consideration and good will toward the mother state. It recited the perplexing difficulties the District was laboring under due to no fault of Virginia, and expressed the belief that separation would be gladly granted when it was understood that only in such course could the happiness and best interests of the District be secured. The Kentuckians wanted authority to call a convention to frame a constitution; they promised to continue the laws of Virginia in force until superseded by Kentucky laws; the English common law should prevail; and they would assume their rightful share of the Virginia public debt, the amount to be determined by commissioners which they would appoint. "Finally, we hope and expect that our representatives will cheerfully grant a request justified by the principles of our government as well as by the necessities of our condition, and that by an act of separation we shall be placed in the situation best adopted for attaining the advantages of a free and well regulated government; and that we shall likewise be recommended to Congress to be taken into union with. the United States of America, to enjoy equal privileges in common with them."7

The address to the people represented the most effective part of the convention's work. It was fully in line with that body's attitude toward educating the people as far toward the point of unanimity as possible. With its Declaration of Independence ring, it was an exceptionally clever piece of propaganda, reminding the thoughtless and the forgetful and intensifying the alert on their ever-present perplexities. As it also gives an interesting insight into general conditions in the District, it is presented here in full:

"Friends and Fellow Citizens: We, your representatives, met in corvention in consequence of your appointment, beg leave to address you on a subject which we consider of the last importance to you, to ourselves, and to unborn posterity.

"In every case when it becomes necessary for one part of the community to separate from the other; duty to Almighty God and a decent respect for the opinion of mankind require that the causes which impel them thereto should be clearly and impartially set forth.

"We hold it as a self evident truth that the government is ordered for the ease and protection of the governed: and whatever ends are not attained, by one form of government, it is the right, it is the duty, of the people to seek such other mode, as will be likely to insure to themselves and to their posterity those blessings to which, by nature, they are entitled. "In the course of our enquiries, we find that several laws have passed the Legislature of Virginia, which, although of a general nature, yet in 6 W. H. Perrin, "The First Newspaper West of the Alleghanies," in Magacine of American History, 1887, pp. 121-127.

7 Brown, Political Beginnings of Kentucky, 66, 67.

their operation are particularly oppressive to the people of this district; and we also find that, from our local situation, we are deprived of many benefits of government which every citizen therein has a right to expect; as a few facts will sufficiently demonstrate.

"1. We have no power to call out the militia, our sure and only defence, to oppose the wicked machinations of the savages, unless in case of actual invasion.

"2. We have no executive power in the District, either to enforce the execution of laws, or to grant pardons to objects of mercy; because such a power would be inconsistent with the policy of the government, and contrary to the present constitution.

"3. We are ignorant of the laws that are passed until a long time after they are enacted, and in many instances until they have expired: by means whereof penalties may be inflicted for offences never designed, and delinquents escape the punishment due to their crimes.

"4. We are subjected to prosecute suits in the High Courts of Appeals at Richmond, under every disadvantage for the want of evidence, want of friends, and want of money.

"5. Our money must necessarily be drawn from us, not only for the support of the civil government, but by individuals who are frequently under the necessity of attending on the same.

"6. Nor is it possible for the inhabitants of this District, at so remote a distance from the seat of government, ever to derive equal benefits with citizens in the Eastern parts of the State, and this inconvenience must increase as our country becomes more populous.

"7. Our commercial interest can never correspond with or be regulated by theirs, and in case of any invasion, the State of Virginia can afford us no adequate protection, in comparison with the advantages we might (if a separate State) derive from the Federal Union.

"On maturely considering truths of such great importance to every inhabitant of the District, with a firm persuasion that we are consulting. the general good of our infant country, we have unanimously resolved, That it is expedient and necessary for this District to be separated from Virginia and established into a sovereign, independent State, to be known by the name of 'Commonwealth of Kentucky,' and taken into union with the United States of America.

"In order to effect this purpose we have agreed on a petition to be presented to the Legislature of Virginia at their next session, praying that a separation may take place; in which petition are fully set forth such terms as we thought beneficial to our infant country, and not inconsistent for Virginia to grant.

"It is generally admitted that this District ought, at some period not far distant, to be separated from the government of Virginia.

"The only question then, is, whether we are now, of sufficient ability, either to fill the different offices of government, or provide for its support. In answer to the first part of this objection, examples have taught us, that sound principles and plain sense suffice for every laudable purpose of government; and we generally find that the liberty of the subject and the laws of the land, are in the highest reverence, at the foundation and rise of States, before the morals of the people have been vitiated by wealth and licentiousness and their understandings entangled in visionary refinements and chimerical distinctions: and as to the latter part, we have now in our power several valuable funds, which, if by procrastination. we suffer to be exausted, we shall be stripped of every resource but internal taxation, and that under every disadvantage: and therefore we do not hesitate to pronounce it as our opinion, that the present is preferable to any future period.

"By an act of the last session of the Assembly, we find that the rev

enue law is fully and immediately to be enforced within the District, so that we shall not only pay very considerable part of the tax for supporting the civil government of the State, but also be obliged to support our supreme court, and every other office we need in the District, at our own charge; and we are of the opinion, that the additional expense of the salaries to a governor, council, treasurer, and delegates to Congress, will, for a number of years, be more than saved out of the funds before alluded to, without any additional tax to the people."

There was no printing press within reach to publish this address, but many pens busily copied it for distribution among the leaders of the different communities and for posting at the county courthouses. For the third time the people were now engaged in registering their will for separation in the election of the thirty delegates who were to compose the next convention. This process was becoming monotonous and wearisome, and the voters now held out the reasonable hope that this would be the final assembly in the movement for statehood.

On August 8, 1785, the third convention met in Danville and immediately took into consideration the business transmitted to them by the former convention. Among the new members who appeared was James. Wilkinson, a man who had established well-known reputation during the Revolution and who the year before had come to Kentucky to recoup his finances and to fish in the troubled waters. He was a man "of fine address, of great talent, and of untiring industry" who could wield a pen with a florid and picturesque style.9

He was now in a fruitful field for his talents and temperament, and soon began to exert an increasing influence. After a thorough discussion of its problems the convention embodied its conclusions in a series of resolutions embracing in general the same complaints that had appeared in the famous address to the people issued by the preceding convention. But there was a strain of growing impatience clearly indicated, which' could not have been produced through any fault of Virginia's, as no appeal for separation had yet been sent to her by any of the conventions. This increasing exasperation expressed here was effective propaganda for intensifying the people's desire for separation. The Virginia laws were declared to operate unequally in the two parts of the state on each side of the mountains, tending to the subversion of justice in Kentucky. With a ring of the early Colonial wrath against Great Britain, the resolutions attack a Virginia law imposing a tax on land as "equally subversive of justice as any of the statutes of the British Parliament that impelled the good people of America to arms." It continued:

"Whereas all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and inalienable rights; among which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety: Therefore,

8 Brown, Political Beginnings of Kentucky, 236-238; the full text is also found in William Littell, Political Transactions in and Concerning Kentucky, from the first Settlement thereof Until it Became an Independent State in June, 1792 [Frankfort, 1806], appendix, p, 2; Humphrey Marshall, The History of Kentucky [Edition 1824], I, 206; and in R. M. McElroy, Kentucky in the Nation's History New York, 1909], 122-125.

9 J. D. Monette, History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi [New York, 1848], II, 173; Proceedings of the American Historical Association, V, 357. Humphrey Marshall gave the following description of Wilkinson: "A person not quite tall enough to be perfectly elegant, compensated by its symmetry and appearance of health and strength. A countenance open, mild, capacious, and beaming with intelligence; a gait firm, manly, and facile; manner bland, accommodating, and popular, and address easy, polite, and gracious, invited approach, gave access, assured attention, cordiality and ease." Marshall, History of Kentucky [1824 Edition, I, 165.]

"Resolved, That it is the indispensable duty of this convention, as they regard the prosperity and happiness of their constituents, themselves and posterity, to make application to the General Assembly, at the ensuing session, for an act to separate this District from the present government forever, on terms honorable to both and injurious to neither; in order that it may enjoy all the advantages, privileges and immunities of a free, sovereign and independent republic." 10 These resolutions were unanimously adopted.

Having resolved for separation, the convention now turned its attention toward methods for carrying it out. The result was two new addresses: one for the people and one for Virginia. The latter set forth an exact mode of procedure, while the former was designed to keep the people lined up in support of this course by reminding them again. of their many ills. These addresses were undoubtedly the work of Wilkinson; as indeed were those of the preceding convention, if a similarity of style should be deemed conclusive. The danger of Indian invasions was now particularly agitating the popular mind and so the address to the people deals largely with the defenceless conditions of the country. A call to arms was sounded: "Let us rouse from our lethargy; let us arm, associate, and embody. Let us call upon our officers to do their duty, and determine to hold in detestation and abhorrence, and to treat as enemies to the community, every person who shall withhold his countenance and support of such measures as may be recommended for our common defence." A call was made on the militia officers to meet and determine on plans of defence. The convention assumes in this address certain powers that approach full governmental responsibility.11

The address to Virginia was not the same one which the second convention had drawn up and left over for the action of this assembly. This address was less conciliatory in language and more demanding in its implications. On this point it ran: "In this Address we have discarded the complimentary style of adulation & insincerity-it becomes Freemen when speaking to Freemen to imploy the plain, manly unadorned Language of Independence * * *" 12 It cleverly left the implication of the possibility of certain eventualities as disagreeable to Kentuckians as any other Americans, if action were not speedily obtained:

"The settlers of this distant region, taught by the arrangements of Providence and encouraged by the conditions of that solemn compact for which they paid the price of blood, to look forward to a separation from the Eastern part of the Commonwealth; have viewed the subject leisurely at a distance and examined it with caution on its near approach -irreconcilable as has been their situation to a connection with any community beyond the Appalachian Mountains, other than the Federal Union; manifold as have been their grievances flowing therefrom, which have grown with their growth and increased with their population; they have patiently waited the hour of redress, nor even ventured to raise their voices in their own cause until youth quickening into manhood hath given them vigor and stability.

"To recite minutely the causes and reasoning which have directed. and will justify this address, would, we conceive, be a matter of impropriety at this juncture. It would be preposterous for us to enter upon the support of facts and consequences which, we presume, are incontrovertible; our sequestered situation from the seat of government, with the intervention of a mountainous desert of 200 miles, always dangerous, and passable only at particular seasons, precludes every idea.

10 Brown, Political Beginnings of Kentucky, 69-73, 239, 240.

11 Brown, Political Beginnings of Kentucky, 242.

12 Robertson, Petitions of the Early Inhabitants of Kentucky, 82.