Kentucky

The first permanent English settlement was set up at Har rodsburg in 1774 by James Harrod, and in October of the same year the Ohio Indians, having been defeated by Virginia troops in the battle of Point Pleasant (in what is now West Virginia), signed a treaty by which they surrendered their claims south of the Ohio river. In March 1775 Richard Henderson and some North Caro lina land speculators met about 1,200 Cherokee Indians in council on the Watauga river and concluded a treaty with them for the purchase of all the territory south of the Ohio river and between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers. The purchase was named Transylvania. Within less than a month after the treaty was signed, Boone, under the auspices of the land company, founded a settlement at Boonesborough which became the headquarters of the colony. The title was declared void by the Virginia Govern ment in 1778, Henderson and his associates receiving 20o,000ac. in compensation, and all sales made to actual settlers were con firmed.

American Revolution.

During the American Revolution the colonists were neglected by Virginia, and had to defend them selves against the Indians, who were often under British leader ship. Boonesborough was attacked in April and July 1777 and Aug. 1778. Bryan's Station, near Lexington, was besieged in Aug. 1782 by about boo Indians under the notorious Simon Girty, who after raising the siege drew the defenders, numbering fewer than 200, into an ambush. In the battle of Blue Licks which ensued, the Kentuckians lost about 6o killed and seven prisoners. Kentucky county, practically conterminous with the present commonwealth of Kentucky, and embracing all the territory claimed by Virginia south of the Ohio river and west of Big Sandy creek and the ridge of the Cumberland mountains, was one of three counties which were formed out of Fincastle county in 1776. Four years later, this in turn was divided into three counties, Jefferson, Lin coln and Fayette, but the name Kentucky was revived in 1783 and was given to the judicial district which was then organized for these three counties. The American Revolution was followed by an extensive emigration from Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina, which made its way either by the Ohio river from Fort Pitt or—the far greater number—by the Cumberland Gap and the "Wilderness Road," as marked by Daniel Boone in 1775. At least 95% of this population, excluding negro slaves, were of pure Eng lish, Scotch or Scotch-Irish descent. The manners, customs and institutions of Virginia were transplanted beyond the mountains.

There was the same political rivalry between the slave-holding farmers of the Blue Grass region and the "poor whites" of the mountain districts that there was in Virginia between the tide water planters and the mountaineers. Between these extremes were the small farmers of the "Barrens" or burned-over lands in Kentucky and of the Piedmont region in Virginia. The aristocratic influences in both States have always been on the Southern and Democratic side ; but while they were strong enough in Virginia to lead the State into secession, they were unable to do so in Kentucky.

At the close of the American Revolution the Kentuckians com plained because the mother State did not protect them against their enemies and did not give them an adequate system of local government. Nine conventions were held at Danville from to I790 to demand separation from Virginia. The Virginia authori ties expressed a willingness to grant the demand provided Congress would admit the new district into the Union as a State. The delay, together with the proposal of John Jay, the secretary for foreign affairs and commissioner, to negotiate a commercial treaty with the Spanish envoy, to surrender navigation rights on the lower Missis sippi for 25 years in order to remove the one obstacle to the nego tiations, aroused so much feeling that Gen. James Wilkinson and a few other leaders began to intrigue, not only for a separation from Virginia, but also from the United States, and for the forma tion of a close alliance with the Spanish at New Orleans. Although most of the settlers were too loyal to be led into such a plot, they generally agreed that it might have a good effect by bringing pressure to bear upon the Federal Government. Congress passed a preliminary act in Feb. 1791, and the State was formally admit ted into the Union on June 1,1792. In the act of 2776 for dividing Fincastle county, Virginia, the ridge of the Cumberland moun tains was named as a part of the east boundary of Kentucky ; and now that this ridge had become a part of the boundary between the States of Virginia and Kentucky they, in 1799, appointed a joint commission to run the boundary line on this ridge. A dispute with Tennessee over the southern boundary was settled in a simi lar manner in 182o. The constitution of 1792 provided for full manhood suffrage first in the nation, and for the election of the governor and of senators by an electoral college. Gen. Isaac Shelby was the first governor.