PREFACE. When this study was begun in the Seminary of American History and Institutions at Harvard University it was my intention to cover the ground occupied by this monograph in a very few pages, but as the work advanced it became apparent that so short a treatment of the early period would be quite inadequate. Gradually my introduction to the larger study on the establishment and admission of new states assumed this present form. In the following pages I have aimed to give a fair account of the early attempts to make new governmental establishments in the West, and to show the attitude of the British government toward such establishments. The available data in regard to British policy are not as full as could be desired, but I have tried to judge them fairly and they seem to me sufficient to warrant the conclusions drawn. That there were movements which led the way to the subsequent cutting up of the West into new states, has I think, been made clear. The materials upon which this paper is based were collected in the Harvard University library and in the library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. In the latter I found especially valuable the Draper Collection of MSS., to which, by the courtesy of Secretary Reuben G. Thwaites, I had free access. I desire to express obligations to Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, of Harvard University, by whose sugges tion and inspiration I began this study. Professor Victor Coffin, of the University of Wisconsin, and Professor Evarts B. Greene, of the University of Illinois, have given me helpful suggestions. But more than to all others are my thanks due to Professor Frederick J. Turner, the editor of this series, who, by his kindly criticism, helped me to bring this paper to its present form. GEORGE H. ALDEN. |