HENRY CLAY, Statesman and Abolitionist 184 ALBERT GALLATIN, Promoter of the Cumberland Road 190 GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, Appointed Governor of Ohio by Congress 205 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, Promoter of the Erie Canal 212 DE WITT CLINTON, Friend of the Erie Canal Project 230 MERIWETHER LEWIS, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 262 WILLIAM CLARK, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 274 JOHN JACOB ASTOR, Founder of Astoria 288 PRESIDENT JAMES K. POLK 344 CHAPTER I _The Part played in American History by the Pioneer's Axe.--Several Classes of Leaders in the Conquest of the Wilderness.--Patriotism even in those that were Self-seeking.--The Achievements of Cleaveland, Henderson, Putnam, Morris, and Astor, respectively.--Feebleness of the Republic in its Infancy.--Its need of Money.--The Pioneers were of all Races.--Other Leaders besides these Captains of Expansion accused of Self-seeking.--Washington as the Father of the West.--His great Acquisitions of Land.--His Influence on other Land-seekers.--Results of Richard Henderson's Advance into Kentucky.--Zeisberger's Attempt to form a Settlement of Christian Indians thwarted by the Revolution.--Rufus Putnam as a Soldier and a Pioneer.--As Leader of the Ohio Company of Associates, he makes a Settlement Northwest of the Ohio.--Three Avenues of Westward Migration: Henry Clay's Cumberland Road; the Erie Canal; the Baltimore and Ohio Railway.--These Avenues not laid between Cities, but into the Western Wilderness._ INTRODUCTORY: THE BROTHER OF THE SWORD [Illustration] THERE is some ground for the objection that is raised against allowing the history of America to remain a mere record of battles and campaigns. The sword had its part to play, a glorious part and picturesque, but the pioneer's axe chanted a truer tune than ever musket crooned or sabre sang. And with reference to the history of our Central West, for instance, it were a gross impartiality to remember the multicolored fascinating story of its preliminary conquest to the exclusion of the marvellous sequel--a great free people leaping into a wilderness and compelling it, in one short century, to blossom as the rose. To any one who seriously considers the magic awakening of that portion of the American Nation dwelling between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, there must sooner or later come the overpowering realization that the humble woodsman's broadaxe--that famous "Brother of the Sword"--has a story that is, after all, as fascinating and romantic as any story ever told. Lo, 'tis myself I sing, Feller of oak and ash! Brother am I to the Sword, Red-edged slayer of men! Side by side we have hewn Paths for the pioneer From sea to sun-smitten sea.