The year 1790 marks the end of an era--the heroic age of the pioneers of the Old Southwest. Following the acceptance of North Carolina's deed of cession of her Western lands to the Union (April 2, 1790) the Southwest Territory was erected on May 26th; and William Blount, a North Carolina gentleman of eminence and distinction, was appointed on June 8th to the post of governor of the territory. Two years later (June 1, 1792) Kentucky was admitted into the Union. It is a remarkable and inspiring circumstance, in testimony of the martial instincts and unwavering loyalty of the transmontane people, that the two men to whom the Western country in great measure owed its preservation, the inciting and flaming spirits of the King's Mountain campaign, were the unopposed first choice of the people as leaders in the trying experiment of Statehood--John Sevier of Tennessee and Isaac Shelby of Kentucky. Had Franklin possessed the patient will of Kentucky, she might well have preceded that region into the Union. It was not, however, until June 1, 1796, that Tennessee, after a romantic and arduous struggle, finally passed through the wide-flung portals into the domain of national statehood. LIST OF NOTES 1 Roosevelt's The Winning of the West, a stirring recital with chief stress thrown upon the militant characteristics of the frontiersmen, is open to grave criticism because of failure to give adequate account of social and economic tendencies, the development of democracy, and the evolution of government under the pressure of frontier conditions. 2 Johnson MSS., xii, No. 127. 3 Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North America in 1796 and 1797, 217. 4 Turner: "Significance of the Frontier in American History," American Historical Association Report, 1893. 5 Hugh Williamson: History of North Carolina (1812), ii, 71-2. 6 Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 133; William and Mary Quarterly, ix, 132. 7 Virginia Historical Magazine, op. cit. Cf. also West Virginia Historical Magazine, April, 1903. 8 Bernheim: The German Element and the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas. 9 For this and other Moravian diaries, see Virginia Historical Magazine, vols xi and xii. 10 Original diary in German in Archives of the Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, N. C. Cf. Mereness, Travels in the American Colonies 1690-1783, 327-356. 11 Cf. original minutes of Abington and Gwynedd Monthly Meetings, Pa. 12 MS. History of Bryan family, compiled by Col. W. L. Bryan, Boone, N. C. 13 Ely: The Finleys of Bucks (Publications, Bucks County Historical Society); also "Historic Associations of Neshaminy Valley," Daily Intelligencer (Reading, Pa.), July 29, 1913. See also Wisconsin State Historical Society, Draper MSS., 2 B 161. 14 "The Creative Forces in Westward Expansion," American Historical Review, xx, 1. 15 North Carolina Colonial Records, vii, 100-101. 16 Magazine of American History, November, 1881. 17 Foote: Sketches of North Carolina, xiii.