The same was true of Kentucky, and of the west generally; if the States could rightfully claim to run to the Mississippi, they could also rightfully claim to run to the Pacific.

The colonial charters were all very well as furnishing color of title; but at bottom the American claim rested on the peculiar kind of colonizing conquest so successfully carried on by the backwoodsmen.

When the English took New Amsterdam they claimed it under old charters; but they very well knew that their real right was only that of the strong hand.

It was precisely so with the Americans and the Ohio valley.

They produced old charters to support their title; but in reality it rested on Clark's conquests and above all on the advance of the backwoods settlements.