PREFACE TO THIRD VOLUME.
The material used herein is that mentioned in the preface to the first volume, save that I have also drawn freely on the Draper Manuscripts, in the Library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, at Madison.
For the privilege of examining these valuable manuscripts I am indebted to the generous courtesy of the State Librarian, Mr.Reuben Gold Thwaites; I take this opportunity of extending to him my hearty thanks.
The period covered in this volume includes the seven years immediately succeeding the close of the Revolutionary War.

It was during these seven years that the Constitution was adopted, and actually went into effect; an event if possible even more momentous for the West than the East.

The time was one of vital importance to the whole nation; alike to the people of the inland frontier and to those of the seaboard.

The course of events during these years determined whether we should become a mighty nation, or a mere snarl of weak and quarrelsome little commonwealths, with a history as bloody and meaningless as that of the Spanish-American states.
At the close of the Revolution the West was peopled by a few thousand settlers, knit by but the slenderest ties to the Federal Government.

A remarkable inflow of population followed.