The value of a county in Maine offset in their eyes the value of these vast, empty regions.

Indeed, in the days immediately succeeding the Revolution, their attitude towards the growing West was worse than one of mere indifference; it was one of alarm and dislike.

They for the moment adopted towards the West a position not wholly unlike that which England had held towards the American colonies as a whole.

They came dangerously near repeating, in their feeling towards their younger brethren on the Ohio, the very blunder committed in reference to themselves by their elder brethren in Britain.

For some time they seemed, like the British, unable to grasp the grandeur of their race's imperial destiny.