They refused to give up the Mississippi; and yet they also refused to support the party to which Jay belonged, and therefore refused to establish a government strong enough to obtain their rights by open force.
But Jay erred when he added, as he did, that there was no middle course possible; that we must either treat or make war.

It was undoubtedly to our discredit, and to our temporary harm, that we refused to follow either course; it showed the existence of very undesirable national qualities, for it showed that we were loud in claiming rights which we lacked the resolution and foresight to enforce.

Nevertheless, as these undesirable qualities existed, it was the part of a wise statesman to recognize their existence and do the best he could in spite of them.

The best course to follow under such circumstances was to do nothing until the national fibre hardened, and this was the course which Washington advocated.
Wilkinson Rises to Prominence.
In this summer of 1787 there rose to public prominence in the western country a man whose influence upon it was destined to be malign in intention rather than in actual fact.

James Wilkinson, by birth a Marylander, came to Kentucky in 1784.