Here, also, the enterprise, daring, and energy of the individual settlers were of the utmost consequence; the land could never have been won had not the incomers possessed these qualities in a very high degree.

But the settlements sprang directly from the action of the Federal Government, and the first and most important of them would not have been undertaken save for that action.

The settlers were not the first comers in the wilderness they cleared and tilled.

They did not themselves form the armies which met and overthrew the Indians.

The regular forces led the way in the country north of the Ohio.