Thus the Old Northwest had arrived at the goal set for it by the
large-visioned men who framed the Ordinance of 1787; every foot
of its soil was included in some one of the five thriving,
democratic commonwealths that had taken their places in the Union
on a common basis with the older States of the East and the
South. Furthermore, the Mississippi had ceased to be a boundary.
A magnificent vista reaching off to the remoter West and
Northwest had been opened up; the frontier had been pushed far
out upon the plains of Minnesota and Iowa. Decade after decade
the powerful epic of westward expansion, shot through with
countless tales of heroism and sacrifice, had steadily unfolded
before the gaze of an astonished world; and the end was not yet
in sight.
Bibliographical Note
There is no general history of the Northwest covering the whole
of the period dealt with in this book except Burke A. Hinsdale,
The Old Northwest (1888). This is a volume of substantial
scholarship, though it reflects but faintly the life and spirit
of the people.
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