Jefferson was an optimist when it came to the people: he wrote James Madison “our governments will remain virtuous as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America.” Of course, “vacant lands” are doing the heavy lifting here. Before we can discuss the lands, we must talk about who resides on them.

Instead of any meaningful counterweight, the government (to Jefferson, and beyond, let’s be honest) co-signed territorial sovereignty – and went to war to force them. In a weaker government, the losses of Harmar and St. Clair could’ve stalled this project and altered forever the trajectory into our time – but the desire for land, the idea that it was won by “conquest” in war for independence, transcended all preoccupations with standing armies or finances or the size of a republic.

/ 36° 39′ 14″ N, 83° 23′ 59″ W

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