Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/50

34 the antecedent consent of Virginia to the people, and this motion was carried, but by the exertions of Colonel Crockett reconsidered, and the convention ended by agreeing to all that Virginia now demanded; and as a result Kentucky passed quietly into the Union in June, 1792.

The universal satisfaction which followed the admission into the Union proved sufficiently that the great mass of the people really wanted that con- summation. Other things, indeed, they desired, but this first and most and the others in connection with it. Eight years had elapsed since the question of separation was first brought into public notice. These years had been marked by unceasing agitation. Nine conventions had been held for this single purpose, involving frequent elections and public canvasses. Other elections in the natural course of events had occurred, and the election of delegates to the Virginia convention had brought another special discussion before the people. The whole concatenation naturally produced an unhealthy state of mind. Extreme measures had been again and again warmly advocated, visionary schemes fostered and encouraged, addresses and overtures to every branch of government frequently resorted to, so that agitation had come to be almost the normal state of political thought. This was almost universal. Besides this the leaders of the more radical separatists had acquired a violent style of oratory, and a passion for discussion that could not be readily put away, especially when the darling problem of the navigation of the