The discontent was much increased by the growing fury of the Indian ravages.  There had been a lull in the murderous woodland warfare during the years immediately succeeding the close of the Revolution, but the storm had again gathered.  The hostility of the savages had grown steadily.  By the summer of 1787 the Kentucky frontier was suffering much.  The growth of the district was not stopped, nor were there any attempts made against it by large war bands; and in the thickly settled regions life went on as usual.  But the outlying neighborhoods were badly punished, and the county lieutenants were clamorous in their appeals for aid to the Governor of Virginia.  They wrote that so many settlers had been killed on the frontier that the others had either left their clearings and fled to the interior for safety, or else had gathered in the log forts, and so were unable to raise crops for the support of their families.  Militia guards and small companies of picked scouts were kept continually patrolling the exposed regions near the Ohio, but the forays grew fiercer, and the harm done was great. [Footnote:  State Dept.  MSS., No. 71, vol. ii., pp. 561, 563.] In their anger the Kentuckians denounced the Federal Government for not aiding them, the men who were loudest in their denunciations being the very men who were most strenuously bent on refusing to adopt the new Constitution, which alone could give the National Government the power to act effectually in the interest of the people.

    Ratification of the Federal Constitution.

While the spirit of unrest and discontent was high, the question of ratifying or rejecting this new Federal Constitution came up for decision.  The Wilkinson party, and all the men who believed in a weak central government, or who wished the Federal tie dissolved outright, were, of course, violently opposed to ratification.  Many weak or short-sighted men, and the doctrinaires and theorists—­most of the members of the Danville political club, for instance—­announced that they wished to ratify the Constitution, but only after it had been amended.  As such prior amendment was impossible, this amounted merely to playing into the hands of the separatists; and the men who followed it were responsible for the by no means creditable fact that most of the Kentucky members in the Virginia convention voted against ratification.  Three of them, however, had the patriotism and foresight to vote in favor of the Constitution.

    Further Delay.

Another irritating delay in the march toward statehood now occurred.  In June, 1788, the Continental Congress declared that it was expedient to erect Kentucky into a state. [Footnote:  State Dep.  MSS., No. 20, vol. i., p. 341 etc.] But immediately afterwards news came that the Constitution had been ratified by the necessary nine States, and that the new government was, therefore, practically in being.  This meant the dissolution of the old Confederation,