CHAPTER II.
THE KENTUCKY LAWYER.
At the time when Henry Clay left Richmond to seek his fortune in Kentucky, the valley of the Ohio was the “Far West” of the country, attracting two distinct classes of adventurous and enterprising spirits. Only nine years before, in 1788, the Ohio River had floated down the flat-boats carrying the pioneers who founded the first settlements on the northern bank at Marietta and on the present site of Cincinnati; but forthwith a steady stream had poured in, which in twelve years had swelled the population of the territory destined to become the State of Ohio to 45,000 souls. They came mainly from New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. Emigrants from the Slave States, too, in considerable number, sought new homes in the southern portion of the Northwest Territory, but they formed only a minority. The settlement of Kentucky was of an older date, and its population of a different character. Daniel Boone entered the “dark and bloody ground” in 1769, seven years before the colonies declared themselves independent. Other hardy and intrepid spirits soon followed him, to dispute the
