ABSTRACT
After the Revolution, American policymakers looked west with mingled expectation and anxiety. They entertained high hopes for the growth of national wealth and power through expansion of settlement and addition of states. As republican ideologues, Americans found the idea of territorial expansion profoundly unsettling. History demonstrated that republics were vulnerable to decline and decay as citizens turned toward private pursuits. During the mid-1780s the West presented a challenge to both policymakers and ideologists. Once the states began to relinquish their western claims, Congress had to organize, distribute, and defend the new national domain. Makers of policy for the West promoted the commercialization of the frontier in order to gain much-needed revenue from the sale of federal lands. The 1780s were a "critical period" for the union of American states. The distinction between private enterprise and privatism made it possible to identify a positive relationship between individual liberty and the public good.
