ingly frequent. Washington was greatly grieved on account of these numerous desertions. The British government and the Tory party in this country thoroughly believed that the loyalists were in such force and strength that with small assistance on the part of the English army the rebellion would surely and speedily be overthrown; and further that many in the Colonial army were anxious to desert and would do so if any inducement was offered.

In this view and belief the British government in 1776, issued a proclamation inviting and encouraging desertions from the Colonial army, the effect of which may be judged by the statement of Joseph Galloway the leading Tory and trusted British agent who testified that 2,300 deserters from the Colonial army came into his office at Philadelphia, one-half of whom were Irish, one-fourth English and Scotch, and the rest, Americans. The promise of English gold had a disastrous effect on many of the colonial recruits and greatly depleted the Colonial army.

To meet this movement on the part of the British, the Continental Congress on August 14, 1776, passed a resolution as follows:

"BOUNTIES TO FOREIGN DESERTERS."

"WHEREAS, The parliament of Great Britain have thought fit by a late act, not only to invite our troops to desert our service, but to direct a compulsion of our people taken at sea, to serve against their country;

Resolved, Therefore, That these states will receive all such foreigners who shall leave the armies of his Britannic majesty in America, and shall choose to become members of any of these states; and they shall be protected in the free exercise of their respective religions, and be invested with the rights, privileges, and immunities of natives, as established by the laws of these states; and moreover that this congress will provide for every such person fifty acres of unappropriated lands, in some of these states, to be held by him and his heirs in absolute property.

"That this congress shall give to all such of the said foreign officers, as shall leave the armies of his Britannic majesty in America, and choose to become citizens of these states, unappropriated lands, in the following quantities and proportions, to them and their heirs in absolute dominion. To a colonel, 1,000 acres; to a lieutenant colonel, 800 acres; to a major, 600 acres; to a captain, 400 acres; to a lieutenant 300 acres; to an ensign, 200 acres; to every non-commissioned officer, 100 acres; and to every officer or person employed in the said foreign corps and whose office or employment is not here specifically named, in the like proportion to their rank or pay in the said corps."

The remarkable result was that while many thousands deserted from the Colonial to the British army at all periods of the war and so ultimately became refugees to Canada, there seems to have been but a single desertion from the British to the Colonial Army, who made any claim under this resolution and his name was Nicholas Ferdinand Westfall. On the 27th of March, 1792, Congress passed an act, the 6th section of which is as follows:

SECTION 6. That there be granted to Nicholas Ferdinand Westfall, who left the British service and joined the army of the United States, during the late war, one hundred acres of unappropriated land in the western territory of the United States, free of all charges."

This seems to have been the only grant made in pursuance

of the preceding resolution.

THE KENTUCKY REVIVAL AND ITS INFLUENCE ON

THE MIAMI VALLEY.

BY J. P. MAC LEAN.

The Miami Valley properly embraces all the country north of the Ohio that is drained by the Great and Little Miami rivers and their tributaries. In this paper it is used to designate the southwestern quarter of the State of Ohio, or that territory lying west of a line drawn due south from Columbus to the Ohio river and south of another line drawn due west from Columbus to the State of Indiana. This district was greatly excited and stirred up by the "Great Kentucky Revival," and its camp-meetings lasted for a period of over fifty years.

Owing to the rapidity of the increase in population and the advent of foreigners with their variant sectaries, it is difficult to measure the depth of the influence of the enthusiasm resultant from the religious upheaval of 1801. However diverse may have been the elements to be operated upon, there was sufficient time and opportunity to carry out the work of the reformers.

The year 1800 showed Ohio with a population of about 45,000 and Cincinnati with about 500. In 1810 the city had increased to 2,540 and the entire state to 230,760. The population was principally made up of emigrants from the older states. Kentucky, with a population of 73,677 in 1790, had increased to 220,959 in 1800 and 406,511 in 1810. These figures show both states to have been sparsely settled, when considered with the present population. The settlements were almost wholly communities of farmers. Books and newspapers were but sparingly supplied to them, and religion was their chief intellectual food. Without the advantages enjoyed by their descendants, scattered, though naturally gregarious, a religious revival would hold out its allurements to all alike.

STATE OF SOCIETY.

The early settlers of both Ohio and Kentucky, for the most part, were Christians by profession. Different denominations of religionists were early in the field, employing their zeal in making proselytes and propagating their respective tenets. The great majority ranked among the Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists. The first church organized in Ohio was the Baptist church at Columbia, near Cincinnati, in 1790, and the build

ing erected in 1793, which stood until 1835. In 1797, besides the Presbyterian church at Cincinnati, there were preaching points at Clear Creek (a short distance south of Franklin), Turtle Creek (now Union Village, west of Lebanon), Bethany (two miles east of Lebanon) and Big Prairie (at the mouth of Dick's Creek in Butler county, afterwards called Orangedale). Of these

country congregations the largest and most influential was Turtle Creek.

The various sects, acknowledging one another as of the same parent stock, "stood entirely separate as to any communion or fellowship, and treated each other with the highest marks of hostility; wounding, captivating and bickering another, until their attention was called aff by the appearance of" deism. As early as 1796 a religious apathy appears to have pervaded the pulpit. One writes, "the dead state of religion is truly discouraging here, as well as elsewhere;" another says "I have this winter past preached with difficulty, my heart but little enjoyed," and still another, "I see but little prospect of encouragement."* However dark the picture may be painted, the despondent were soon awakened to what they deemed a season of refreshment.

THE KENTUCKY REVIVAL.

During the year 1800, on the Gasper, in Logan County Ky., on land now owned and occupied by the Shakers, of West Union, there began a religious revival, which was the precursor of the most wonderful upheaval ever experienced in Christian work. The excitement commenced under the labors of John Rankin. Where this awakening commenced a church still stands, and the Shakers allow it to be occupied by the reformers, who look upon it as their Mecca. Almost immediately James McGready, also a Presbyterian clergyman, was seized with this same spirit as possessed by Rankin. He has been described as a homely man, with sandy hair and rugged features, and was so terrific in holding forth the terrors of hell that he was called a son of thunder. He pictured out "the furnace of hell with its red-hot coals of God's wrath as large as mountains;" he would open to the sinner's view "the burning lake of hell, to see its fiery billows rolling, and to hear the yells and groans of the damned ghosts roaring under the burning wrath of an angry God." Under his preaching the people would fall down with a loud cry and lie powerless, or else groaning, praying, or crying to God for mercy. The news of the excitement spread not only over Kentucky, but also

* McNemar's "Kentucky Revival," p. 13.