Page "Westsylvania" Paragraph 8

Settlement of the boundary dispute sparked a renewal of the Westsylvania movement among Virginians who were outraged to find themselves now living in Pennsylvania.

Contributing to this separatist sentiment were those frontiersmen who believed that the national government was not doing enough to protect them from the Native American attacks on western frontier in the final years of the Revolutionary War.

In 1782, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, a Pittsburgh lawyer and strong supporter of the national government, convinced the Pennsylvania Assembly to declare that agitation for a separate state was treason.

This made promotion of Westsylvania subject to the death penalty.

Pennsylvania also sent secret agents, such as the Reverend James Finley, to work against the Westsylvania movement.

According to historian Jack Sosin, " Finely's efforts, the threat that the settlers ' land might be sold, and the cool reaction to the proposed new state by Congress finally quieted the Westerners.