But they would call no man master; they had done with feudalism.

That Henderson should not have foreseen this, especially after the upheaval in North Carolina, proves him, in spite of all his brilliant gifts, to have been a man out of touch with the spirit of the time.
The war of the Revolution broke forth and the Indians descended upon the Kentucky stations.

Defense was the one problem in all minds, and defense required powder and lead in plenty.

The Transylvania Company was not able to provide the means of defense against the hordes of savages whom Henry Hamilton, the British Governor at Detroit, was sending to make war on the frontiers.

Practical men like Harrod and George Rogers Clark--who, if not a practical man in his own interests, was a most practical soldier--saw that unification of interests within the territory with the backing of either Virginia or Congress was necessary.
Clark personally would have preferred to see the settlers combine as a freemen's state.