As settlers pour in to the frontier districts, they first become territories, with an elected legislature and a governor appointed by the president.

Then, when population reaches one hundred, thousand the territories apply for statehood.

Frontiersmen typically drop the legalistic formalities and restrictive franchise favored by eastern upper classes, and adopt more democracy and more egalitarianism.

In 1800 the western frontier reaches the Mississippi River.

St. Louis, Missouri, is the largest town on the frontier, the gateway for travel westward, and a principal trading center for Mississippi River traffic and inland commerce but remains under Spanish control until 1803.