It was the South was in the forefront of expansion. My GGGGG Grandfather, Major Nathaniel Christmas, was one of four commissioners sent from the State of Georgia to the Spanish held city of Natchez, in 1785, to demand its claim to the lands from the Chattahoochie to the Mississippi Rivers to the Spanish Viceroy. The first such act by the new United States. They were sent home packing of course, under threat of arrest.
__________________________
David Upton