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The entire western frontier was pretty much anarchic and doing just fine thank you very much.

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"entire"? You mean including the short-lived State of Franklin that cried like a baby for a more robust statist government to take them over and protect them from the depredations of the Indians? It happens that they got your state of residence to take them under their wing, but they also courted Spain. Funny how those hardy pioneers had to rely on state organized tax district militias to protect themselves from the menacing tribes *all along the frontier*. Why didn't they voluntarily associate with others to defend themselves without government? Answer equals because there weren't enough of them willing to join militias without bounty land inducements provided by the state. All those pioneers cared about was grabbing themselves a piece of land before it was all gone. Sure some of them like Daniel Boone professed not to like the "crowded" circumstances after even more settlers arrived and moved further west. But mainly they just wanted some cheap/free land.

And hey talking about voluntary associations and those merchant elites, what about the Whiskey Rebellion? The merchant banker elite in Massachusetts voluntarily paid for and organized private militia to fight the voluntarily organized and tax resisting militia/rabble of the frontier. Isn't this just how warfare in AC-Land would look like?