e Federalism of Hamilton.
The ambition of both to trace their lineage to the former was a
striking proof of its popular strength.

The Missouri question marked a distinct era in the political thought
of the country, and made a profound impression on the minds of
patriotic men. Suddenly, without warning, the North and the South,
the free States and the slave States, found themselves arrayed
against each other in violent and absorbing conflict. During the
interval between the adoption of the Federal Constitution and the
admission of Missouri, there had been a great change in the Southern
mind, both as to the moral and the economic aspects of slavery.
This revolution of opinion had been wrought in large degree by the
cotton-plant. When the National Government was organized in 1789,
the annual export of cotton did not exceed three hundred bales.
It was reckoned only among our experimental products. But, stimulated
by the invention of the gin, production increased so rapidly, that,
at the time of Missouri's application for admission to the Union,
cotton-planting was the most remunerative industry in the country.
The export alone exceeded three hundred thousand bales annually.
But this highly profitable culture was in regions so warm that
outdoor labor was unwelcome to the white race. The immediate
consequence was a large advance in the value of slave-labor, and
in the price of slaves. This fact had its quick and decisive
influence, even in those slave-holding States which could not raise
cotton. The inevitable and speedy result was a consolidation of
the political power necessary to protect an interest at once so
vast and so liable to assault.

It was not unnatural that this condition should lead to a violent
outburst on the slavery question, but it was nevertheless wholly
unexpected. The causes which let to it had not been understood
and analyzed. The older class of statesmen, who had come down from
the period of the Revolution, from the great work of cementing the
Union and framing the Constitution, deplored the agitation, and
viewed the results with the gravest apprehension. The compromise
by a geographical line, dividing the slave States from the free,
was regarded by this class of patriots as full of danger,--a constant
menace to the peace and perpetuity of the Union. To Mr. Jefferson,
still living in vigorous old age, the trouble sounded like an alarm-
bell rung at midnight. While the measure was pending