of
population to the West, and the stir in the air raised by the Western
winds of Jacksonian democracy, that most of the older States
reconstructed their constitutions on a more democratic basis. From the
Mississippi Valley where there were liberal suffrage provisions (based
on population alone instead of property and population), disregard of
vested interests, and insistence on the rights of man, came the
inspiration for this era of change in the franchise and apportionment,
of reform of laws for imprisonment for debt, of general attacks upon
monopoly and privilege. "It is now plain," wrote Jackson in 1837, "that
the war is to be carried on by the monied aristocracy of the few against
the democracy of numbers; the [prosperous] to make the honest laborers
hewers of wood and drawers of water . . . through the credit and paper
system."

By this time the Mississippi Valley had grown in population and
political power so that it ranked with the older sections. The next
indication of its significance in American history which I shall
mention is its position in shaping the economic and political course of
the nation between the close of the War of 1812 and the slavery
struggle. In 1790 the Mississippi Valley had a population of about a
hundred thousand, or one-fortieth of that of the United States as a
whole; by 1810 it had over a million, or one-seventh; by 1830 it had
three and two-thirds millions, or over one-fourth; by 1840 over six
millions, more than one-third. While the Atlantic coast increased only a
million and a half souls between 1830 and 1840, the Mississippi Valley
gained nearly three millions. Ohio (virgin wilderness in 1790) was, half
a century later, nearly as populous as Pennsylvania and twice as
populous as Massachusetts. While Virginia, North Carolina, and South
Carolina were gaining 60,000 souls between 1830 and 1840, Illinois
gained 318,000. Indeed, the growth of this State alone excelled that of
the entire South Atlantic States.

These figures show the significance of the Mississippi Valley in its
pressure upon the older section by the competition of its cheap lands,
its abundant harvests, and its drainage of the labor supply. All of
these things meant an upward lift to the Eastern wage earner. But they
meant also an increase of political power in the Valley. Before the War
of 1812 the Mississippi Valley had six senators, New England ten, the
Middle States ten, and the South eight. By 1840 the Mississip