ain body of her people finally came from the Middle States, and
Illinois and Ohio; but Southern elements were well represented,
particularly among her political leaders.

The middle of the century was the turning-point in the transfer of
control in the Northwest. Below the line of the old national turnpike,
marked by the cities of Columbus, Indianapolis, Vandalia, and St. Louis,
the counties had acquired a stability of settlement; and partly because
of the Southern element, partly because of a natural tendency of new
communities toward Jacksonian ideals, these counties were preponderantly
Democratic. But the Southern migration had turned to the cotton areas of
the Southwest, and the development of railroads and canals had broken
the historic commercial ascendancy of the Mississippi River; New Orleans
was yielding the scepter to New York. The tide of migration from the
North poured along these newly opened channels, and occupied the less
settled counties above the national turnpike. In cities like Columbus
and Indianapolis, where the two currents had run side by side, the
combined elements were most clearly marked, but in the Northwest as a
whole a varied population had been formed. This region seemed to
represent and understand the various parts of the Union. It was this
aspect which Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, urged in Congress when he made his
notable speech in favor of the admission of Iowa. He pleaded the
mission of the Northwest as the mediator between the sections and the
unifying agency in the nation, with such power and pathos as to thrill
even John Quincy Adams.

But there are some issues which cannot be settled by compromise,
tendencies one of which must conquer the other. Such an issue the slave
power raised, and raised too late for support in the upper half of the
Mississippi Basin. The Northern and the Southern elements found
themselves in opposition to each other. "A house divided against itself
cannot stand," said Abraham Lincoln, a Northern leader of Southern
origin. Douglas, a leader of the Southern forces, though coming from New
England, declared his indifference whether slavery were voted up or down
in the Western Territories. The historic debates between these two
champions reveal the complex conditions in the Northwest, and take on a
new meaning when considered in the light of this contest between the
Northern and the Southern elements. The State that had been so potent
for compromise was at last the batt