religious and political
destiny of our nation is to be decided in the West," and he pointed out
that the population of the West "is assembled from all the States of the
Union and from all the nations of Europe, and is rushing in like the
waters of the flood, demanding for its moral preservation the immediate
and universal action of those institutions which discipline the mind and
arm the conscience and the heart. And so various are the opinions and
habits, and so recent and imperfect is the acquaintance, and so sparse
are the settlements of the West, that no homogeneous public sentiment
can be formed to legislate immediately into being the requisite
institutions. And yet they are all needed immediately in their utmost
perfection and power. A nation is being 'born in a day.' . . . But what
will become of the West if her prosperity rushes up to such a majesty of
power, while those great institutions linger which are necessary to form
the mind and the conscience and the heart of that vast world. It must
not be permitted. . . . Let no man at the East quiet himself and dream
of liberty, whatever may become of the West. . . . Her destiny is our
destiny."[36:1]

With the appeal to the conscience of New England, he adds appeals to her
fears lest other religious sects anticipate her own. The New England
preacher and school-teacher left their mark on the West. The dread of
Western emancipation from New England's political and economic control
was paralleled by her fears lest the West cut loose from her religion.
Commenting in 1850 on reports that settlement was rapidly extending
northward in Wisconsin, the editor of the _Home Missionary_ writes: "We
scarcely know whether to rejoice or mourn over this extension of our
settlements. While we sympathize in whatever tends to increase the
physical resources and prosperity of our country, we can not forget that
with all these dispersions into remote and still remoter corners of the
land the supply of the means of grace is becoming relatively less and
less." Acting in accordance with such ideas, home missions were
established and Western colleges were erected. As seaboard cities like
Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore strove for the mastery of Western
trade, so the various denominations strove for the possession of the
West. Thus an intellectual stream from New England sources fertilized
the West. Other sections sent their missionaries; but the real struggle
was between sects. The con