rles Sumner, to be sure, was in the
Senate, but he was a silent member, and Massachusetts inclined to follow
Edward Everett rather than Sumner. William H. Seward still spoke for the
anti-slavery Whigs in Congress, and Salmon P. Chase maintained a
precarious hold on Ohio. There was a handful of Free-Soilers in the
House of Representatives who were ready to make trouble for the new
Administration, and resistance to the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave
Law now and then broke out in riots in certain neighborhoods of New
England and in the Western Reserve. But the opposition was everywhere
declining until Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel, _Uncle Tom's
Cabin_, with its exaggerated emphasis upon the cruelties of the slavery
system, began to stir the consciences of men. Even so there was no
substantial evidence that any great political upheaval or party change
would occur within the next fifteen or twenty years. The people were
contented with their country, and the growth of the population gave
evidence of a great future.

When Jackson came to the Presidency there were about 12,500,000 people
in the country; in 1850 the number had grown to 23,000,000, and in 1860
there were 31,000,000. The Census Bureau estimated that the population
of 1900 would be 100,000,000 if the growth of the Pierce period was
maintained. Not only was the normal native increase phenomenal, but
foreigners poured into "the land of the free" in unprecedented numbers.
In 1850 there were 2,800,000 foreign-born people in the United States;
in 1860 there were 5,400,000, and this tide of immigration was of a very
high social and economic character. The German element was large,
industrious, and liberty-loving, many of them being refugees from the
political persecutions of 1832-33 and 1848-50. The English, Scotch, and
Irish composed most of the remainder, and these were already familiar
with the ideals and political habits of the country and therefore
readily assimilable. By far the greater part of this rich contribution
to American life fell to the cities of the East and the open country of
the Northwest, where good land was abundant and available at low prices.

If we compare the distribution of the population of 1850-60 with that of
1830, we shall see how well the sectional balance, on which so much
depended, was maintained. In 1830, the East[7] had a population of
6,000,000 in a total of almost 13,000,000. This had increased only
500,000 in 1850; bu