y
in 1792. The third State to be added to the original thirteen was
Tennessee in 1796. At that time, counting the States as they were
finally classified, eight were destined to be slave and eight free. Ohio
entered the Union as a State in 1802, thus giving to the free States
a majority of one. The balance, however, was restored in 1812 by the
admission of Louisiana as a slave State. The admission of Indiana in
1816 on the one side and of Mississippi in 1817 on the other still
maintained the balance: ten free States stood against ten slave States.
During the next two years Illinois and Alabama were admitted, making
twenty-two States in all, still evenly divided.

The ordinance for the government of the territory north of the Ohio
River, passed in 1787 and reenacted by Congress after the adoption
of the Constitution, proved to be an act of great significance in its
relation to the limitation of slavery. By this ordinance slavery was
forever prohibited in the Northwest Territory. In the territory south
of the Ohio River slavery became permanently established. The river,
therefore, became an extension of the original Mason and Dixon's Line
with the new meaning attached: it became a division between free and
slave territory.

It was apparently at first a mere matter of chance that a balance was
struck between the two losses of States. While Virginia remained a slave
State, it was natural that slavery should extend into Kentucky, which
had been a part of Virginia. Likewise Tennessee, being a part of North
Carolina, became slave territory. When these two Territories became
slave States, the equal division began. There was yet an abundance of
territory both north and south to be taken into the Union and, without
any special plan or agitation, States were admitted in pairs, one free
and the other slave. In the meantime there was distinctly developed the
idea of the possible or probable permanence of slavery in the South and
of a rivalry or even a future conflict between the two sections.

When in 1819 Missouri applied for admission to the Union with a state
constitution permitting slavery, there was a prolonged debate over the
whole question, not only in Congress but throughout the entire country.
North and South were distinctly pitted against each other with rival
systems of labor. The following year Congress passed a law providing
for the admission of Missouri, but, to restore the balance, Maine was
separated from Massachus