but by 1820 the
situation had altered. The West was still a "section," whose
interests and characteristics contrasted sharply with those of
New England or the Middle States. Yet upon occasion it could act
with very great effect, as for instance when it rallied to the
support of Jackson and bore him triumphantly to the presidential
chair. Great divergences, however, had grown up within this
western area; differences which had existed from the beginning
had been brought into sharp relief. Under play of climatic and
industrial forces, the West had itself fallen apart into
sections.
Foremost was the cleavage between North and South, on a line
marked roughly by the Ohio River. Climate, soil, the cotton gin,
and slavery combined to make of the southern West a great
cotton-raising area, interested in the same things and swayed by
the same impulses as the southern seaboard. Similarly, economic
conditions combined to make of the northern West a land of small
farmers, free labor, town-building, and diversified manufactures
and trade. A very large chapter of American history hinges on
this wedging apart of Southwest and Northwest.
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