on the eve of
the Civil War came also from Kentucky and represent the persistence of
the spirit of Henry Clay.

In a word, as I pointed out in the beginning, the Ohio Valley was a
Middle Region with a strong national allegiance, striving to hold apart
with either hand the sectional combatants in this struggle. In the
cautious development of his policy of emancipation, we may see the
profound influence of the Ohio Valley upon Abraham Lincoln--Kentucky's
greatest son. No one can understand his presidency without proper
appreciation of the deep influence of the Ohio Valley, its ideals and
its prejudices upon America's original contribution to the great men of
the world.

Enough has been said to make it clear, I trust, that the Ohio Valley has
not only a local history worthy of study, a rich heritage to its people,
but also that it has been an independent and powerful force in shaping
the development of a nation. Of the late history of this Valley, the
rise of its vast industrial power, its far-reaching commercial
influence, it is not necessary that I should speak. You know its
statesmen and their influence upon our own time; you know the relation
of Ohio to the office of President of the United States! Nor is it
necessary that I should attempt to prophesy concerning the future which
the Ohio Valley will hold in the nation.

In that new age of inland water transportation, which is certain to
supplement the age of the railroad, there can be no more important
region than the Ohio Valley. Let us hope that its old love of democracy
may endure, and that in this section, where the first trans-Alleghany
pioneers struck blows at the forests, there may be brought to blossom
and to fruit the ripe civilization of a people who know that whatever
the glories of prosperity may be, there are greater glories of the
spirit of man; who know that in the ultimate record of history, the
place of the Ohio Valley will depend upon the contribution which her
people and her leaders make to the cause of an enlightened, a
cultivated, a God-fearing and a free, as well as a comfortable,
democracy.

FOOTNOTES:

[157:1] An address before the Ohio Valley Historical Association,
October 16, 1909.

[168:1] See F. J. Turner, "New States West of the Alleghanies,"
_American Historical Review_, i, pp. 70 ff.

VI

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY IN AMERICAN HISTORY[177:1]

The rise of a company of sympathetic and critical student