shelter them from such peril. The exporting Cotton States, which had
nothing to gain from Protection, were naturally hostile to it; but they
were overborne by the general trend of opinion, especially in the West.
One last development of the new "national" policy--the most questionable
of its developments and opposed by Clay at the time, though he
afterwards made himself its champion--was the revival, to meet the
financial difficulties created by the war, of Hamilton's National Bank,
whose charter, under the Jeffersonian _regime_, had been suffered to
expire.

But the Western expansion, though it did much to consolidate the
Republic, contained in it a seed of dissension. We have seen how, in the
Convention, the need of keeping an even balance between Northern and
Southern sections was apparent. That need was continually forced into
prominence as new States were added. The presence or absence of Negro
Slavery had become the distinguishing badge of the sections; and it
became the apple of discord as regards the development of the West.
Jefferson had wished that Slavery should be excluded from all the
territory vested in the Federal authority, but he had been overruled,
and the prohibition had been applied only to the North-Western Territory
out of which the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were carved. The
South-West had been left open to Slavery, and it had become the custom,
with the purpose of preserving the balance in the Senate, to admit Slave
States and Free in pairs. This worked satisfactorily enough so long as
the States claiming admission were within a well-defined geographical
area. But when Missouri became sufficiently populated to be recognized
as a State, there was a keen contest. Her territory lay across the line
which had hitherto divided the sections. She must be either a Northern
promontory projecting into the south or a Southern promontory projecting
into the north. Neither section would yield, and matters were
approaching a domestic crisis when Clay intervened. He was in an
excellent position to arbitrate, for he came from the most northern of
Southern States, and had ties with both sections. Moreover, as has been
said, his talents were peculiarly suited to such management as the
situation required. He proposed a settlement which satisfied moderate
men on both sides, was ratified by a large majority in Congress, and
accepted on all hands as final. Missouri was to enter the Union, as she
apparently