l; a
vivid but scarcely unbiassed picture of Cincinnati in the early thirties
is to be found in her _Domestic Manners of the Americans_ (1831). In
1845 began the marked influx of Germans, which lasted in large degree up
to 1860; they first limited themselves to the district "Over the Rhine"
(the Rhine being the Miami & Erie Canal), in the angle north-east of the
junction of Canal and Sycamore streets, but gradually spread throughout
the city, although this "Over the Rhine" is still most typically German.

For more than ten years preceding the Civil War the city was much
disturbed by slavery dissension--the industrial interests were largely
with the South, but abolitionists were numerous and active, and the city
was an important station on the "Underground Railroad," of which Dr
Norton S. Townshend (1815-95) was conductor, and one of the stations was
the home of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who lived in Cincinnati from
1832 to 1850, and gathered there much material embodied in _Uncle Tom's
Cabin_. In 1834 came the Lane Seminary controversies over slavery
previously referred to. In 1835 James G. Birney established here his
anti-slavery journal, _The Philanthropist_, but his printing shops were
repeatedly mobbed and his presses destroyed, and in January of 1836 his
bold speech before a mob gathered at the court-house was the only thing
that saved him from personal violence, as the city authorities had
warned him that they had not sufficient force to protect him.

At the time of the Civil War the city was strongly in sympathy with the
North. In September 1862 the city was threatened by a Confederate force
under General Kirby Smith, who led the advance of General Bragg's army
(see AMERICAN CIVIL WAR). On the 28th of March 1884 many of the citizens
met at Music Hall to protest against the lax way in which the law was
enforced, notably in the case of a recent murder, when the confessed
criminal had been found guilty of manslaughter only. An attack was made
on the gaol by the lawless element outside the hall, but was
futile,--the murderer having been removed by the authorities to
Columbus. In its efforts to break into the gaol and court-house the mob
was confronted by the militia, and bloodshed and loss of life resulted;
during the rioting the courthouse was fired by the mob and practically
destroyed, and many valuable records were burned. Various important
political conventions have met in Cincinnati, including the national
De