Ohio History Journal

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ECONOMIC BASIS OF OHIO POLITICS, 1820-1840

ECONOMIC BASIS OF OHIO POLITICS, 1820-1840

By HAROLD E. DAVIS

 

The Geographic Basis.

Ohio was destined by her geographic characteristics to be

the scene of conflicting economic interests, and hence of conflict-

ing political interests. The land has in some respects a natural

unity but in many respects that unity is lacking. By far the

greater part of the area of the state lies in the valley of the Ohio

River, so that geographically, economically and politically she

should be considered a part of that valley. Her primary interests

should have been found in the development of the Ohio River

and its tributaries as means of communication and arteries of

commerce. Ohio's river towns, Steubenville, Marietta, and Cin-

cinnati, although they were possible rivals of Pittsburgh and the

other river towns, both above and below them, should have had

much in common (as they did).

Northern Ohio, on the other hand, lies outside the Ohio

Valley, a fact which gives rise to the basic sectional division of

the state. The interests of the Ohio River area conflict with

those of the northern part of the state which looks naturally to

Lake Erie, and hence either by way of the Hudson-Mohawk

valleys to New York, or by way of Lake Ontario and the St.

Lawrence to the Atlantic.

A third, and less distinct though not less real area, is found

in the eastern part of the state, which, from the beginning, looked

for its commerce and communication with the outer world to

Pittsburgh. This area has had much in common, economically

and politically with western Pennsylvania. Both have faced the

same basic problem: Should their eyes look eastward to Phila-

delphia and Baltimore, or south and west to the Ohio, the Mis-

sissippi, St. Louis, and New Orleans? Identical natural resources

such as coal and iron, also tended to tie eastern Ohio to western

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