THE PLACE OF THE
OHIO VALLEY
IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER.
Professor of History, University of
Wisconsin.
[Mr. Turner, until the fall of 1910, was
professor of American His-
tory in the University of Wisconsin. He
is now professor of Western
American History at Harvard University
and the past year (1910) was
president of the American Historical
Association. He delivered the ad-
dress herewith published at the meeting
of the Ohio Valley Historical
Association, held at Frankfort,
Kentucky, October 16, 1909.-EDITOR.]
In a notable essay Professor Josiah
Royce, of Harvard
University, has asserted the salutary
influence of a highly organ-
ized provincial life in order to
counteract certain evils arising
from the tremendous development of
nationalism in our own
day. Among these evils he
enumerates: First, The frequent
changes of dwelling place, whereby the
community is in danger
of losing the well knit organization of
a common life; second,
the tendency to reduce variety in
national civilization to assim-
ilate all to a common type and thus
discourage individuality, and
produce a "remorseless
mechanism-vast, irrational;" third, the
evils arising from the fact that waves
of emotion, the passion
of the mob, tend in our day to sweep
across the nation.
Against these national surges of feeling
Professor Royce
would erect dikes in the form of
provincialism, the resistance of
separate sections each with its own
traditions, beliefs and aspira-
tions. "Our national unities have
grown so vast, our forces of
social consolidation so paramount, the
resulting problems, con-
flicts, evils, have become so
intensified, he says, that we must
seek in the province renewed strength,
usefulness and beauty
of American life.
Whatever may be thought of this
philosopher's appeal for
a revival of sectionalism, on a higher
level, in order to check
the tendencies to a deadening uniformity
of national consolidation
and to me this appeal, under the
limitations which he gives it,
(32)
The Ohio Valley in American
History. 33
seems warranted by the conditions)-it is
certainly true that in
the history of the United States
sectionalism holds a place too
little recognized by the historians.
By sectionalism I do not mean the
struggle between North
and South which culminated in the Civil
War. That extreme
and tragic form of sectionalism indeed
has almost engrossed the
attention of historians, and it is no
doubt the most striking and
painful example of the phenomenon in our
history. But there
are older, and perhaps in the long run
more enduring examples
of the play of sectional forces than the
slavery struggle, and
there are various sections besides North
and South.
Indeed the United States is, in size and
natural resources,
an empire, a collection of potential
nations, rather than a single
nation. It is comparable in area to
Europe. If the coast of
California be placed along the coast of
Spain, Charleston, S. C.,
would fall near Constantinople, the
northern shore of Lake Su-
perior would touch the Baltic, and New
Orleans would lie in
southern Italy. Within this vast empire
there are geographic
provinces, separate in physical
conditions, into which American
colonization has flowed, and in each of
which a special society
has developed, with an economic,
political and social life of its
own. Each of these provinces, or
sections, has developed its
great leaders, who in the public life of
the nation have voiced
the needs of their section, contended
with the representatives of
other sections, and arranged compromises
between sections in
national legislation and policy, as
ambassadors from separate
countries in a European Congress might
make treaties.
Between these sections commercial
relations have sprung up,
and economic combinations and contests
may be traced by the
student who looks beneath the surface of
our national life to the
actual grouping of States in
congressional votes on tariff, inter-
nal improvement, currency and banking,
and all the varied legis-
lation in the field of commerce.
American industrial life is the
outcome of the combinations and contests
of groups of States
or sections. And the intellectual, the
spiritual life of the nation
is the result of the interplay of the
sectional ideals, fundamen-
tal assumptions and emotions.
Vol. XX.-3.
34 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
In short the real federal aspect of the
nation, if we pene-
trate beneath constitutional forms to
the deeper currents of social,
economic and political life, will be
found to lie in the relation
of sections and nation, rather than in
the relation of States and
nation.
Recently Ex-Secretary Root emphasized
the danger that the
States, by neglecting to fulfill their
duties, might fall into decay,
while the national government engrossed
their former power.
But even if the States disappeared
altogether as effective factors
in our national life, the sections
might, in my opinion, gain from
that very disappearance a strength and
activity that would prove
effective limitations upon the
nationalizing process.
Without pursuing the interesting
speculation I may note as
evidence of the development of
sectionalism, the various gather-
ings of business men, religious
denominations and educational
organizations in groups of States. Among
the signs of growth of
a healthy provincialism is the formation
of sectional historical
societies. While the American Historical
Association has been
growing vigorously and becoming a
genuine gathering of histor-
ical students from all parts of the
nation there have also arisen
societies in various sections to deal
with the particular history
of the groups of States. In part this is
due to the great distances
which render difficult attendance upon
the meetings of the
national body today, but he would be
short-sighted, indeed, who
failed to perceive in the formation of
the Pacific Coast Histor-
ical Association, the Mississippi Valley
Historical Association,
and the Ohio Valley Historical
Association, for example, gen-
uine and spontaneous manifestations of a
sectional consciousness.
These associations spring in large part
from the recognition
in each of a common past, a common body
of experiences, tradi-
tions, institutions and ideals.
It is not necessary now to raise the
question whether all of
these associations are based on a real
community of historical
interest, whether there are overlapping
areas, whether new com-
binations may not be made? They are at
least substantial at-
tempts to find a common sectional unity,
and out of their interest
in the past of the section, increasing
tendencies to common sec-
tional ideas and policies are certain to
follow.
The Ohio Valley in American
History. 35
I do not mean to prophesy any disruptive
tendency in Amer-
ican life by the rejuvenation of
sectional self-consciousness; but
I do mean to assert that American life
will be enriched and
safe-guarded by the development of the
greater variety of in-
terests, purposes and ideals which seem
to be arising. A meas-
ure of local concentration seems
necessary to produce healthy,
intellectual and moral life. The spread
of social forces over
too vast an area makes for monotony and
stagnation.
Let us then raise the question of how
far the Ohio Valley
has had a part of its own in the making
of the nation. I have
not the temerity to attempt a history of
this Valley in the brief
compass of this address. Nor am I
confident of my ability even
to pick out the more important features
of the history of the
Ohio Valley in our common national life.
But I venture to put
the problem, to state some familiar
facts from the special point
of view, with the hope of arousing
interest in the theme among
the many students who are advancing the
science of history in
the Ohio Valley.
To the physiographer this section is
made up of the province
of the Allegheny Plateaus and the
southern portion of the Prairie
Plains. In the region lie those rich
mineral deposits which are
changing the life of the section and of
the nation. Although you
reckon in your membership, only the
States that touch the Ohio
River-parts of those States are, from
the point of view of their
social origins, more closely connected
with the Northwest on
the Lake Plains, than with the Ohio
Valley; and on the other
hand, the Tennessee Valley, though it
sweeps far toward the
lower south, and only joins the Ohio at
the end of its course,
has been through much of the history of
the region an essen-
tial part of this society. Together
these rivers made up the
Western World of the pioneers of the
Revolutionary era; the
western waters of the backwoodsmen.
But, after all, the unity of the section
and its place in his-
tory were determined by the
"beautiful river," as the French
explorers called it-the Ohio, which
pours its flood for over a
thousand miles, a great highway to the
West; a historic artery
of commerce, a wedge of advance between
powerful Indian con-
federacies, and rival European nations,
to the Mississippi Valley;
36 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
a home for six mighty States, now in the
heart of the nation,
rich in material wealth, richer in the
history of American de-
mocracy; a society that holds a place
midway between the indus-
trial sections of the seaboard and the
plains and prairies of the
agricultural west; between the society
that formed later along
the prairies about the Great Lakes, and
the society that arose
in the lower south on the plains of the
Gulf of Mexico. The
Alleghenies bound it on the East, the
Mississippi on the West.
At the forks of the great river lies
Pittsburg, the historic gate-
way to the West, the present symbol and
embodiment of the
age of steel, the type of modern
industrialism. Near its western
border is St. Louis, looking toward the
prairies, the Great Plains
and the Rocky Mountains, the land into
which the tide of modern
colonization turns.
Between these old cities for whose sites
European nations
contended, stand the cities whose growth
pre-eminently repre-
sents the Ohio Valley: Cincinnati, the
historic queen of the
river; Louisville, the warder of the
falls; the cities of the old
National road, Columbus, Indianapolis;
the cities of the Blue
Grass Land, which made Kentucky the goal
of the pioneers and
the cities of that young Commonwealth,
whom the Ohio River
by force of its attraction tore away
from an uncongenial con-
trol by the Old Dominion, and joined it
to the social section
where it belonged.
The Ohio Valley is, therefore, not only
a commercial high-
way, it is a middle Kingdom between the
East and the West,
between the Northern area, which was
occupied by a greater
New England and emigrants from Northern
Europe, and the
Southern area of the Cotton Kingdom. As
Pennsylvania and
New York constituted the middle region
in our earlier history,
between New England and the seaboard
South, so the Ohio
Valley became the middle region of a
later time. In its position
as a highway and a middle region are
found the keys to its place
in American history.
From the beginning the Ohio Valley seems
to have been a
highway for migration, and the home of a
culture of its own.
The science of American archaeology and
ethnology are too new
to enable us to speak with confidence
upon the origins and earlier
The Ohio Valley in American
History. 37
distribution of the aborigines, but it
is at least clear that the
Ohio River played an important part in
the movements of the
earlier men in America, and that the
mounds of the Valley indi-
cate a special type of development
intermediate between that of
the Northern hunter folk, and the Pueblo
building races of the
South. This dim and yet fascinating
introduction to the history
of the Ohio will afford ample
opportunity for later students of
the relations between geography and
population to contribute to
our history.
The French explorers saw the river but
failed to grasp its
significance as a strategic line in the
conquest of the West. En-
tangled in the water labyrinth of the
vast interior, and kindled
with aspirations to reach the sea of the
West, their fur traders
and explorers pushed their way through
the forests of the North
and the plains of the South, from river
to farther lake, from lake
to river, until they met the mountains
of the West. But while they
were reaching the upper course of the
Missouri and the Spanish
outposts of Santa Fe, they missed the
opportunity to hold the
Ohio Valley, and before France could
settle the Valley, the long
and attenuated line of French posts in
the West, reaching from
Canada to Louisiana, was struck by the
advancing column of
the American backwoodsmen in the center
by the way of the
Ohio Valley. Parkman, in whose golden
pages is written the
epic of the American wilderness, found
his hero in the wander-
ing Frenchman. Perhaps because he was a
New Englander he
missed a great opportunity and neglected
to portray the formation
and advance of the backwoods society
that was finally to erase
the traces of French control in the
great interior of North
America.
It is not without significance in a
consideration of the
national aspects of the history of the
Ohio Valley, that the mes-
senger of English civilization, who
summoned the French to
evacuate the Valley and its approaches,
and whose men near the
forks of the Ohio fired the opening guns
of the world historic
conflict that wrought the doom of New
France in America, was
George Washington, the first American to
win a national position
in the United States. The Father of his
country, was the prophet
of the Ohio Valley.
38
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
Into this dominion in the next scene of
this drama, came
the backwoodsmen, the men who began the
formation of the
society of the Valley. I wish to
consider the effects of the forma-
tion of this society upon the nation.
And first let us consider the
stock itself.
The Ohio Valley was settled, for the
most part (though
with important exceptions, especially in
Ohio), by men of the
upland South, and this determined a
large part of its influence
in the nation through for a long period.
As the Ohio Valley,
as a whole, was an extension of the
upland South, so the upland
South was, broadly speaking, an
extension from the old middle
region, chiefly from Pennsylvania. The society of pioneers,
English, Scotch-Irish, Germans, and
other nationalities which
formed in the beginning of the
Eighteenth Century in the Great
Valley of Pennsylvania and its lateral
extensions was the
nursery of the American backwoodsmen.
Along the Valley be-
tween about 1730 and the
Revolution, successful tides of
pioneers passed, ascending the
Shenandoah, occupying the
Piedmont, or up-country of Virginia and
the Carolinas, and re-
ceiving recruits of similar peoples who
came by eastward ad-
vances from the coast toward this old
West. Thus by the mid-
dle of the Eighteenth Century a new
section had been created
in America, a kind of peninsula thrust
down from Pennsylvania
between the falls of the rivers bounding
the tide water South
on the one side, and the Allegheny
mountains on the other.
This population was a mixture of
nationalities and re-
ligions. Less English than the colonial
coast, it was built on a
basis of religious feeling different
from that of Puritan New
England, and still different from the
conservative, Anglicans of
the Southern seaboard. The Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians with
the fires of the covenant in their
veins; German Sectaries with
serious-minded devotion to one or
another of a multiplicity of
sects, but withal deeply responsive to
the call of the religious
spirit; and the English Quakers all
furnish a foundation of
emotional responsiveness to religion and
a readiness to find a
new heaven and a new earth in politics
as well as in religion.
In spite of all the influence of the
backwoods in diminishing the
religious impulse, this upland society
was a fertile field for
The Ohio Valley in American
History. 39
tillage by such democratic and emotional
sects as the Baptists,
Methodists and the later Campbellites,
as well as by Pres-
byterians. Mr. Bryce has well
characterized the South as a
region of "High Religious
Voltage," but this characterization
is especially applicable to the upland
South, and its colonies in
the Ohio Valley. It is not necessary to
assert that this re-
ligious spirit resulted in the kind of
conduct, associated with the
religious life by the Puritans. What I
wish to point out is the
responsiveness of the upland South to
emotional religious and
political appeal.
Besides its variety of stocks and its
religious sects respon-
sive to emotion, the upland South was
intensely democratic and
individualistic. It believed also that
government was a con-
tract and for the benefit of the
individual. It was a naturally
radical society. It was moreover a rural
section not of the
planter or merchant type, but
characterized by the small farmer,
building his log cabin in the
wilderness, raising a little crop and
a few animals for family use. It was
this stock which began
to pass into the Ohio Valley when Daniel
Boone, and the
pioneers associated with his name,
followed the Wilderness
Trace from the upland South to the Blue
Grass land in the
midst of the Kentucky hills, on the Ohio
River. In the open-
ing years of the Revolution these
pioneers were recruited by
westward extensions from Pennsylvania
and West Virginia.
With this colonization of the Ohio
Valley, begins a new chapter
in American history.
This settlement contributed a new
element to our national
development and raised new national
problems. It took a long
time for the seaboard South to
assimilate the upland section.
We cannot think of the South as a unit,
certainly not through
much of its ante-bellum history without
doing violence to the
facts. The struggle between the men of
the up-country and
the men of the tide-water, made a large
part of the domestic
history of the "Old South."
Nevertheless, the upland South
as slavery and cotton cultivation
extended westward from the
coast, gradually lost its individuality.
On the other hand, its
children, who placed the wall of the
Alleghenies between them
and the East, gave thereby a new life to
the conditions and
40 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
ideals which were lost in their former
home. Nor was this all.
Beyond the mountains new conditions, new
problems aroused
new ambitions and new social ideals. Its
entrance into the West-
ern World was a tonic to this stock. Its
crossing put new fire
into its veins-fires of militant
expansion, creative social en-
ergy, triumphant democracy. A new
section was added to the
American nation, a new element was
infused into the combina-
tion which we call the United States, a
new flavor was given to
the American spirit.
Let us rapidly note some of the results,
and first the na-
tional effects of the settlement of this
new social type in the
Ohio Valley upon the expansion and
diplomacy of the nation.
Almost from the first the Ohio Valley
had constituted the
problem of Westward expansion. It was
the entering wedge
to the possession of the Mississippi
Valley, and, however re-
luctantly, the Eastern colonies and then
the Eastern States,
were compelled to join in the struggle,
first to possess the Ohio,
then to retain it, and finally to
enforce its demand for the pos-
session of the whole Mississippi Valley
and the basin of the
Great Lakes as a means of outlet for its
crops and of defense
for its settlements. The part played by
the pioneers of the Ohio
Valley as a flying column of the nation,
sent across the moun-
tains and making a line of advance
between hostile Indians and
English on the North, and hostile
Indians and Spaniards on
the South, is itself too extensive a
theme to be more than men-
tioned. In the State which was the home
of George Rogers
Clark it is not necessary to dwell upon
his clear insight and
courage in carrying American arms into
the Northwest. From
the first, Washington also grasped the
significance of the Ohio
Valley as a rising empire, whose
population and trade were es-
sential to the nation, but which found
its natural outlet down the
Mississippi where Spain blocked the
river and which was in
danger of withdrawing from the weak
confederacy. The in-
trigues of England to attract the Valley
to herself and those of
Spain to add the settlements to the
Spanish Empire, the use of
the Indians by these rivals, and the
efforts of France to use the
pioneers of Kentucky to win New Orleans
and the whole Val-
ley between the Alleghenies and the
Rocky Mountains for a re-
The Ohio Valley in American
History. 41
vived French Empire in America, are
among the fascinating
chapters of American, as well as of Ohio
Valley, history. This
position of the Valley explains much of
the Indian wars, the
foreign relations, and, indirectly, the
domestic politics of the
period from the Revolution to the
purchase of Louisiana. In-
deed, that purchase was in large measure
due to the pressure of
the settlers of the Ohio Valley to
secure this necessary outlet.
It was the Ohio Valley which forced the
nation away from a
narrow colonial attitude into its career
as a nation among other
nations with an adequate physical basis
for future growth.
In this development of a foreign policy
in connection with
the Ohio Valley, we find the germs of
the Monroe doctrine, and
the beginnings of the definite
independence of the United States
from the state system of the Old World,
the beginning, in fact,
of its career as a world power. This
expansive impulse went
on into the War of 1812, a war which was
in no inconsiderable
degree, the result of the aggressive
leadership of a group of men
from Kentucky and Tennessee, and
especially of the daring and
lofty demands of Henry Clay, who even
thus early voiced the
spirit of the Ohio Valley. That in this
war, William Henry
Harrison and the Kentucky troops
achieved the real conquest
of the northwest province and Andrew
Jackson, with his Ten-
nesseans, the real conquest of the Gulf
Plains is in itself
abundant evidence of the part played in
the expansion of the
nation by the section which formed on
the Ohio and its tribu-
taries. Nor was this the end of the
process, for the annexation
of Texas and the Pacific Coast was in a
very real sense only an
aftermath of the same movement of
expansion.
While the Ohio Valley was leading the
way to the building
of a greater nation, it was also the
field wherein was formed
an important contribution of the United
States to political in-
stitutions. By this I mean what George
Bancroft has well called
Federal Colonial System, that is our
system of territories and
new States. It is a mistake to attribute
this system to the Or-
dinance of 1787 and to the leadership of
New England. It was
in large measure the work of the
communities of the Ohio Val-
ley who wrought out the essentials of
the system for them-
42 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
selves, and by their attitude imposed
it, of necessity, upon the
nation. The great Ordinance only
perfected the system.
Under the belief that all men going into
vacant lands have
the right to shape their own political
institutions, the riflemen
of Western Virginia, Western
Pennsylvania, Kentucky and
Tennessee, during the Revolution,
protested against the rule of
governments beyond the mountains, and
asserted with manly in-
dependence their right to self
government. But it is significant
that in making this assertion, they at
the same time petitioned
Congress to admit them to the Sisterhood
of States. Even when
leaders like Wilkinson were attempting
to induce Kentucky to
act as an independent nation, the
national spirit of the people
as a whole led them to delay until at
last they found themselves
a State of the new Union. This
recognition of the paramount
authority of Congress and this demand
for self-government un-
der that authority, constitute the
foundations of the Federal
Territorial System, as expressed in
congressional resolutions,
worked out tentatively in Jefferson's
Ordinance of 1784, and
finally shaped in the Ordinance of 1787.
Thus the Ohio Valley
was not only the area to which this
system was applied, but it
was itself instrumental in shaping the
system by its own de-
mands and by the danger that too
rigorous an assertion
of either State or national power over
these remote com-
munities might result in their loss to
the nation. The im-
portance of this result can hardly be
overestimated. It insured
the peaceful and free development of the
great West and gave
it political organization not as the
result of the wars of hostile
States, nor by arbitrary government of
distant powers, but by
territorial government combined with
large local autonomy.
These governments in turn were admitted
as equal States of
the Union. By this peaceful process of
colonization a whole
continent has been filled with free and
orderly Commonwealths
so quietly, so naturally, that we can
only appreciate the pro-
found significance of the process by
comparing it with the
spread of European conquests through
conquests and oppres-
sion.
Next let me invite your attention to the
part played by the
Ohio Valley in the economic legislation
which shaped our his-
The Ohio Valley in American
History. 43
tory in the years of the making of the
legislation between the
War of 1812 and the rise of the slavery
struggle. It needs but
slight reflection to discover that in
the area in question, the man
and measures of the Ohio Valley held the
balance of power and
set the course of our national progress.
The problems before
the nation at that time were problems of
internal development:
the mode of dealing with the public
domain; the building of
roads and digging of canals for the
internal improvement of a
nation which was separated into East and
West by the Alle-
gheny Mountains; the formation of a
tariff system for the pro-
tection of home industries and to supply
a market for the sur-
plus of the West which no longer found
an outlet in warring
Europe; the framing of a banking and
currency system which
should meet the needs of the new
interstate commerce produced
by the rise of the Western surplus.
In the Ohio Valley, by the initiative of
Ohio Valley men,
and often against the protest of Eastern
sections, the public land
policy was developed by laws which
subordinated the revenue
idea to the idea of the upbuilding of a
democracy of small land-
holders. The squatters of the Ohio
Valley forced the passage
of pre-emption laws and these laws in
their turn led to the
homestead agitation. There has been no
single element more in-
fluential in shaping American democracy
and its ideals than this
land policy. And whether the system be
regarded as harmful
or helpful, there can be, I think, no
doubt that it was the out-
come of conditions imposed by the
settlers of the Ohio Valley.
When one names the tariff, internal
improvements and the
bank, he is bound to add the title
"The American System" and
to think of Henry Clay of Kentucky, the
captivating young
statesman, who fashioned a national
policy, raised issues and
disciplined a party to support them and
who finally imposed the
system upon the nation. But however
clearly we recognize the
genius and originality of Henry Clay as
a political leader; how-
ever we recognize that he has a national
standing as a construc-
tive statesman, we must perceive, if we
probe the matter deep-
ly enough, that his policy and his power
grew out of the
economic and social conditions of the
people whose needs be
voiced-the people of the Ohio Valley. It
was the fact that in
44 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
this period they had begun to create an
agricultural surplus,
which made the necessity for this
legislation. The nation has
just celebrated the anniversary of
Fulton's invention of the
steamboat and the Hudson River has been
ablaze in his honor,
but in truth it is on the Ohio and the
Mississippi that the fires
of celebration should really burn in
honor of Fulton, for the
historic significance to the United
States of the invention of the
steamboat does not lie in its use on
Eastern rivers; not even in
its use on the ocean; for our own
internal commerce carried in
our own ships has had a vaster influence
upon our national life
than has our foreign commerce. And this
internal commerce
was at first, and for many years, the
commerce of the Ohio
Valley carried by way of the
Mississippi. When Fulton's steam-
boat was applied in 1811 to the
Western waters, it became pos-
sible to develop agriculture and to get
the Western crops rapid-
ly and cheaply to a market. The result
was a tremendous growth
in the entire Ohio Valley, but this
invention did not solve the
problem of cheap supplies of Eastern
manufacturers, nor sat-
isfy the desire of the West to build up
its own factories in or-
der to consume its own products. The
Ohio Valley had seen the
advantage of home markets, as her towns
grew up with their
commerce and manufacturers close to the
rural regions. Lands
had increased in value in proportion to
their nearness to these
cities, and crops were in higher demand
near them. Thus Henry
Clay found a whole section standing
behind him when he de-
manded a protective tariff to create
home markets on a national
scale, and when he urged the breaking of
the Allegheny barrier
by a national system of roads and
canals. If we analyze the
Congressional votes by which the great
tariff and internal im-
provement act were passed, we shall find
that there was an al-
most unbroken South against them, a
middle region largely for
them, a New England divided, and the
Ohio Valley almost a
unit, holding the balance of power and
casting it in favor of the
American system.
The next topic to which I ask your
attention is the influence
of the Ohio Valley in the promotion of
democracy. On this I
shall by reason of lack of time be
obliged merely to point out
that the powerful group of Ohio Valley
States, which sprang
The Ohio Valley in American History. 45
out of the democracy of the backwoods,
and which entered the
Union one after the other with manhood
suffrage, greatly re-
cruited the effective forces of
democracy in the Union. Not
only did they add new recruits, but by
their competitive pressure
for population they forced the older
States to break down their
historic restraints upon the right of
voting, unless they were
to lose their people to the freer life
of the West. But in the era
of Jacksonian Democracy, Henry Clay and
his followers en-
gaged the great Tennessean in a fierce
political struggle out of
which was born the rival Whig and
Democratic parties. This
struggle was in fact reflective of the
conditions which had arisen
in the Ohio Valley. As the section had
grown in population
and wealth, as the trails changed into
roads, the cabins into
well-built houses, the clearings into
broad farms, the hamlets
into towns; as barter became commerce
and all the modern pro-
cesses of industrial development began
to operate in this rising
region, the Ohio Valley broke apart into
the rival interests of
the industrial forces (the town-makers
and the business-build-
ers), on the one side and the old rural
democracy of the up-
lands on the other. This division was
symbolical of national
processes. In the contest between
these forces, Andrew
Jackson
was the champion of the cause of the upland
democracy. He denounced the money power,
banks and the
whole credit system and sounded a fierce
tocsin of danger
against the increasing influence of
wealth in politics. Henry
Clay, on the other hand, represented
these new industrial forces
along the Ohio. It is certainly
significant that in the rivalry
between the great Whig of the Ohio
Valley and the great Demo-
crat of its Tennessee tributary lay the
issues of American poli-
tics almost until the slavery struggle.
The responsiveness of the Ohio Valley to
leadership and its
enthusiasm in action are illustrated by
the Harrison campaign
of 1840; in that log cabin campaign the
Ohio Valley carried its
spirit as well as its political favorite
throughout the nation.
Meanwhile, on each side of the Ohio
Valley, other sections
were forming. New England and the children
of New England
in Western New York and an increasing
flood of German immi-
grants were pouring into the Great Lake
Basin and the Prairies,
46
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
north of the upland peoples who had
chopped out homes in the
forests along the Ohio. This section was
tied to the East by the
Great Lake navigation and the Erie
Canal, it became in fact
an extension of New England and New
York. Here the Free
Soil Party found its strength and New
York newspapers fur-
nished the political ideas. Although
this section tried to attach
the Ohio River interests to itself by
canals and later by railroads,
it was in reality for a long time
separate in its ideals and its
interests and never succeeded in
dominating the Ohio Valley.
On the South along the Gulf Plains there
developed the
Cotton Kingdom, a greater South with a
radical program of
slavery expansion mapped out by bold and
aggressive leaders.
Already this Southern section had
attempted to establish increas-
ing commercial relations with the Ohio
Valley. The staple-
producing region was the principal
consumer of the live stock
and food products of the Ohio Valley.
South Carolina leaders
like Calhoun tried to bind the Ohio
Valley to the chariot of the
South by the Cincinnati and Charleston
Railroad, designed to
make an outlet for the Ohio Valley
products to the Southeast.
Georgia in her turn was a rival with
South Carolina in plans to
drain this commerce to the Gulf. In all
of these plans to connect
the Ohio Valley commercially with the
South, the political object
was quite as prominent as the
commercial.
In short, the radical areas were bidding
for the support of
the zone of population along the Ohio
River. The Ohio Valley
recognized its old relationship to the
South, but its people were
by no means champions of slavery. In the
southern portion of
the States north of the Ohio where
indented servitude for many
years opened a way to a semi-system of
slavery, there were
divided counsels. Kentucky also spoke
with no certain voice.
As a result, it is in these regions that
we find the stronghold of
the compromising movement in the slavery
struggle. In spite of
the fact that Kentucky furnished Abraham
Lincoln to Illinois,
and Jefferson Davis to Mississippi,
Kentucky was in reality the
very center of the region of adjustment
between these rival in-
terests. Senator Thomas, of Southern
Illinois, moved the Mis-
souri Compromise, but Henry Clay was the
most effective cham-
pion of that compromise, as he was the
architect of the Com-
The Ohio Valley in American
History. 47
promise of 1850. The Crittenden
Compromise Proposals at the
eve of the Civil War came also from
Kentucky and represent
the persistence of the spirit of Henry
Clay. In short, 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 in his policy of
Emancipation, we may see the pro-
found 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 this great man.
Ladies and gentlemen, 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 great men 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 this section, where
the first trans-Allegheny 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 Val-
ley 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.
THE PLACE OF THE
OHIO VALLEY
IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER.
Professor of History, University of
Wisconsin.
[Mr. Turner, until the fall of 1910, was
professor of American His-
tory in the University of Wisconsin. He
is now professor of Western
American History at Harvard University
and the past year (1910) was
president of the American Historical
Association. He delivered the ad-
dress herewith published at the meeting
of the Ohio Valley Historical
Association, held at Frankfort,
Kentucky, October 16, 1909.-EDITOR.]
In a notable essay Professor Josiah
Royce, of Harvard
University, has asserted the salutary
influence of a highly organ-
ized provincial life in order to
counteract certain evils arising
from the tremendous development of
nationalism in our own
day. Among these evils he
enumerates: First, The frequent
changes of dwelling place, whereby the
community is in danger
of losing the well knit organization of
a common life; second,
the tendency to reduce variety in
national civilization to assim-
ilate all to a common type and thus
discourage individuality, and
produce a "remorseless
mechanism-vast, irrational;" third, the
evils arising from the fact that waves
of emotion, the passion
of the mob, tend in our day to sweep
across the nation.
Against these national surges of feeling
Professor Royce
would erect dikes in the form of
provincialism, the resistance of
separate sections each with its own
traditions, beliefs and aspira-
tions. "Our national unities have
grown so vast, our forces of
social consolidation so paramount, the
resulting problems, con-
flicts, evils, have become so
intensified, he says, that we must
seek in the province renewed strength,
usefulness and beauty
of American life.
Whatever may be thought of this
philosopher's appeal for
a revival of sectionalism, on a higher
level, in order to check
the tendencies to a deadening uniformity
of national consolidation
and to me this appeal, under the
limitations which he gives it,
(32)