Yet the Exposition marks the culmination of the process of
transformation with which this volume has dealt. Beginning with
nationalism, the period ends with sectionalism. Beginning with unity
of party and with the almost complete ascendancy of republicanism of
the type of Monroe, it ends with sharply distinguished rival
parties, as yet unnamed, but fully organized, and tending to differ
fundamentally on the question of national powers. From the days when
South-Carolinians led in legislation for tariff and internal
improvements, when Virginians promoted the Colonization Society, and
Georgians advocated the policy of mitigating the evils of slavery by
scattering the slaves, we have reached the period when a united
south protests against "the American system," and the lower south
asserts that slavery must not be touched--not even discussed.
In various southern states the minority counties of the coast,
raising staples by slave labor, had protected their property
interests against the free majority of farmers in the interior
counties by so apportioning the legislature as to prevent action by
the majority.
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