Paxson—Early Railways of the Old Northwest. 255 
But when the civil war came to test the temper of the North¬ 
west, it uncovered the amazing change that two decades had 
wrought. The hopes of the confederacy to carry the Ohio Val¬ 
ley with the Mississippi were frustrated, and the activity of 
Copperheads in Indiana and Ohio could not conceal the fact 
that in the Northwest were the foundations of the Union’s 
strength. 
The growth of this sentiment of nationality in the North¬ 
west is still under investigation. It has indeed been shown 
that the attitude of the Ohio Valley did much to fix the outcome 
of the civil war. 2 But the attitude of the Valley was itself 
largely determined by its commercial cities which were units 
in an economic organization that bound the right bank of the 
Ohio to the Lakes. Where the Lake district, with its New 
England population went, the northern half of the Ohio Val¬ 
ley had to follow. Artificial bonds had created an economic 
section out of portions of two great river valleys. Geographic 
sectionalism was weakening before the hand of man, and in the 
railway systems which were created between 1848 and 1860 
may probably be found the key to the later history of the 
Northwest. 
The opening of the through line between Cincinnati and 
Sandusky, in 1848, was the initial step in the process of bind¬ 
ing the Ohio Valley to the Lakes. In 1849, the most import¬ 
ant track that was opened completed a road between Betroit 
and New Buffalo on Lake Michigan. The old state railroads of 
Michigan, undertaken lavishly in 1837, had built, collapsed, 
and passed into private hands which now hurried both the Cen¬ 
tral and Southern lines towards Chicago. Chicago was all but 
reached in 1849, yet the accomplishment was deferred until 
1852, while neither 1849 or 1850 witnessed the closing in of 
any gaps. Profuse local building had begun, however, as is 
shown by the lines pushing from Cleveland, Columbus, In¬ 
dianapolis, and Chicago into their tributary agricultural areas. 
By 1851, Cleveland was in communication with Pittsburg, by 
2 Fish.. C. R., The Decision of the Ohio Valley, in Am. Rep. Am, 
Hist. Assn., 1910. 
