THE COUNTRY IN 1860–1861. [Illustration: CYRUS W. FIELD.] =447. The Sections on the Eve of the Civil War.=—If the South had been in a condition to reason calmly, the laying of the Atlantic cable, through the efforts of Cyrus W. Field,[199] might have convinced its leaders that it was useless to uphold past ideals of government and a belated institution like slavery in the face of advancing civilization. The same lesson might have been taught them by the immense growth of the North and West since 1830. The increase in area, due to the settlement of the Oregon dispute and to the territory acquired from Mexico by war and purchase, had helped freedom rather than slavery. Of the 31,443,321 inhabitants of the whole country in 1860, only a little over 12,250,000 resided in the slaveholding states, including Missouri and Delaware, and of these twelve millions slightly over a third were negroes, who were in the main slaves. Over 3,500,000 persons lived in border states which did not join the Confederacy; so that when the crisis came, only about 8,700,000 whites in the South were to be matched against the 19,000,000 whites of the North and West. The advantage on the side of freedom was not really so great as these figures would make it; for the Southerners could leave their slaves at work and could flock to the front, while the Northern people had to keep their farms and factories going as well as fight. But when all allowances are made, the balance in favor of freedom was very great. The contrast between the sections is rendered all the more striking when we observe the great urban growth in the North and West. New York City in 1860 had about eight hundred thousand inhabitants; the South contained only two fairly large cities,—New Orleans and Baltimore. The foreign immigrants, nearly five million of whom had entered the country since 1830, when immigration practically began, saw even more clearly than many Americans the differences between the sections, and settled mainly in the North and West. =448. Wealth of the Country.=—We have seen that in Jackson’s day the character of the average American became more energetic, and that the country entered upon an era of commercial expansion which even the panic of 1837 could not permanently check. The growth of manufacturing and of railroads had been enormous, chiefly in the North and West. In 1860 one billion dollars were invested in manufacturing, six billion five hundred million in farming. In the latter form of wealth the South, of course, had its share, since its cotton crops were very valuable. But the cotton was shipped in northern vessels and was exchanged for products not manufactured in the South. In the matter of railroads, a great gain had been made since 1850, twenty of the thirty thousand miles operated in 1860 having been laid within the decade.