The best result of the war was the rapid increase of American manufactories, caused by the impossibility, during the blockade, of obtaining goods from abroad. After the blockade was raised many of these manufactories were ruined, in consequence of the sudden influx of foreign goods, but the impetus given had been a healthy one, and home industries had received a start, at least. Agricultural products greatly increased in value, land and labor rose in proportion, and the shipping interests of the country grew more prosperous than ever. During this period there was evinced a growing tendency to the division of the country into a Northern and a Southern section. In the one, free labor and advancing commercial and manufacturing interests created one set of conditions, while in the South, slave labor and developing agricultural wealth induced quite another. With the invention of the cotton-gin, in 1791, cotton quickly rose to a prominent position among American industries. Slave labor, which had been growing undesirable, now became of high value, and the slaves in the country increased from 657,047 in 1790 to--in round numbers--1,600,000 in 1820. By this time slavery had almost vanished from the North, and the industrial interests of the country were becoming so widely different that the character of the people could not avoid suffering proportionate changes. In the North industry was commended above all things, and the worker was the peer of any man--theoretically speaking. In the South labor was looked down upon, and the planter gave himself up to social pleasures, even leaving the overseeing of his estate in the hands of an agent. While the tendency in the North was the breaking down of all class distinction, the South was becoming more and more of an aristocracy. This diversity of conditions was destined to increase with time, until its final outcome was most inevitably war for the preservation of those principles of freedom and democracy, on which the Union was founded, and on which its existence depends. During this period, also, the West was filling up with remarkable rapidity. State after State was admitted, until, by 1820, the original thirteen were increased to twenty-four. All the States east of the Mississippi were admitted by this time, and west of the river were Missouri and Louisiana. It was a very rude population that filled the frontier. Refugees from all the Eastern States fled to escape justice, and finally formed the majority of the inhabitants. For many years villainy reigned supreme, but the invading march of civilization gradually introduced a better element, and the West offered a less attractive harbor to the unregenerate.