of New York lie westward of that range; but, in endeavoring to make these divisions ordinarily intelligible, I may say that the North consists of the nine States above named.  But the North will also claim Maryland and Delaware, and the eastern half of Virginia.  The North will claim them, though they are attached to the South by joint participation in the great social institution of slavery—­for Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia are slave States—­and I think that the North will ultimately make good its claim.  Maryland and Delaware lie, as it were, behind the capital, and Eastern Virginia is close upon the capital.  And these regions are not tropical in their climate or influences.  They are and have been slave States, but will probably rid themselves of that taint, and become a portion of the free North.

The Southern or slave States, properly so called, are easily defined.  They are Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.  The South will also claim Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland, and will endeavor to prove its right to the claim by the fact of the social institution being the law of the land in those States.  Of Delaware, Maryland, and Eastern Virginia, I have already spoken.  Western Virginia is, I think, so little tainted with slavery that, as she stands even at present, she properly belongs to the West.  As I now write, the struggle is going on in Kentucky and Missouri.  In Missouri the slave population is barely more than a tenth of the whole, while in South Carolina and Mississippi it is more than half.  And, therefore, I venture to count Missouri among the Western States, although slavery is still the law of the land within its borders.  It is surrounded on three sides by free States of the West, and its soil, let us hope, must become free.  Kentucky I must leave as doubtful, though I am inclined to believe that slavery will be abolished there also.  Kentucky, at any rate, will never throw in its lot with the Southern States.  As to Tennessee, it seceded heart and soul, and I fear that it must be accounted as Southern, although the Northern army has now, in May, 1862, possessed itself of the greater part of the State.

To the great West remains an enormous territory, of which, however, the population is as yet but scanty; though perhaps no portion of the world has increased so fast in population as have these Western States.  The list is as follows:  Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas to which I would add Missouri, and probably the Western half of Virginia.  We have then to account for the two already admitted States on the Pacific, California and Oregon, and also for the unadmitted Territories, Dacotah, Nebraska, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada.  I should be refining too much for my present very general purpose, if I were to attempt to marshal these huge but thinly-populated regions in either rank.  Of California and Oregon it may probably be said that it is their ambition to form themselves into a separate division—­a division which may be called the farther West.