lus three-fifths of slaves. Many more compromises were made during this time. All of these compromises, however fair, increased a sense of separation between the North and South, with the obvious effect of instilling a sense of nationality in the Southern states. When the time came to ratify the Constitution, many new problems arose. In Virginia, the Antifederalists attacked the proposed new government by challenging the opening phrase of the Constitution: "We the People of the United States." Without using the individual state names in the Constitution, these delegates argued, the states would not retain their separate rights or powers. Wavering delegates were persuaded by a proposal that the Virginia convention recommend a bill of rights, and Antifederalists joined with the Federalists to ratify the Constitution on June 25. This idea of dissolving the individual states into the union is very important in Southern nationalism and can be considered a cause of the Civil War.Later, as a national equilibrium was being reached, the issue of slavery, which had up to now received little public attention, began to assume much greater importance as a national issue. In the early years of the republic, when the Northern states were providing for immediate or gradual emancipation of the slaves, many leaders had supposed that slavery would die out. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had banned slavery in the Northwest Territory. As late as 1808, when the international slave trade was abolished, there were many Southerners who thought that slavery would soon end. The expectation proved false, for during the next generation, the South became solidly united behind the institution of slavery as new economic factors made slavery far more profitable than it had been before 1790. Chief among these was the rise of a great cotton-growing industry in the South, stimulated by the introduction of new types of cotton and by Eli Whitney's invention in 1793 of the...
