midnight
This territory had been paid for equally by the treasure and blood of all the states . Blood for land ! Then slavery on the land to raise cotton ! And was not Jefferson prophetic when he wrote that the extension of this divisional line in 1820 alarmed him like a fire bell at midnight ? It betokened sectional strife : the North against the South . And about trade ! For as the Southern States grew richer they would have more political power , could dominate the North .