What is Mason and Dixon’s line, and what were the provisions of the Missouri compromise? Who were responsible for its repeal?
R. E. Glover.
Answer.—Mason and Dixon’s line is the concurrent State line of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It is named after two eminent astronomers and mathematicians, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who were sent out from England to run it. They completed the survey between 1763 and 1767, excepting thirty-six miles surveyed in 1782 by Colonel Alex. McLean and Joseph Neville. It is in the latitude of 39 deg. 43 min. 26.3 sec. Missouri was admitted to the Union only after a long protracted and violent discussion, growing out of a provision in the State constitution sanctioning slavery. A compromise was finally effected by which the new State was admitted with slavery, with a solemn agreement that there should be no more slave States formed out of territory north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30 min., the southern boundary of Missouri. In political discussions Mason and Dixon’s line was understood to mean both of the above lines and the Ohio River, or, in other words, the boundary between free and slave territory the country through. When Kansas was thrown open to settlement the Southerners were determined, despite the Missouri compromise, to try to make Kansas a slave State. Their Representatives in Congress, with the exception of a few Whigs, united in favor of a repeal of the compromise. With the help of the Douglas Democrats in the North and several pro-slavery Whigs, they carried their point. The consequence was the bloody struggles between the free-State and pro-slavery men in the early history of Kansas, which was practically the inauguration of the war of the rebellion, although the latter did not burst into full flame until after the election of President Lincoln and the secession of the Southern States.
RATES OF INTEREST COMPARED.
Freeport, Ill.
Please give your readers a comparison of the rates of interest in England and the United States for several years back.
A. Borrower.
Answer.—Of course rates vary greatly in this country with locality. Where opportunities for profitable investment are in excess of capital, as in the Western States, rates are higher than at the great money centers. The following statement of the average rates of interest in New York City for each of the fiscal years from 1874 to 1882, inclusive, is taken from the report of the Comptroller of the Currency:
| Call loans, | Com’l paper, | |
| Years. | per cent. | per cent. |
| 1874 | 3.8 | 6.4 |
| 1875 | 3.0 | 5.8 |
| 1876 | 3.3 | 5.3 |
| 1877 | 3.0 | 5.2 |
| 1878 | 4.4 | 5.1 |
| 1879 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| 1880 | 4.9 | 5.3 |
| 1881 | 3.8 | 5.0 |
| 1882 | 4.4 | 5.4 |