  I've got it politically... The north had better established gov'ts...didn't rely on counties like here in the good ol' south, we have "parishes" north o' Kentucky. The merchants were the driving political force since they had all the money and bluster. Altho that's hardly saying anything about what kind of system they had...but that's what I know, so I hope that helps a bit. I need to go read, speaking of. Tata chilluns. 
