It is not completely correct to say that the West sided with the North for this entire period. The first settlers in the West were Southerners. They were poor whites who came west because they could not really make it in the plantation economy of the South. This did not,...
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however, mean that they disliked the South, just that they wanted to go somewhere where they could have more economic opportunity.
As time went by, however, the West did come to be tied economically to the North. This came about with the creation of the Erie Canal and other canals that allowed the West to have access to Northern markets via the Great Lakes. Railroads, as they came to exist, went to the North as well. These things meant that the West had economic connections to the North and therefore "liked" the North more than the South.