CHAPTER III.

THE UPPER VALLEY DURING THE WAR.

The people of the Southern Valley had lost about four fifths of their property during the war, and found numerous and great embarrassments, at first, in their efforts to employ the remainder as an effective base for the recovery of prosperity. In addition, they had lost much of their best and most energetic population, and the stimulus of lively hope. Dark clouds lay on their future, gloom rested on their minds, and discouragement sapped their energies. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the upper Valley had gained, at least, as much as the war had cost them, and invested it in important and valuable improvements that would pay a large interest in the long future. General prosperity attended them during all the desperate struggle-after it had been taken into the account as an unavoidable fact.

Although they had formerly been largely dependent on the river system for transportation, the railroads had delivered them from it after 1850, and their activities were scarcely embarrassed, after the first year of confusion, by the blockade of the Mississippi. Their chief trade had come to be with the East, and with Europe from eastern ports, and the requirements of the armies had made up the loss of Southern sales. The West had sent about a million of its able-bodied men to the armies that were making such havoc in the South, and was receiving good pay from the Government for feeding them there. Their places were partly supplied by immigra tion, for more than 550,000 foreigners had come into the North during the four years of the war, and a large part had been attracted to the West by its prosperity and the large wages paid to laborers. The remaining loss was more than met by

PROGRESS OF THE UPPER VALLEY DURING THE WAR. 407

the increase of labor-saving agricultural machinery. The free circulation of money had given all the stimulus required. Development had been uninterrupted, and perhaps greater than if there had been no thunder of cannon or rattle of musketry from Kansas to the Potomac. When the war closed, therefore, the West had never been so prosperous. The public debt, which had put so much money in circulation, would make itself felt in the future, but, for the present, the preservation of the Union and the general extreme prosperity were the prominent facts.

During the war about 1,500 miles of railroad had been built in the northern Valley-about as much as the length of one trunk line from the Atlantic shore to the Mississippi. Four great lines, with innumerable feeders, extended from the center of Iowa and Missouri to eastern tidewater, besides the water route of the lakes and the Erie canal. These transported the stock, the pork and the grain of the West to the best markets, as well as transferred the munitions of war and army supplies. No cordon of armed vessels beleagured the Atlantic ports; no international law prevented free intercourse with the world beyond the ocean, and profitable trade and commerce went on as usual. It was well for the North that this ample outlet had been put in good working order before the breaking out of the conflict. By it she had full command of all her resources and could take full advantage of the openings for traffic and the profusion of money.

Machinery for conducting agriculture over the smooth areas of the northern Valley, whereby multitudes of men could be spared, had already been invented and introduced before the war, and many establishments for multiplying them had been constructed even as far west as the Mississippi. To press their production and dispersion over all the prairie States was easy. Frequently one man could do the work of ten, by their help, and there was, therefore, ample opportunity to raise all the food that could be sold. The increase of manufactures

everywhere called for larger harvests every year; the great consumption and waste of war increased the demand, and foreign export continually increased. No class of the people were more prosperous than the farmers-except the army contractors. It was a most salutary fact and helped much to lay a base for the future and to offset the demoralization inevitable in a state of war. The prosperity of this class, and the necessity of manufacturing for them, invited the establishment of that industry on a larger scale, in the West, built up the cities and towns, and furnished millions more of artisans to be fed at home.

The creation of the greenback, or Government money, was one of the important circumstances of the situation. It gave a vigor of life and activity to all kinds of business that otherwise must have felt the impoverishment of war. As it was, the extraordinary resources of the Valley were drawn out, profitable trade was maintained, the money was scattered far and wide to benefit every class of the people and stimulate every kind of production. The actual gain in capital, and in preparation for future production and a higher degree of prosperity, must have been fully equal to all the immense expenditures of the war.

Thus, when the war closed, everything was ready in the North for an unexampled spring of progress. Skilled mechanics and laborers, in every branch of manufacture, had been gathered and trained; farms had been put in the best order; careful organization of all branches of business left no time to be wasted in preliminaries; and the temper of the people was at the right pitch for the production of the greatest possible results. It was as fine a situation, as full of hope and promise, as that of the South was sad and dark.

Nothing could show more impressively the advantage of a free and intelligent laboring class, than the strong contrast here suggested by the condition of the sections. The unhappy South drank the dregs of the cup of confusion and trouble

THE CONTRAST OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH.

409

that a false and illogical policy had poured out for her. Had the Northern people lost all, as the Southern had done, they would still have had the skillful hand and intelligently trained muscles of their laborers to re-create capital. These would have been of more value to the South than thousands of millions of money.

CHAPTER IV.

THE NEW STARTING POINT.

It is seen that war had wasted only the South, drained it of capital and left it helpless; while the most that had been spent on armaments and supplies had tended to assist and enrich the people of the North, and especially those living in the Valley.

The new starting point presented features of promise more inspiring than had ever before smiled on that region. The extent and variety of its resources were evidently so great that no conceivable disaster could really interrupt, or seriously check, the progress of its people. It could sustain the loss of hundreds of thousands of its best citizens without losing the momentum of industrial advance; it could meet every possible demand for its productions which could arise in the country or come from foreign lands; it could so sustain the credit of the whole country by its boundless possibilities that the waste of three thousand millions of treasure could be borne with little difficulty; it could, perhaps, replace them by its surplus earnings while the shock of armies and navies was causing the whole continent to tremble. The war was a singularly triumphant test of the ability of the country to stand any strain, to meet any possible call. At the close of that mighty struggle all the channels of its industry and trade were full to overflowing, ready to spread out over the devastated South, and to employ all the abilities and facilities that had been occupied for years in the armies and navies of the nation. No soldier and no ship need fail of full and profitable opportunities for such service as their soundness could render. It was discovered to have the widest margin for "profit and loss " of any country under the sun. This was the base for its new start.