CHAPTER IX 



A HALF-CENTURY OF GROWTH 



The fifty years from the close of the second war with 

 Great Britain to the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty 

 in 1866 are filled with many important events in the po- 

 litical history of the country as well as being the years dur- 

 ing which the internal improvements of the country were 

 fostered and developed. It is the period of slavery agita- 

 tion, of the war with Mexico and the Civil War, of in- 

 creased transportation facilities by the construction of high- 

 ways, canals, and railroads, of the growth of the Middle 

 West and of the beginnings of American civilization upon 

 the Pacific coast. 



With the exception of taking an active part in the naval 

 history of the Civil War, the fisherman of New England ap- 

 pears to have played an unimportant role in the national 

 movements of this half -century. Neither the rich valley of 

 the Mississippi nor the gold of California attracted 

 him from his nets and boats. His was the oldest industry 

 of the land one not to be exchanged easily for any of the 

 alluring vocations that were opening daily in the new 

 West. But if he was unwilling to participate actively in 

 the new movements going on about him there was no escape, 

 and no desire for escape, from the influences that enhanced 

 his own calling. With increased facilities for transporta- 

 tion came the expansion of the Baltimore oyster industry 

 beyond the Alleghenies. The opening of the Erie canal 

 was the signal for the entrance into the Mississippi Valley 

 of the best quality of Gloucester codfish, which formerly 



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