3HAPTEB XVIII. 



THE FIRST BLOOMINGTON, ILLS., CONVENTION. 



EFFECT OF THE WAR ON AGRICULTURE. 



From 1858 to the breaking out of the war, the subject of 

 the various taxes which all products paid before they 

 reached the consumer, were earnestly and 

 frequently discussed. But soon there 

 were mutterings of another kind, and 

 when the dogs of war were at length let 

 loose, convulsing the country from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the great 

 lakes to the Gulf, all questions were 

 dropped other than which related to the 

 salvation of our national unity. Produc 

 tion was stimulated, trade flourished, 

 prices were more and more inflated, 

 money was plenty, and farmers prospered, 

 and readily sold their surplus at remu 

 nerative prices. 



The war, however, brought into exist 

 ence a horde of speculators, who exercised 

 their enterprise and craft, not only in the 

 processes of moving, maintaining, and 



All forgotten, 

 save the Na 



tion s Unity. 



(222) 



operating large armies, but in other mat- 



