CHAPTER XX. 



THE SECOND BLOOMINGTON (ILL.) CONVENTION. 



THE STORM GATHERING. 



The Executive Committee elected at the Kewanee Con 

 vention, set immediately to work. Meetings were held, 

 speeches made, and, from a variety of causes, the existing 

 feeling became still further intensified. Undoubtedly, one 

 of the principal causes was the extraordinarily low price 

 of corn. 



The corn crop of the West, in 1872, was the largest which 

 had ever been gathered, aggregating, for the United States, 

 1,092,000,000 bushels. This, succeeding the large crops of 

 1871, had filled every crib and available storehouse to over 

 flowing. There was not sufficient stock in the country to 

 which even the half of this crop might be fed, and in con 

 sequence the markets were glutted. In many portions of 

 Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas, it was freely burned as fuel, 

 being actually cheaper, at existing prices, than either wood 

 or coal. Ten cents per bushel was the ruling price, at points 

 remote from transportation, and in many places it could not 

 be sold at all. 



Here was the last feather that broke the camel s back. 

 In many instances, it required six or seven bushels of torn 

 to get one other bushel to the eastern markets. First, were 

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