VIII 



Millions in Tassel 



WHATEVER else the trial of Aaron Burr accomplished, 

 it had the effect of putting the corn belt on the map. 



Those who had grumbled over the purchase of Louisiana as 

 an unwarranted expense awoke to the fact that the lands added 

 to the country's boundaries had a value estimable in dollars. 

 The eastern states, proud of their humming little mills, their 

 inventions, their Yankee notions and gadgets, proud of their 

 steamboat chug-chugging up the Hudson, suddenly became 

 aware that the fertile bottom lands of the midwest put farm- 

 ing on a basis with banking, with cotton-spinning and manu- 

 facturing. 



Up to that time the majority of Americans thought of a 

 farm as land which gave those who worked it provided they 

 were industrious and lucky shelter, food and some homespun 

 clothing. But the idea of a farm which paid its owner cash 

 dividends was brand new. It was also, to the New England 

 mind, slightly shocking. 



Didn't the Bible say, "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou 

 eat bread"? It didn't say anything about getting rich raising 

 a thousand times more food than a man needed for himself 

 and his family, and selling this to city dwellers a thousand 

 miles away. 



The second war with England which was urged on the 

 country by the southern planters and midwestern corn farm- 

 ers made the eastern industrialists even more conscious of an 

 up and coming agrarian population living west of the Alle- 

 ghenies. 



During the struggle, and after it, the agrarian interests held 



134 



