176 "Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
Canadians ranged second among the foreign nationalities.” 38 
The Irish were first. 39 
It is usually stated that the Civil War acted as a stimulus to 
manufactures. Carroll D. Wright, in his “Industrial Evolution 
of the United States” says, “The North held the mechanical 
industries of the country, and naturally under the stimulus of 
war, these industries could he expanded to almost any extent, 
and they were so expanded, giving to the North every resource 
of power which mechanics give to great armies,” 40 A recent 
careful investigation, while taking a somewhat more moderate 
view, concludes that manufactures in the North recovered speed¬ 
ily from the depression of 1861 and flourished during the re¬ 
mainder of the Rebellion. 41 It is not our purpose here to de¬ 
termine whether these conditions hold good for the whole North, 
but whether they apply to Massachusetts. 
Indications of prosperity in Massachusetts during the war 
period' are to be found in' the reports of the Boston Board of 
Trade. The Board admits a falling ofl in many branches of 
business in 1861, but says “the disasters so confidently pre¬ 
dicted, have not been realized to their full extent. What a year 
of prosperity the past would have been if it were not for the 
present civil war.” 42 In reviewing the market for the year 
1862, the Report of the Board says, “The industry of Massa¬ 
chusetts, paralyzed for a short time at the commencement of the 
struggle, soon recovered from the depression . . . the re¬ 
sult of the war so far has been to impart increased activity to 
many of our leading branches of manufacture, and,, all things 
considered, the productive industry of the state was never more 
fully developed or more prosperous than at the present time.” 43 
The Reports of the Board for the two following years give us 
the same idea of the general prosperity of manufactures. 44 All 
this evidence must not be underestimated, for it is, in the main, 
38 Turvill, p. 67. 
39 ibid, p. 92. 
40 Wright, Industrial Evolution of the United States, p. 153. 
41 Fite, Prosperity During the War; A Study of Northern Conditions,., 
p. 63. 
42 Report Boston Board of Trade, 1862, p. 63. 
43 Report Boston Board of Trade, 1863, p. 43. 
44 ibid, 1864, p. 59; 1865, p. 63. 
