manufactures of all kinds flourished. During 1850-60
manufacturing establishments had increased by fourteen per cent.
During 1860-70 they increased seventy-nine per cent.

The Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, opened vast areas of public
lands to a new immigration. The flow of population was westward,
and the West called for communication with the East. The Union
Pacific and Central Pacific railways, the pioneer
transcontinental lines, fostered on generous grants of land, were
the tokens of the new transportation movement. Railroads were
pushing forward everywhere with unheard-of rapidity. Short lines
were being merged into far-reaching systems. In the early
seventies the Pennsylvania system was organized and the
Vanderbilts acquired control of lines as far west as Chicago.
Soon the Baltimore and Ohio system extended its empire of trade
to the Mississippi. Half a dozen ambitious trans-Mississippi
systems, connecting with four new transcontinental projects, were
put into operation.

Prosperity is always the opportunity of the politician. What is
of greatest significance to the student of politics is that
prosperity at this time was organized on a new basis. Before the
war business had been conducted largely by individuals or
partnerships. The unit was small; the amount of capital needed
was limited. But now the unit was expanding so rapidly, the need
for capital was so lavish, the empire of trade so extensive, that
a new mechanism of ownership was necessary. This device, of
course, was the corporation. It had, indeed, existed as a trading
unit for many years. But the corporation before 1860 was
comparatively small and was generally based upon charters granted