ix
and nine millions. There is no reason to suppose that these millions in
1864 spent less on luxuries than they did in 1860. Two or three items
are enough. In 1860, the importation of silk amounted to 32 million
dollars; in 1862, in spite of inflated prices, it had shrunk to 7
millions; the consumption of malt liquors shrank from 101 million
gallons in 1860 to 62 million gallons in 1863; of coffee, hardly to be
classed as a luxury, there were consumed in 1861, 184 million pounds and
in 1863, 80 millions.

The clue to the story of capital is to be found in this fact, too often
forgotten, that there was an economic-political division cutting deep
through every stratum of the Northern people. Their economic life
as well as their political life was controlled on the one hand by a
devotion to the cause of the war, and on the other hand by a hatred
of that cause or by cynical indifference. And we cannot insist too
positively that the Government failed very largely to take this fact
into account. The American spirit of invention, so conspicuous at that
time in mechanics, did not apply itself to the science of government.
Lincoln confessedly was not a financier; his instinct was at home only
in problems that could be stated in terms of men. Witness his acceptance
of conscription and his firmness in carrying it through, as a result
of which he saved the patriotic party from bearing the whole burden of
military service. But there was no parallel conservation of power in the
field of industry. The financial policy, left in the hands of Chase, may
truly be described as barren of ideas. Incidentally, it may be mentioned
that the "loyal" North was left at the mercy of its domestic enemies and
a prey to parasites by Chase's policy of loans instead of taxes and of
voluntary support instead of enforced support.

The consequence of this financial policy was an immense opportunity for
the "disloyally" and the parasites to make huge war profits out of the
"loyals" and the Government. Of course, it must not be supposed that
everyone who seized the chance to feather his nest was so careless or so
impolitic as to let himself be classed as a "disloyal." An incident of
the autumn of 1861 shows the temper of those professed "loyals" who were
really parasites. The background of the incident is supplied by a report
of the Quartermaster-General:

"Governors daily complain that recruiting will stop unless clothing is
sent in abundance and immedi