For many years Americans had been unable, because of the ghost of slavery, to take full advantage of their liberties and opportunities; and now that the specter was exorcised, they gladly put aside any anxious political preoccupations.

Politics could be left to the politicians.

It was about time to get down to business.

In this happiest of all countries, and under this best of all governments, which had been preserved at such an awful cost, the good American was entitled to give his undivided attention to the great work of molding and equipping the continent for human habitation, and incidentally to the minor task of securing his share of the rewards.

A lively, even a frenzied, outburst of industrial, commercial, and speculative activity followed hard upon the restoration of peace.