The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-02-15


SATURDAY.. FEBRUARY is. 1851.
xbe Hbh and Flow Of Credit.
1sch speculation and controversy are usually
employed 70 account for commercial rev ulsions
Ths policy Of governments the faars ofcrops,
fhs supply Of prscious metals, the establishment
a new manufactures, the discovery Of new
shannsls Of trade, are al more Or Tess rolled on
= The causes Of commercial expansion or col
hpss.
But the greatest cause Of all IL the ebb and
aow Of credit The undisciplinsd pasadena and
hcult:es Of man keep the world in continual VI
bsation, from one extreme to another, Ayarice
aud hope combine to stimulate specalations
founded on sapguine calculations Of the future !;
and when these fail, and credit is impaired, q
resasion and pAnis susss, which for a consider
able period depress all enterprise As much below
the limits Of sound judgment rs it had prsvi-
oasly scared above. This action or reaction il
ever going on, and must 80 on, whilst the mfr
mitlee Of human nature remain.
Weare now proceeding in q career Of excess
aive expansion. Credit IL extending in every
dirsction. Our mercantile debt to Europe il
angmenting. and we are rapidly contracting an
immense stock debt also to that country. Uni.
ted States stocks State stocks ., corporate stocks
Of railroad companies and cities, are going to
Europe or into European hands by millions. -
Oar domestic mercantile debt il expanding all
ouerths country. Our bank circulation is in
creasing rapidly The banks of New York
alone have already circulation Of nearly forty
miiIions-abou one-fourth of the total seircula-
ton Of all the banks Of the Union, when the
suspension Of 1887 occurred We are engaged
IN the constructions of more than six thousand
miles Of railroad, which will cost a hundred
millions Of dollars, the subscriptions to which
are chiefly debts contracted, and millions on
millions Of speculation in property are going on
~ tho result Of these improvements. On the
faith Of speculations yet to be realized, habits
Of domestic extravaganza are formed through
out the country, giving an enormous stimulus
to domestic production and foreign importation.
The enormous supply Of gold from California
and from Russia, the increased production Of sill
yer in Mexico and South America, IRE all giving
prodigious momentum to the dstempered move
msnt Of the commercial world.
Nowif no natural orpolitical occurrence should
disturb this movement; if no crop should fail, no
war arise,no policy should change; if trade should
proceed in it's accustomed channels, the aggre-
rate of credit under the impulse Of avarice and
Of hope will become too great to be supported
by any practical amount Of production or sue
cess Failures will begin, probably with some
extensive operators, whose fall will involve
others. The alarm viii! be given, panic will
be produced, credits will be refused, property
must be sacrificed, prices fall, and we shall have
the most tremendous revulsion the country has
ever experienced.
When such an event will occur it is impos-
able to foresee, because it cannot be ascertained
how much credit has already been created, nor
has it vet been ascertained how much credit a
given amount Of property will sustain; nor can
property have fixed value. All we know is,
that the value of property and the power of
labor, and Of skill are limited, and that the hopes
and dreams Of ayarice will transcend those
limits, and that the process, is now going on with
accelerated velocity.
The federal government is fully infected with
the prevalent distemper. In time Of peace its
expenditure has risen to fifty millions annually
an expenditure which is sustained entirely by
duties on imports. And these will give way at
the very commencement of the shock. The re-
duction of this expenditure will aggravate the
public Distress and will be resisted by power
full combined popular movement Of the North,
where the expenditure is made. There will be
mighty effort to keep up the expenditure by
loans; and as our credit abroad will be reduced
government paper money will be insisted on
So that we shall have terrible political crisis
coincident with commercial one
The government not content with increasing
its expendit re. has destroyed its great land
fund, by the recent acts of distribution which
will Phosphate SO much land on the market, that
the price will become nominal.
Now those who have the sagacity, self-denial,
energy and industry, to profit by the present
and impending state of affairs, will remain in
competence or wealth. amid the disasters that
are coming. But when the results are apparent,
there will be renewed and fierce complaint
against inequality Of property, by multtndes
Of those who will have wasted their property
and labor in extravagance and speculation. =
And the government will be invoked and
welded, il possible, to make some still more
decisive assault on the institution of properly
for TIE benefit Of the INDECENT the needless, the
prodigal, the unlucky.
Then will Northern property AID capital per.
eei,e the blupder they have committed in coop
Grating with federal usurpation--then will
they find they have armed and perfected a des
potism, which in time of prevalent distress, will
at the voice OF a minority Of voters, and on pre-