Weekly national intelligencer., 1857-10-10
THE PANIC AND ITS CAUSES.

~.
THE PANIC AND ITS CAUSES.
In alfudlng few days ago to the financial " pa
nic, the baleful consequences of which are now
so widespread through the country, we remarked
upon the impractical wisdom displayed by some of
our contemporaries, who in their concern to dis
cover and proclaim the recondite causes of the ex-
lsting crisis seemed to neglect the more immediate
Importance of indicating first and foremost the
really causeless nature of the panic itself, and thus
seeking to restore the popular confidence so unne-
cessarily, but for that none the less ruinously
shaken In the subjoined editorial article, however,
which we transfer from New York journal, the
reader viii find the causes and the remedy of the
prevailing disorder in monetary affairs discussed
In their proper relation and connexions the inteli-
gent treatment bestowed on the former not having
diverted the writer's attention from the eonsdera-
tion of what he regards as the most pressing need
of the tmes-the resuscitation of public confidence,
suffering from panic fears
The article is valuable also for the light it ind-
rectly sheds upon financial questions which once d.
vided the country and formed the basis of party
divisions and contest among US. We allude espe-
eiay to the fact it adduces with regard to the
no1n position. occupied in our monetary world
x shs Es of New York, which, in the absence
of If the United States, have become, by
virtue Of their location and resources, the great
regulators of our currency thus exposing our
finances to all the dangers deemed incident to the
latter Institution, without any of its compensations
al Afc 10
hberations, and by which it was not only enabled
from time to time to adjust its financial policy to
the condition of the country, present and future,
but to restrain the local institutions within safe
line of business and thus preserve the currency in
sound condition, giving confidence and safety to
the whole fiscal operations of the country.
The great reyulsions which periodically overtake
us in our haste to accumulate wealth have their
origin doubtless in that passion for rapid accumu-
lation and consequent oUer-trading which peryade
all classes of the community and infect nearly every
species of business activity. The consciousness of
this it is which renders each individual so suscep-
tble to panic that single disaster in remote
quarter of the country is found enough to raise and
propagate through all ranks of society the craven
and selfish cry of sauUe gui peut.
But our object in these predatory remarks was
merely to introduce and commend to our readers the
following wellconsdered and sensible observations
bearing upon this question, and which, if we mis-
take not, will be found to contain a more philo-
sophical treatment of its merits than is commonly
found in the hasty reflections of the public press
FROM THE NEW YORK EXPRESS OF OCTOBER g.
THE MONEY CRISIS.
We have said but little upon this crisis in editorial
columns because it is of to with panic
any more than to with whirlwind earth
quake, all very unreasonable and irresistible elements
of human destruction The panic here must have its
and exhaust ITSELF and the very effort stop
enrages it. Nevertheless it is public duty examine
the of this panic, for by the examination per-
haps may analyze and hereafter arrest like causes
and % the public from disturbance fatal as this
has been TO commerce, trade, and manufactures.
The first cause, doubtless is paper-money SYSTEM
2 which is both public and public blessing
ears in that it is bect such panic his and
thus becomes the of such destruction we see
and blessing in that it gives the credit and character
of the poor the humble and the enterprisng the capital
and the of the powerful and the rich The
of the system is obvious in violent and frightful
contraction, which the banks have been scared into
making of the currency of the country; but the bless
ing is obvious too, in the way poor of character
rise aad in the way the country and the people shoot
ahead of al other countries on the earth. specie
currency alone is barbaric idea, and mpossbiity
among commercial men-the merest chimera in the
world which theorists and gnoramuses may ad-
mirably about on paper, but which, whenever and
wherever actised grnds the face of the poor under
the null o. capital Nevertheless gold and silver
the only test of values and the great of inter
change with the world; and hence whatever cannot
stand their test must crumble and fall when the test is
demanded. Houses lands, ships, farms, and railroads
may be the 5cds cf trade and commerce; but the SOUL
the spirit is the precious metal and the body cannot
exist without the soul As health is indispensable to
life specie indispensable to the elements of
this le-eommereal, manufacturing, and agricultural
To active business minds these facts clear but they
not clear to the multitude, who because of the
of credit would sink the country into the slough
of hard-money currency only.
The banks of this ey-Whieh, the absence of Uni
ted States Bank the great regulators of the
cOuntry-the last ezpanded when if their Off
had read the newspapers and particularly if they
had marked the amount foreign importaons with the
notices given of Western land speecations they ought
to have contracted. The rates of exchange Europe,
AMI the struggle for money to be laid out in Illinois,
lows, Minnesota Nebraska and Kansas lands
ought to have admonished then thf expansion wrong,
If not necessary. Nevertheless they Went
ON erpaadsaq until the Ohio Life and Trust Company
broke from shesr mismanagenent and folly, which,
gether with the lure of the Mechanics Banking Asso-
ciation seasd the backs here into sudden and violent
- s;isa of millions The New York scare at once
Ppread N and wide for New York began calling upon
parts the United States Tor specie and for every
dollar specie brought here from the country there
hundred dollars of contraction o. currency in paper
money elsewhere As fortified ourselves, others be-
gan break The laboring classes became frightened