The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-12-13

The resumption Of specie payments by the
banks of New York will take no one by sur
prise. For weeks the suspension has been no
minal rather than real, and while the banks
have been prudently outstanding the resources
they had, they have been daily gaining coin
from foreign ports and from every portion Of
this country. 1t is q fact which the weekly
bank reports confirm, that of the specie shipped
to England by the semi-weekly steamers, only
portion comes out of our banks; the rest, and
perhaps the bulk Of the shipment, comes out of
the pockets Of private individuals and the safes
of money brokers'
thing SO much or 80 forcibly as the intrinsic
wealth Of the American people. Though, when
this revulson broke out, the men and the cor
porations who were most conspicuously arrayed
before the public eye were either stricken down
or only sustained at ruinous cost; though the
number of failures was almost unprecedented,
and the difficulty of obtaining money on the
best securities far greater than was experienced
in 1887; though, at one time, the nation as
whole seemed positively PROSTATE, without hope
of recovery; still it is a fact that the American
people at large-the rank and file Of the army
have hardly suffered by the events of the fall.
and are still at the head of ample means to sa-
tisfy their wants. Despite all the noise and cla-
NOR which have been made by politicians about
the suferings Of the working classes, we are not
inclined to think that they are much greater
than they were in the winter of 1854. In such
cities as New York there always is vast
amount of destitution and poverty. No doubt
many persons who derived Livelihood from
the extravaganza of our rotten rich men,
and many who were in the service of the
inflated corporations or individuals who have
burst, have found themselves, at an unfavorable
period of the year, in want of employment
Several manufacturing establishments have been
forced by the hard times to close their works
and discharge their hands. But when the ag-
gregate of the individuals who have been real
sufferers by the revulsion-the discharged work
men. the mechanics whose trade is idle the men
and women in the cities who cannot get paid by
their insolvent employers-when all these are
added together, and the amount compared with
the total amount of people in the same class or
avocation throughout the country, it will GER
tainly be found that the revulson has only
grazed society, that it has not really hurt it.
1t has taken off the heads of the financial world;
it has wounded few soldiers in the lowest ranks;
but the great body of the nation-what the Eng
lish would call our middle casses-remain whole
and unframed.
Were it otherwise, how could one account for
the steady sale of articles of convenience? We
have reason to believe that people are spending
as much money as ever in living 1--WE mean the
middle ranks of society-not the Fifth avenue
nabobs), and that the great purveyors of the
public in matters of dry goods, provisions
books, and the like, are doing as good bust
ness as usual. Articles Of pure luxury are not
in demands twenty and thirty thousand dollar
houses are not saleable; French silks and valen-
cennes lace are lower; but we do not believe
that-outside the large cities-any considerable
portion of our people feed, or dress, or are
lodged worse this winter than they were last;
and we are satisfied that the increase of misery
even in such cities as New York is vastly exag-
gerated.
The fact is, we are rich people-in all pro-
liability the richest in the world. We can afford
a revulsion which throws us back upon eur
savings once every few years. Every profess
sion and trade in this country is, one year with
another, highly remunerative; and it is the
browning characteristic of the race to which we
belong to combine frugality with industry. We
make money, and We save it. Every few years
some of us go ahead too fast and break down.
But the sorpses are quickly carried to the rear,
and another battalion of available men springs
up to take their place. And while the change
is taking place, the great bulk of the nation, the
farmer, the miller, the boatbuilder, the me-
chanic, the storekeeper, fall back on their own
resources, and are able to stand the siege.
The resumption Of the New York banks, with
twenty.six millions of specie in vault, typihes
the whole country. The revulsion has left us as
people richer than before.
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