The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1864-07-07
I. THE GOLD PANIC.
Its Causeicssness and Falsity.

;, Its Causeicssness and Falsity.
From the New York shipping list June IS.
n The more we learn with regard to the
matter, the more firmly do we become con-
vinced that the great excitement in gold and
the extreme prices which hive been quoted
during the past few days. tiave had no reli-
able basis, but have been simply the result
Of dodge resorted to by certain Of the
"rins'' with the view of frightening Con.
gess into recession from the position which
it has assumed. 1t is well known that ma
ny of the operators who sold "short" pre-
vious to the adoption Of the gold bill, have
been performing the circle or the ring trying
to procure grid to all their contracts. and
all sorts Of unreliable quotations have been
freely circulated for effect. A daily cotem
porary relates practical incident which
goes to show that since the bill became law,
the gold quotations. have been wholly nom
inal, and had no reliable basis. On Wednes-
day, when the excitement was at its height
"two gentlemen, the Messrs. Rlankman
holders of largs amount Of Gold, desirou.
to take advantage Of the supposed high pri.
'ces, went to Wall street to SELL They found
that only two brokers were disposed to OPP
crate in the precious metal at all. They
called upon one of these. He was buying
gold in small amounts at 21O, and selling it
at 216 What was the price of gold at that
establishment OR travellers announced
that they had "a to sell. "How much ?"
"Two hundred ani eighty thousand dollars"
"They would have to see the head of the
house" and were shown to his private room.
Informed of the state Of the case, the head
of the house admitted that he was paving
2l0, but mould not pay il for that amount.
He "wassure that gold couldn't keep up
that it would certainly be below 900 tomor-
row." and, in fact. this good natured trades
man preferred, rather than buy the gold, to
recommend his customers to his neighbor.
So the two gentlemen went to the other
broker. He was al<o buying at 2I0, and
selling at 2l6, and was as little anxious to
buy large sum at his own price as his
neighbor had been He "knew that gold
would be below 900 to morrow" Well. if
II was to fall, the two gentlemen would like
to sell now on the best terms they could get
"What would he give ~ ale didn't know
He would prefer not to buy itall" As there
was no third broker for the gentlemen to be
commended to, they were merely bowed out,
and left Wall street somewhat enlightened
as to what was not the price Of gold, a.
A more unnecessary excitement than that
which has succeeded the passage of this bill
can scarcely be conceived, hence it follows
that it must be short lived. While we have
not favored gold legislation, we believe that
Congress- honestly thought that there were
good reasons for the passage of the Gold bill
and we therefore trust that il will not be
frightened by the demand of any committee,
or committees. into any concessions from
what Il conceives to be its full duty in the
premises. There is no doubt that the Gold
bill was intended as public benefit IL
necessary. let it be so modified as to insure
that result-but concede nothing morc-at
least not until the bill shall have been fairly
tried -and its merits and dsnerits have be-
come self-evident. We may add that it has
come to our knowlengs that . gentleman,
yesterday, endeavored to sell 100000 in
gold, and could get no bid at over 200 per
cent-and, we believe the majority were un-
der that figure. It is evident that 21O to
220@2SO have been paid only for little
driblets.