The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-10-15
The Stock Panic Of13G4.

w hlle the Infamous gold SWlndle
OF last week is still fresh in the pub
lie mind, the following description
IF the great stock panic of 1864,
when the ring wss smashed by the
then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr..
Chase, is iull of interest, 1t is one
of series of sketches now in course
of publication in the Boston Com
mercidl, written by a Wall street
operator and a witness of the scene
le describes:
In January, 1864, the general mar
ket woke up from IFS long lethargy
and began to heave and throb with
a strange feverish life. Illinois Gen.
trail, Michigan Central and Reading
led off the movement, and the colos
sal bulk Of the Erie began to stir
with slow elephantine strides. Sud-
denly the money rates grew closer.
and there was for two days a sharp
decline throughout the whole list
But just at this moment, news came
on from Washington that the steam
presses were at work turning out
millions of fresh five per cent. legal
tenders, and that those would soon
come on the market to enable the
Government toStloat the 10-40 loan.
Almost instantaneously. nearly every
stock in the catalogue seemed to
place itself under the control of some
particular ring, and commenced
moving two steps onward, then one
backward, and so on up, up. The
dividend-paying class took the lead,
then came those of a doubtful char
acter, and the worthless fancies bro't
up the rear. By the 1s. vi ApfIl an
AVERAGE advance had been developed
of from thirty to sixty per cent. The
whole speculative element In the
seemed to have emptied
itself into Wall street. Sunburned
rustics entered the city IN the morn
ing with nothing but a paper collar,
a comb and a small check on some
bank, and left it by the evening train
with a bundle OF greenbacks the size
of Webster's unabridged. a well
known clergyman left a couple OF
in the hands of l.. w.
Jerome, and in a month drew out
$4,000. Dscrepitude and disease
seemed to a-Ae for the time lost
their powe.--;te corridor OF the
Stock Exchap2e looked like the wards
of hospital filled with limbs palsied
and swollen, eyes purblind, and CON
sumptiye chests. In glitterlng
couples, fair danes, veiled and loaded
with Jewels, leaned back on the cush-
ions and waited for the prices OF
stocks. But all fevers must have
their course, and turn the sharp cor
ner which leads either to GONZALES
cence or into the great darkness
Stocks reached this corner of .heir
fever on the 18th of April. Ii fmoney
had remained easy, or if mems nerves
were of steel instead of very subtle
but exhaustive fluid, no one can pre-
dict to what empyrean heights the
market would have scared. This
wss not to ne. Chares l had his
Cromwell, and A. w. Morse had his
Secretary Chase. The causes which
were to work out ruin were silently
gathering force. The coil had been
twisted and wove, the Cyclopean
block had been hewn and suspended
aloft, whose fall was to crush aud
puIveriZe in an hOar the fabric OF a
thousand stately fortunes, and high
above it was an unseen hand ready
to cut the cord it was the hand OF
panic.
Signs and proten.s were not want
ing of the coming disaster. LOCK
wood & Co, and other conservative
houses refused any longer to buy
stock, except for cash, but offered to
sell "shorC" for their customers on
ten per cent. margin Chase had
come into the market, sold gold, and
locked up the proceeds. Money be-
gan to tighten. Strange stories were
afloat how Morse bad gone down on
his knees to a certain bank official
for the loan of a million, which had
been denied. He was reported to
have been seen that evening, mtoxi-
Gated, in the Exchange, offering to
buy or sell fabulous amounts OF Fort
Wayne, which he had lifted from 80
to l53. But, with all these signs,
the holders of stocks kept their po.
sition and clung deluded to their
treacherous favorites. Out of thou.
sands, a man was hardly found bold
enough to go short OF stocks.
The 22d of April, 1864, fell on
Monday. At IL o'clock in the morn
ing broker rose in the Old Board
and announced the failure of A. w
Morse 81 Co. a stiffness like that
which precedes an earthquake fol
lowed the words, lasted an instant
and then the tornado burst-Forl
Wayne dropped like a lead to go
Old Southern to S5; pillar after pill
lar toppled, and the enchanted pal
ace, builded of golden hopes, passed
away like q cloud pageant. The
evening sessions of the brokers was
like pandemonium. A dark crowd
half crazed by losses and stupefed
or maddened by whisky, made the
night hiedons with their yells and
curses awakening from a sudder
deep sleep on the following morning
they looked upon Wall street il
ruins, amid which loomed up like
lPompey's Pillar under desert sky
the figure of Harlem. 1t had reeled
and quivered under the storm, but
stood bravelY at the height of 1876
Beside this solitary column, like Ma
rius among the ruins of Carthage
stood a grim old hero who had
ha. reds to satiate, wrongs to avenge
and a greatscheme of railroad finance
vet to build Our Marius was, o.
course, none other than the redoubt