Year: 1865

From the New York World, March %.


Of "the financial panic "it is difficult
to speak in the set terms heretofore en-
ployed in the description of such an event,
because it was one which gave few outward
signs.. A stranger could hardly have been
induced to believe, had be sauntered
through Wall street or any one of the
neighboring thoroughfares on any one of
the past few days, that a multitude of our
foremost business mon were struggling on
the verge of ruin, and that some of our
foremost houses were tottering. Mer-
chants, operators and spectators gathered
in little knots and discussed the situation
with the quiet and order which might
characterize the proceedings of convo. a.
ton of reputable vestrymen-save, per-
haps, when some nervous gentleman
essayed to relieve bis anxiety with weak
ly joke, born of tremor. A depressing
atmosphere hung over the marts Of trade
and the great centres of finance; the
crowds in the street were perhaps as large
as, bat hardly more excited than, usual.
Trade was at stand-still.


There were not many failures. The ex-
flseenoe OF paper currency, and the de
monetization of gold has done away in
greater part with the credit system. Con-
.aequ9ntly, where there were no outstanding
Sbsi atoms, house could not well fail.
1tmlsht quietly close it's doors; as several
houses did it might cease to have q place
in the commercial world, but. failure was
not its fate. If this panic had occurred
before the war, at the time when The credit
system regulated the business world, the
crash would have been tremendous, and
would have outdone the worst work of ~.
But paper money has been so plenty, and
it was % much more profitable to pay
greenbacks at the moment than to put off
the meeting of obligations to future time,
that credit, generally, if profered, has been
refused


Everybody felt or grew poor. 1t was
the inevitable effect of the extinction of
millions upon millions of fictitious wealth.
1t was one of the uncertainties which ev-
erybody expected, and for which nobody
seemed prepared when the hour of decline
came. h


1t is noticeable fact that those who
lost most heavily when the premium upon
gold f1uttered up to 1876 were the support
ers of the administration, who denounced
as weak inventions of the enemy. e., the
"oopperheads'-all predictions regarding
depreciation of the currency. It is now
generally asserted that the spectators who
have made mdaey BY the decline are those
who are opposed to the administration,
who have uniformly predicted great fall
in prices, and operated accordingly.


There were many queer stories in the
street. One was that the government,
yesterday, purchased three millions of gold,
intending to retain 1t until the evacuation
of Richmond, confidently expected, should
come, when it would be thrown upon the
market, and the premium forced down to
thirty, at which point government meant
to keep it.


The greatest sufferers were the holders
of sugar and pork, the decline being heav-
lest therein. Yet some of the worst in
jured found heart to laugh at statement
made by one of our ootemporaries, that
pork had declined eighty per cent. It was
conceded that, if further fall of twenty
per cent. should take place, there would
be no profit in Watching the market, in 80
much as pork would then be worth abso-
lutely nothing, and its holders would be
willing to throw open their houses and in
vite the general public to help themselves.


That more serious results did not attend
the panic is due probably in no slight de.
gree to the cosmopolitan character Of oui
business men. On change the turbulent
radical, the conservative democrat, and
the moderate republican meet for argu-
ment and this interchange of ideas pro.
duces greater hopogeneity of purpose
and action than is possible in any Other
city Of the Union. Thus our commercial
community is better prepared for violent
fluctuations than any other, and finds il
easier to withstand the shock when it doe.
come.


1t is to be hoped-indeed there is reason
to think-that the panic has reached it.
height. Similar events, however. will b,
of more and more frequent occurrenc,
hereafter, as commerce makes renewet
and rapidly increasing efforts to assum,
| the true standard