"But this is no longer possible; it has defied Congress, violated the
laws, and is mixed up in politics. The people have recognized the
viciousness of its administration; the President, Mr. Biddle, has
concluded the work Jackson began."
Tables indicating the banks which suspended during the panic: In 1814,
90; in 1830, 165; in 1837, 618; in 1839, 959. The last panic, from 1837
to 1839, produced, according to some pretty accurate reports of 1841,
33,000 failures, involving a loss of $440,000,000.
PANIC OF 1848.--The entire discounts, which had risen to $525,000,000 in
1837, fell to $485,000,000 in 1838, only to rise again to $492,000,000
in 1839, and the real liquidation of the panic occurred only then.
Discounts fell at once to $462,000,000, then $386,000,000; the abundance
of capital, and the low price at which it was offered, cleared out bank
paper until it was reduced from $525,000,000 to $254,000,000 in 1843.
[Footnote: We have not the outside figures, the maximum or minimum.]
The metallic reserve increased from $37,000,000 to $49,000,000 (1844);
the circulation was reduced from $149,000,000 to $58,000,000.
The number of banks in 1840, from 901 fell to 691 in 1843, and the
capital itself from $350,000,000 in 1840 was reduced to $200,000,000 in
1845 and to even $196,000,000 in 1846.
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