ot attempt to establish a
satisfactory currency system. In 1837 and again in 1857 the country was
visited by a financial panic due in a large measure to extravagant
speculation, much of which would have been impossible had the issue of
money been properly regulated.

On the whole the period from 1830 to 1860 was one of great prosperity
and contentment. The wealth of the nation grew enormously and for the
most part it was equally distributed, there being few paupers and still
fewer very rich individuals. The twenty years following 1840 have been
called the "golden age" of American history, and as far as concerns the
diffusion of material comforts they certainly deserve the name.

Notwithstanding the great material prosperity however, the flames of
sectionalism, which had blazed forth during the contest over the
adoption of the "American System" remained unquenched even after the
question of protection had ceased to be an important political issue.
Filled with animosity engendered by the thought that the economic
progress of the North had been effected at the expense of the South,
and fearful that the fulminations of the abolitionists and the
successful efforts of the Northern political leaders to restrict the
territorial expansion of slavery only foretold an ultimate intention of
destroying that institution altogether, the Southern partisans decided
to sever the political bonds between the two sections, the economic
institutions of which differed so widely, and to establish a separate
state whose political ideals would conform to its economic and social
predilections. This decision the Southerners stood ready to enforce by
an appeal to arms; the people of the North, preferring "to accept war
rather than let the nation perish," made ready to prevent the proposed
dissolution of the Union; and the era of general happiness and comfort
ended amid the preparations for the impending struggle.

III

1860-1900

The Civil War marked a notable turning point in the economic history of
the United States. National development since 1860 has been shaped to a
large degree by fundamental political and economic changes that
occurred during the war--changes which were for the moat part the
effect of various expedients resorted to by the federal government to
bring the struggle for the preservation of the Union to a successful
issue. To crush the military strength of the South the federal
authorities adopted the expedient of t