beginning of the end of this epoch of insane speculation was felt,
early in the spring of 1837, by a money pressure of unexampled
severity. Scarcely had its effect reached the interior counties,
before every bank in the country suspended specie payments. Then
confidence gave way, and tens of thousands of people, who had been
wealthy or in comfortable circumstances, waked up to the awful
realisation of their bankruptcy and ruin. The panic of 1837 reached
the proportions of a national calamity. Most men did not then know the
reason for the crash, and the knowledge of those who did, brought
little comfort. But, gradually, the country recognised that the
prosperity of a nation is not increased in proportion to the quantity
of paper money issued, unless such currency be maintained at its full
value, convertible, at pleasure, into hard cash--the money standard of
the world.

It so happened that the Legislature had not adjourned when the crash
came, and, without a moment's delay, it suspended for one year the
section of the Safety Fund act forbidding banks to issue notes after
refusing to pay them in coin on demand; but it refused to suspend the
act, passed in March, 1835, prohibiting the issue or circulation of
bills under the denomination of five dollars. This left the people
without small bills, and, as New York banks dared not issue them,
necessity forced into circulation foreign bills, issued by solvent and
insolvent banks, the losses from which fell largely upon the poorer
classes who could not discriminate between the genuine and the
spurious. So great was the inconvenience and loss suffered by the
continuance of this act, that the people petitioned the Governor to
call an extra session of the Legislature for its repeal; but Marcy
declined, for the reason that the Legislature had already refused to
give the banks the desired authority. Thus, the citizens of New York,
staggering under a panic common to the whole country, were compelled
to suffer the additional hardships of an irredeemable, and, for the
most part, worthless currency, known as "shin-plasters."

In the midst of these "hard times," occurred the election in November,
1837. The New York municipal election, held in the preceding spring
and resulting, with the help of the Equal Righters, in the choice of a
Whig mayor, had prepared the way for a surprise; yet no one imagined
that a political revolution was imminent. But the suffering people
were angry, and, lik