because the United States would not guarantee the payment. The purchase money was to be paid in specie or its equivalent, which was put to the credit of the United States August 1, 1838, and the Treasury found itself once more using drafts on the Bank. October 8th, the Paymaster-general made known to his subordinates that arrangements had been made with the Bank to pay the drafts of the Treasurer, and he authorized them to use its notes when they were acceptable to the payee and as far as they were legal.[1] This was regarded as no slight victory for the Bank.
In August there was a great improvement in trade at Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, but the banks of Philadelphia had to contract suddenly, which produced a stringent money market.[2]
In that month the Smithson bequest, $500,000 in specie, was received. The act of July 7, 1838, ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to invest it in five per cent. State stock. He advertised for bids for it and bought bonds of Arkansas, issued for the Real Estate Bank.
In October, 1838, there was great speculation at New York on the debts of the sections still under suspension. Credits in that section were held over by means of certificates of deposit and post-notes, in the expectation that they would increase in value upon resumption. "The largest of all borrowers is the Bank of the United States. It has been able, by the establishment of its bank in New York, to borrow about half a million, by way of deposits, and its post-notes are constantly in market at six per cent. A large portion of those which have fallen due in September and October have been renewed for six months more. It is estimated that from $2 millions to $3 millions of the post-notes of the United States Bank are now held by our city banks." The Bank of the State of South Carolina was also negotiating the "Fire Bonds" of that State, through the agency of the Bank of the United States.[3]
At the opening of the cotton season of 1837-8, the speculation in cotton began to attract attention in England, where the buyers did not think that the state of the market for the finished goods warranted an advance in the raw material. The speculation, therefore, retarded the sales, but, in July, 1838, a correspondent writes from Liverpool:
"During the last few months, since the cotton has been arriving in great quantities from the United States, there has been a great struggle here between the buyers and sellers about the prices. The large holders here have been straining every nerve to hold the cotton in order to keep up the prices—the spinners and manufacturers have been pursuing the opposite policy of taking as little as possible. * * * But for the United States Bank, and the other banks of our country that came into the market, including also their policy of a suspension of specie payments, the value of our present cotton crop would have been $10 millions less than it will fetch. The agents of
