January 27, 1861, The New York Herald
At no period in the commercial history of New York have the prospects of a profitable and flourishing trade in the approaching spring and summer been more bright than at the present time, apart from the obstructions which the political troubles of the day interpose to the fulfillment of the promises which the financial condition of affairs hold out. Specie has been pouring in upon us by millions from Europe and California for some time past, until at the present moment there is probably not less than thirty seven millions in gold and silver deposited in this city, awaiting the settlement of the great political questions of the day to be thrown into active and productive application.
From the crises of the past few years the country has been just relieved, and New York is prepared now to avail herself, as she has ever done, of the rejuvenated prosperity which blesses the land; but, unhappily, the incertitude of public affairs surrounds commerce with embarrassment as with a wall of adamant, arrests progress, and puts checks upon all mercantile transactions; for who will move in an onward direction with a future clouded as our is? Capital finds no outlet, opportunities are lost and resources are thrown away, while the country balances on the verge of chaos. Could the existing political difficulty be settled, the business of this metropolis would experience a revival in the coming spring such as it never knew before.
New York leans upon two sections of the country for its commercial prosperity – the West and the South; and it has so happened in past times that when one section failed her the other held good. In 1857, the financial pressure came principally from the West. The loose system of credit which we had adopted, followed by two years of short crops, bought on the disaster then, and the West became bankrupt; but the Southern trade was good, the cotton crop was abundant, and the south redeemed itself, thus staving off what otherwise must have been inevitable ruin to all the commercial interests of this city.
Now the West is recovering from the blow. The harvest of 1860 were more luxuriant than any which that section of country has ever before known. The granaries are laden with abundance, and but await an outlet for their store to enrich the producers. For the past two or three years the West has been buying comparatively little; hence her wants of all kinds of merchandise – dry goods, groceries, clothing, boots and shoes, machinery, everything, in short, which her people need – are very great at the present time, and New York is the market to supply these wants. There is money enough in our banks to move the breadstuffs from the West to our Atlantic ports, and shipping enough here to convey them to Europe, where, in view of the present troubled aspect of affairs all over that continent, there is every probability of their being needed. Even with the falling off in the cotton product last year, and the unsettled condition of the South generally, we still have the recuperated West to rely upon.
Thus it will be seen that nothing stands in the way of a large and prosperous trade except the political disaster that has been showered upon us by the fanatics and the politicians. If that can be removed by the wisdom, conciliation and compromises which are certain to rise from the expression of the popular will, if that voice is fairly appealed to, a period of unexampled prosperity is before the country, and in an especial manner before this great commercial metropolis of the nation. Surely it is a consummation worth striving for. It presents a prospect too hopeful and too brilliant to be overshadowed for mere party supremacy or the triumph of an abstract idea, which, when attained, leaves nothing in the future but barrenness and desolation.