and tragic must inevitably be
the fate of any similar movement which depends not upon itself, not upon
its own intrinsic, collective strength and wisdom, but upon the say-so
of leaders who come forward to assume leadership. Representing only
their own timidity of thought and cowardice of action, they often end by
betraying the cause placed confidingly in their charge. That class which
for these immemorial generations has done the world's work, and as long
has been plundered and oppressed and betrayed, thus had occasion to
learn anew the bitter lesson taught by the wreckage of the past, that it
is from itself that the emancipation must come; that it is itself which
must essentially think, act and strike; that its forces, long torn
asunder and dispersed, must be marshalled in invulnerable compactness
and iron discipline; and so that its hosts may not again be routed by
strategy, no man or set of men should be entrusted with the irrevocable
power of executing its decrees, for too often has the courage, boldness
and strength of the many been shackled or destroyed by the compromising
weakness of the leaders.

THE PANIC OF 1837.

Passing over the Equal Rights movement in 1834, which was a diluted
revival of the Workingmen's Party, and which, also, was turned into
sterility by the treachery of its leaders, we arrive at the panic of
1837, the time when Astor, profiting from misfortune on every side,
vastly increased his wealth.

The panic of 1837 was one of those periodic financial and industrial
convulsions resulting from the chaos of capitalist administration. No
sooner had it commenced, than the banks refused to pay out any money,
other than their worthless notes. For thirty-three years they had not
only enjoyed immense privileges, but they had used the powers of
Government to insure themselves a monopoly of the business of
manufacturing money. In 1804 the Legislature of New York State had
passed an extraordinary law, called the restraining act. This
prohibited, under severe penalties, all associations and individuals not
only from issuing notes, but "from receiving deposits, making discounts
or transacting any other business which incorporated banks may or do
transact." Thus the law not only legitimatized the manufacture of
worthless money, but guaranteed a few banks a monopoly of that
manufacture. Another restraining act was passed in 1818. The banks were
invested with the sovereign privilege of depreciating the curr