“The revulsions of 1837 produced a far greater havoc than was experienced in the period above mentioned. The ruin came quick and fearful. There were few that could save themselves. Property of every description was parted with at sacrifices that were astounding, and as for the currency, there was scarcely any at all. In some parts of the interior of Pennsylvania the people were obliged to divide bank notes into halves, quarters, eighths, and so on, and agree from necessity to use them as money. In Ohio, with all her abundance, it was hard to get money to pay taxes. The sheriff of Muskingum County, as stated in the Guernsey _Times_, in the summer of 1842, sold at auction one four-horse wagon at $5.50; ten hogs at 6¼ cents each; two horses (said to be worth from $50 to $75 each) at $2 each; two cows at $1 each; a barrel of sugar at $1.50, and a store of goods at that rate. In Pike County, Missouri, as stated by the Hannibal _Journal_, the sheriff sold three horses at $1.50 each; one large ox at 12½ cents; five cows, two steers and one calf, the lot at $3.25; twenty sheep at 13½ cents each; twenty-four hogs for 25 cents for the lot; one eight-day clock at $2.50; a lot of tobacco, seven or eight hogsheads, at $5; three stacks of hay at 25 cents each.” _Horace Greeley_ (“Political Economy,” page 65): “They [false economists] assume that if half the money in a country leaves it for goods imported, the residue will perform the functions previously devolved on the whole, save only that there will be a general reduction of prices. I, on the contrary, issue an appeal to the experience of mankind to sustain me that in such cases the remainder, so far from subserving the end formerly answered by the larger volume of currency, will not even subserve half of it, for it will all but cease to circulate at all.... In its absence the people will quite generally be driven back to barter, a discouragement of industry and a long stride on the downward road to barbarism.” _Treasurer Spinner_ (that portion of his report for December, 1873, which was suppressed by President Grant): “When ... legitimate money becomes more and more abundant, credits are asked for and given on shorter and shorter time, until the time comes when there is money sufficient to transact all the legitimate business and to effect all necessary exchanges of the merchantable commodities of the country; then private credits will be almost entirely unknown, as will commercial revulsions and consequent panics.... Inflation can only be when the people are excessively in debt. Such is not the position when money is plentiful; for when money is plentiful people get out of debt and acquire habits of promptness, punctuality, and pay as they go.”