Meanwhile the city banks were loyally endeavoring to prevent a financial crisis. April 25, 1861 they determined to hold all their specie as a common fund, this being a precautionary measure to sustain public confidence. There were in New York City fifty-four banks with a capital of $69,907,000. Much of their paper was held in the southern states, where debts to northern holders were quickly repudiated. Nevertheless, in the entire state of New York only five banks suspended during 1861, and none of these in New York City. Following the example of New York, the banks of Boston and Philadelphia pooled all their cash reserves. The Boston banks, of which there were forty-two, with a capital of $38,231,000, and which had a clearing-house system, aided in preventing an immediate panic. Western banks were less well prepared to meet the emergency. Most of them held southern state bonds as the basis of their currency system. During 1861 bank after bank went to the wall, and the notes of others depreciated with startling rapidity. All the banks of that period were either state banks or private banking concerns. The national banking-system did not come into being until 1863. The first (though indirect) aid furnished by the banks in the national crisis of 1861 was the preservation of their own integrity, and therewith the entire credit system of the North, from collapse. This was accomplished through the instrumentality of the banks of the three chief cities of the East--New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. In the West, a few banks in Cincinnati, Chicago, and Milwaukee were strong enough to support the situation, even while the larger part of the western banks went to the wall. The direct aid furnished by the banks and bankers of the country to the state and federal governments during the early years of the Civil War may be classified under the three heads of contributions, loans, and agencies. CONTRIBUTIONS The call for troops awoke a patriotic fervor in many hearts, which led to an offering of money as well as of men. In this outpouring of gifts the bankers took their part, some giving as individuals, many in the name of their institutions. No complete record of these patriotic contributions is available. _Harper’s Weekly_ of May 25, 1861, estimated that the individual gifts of more than $1,000 from counties, cities, societies, corporations, and other organizations totaled $27,000,000. LOANS The first necessity was that of temporary loans for both the state and federal governments.