By the winter of 1819-1820 the nation's economic crisis had reached fever pitch. All across the new western states banks foreclosed on thousands of farm mortgages after calling in their loans in a vain effort to recover the specie they needed to pay their depositors. Having ruined their debtors, the banks suspended specie payments and closed their doors, ruining their creditors. In the East land values in New York plummeted in one year from $315 million to $256 million. In Richmond, Virginia, they fell by half. By early 1820 thirteen thousand paupers crowded the streets of New York while at least a half million people lost their jobs nationwide. One commentator warned of the "prospect of families naked —children freezing in winter's storm—and the fathers without coats" to dress properly for work. Witnessing the devastation, John C. Calhoun wrote that "within these two years...