Suddenly to arrest and destroy this, was universal ruin.  But to serve the behest of party in a double form, it was crushed.  But a substitute was proposed by the party interested, and upon whom the responsibility rested—­the creation of State banks without limit, which were recommended to discount liberally to the people, and supply the wants created by the withdrawal of the capital and accommodations of the national bank.  This recommendation was literally and instantly obeyed.  In every State where the dominant party held control—­and they did so throughout the South and West—­the legislatures made haste to create, without limit, State banks, with power to flood the country with irresponsible bank paper.  Each assumed that it must supply not only its portion, but the entire amount of the banking capital withdrawn, and double or treble the circulation.  The natural consequence was immense inflation of the currency, or circulating medium, and the rapid appreciation of every species of property in price.  Everybody and every interest flourished most prosperously—­gaunt poverty had fled the land, and bloated abundance laughed in every home.  Suddenly men sprang into importance who a little while before were humble artizans or employed in the meanest capacities.  A new El Dorado had been discovered; fortunes were made in a day, without enterprise or work; and unexampled prosperity seemed to cover the land as with a golden canopy—­forests were swept away in a week; labor came in crowds to the South to produce cotton; and where yesterday the wilderness darkened over the land with her wild forests, to-day the cotton plantation whitened the earth—­production was quadrupled—­labor doubled in value, land rose to fearful prices, the wildest extravagance obtained; costly furniture, expensive equipages, ostentatious display—­all were contributing to hasten the catastrophe.  The wise saw what was impending, and the foolish thought it impossible.  All of this was based on credit.  The banks were irresponsible, for they were without capital:  they had created a credit and loaned it in the shape of bank paper to every one.  Finally, the hour came when all was to be paid for.  The banks failed—­like the fame of woman, a whisper destroys it; so a whisper blew away the banks.  They could not redeem their promises to pay.  These were no longer available for currency:  they had driven from the country the coin, and there was no money.  The merchants failed, the planters failed, money appreciated to the gold standard, and property correspondingly depreciated; and ruin—­financial ruin—­swept over the country as a consuming fire.