Description
The first edition of Investigation Into The Causes Of The Gold Panic, by Ohio Congressman James A. Garfield.
Octavo, [2], 487pp, [1]. Modern red leather, title stamped in gilt on the spine. New endpapers. Date written on verso of title page. Internally clean, solid text block.
(Rupp, 661) (OCLC 189512)
The Gold Panic of 1869, often called “Black Friday,” occurred on September 24, 1869, when financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the U.S. gold market by driving up prices through speculative purchases while using political connections within the Grant administration. Their manipulation caused the price of gold to soar from about $130 to over $160 per ounce before collapsing when the U.S. Treasury, at President Ulysses S. Grant’s direction, released $4 million in gold to stabilize the market. The sudden crash devastated commodity prices and triggered financial turmoil on Wall Street. In the aftermath, Congress launched an investigation, chaired by Representative James A. Garfield of Ohio, to determine whether members of the administration, including Grant’s brother-in-law Abel Corbin, were complicit. Garfield’s committee concluded that while corruption and insider influence were rampant in the financial dealings surrounding Gould and Fisk, there was no direct evidence implicating President Grant himself in the scheme. This work, Investigation Into The Causes Of The Gold Panic, was published on March 1, 1870, and details the findings of the committee.
