There could be no supply where there was no demand. To present an
example, there could be no demand for railroad iron after our
magnificent system of railroads, extending its benefits to every
portion of the Union, had been brought to a dead pause. The same
consequences have resulted from similar causes to many other branches
of useful manufactures. It is self-evident that where there is no
ability to purchase manufactured articles these can not be sold, and
consequently must cease to be produced.

No government, and especially a government of such limited powers as
that of the United States, could have prevented the late revulsion. The
whole commercial world seemed for years to have been rushing to this
catastrophe. The same ruinous consequences would have followed in the
United States whether the duties upon foreign imports had remained as
they were under the tariff of 1846 or had been raised to a much higher
standard. The tariff of 1857 had no agency in the result. The general
causes existing throughout the world could not have been controlled by
the legislation of any particular country.

The periodical revulsions which have existed in our past history must
continue to return at intervals so long as our present unbounded system
of bank credits shall prevail. They will, however, probably be the less
severe in future, because it is not to be expected, at least for many
years to come, that the commercial nations of Europe, with whose
interests our own are so materially involved, will expose themselves to
similar calamities. But this subject was treated so much at large in
my last annual message that I shall not now pursue it further. Still,
I respectfully renew the recommendation in favor of the passage of a
uniform bankrupt law applicable to banking institutions. This is all the
direct power over the subject which I believe the Federal Government