1837 May 11, Woodbourne, to Dear Brother, Philadelphia

              Dear Brother,I wrote to Alfred lately, by mail & have since recd. thine of 8th ulto., inclosed in a letter from him. __the state of trade & the currency does indeed seem to be unprecedented, & I am not surprised that the question should be asked, "what is to be the end of it?" we seem to be so much taken by surprise, so stupefied & astounded as scarcely to realize what is taking place. when such men as Arthur Tappan fail, we may well ask, who is safe? I have long contem-plated an explosion in New York, as a thing not improbably, on ac-count of the great amount of banking capital there, much of which is no doubt, not solid & real. but I had scarcely thought of such men as A. Tappan being within the reach or effect of fluctuations and embarrassments in trade. the measures of the General Government in regard to the currency, have no doubt tended to bring things to a crisis. I am glad to hear that you have suffered so little. I observe that some of the Banks in Philadelphia have lately declared good dividends, notwithstanding the depression of stocks. Hast thou read Webster's speech at a public meeting lately assembled