The issue of government paper money years before, leading to inflation and speculation, was by many believed to be the cause of the crisis of 1873.

The reverse view is taken by the advocates of a cheap and plentiful money.

They say that these crises were caused, not by the expansion, but by the contraction of the money stock; for example, not by the inflation of prices through the issue of greenbacks in 1862 to 1865, but by the contraction of the currency from 1866 to 1873.
There is only a fragment of truth in these various views.

It is always lack of "money" at the moment of the crisis that causes any particular failure, and in that sense it is always lack of "money" that causes a crisis.

The question is, whether in any reasonable sense it can be said that it was lack of a circulating medium before the crisis that brought it on.