But this did not help the man who wanted to raise money, for as security they could not be hypothecated for more than seventy per cent.

of their market value, and they were not selling at par, but at ninety.

A man might buy or accept them in foreclosure, but he had a long wait.

Also, in the final payment of most of them favoritism ruled, for it was only when the treasurer knew that certain warrants were in the hands of "a friend" that he would advertise that such and such warrants--those particular ones that he knew about--would be paid.
What was more, the money system of the United States was only then beginning slowly to emerge from something approximating chaos to something more nearly approaching order.

The United States Bank, of which Nicholas Biddle was the progenitor, had gone completely in 1841, and the United States Treasury with its subtreasury system had come in 1846; but still there were many, many wildcat banks, sufficient in number to make the average exchange-counter broker a walking encyclopedia of solvent and insolvent institutions.