Financial disruption verges on panic and Virginia banks suspend specie payments

Following the election of Abraham Lincoln, financial excitement grew as Southerners repudiated their debts and cancelled orders.  New York banks were powerful enough to act in concert to keep business going but smaller centers were not. In Richmond, on this day, the powerful Farmer's Bank of Virginia suspended payments in specie. The next day almost all other banks in the state followed. (By John Osborne)