ABSTRACT This article argues that Americans, influenced by British economist David Ricardo, initially blamed banking and the decay of America’s ethic of labor for causing the Panic of 1857. Americans’ stress on the negative influence of banking on labor set the terms for political debate about the Panic. Southern radicals used the Panic to justify slavery and secession. Republicans and other antislavery partisans, meanwhile, pointed to the Panic as evidence of the need to increase the tariff to insulate northern workers from southern slavery. These opposing narratives of the Panic reinforced the concept of the “irrepressible conflict.”

中文翻译：

---

“当前危机将显示什么”：1857 年恐慌是美国劳工危机

摘要 本文认为，受英国经济学家大卫·李嘉图 (David Ricardo) 影响的美国人最初将导致 1857 年恐慌的原因归咎于银行业和美国劳工伦理的衰落。恐慌。南方激进分子利用恐慌来为奴隶制和分裂国家辩护。与此同时，共和党人和其他反对奴隶制的游击队员指出，恐慌是需要提高关税以将北方工人与南方奴隶制隔离开来的证据。这些对恐慌的对立叙述强化了“不可抑制的冲突”的概念。