Suspension of Specie Payments. 
191 
Meanwhile on April 25 a bankers’ convention was called and 
18 banks were abandoned as unsound. The bankers in conven¬ 
tion published a list of seventy banks which agreed to receive 
and pay out their issues until December 1st, 1861.“ a 
Some banks which had not sent representatives to the con¬ 
vention refused to be bound by this list. They discriminated 
between the good and the bad currency, paying out the poorest 
and hoarding the best. Railroad corporations were also making 
their deposits in the worst currency. The combined issues of all 
the Milwaukee banks was only $65,475 while their aggregate 
capital was $1,425,000 and as it was a season of least country 
demand for currency, they could not afford to permit their de¬ 
posits to accumulate suspiciously while their vaults were rap¬ 
idly being loaded down with the worst currency. So on Fri¬ 
day, June 21st, 1861, without any concert of action, ten of the 
Milwaukee banks were thrown out of the “current list” and 
their issues were to be received thereafter only on “special de¬ 
posit. ” 
Other banks, -to protect themselves, began the process of elim¬ 
ination, and soon the people, not knowing where the process 
was going to stop, protested violently and hurled charges of 
bad faith against the banks. The bank riots of June 24th, 
1861, in Milwaukee were the result. Saturday night the work¬ 
ingmen received their wages in notes part of which were issued 
by the ten rejected banks. Meetings were called Saturday 
night and Sunday, and Monday morning a mob of several hun¬ 
dred people with a band of music marched down to the corner 
of Michigan and East Water streets, where stood the Wisconsin 
Marine and Fire Insurance Company’s bank on one corner and 
the State bank of Wisconsin on the other. Alexander Mitchell, 
after locking up all the books, currency, and valuables, attempted 
to address the crowd; but it only hooted and yelled; then a vol¬ 
ley of stones was hurled against the windows, demolishing 
nearly all the panes of glass in the front of the buildings. This 
so delighted the mob, that, now under the control of the worst 
rioters, it made a rush for the offices; attacked the bank officials 
and employees; tried to break open the safes and vaults, and 
45 Flower, History of Milwaukee , p. 1083. 
