Just as the city was establishing itself as the financial capital of the United States, a combination of the results of rapid population growth and terrible weather resulted in a fire that laid waste to the wealthiest part of America’s wealthiest city. As the New York Mercantile Advisor wrote, “there is a terrible calamity in New York.”
The history of cotton clothing has followed an interesting path, including a period of a few decades in the United States when cotton represented ingenuity, resilience, and patriotism itself.