The 1792 U.S. financial panic was called the Panic of 1792.
The crisis developed in March and April 1792 after heavy speculation in government securities and bank shares. Alexander Macomb, a prominent New York land speculator, failed after borrowing extensively to finance purchases. His failure helped expose the fragile credit structure of the young United States.
The panic spread through New York and Philadelphia, then the country’s principal financial centers. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton responded by encouraging banks to provide liquidity and by using government funds to support the securities market. His intervention helped prevent a longer collapse.
The episode is sometimes confused with later nineteenth-century panics, but it was the first major financial crisis under the U.S. Constitution. It also demonstrated the federal government’s emerging role in stabilizing markets.