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Stephen Girard, Promoter of the Second Bank of the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Kenneth L. Brown
Kenneth L. Brown
Affiliation:
The Coast Artillery School
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Extract

Although historians have described the role of Stephen Girard in the founding of the second Bank of the United States simply as that of a heavy investor in its stock, careful examination of the Girard papers and other recently discovered documents shows the usual account to be entirely inadequate. Actually Girard was one of the moving spirits of the Bank from the time of its inception in the minds of a small group of American financiers until the period of its mismanagement in 1818. Then, as chairman of the stockholders, he was largely influential in effecting the replacement of the reckless and incompetent Jones leadership with the sounder administrations of Langdon Cheves and Nicholas Biddle. Girard was a most important influence in the Bank's early history. He purchased a large amount of stock, contributed to the working out of the mechanics of operation, aided in obtaining specie from Baring Brothers & Company, London, helped determine the form and content of the charter, did yeoman service in the political battle preceding its founding, and struggled mightily, although in vain, to prevent the Bank's becoming a political football in an orgy of speculation.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , November 1942 , pp. 125 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1942

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References

1 Letters received in 1814, Girard Papers, No. 182. The Girard papers are now the property of Girard College in Philadelphia.

2 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 13, No. 173.

3 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 13, No. 177.

4 Letters received in 1814, No. 192.

5 Mr. Grundy of Pennsylvania introduced a trial balloon for the bank in the House of Representatives.

6 Letters received in 1814, Nos. 207, 208.

7 Ibid., No. 214.

8 Letters received in 1814, No. 285.

9 Letters received in 1814, No. 354.

10 Letters received in 1814, Nos. 392,393 passim.

11 Letters received in 1814, No. 405.

12 Letters received in 1814, No. 302.

13 Cf. Astor's prediction that the capital would be $30,000,000.Letters received in 1814, No. 354.

14 Stephen Girard's Bank Letters, October, 1814.

15 Stephen Girard's copy, Act of Incorporation of the Bank of the United States.

16 Girard to Dallas, October 6, 1814, unclassified ms.

17 Act of Incorporation of the Bank of the United States.

18 Ibid.

19 Girard to Dallas, October 6,1814.

20 Act of Incorporation of the Bank of the United States.

21 Girard to Dallas, October 6,1814.

22 Act of Incorporation of the Bank of the United States.

23 Catterall is generally recognized as the leading authority on the second Bank of the United States.

24 Catterall, R C H., The Second Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1903), 11.Google Scholar

25 Webster, Fletcher, ed., The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1857), I, 247.Google Scholar

26 Girard, writing at the time of the failure of the first Dallas plan, in a letter to his friend, C. Jared Ingersoll, a member of the House of Representatives, placed a typically Gallic interpretation on the opposition of Webster and others, saying: “I am extremely sorry the House of Representatives have not adopted Mr. Dallas plan of a National Bank. It is to be regretted that jealousy or some other sinister cause against that class of wealthy citizens who have loaned their money to the government will induce gentlemen to reject the best mode of consolidating the credit of the U. S., an event which alone can force an honorable peace.” Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 13, No. 250, November 25, 1814.

27 Girard was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Bank of the United States by President Madison, pursuant to an Act of Congress of April 10, 1816. His commission was signed by Madison on April 26,1816, and renewed by President Monroe for the year 1817. Girard resigned his post in January, 1818. Of course, his service as commissioner ceased with the completion of the stock subscription, but he remained active as chairman of the stockholders for many years, a position he still held in 1831, the year of his death.

28 Letters received in 1816, No. 262, April 2, 1816.

29 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. IS, No. 323, September 26, 1816.

30 Stephen Girard's Lette r Book No. 15, No. 323.

31 Letters received in 1817, No. 731, August, 1817.

32 Letters received in 1816, No. 339A.

33 Letters received in 1816, No. 415.

34 Letters received in 1816, No. 455.

35 Letters received in 1816, No. 482.

36 Letters received in 1816, No. 512.

37 Letters received in 1816, No. 501.

38 Subscription Book, Bank of the United States. Also Journal for 1816.

39 Letters received in 1816, No. 605.

40 Letter Book No. IS, No. 263, August 17,1816.

41 Letters received in 1816, No. 663.

42 Letter Book No. 14, No. 243, July 24,1816.

43 Letters received in 1816, No. 654.

44 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 14, No. 227, June 16,1816.

45 Ibid., No. 246, August S, 1816.

46 R. C. H. Catterall, 18.

47 To the surpise of Girard's executors, his Bank held only $60,000 in specie at the time of his death. The State Books of the Bank show this to have been the only time when the supply of silver and gold was insufficient to meet all reasonable demands.

48 Spanish dollars; Spanish doubloons were also a favorite form of specie imported by Girard.

49 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 14, No. 245, and passim.

50 Girard had often insisted that the mother bank must be at Philadelphia and doubtless already had in mind his scheme of domination.

51 Letters received in 1817, No. 1620.

52 Transfer Book of the Bank of the United States.

53 Letters received in 1816, No. 732.

54 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 14, No. 271.

55 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. IS, No. 117, March 17, 1817.

56 Ibid.

57 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 17, No. 171.

58 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 14, No. 336, October 29,1816.

59 Alexander James Dallas, who resigned his post as Secretary of the Treasury in November, 1816, returned to his law practice in Philadelphia. He died at the age of 57, on January 16,1817.

60 Letters received in 1816, No. 941.

61 Act of Incorporation of the Bank of the United States.

62 Unclassified ms.

63 Unclassified ms.

64 Act of Incorporation of the Bank of the United States, Articles XII and XV.

65 Ibid.

66 Ibid., Articles XXIV and XXV.

67 Ibid., Articles V and XXV.

68 Ibid., Articles XXV, XXVI, and XXVII.

69 Ibid., Articles XXV, XXVI, and XXVII.

70 “Remarks on the Subject of Offices of Discount and Deposit, and of the Bank of the United States,” by Stephen Girard. Unclassified ms.

71 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 16, No. 160, July 7, 1818.

72 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 15, No. 7.

73 Letters received in 1817, No. 76, January 23.

74 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 14, No. 419, December 23, 1816.

75 Letters received in 1816, No. 1151, January 25.

76 Ibid.

77 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 15, No. 13, Girard to Astor, January 14, 1817; and Letters received in 1817, No. 29, Astor to Girard, January 29.

78 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 15, No. 419, January 7, 1817.

79 Nileś Register, 02 13, 1819, p. 431.Google Scholar

80 Letters received in 1817, No. 256, March 10.

81 “Report of th e Stockholders, Bank of the United States,” Hazard's Register, 09, 1831, p. 187.Google Scholar

82 Nileś Register, 02 13, 1819, p. 453.Google Scholar

83 Letters received in 1817, No. 256, March 10.

84 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 15, No. 98, Marc h 12, 1817.

85 Letters received in 1817, No. 342.

86 Letters received in 1817, No. 469.

87 Nileś Register, February 13, 1819, reprint of Documents of United States Bank.

88 Letters received in 1817, No. 811, August 27.

89 Letters received in 1817, No. 1253, Decembe r 31.

90 Letters received in 1818, No. 19, January 6.

91 Letters received in 1817, No. 998, October 20.

92 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 16, No. 245.

93 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 16, No. 291, October 7,1818.

94 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 16, No. 272, September 20,1818.

95 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 16, No. 308, October 21,1818.

96 Stephen Girard's Letter Book No. 16, No. 313.

97 Letters received in 1818, No. 1068.

98 Ibid.

99 Letters received in 1818, No. 1200.

100 Ibid., passim.