Financial History Issue 113 (Spring 2015) | Page 21
Collection of the Museum of American Finance
Letter from Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton to Bank of New York President Gulian ver Planck,
Esq., dated September 7, 1791, requesting the bank to purchase $50,000 worth of public debt.
difficulty seeing the bank as a dynamic
commercial force that would help unite
the new nation.
Washington was not in the least bothered by the BUS’s similarity to the Bank
of England. Unlike Jefferson, the President’s view of the mother country was
remarkably free of hostility. At a dinner
Washington gave for British officers after
they surrendered at Yorktown, one of
them boldly offered a toast to “The King.”
Washington raised his glass and added:
“Of England. Confine him there and I’ll
drink him a full bumper.”
A few months after the Bank of the
United States became law, a delighted
President told one of his closest friends:
“Our public credit stands on the ground
which three years ago it would have been
considered a species of madness to have
foretold.” Jefferson and Madison remained
violently opposed to the bank. They saw
it as an institution designed to enrich the
wealthy — and warned it was tempting
Americans to risk their money and their
peace of mind in what Jefferson called “an
appetite for gambling.” Madison described
the welcome that the bank received as “a
mere scramble for public plunder.”
In the spring of 1791, largely unaware
that there was a deepening clash among
his cabinet and close advisors, President Washington decided to take a trip
through the southern states. He wanted
to show the citizens below the Potomac
that the President had the same concern
for their welfare as he had displayed for
the New Englanders the year before. He
also wanted to reassure the southerners
that signing the bank bill did not mean
he was aligned with a so-called “northern
phalanx” that, according to some Virginians, was conspiring to seize control of the
government.
The trip was no small task. The President’s itinerary covered 1,826 miles — a
huge distance to traverse by horseback and
coach. At every stop there were parades,
rallies and dinners, at which he had to
appear both affable and presidential to
hundreds of strangers. The military side
of Washington’s character came to the
fore. Every day was planned in advance;
he let neither rain nor dust-choked roads
delay him. His reward was the enormous
enthusiasm with which people greeted
him everywhere.
At Wilmington, North Carolina, “ [