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Secretary Taney and the Baltimore Pets: A Study in Banking and Politics*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Frank Otto Gatell
Frank Otto Gatell
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles
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Abstract

The interaction of business and political goals and strategies is emphasized in this critique of a key state bank's role in national affairs of the 1830's.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , Summer 1965 , pp. 205 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1965

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References

1 For New York, for example, Hammond's, Jabez D. overly relied upon History of Political Parties in the State of New York (2 vols., Albany, 1842), vol. II, p. 424Google Scholar, notes a Jackson majority in New York City in 1832, and asks: “Would this have been done had not the city banks been opposed to the existence of a branch of the Bank of the United States in that city?”

Bray Hammond labels the New York banks (presumably all the banks in the state) “congenial to the Albany Regency,” which is not accurate even for the city of Albany. Hammond, , Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (Princeton, 1957), p. 352.Google Scholar

2 Scheiber, Harry N. has made some tentative remarks on pet bank politics: “The Pet Banks in Jacksonian Politics and Finance, 1833–1841,” Journal of Economic History, vol. XXIII (June, 1963), pp. 196–214CrossRefGoogle Scholar, but see especially p. 212. His article does not deal with the Baltimore pets. For part of the Detroit picture see Scheiber's “George Bancroft and the Bank of Michigan, 1837–41,” Michigan History, vol. XLIV (March, 1960), pp. 82–90.

The politics of selection of the thirty-five pets named from 1833 to 1836 is the subject of Gatell, Frank Otto, “Spoils of the Bank War: Political Bias in the Selection of Pet Banks,” American Historical Reciew, vol. LXX (Oct., 1964), pp. 35–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Semmes, John E., John H. B. Latrobe and His Times (Baltimore, 1917), pp. 399–400.Google Scholar

4 Bryan, Alfred C., History of State Banking in Maryland (Baltimore, 1899), pp. 22–24, 64.Google Scholar

5 Govan, Thomas P., Nicholas Biddle: Nationalist and Public Banker (Chicago, 1959), p. 75Google Scholar; R. L. Colt to J. White, Nov. 27, 1822, John C. White MSS (Md. Historical Society).

6 Ellicott to J. Donnell, Dec. 17, 1819, Cheves to J. White, Dec. 7, 1820, ibid. See also Ellicott to Baltimore Branch of B.U.S., Feb. 26, 1820, Bank of the United States (Baltimore Branch) MSS (Library of Congress).

7 J. White to W. McIlvaine, May 27, 1822 (draft), R. Smith to J. White, Aug. 22, 1822, White MSS.

8 There is no sizable body of Ellicott MSS. He preserved letters received from Taney, and they comprise the bulk of the Taney MSS at the Library of Congress. The John C. White MSS at the Maryland Historical Society contain a sprinkling of early Ellicott business documents.

9 Ellicott to J. White, Feb. 10, 1825, June 13, 1827, R. Smith to J. White, June 24, 1828, White MSS.

10 Bruchey, Stuart (ed.), “Roger Brooke Taney's Account of His Relations with Thomas Ellicott in the Bank War,” Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. LIII (1958), p. 64Google Scholar; Swisher, Carl Brent, Roger B. Taney (New York, 1935), p. 92.Google Scholar

11 Howard to R. Gilmor, Jan. 22, 1830, Benjamin C. Howard MSS (Md. Historical Society); Biddle to Smith, Jan. 30, Feb. 28, 1831, Misc. Biddle MSS (N.Y. Historical Society); Smith to S. Spear Smith, Jan. 12, 1832, Samuel Smith MSS (Library of Congress).

12 Biddle, drawn into politics reluctantly, had hoped that “if there is to be a new division of parties, the Bank may be kept out of them all.” Biddle to Smith, Feb. 3, 1830, Let-terbook, Nicholas Biddle MSS (Library of Congress).

13 Taney to Ellicott, Jan. 25, Feb. 20, 1832, Roger B. Taney MSS (Library of Congress).

14 Taney to Ellicott, Aug. 28, 1832, ibid.; J. L. Hawkins to D. Sprigg, March 2, 6, 1832, Misc. Hawkins MSS (Md. Historical Society); Ellicott to Jackson, April 6, 1833, Bassett, John S. (ed.), Correspondence of Andrew Jackson (7 vols., Washington, 1926–1935), vol. V, pp. 49–52.Google Scholar

15 Taney to Ellicott, May 5, 1833, Taney MSS; Ellicott to Duane, June 14, 1833, Treasury Department, National Archives (hereafter, TD/NA), Letters from Banks.

16 Kendall to Ellicott, July 26, 1833, Taney MSS.

17 Poultney to Kendall, July 31, Aug. 5, 1833, 23rd Cong., 1st Sess., Senate Doc. No. 17 (hereafter, 23:1, SD #17), pp. 26, 33. This senate document contains much of Kendall's investigatory correspondence.

18 Kendall to Jackson, Aug. 2, 3, 1833, Bassett (ed.), Correspondence of Jackson, vol. V, pp. 145–46; Ellicott to Kendall, Aug. 1, 2, 1833, 24th Cong., 2nd Sess., Home Report No. 193 (hereafter, 24:2, HR #193), pp. 444–48.

19 Ellicott to Newbold, Aug. S, 1833, George Newbold MSS (N.Y. Historical Society); Baltimore Republican, Aug. 2, 14, 1833.

20 Taney to Jackson, September 17, 1833, Bassett (ed.), Correspondence of Jackson, vol. V, pp. 191–92; N. WiUiams to J. McCulloch, Sept. 28, 1833, TD/NA, Letters from Collectors; Baltimore Chronicle, Sept. 20, 1833; Baltimore Gazette, Sept. 23, 1833.

21 Swisher, Taney, p. 241; Ellicott, Thomas, Bank of Maryland Conspiracy (Philadelphia, 1839), p. 10Google Scholar; Brachey, “Taney and Ellicott,” pp. 53, 131; G. Steuart to Jackson, Sept. 23, 1833, TD/NA, Misc. Letters Received.

22 Each of the three New York pets received $500,000, as did the Girard Bank, Phila delphia.

23 Ellicott to Taney, Oct. 2, 1833, TD/NA, Letters from Banks; Ellicott to Taney, Oct. 2, 1833, David M. Perine MSS (Md. Historical Society); R. Colt to Biddle, Oct. 23, [1833], Biddle MSS.

24 Taney to R. Johnson, July 25, 1834, Ellicott, Bank of Maryland Conspiracy, pp. 85–86; Bruchey, “Taney and Ellicott,” pp. 133–39, The speculators “Club” consisted of Johnson, Ferine, John Glenn, Hugh McElderry, Evan Poultney, and Evan T. Ellicott. The last two ran a private bank, “Poultney, Ellicott & Co.” Thomas Ellicott entered the picture by underwriting Tennessee bonds to be sold in England at well over par, for a guaranteed, large commission. He stayed home instead, and working through Poultney, sold the bonds to the Union Bank at 108, so that Ellicott earned his commission at his own bank's expense, (J. Gordon to S. Gordon, June 3, 1834, James M. Gordon MSS, Maryland Historical Society.) For other sections of this jigsaw puzzle see Bryan, Banking in Maryland, pp. 91–94.

25 Ibid., pp. 139–46; Stickney, William (ed.), Autobiography of Amos Kendall (Boston, 1872), pp. 389–90.Google Scholar

26 Ellicott to Taney, Oct. 8, 1833, TD/NA, Letters from Banks; Ellicott to Taney, Oct. 8, 10, 1833, Perine MSS.

27 Taney to Ellicott, Oct. 11, 1833, Ellicott, Bank of Maryland Conspiracy, pp. 91–92; Ellicott to Taney, Oct. 12, 1833, Perine MSS.

28 Ellicott to Whitney, Oct. 24, 1833, 24:2, HR #193, p. 441.

29 Ellicott to Newbold, Oct. 29, 1833, Newbold MSS; Ellicott to J. Schott, Dec. 9, 1833, Girard Bank MSS [part of the Lewis-Neilson MSS] (Historical Society of Pa.).

30 Ellicott to Taney, Nov. 5, 1833, 24:2, HR #193, pp. 501–503; Ellicott to Taney, March 14, 1834, Perine MSS.

31 Swisher, Taney, p. 238; Baltimore Republican, Sept. 28, Dec. 6, 1833.

32 Baltimore Chronicle, Dec. 23, 25, 1833; Baltimore Republican, Dec. 12, 23, 25, 1833.

33 For the Union Bank board in 1833 see MatcheU's Baltimore Directory, 1833–1834.

34 The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and the District of Columbia (Baltimore, 1879), p. 497; Baltimore Chronicle, Aug. 7, Oct. 11, 1833; Etting to Biddle, June 10, 1834, Biddle MSS.

35 Semmes, Latrobe, p. 366; Hall, Clayton C. (ed.), Baltimore, Its History and Its People (3 vols., New York, 1912), vol. II, pp. 393–96Google Scholar; Howard, George W., Monumental City (Baltimore, 1883), p. 547.Google Scholar

36 R. Whitney to W. D. Lewis, Nov. 13, 1833, Lewis-Neilson MSS (Historical Society of Pa.); Kennedy, MS Journal, Dec. 11, 21, 1833, Kennedy MSS (Peabody Institute Library, Baltimore).

37 Johnson to Biddle, Oct. 9, 1833, Biddle MSS. Bernard C. Steiner's life of Reverdy Johnson (Baltimore, 1914), is, to put it charitably, inadequate for this period. Perhaps someone interested in Maryland history as well as calligraphy will produce this much-needed study.

38 Biddle to J. White, Nov. 10, 1833, White MSS.

39 R. Colt to Biddle, Dec. 27, 28, 1833, Biddle MSS; Ellicott to Taney, Jan. 6, 1834, Perine MSS.

40 R. Smith to J. White, Jan. 7, 1834, White MSS; Ellicott to Taney, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, 1834, Perine MSS; Baldwin to J. Hopkinson, Feb. 3, 1834, Hopkinson MSS (Historical Society of Pa.).

41 Baltimore Republican, Feb. 21, 1834; R. Wilson to J. James, July 31, 1834, Urbana Bank MSS (Ohio Historical Society); Philadelphia National Gazette, March 26, 1834; G. M. Dallas to G. Wolf, March 26, 1834, Wolf MSS (Historical Society of Pa.).

42 Ellicott to Taney, March 21, 1834, Ellicott, Bank of Maryland Conspiracy, p. 93; Taney to Poultney, March 21, 1834 (copy), Perine MSS.

43 Taney to Ellicott, March 25, 27, 30, 1834, Taney MSS; J. White to J. Meredith, March 28, 1834 (draft), White MSS.

44 Kendall to Ellicott, April 15, 1834, Taney to Ellicott, April 7, 18, 1834, Taney MSS.

45 Taney to Ellicott, April 21, 24, May 1, 1834, ibid.

46 Whitney to W. D. Lewis, March 25, 1834, Lewis-Neilson MSS; Ellicott to Taney, March 26, 1834, TD/NA, Letters from Banks.

47 Bray Hammond's anti-Jackson tour de force majeure never lets the reader forget Taney's Union Bank investment (Banks and Politics pp. 335, 414, 419, 431). Taney does not shine in this affair, but he deserves better of historians than Hammond's treatment (p. 419). Hammond charges Taney with conflict of interest, cheap speculation, and profiteering during Removal. He tells of the Secretary buying a “little more” Union Bank stock “as nominee” for female relatives. Actually, early in May, Taney asked Ellicott to invest his holdings for the ladies as a non-speculative venture in the Union, or any other bank. The stock would be his only nominally, with safe investment, “not profit on a resale” the only criterion. (Taney to Ellicott, May 5, 1833, Taney MSS.) The purchase, if made, was not in Union Bank stock.

Mr. Hammond wrote me on Aug. 17, 1963: “I do remember hesitating as to whether the matter was important enough to mention. It seems to me now it was not … The fiduciary purchase … seems to have been made too long before the selection of depositories to be relevant … I hope you will … correct me, with my specific concurrence….”

48 23:1, SD #238, pp. 20–21; Ellicott to Taney, Feb. 20, 1834, Perine MSS.

49 Taney to Ellicott, Jan. 7, May 20, 1834, Taney MSS.

50 Portsmouth (N.H.) Journal, March 29, 1834; Philadelphia, National Gazette, Aug. 22, 1834; R. Johnson to V. Maxcy, March 30, 1834, Howard to V. Maxcy, May 14, 1834, Virgil Maxcy MSS (Library of Congress).

51 Colt to Biddle [late March, 1834] and April 13, 1834, Biddle MSS; S. Smith to W. Mangum, April 19, 1834, Shanks, Henry T. (ed.), Papers of Willie Person Mangum (5 vols., Raleigh, 1950–1956), vol. II, pp. 148–50Google Scholar; J. Atkinson to N. Wright, April 26, 1834, Nathaniel C. Wright MSS (Library of Congress); Joseph Cushing to Baltimore Branch of B.U.S., Nov. 10, 1834, B.U.S. (Baltimore Branch) MSS.

52 Taney to Ellicott, May 15, 23, 1834, Taney MSS; Taney to D. M. Perine, June 2, 1834, Robert Oliver MSS (Md. Historical Society); Kendall to Ellicott, May 28, 1834, Taney MSS; Colt to Biddle, May 14, 17, 1834, Biddle MSS.

53 Taney to Perine, May 28, 29, June 2, 1834, Oliver MSS.

54 McElderry to B.U.S., May 22, 1833 (copy), John Sergeant MSS (Historical Society of Pa.); Johnson to Biddle, May 29, June 4, 1834, Biddle MSS.

55 Biddle to Webster, May 28, 1834, Biddle to Johnson, June 2, 1834, Letterbook, Biddle MSS.

56 Etting to Biddle, June 10, 1834, ibid. Two months later, the new Union Bank managers applied for a B.U.S. loan. Samuel Jaudon, Biddle's cashier, chuckled as he informed his vacationing chief that he wanted to delay action on the request until Biddle's return: “I should like the answer to the Pet to come from you … It is worth something to have had such an application.” Jaudon to Biddle, Aug. 11, 1834, ibid.

57 Baltimore Republican, May 30, 1834; Baltimore American, June 12, 1834; Johnson to Biddle, June 7, 1834, Biddle MSS.

58 Semmes, Latrobe, pp. 408–409; Taney to Perine, June 7, 1834, Oliver MSS.

59 James M. Gordon to S. Gordon, June 3, 1834, Gordon MSS; Baltimore Republican, June 7, 14, 17, 1834.

60 Baltimore Republican, June 14, 21, 1834.

61 Semmes, Latrobe, p. 401; W. Block to Biddle, July 3, 1834, Biddle MSS; Baltimore Republican, July 3, 14, 1834; Taney to Perine, June 20, July 10, 1834, Oliver MSS.

62 Johnson to Biddle, Aug. 3, 1834, Biddle MSS; Bruchey, “Taney and Ellicott,” p. 62; J. Gordon to S. Gordon, July 14, 1834, Gordon MSS.

63 Baltimore Chronicle, July 26, 1833; Howard, Monumental City, p. 549; Biographical Cyclopedia of Maryland and the District of Columbia, p. 417; J. Forsythe to Jackson, July 12, 1834, Andrew Jackson MSS (Library of Congress).

64 L. Woodbury to Jackson, Aug. 2, 1834, Jackson MSS; Colt to Biddle, Oct. 2, Dec. 4, 1834, Biddle MSS.

65 Louis McLane to Roswell Colt, Aug. 17, 1829, Colt MSS (Historical Society of Pa.); McKim to Woodbury, Sept. 22, 1834, Taney to Woodbury, Nov. 5, 6, 1834, Levi Woodbury MSS (Library of Congress).

66 Taney to R. Vaux, July 19, 1834, Vaux MSS (Historical Society of Pa.); Washington, National Intelligencer, July 21, 1834.

67 D. Webster to W. Mangum, Nov. 4, 1834, Shanks (ed.), Papers of Mangum, vol. II, p. 223; Evans to Woodbury, Sept. 9, 1835, Feb 29, 1836, TD/NA, Letters from Banks.

68 White to Woodbury, April 25, 1835, Woodbury MSS; Woodbury to C. P. White, April 28, 1835, J. C White MSS; S. Jaudon to J. White, Sept. 25, 1835, White MSS; R. Colt to Biddle, May 16, 1835, Biddle MSS; Baltimore Republican, Sept. 29, 1835.

69 McKim to Woodbury, April 27, 1835, McKim and Howard to Woodbury, Nov. 25, 1835, TD/NA, Letters from Banks.

70 Biographical Cyclopedia of Maryland and the District of Columbia, p. 335; Richardson, F. A., Baltimore, Past and Present (Baltimore, 1871), pp. 391–95.Google Scholar

71 Most of them signed petitions in 1834 favoring restoration of the deposits. Other identifications are from Baltimore newspapers.

72 Woodbury to Taney, Dec. 10, 1835, Taney to Woodbury, Deo. 14, 1835, Woodbury MSS.

73 Baltimore Republican, Dec. 18, 1835.

74 Ibid., July 21, 23, 1834; J. McMahon to W. Rienhard, Feb. 6, 1835, Urbana Bank MSS; W. Frick to W. Carroll, April 1, 1835, Smith Collection (Washington's Headquarters National Park, Morristown, N. J.); Ellicott to George W. Andrews, May 7, 1835, B.U.S. (Baltimore Branch) MSS.

75 Van Wyck to W. D. Lewis, Sept. 20, 26, 1835, Girard Bank MSS; J. M. Bass to J. Meredith, July 30, 1835, Van Wyck to J. Meredith, Nov. 6, 1835, Jonathan Meredith MSS (Library of Congress). The incredible tangle among the Union Bank of Tennessee, the Bank of Maryland, and the Union Bank of Maryland (the Girard Bank of Philadelphia also appears) is partly explained in correspondence in the Meredith MSS, and in the William Taylor MSS, also at the Library of Congress.

76 W. Bartlett to E. Stabler, Aug. 8, 1835, Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. IX, pp. 160–61; H. Wilkins to Mrs. J. Glenn, Aug. 11, 1835, John Glenn MSS (Md. Historical Society).

77 Taney to J. Campbell, Aug. 19, 24, 1835, Howard Family MSS (Md. Historical Society). For Taney's Bank Riot correspondence see Gatell, Frank Otto (ed.), “Roger B. Taney, the Bank of Maryland Rioters, and a Whiff of Grapeshot,” Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. LIX (Sept., 1964), pp. 262–67.Google Scholar

78 Taney to M. Van Buren, March 7, 1836, Martin Van Buren MSS (Library of Congress); Taney to J. Campbell, March 6, 17, 1836, Howard Family MSS; Baltimore Republican, March 5, 22, 1836; Mason, John T., Life of John Van Lear McMahon (Baltimore, 1879), pp. 62–65.Google Scholar

79 R. Mickle to Woodbury, May 22, 1837, J. Howard to Woodbury, May 26, Oct. 24, 1837, TD/NA, Letters from Banks; W. Frick to J. Campbell, Nov. 21, 1837, TD/NA, Letters from Collectors.

80 The deposit act of 1836 allowed a bank to hold government funds amounting to no more than three-quarters of its paid in capital. The Union Bank ($1,845,000) and the Franklin Bank ($624,000) had sufficient capital to hold over $1,800,000. In May, 1837 the Union Bank held $839,000, the Franklin Bank $378,000, both amounts well below the statutory maxima. (Statement of the Condition of the Several Deposit Banks… On or Near the First of May, 1837; a printed table, distributed by Reuben M. Whitney, copy in the Girard Bank MSS). Thus in Baltimore, unlike other cities such as New York or Boston, pet bank capitalization proved ample, obviating the necessity for further selections.