EARLY AMERICAN FINANCIERS 4<>9 



In 1814, the treasury was bankrupt and government 

 offered 7 per cent and a large bonus for $5,000,000. Only 

 $20,000 was proffered till Girard stepped forward and took 

 the whole amount. The effect was electrical and cowards 

 were clamorous to be let in on the ground floor. Girard let 

 many of them in on his best terms. Bill Jones, acting secre- 

 tary of the treasury, a rival sea captain, refused to let Girard's 

 cashier have one eighth of 1 per cent for getting this loan. 

 Girard never would lend money to a demagogue politi- 

 cian. 



This humble but meteor man took the loans for the second 

 United States bank at his counter, and waited till the last day 

 before he took the remaining $3,100,000. Indeed, he brought 

 the original bank of Hamilton to uphold the public finances 

 till party folly would recharter another national bank. Bill 

 Jones, aforesaid, and Sam Smith, of Baltimore, expected to 

 govern the second bank. They rejected Girard's offer of a 

 million of specie and the dissolution of his bank into that of 

 the government if he could name the cashier. The bank 

 would have burst long before Nicholas Biddle's time had not 

 Girard had it investigated by congress. The cashier was 

 then made John Kean, father-in-law of the late governor, 

 Hamilton Fish, of Grant's cabinet. Specie payments resulted 

 from the bank importing $7,000,000 of specie from Europe, 

 precisely as we are doing now. 



Girard was an antitype of Commodore Vanderbilt, both 

 sailors. Girard was blind of one eye and partially deaf. The 

 legislature of Pennsylvania pronounced private banks like 

 his unlawful. Girard said that "the art of finance was as 

 necessary to those who governed as industry was to those 

 who produced the wealth of a country; soldiers and generals 

 were of secondary importance, and could be created by 

 money." The politicians in 1829 bankrupted Pennsylvania, 

 and Girard advanced the naked treasury its clothing. 



Two years later Girard checked the outflow of specie 

 by knocking down exchange. He lived to subscribe to the 

 earliest railroads, and died at 82 from being upset by a wagon 

 and from erysipelas. Hardly had he died, the most complete 

 individual Pennsylvania ever had, when his magnificent will 



