Nov 08, 2018 - Sale 2492

Sale 2492 - Lot 110

Price Realized: $ 422
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 250 - $ 350
BANK WAR: THE "SITUATION OF THE BANKS . . . DURING THE PRESENT CRISIS" (BUSINESS.) ALBERT GALLATIN. Letter Signed, "Albert Gallatin Chairman," as president of the National Bank of New York, to President of the Bank of New York Cornelius Heyer, conveying the wishes of a committee of merchants for a statement from the New York City banks showing the "apparent" and actual circulation of currency. 1 page, 4to, with integral address leaf; faint staining at lower corners, folds. [New York], 17 February 1834
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"At a conference between the Delegates from the several Banks of this City and the Sub Committee of the Union Committee . . . the said sub committee requested . . . that, in order to exhibit the true situation of the Banks . . . during the present crisis, a . . . statement of the situation of the Banks in this City . . . might be prepared, distinguishing the respective situation of the Branch of the Bank of the U.S. of the three Banks which collect the Revenue of the U.S. taken together, and of the other Banks in this City . . . . showing both the apparent circulation of the said Banks previous to the Daily Exchange of Notes, and the actual circulation after the said Exchange."

The "Bank War" is the name given to the conflict centering on the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States, which President Andrew Jackson opposed. To mitigate the influence of supporters of the Bank of the U.S., Jackson ordered, in 1833, all federal deposits in the Bank of the U.S. transferred to partisan private banks. In an effort to goad Congress into fighting Jackson, President of the Bank of the U.S. Nicholas Biddle worked to precipitate a financial crisis by calling in loans, restricting credit, and other maneuvers.

From the Collection of William Wheeler III.