1791- Alexander Hamilton and the First Bank of the United States

I'm a little angry today, so it's an opportune time to talk a little bit about Alexander Hamilton in 1791. Most folks have heard of this guy at one time or another, and I think a lot of them carry the mistaken belief that he was one of the earliest Presidents.

Hamilton never made it to the White House, but he was the first Secretary Of The Treasury, serving in that position from September 11, 1789 to January 31, 1795.

He made other trivial accomplishments as well, but the only real thing you have to remember about Alexander Hamilton is that he was responsible for the first Whiskey Tax in the United States. If that's not enough reason not to trust a guy, then surely what he did in 1791 is.

As Secretary of the Treasury in 1791, Alexander Hamilton lent his support to moving the capital from Philadelphia. In exchange, he picked up enough support for his "bank project" which ultimately passed Congress and the First Bank Of The United States was chartered. Prior to that, Banks had been private.

Hamilton had some noteworthy opposition to the creation of his bank. That is, if you consider James Madison & Thomas Jefferson to have been noteworthy. The two were bitter antagonist to the bank, which they considered to be nothing but a means towards corruption and financial manipulation.

I'm personally not very well read on James Madison, but Thomas Jefferson was a pretty sharp fellow. If you've never read about Jefferson, you should. I've never had anything personal against Alexander Hamilton but, frankly, I don't think he was qualified to shine Jefferson's shoes. Jefferson was a giant among men, and Hamilton was a banker… nothing more has to be said.

Anyway, before I continue, here's a photo of Alexander Hamilton. Photography didn't exist at that time, so it's actually a photo of an original painting by John Trumbull, the brilliant artist who, apparently,  liked to paint portraits of annoying bankers.

I'll dig up a photo of Jefferson at another time as he deserves a seperate conversation altogether.

Now, if you haven't picked up on my sarcasm, it only needs to be said that I don't think much of bankers other than that they are probably a necessary evil. But in my opinion, and you can think about it what you may, they are of the same ilk as car-jackers, hypocrites, liers and all the other miscreants which society is unfortunately forced to deal with. In fact, I suspect that they were just born a little bit too clumsy to practice their craft on subway trains, like other pickpockets, so they got themselves an office job instead.

Now, overall, I'm sure there are some fine bankers in the world. I think I met one back in 1978 or so. But for the most part, I'm inclined to stick with my beliefs. In fact, anytime I start to get a soft spot and upgrade my opinion, some banker turns up to reaffirm my belief that society is putting the wrong people behind bars.

It was during a recent visit to M&T Bank in Mahoney City, PA. that I was once again reminded that Congress doesn't hold a monopoly on chiseling folks out of their money.

I'm from the old school, with a clear understanding that when I put money into a bank, it's my money. They are only holding it for me, and if it's an insignificant amount, they will usually charge monthly fees for the privelege of leaving it with them. If a person is fortunate in life, he can leave a lot more in them and, for that, they'll usually waive the monthly fees and maybe even pass along some token amount of interest.

But it's not their money.  It belongs to their depositers, such as myself. And when I draft a check on my account, I expect it to be honored as it's my money.  The bank is merely providing a service for which I pay.  If adequate funds are available, the check is honored, or so I always thought.

But it seems that M&T Bank has come up with a new way of grabbing your wallet. They now charge a token $5 fee to cash checks written by their account holders. So if I pay a plumber for doing some work, he has to fork over $5 before M&T Bank will give him my money.

Basically, M&T refuses to honor their checks, unless you hand over that $5 ransom.

Now to be fair to M&T Bank, regardless of whether they deserve it, they will waive the $5 if your plumber would only open an account with them also. Their policy also waives the $5 fee for State paychecks.

I wonder why they waive the fee for State employees?  I reckon it would have taken about a week for sufficient numbers of State workers to scream loud enough that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania would have found a new banker.

M&T Bank is obviously smart enough to understand that the Commonwealth knows who the money belongs to, and would have little tolerance for them rooking the unfortunate employees who were just expecting a bank to honor it's own paper.

M&T Bank did mention that all the banks were doing it now, which is not true as I managed to find a friendlier facility in 20 minutes.

You're probably asking  why I'm writing about this?

Because it's my blog and I can. And it made me feel better. It's also highly relevant to the aims of the Huntington Historical Society, and an opportune time to reflect on earlier times.

"I sincerely believe… that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies….." Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816

Phineous Zivick Huntington June 9, 2007

 

#1053 ALEXANDER HAMILTON $5.00 FDC FOUGHT AT YORKTOWN

1927 Rock of Ages CO ad ALEXANDER HAMILTON Burial

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 9th, 2007 at 11:31 pm and is filed under Years 1790 to 1799. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.