Thread by @DavidCranmerUn1

Stephen Girard - Wikipedia

Girard's Bank was a principal source of government credit during the War of 1812, an outstanding $1 million.

Towards the end of the war, when the financial credit of the U.S. government was at its lowest, Girard placed nearly en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_G…

all of his resources at the disposal of the government and underwrote up to 95 percent of the war loan issue, which enabled the United States to carry on the war. After the war, he became a large stockholder in and one of the directors of the Second Bank of the United States.

Girard's bank became the Girard Trust Company, and later Girard Bank. It merged with Mellon Bank in 1983, and was largely sold to Citizens Bank two decades later. Its monumental headquarters building still stands at Broad and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. By 1790, he had a

fortune of $6000 plus a small fleet of trading vessels. In 1791, his merchantmen in the French colony of Saint-Domingue were involved in salvaging goods owned by French planters during the Haitian Revolution. It was claimed that he was left with $10,000 of goods stowed on

his ships, the owners of which were massacred, He said he could not trace any owners for the goods and so they were conveniently added to his own possessions. After the war, Girard became a large stockholder in and one of the directors of the Second Bank of the United States.

Upon his death in 1831, his own bank passed to a trust according to his will. Merchants of the city chartered the Girard Bank to buy the banking assets from the trust and carry on the business.[3] Ironically, in view of its history, Girard Bank was one of the pet banks to which

Treasury Secretary Roger B. Taney transferred the government's Pennsylvania deposits in the Second Bank of the United States. After the passage of the National Banking Act, the bank reorganized in 1863 as Girard National Bank. Taney married Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, sister of

Francis Scott Key, on January 7, 1806. Taney became an important lieutenant in the "Bank War," Jackson's clash with the Second Bank of the United States (or "national bank"). Unlike other members of the cabinet, Taney argued that the national bank was unconstitutional and that

Jackson should seek to abolish it. With Taney's backing, Jackson vetoed a bill to renew the national bank's charter,[15] which was scheduled to expire in 1836.[16] The Bank War became the key issue of the 1832 presidential election, which saw Jackson defeat a challenge from

national bank supporter Henry Clay. Taney's unyielding opposition to the bank, combined with Jackson's decisive victory in the election, made the attorney general one of the most prominent members of Jackson's cabinet. Jackson escalated the Bank War after winning re-election.

When Secretary of the Treasury William J. Duane refused to authorize the removal of federal deposits from the national bank, Jackson fired Duane and gave Taney a recess appointment as secretary of the treasury.[18] Taney redistributed federal deposits from the national bank to

favored state-chartered banks, which became known as "pet banks".[19] In June 1834, the Senate rejected Taney's nomination as secretary of the treasury, leaving Taney without a position in the cabinet.[20] Taney was the first cabinet nominee in the nation's history to be rejected

by the Senate.