Bank of North America

The President, Directors, and Company, of the Bank of North America, commonly known as the Bank of North America, was a private bank first chartered on Dec. 31, 1781^[1] by the Confederation Congress and opened in Philadelphia on Jan. 7, 1782.^[2] It was based upon a plan presented by Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris on May 17, 1781^[3][4] and approved by the Continental Congress on May 26, 1781.^[5] This was thus the Nation's first de facto central bank.^[6] When shares in the bank were sold to the public, the Bank of North America became the country's first initial public offering.^[7] It was succeeded in its role as central bank by the First Bank of the United States in 1791.

Congressional Charter

Three pence issued by the Bank of North America 6 August 1789. Printed by Benjamin Franklin Bache on marbled paper obtained by Benjamin Franklin.^[8]

In May 1781 Alexander Hamilton revealed that he had recommended Morris for the position the previous summer when the constitution of the executive was being solidified. Second, he proceeded to lay out a proposal for a National Bank. Morris, who had corresponded with Hamilton previously (1780) on the subject of funding the war, immediately drafted a legislative proposal based on Hamilton's suggestion and submitted it to the Congress. Morris persuaded Congress to charter the Bank of North America, the first private commercial bank in the United States.^[9]

1782 inauguration

When Robert Morris became superintendent of finance in February 1781,^[10] continental currency had ceased to be issued. On April 30, 1781, Alexander Hamilton sent Morris a letter. The original charter called for the disbursement of 1,000 shares priced at $400 each.^[11] Benjamin Franklin purchased one share for 0.1% ownership as a sign of good faith to Federalists and the new bank. Meanwhile, Hamilton made public endorsement of the establishment under his pseudonym:^[12]

Public offering

William Bingham's first daughter, Ann Louisa Baring was born the day before the bank opened, and her father purchased 9.5% of the shares for himself.^[13] She was also the granddaughter of Thomas Willing, a primary shareholder and the original President of the bank offices at Philadelphia. Using a gift/loan from France, Robert Morris purchased 63.3% of the original shares for the government.^[11] Robert Morris deposited large quantities of gold and silver coin and bills of exchange obtained through loans from the Netherlands and France. He then issued new paper currency backed by this supply.

By 1783, Congress and several states including Massachusetts enacted legislation, allowing Americans to pay taxes with Bank of North America certificates.^[14] Within three years, the Bank was considered a creditworthy institution.

Bank of Pennsylvania

After a change of party in Pennsylvania's legislature in 1786 the Bank of North America was re-chartered within the Commonwealth in 1787, but under more restrictive conditions that would hinder it from performing its intended role as a central bank.^[15]

John Nixon was the first director of the Bank of Pennsylvania. Morris subscribed 10,000 pounds sterling to fund it. It was not a bank in the ordinary sense but an organization formed for the purpose of financing supplies for the army. In 1782, the Bank of North America superseded the Bank of Pennsylvania.^[16] Serving from 1792 to 1808, Nixon succeeded the first president of the Bank of North America, Thomas Willing, who went on to become the first president of the First Bank of the United States. Nixon was in turn succeeded by John Morton, who served as President until 1822. William Frederick Havemeyer was its president from 1851 to 1861 and brought it successfully through the crisis of 1857. After it had become a National Bank in 1865, a president of the same name presided over its liquidation in 1908.^[17]

The Bank of Pennsylvania was re-established in 1793, with a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and branches were opened in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Reading, and Easton.^[18] The original branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania remained in business in Pennsylvania through the 19th and 20th centuries under a variety of other names including First Pennsylvania Bank and, before its acquisition by Wells Fargo, Wachovia, First Union Bank and CoreStates, operated under national bank charter #1. Wachovia (as of November, 2012) operated a branch at the northwest corner of S. 6th and Chestnut Sts. in Philadelphia, diagonally opposite Independence Hall, which was the original site of the Bank of North America. This branch is the longest continuously operating branch bank in the States, operating in that location since 1781. Ironically, Wachovia merged in 2001 with North Carolina's First Union Bank, which also numbers among its predecessors the Bank of North America. Following Wells Fargo's acquisition of Wachovia, Wells Fargo adopted Charter #1.^[19]

Precedence

The Bank of North America along with the First Bank of the United States and The Bank of New York obtained the first shares in the New York Stock Exchange. The Bank of North America opened a Canadian affiliate in Montreal on March 8, 1837.^[20]

See also

• Congressional charter
• First Union Corporation

References

External links

• The Bank of North America, Philadelphia, a National Bank, Founded 1781: The Story of Its Progress through the Last Quarter of a Century, 1881-1906, by Robert Grier Cooke Incorporated (1906).
• Debates and Proceedings of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, on the Memorials Praying a Repeal of Suspension of the Law Annulling the Charter of the Bank (ed. Mathew Carey, 1786).
• A History of the Bank of North America, the First Bank Chartered in the United States, by Lawrence Lewis, Jr. (J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1882).
• Legislative and Documentary History of the Bank of the United States: Including the Original Bank of North America, by Matthew St. Clair Clarke and David A. Hall. This collection of documents was aimed to include the entire proceedings, debates, and resolutions of Congress relating to the Bank of North America, the First (1791–1811) Bank of the United States, and the Second (1816–1836) Bank of the United States. These documents were compiled four years before the closing of the Second Bank.
• Legislative and Documentary History of the Banks of the United States, from the Time of Establishing the Bank of North America, 1781, to October 1834; with Notes and Comments, by R. K. Moulton. An attempt to compile all the public documents considered to be essential in attaining a thorough knowledge of the national banking operations of the United States, from 1781 to 1834.

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