Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton Writes to the Bank of the United States, Ordering Payment for Clothing for the First Standing Army in US History

With the address panel to the President and Directors of the Bank in Hamilton’s hand still present

 

The United States military realized it needed a well-trained standing army following General Arthur St. Clair’s defeat on November 4, 1791, when a force led by St. Clair was almost entirely wiped out by the Northwestern Confederacy of Native Americans near modern Fort Recovery, Ohio. The plans, which were supported by U.S. President George Washington and Henry Knox, Secretary of War, would lead to the creation of the Legion of the United States. In 1792 Anthony Wayne, a renowned hero of the Revolutionary War, was encouraged to leave retirement and return to active service as Commander-in-Chief of the Legion with the rank of major general. The Legion, which was recruited and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was formed around elements of the 1st and 2nd Regiments from the disbanded Continental Army. The newly formed Legion moved in December 1792 to an encampment downriver on the Ohio River near Fort McIntosh named Legionville for training.

In 1789, Alexander Hamilton became the first US Secretary of the Treasury. The Bank of the United States, now commonly referred to as the first Bank of the United States, opened for business in Philadelphia on December 12, 1791, with a twenty-year charter. Branches opened in Boston, New York, Charleston, and Baltimore in 1792, followed by branches in Norfolk (1800), Savannah (1802), Washington, D.C. (1802), and New Orleans (1805). The bank was overseen by a board of twenty-five directors. Thomas Willing, who had been president of the Bank of North America, accepted the job as the new national bank’s president.

In October 1792, Hamilton himself signed a contract with William Young and George Danneker for $2,000 for the supply of the US army for the year 1793. It specified all or nearly all the clothes needed for someone serving in the US infantry and artillery, as well as allocations for clothing for soldiers in the cavalry. A copy of this document is in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Letter signed, Treasury Department, November 5, 1792, to the President and Directors of the Bank of the United States. “Gentlemen, I have to request you will advance to Messrs Wm Young and George Dannaker the sum of two thousand dollars, on account of their contract with the public, for supplying the troops with clothing for the ensuing year.

“For this advance the contractors are to be charged in a temporary account, until arrangements shall be made to have the payment covered by a warrant.”

The original address panel is present, in Hamilton’s hand. It reads “Treasury Department, The President and Directors of the Bank of the United States.”