Part 7 (1/2)
”THE GREAT BENEFACTOR.”
All of the benefactions of the other rich men of the period waned into insignificance compared to those of Girard. His compet.i.tors and compeers had given to charity, but none on so great a scale as Girard.
Distinguished orators vied with one another in extolling his wonderful benefactions,[66] and the press showered encomiums upon him as that of the greatest benefactor of the age. To them this honestly seemed so, for they were trained by the standards of the trading cla.s.s, by the sophistries of political economists and by the spirit of the age, to concentrate their attention upon the powerful and successful only, while disregarding the condition of the ma.s.ses of the people.
The pastimes of a king or the foibles of some noted politician or rich man were things of magnitude and were much expatiated upon, while the common man, singly or in ma.s.s, was of absolutely no importance. The finely turned rhetoric of the orators, pleasing as it was to that generation, is, judged by modern standards, well nigh meaningless and worthless. In that highflown oratory, with its carefully studied exordiums, periods and perorations can be clearly discerned the reverence given to power as embodied by possession of property. But nowhere do we see any explanation, or even an attempt at explanation, of the basic means by which this property was acquired or of its effect upon the ma.s.ses of the people. Woefully lacking in facts are the productions of the time as to how the great body of the workers lived and what they did. Facts as to the rich are fairly available, although not abundant, but facts regarding the rest of the population are pitifully few. The patient seeker for truth--the mind which is not content with the presentation of one side--finds, with some impatience, that only a few writers thought it worth while to give even scant attention to the condition of the working cla.s.s. One of these few was Matthew Carey, an orthodox political economist, who, in a pamphlet issued in 1829[67], gave this picture which forms both a contrast and a sequel to the acc.u.mulations of multimillionaires, of which Girard was then the archetype:
A STARK CONTRAST PRESENTED.
”Thousands of our laboring people travel hundreds of miles in quest of employment on ca.n.a.ls at 62-1/2 cents to 87-1/2 cents per day, paying $1.50 to $2.00 a week for board, leaving families behind depending upon them for support. They labor frequently in marshy grounds, where they inhale pestiferous miasmata, which destroy their health, often irrevocably. They return to their poor families broken hearted, and with ruined const.i.tutions, with a sorry pittance, most laboriously earned, and take to their beds, sick and unable to work. Hundreds are swept off annually, many of them leaving numerous and helpless families. Notwithstanding their wretched fate, their places are quickly supplied by others, although death stares them in the face. Hundreds are most laboriously employed on turnpikes, working from morning to night at from half a dollar to three-quarters a day, exposed to the broiling sun in summer and all the inclemency of our severe winters. There is always a redundancy of wood-pilers in our cities, whose wages are so low that their utmost efforts do not enable them to earn more than from thirty-five to fifty cents per day.... Finally there is no employment whatever, how disagreeable or loathsome, or deleterious soever it may be, or however reduced the wages, that does not find persons willing to follow it rather than beg or steal.”
FOOTNOTES:
[61] ”Kings of Fortune”:16--The pretentious t.i.tle and sub-t.i.tle of this work, written thirty odd years ago by Walter R. Houghton, A.M., gives an idea of the fantastic exaltation indulged in of the careers of men of great wealth. Hearken to the full t.i.tle: ”Kings of Fortune--or the Triumphs and Achievements of n.o.ble, Self-made men.--Whose brilliant careers have honored their calling, blessed humanity, and whose lives furnish instruction for the young, entertainment for the old and valuable lessons for the aspirants of fortune.” Could any fulsome effusion possibly surpa.s.s this?
[62] ”Mr. Girard's bank was a financial success from the beginning. A few months after it opened for business its capital was increased to one million three hundred thousand dollars. One of the incidents which helped, at the outstart, to inspire the public with confidence in the stability of the new inst.i.tution was the fact that the trustees who liquidated the affairs of the old Bank of the United States opened an account in Girard's Bank, and deposited in its vaults some millions of dollars in specie belonging to the old bank.”--”The History of the Girard National Bank of Philadelphia,” by Josiah Granville Leach, LL.B., 1902. This eulogistic work contains only the scantiest details of Girard's career.
[63] The First Session of the Twenty-second Congress, 1831, iv, containing reports from Nos. 460 to 463.
[64] Ibid.
An investigating committee appointed by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1840, reported that during a series of years the Bank of the United States (or United States Bank, as it was more often referred to) had corruptly expended $130,000 in Pennsylvania for a re-charter.--Pa. House Journal, 1842, Vol. II, Appendix, 172-531.
[65] In providing for the establishment of Girard College, Girard stated in his will: ”I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minister of any sect whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatsoever in the said college; nor shall any such person be admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor within the premises appropriated to the purposes of said college.”--The Will of the Late Stephen Girard, Esq., 1848:22-23.
An attempt was made by his relatives in France to break his will, one of the grounds being that the provisions of his will were in conflict with the Christian religion which was a part of the common law of Pennsylvania. The attempt failed.
[66] For example, an address by Edward Everett, at the Odeon, before the Mercantile Library a.s.sociation in Boston, September 13, 1838: ”Few persons, I believe, enjoyed less personal popularity in the community in which he lived and to which he bequeathed his personal fortune.... A citizen and a patriot he lived in his modest dwelling and plain garb; appropriating to his last personal wants the smallest pittance from his princely income; living to the last in the dark and narrow street in which he made his fortune; and when he died bequeathed it for the education of orphan children. For the public I do not believe he could have done better,” etc., etc.--Hunt's ”Merchant's Magazine,” 1830, 1:35.
[67] ”The Public Charities of Philadelphia.”
PART II
THE GREAT LAND FORTUNES
[Ill.u.s.tration: GEN. STEPHEN VAN RENSSLAER.
The Last of the Patroons.
(From an Engraving.)]
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF HUGE CITY ESTATES